Sam Had It Right

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen."-- Samuel Adams


This has long been my favourite quote from any early American patriot and I wish more people could have it said to them. The passage via sneak attack of the REAL ID Act was an attack on the individual sovereignty and the rights of the individual states, as well. And now we have an early implementer in the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the state of Indiana.

Ostensibly, the BMV is implementing early to inconvenience illegal aliens, without regards to the inconvenience and invasion of the privacy of the people of Indiana. Information gathered by the BMV will be sent to and shared with the Department of Homeland Security. The Indiana BMV has, whether they will admit or not implemented a National ID in the guise of a state drivers license.

Bureau of Motor Vehicles officials say they implemented state rules to comply with the federal Real ID Act passed last year by Congress, which will take effect in 2008. The law demands that states increase the documentation they require for such things as driver's licenses to improve homeland security.
Citizens from those states that don't meet standards could find their licenses aren't accepted as proof of identification to board airplanes or enter federal buildings.

The heart of the problem seems to involve the bureau's revised policy on Social Security cards. A valid Social Security card is mandatory to receive a driver's license.

From The Indianapolis Star.

And there we have it. The odds of the Governor of Indiana, the former Bush administration OMB Director protesting the REAL ID Act or it's implementation is virtually non-existent. In Indiana this travesty will go through and become the law of the land. Despite the costs to the citizens of Indiana, Mitch Daniels and the Federal government will see to it that Indiana becomes a REAL ID beacon.

And here I take my stand and tell the supporters of this act, "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen."
No more. I refuse to play this particular political game. I will not be made a number so that you and yours may sleep in your beds and pretend to a false sense of security. I, and many others were against this Act from the onset and spoke against it. With this new action, tho you have created something. You have created another rebel. A Real ID Rebel. Welcome to the rebellion.

I'm Tired Of New Orleans

Sick and tired of it, as a matter of fact. Let's forget about them and concentrate on those who were truly victims of devastation. The people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
New Orleans, a favourite city of mine with years of memories for me and my family, did not get hurt as badly as the Gulf Coast to the east. The Crescent city suffered some damage, some flooding and damage due to incompetency and humans. The Mississippi Gulf Coast, in comparison lost everything. The devastation was, and still is total for miles in from one side of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to the other. But, to hear the media tell it the only place really damaged was New Orleans.

Flooding is one thing. Complete destruction is another.


Scenes like this are all too common along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Even the worst pictures from New Orleans are no match for the levels of destruction that we have seen wreaked upon the coastal communities. Large sections of multiple cities have been scoured from the face of the Earth.

My family and I took our recent vacation to the Mississippi Gulf Coast this past summer, as we often do. We visited places from my childhood, went to the beaches and restaurants and took our children to see the places I grew up in. All of the places we went to are gone now. Not damaged, not flooded, not blown over. Gone. The White Cap Restaurant at the Gulfport Marina, gone.


Perhaps the owners of the White Cap will rebuild. Perhaps Marineland will rebuild. Maybe Ship Island Excursions will rebuild. But, as long as the press keeps America's eyes on New Orleans the Gulf Coast will be very slow to rebuild.

As someone who really wishes the government to stay out of the mess, as much as possible I would much rather see private companies thinking about the Gulf Coast than New Orleans. Just as many minority families in Mississippi have been impacted by the devastation wrought on the coast maybe more, but the cameras were there incidentally while on their way to New Orleans.

I'm tired of a nightly update on New Orleans. I want nightly updates on the people who truly suffered the greater loss.