Your Papers Please…
The guys on the right wing want you to have a Real ID.
The House of Representatives yesterday overwhlemingly passed a bill supporting an $80+ billion dollar bill giving our troops in Iraq more funding so they could actually get some of the things they need to fight the conflict without having to dip into their own pockets. A rider attached to that bill also makes it mandatory for states to comply with federal ID standards over the next 3 years.
Next thing you know, we will need a passport to go from California to Nevada.
This is just about as bad an idea as you can get. Proponents of the bill say that it stem the tide of terrorism and that it will make it harder for foreigners to get asylum on the US.
Let’s put that in perspective with hard numbers; of the 42,000 applications for asylum made in 2003, only 29% were granted. The right wing wants you to think that we are giving away political asylum like taxi vouchers in the ER. Of the 12,000 or so asylum apps granted none of the people that it was given to were ever caught in the act of or conspiring to commit terrorist activities. NONE.
The only people this is going to help is the corporate cronies of the right wing machine. When companies can track your every move, when they know what stores you go into and what items you purchase, it is just a matter of time before we get to the time of Minority Report’s targeted advertising. Billboards that call out your name and admonishe you to buy from my company.
Also, it does help the government, because a government that can tell you what to do, can also tell you what not to do.
Filed under: Politics
