Oh, and btw, I'm the down-on-his-luck star of my OWN soap opera

without going into incredibly boring details and a VERY long story, suffice it to say that i have had to send my passport off from here in jordan to d.c. to get an updated afghanistan visa so that i can return to kabul later this month and be cleared to stay until the end of april... i'm not at all keen on being minus my passport in a foreign country, particularly since i can't leave until i get it back...

however...

i sent it off on monday from here in aqaba to d.c. via dhl... below is the routing update current as of last night, wednesday, 4 march...

Tracking history... Help

Date and time Status Location Service Area 3/4/2009 10:11 pm Depart Facility East Midlands, United Kingdom 10:10 pm In transit. East Midlands, United Kingdom 3:07 pm Depart Facility London-heathrow, United Kingdom 7:45 am Clearance Delay London-heathrow, United Kingdom 7:44 am Transit through DHL facility London-heathrow, United Kingdom 1:20 am Depart Facility Bahrain, Bahrain 12:31 am Processed at DHL Location. Bahrain, Bahrain 3/3/2009 8:55 pm Transit through DHL facility Bahrain, Bahrain 8:55 pm Processed at DHL Location. Bahrain, Bahrain 4:12 pm Depart Facility Amman, Jordan 12:44 pm Processed at DHL Location. Amman, Jordan 7:05 am Transit through DHL facility Amman, Jordan 3/2/2009 4:58 pm Depart Facility Aqaba, Jordan 3:13 pm Processed at DHL Location. Aqaba, Jordan 2:50 pm Shipment picked up Aqaba, Jordan

see that little blue HELP button at the top right...? no shit... somebody needs help, and it ain't me...

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Obama, Hillary AND McCain's passport files breached

it was interesting enough when it was just obama...

3 Candidates' Files Breached, State Department Says

Passport files for Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and
Barack Obama were improperly accessed, the State Department
said.

ok, so here's yours truly... last friday, i sent my passport off to washington d.c. via dhl so that it could be hand-carried to the afghanistan embassy (there isn't an afghan embassy in argentina) and a visa entered... it was put handed BACK to dhl on wednesday afternoon... according to dhl's tracking system, it left their miami facility at 5:02 p.m. yesterday, which is the last time the package was scanned... i keep refreshing the tracking screen and that's all i get... i assume it was put on dhl's overnight flight to argentina, but it should have been scanned in here on arrival... passports are extremely important items and anything and everything related to them should be treated with extreme care and utmost confidentiality, so reading about barack, hillary, and john having their passport records breached doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence, i can assure you...

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No passport needed.

It is such an outrage that the most inexpensive, common sense efforts to prevent the entry of terrorists into the US are suspended, underfunded, or completely ignored. Yet, any method that violates constitutional rights, costs more money, or creates new government programs is embraced totally.

US Temporarily Relaxes Western Hemisphere Passport Requirement
By VOA News
08 June 2007

The Bush administration has announced it is relaxing passport rules for U.S. travelers in the Western Hemisphere for the next three months.

The administration said Friday it will suspend a requirement that all U.S. citizens must have a valid passport if traveling by air to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. But travelers will still have to show proof of a passport application.

The proposal is a response to the increasing backlog of U.S. passport applications since January, when rules requiring passports for travel to those nations first took effect.

The mandate, known as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, prompted a surge of passport applications at the State Department, causing a backlog and delays that led angry applicants to complain to their congressional representatives.

The initiative will also impose the same rules on land and sea travelers beginning January 1, 2008.

It was known for months that there would be a rush to apply for passports, but they wait until now to beef up personnel to process requests.
I bet the NSA didn't wait to have it's personnel increased so they could spy on our e-mails and telephone calls.
Basic verifiable identification is the best way to know who is entering or leaving your country, that's why all nations everywhere have a passport document.
Also, if we want a National ID, wouldn't a passport serve that function, SINCE IT IS A NATIONAL ID?
If you wan to know if a person applying for a job is a citizen or not, wouldn't a passport confirm that, SINCE IT IS A NATIONAL ID?
No, instead we suspend the need for a passport, yet tell the people that they are in danger from terrorists and illegal aliens if we don't submit to a new government national ID program and don't allow our privacy to be invaded in our own homes.
BULL, BULL, BULL!

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