what can brown do to you?

the new-and-improved BMV website offers more online services than ever before. it now provides every BMV service except the one you actually want:

But the one online service drivers say they want most -- license renewal -- is still not available over the Internet.

In fact, online license renewal is banned by Indiana law.

banned? that's odd. BMV commissioner rod stiver says he's working on getting the ban overturned. a previous attempt to do so failed. and why did it fail?

Bill sponsor Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said House members were debating a contentious immigration proposal at the time, and some worried that illegal immigrants would see online license renewals as an easy way to get identification.

that's right: fear of brown people is why hoosiers can't renew their driver's licenses online. i fail to see how a tool for renewing identification for license-holders will allow people who don't have licenses to get them, but then i'm not pathologically afraid of immigrants, either.

i shouldn't be surprised, especially considering what's going on in missouri. in a not-quite-related story, missouri right-wingers are trying to pass a new voter ID law similar to indiana's but with an extra twist: voters would not only need to show ID but proof of citizenship. this is a double-whammy that merges paranoia regarding voter fraud and fear of brown people for devastating effect: the secretary of state has calculated that 240,000 missourians could be impacted by the law if it passes. (missouri already passed a strict voter ID law in 2006 that was struck down by the state supreme court, so now they're trying to change the state constitution in order to pass the new restrictions.) ¶