Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

Craig Burton mentions a scary proposed rule:

In a series of recent publications in the Federal Register, the Department of Homeland Security is proposing a comprehensive new system of surveillance and, perhaps more important, control of both domestic and international travelers.

The proposed new rules, which are currently open for public comments, would require that:

1. All would be international travellers to or from the USA (even US citizens crossing the U.S.-Canada border on foot) would have to have government-issued ID credentials
2. All would-be passengers on international or domestic flights to, from, over, via, or within the U.S. would have to have both government-issued ID credentials and explicit case-by-case prior permission from the DHS to the airline to allow each passenger to board a plane.

Shades of Rick's Cafe Americain in Casablanca where people were prepared to kill for the letters of transit.

When I followed the links they didn't seem to tell the correct story, but this one does:

Conversion of the Advance Passenger Information system (API or APIS) for international ship and plane travel into an advance permission system

The link is a PDF of the response to the proposal by the Identity Project. I'm surprised that I haven't seen a thing about this in any newspapers.