Dave Smith wrote:
> Michael Gallagher wrote:
>
>
>>>Lots of us live near the border and hop back and forth. I used to cross the border
>>>almost weekly to shop. I used to cross the border weekly in the winter to go skiing.
>>
>>So now you'd just have to have your passport on you, and crossing
>>weekly, it would get a lot of mileage.
>
>
> No. I have only been over once in the last four years. If I am going to have to get a
> passport, I won't be going period.
>
>
>>And there is one peice of information a passport has a license does
>>not: Citizenship. A license is proof of ID, but a passport is proof
>>of citizenship. Not exactly the same thing.
>
>
> A birth certificate would be useful. Enforcement agencies are connected to date base
> networks and the information on a driver licence can get any other information they need
> about place of birth and citizenship. On the other hand, passports do not indicate
> membership in a terrorist organization. The requirement for a passport to enter or re-enter
> the US has arisen from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which where carried out by a group of
> people who all had passports.
>
>
>>>If it's illegal immigrants and Moslem terrorists you are worried about, profile the
>>>groups who pose the risk.
>>
>>
>>Some, like the guy who'd wanted to blow up LAX, live in Canada and
>>come down from there. So maybe people crossing from Canada is a risk
>>group, too?
>
>
> Bear in mind that the guy you re referring to was being tailed by Canadian authorities who
> advised the US that he was crossing the border. It wasn't like US Customs was more efficient
> with this guy than he had been with the 9/11 terrorists. He was basically handed to them on
> a platter.
>
>
>
>>I like Canada and I go up five or six times a year myself; I am in no
>>way bashing Canada. But IMHO, this bellyaching over getting a
>>passport is just that -- bellyaching. You think a one time charge for
>>a document that is good for five years and, over that period, could be
>>used as much as 200 times by Canadians crossing the border before they
>>have to renew it, is some kind of onerous, unreasonable demand, be my
>>guest. I do not agree. Oh, well.
>
>
> Maybe it is the level of suspicion that and the sense that there is vindictiveness
> associated with it. Immediately after 9/11 it was reported that the terrorists had snuck in
> from Canada the night before. That accusation was repeated just a few months ago from an
> American official who knew better. There have been too many comments about us not being
> there to help you in your war on terrorism. We have been there in Afghanistan, and we have
> ships patrolling the gulf. What we refused to do was to invade Iraq for WMDs that we did not
> think were there, and it turns out that we were right about that and now the US is stuck
> with the mess in Iraq and looking for us to help bail them out of a mess we told them not to
> start. Canadians pose no threat to the US, but the US administration seems determined to
> make us pay for not supporting their illegal war.
>
>
Actually since they are also requiring that US citizens have passports
are they penalizing their own for not supporting their war?
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