Free Republic

ALBANY, Oct. 16 — The CNN anchor Lou Dobbs calls Gov. Eliot Spitzer “a genius.” But not in a nice way. “I was being about as facetious as one could be,” Mr. Dobbs said in an interview Tuesday as he prepared for his nightly broadcast, “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” For the last nine days, the show has included discussion of Mr. Spitzer’s plan to allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses. Mr. Dobbs, a pinstriped journalist turned populist crusader against illegal immigration, is not a fan. “It’s an abuse of power!” Mr. Dobbs thundered. “He is being absolutely irresponsible. When...

ALBANY - The images and commentary aren't subtle: Osama bin Laden hanging out in a New York City taxi driver's seat, a blog headlined "Moron Spitzer Forges Ahead with Licenses for Illegals." Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses has been roundly assailed. "Crazy," said a county clerk. A threat to national security, said Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.). A Poughkeepsie Journal editorial took a more measured approach, but still noted "taxpayers have a right to be both perplexed and outraged" over Spitzer's plan. In the Capitol, the political discourse has been more...

Assemblyman Greg Ball (R-Carmel) and members of the Assembly Republican Conference will be hosting a forum to discuss the Governor's new drivers' license plan. Experts on homeland security and immigration will lead the discussions. Also in attendance will be members of the Assembly Republican Conference, including Assemblyman Jim Bacalles (R,C-Corning), Assemblyman Phil Boyle (R,I,C-8th A.D.), Assemblyman Bill Reilich (R,C,I-Greece), and Assemblyman Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore), as well as Congressman and Republican Presidential hopeful, Tom Tancredo (6th District, Colorado). A variety of homeland security and immigration experts will be attending, including: Immigration and national security expert Mike Cutler; founder of the...

NYT: License Plan by Spitzer Gains Critic in Giuliani http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/nyregion/29license.html?adxnnl=1&ref=nyregion&adxnnlx=1191071931-iKp5Op+LAkNDE+6EroKKjg LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 Rudolph W. Giuliani joined the chorus of Republicans opposing a plan by the New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, calling the proposal a "mistake" that would only lead to greater chaos. newsday: Feud over driver's licenses for aliens continues: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--licensespat0928sep28,0,5457031.story ALBANY, N.Y. - Republican Assembly leader James Tedisco said Osama bin Laden is likely popping champagne over Gov. Eliot Spitzer's new plan to allow illegal immigrants to get New York driver's licenses. Buffalo News: Spitzer’s driver's license policy for...

Should illegal immigrants be allowed to get vaild NYS drivers licenses? (bottom right on page)

COOPERSTOWN NY A change in requirements intended to make it easier for illegal immigrants to renew their state drivers' licenses does not sit well with some county clerks, including Otsego County Clerk Kathy Sinnott-Gardner. ``I don't see why we should make the requirements more lenient for illegal immigrants than they are for our own citizens,'' she said. Last week, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner David Swarts announced the DMV would no longer require non-citizens to produce Social Security numbers when renewing their licenses. State law has required all license applicants to show either Social Security...

No is winning 3-1

There were 35 busloads from Chicago on Thursday to the State Capitol in Springfield pushing for licenses for people without social security numbers, about 2,000-2,500 protesters. No immigration police though.

Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles employees are routinely and unlawfully denying driver's licenses to immigrants who are here legally, according to a class-action law suit filed yesterday. According to the suit, Registry workers asked the immigrants for proof of legal residency when they were not authorized to do so. The workers then denied licenses to the applicants, incorrectly concluding that the immigrants had not demonstrated they were in the United States legally, the suit alleges. In all cases, the immigrants' lawyers said, the Registry workers were overstepping their legal authority and violating the immigrants' constitutional rights. "They don't have the...

DMV - Oregon accepts documents from foreigners but will not accept proof from out-of-state tribes It's easier for illegal immigrants to get a driver's license in Oregon than it is for Native Americans who show up at DMV counters with identification from out-of-state tribes. About half the states in the nation allow some form of tribal documentation to secure a driver's license or identification card. Some want federal proof, some require tribal proof and some will accept either. Of those 28 states, two -- Oregon and New York -- restrict that to documents from in-state tribes only, according to information...

The operators of a Kansas City truck driving school were among 15 defendants indicted in a scheme to fraudulently provide commercial driver's licenses to more than 70 Somali and Bosnian nationals, federal authorities said Thursday. The 62-count indictment, returned under seal by a federal grand jury Wednesday in Springfield, was unsealed and made public at a news conference Thursday in Kansas City upon the arrests and initial court appearances of the defendants. According to Bradley Schlozman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, defendants in the case are: Dean P. Proffitt, 71, and Orbin Dale May, 63, both of...

D.C. Council members have long distributed to family and friends special license plates that have accrued more than $20,000 in city parking fines, which the plate owners likely will not have to pay. Since the early 1970s, council members and the mayor have bestowed the license plates -- which feature low numbers -- as political prizes. The 13 council members have exempted themselves from parking restrictions and fines since 2001. When lawmakers leave office, the plates they have distributed are supposed to be returned to the city to be reassigned to new officials. However, the tickets owed on those plates...

Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. Governor Pataki is proposing legislation that would keep personal information on sportsmen's licenses from being disclosed to the public. Pataki says the law would protect the privacy of people whose personal information is attached to the hundreds of thousands of hunting, fishing and trapping licenses issued each year by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The Pataki administration and the Democrat-controlled state Assembly have been fighting over access to the information. A state judge sided last year with the D-E-C, which decided in 2004 that releasing the data under the state Freedom of Information Law was...

Lola Pfeifer's ride is a 1998 Oldsmobile Bravada sport utility vehicle, 190 horses beneath the hood and 4,000 pounds of motoring muscle on the road. Pfeifer is 85, a great-grandmother, a veteran road warrior who recalls the days of 17-cent-a-gallon gas yet still confidently goes with the modern traffic flow on Milwaukee's streets. "I don't think I irritate younger drivers," she says. "I keep within the speed limits. If I'm going too slowly, the younger drivers will pass me by." With every left turn taken and stop sign negotiated, Pfeifer displays her independence and embodies a new era on the...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee's driving certificate for illegal immigrants isn't valid as a form of ID, but people are paying hundreds of dollars on the black market and traveling hundreds of miles to get one. Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since it became the first state to offer them in July 2004, but not every certificate has gone to someone living there. Two major federal arrests in recent months exposed shuttles bringing South and Central American immigrants from as far away as New Jersey to state licensing centers in Knoxville, where the immigrants got certificates using fake residency...

KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's driving certificate for illegal immigrants isn't supposed to be valid as a form of ID, but it's so popular that people are paying hundreds of dollars and traveling hundreds of miles to get one. Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since 2004 when it became the first state in the nation to offer them -- since joined by Utah. But not every certificate has gone to someone living in Tennessee. Two major federal arrests in recent months exposed black-market shuttles carrying South and Central American immigrants south from New Jersey and north from Georgia to state...

Suspects accused of bribery, conspiracy, helping immigrants get fake licenses A widespread bribery scheme funneled hundreds of illegal aliens into a Winchester, Tenn.-based driving school, netting them fraudulent licenses. And six people, including one current and one former state employee, got more than $146,000, federal prosecutors said yesterday. The U.S. attorney's office yesterday unsealed a six-count indictment of the six people who are accused of helping hundreds of people since May 2004 obtain driver's licenses they didn't earn. They have been charged with bribing state employees, accepting bribes and conspiracy. About 100 people who got the fake licenses have been...

Microsoft has launched an attack on existing open source "licensing proliferation" claiming that the system is confusing and unnecessarily challenging for software developers. Jason Matusow, director of Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative, told vnunet.com that the large number of open source licences currently in use is counterproductive.  "I believe that there are 55 or 56 open source approved licences. These have come about because source code is somebody's property and they have chosen to license according to their needs. We believe that developers should license code as they see fit," he said. "But the biggest challenges come from additional licences. Let's...

I went to the DMV yesterday to renew my driver's license. I had an appointment and was pleasantly surprised. I got right in. But then things went down hill from there. LOL I had attended traffic school in May in order to have a citation I received in November removed from my record. And wouldn't you know. It had not been removed. I also found out that a citation from 2000 had not been removed either(went to traffic school for that one too LOL) I was "thumb printed" for the first time. Picture taken but was not given an eye...

A majority of Latinos born in the United States don't think illegal Hispanic immigrants should be given drivers' licenses, according to a new poll. Most foreign-born Latinos disagree, according to the polling for the Pew Hispanic Center. Six in 10 Latinos born in this country approve of measures to prohibit illegal immigrants from getting drivers' licenses, while two-thirds born in another country disapprove of such measures.