Because Caesar commands it, that's why

In the same way that lying has become so integral to the thought process in the Bush Administration that they now lie without thought or need, secrecy and imperial hubris are so woven into their warp and woof that absurdity in their application simply no longer register.

From CNET News via Kevin Drum:

A federal appeals court wrestled Thursday with what seems to be a straightforward question: Can Americans be required to show ID on a commercial airline flight?

John Gilmore, an early employee of Sun Microsystems and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the answer should be "no." The libertarian millionaire sued the Bush administration, which claims that the ID requirement is necessary for security but has refused to identify any actual regulation requiring it.

Yes indeed -- secret laws, created, no doubt, in secret proceedings of a secret legislative body. Freedom and democracy are so important that they will exterminate every last vestige of them in order to ... well, in order to accomplish whatever it is that they are trying to do but can't tell us about.