Air travelers stuck in political showdown over security

By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses.

By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.

Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/news/state/19-realid.txt

that leaving the US (as in traveling abroad) was going to be very difficult after February, '08? Or was that speculation?

Preserving the illusion of safety in air travel is vital to........well......erm.......something.

My GF and I swap boarding passes and Passports every once in a while just for the hell of it.

We are rarely found out during the TSA part of the ordeal.

They, for the most part, are idiots.

I mean when japanese families are wondering where they want to go for vacation do they think of america then go "no i dont want to be probed or treated like a criminal by air security, think we'll visit canada this year"

Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

Does this mean that if I want to fly from Dallas to Chicago (or anyplace in the USA) I will have to have a passport and yet illegals can come into the USA with no documentation??? Only in bush's America.