I'm from the Goverment, Chapters 12 and 13

[rolanni]

Chapter 12

Nicked from the Friends of Liad list:

"...I suppose a little background would help. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks are a bit of a sore subject with me. I'd been over at the Locks earlier in the quarter, back at the beginning of April, taking photos of the picturesque landscape surrounding this prominent local landmark. I’d even left my subject and returned with more film just to try to get the right shot. Being new to photography, I made careful notes of my camera's settings.

Within a half an hour of my returning home I found myself confronted by two uniformed Seattle Police officers, both of which had their hands casually resting on their sidearms. (This is definitely not something you want to see at the door of your home.) I was sincerely surprised and alarmed to learn they were looking for me!"

Full story here
///
OK that was aggravating enough, and close to home to boot, since kinzel had a close encounter with a New Hampshire policeman last year while we were waiting for Mozart's plane to land. Turns out it's illegal to take pictures inside the Manchester Airport -- note lack of signs stating so. But anyway.

Chapter 13

The day with its errands beckoned, also the possibility of cash in the post office box (a possibility which was, alas, not realized). Among the errands was a stop at the Waterville Post Office, which is aggressively advertising the fact that it is now issuing passports. As it happens, we are in need of passports, so we presented ourselves to the nameless and irritable lady in charge of making this experience as unpleasant as possible. She produced applications, and an instruction form. She then proceeded to tell us exactly what was on the instruction form, including the fact that in order to complete the application, we would need to surrender our original birth certificates to her to be sent away and held by Some Gummint Agency for six weeks. The birth certificates, she said, will be returned with our passports.

Uh, no.

Now, I realize I'm making a Fuss about nothing. After all, thousands of people have passports and must have gone through this process perfectly smoothly, surrendered their bedrock identification and placidly lived their lives for six weeks, never needing or missing it. But -- let's just say that my experience of government efficiency has been less than happy. And there's no way I'm letting them have the only copy of my birth certificate.

So, I guess I'm making some long-distance phone calls this afternoon, to see how to get duplicate birth certificates.

Argh.

Comments

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

It's not a war on terror any more, it's a war on us. It's a golden opportunity for anyone with a badge to call anything at all "suspicious" and intimidate people--and if you happen to be darker than lilywhite, so much the better, because you're obviously Not A Good Amurrican.

And when I applied for my passport, I had to surrender not only a birth certificate, but a certificate of citizenship. Which the bastards (finally!) returned to me creased and folded, I might add.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I saw something in the paper yesterday -- a headline that struck me as hopeful. This morning, I remembered that I had wanted to read the article and rescued it from the pile... Bad mistake.

The hopeful headline: "Maine bishop refuses to deny Communion" is what made me sit up and take notice, the Maine bishop not being particularly noted for his, um, crusading spirit. Alas, the article crushed my flutter of hope. While it's perfectly true that Bishop Malone states that he has never denied Communion to anyone (a scary statement of itself, but let's leave half-remembered theology for another rant), and isn't going to start now. But. Bishop Malone was one of the 183 bishops who signed on to the Denver statement last month, to wit: Politicians who support abortion are "cooperating in evil" and should be denied "awards, honors and platforms that would suggest support for their actions" -- which is right back with the Church waggling its toes in politics.

Worse, in the same paper, I find that the House has knuckled under to the threat of veto and has passed the Patriot Act intact, including the provision that allows the goverment to investigate people's reading habits, to access bookstore and library records without recourse to a search warrant or probable cause, and to force bookstore owners and employees, and librarians to maintain silence if/when their records are accessed.

I am Depressed.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I think they ought to pull the Church's tax exemption.

by "passed the Patriot Act intact," do you mean the enhanced version that Cheney and Company wanted to use to extend the original? And if so, may I now look up the immigration laws to Canada? No, wait.... I'll give it until November...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I think they ought to pull the Church's tax exemption.

That would only free it to perform greater excesses -- and give it a Martyr Card, too.

by "passed the Patriot Act intact," do you mean the enhanced version that Cheney and Company wanted to use to extend the original?

Y'know?

Local paper's no good. Let me do a Google...

Here we go:

"House refuses to curb Patriot Act
Vote a victory for Bush"
Thursday, July 8, 2004 Posted: 4:55 PM EDT (2055 GMT)

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-led House bowed to a White House veto threat Thursday and stood by the USA Patriot Act, defeating an effort to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that helps the government investigate people's reading habits.

"The effort to defy Bush and bridle the law's powers lost by 210-210, with a majority needed to prevail. The amendment appeared on its way to victory as the roll call's normal 15-minute time limit expired, but Republican leaders kept the vote open for about 20 more minutes as they persuaded about 10 Republicans who initially supported the provision to change their votes.

"The measure had been pushed by a coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans. But they fell short in a showdown that came just four months before an election in which the conduct of the fight against terrorism will be on the political agenda.

"Besides successfully fending off the effort to weaken the law, the veto threat underscored the administration's determination to strike an aggressive stance on law enforcement and terrorism.

The House has voted before to block portions of the nearly three-year-old law, but Congress has never succeeded in rolling back any of it. Yet neither has Bush succeeded in his quest to expand some of its powers."

Fully story here (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/08/congress.patriotact.ap/index.html)

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I think they ought to pull the Church's tax exemption.

That would only free it to perform greater excesses -- and give it a Martyr Card, too.


Disagree, at least in part. At least one archdiocese has already declared bankruptcy because of the sex scandals. Now I certainly don't expect the current administration to do anything that would tell the religious right that they have to keep their noses out of politics (unfortunately), but if the Catholic Church is suddenly assessed taxes on all its US holdings, they're going to be very busy indeed trying to come up with money. They'd play Martyr, yes, but greater excesses? Don't think so. Hard to preach from a repossessed pulpit.


The House has voted before to block portions of the nearly three-year-old law, but Congress has never succeeded in rolling back any of it. Yet neither has Bush succeeded in his quest to expand some of its powers.

Small blessing, I suppose.