Last week, Senator Rand Paul was detained by the TSA and subjected to a pat-down. The White House disputed this chain of events, but the senator stood by it. Ron Paul stuck up for his son in the coming days, and on CNN’s State of the Union, Paul went down a list of problems he has with the TSA and why it should be abolished. Candy Crowley asked Paul what he would put in the place of the TSA. Paul answered that it could easily be handled by the private sector, and insisted the government has no place being involved in it.

Kentucky senator Rand Paul is now speaking out about his experience yesterday with the TSA at a Tennessee airport. Early reports — kicking off with a Tweet from his communications director — said the Senator had been detained by TSA officials after setting off an alarm during his full-body scan. He was not permitted to re-enter the machine, but was asked to undergo a pat-down — something which Senator Paul has been very vocally against.

During a White House press briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that the Obama Administration stood beside the Transportation Security Administration in the wake of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul being detained at the Nashville International Airport.

Uh oh. This morning, Sen. Rand Paul‘s communications director shared via Twitter that the Kentucky Senator has been detained by the TSA at a Nashville airport.
Sen. Paul apparently set off the alarm on the airport’s full-body scanner, despite insisting that it was a glitch and that he was not carrying anything that would have set it off. TSA agents would not allow Paul to walk back through the body scanner and, according to his staffer, demanded that the Senator undergo a full body pat-down.

Salon’s Steve Kornacki went on The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday night and talked about a photo his site had stumbled across. Kornacki thought he saw Mitt Romney getting his shoes shined on a tarmac when, in fact, it was a TSA screening, as NPR’s Frank James pointed out. During the broadcast, Kornacki was caught up in pareidolia, and wildly described an invented-narrative of what the photo represented.

Rebecca Hains was only trying to make her flight from Las Vegas a lil’ sweeter when she was stopped by a TSA agent and promptly informed that the frosting on her cupcake was too “gel-like” and, as such, posed a possible security threat. You know, just like all those dastardly gel-filled snowglobes you’re not allowed to bring in your carry-on bags.

ot a lot of people are fans of the TSA security procedures, and if you are one of those people, this story is probably not going to assuage your concerns. The agency is now actively denying claims being made by an elderly woman that she was brought aside by TSA agents and strip-searched as part of her screening process. Lenore Zimmerman, a Long Island resident, was traveling to Fort Lauderdale and requested that she not be subjected to the invasive screening process out of concerns it would react negatively with her defibrillator.

An infuriated Jesse Ventura took the podium at a press conference in Minnesota yesterday after being told that the court in which he filed a lawsuit against the TSA for what he considers an unreasonable search and seizure process did not have jurisdiction over the matter. Railing against the “Fascist States of America,” the former Minnesota governor insisted he will “never stand for a national anthem again” and vowed to apply for Mexican citizenship. Ventura also noted he was “thinking about” running for President.

Today on The View! Which co-host reveals that she travels with her vibrator in her MAKEUP bag, so as to not draw unwanted attention from the TSA attendant? Which co-host reveals that she eschews the use of a vibrator, opting instead for “this man with equipment.” Finally, which morning talk show loves to share personal sex habits on live television, creating video segments for websites to aggregate in hopes that they will drive traffic?

TSA agents in Atlanta recently stopped Dallas hairdresser Isis Brantley at the airport specifically to check her hair for explosives. I was going to make a joke about her hairstyle being “the bomb,” but, you know what? I won’t subject you all to that.

Oops.

Brantley, who has styled the likes of singer Erykah Badu (who happens to have some pretty impressive hair of her own), was taken aback by the officers’ request to check her hair.

On Fox News Sunday today, Chris Wallace suggested to former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff that airport screenings should be less universal and more targeted because “there are obviously people who are greater threats and people who are lesser threats.”

Remember the story of the bladder cancer survivor who said he was “humiliated” by an intrusive airport search at the hands of a TSA agent–a search that was done in such a way as to rupture the man’s urostomy bag at the TSA checkpoint? Thomas Sawyer described the incident–and the way it made him feel–last fall, arguing that the TSA needs to focus on showing travelers respect when they have special issues that might require a little discretion (and, as he correctly pointed out, all travelers have the right to ask for (demand) that a hand search be done in private). In the aftermath of his nightmarish experience, Sawyer met with TSA chiefs in Washington, got a bunch of heartfelt apologies, and shared his thoughts. And then last week it happened all over again.

It’s unclear what her motive was, but 61-year-old Yukari Mihamae was arrested in a Phoenix airport for allegedly grabbing the breast of a female TSA agent. It is reported that Mihamae squeezed and twisted the agent’s breast with both hands.

Yesterday, we brought irrefutable proof that travelling sucks for everyone with the sad story of a United States Governor forced to sleep on an airport floor just because the rain decided to get all icy for a bit. Yes, our country’s leaders also have to face the indignities of air travel, be they delays, long lines, or stores trying to sell bottled water for $5. To further prove this thesis, we give you former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld who had to undergo one of those annoying TSA pat-downs everyone’s so worked up about.

The federal organization in charge of security at airports has heard plenty of criticisms from both sides of the aisle for their intrusive and often seemingly ineffective search measures on travelers. But the “racism” charge is one seem with less frequency, especially as children and the elderly complain that they are being searched needlessly to avoid racial profiling. Laura Adiele‘s story is precisely the opposite of that: she told MSNBC’s Richard Lui this week that her hair was inspected for being “poofy” amid laughter by TSA agents.

Late last Fall, the nearly bipartisan outrage directed towards the TSA and their new policy of aggressive pat-downs was at a fever pitch, with various and absurd examples young kids getting searched, even spawning a “don’t touch my junk” meme. But perhaps because the holiday travel season had passed, the tide of outrageous reports ebbed, and so did the anger towards the TSA. Well, if you are miss getting angry over outrageous and overenthusiastic TSA agents you are in luck! Be prepared for righteous indignation all over again, with the following report of a 95 year-old woman forced to remove her adult diaper.

Remember that Congressman who was angry that airport security randomly patted down a grandma and a child, but let a man in “Arabian dress” pass through? Well Republican Congressman Paul Broun is back, this time on Fox News, and he’s not retreating from his demand that the TSA start focusing on the “real” terrorists, which apparently might include anyone in “Arabian attire.”

In the wake of a proposed bill to ban TSA patdowns in Texas failing to get off the ground, Eric Bolling revisited the airline security issue on Follow the Money. After the obligatory clip/interview with “Don’t touch my junk” guy John Tyner, Bolling held a panel discussion on the potential effectiveness of profiling – and even got a liberal guest to agree (with conditions) that some forms of profiling might be worth exploring.

Republican Congressman Paul Broun serves on the Homeland Security Committee and apparently attends the Juan Williams school of tell us your honest thoughts regarding what you feel when you see Arab-looking individuals in the airport. Broun is upset political correctness demands that we give grandma a pat down at the airport, but don’t do the same for anyone who looks like they might really want to harm America.

The pastor who took pictures over the weekend of TSA agents patting down an eight-month old baby says he’s “never seen anything quite that bad,” said Jacob Jester, who pulled out his phone and take pictures. He sent the pictures to Twitter, setting off a viral firestorm. “So far, I’ve had 143,000 hits on (the photo). Kansas City airport tweeted me, and they said it would be up to TSA to offer a response. I haven’t heard anything from TSA, and I don’t expect to.”

Miss USA 2003 Susie Castillo had an experience passing through the airport in Dallas that adds her to the list of people who say TSA agents are going too far in their “intrusive” pat downs. According to an interview she gave moments after the incident–she’s clearly emotional in the video–the pageant winner says a female TSA agent touched her inappropriately “at least four times,” leading her to ask “what have I done to deserve this treatment as an upstanding, law-abiding American citizen?” Am I a threat to US security? I was Miss USA, for Pete’s sake!”

Castillo, who describes the pat down in clinical terms that some may find graphic, considers what happened to her to be an assault:

Lou Dobbs invited former Governor Jesse Ventura to appear on his show and both were completely disgusted with the TSA’s airport security measures. Dobbs called the practice of patting down young children at airports “outrageous,” “disgusting” and “un-American,” while Ventura used it as a launching pad to reveal his complete distrust of the entire government.

Earlier this week Fox and Friends reported with reasonable outrage from — both the show’s co-hosts and viewer email — that the TSA was considering collecting DNA samples via Q-tip swab from the mouths of prospective airplane passengers. Steve Doocy pointed out how easy it would be to fake, saying “all you gotta do is put someone else’s DNA in your mouth.” This morning Fox and Friends apologized, but not for Doocy’s awkward suggestion of how to cheat the test, but for reporting that on something that isn’t actually news.

The TSA hasn’t been getting a lot of good press lately. First off, there was all that junk touching. Then there was that story about TSA agents stealing a bunch of stuff. Now, a restaurant in the Seattle area is fighting back by refusing to serve people who work for the TSA. Interesting idea but I think, if they really want to get them, they should just only serve them three ounces of their drink order.

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a man who knows something about the dangers of advanced body scanning technology, sued Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration yesterday over the new airport security measures. In the lawsuit, he alleges that he’s been exposed “to humiliation and degradation through unwanted touching, gripping and rubbing of the intimate areas of his body.” Man, can you imagine the poor TSA agent who had to do those things to a furious Jesse Ventura?