What's Right.(why recall California governor Gray Davis is good)

License

Imagine for a moment that you are a terrorist. You have just infiltrated the United States and are hiding out in Los Angeles. What's the first thing you need now?

Judging by the actual behavior of the last bunch of terrorists to pass through the United States, you might think the answer is: "a lap-dance from a Las Vegas showgirl." But before you can enjoy the Great Satan's devilish pleasures, there is something you need first: You need a new name and identity that allow you to hide from the Great Satan's alert police.

And thanks to California governor Gray Davis, what you need is now available without fuss, trouble, or very much in the way of expense.

On September 5, barely a month before the California recall election, Davis signed a law to help illegal immigrants obtain California driver's licenses. California will no longer require proof of citizenship -- such as a U.S. passport -- from applicants for licenses. Instead, all you will need is the bogus passport with which you entered the United States in the first place, plus a federal Taxpayer ID (available to anyone who asks for it), plus a canceled rent check or utility bill.

If you can get those things and then pass a driver's test, you too may have a California ID, with which you can board planes, enter the State or Defense Department, obtain a credit card and one hundred other useful things as well.

It's the driver's license, for example, that is used to identify people for the background checks required of gun buyers. Bogus license equals bogus identity -- neatly circumventing the gun rules that constrain actual American citizens.