TSA requires ID to fly

Yet another entry in the "Your papers, please?" department.

Contrary to popular belief, even if you don't have a state-issued ID card, you're permitted to fly on planes within the U.S. You might be subject to a much more extensive search, but ultimately you can travel.

Until now.

Now the Transportation Security Administration has barked down an order that I could smell from light years away. Under this ukase, passengers who refuse to show an ID will not be allowed to fly - period. (Ooh, an Allowed Cloud!)

The loathsome boogerfaces of the Bush regime strike again!

Worse, the TSA provided only 2 weeks of notice before the June 21 effective date.

The TSA - the agency that brang you the Naziesque no-fly list - has become one of the most corrupt and out-of-control federal agencies of late. Further, its air travel screening practices lack any consistency whatsoever.

With Real ID looming, this order was almost inevitable. This despite the fact that courts have ruled that, under the Constitution, you ultimately don't need an ID to travel.

Then again, people are going to ask, what's another liberty lost? These days, almost any mode of travel is in effect subject to a "Your papers, please?" I've been carded by police just walking down the street in my own neighborhood.

One of the main points of the new policy is that it only afflicts those who actively refuse to produce an ID. It doesn't affect those who simply forgot their ID. So you can tell it's another case of plain old intimidation.

I don't feel any safer, do you? I feel less safe. Any terrorist is just going to find their way around it. If they don't have an ID, they'll just say they lost or forgot it. But odds are, they'll have a phony one: If they know how to hijack a plane, they surely know how to make a fake ID (which any kid with a Power Mac from 1994 can probably do).

I think the states need to step in and reinforce what courts have already ruled. To protect the existing right of travel without having to show "papers", the states need to have laws to overrule the TSA's new diktat. The TSA shouldn't get to decide when constitutionally guaranteed freedoms apply.

(Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13739_3-9962760-46.html)