The F Word

by tristero

This disturbing notice on Slashdot comes via Sara Robinson at Orcinus:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed a system which will in essence make it mandatory for you to have permission before leaving or entering the country, effectively putting everyone on a no-fly list unless the government says otherwise. Interestingly, the proposal does not seem to cover personal travel, only that on some sort of carrier like an airline or cruise vessel.

One would think that passports would be enough for a free government to regulate travel abroad by its citizens. But no, issuing passports doesn’t have enough goose-stepping zip and pizazz for the Bushites. Passports are subject to public checks and balance And that, we just can’t have; it would be too easy for someone to learn whether Bush is abusing them.

Sara quotes from the Identity Project, which has filed comments in opposition to the proposal. Notice how the Bushites are trying to sneak this one by:

In the guise of an NPRM [Notice of Proposed Rule-Making] alleged to propose a change only in the required timing of transmission of information already required to be provided to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the CBP has actually proposed a fundamental regulatory change with far-reaching (literally and figuratively) legal, policy, and logistical implications: The NPRM would replace a requirement for ex post facto notice to the CBP of information about who is on each vessel (ship or plane) with an unconstitutional system of prior restraint of international travel, entirely unauthorized by statute and inconsistent with the U.S. obligations embodied in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Under the proposed rules, orders by the CBP to common carriers not to transport specific persons… would be based on an undefined, secret, administrative permission-to-travel (“clearance”) procedure subject to none of the procedural or substantive due process required for orders prohibiting or restricting the exercise of protected First Amendment rights…

The NPRM would create a clearly invalid administrative…, that all those persons not affirmatively “cleared” in advance by the CBP – according to decision-making procedures and criteria specified nowhere in the NPRM – are barred from travel. [emphasis added]

Okay, let’s not jump to any conclusions that fascist tendencies, and only fascist tendencies, are behind such a proposal. We need to put this into context.

Something like 1/3 to 1/2 of all Congresscritters don’t have passports. Not only that, but Crawford’s Own Messiah had visited only Mexico, China, and Israel before he moved into the White House.

In short, for a huge chunk of the highest levels of government, the world stops at the US border. It is barely an exaggeration to characterize the worldview of such incurious, fearful know-nothings as one which sees the un-United States as a dark, fetid place which has no value except as a source for oil. Oil, which unfortunately, comes with a host of undifferentiated brown-skinnned pests that have to be cleared out of the way, by one means or another.

In other words, the notion that anyone must travel outside the United States is a concept that a huge number of extremely influential American leaders have a lot of trouble wrapping their minds – such as they are – around. So what’s the big deal if permission is denied without reason?

As for wanting to travel abroad…why on earth would you want to do that? Something wrong with the USA? You’re in the best country in the world! And you want Italian, hey, we got Domino’s Pizza, fine American pizza just as good as that fancy stuff they make over in Rome or Barcelona or wherever. And Domino’s delivers.

So perhaps the intent behind this proposal isn’t entirely un-American and tyrannical. Maybe they’re also dumb as posts as well. After all, the Bush Administration seems to have an infinite supply of people who are unfailingly stupid, ignorant, arrogant, and indifferent to the world beyond the gates of their exclusive communities.

But let’s not joke around anymore.

This latest proposal for secret powers is the kind of garbage that gets thought up, proposed, and implemented by fascists. And it’s only a matter of milliseconds before it’s abused. Let’s not forget that DHS was used at least once against domestic political opponents of the GOP. Republicans, probably including DeLay, used the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to locate and round up Democrats as part of a successful effort to gerrymander Texas.