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Howard Kurtz Has Hopefully Started the Backlash Against the TSA Backlash

by Tommy Christopher | 2:17 pm, November 23rd, 2010

» 41 comments

For a little over a week, an eternity in news cycle dog years, the uproar over TSA pat-downs has dominated the media landscape like the bastard spawn of Rod Blagojevich, Sarah Palin, and Balloon Boy. Heading into the Thanksgiving weekend news dead zone, there seems little chance its momentum will slow, but The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz may be ushering in the most welcome phase of this story’s arc: the inevitable backlash against the TSA backlash.

Kurtz mostly nails it in his critique of “The Media’s Pat-Down Frenzy,” but misses a key cog in this story’s engine: the intersection of public outrage and proponents of racial profiling.

Kurtz accurately traces the story’s Drudge-watered roots, a viral video by software engineer/hardware protector John Tyner in which he tells a TSA screener, “If you touch my junk I’ll have you arrested.” Tyner likened the pat-down procedure to a “sexual assault,” an absurd bit of hyperbole that should have earned him a bitter rebuke from anyone who has ever actually been sexually assaulted, or by anyone who has ever been frisked. I’ve been patted down before, and since my chest is now held together with wires, I’m sure I will be again. It’s a commonplace occurrence for anyone who accesses secure areas, and while a first-timer can be forgiven some discomfort, it is surprising that Tyner’s metaphor went unchallenged.

From there, it was off to the races, and Kurtz cannily observes the atmospheric conditions that led to the media cyclone:

The narrative combines a number of elements: Hassled airline passengers (who can’t relate to that?); terrorism concerns; invasion of privacy, and a hint of sexual naughtiness. But the key here is that every local news outlet in America could send a reporter or a crew to a nearby airport and grab a piece of the action.

To be sure, they found a few revolting cases.

Indeed, they did, but as TSA administrator John Pistole (an unfortunate name for this junk-centric story) pointed out over and over, these were aberrations from the standard procedure. In addition to the anecdotal horror story, the Junk-gate beast munched hungrily on empty calorie sound bites like Hillary Clinton‘s declaration that she wouldn’t submit to a pat-down (but ignored her eminently reasonable qualification “if I could avoid it. Who would?”), and instant celebrity-seeking opportunists like the scanner-proof underwear guy and the hot TSA stripper girl with the see-through lingerie and utter lack of video-editing software.

To be sure, practices such as these pat-downs should be monitored vigilantly for abuses, but Kurtz correctly takes the media to task for a lack of perspective:

The obtuseness of these TSA clowns boggles the mind. And in the modern media world, anecdotal accounts rule. Perhaps some customers, not the disabled ones, were being oversensitive; doesn’t matter. We all identify with bedraggled passengers, having removed their shoes and belts, having dumped their drinks and packed their tiny toothpaste tubes, being oppressed by a rigid and inflexible system. But that doesn’t mean the excesses are widespread.

Kurtz also tackles questions about the efficacy of the Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines, but such concerns are more resonant before the fact than after. The machines were already being rolled out when last year’s Christmas Day bomb attempt occurred, revealing the machines’ weakness at detecting the explosive PETN. Lost in the angst over this is the fact that screening measures have forced the terrorists to use PETN, a substance that doesn’t work. The only successful use of PETN as a primary explosive was an attack that killed 1 and injured 23, and that took 24 kilos of the substance to accomplish. It takes a 50 lb set of balls to ignore this.

Tyner, among others, has also raised the possibility of using so-called “puffer machines” to detect PETN, but the TSA abandoned that program before the Undiebomber because those machines didn’t work.

Whether the expensive machines and pat-downs are worth the investment becomes somewhat moot, however, once you’ve already made the investment. How does TSA put that genie back in the bottle? If they abandon these measures, how does John Pistole explain that to the families of the next airline disaster that might have been prevented by them?

Kurtz’s deft critique swings and misses at an important element of this story in his conclusion:

On the other hand, it seems absurd to be screening grandmothers and young kids, and has this elaborate and expensive enterprise caught a single terrorist?

No self-respecting man wants a hyperactive security guard touching his junk. But I’ve about had it with media types who insist on turning this into a junk story.

This is really at the heart of the TSA whine-fest. True abuses aside, the loudest complainers have one thing in common: they don’t care so much about privacy as they do about their own privacy. While The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg invokes the mythical non-racial profiling of El Al, conservative provocateur Ann Coulter cuts through the bullshit and just comes out and says it: profile the Moose-lims. Every single interview I’ve seen on this subject has included the “Kids ‘n Grandma” code for “Don’t do it to us” (John Tyner is neither, though it’s hard to tell from the whining), and every panel has proffered the El Al model as a worthy replacement for our current system.

There are a host of problems with this, but the most insidious is the notion that it doesn’t involve racial profiling. This is achieved through verbal sleight of hand, by saying that El Al doesn’t “simply” rely on racial or ethnic profiling, they imply that the Israeli airline uses techniques like “behavioral profiling” (aspects of which are already in use here) to narrow the number of people scrutinized, when in reality, the opposite is true:

Despite their current anxieties, Americans also might balk at El Al-style ethnic profiling. Staff scrutinize the passengers’ names, dividing them into low-risk (Israeli or foreign Jews), medium-risk (non-Jewish foreigners) and extremely high-risk travelers (anyone with an Arabic name). These people automatically are taken into a room for body and baggage checks and lengthy interrogation. Single women also are considered high-risk, for fear they might be used by Palestinian lovers to carry bombs.

Such profiling ignores the fact that the terrorists are actively recruiting outside that profile, and heavy reliance on it would actually make us less safe. The TSA was rightly derided for chasing the terrorists’ tail by scrutinizing shoes and shampoo, but this appears to be an attempt to get ahead of the evildoers. At yesterday’s White House briefing, Robert Gibbs tried to point this out without showing our hand: (Transcript via email)

Jake Tapper: You’re a parent. The President is a father. There are a lot of parents out there whose children have been subjected to pat-downs, and they’ve been very upset by it. There have been individuals with medical conditions who have been forced into humiliating situations. This is evolution?

MR. GIBBS: No, I think it’s important to understand that anybody under 12 goes through something much more modified. I would say, first and foremost — and I think if the TSA Administrator was here, he would say this to you as well — has all of this been done perfectly? No. If somebody feels as if they have been unduly subjected to something that they find to be far more invasive than the line of convenience and security, they should speak to a TSA representative at the airport.

Again, without leaning too far into this, Jake, I think it’s important that it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think that — I’m trying to be somewhat careful here — that those that wish to do people harm via an airplane haven’t looked at some of the ways through explosives in devices or luggage or on themselves that we know can get around and through security. And we have to be careful about that.

Whether they’re acting on specific intelligence or not, it only makes sense that if a terrorist knows we’re not going to search Grandma, a halfway-decent pickpocket could smuggle a weapon aboard an airplane simply by getting behind her in line. A pregnant woman from England might well become a viral video star in today’s climate, were she subjected to enhanced screening, but that’s the danger of reactionary policies. When discussing the Israeli model, it’s important to note El Al’s success at catching people who don’t fit the profile:

Other catastrophes have been averted since. One bomb was found in 1979 in Zurich in the bag of a German passenger who looked nervous: He had thought he had been hired to smuggle diamonds. Another bomb was discovered a few years ago in the bag of a pregnant English passenger in London, placed there by her Palestinian lover, whose identity security officials had checked beforehand.

In fact, the current white-hot furor over the screening procedures could act as a deterrent for terrorists, who might think twice about making a move during a time of such heightened awareness. Bowing to public pressure at a time like this might have the opposite effect.

Since the Christmas Day bombing attempt last year, the government has continued to work on improving intelligence efforts, with some recent success, but our airports are the last line of defense. I hope the TSA busts some heads over the misuse of screening procedures, and comes up with better detection equipment, but if properly executed, the current procedures don’t step over the line between privacy and security. Hell, if the TSA really wants to keep an x-ray of my junk, I’ll even autograph it for them.

See, here’s the real elephant in the room: all the nekkid body-scanners, and puffer machines that don’t work, and color-coded alert systems, and pat-downs, and even profiling, will never eliminate the threat. The truth is, we can be safer, but never completely safe. The actions of terrorists, especially suicide terrorists, are anomalous to human nature, even to dark-sided human nature. Even “bad” people have an instinct for self-preservation, and even most killers don’t kill indiscriminately. For a person who doesn’t care who he kills, including himself, the whole world will always be a target-rich environment. The best way to stop them is to either kill them before they can act, or to make them not want to do that.

Big Eddie

The picture . Big Eddie prefers a holster . … Is there a Cliff’s Notes version of this article ?
TfT

I quit reading after this line:

“like the bastard spawn of Rod Blagojevich, Sarah Palin, and Balloon Boy.”

Typical of Tommy and the rest of mediaite staffers – can’t do a story without some disparaging remark about Palin.

And still Tommy and the board are silent….no condemnation of the threats against Bristol. They are silent on Obama’s PLUMETTING approval ratings….but, Palin’s second show on TLC got lower ratings than the first one, and it gets headlines. You just can’t make this shit up. Sarah gets more media attention than hehimselftheone. Obama’s approval ratings are falling faster than the sky in the world of liberals who can do nothing more than speak ill of Palin. E-gads.

Just remember how the media screamed, yelled, had hissy fits when Bush, via NSA, was eavesdropping on TERRORISTS.

Now, they embrace touching private parts of citizens.

Ah yes, the good old enemedia…..they love themselves some terrorists. Oh and it’s Bush’s fault, or Sarah’s fault.
More Liberty

Wow Tommy. At what point is enough enough? While you attempt to “sound” neutral, you are obviously backing these methods. Have you heard of the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution? You know that whole “unreasonable search and seizure” thing. These methods will obviously identify certain contra-band items, but just as prison proves, the adversary will go the next level by inserting dangerous items in places that can’t be felt or x-rayed. What then?

Are you comfortable with full body cavity searches? These x-ray machines, and government sponsored molestations prove that the more power we give government, the less liberty the individual has.

But all this silliness could be stopped if our government believed in real security, not faux security. Just look to the way the Israelis conduct business at Bin Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. They don’t racially profile, they use behavior profile and it freakin works. In Israel the security lines are no longer than 30-minutes at the most, you get to keep your shoes on, and perverts don’t get paid to molest every customer.
Tony the Fist

Wow, I never realized how accurate these scanners are of essentially showing your naked body to strangers. I thought before, “Big deal, it’s a white and blue reverse image, no big details.” But all you have to do (pervert alert) is put the pic in Photoshop and select invert or put a white difference filter over it and it reverts to something equivalent to what those X-ray glasses sold in the back of old comic books where supposed to do. Wow, just wow.
Tommy Christopher

TfT said:
I quit reading after this line:

“like the bastard spawn of Rod Blagojevich, Sarah Palin, and Balloon Boy.”

Typical of Tommy and the rest of mediaite staffers – can’t do a story without some disparaging remark about Palin.

HOw do you read that as an insult to Palin? The line is meant to highlight media omnipresence.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-G/7963345 Steve G

Dear Everyone,

Lately everyone seems upset about the new TSA. However, now with word of a “forced-patdown-to-purposely-delay-people-getting-home-to-their-families protest” I am hoping to spread enlighten a few of us.

Rather than delay people getting home and upset TSA workers (who probably don’t want to touch you any more than I would), I propose a different approach. I propose we exercise our rights of free speech and go in the skimpiest outfits possible (legally that is). Think of it as the last time to show off those toned bodies before they get ruined by stuffed turkey and pecan pie (mmmmm…. pie).

I call it, “Drop to your Drawers Day”, or better yet DD Day (NOTE: This is not “Drop your Drawers Day” so please show SOME decency).

I propose you tell the TSA how you feel. Tell them, “This is how you make me feel.. Naked!”

The TSA currently doesn’t seem to get the big picture. We support your efforts for security. Better yet, we applaud them. All we ask for is a little improvements like (but not limited to):

1. Privacy: If you are seeing me naked in Texas, you should not be able to see my face, and be located in Idaho (or somewhere else far far away)
2. Dignity: If you are going to feel me up, at least do it where no one else can watch, not on display for the entire airport.
3. Information: Inform me when I go through a device, that the person watching is going to see probably more than my significant other. And if I refuse, I will get flat out groped.
4. Rights: Inform me of my rights, that I can leave or that I have no choice. Whatever, just let me know before stamping me with an $11K fine afterward!
And finally, 5. Service: Treat me as a human being; we need service, not to be serviced.

Thank you, and here’s hoping everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving (hoping everyone is actually able to make it to their families in time).
am_underground

Looks more like a “rabbit” than a pistol.
DorkyMcForky

Had George Bush’s TSA instituted this policy, liberals would be busting massive nutts everywhere. I don’t really mind getting my junk touched in the name of safety, but I hate seeing hypocrisy. Fascist would be pouring out of liberals mouths everywhere.
sarainitaly

the pictures above are fake, and not from a real naked scanner.
http://www.tatumba.com/blog/archives/1369

it’s called criminal profiling, and it’s legal.
BobHahn

Your Ministry of Truth reminds you not to question the methods of the state. Simply submit. It is for your own good. Pushing back against these methods cannot possibly cause the state to re-examine its procedures to see if something better might be available, or if new technology might make these methods unnecessary. No, pushing back will only inconvenience the state. As The Christopher has stated, “submit.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

DorkyMcForky said:
Had George Bush’s TSA instituted this policy, liberals would be busting massive nutts everywhere. I don’t really mind getting my junk touched in the name of safety, but I hate seeing hypocrisy. Fascist would be pouring out of liberals mouths everywhere.

Had George Bush’s TSA instituted this policy, you and the rest of the Fox News flock o’ sheeple would have busted their nuts justifying it. Hypocrisy is you and fascist is a word you can’t define without your picture illustrating that term.
DorkyMcForky

I see what you did there….you took what I said and changed 2-3 words to try and insult me, without proving what I said to be false. SMART! TOP-NOTCH! You sir are a MASTERDEBATER!!

Buttf*cking
Illiterate
Lame
Lard@ss

And
Dumb@ss
Kooky
Insult to
Natural
Selection

Lets see if you can figure that one out!
Cecelia

Someone needs to tell her that there’s such a thing as too much fiber…
The Lantern of Truth

DorkyMcForky said:
I see what you did there….you took what I said and changed 2-3 words to try and insult me, without proving what I said to be false. SMART! TOP-NOTCH! You sir are a MASTERDEBATER!! Buttf*ckingIlliterateLameLard@ss AndDumb@ssKookyInsult toNaturalSelection Lets see if you can figure that one out!

im ted . bill adkins is a dumhead . your rite !
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Treacher/542957672 Jim Treacher

Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to hurt any Muslims’ feelings. Let’s pat down little kids instead.
nrgetick

DorkyMcForky said:
Had George Bush’s TSA instituted this policy, liberals would be busting massive nutts everywhere. I don’t really mind getting my junk touched in the name of safety, but I hate seeing hypocrisy. Fascist would be pouring out of liberals mouths everywhere.

your an idiot,..thats all the “liberal media” has been talking about.

“Fascist would be pouring out of liberals mouths everywhere.”

ha ha you teabaggers got some serious issues going on in that empty vessel you call a skull.,… but the depths of your mental retardation is still entertaining

“I hate seeing hypocrisy”
you must also really hate reflective objects
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Mangan/100000213524770 David Mangan

T. Christopher is seven layers of dumb in this article. But summing it up, there is nothing ‘racial’ in the profiling of Arab terrorists, since the id is more cultural tics than any swarthy hue or such—–Arabs and Jews are the same ‘race,’ if TC ever knew anything about anything. And the remark “The line is meant to highlight media omnipresence.” is so disingenuous as to make me ROTFLMAO. If there is any ink-stained on-line wretch not ready for prime time, this Palin-hating ignoramus is probably one of the top contenders.

TfT is right about Obama’s approval ratings tanking rapidly, but I guess that serious journalism isn’t Mediaites strong suite, or even any suite in its deck of cards.
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Mangan/100000213524770 David Mangan

“Such profiling ignores the fact that the terrorists are actively recruiting outside that profile, and heavy reliance on it would actually make us less safe” sounds nice, but the only thing that the machinery can’t find are inserted bombs much like cocaine was put into bags up the nether end of the GI tract. That’s where BEHAVIORAL profiling is important, and it appears that this has completely escaped Napolitano & Pistole, unless the TSA is secretly profiling while scanning and patting down—probably too uncomplicated for the PC commissars like Janet N. & her bosses, Eric Holder and The Won.
DorkyMcForky

nrgetick said:
your an idiot,..thats all the “liberal media” has been talking about.

“Fascist would be pouring out of liberals mouths everywhere.”

ha ha you teabaggers got some serious issues going on in that empty vessel you call a skull.,… but the depths of your mental retardation is still entertaining

“I hate seeing hypocrisy”
you must also really hate reflective objects

Did you see the other article on Mediaite about Chris Matthews and the TSA? Did you watch the Ed Shultz show when he was talking about how this was all made up by the right? Have you heard Keith calling Obama a fascist? Yeah, I know, you are a fucking idiot. It’s ok

Plus, who said I’m a teabagger? The Tea Party are a bunch of f*cking hick rednecks who don’t know the first thing about economics. One sized fits all insults make you look really stupid!
JoeRyMI

The only thing worse than this new invasion of privacy are the Americans actually defending this.

I agree: the argument has been the wrong one. It shouldn’t be about profiling or not, it should be whether the Federal Government has the authority to enforce rules like this on private industry. Should an airline not have the right to set their own standards of safety? I wish the media would actually encourage a discussion that doesn’t concede authority to the Federal Government.

And yes, it is a laugh riot that the left is supportive of this. Hys-ter-i-cal….
nrgetick

dorky…….ha ha fair enough…. so your not a teabagger

i listened to ed today at work,..,.he was a 50-50,.,thom hartmann on the other hand, who i would consider an even more respectable and authoritative voice on the progressive side has come up just short calling this TSA deal fascist. He mentioned today, i still need to verify, but TSA can actually “groap” you under your clothes. The freaky part about that is they dont change their gloves after every inspection. Meaning if you have an open sour thats infected or herpies,,,guess what…..ugh fuckin disgusting, Im flying this holiday and im going with the scanner myself. fuck all that other shit
nrgetick

btw this TSA debate is way more complex than one side being for or against this issue. For example, ann coulter is like ed, she goes between complacency and outrage. Establishment democrats and republicans are more likely to comply and have no strong feeling about trading freedom for safety. Leftist/progressives and libertarian/tea baggers are more likely to be the shit starters protesting tomarrow,
The Lantern of Truth

nrgetick said:
open sour thats infected or herpies

nrgetick said:
fuck all that other shit

nrgetick said:
groap” you under your clothes.

im ted . your reel dum .
nrgetick

Are you a TSA groper? lol ,.
Bids

DorkyMcForky said:
Had George Bush’s TSA instituted this policy, liberals would be busting massive nutts everywhere. I don’t really mind getting my junk touched in the name of safety, but I hate seeing hypocrisy. Fascist would be pouring out of liberals mouths everywhere.

If George Bush had initiated this policy, the right would be all for it.
nrgetick

“If George Bush had initiated this policy, the right would be all for it.”

yea right,,Thats tyranny, i mean come on…look at the rights outrage over the patriot act when it was drafted,,remember how not one congressman even read it,.remember how pissed off the right was……oh wait, ha ha i almost forgot.,.,all we heard was crickets……..ha ha boy is my face red.
JoeRyMI

nrgetick said:
“If George Bush had initiated this policy, the right would be all for it.”

yea right,,Thats tyranny, i mean come on…look at the rights outrage over the patriot act when it was drafted,,remember how not one congressman even read it,.remember how pissed off the right was……oh wait, ha ha i almost forgot.,.,all we heard was crickets……..ha ha boy is my face red.

I agree completely. Although, me and my fellow libertarians were red faced before even the left was. And yes, If Bush were in office the left would be throwing a tantrum, and the right would be pulling the “it’s not that bad card” like we are seeing from many on the left this week, including in this piece.

But THAT’S the point. Partisan politics makes these debates laughable. Switching scripts is the reason I could never belong to a major political party, even if I agreed with their stances…which I don’t.

I still think we are having the wrong debate. The basic point is; should the Federal Government have this authority at all? There is no question that this is a MAJOR issue. I truly feel sickened by people looking to marginalize this issue. Complaining that it is getting too much coverage and alluding to “Balloon Boy?” REALLY?
nrgetick

I said: “TSA can actually “groap” you under your clothes”……. “need to verify that.”

I verified. theres footage they keep playing of that TSA guy handling that kid with his shirt off. ughhhhhhh that shit is messed up. If i was that kids dad I woulda kicked that dude in the face.
nrgetick

@joe…….Us on the left got called everything under the sun for taking a libertarian stand on all of bushs’ big govt policies,.

I will also admit that theres alot of us on the left who are still jonzing and sopping up the last bit of koolaid from the obama fountain. He basically got a free pass for Afghanistan and even largely for being an uncle tom for the corporations, more are realizing the latter everyday.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-ORights/100001850536555 Bill ORights

Howard Kurtz is an arrogant elitist snob who won’t have to be subjected to this hideous assault on our rights.

Kurtz won’t tell you about Kurt Haskell, the eyewitness on Flight 253 that saw a “Handler” aka Covert Ops agent escort the Underwear Bomber onto the plane in Amsterdam without a passport. Kurtz won’t tell you that Michael Chertoff, the former head of Homeland Security is making MILLIONS by having the Child-Pornography-creating-devices installed in our airports.

Kurtz doesn’t care that TSA agents have been placing their hands on the genitals of children and underage minors.

Kurtz is untrustworthy.
philipjames

Tommy Christopher is a tranny…. right? I can think of no other reason for the twisted and anguished thinking process that “Tommy” or is it “Tammy” has exhibited in this post.
Maybe the fear of a clutch of the package when in the “other” set of clothes is causing “TimmyTam” to grace us with this gibberish.
pansycritter

Now the TSA is ginning up their excuses to violate our 4th Admendment. There is zero reason for them to be groping the american people. There is nothing they are finding (including guns) that they wouldn’t find under the old system.

The undie bomber would still get in; he was an outside threat. All this groping and photo taking wouldn’t do a damn thing to stop him. It’s all BS.

I suggest you drive. When the airlines start to feel the ecomonic pinch, they will stand up to this.
Puter Boi

“The best way to stop them is to either kill them before they can act, or to make them not want to do that.”

T.C.
You are correct……except….killing them with kindness…..or asking “pretty please don’t hurt us” isn’t going to work…..and the fact is….if this were any other administration employing these tactics at the airports around the country, you and your buddies would be screaming from the rooftops about (insert any Nazi reference) and whining about your civil rights…..so save your faux outrage. You aren’t fooling anyone.

btw: I hope you are feeling better. My uncle just went through the same procedure as you and he is doing great. Have a Happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend!
ironboltbruce

Nowadays if I need to get from anywhere to anywhere on the continent, a motorcycle is my primary–nay, exclusive–means of motorized transportation. Rain or shine, it’s worth the extra time. And compared to the headaches, humiliations and horrors of post-9/11 TSA goodie grabs … chronic departure delays … tarmac torture sessions … and peanut-free (Hell, nothing’s free) no-frills airline flights, that “extra time” can be a small price to pay. Allow me to explain: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/32
Puter Boi

philipjames said:
Tommy Christopher is a tranny…. right? I can think of no other reason for the twisted and anguished thinking process that “Tommy” or is it “Tammy” has exhibited in this post.
Maybe the fear of a clutch of the package when in the “other” set of clothes is causing “TimmyTam” to grace us with this gibberish.

Being a jerk advances no cause….using these kinds of pejoratives says way more about you then it does about Tommy Christopher.
RazorsEdge

TC,

To draw comparison, inserting the “Patriot Act” and/or occasional international wire taps for “Pat Downs” and “Body Scanners” in this piece you submitted. Would you feel just as neutral or my observation as a description, “sympathetic” towards the Patriot Act?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jon-Martin/43100610 Jon Martin

Maybe we should just put TSA scanners in everyone’s home, so that way the government knows where terrorists live. YOU HAVE TO BE VIGILANTE! The terrorists are getting smarter, they are no realizing they can stay in people’s homes or pretend to be citizens.

So with great pleasure, I unveil to you, the new TSA rules.

Now, whenever you get on a flight, a TSA representative will come to your house for a full interview. Please bring all appropriate tax and mortage information, as this will help speed up the three hour process. Please remember to keep your house tidy, as a messy house will not reflect well on a citizen’s TSA audit.

Thank you for flying :D
Bad Wolf

Drudge starts another brush fire…..Ho Hum.

Whatcha got lined up for Christmas, Matt?

Does Santa wear red because he is a liberal? Is Santa trying to replace the Christ in Christmas?

Keep feeding the dogs their red meat. They have a huge appetite.
Tommy Christopher

RazorsEdge said:
TC,

To draw comparison, inserting the “Patriot Act” and/or occasional international wire taps for “Pat Downs” and “Body Scanners” in this piece you submitted. Would you feel just as neutral or my observation as a description, “sympathetic” towards the Patriot Act?

Well, that’s an imperfect comparison, but there are reasonable parallels. In both cases, the line between privacy and security was the central issue. In that way, yours is a fair question. The main thrust of my piece was not to decide where these measures fall on that question, but whether we’re being reasonable about it.

However, these screening procedures are not done in secret, and to the extent that people can travel some other way, somewhat voluntary. This was not true of the warrantless wiretaps.

In that case, again, I think hysteria took over, and decisions were made too quickly, for the wrong reasons. After 9/11, Americans would have let the government do pretty much anything it wanted. The pendulum has swung too far the other way.
Just4thefax

Fact: I see two weapons here per picture!
Snidely

What part of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is so hard to understand? The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The TSA’s searches of the flying public are clearly without probable cause since they have not caught even a single person trying to bring explosives onto a plane. Not one, of the 800-odd millions of passengers.
The TSA process is designed to accustom the American people to ever more intrusive invasions of their rights by an ever more powerful government. The Statists in government, both Democratic and Republican, are using the fear of terrorism in the flying public to abrogate the rights protected by the 4th Amendment of the Constitution against searches of persons, etc without probable cause. In the name of protecting them from threats, the precise nature of which the government cannot reveal because the sources are classified. At least the Nazis identified the threat as coming from Socialists, Communists and Jews. Janet Napolitano has already stated her intention to install scanners in rail, subway and bus stations, and in government buildings.
Is the government going to place lightening rods every 100 yards or so to protect the public from lightening? By your reasoning they should, because the statistics I’ve seen quoted elsewhere say one is 20 times more likely to be struck by lightening than die in a terrorist attack.
Actually, all homicides account for just 0.7% of deaths in the US, and all accidental deaths in the US account for 4.4% of all deaths. If the USA had a planeload of people falling out of the sky on a weekly basis – call it 400/week or 20,000 per year, – it would just cause the homicide rate to slightly more than double, and increase the death rate in the USA by 0.7%, hardly a statistically significant amount, and some of those people would have died that year anyway; about 8 people per thousand die in the USA every year.
William Shakespear had something to say about dying:
Julius Ceasar:
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Act I, scene ii