More Stuff You’re Not Being Told – INTERNAL US PASSPORTS?

Yesterday The Department of Homeland Security issued the REAL ID Act — supposedly for the standardization of state identification documents. It actually creates a national identity card, to be used as an internal passport within the US.

States must start issuing the new internal passports by May 2008, or else their citizens will not be able to board planes or enter federal courthouses.

No, I’m not kidding.

The full document (in PDF form) can be found Here.

Some choice quotes from the 162-page document:

“Federal agencies would not accept state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards unless they were REAL IDs for the purposes of boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants and accessing Federal facilities.” (page 111)

“The primary benefit of REAL ID is to improve the security and lessen the vulnerability of federal buildings, nuclear facilities, and aircraft to terrorist attack. The rule would give states, local governments, or private sector entities an option to choose to require the use of REAL IDs for activities beyond the official purposes defined in this regulation.” (page 108)

Your papers, Citizen?

Friday Music

Another week down.

First up, a track for — a smokin’ bit of instrumental rockabilly from, of all places, The Netherlands: The Gazz Guzzlers – “Ridin’ Shotgun (at the Devil’s Rock)”

I picked up a copy of Prince’s latest, 3121, this week. I had shared a copy of the single, “Black Sweat”, last year, if you remember. The rest of the album is pretty damned cool as well. Here’s another cut from the album, for your perusal: Prince – “Love.”

Here’s one that will enjoy. I’ve been listening to Life in Cartoon Motion, the debut album from Mika, which will be released later this month in the US. I’ve shared his stuff before — The extremely Freddie Mercuryesque “Grace Kelly”, for example. The album is brilliant. This is a slower track — I’m absolutely enraptured by the string arrangements, especially when it really kicks in. Mika – “Any Other World.”

One of my favorite tracks from Muse, just to get you moving on a Friday: Muse- “Hysteria.” Another band that I really want to see live…I figure my chances are better than the possibility of me actually getting Police tickets….

One of my favorite 90s “Alterno-pop” singles, which my kids used to refer to as the “singing fast song.” I’m fairly sure that I posted this one back towards the beginning of Friday Music, but screw it — I like it. Letters To Cleo – “Here And Now.” “The comfort of the knowledge of a rise above the sky above will never parallel the challenge of an acquisition in the here and now…”

A killer dance track that I discovered this week — a Canadian producer’s remix of an Icelandic band’s single. Bang Gang – “Find What You Get (Nik7 Remix)”

Lastly, here’s something from Thomas Dolby, for those of you who only know “She Blinded Me With Science”, etc. This was one of Dolby’s earliest singles, only released in the UK in 1982. The b-side, “Wreck of the Fairchild”, an instrumental piece, segues into the a-side, “Airwaves.” Somebody has edited them together into one mp3. “Fairchild” was originally on the first UK pressing of Dolby’s Golden Age of Wireless, but was removed, and the longer version of “Airwaves” replaced with an edited version, to make room for the track “She Blinded Me With Science”. The rest, as they say, is history. So here it is, one of my all-time favorite Dolby songs, in it’s rarest form: Thomas Dolby – “The Wreck of the Fairchild/Airwaves (Single Mix)”

There you go. Enjoy.