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2006-11-27 Home Front: WoT

Passport Deadline Nears, Few Americans Prepared

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Posted by Free Radical 2006-11-27 05:19|| || Front Page|| [11129 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Passport Deadline Nears, Few Americans Prepared

Why do I have the image of a car with the label 'State Department' speeding towards the edge of a cliff? Of course the idea that the wretched masses simply exist for some pin-striped suited bureaucrat to issue edicts and fiats would sell well at State. Forget the little bit about 'consent of the governed' have we. Going to Canada, Mexico, or the Bahamas is an option not a necessity. Watch tourism drop like a lead balloon. Watch Ottawa and Mexico City scream. Watch perplexed Americans watch a million Mexicans without passports crossing the border. Please pass the popcorn.

Posted by Procopius2k 2006-11-27 09:18|| 2006-11-27 09:18|| Front Page Top

#2 Consent of the governed? What a novel concept.

I wonder if this last election was about government competence. I have a growing sense that nothing works the way it should. My wife's green card story was an INS horror show. FEMA and Katrina, Border (Non)Enforcement, bridges to nowhere, 50,000 Soddy student visas, VISA Express, Iraqi occupation, CIA and DoS follies, and my personal favorite: TSA that strip searches 90 year old grandmothers while letting young Arab men pass. Many more examples...

I wonder how much gov't incompetence and annoyance the people will tolerate?

Posted by SR-71 2006-11-27 09:31|| 2006-11-27 09:31|| Front Page Top

#3 I quitely let my passport expire. They are charging too much for renewal. Not anywhere I really want to go outside the states anyway.

Posted by 3dc 2006-11-27 10:32|| 2006-11-27 10:32|| Front Page Top

#4 This will not work for one reason. They let slip that the sole purpose is *not* security, but to "make things easier" for bureaucrats and border guards to check IDs.

Philosophically, making things "easier" for the government is one of the *worst* reasons for passing a new law, and they seldom work.

What will happen is that there will be a sudden and marked drop in tourism and international travel. This will be followed by screaming and intensive lobbying in Washington, D.C., by all of those companies that are losing MILLIONS of dollars because of this asininity.

Even though this will fail, it will do nothing to dissuade those individuals who just *know* if we had a national ID card, that *everything* would be better.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-11-27 10:55|| 2006-11-27 10:55|| Front Page Top

#5 Fact is you shouldn't be travelling international without a passport anyway. The only time that makes sense is in the case of Canada and Mexico and I think it's not such a bad thing to reaffirm citizenship when drivers licences are so easy to fake these days.

Bet the tourism in tijuana plummets because of this law. Such is life.

Posted by rjschwarz 2006-11-27 11:14|| 2006-11-27 11:14|| Front Page Top

#6 Travel to work on our offshore oil platforms may also be covered by this requirement. Depending on how things get interpreted, and how many of our crewmen and contractors are carrying passports, the furnaces in DC might start shutting down around mid-winter. Heh, heh, heh.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2006-11-27 11:43|| 2006-11-27 11:43|| Front Page Top

#7 I've got two or three expired passports around here, and have no plans to renew any of them. The only "passport" I want is to a nice 40-acre lot somewhere near the continental divide, at between 8000-9000 feet above sea level, with Internet access, and within an hour's drive to a lake for fishing. I can handle any other requirements when they come up. My family already considers me a hermit, so a nice dry cave is an option.

Been to Europe, been to Latin America, been to Asia - didn't lose anything in any of those locations I really need to recover. Google Earth is enough excitement for me these days...

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2006-11-27 16:36|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2006-11-27 16:36|| Front Page Top

#8 $97? Sheesh, it was $30 when I got my first six years ago.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to pony up sooner rather than later. I've already had two annexes added.

And I keep it tucked behind a picture frame, Jason Bourne-like.

Posted by Mizzou Mafia 2006-11-27 18:23|| 2006-11-27 18:23|| Front Page Top

#9 OP -

"Visitors to the Gallup (NM) area with an interest in boating or lake angling will find excellent opportunity at Bluewater Lake State Park, located about 30 miles to the east of Gallup off I-40 on Rt 412 at the northern terminus of the Zuni Mountains. Sitting at an elevation of 7400 feet, Bluewater Lake is encircled with rolling hills studded with pinon and juniper trees. The lake is well known for its large German Brown Trout fishing during the fall & spring as well as during winter via ice fishing techniques, and is also renowned for its summer lunker catfish populations."

Not far from the Divide.

Posted by Procopius2k 2006-11-27 21:43|| 2006-11-27 21:43|| Front Page Top

#10 Ah, Gallup, I used to live there. It was the home of Eddy's Club, the watering hole where the bar room fight in "Star Wars" was filmed. What people don't know is that the scene was filmed live using the local patrons as extras, no makeup was needed for 'em.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2006-11-27 21:49|| 2006-11-27 21:49|| Front Page Top

#11 Why not embed an Ezpass in the forehead ?

Posted by wxjames 2006-11-27 22:55|| 2006-11-27 22:55|| Front Page Top

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