Thursday, April 23, 2009

Napolitano - Hypocrisy or Just Plain Stupid


“Stupid is as stupid does”, is a line from the movie Forrest Gump. It might as well be the tag line for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. In the short time she’s been at her position we’ve heard how returning Vets are a security risk as they might be recruited by radical right wing terrorists. The other day she managed to antagonize the folks in Canada with a remark about the 9/11 terrorists having entered the United States through the open border to our north followed by a hasty apology to our “close ally” and then there’s yet another face plant regarding the Real ID Act of 2005.

Napolitano wants to do away with the Real ID Act , “She said she wants to substitute the federal law with "something else that pivots off of the driver's license but accomplishes some of the same goals.” No details on what would take its place; she just wants something different.

We mustn’t antagonize anyone attempting to obtain important identification instruments, illegal aliens or terrorists trying to duck under the radar. This is similar to the folks who don’t want valid identification at the voting booth; a general relaxation of common sense.

“While Napolitano is looking for ways to repeal Real ID, her department's Web site continues to espouse the law's merits.

"Raising the standards of state-issued identification is an important step toward enhancing national security," the Web site says.

"Because a driver's license serves so many purposes [access to federal buildings, nuclear power plants, boarding aircraft, etc.], terrorists actively seek fraudulent state-issued identification. The Real ID rules will make it more difficult for them, while making it easier for law enforcement to detect falsified documents," it says.”
Maybe Napolitano has watched the movie Hitman (give it a few seconds to load); can we expect the next level of ID to be bar codes tattooed on the back of our necks. That would make it easier to “needle” the citizenry and she wouldn’t need a microphone.

No, my guess would be something similar to night club stamps that showed you paid at the door, the kind that glow under a black light so you can go to work the next day and impress your fellow workers, “I went clubbing last night”. I went to Jones Beach when I was a kid and the man at the gate stamped the top of my hand with a rubber stamp, a water proof image of a sea horse; that was cool!

I can see the headline now…

“Terrorist arrested at Logan International Airport”. Details are sketchy; however, it appears an elderly lady was trying to get through security with a Chuck E. Cheese ID stamped on her wrist. Wilma Snodgrass, age 72 from Oxsnort, Vermont was pulled out of line and searched for weapons after TSA officials were unable to identify the smeared identification stamp on her wrist. Mrs. Snodgrass stated that she had taken her grandson to Chuck E. Cheese for a pizza party to celebrate his 5th birthday.”

In a statement to reporters at the hospital where Wilma Snodrass was taken after suffering what appeared to be a heart attack, Janet Napolitano explained, “TSA scanners were unable to verify her citizenship because the Chuck E. Cheese stamp was smeared and only idiots work in important positions”. Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano then cleared her throat and asked, “Did I really say that into a microphone?”

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