Shadowy Consultations Over REAL ID in Annapolis

Today, the Gazette posted an article about a shady closed-door meeting between leading lawmakers and Federal homeland security officials.

It seems that an allegedly routine meeting should not have been held behind closed doors. To add an even higher level of suspiciousness to the affair, attendance was limited and timed so that at no time would there be a quorum of the House Judiciary Committee present. According to the Gazette,

Despite that, lawmakers went to great lengths to ensure there was not a quorum of House Judiciary Committee members present at any one time to stay within open meetings guidelines. As a new committee member would enter the room, another would leave.

The panel has 22 lawmakers, so no more than 11 could be present to keep things above board.

When House Judiciary Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Dist. 27A) of Upper Marlboro began to spread the word about the meeting during a floor session last week, some committee members grew uncomfortable with the method in which it was being held.

Given the Obama Administration's recent focus on securing the border with Mexico -- due mostly to the deteriorating situation in the Mexican "Guerra Narcotrafficante" which is approaching outright revolution in some locales -- it's a reasonable speculation that legislators who have been dragging their feet on bringing Maryland up to speed in terms of adopting REAL ID standard, were told "officially unofficially" that Maryland would in fact be adopting REAL ID within weeks or face loss of significant amounts of Stimulus Package funding.

Maryland is one of only four states that will give driving permits or State ID to persons who cannot prove legal residence.

Mexico's Drug War has killed thousands in the last year, with many of those being law-enforcement officials, judges, and other government officials. Journalists have also been a common target.

Before now, this had largely been an internal affair of Mexico, but the war has been spilling onto US soil, with killings and retaliations all along the highways and in the cities of the border states. Phoenix, AZ, now has a rate of kidnapping exceeded only by that of Mexico DF, Mexico's capital city. It's widely believed that it's only a matter of time before the Mexican drug cartels and associated gangs in the distribution system begin to target Americans, and their mode of operation has always been to strike at as high a level of official as can be reached. Maryland's driving permits and identification cards have been exempted from compliance with REAL ID, and are thus the most fraudulently-obtained documents east of the Mississipi. This high level of risk combines with the ubiquitous use of this unsecured document to access all Federal facilities in the District of Columbia and environs, to make the Maryland DL almost a hazard in and of itself.