Is That Legal?

Oh jesus fucking Christ. I live in Raleigh. I just can't wait to see one of these.

I really wish I could laugh at the image of masked militants on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but given the context I'm somewhat less than amused. Looking back at that sentence, I'm have a realization: I'll bet that the most dangerous terrorists in North Carolina wouldn't have any trouble getting licenses. I'm thinking of the people who harbored Eric Robert Rudolph.

I went to the website displayed on the sign. It's a well-designed website, with the worst genre of alarmist propaganda: the insidious kind that dispenses rational sounding premises while feeding on the fears of ordinary citizens. It is xenophobia without hyperventilation, the mellifluous voice of a concerned and caring neighbor who would hate to see us hurt ourselves in our good intentions.

What really odd is that people in the picture are apparently Palestinian terrorists. The guy on the left is wearing a Fatah scarf. These days, Fatah isn't generally associated with terrorism, but the way the scarf is worn in the photo -- nearly covering the entire face -- hearkens back to more militant times. The guys on the right appear to be wearing Hamas headbands and are definitely dressed for battle.

I assume the billboard designer just grabbed some convenient "Arab terrorist" photos, but the result is pretty absurd. Fatah, or even Hamas, probably ranks right up there with tsunamis and icebergs as threats to the city. (Raleigh's probably not high on al Qaeda's list of targets either, but at least such an attack would be conceivable.)

I recall seeing a higher resolution version on the site which is sponsoring this billboard. The funny thing is that the Arabic characters are just random and are not even connected as they would be to form words.

The picture is ridiculous, and the campaign is ridiculous.
First off, I am living in Raleigh right now, and faked papers are cheap. I really don't think you're going to catch a terrorist while he's standing in line at the DMV, you know?
Second off, the 9/11 bombers were legal US citizens who had just as much right to driving licenses as anybody else. New licensing laws would not have caught them.

The 9/11 bombers were aliens, not U.S. citizens.

The 9/11 hijackers weren't US Citizens, but the majority of them were legally present (only two were out of status). You don't have to be a citizen or permanent resident to get a license.

I think this campaign is too transparent to gain any traction; notice how the N&O didn't even bother calling up for a generic CAIR quote, but went straight to Melanie at El Pueblo. "Don't License Gardeners" doesn't have the same ring.

Simon
p.s.
Make it "Don't license people who don't use their turn signals" and I'm there.

What can I conclude when I discover people who couldn't care less about crime in their communities, but are suddenly up in arms over illegal immigration? What should I think of people who display no outrage at the rapist, or share no words of hurt or pain on hearing of the latest town murder, but have found a passion for civic duty in condemning "illegals"?

You can't tell me that behind all that new-found zeal there isn't a furtive motive, some fire by which crosses are burned.

Hate and prejudice clothed in civic zeal is the worst kind of hypocrisy.

Several times I've been a captive audience Michael Savage, one of the most vile hate-mongers in talk radio that I've ever heard. Listen to him for any length of time and it's all too clear it's just blatant bigotry. That's what these folks are all about. They wrap it all up in the American flag and call it patriotism. Gives me shivers just thinking about it.

I just really love the idea of the Arab terrorists sitting in their, you know, Arab terrorist lair, rubbing their furry mitts together and cackling darkly at their fiendish plan to obtain North Carolina driver's licences. (And after that, my comrades in terror, we will travel to Iowa and obtain library cards, bwah hah hah!)

No kidding, political situation can explain why arabian language and arabian people assosiate with the lable of terorism, but the majority is common people with their thoughts and feelings.