At 11:53 AM 9/10/03 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote:
California's law against Driving While Speaking Spanish is only about 10 years old, and was a Pete Wilson thing. It happened about when I moved here - did other states start doing similar things in the mean time? The Feds started bullying states into collecting SSNs when issuing drivers' licenses in the mid 80s, ostensibly as a way of preventing duplicate registrations, but I hadn't heard they'd been doing this.
Interesting. I didn't know the history. What is morbidly fascinating is how the driver's license is/has become the internal passport. And now, when it is being brought back to a certification that one "knows how to drive", the scum who manipulated it into an internal passport are shiiting bricks. As a Ca driver, I'm in favor of it ---we have to pay for uninsured drivers insurace or risk collisions with them. As someone who won't be going to Mexico, I don't care if they require real passports (instead of a Ca driver's license) to re-enter the country. If the US wants to get real borders, that's fine with me. If they want to deport illegals, that's fine too, so long as they don't violate civil rights doing it. (Hint: stopping people on the street because they look foreign is not acceptable. The INS was doing that in Orange or San Diego county recently. I wrote to some mexican activist reminding them that no one in this country needs to speak to pigs, if you're not driving.) \begin{rant} Illegals (and unlicensed pharmacists) also drive an anonymity industry: credit-card-like debit cards that don't require proof of income, just cash; prepaid phones that don't require a billing address, etc. I've read that to enter a Fed building you need "ID". I'm curious what happens if you haven't got it. Adrian Lamo had his card. I'm currently ignoring the conscription notices I get from the local jury droids; if I *volunteer* someday (after reviewing fija.org) I'll be sure to be without ID. Also heard on the tube that 60K fake IDs are caught at the border annually. Wonder how many aren't caught. NIB magnets are probably overkill, but it was the first and last useful swipe my license's magstrip will see...