What is wrong with our country?

[JohnnyLingo]

At issue is the REAL ID Act, passed by Congress with almost no debate in 2005, requiring states to add costly new security features, including a harder-to-forge design and additional layers of identity verification, to driver licenses and other government-issued identification. One of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, it aims to prevent terrorism and reduce the chances of counterfeiting. "The 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 different driver's licenses and IDs, and used 364 aliases," Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff has noted. "For an extra $8 per license, REAL ID will give law enforcement and security officials a powerful advantage against falsified documents, and it will bring some peace of mind to citizens wanting to protect their identity from theft."

But it won't be that easy, practical or cheap, say the states. In South Carolina, for instance, Governor Mark Sanford warns it will mean residents will have to pay $60 for driver licenses that are good for eight years, rather than the $25 they are now paying for 10-year licenses. And they may find themselves standing in line for up to two hours to obtain those licenses, rather than the 15-minute waits they now experience. So outraged are the states that legislatures in South Carolina, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington have passed laws banning their agencies from complying with the act, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; Idaho thumbed its nose at the law by appropriating $0 for its implementation this year

Heaven forbid we stand in line longer or pay $35 more dollars in an effort to prevent terrorism.

What a bunch of whiners we are.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/ar...0.html?cnn=yes

[K-dog]

The problem is that it won't help prevent terrorism but you still have to put up with the crap.

[JohnnyLingo]

Originally Posted by K-dog

The problem is that it won't help prevent terrorism but you still have to put up with the crap.

Oh. It won't. So the 9-11 hijackers getting driver's licenses did nothing to help their plan?

[K-dog]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo

Oh. It won't. So the 9-11 hijackers getting driver's licenses did nothing to help their plan?

Bottom line. The airline security and the license junk is just a way to make peoople feel safer but they don't make people safer.

The ability of the hijackers to get licenses didn't affect their plan in any way. If they couldn't get licenses they would have just gotten valid visas on their passports...wait, most of them already had that.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by K-dog

Bottom line. The airline security and the license junk is just a way to make peoople feel safer but they don't make people safer.

The ability of the hijackers to get licenses didn't affect their plan in any way. If they couldn't get licenses they would have just gotten valid visas on their passports...wait, most of them already had that.

That's not entirely true. It iwll make it easier to track their activities while they are here. Of course, it also makes it easier to track all of our activities, but that's another issue.