Thank you, Homeland Security

[Blue_In_AK]

This is ridiculous. My 80-year-old mother-in-law has just moved to Alaska and today went to the DMV to get a state ID - not even a driver's license because she won't be driving here. She went with her current Texas driver's license and her social security card for identification. She was told that under current federal guidelines they can't issue her an ID without her birth certificate AND her marriage license -- from 61 YEARS AGO. Jesus H. Christ.

[MadMaddie]

1. Another sign that Homeland Security is a waste..

Instead of focusing on specific individuals who may be a terrorist they focus on Americans that have lived a good life and followed the rules...

I am sorry that your mom has to go through this bullshit...

[havocmom]

2. Similar problem a few years back after moving back to MT

Insisted on a marriage certificate to show why my name was different than birth certificate. As it happened, I DID have divorce decree which I was putting in deposit box - it is 3 hours to town, bank, DMV, 3 hours back. The cranky woman behind counter would not accept divorce decree as there was no marriage certificate. Told her, tearfully, that there wouldn't be the decree without the marriage... It took three peers and two supervisors to convince the newly empowered abusive personality that I did have a valid point AND a Superior Court Document showing why my name was different than on my birth certificate.

How ANY of this shit makes the Homeland safer is beyond me. All it accomplishes is giving a hit to the power junkie petty bureaucrats so the honchos can sort out the assholes from the humans they have employed with them. Reminds me of how the Nazis gave a little authority to certain types, knowing they would do anything to remain in a position of some authority. It is like a drug to some people and the neocons out to destroy America seem to want to know whom they can count on.

It is insane. And many officials are making it more and more difficult to actually get certified copies of one's birth certificate. Willing to be the neocons plan that down the road, if you can't PROVE you are a citizen, seven ways ta Sunday, you have no rights as a citizen.

Really, think hard. If some petty potentate with a little power asks you to PROVE you are a citizen of the United States of America, could you do it at that instant?

But fat cat employers can get away with hiring undocumented workers to assure obscene profits through substandard wages and welshing on taxes and employment costs like OSHA rules, worker's comp, unemployment insurance payments, and so on.

Making the world safe for abusive fat cats while harassing elderly women... yeah, gotta love the neocon vision thing.

[Suich]

3. If she had shown them a passport

would that have made any difference?

:hi:

[Monkeyman]

4. Can we all stand up with one finger in the air

[Bobbie Jo]

5. Insert Common Sense ( ) here....n/t

[Redstone]

6. Hey, I had to confess to Homeland Security today that I have a stuffy nose

in order to buy some pseudoephedrine. The lady at the drugstore counter just handed me the sign-up book and walked away, so now Homeland Security knows that Richard Nixon is still alive, lives in South Dakota, and has a stuffy nose.

Redstone

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. even your spelling is stuffed up!

poor baby! :P


Feel better soon!

[Redstone]

8. Thanks for the heads-up. Even with a stuffy nose, I like to spell correctly.

Redstone

[ewoden]

9. Well my father, dead since September 2001

is evidently on the no fly list. My family has a last name that is shared by 20, count 'em, 20 in the US and we know them all. My first name and my Dad's are the same except spelled differently by one letter (geeze mom and dad had a sick sense of humor). A month ago I'm flying out to Portland. I'm flagged by TSA as a flight risk, searched, questioned, the whole enchilada, despite traveling on a Government passport and having my flight booked by a Government Agency. Turns out that they "made an error", confused me with another of the same name, which would be my long dead Dad. The look on the white shirt (manager rep at security checkpoint) was priceless when I informed him of that little tidbit.

[SeattleGirl]

10. Everytime I think these freakin' hacks can't get any worse,

they prove me wrong.

:eyes:

[treestar]

11. Good. Every time the People suffer the consequences of their

demand for a police state, the better.

See, they think it would not include them, just the Muslims.

Not blaming your M-I-L, just saying that the little old ladies thought this kind of crap would only be applied to brown and black men and that's what they voted for.

The People need to experience this, as they cannot get the concept otherwise. And the automatic response of the American system is to apply it to anyone and everyone.

I always thought if white people did not have this applied to them, it would be too easy for them to impose it upon others. Thank God for the 14th Amendment and that in spite of Dubya, the government still follows it. Treats everyone equally, even if they are little old white ladies.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. My little old mother-in-law is a dyed-in-the-wool Dem

and absolutely HATES George W. Bush -- and has since his governor days. She's a Texan and has seen him up close. This episode today just reinforces everything she already knew and believed.

[ewoden]

13. I observed a couple of years ago

That if your ticket came up with four "J's" in the corner where the serial identifier was that you were going to be targeted for the individual treatment at security. Coming up with 4 Js one trip, I asked a bored ID checker about it and she sheepishly acknowledged that was the sign for the "random" pull out exercise. So while I was in line I had a conversation with the security folks about this. I was't quiet about it either. In fact I said loudly enough for a bunch of folks in line to hear "ma'am you mean to tell me if I have these four letter J's in this corner of my ticket (holding up ticket for others to see) that you are going to pull me out of line for the special search?" People started to check their tickets "If that's so", I said, "I'd think everybody in this line should check and see if they have 4 Js." More folks looking at their tickets. "Since everyone can figure this out, just what purpose does the special check serve? Anybody with something to hide will simply leave the line if they find four letter J's on their pass." What was funny was that they then proceeded to put me and my 4 J ticket through the individual treatment, validating for everyone the absurdity of the exercise.

We've given up freedom for security, and lost both.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. A further thought on all this that I had last night...

Presumably the purpose for providing all the extra paperwork at the DMV is to prevent someone from obtaining a fake ID. However, if an illegal immigrant or a potential terrorist has the wherewithal to come up with a fake driver's license and a fake social security card, why wouldn't they be able to secure and provide a fake birth certificate and a fake marriage license to corroborate those fake IDs? The shortsightedness is simply mind-boggling.

[Richard Steele]

15. You bet. Both of those would probably be MUCH easier to counterfeit.

I know my own Birth Certificate, which has never
been questioned by anyone who needed to see it,
is just notarized photocopy of the actual certificate
kept on file in the county where I was born.

A horribly LOW-QUALITY 30-year-old photocopy.

I wouldn't know how to begin to fake a modern
drivers license, but anybody with some White-Out
and a photocopier could certainly fake my birth
certificate.

[MadHound]

16. It is incrediblely easy in many states to get a real birth certificate

Of somebody who is aprox. your age. First you have to go out to a graveyard, or watch the obits for a person your age to pass away. On some pretext, comparison shopping, etc., get yourself inside an insurance agency and nick a couple of sheets of insurance company letterhead. Write out a standard form letter to said state's appropriate records division stating that for policy purposes you need a death certificate for X person. A lot of states will then send you the whole enchilada, a birth and death certificate. Toss the death certificate, and with your minty fresh birth certificate you can go out and proceed to get all sorts of fun ID and other pieces of plastic. Voila, you're a new person.

The procedures may have tightened up a bit in some states, but I doubt in all:shrug:

Yes, I had a misspent youth;)