While I Was Out

Filed under:Miscellaneous,Not Cool,Sports — posted by Anwyn on October 9, 2007 @ 9:44 am

I’m back from Boston, where my gracious hostess Petitedov and I saw tons of history and several varieties of Mike’s Pastry. A few things that happened while I was gone:

Funkypundit prognosticated incorrectly lied, Phils and Cubs died. Holy cow-hum.

Marion lied, gold medals died. I remember those Olympics. I believed her then. The article blandly says that two out of the other three relay team members have served doping bans since then–doesn’t say it’s for sure they doped at those Olympics. Doesn’t matter. Medals should all go to the second-place team. I used to be naive about this stuff. Now it’s starting to taint the concept of everybody at the top for me.

Latinos lied, DMV spied, Oregonian cried got its panties in a wad over the fact that most of the people taken up for fraudulent documents were Latino. Here’s a conundrum: Oregon law allows illegals to obtain driver’s licenses or state IDs as long as they have authentic documentation, such as a consulate card or a (frequently Mexican) birth certficate. Yet people are still using fraudulent documents, leading me to wonder if people actually want their real names on a license if they’re illegal.

Already, suspects who might otherwise have gone unchecked have been caught: they confess to buying Social Security cards in Montana, Los Angeles and Hillsboro; and they admit traveling from places such as Nevada and California, where illegal immigrants are prohibited from getting state identification.

No word in the article on whether they take their Oregon ID back to Nevada or California and live there awhile with a totally legitimate document supplied to them by the friendly state of Oregon. And the license clerks are the losers here–learn to properly identify a crappy Mexican birth certificate (“But the pink color, chipped ink and misplaced signature of the birth certificate still did not pass the test.”) or report somebody whose documents are actually genuine, even if it means they’re a genuine illegal. Until Oregon law begins to address their illegal status and not just their fraudulent documents, the DMV’s effort is valiant but only a half measure.

Via Ace, via Snapped Shot.

4 comments »

  1. You are too generous to the DMV (although since they didn’t make the law you have a point in that they’re at least trying to make something credible about this mess). It’s not a half-measure. It’s a counter-measure, as you point out. You move from the “illegal” column to the “I have a legal document” column. I don’t think that’s anywhere close to a good idea.

    Comment by Anne — October 9, 2007 @ 2:22 pm

  2. No, it’s not a counter-measure–they are doing what can be done under a law that allows illegals to obtain Oregon licences: they are reporting fraudulent documents so that at least illegals have to report their actual name and identity to get the license. Moving illegals to the “I’m illegal but have a legal driver’s license” is not a call the DMV is allowed to make–Oregon law states that as long as they can prove their *identity*, not their immigration status, to the DMV through the use of an official Mexican identification document, they can get a license.

    Comment by Anwyn — October 9, 2007 @ 3:07 pm

  3. So was the Mike’s Pastries a good suggestion? ;)

    Comment by Corvar — October 11, 2007 @ 11:47 am

  4. Indeed. The “lobster pie” in particular was yummy.

    Comment by Anwyn — October 11, 2007 @ 4:16 pm

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