Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts

Monday, January 23, 2012

Rand Paul Stands Up To TSA

By Jim Lagnese
Rand Paul was detained by the TSA earlier today when he refused a pat down by TSA agents. From ABC News:
The TSA version of events is that Paul triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process (pat-down) in order to resolve the issue.  Paul was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement.
“When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport,” according to an official statement released by TSA. “Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling.”
Paul’s office confirmed he set off  an airport security full-body scanner “on a glitch,” according to a spokesman.
The Paul staffer said TSA agents would not let Paul walk back through the body scanner and were demanding a full body pat-down.
The Paul spokesman said his office called TSA administrator John Pistole about the incident this morning.
The U.S. Constitution actually protects federal lawmakers from detention while they’re on the way to the Capital.
“The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same….” according to Article I, Section 6.
Senator Paul is a staunch libertarian, but unlike his father Ron Paul, has a more sensible approach to foreign policy. He is a clip of Senator Paul commenting on  the TSA:

Update: White House sides with TSA.



Thank you for reading this blog.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

The Fed, Big Sis, and Wikileaks: What should we be afraid of?

Much sturm and drang has been circulating about Julian Assange and the Wikileaks fiasco. The ersatz lover-boy whose latest crime is using a leaky condom has become public enemy number one for the conservative crowd and the messiah for the anarchists and left wing loonies. What or where is the truth?

According to Wikipedia,  Julian Assange is an Australian journalist,[5][6][7] publisher,[8][9] and Internet activist. He is best known as the spokesperson and editor in chief for WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website. Before working with the website, he was a computer programmer.[10] He has lived in several countries, and has made occasional public appearances to speak about freedom of the press, censorship, and investigative journalism.

Ok. He likes to expose or uncover information that would otherwise not be known to the rest of the world. This information included over one quarter of a million diplomatic cables, over half of which were unclassified, 40% confidential and 6% are secret. It would seem to even a casual observer of the events that unfolded that the umbrage directed at Mr Assange has more to do with the message than with the act itself. The information released is very embarrassing to the United States, to the State Department, Barack Obama and his administration and ultimately America itself. The real problem is that the king was not only shown to be naked, but to have a small and almost non-existent dick. So where's the beef? More later.

So in the recent news cycle, all is abuzz and aflame with the life and times of Julian Assange. In the mean time we still have problems here at home and this distraction of the day with Assange is just that. A distraction. It's a straw man meant to pull our attention away from more important things. Like the TSA. We were all abuzz with the TSA, the groping, locking people in glass cages for hours, and then nothing. If anyone has been awake at all, they would have noticed that the Obama administration has eroded our personal freedoms in ways the left wing media would love to blame on George W. Bush. We have all our data and voice streams monitored, we are X-Rayed in airports, groped, fondled, and otherwise mistreated with efforts to compromise our dignity. We have a government that tracks all of our financial transactions and through all of this, not a peep. Not much. What I hear is "if I am not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to fear" or If it keeps us safe from terrorists, it's ok with me".

Such fecklessness is the sign of Farm Animals®. We've become so conditioned to trust government because it has become the hand that feeds some of us. Like the wine, beer drinking, cheese and brat eating surrender monkeys of Europe, we will tolerate anything for the promise to keep us safe. In spite of a new covenant in the Declaration of Independence, we have come full circle, embracing the paternal system of feudalism, which we shook off over 200 years ago. Where did we go wrong? A little late for that question, but I can tell you it's been Obama's plan all along. He's a fabian socialist, and his progressive agenda is to move us towards socialism as much as possible before we catch on and hopefully, to him, after it's too late. With the elections of 2010, he's done a lot of damage. Who would have thought even 3 years ago that the government would control what it does today? The intrusion into our lives, and moreover, the control. Like the frog in the pot, the water is warmed slowly until it's too late.

So here we are, how many days and weeks into the Assange conspiracy and we still believe in the straw men created by the press and the government. They expect us to cower, to follow like supplicants or worse like lemmings, to follow whatever tune the pied piper plays. We will find no greater security is hanging Mr. Assange and/or closing wikileaks too. We will find no more security in trying to democratize Afghanistan or for that matter any place else. In fact, ask yourself the question, does the information that has been leaked make you any less free? Does it take away your life, liberty or property? Does endanger you personally?

Where I do part ways with Assange is releasing information that would expose individuals to death or mayhem if their names were revealed. Outside of that, this information has been a revelation to how truly incompetent our President is and who our real enemies are. For his part, Mr Assange is the recipient of the 2010 Sam Adams Award. Samuel Adams, in my opinion, was the father of the American Revolution. He embodied the true revolutionary spirit of this country and he had determination not to be a subject of any monarch, but I digress...

As a country, we have a choice to make. We can chose to be led around by our noses and pricks like some peasant fool that believes in fairytales and magic shows, or we can wake up and see things for what they are. We need to focus on our freedoms, liberties and also economic stability at home if we expect to be a good example to the rest of the world of what a country should be like. We had been at one time, but we've lost our way. No amount of blood spilled in Afghanistan or Iraq will fix that or change it. In fact it's slowly dragging us down and the cost of which has not been fully realized by us as a nation, we will pay for it, at least some of us will.

If Iraq and Afghanistan were about Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, this could have been settled long ago. While it has been said: do not attribute to malice what can be explained through stupidity, sometime I wonder. And if you think I say this from a position of being a dove or antiwar person, you are mostly wrong. No sane human being wants war. Fighting all the time is unproductive, it kills the best and brightest, and it wears a society down. That said, when one does fight, do it quickly, with finality, and go home. We have not done that. We could have.

And lastly, The Fed. If anyone saw Mr Bernanke on 60 Minutes last Sunday, you really should have asked one question, well, at least one: Where does that 600 Billion dollars that you want to by treasuries with come from? Of course the reporter didn't ask it and the answer is, print it. The Fed and Obama and out ideas and at the end of the road. They will either have to white nuckle over the progressive cliff or force themselves to look at reality and realize that FDR-like proposals and thinking will not get us out of this recession. It didn't work then and it won't work now. Again, the side show in the rest of the world is obscuring what lies before us. The Tea Party was born of our discontent, but like a attention span addled child, will they forget why they came to the table? I hope not.

The circus that has presented itself in the last couple years and couple months is indicative of Team Geppetto. As we see our liberties and our money slip away, so will our lives, at least the quality thereof. As the US slips in the world, from number one to number two, we will find ourselves in a place not of our liking, but of our choosing. As much as we are hoodwinked, we also have a choice in it and as much as I think the latest news cycle with Wikileaks is a distraction from our real problems, in a way, Mr. Assange has also brought to fore a lot of the genesis for our current problems and laid bare the man behind the curtain. I don't hold him up as some example of propriety or heroism as some might and I also do not excoriate him as some treasonous monster that must be destroyed. All I say is thank you for some clarity in a world that is so full of shit. Thank you Mr. Assange, wherever you are.

And thank you for reading this blog.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Opt Out: The Private Sector Steps In

In an interesting turn of events, one airport has decided to opt out of TSA screening. Orlando's Sanford Airport has decided to go private:

"All of our due diligence shows it's the way to go," said Larry Dale, the director of the Sanford Airport Authority. "You're going to get better service at a better price and more accountability and better customer service."


You have to wonder why, and it doesn't take long to figure out. Disney is in Orlando and with the backlash against the TSA and flying in general because of the TSA, Disney must see lost revenue looming from this. In a bad economy, losing business is not an option.

The lesson from this is that capitalism and common sense solve a lot of problems. Some may say this is solely for perception, but perception is everything when it comes to public relations and sales. So far a political solution doesn't seem possible until the new congress comes in January. Until then, expect the incoming crown to create a plan that hopefully fixes this. My hope is that our next congress is a GSD congress. Get Shit Done, and I don't mean in the style of what we have lived through in the last 2-3 years. The democrats have lived and acted at their peril and have netted the results. The good or bad thing depending on which side of the toilet bowl you pee is that they have doubled down in nominating Pelosi the minority leader. I am digressing a bit, but we are seeing a populace standing up and saying they have had enough of the Nanny state and they aren't going to take it anymore. Rebellion can be a good thing. It keeps the assholes in our lives in check.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Where is the ACLU?


The ACLU made such a stink in Arizona about police asking people for their ID, albeit with reasonable cause, but where is the hue and cry about the TSA infringing our rights with their unreasonable searches? No where to be found, that's where. It is sad to see so many americans sit idly by, in ignorance, condoning such tactics as necessary for safe travel. Who has one? It's the same failed logic of gun control. The government is penalizing people and not the criminals. We suffer while the enemy plans. At this point my fellow americans will accept anything. What next, a cavity search? DNA collection and testing? swearing an oath of allegiance? It'll never end in the authoritarian's eye when it comes to being drunk with power in it's never ending journey in their control of people.

Saying this is for safety is bullshit. Look at the Israelis. Do they put their people through this? No. Do they get hijacked or have their planes flown into buildings? No. Instead of taking a page out their books, we take pages from Adolph, Joseph and Mao. The ACLU is complicit in this by their silence and shows how hypocritical they are and one sided. I am sure if a republican was president, we'd see a different ACLU, instead, we see a group that takes sides based on political persuasion. Such political calculations only serves to show how feckless they are. They take the same tack with gun rights.

So, how many nuns, 90 year old grandmothers and blond haired, blue eyed 5 year olds have to be subjected to this non-sense before anyone will do anything about it? I wish we had an organization that helped protect natural rights. Where is Ron Kuby when you need him?

Thank you for reading this blog.

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