I have to renew my driver’s license this year. Normally it is a minor deal that might kill a couple of hours if you don’t schedule an appointment, and it cost about $25. This year everything changed.

I have already mentioned that Republicans hate to be caught raising taxes, but they have no problem doubling fees, and one of those fees is the driver’s license renewal, which now costs $48. If that wasn’t annoying enough, they lacked the guts to tell the Hedgemony to shove it on the Real ID program, so you have to go to the office and present all kinds of proof.

You need your Social Security card to verify your Social Security number; a birth certificate or passport; and two proofs of your current address.

I don’t have a current passport because I wasn’t allowed to leave the country for an extended period after I left the military, so there wasn’t much point in continuing to pay for one. That means my birth certificate.

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Thanks to DCNY I understand why Blue Dogs and Republicans oppose the Public Option –

They think it’s a Pubic Option.

Given they way they freak out over the mention of sex, I understand their total meltdown at the thought.

So, ten seven months after claiming it was a major priority, Obama has appointed a network security figure-head: “Obama has tapped Howard A. Schmidt, longtime computer security executive who worked in the Bush administration and has extensive ties to the corporate world”.

Apparently he was the choice of Larry Summers, because Schmidt knows how to suck up to CEOs, and he had essentially the same do-nothing job in the Hedgemony. More smoke and mirrors, another facade for Obama’s Potemkin village.

No need to find someone who will actually push to secure networks and prevent the script-kiddies from running rampant through government files, because that might upset the corporate owners of the White House, and reduce the salaries and perqs that the current inhabitants expect when they resign “to spend more time with their families”.

I hate to break it to people, but this portfolio doesn’t even sound robust enough to be classified as a Revizor, much less a Tsar.