Alright, time to put on my tin-foil hat (reflective side on the outside, its more effective that way).  Ha anyone heard of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI)?  The goal of this federal legislation started by the Bush administration was to provide more secure border crossings from countries in North America, even from the U.S. to Mexico or Canada.  Currently you do not have to have a passport to go from the US to either country, but starting June First you will have to have a passport or a “secured” travel document.  Currently there are some members of Congress who are trying to delay this effort by putting off the start date of the WHTI.  What is somewhat concerning to me is this paragraph from the linked story:

Now, I’m all for stronger border security and we should be able to track various elements that come within our borders, but something about these RFID chips rubs me the wrong way.  I’m not sure I like the idea of the government being able to track where I am by imbedding a chip in my passport.  They claim this is just to provide citizen and identity information, which is a good aim because it is still rather easy to forge passports, this should certainly make it harder for that to happen.  However, I just wonder if I can trust any government (Republican, Democrat, whatever) with that kind of real time access.  Understand, this is the same technology that Wal-mart uses to track every single item and shipment that it sends out.  Its amazing technology and might be one of the biggest reasons why Wal-mart is the biggest company in the world.  Does anyone else have any privacy concerns or worry how this might be put to nefarious use, or is it just me?