I have one word for all you people dumb enough to be offended by the TSA for violating your freedoms – Greyhound.
I was amused to see a blog entry on the site of Breitbart dingleberry Dana Loesch about the outrage of the TSA. How dare these people invade your freedom in the name of public safety. This is all the sweeter given Dana’s claim to conservative fame is that the “9-11 attacks were her inspiration to become a conservative”. Despite the fact that if we had the security in place then that we have now, perhaps 9-11 would never have happened. Perhaps she worships the GOP’s national security incompetence that allowed such a tragedy to happen on their watch after repeated ignored warnings. It is hard to say. Is it even worth trying to find reason in the logic of another college dropout, conservative mouthpiece – probably not.
Why is this even an issue? Because this type of brain-dead issue appeals to the type of ‘patriot’. Not the type that see ‘freedom’ as a serious responsibility. No, this appeals to the type that believe ‘freedom’ is a get out-of-jail-card-for-free-card from having to make any contribution to society. Not only does this show a deep ignorance of American history, it is also a rather despicable effort by the right to play on peoples ignorance in order to get power.
Freedom is a RESPONSIBILITY, not a GET-OUT-JAIL-CARD-FOR-FREE excuse for societal dead-weight.
Something that may not be so obvious is that this ridiculous position is in complete contrast with a country that the right is in the process of worshiping - Israel. If you haven’t been following the news lately, Mitt Romney, a mormon that believes that the ‘Garden of Eden’ is located somewhere in Missouri, is trying to demonstrate his unwavering solidarity to the country that worships the religion of the people that killed Jesus. Head spinning yet? Yes, welcome to the wonderful and wacky world where religion meets politics.
How would this ‘outrage’ be received in Israel? It wouldn’t. Even the dumbest of Israelis are not as dumb as the smartest American Tea Partiers. Below is a description of the Israeli security procedures.
Description of Israeli Airport Security Measures
As a prime target for terrorism, El Al employs stringent security procedures, both on the ground and on board its aircraft. In 2008, the airline was named by Global Traveler magazine as the world’s most secure airline.
Airport Security Measures
Passengers are asked to report three hours before departure. All El Al terminals around the world are closely monitored for security. There are plain-clothes agents and fully armed police or military personnel patrolling the premises for explosives, suspicious behavior, and other threats. Inside the terminal, passengers and their baggage are checked by a trained team. El Al security procedures require that all passengers be interviewed individually prior to boarding, allowing El Al staff to identify possible security threats. Passengers will be asked questions about where they are coming from, the reason for their trip, their job or occupation, and whether they have packed their bags themselves. The likelihood of potential terrorists remaining calm under such questioning is believed to be low.
At the check-in counter, passengers’ passports and tickets are closely examined. A ticket without a sticker from the security checkers will not be accepted. At passport control passengers’ names are checked against information from the FBI, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Scotland Yard, Shin Bet, and Interpol databases. Luggage is screened and sometimes hand searched. In addition, bags are put through a decompression chamber simulating pressures during flight that could trigger explosives. El Al is the only airline in the world that passes all luggage through such a chamber. Even at overseas airports, El Al security agents conduct all luggage searches personally, even if they are supervised by government or private security firms.
Flight Security Measures
Undercover agents (sometimes referred to as sky marshals) carrying concealed firearms sit among the passengers on every international El Al flight. Most El Al pilots are former Israeli Air Force pilots. The cockpits in all El Al aircraft have double doors to prevent entry by unauthorized persons. A code is required to access the doors, and the second door will only be opened after the first has closed and the person has been identified by the captain or first officer. Furthermore, there are reinforced steel floors separating the passenger cabin from the baggage hold.
Following an attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002, all aircraft in the fleet have been equipped with an infrared countermeasures system called Flight Guard, developed by Israeli Aerospace Industries to defend them against anti-aircraft missiles. Although comparable systems such as CAMPS are now available for civilian aircraft, there is no information to date about any other airlines deploying such a system. Switzerland and other European countries have expressed concern that flares dropped by the Israeli system could cause fires in the vicinity of an airport.
Is that ‘freedom’ Billy Bob? Nope. That sounds like the policies of one of them there commie, socialist fascists marxistes.
I saw Dana Doesch on some ABC show this morning. She is awful. She is one of the ones that is dumb enough to actually believe what she is saying – scary. Her and her husband are riding the right-wing money train – they should both be deported.
If you are too special for a pat down – you deserve the bus. This ‘freedom crowd’ are so uninformed it make head hurt.
After 9 11 and you think the TSA trying to ensure the safety of passengers is an afront on your FREEDOM – go fuck yourself.
The problem is that TSA’s “security” measures are, in fact, conducted in violation of the 4th amendment (to say nothing of the repeated cases of misconduct and abuse on the part of individual TSA screeners).
Safety is nice, but it must not come at the expense of people’s constitutional rights. If this article is arguing against the notion that any and all attempts at security are automatically infringements upon freedom, then I agree with it – it is possible to have security without violating people’s rights. However, TSA is not doing that. TSA is adopting the position that “ONLY safety matters, rights aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.” That is wrong. In order to preserve liberty, rights must be aggressively fought for and defended.
Look at what’s happening to the right to peacably assemble – the Occupy protests in Zucotti Park, the Occupy protests at UC Davis, the excessive police response and “security” measures that accompanied the NATO summit in Chicago, the RNC meetings and “free speech zones,” the list goes on. We’ve seen social video apps and even camera-equipped homemade helicopters used to record police and make sure their abuses are known so as to protect the 1st Amendment right to protest.
Similar pushbacks need to happen at airports. The 4th Amendment right to freedom from unwarranted search and seizure (to say nothing of carcinogenic X-ray exposure and sexual assault gropedowns that often meet the FBI’s new reporting standards for flat-out rape) is not just a good idea – it’s a law for a reason.
9/11 is no excuse – the problems that allowed it were solved the very same day. Passengers know not to go along with hijackers anymore. Two bombing plots made it past airport security and still failed. We can trash TSA, keep the hardened cockpit doors and the passengers who fight back, and be more than safe enough. Perfect safety is never going to happen anyway – risk can be mitigated (a goal which feisty passengers and locked cockpit doors are more than enough to accomplish) to an acceptable level but never completely eliminated. A point of diminishing returns has been reached where we’re giving up rights for infinitesimally small increases in security (not that any forfeiture of rights should be seen as acceptable in exchange for something so comparatively insignificant as safety anyway).
Don’t make this a partisan issue, because it’s not. TSA was started by the GOP and made worse by the Democrats – both are in the wrong for dumping this on the public. The agency itself is an evil that needs to be abolished.
What would you say to a properly manned, properly funded security force?
Noticed you have an entire site dedicated to travel security – any wisdom you can shower upon us (in addition to what you have already said) would be much appreciated.
Depends on how you quanitfy propriety. Properly funded, to me, means a lot of funding poured into training on what to look for, what not to look for, and how and how not to look for it. Train screeners on traveler rights and what constitutes line-crossing. Fund the acquisition of bomb-sniffing dogs and work the kinks out of puffers (for the uninitiated: puffers are also known as Explosive Trace Portals. They’re boxes travelers stand inside, which shoot bursts of air at the traveler to dislodge particles of explosive material, which are swept by air currents into a detector at the top of the unit. They were retired because the detectors kept malfunctioning due to hypersensitivity to the large particulate quantities in heavily-traversed airports).
Properly-staffed would mean one of two things: Sworn law-enforcement personnel who have undergone federal law-enforcement training (at FLETC or another comparable facility), or private security guards with no immunity to lawsuits or criminal prosecution. The idea is that a sworn LEO is going to understand the rules of probable cause and will be less likely to abuse authority (granted, Occupy has shown us that this is not always true, which is why option B seems a better choice). Currently we have screeners with equal or less professionalism than private rent-a-cop guards, but with the immunity and perceived authority granted to LEOs. Worst of both worlds, best of neither. They can abuse people with impunity and travelers have no choice – they stand there and take it or they eschew flying altogether.
The problem is that current TSA screening clerks have no fear for their jobs. Between stealing the title “Officer” (please do take note that TSA screeners are, in fact, clerks and have no law-enforcement authority or any other quality that normally confers the title of “officer”), wearing cop-a-like uniforms and fake badges, and having an upper management that routinely lies to Congress and covers for thier mistakes, the only way a TSA clerk loses their job is if they’re caught red-handed stealing from passengers, accepting bribes, committing sexual assault under color of authority while not on the job, running prostitution rings, or engaging in other blatantly illegal activity (by the way, all of these things have happened, including the prostitution ring).
At a minimum, we’d need to fire the entire current TSA workforce (and bar them from ever working in government or the security field again) and hire, after properly vetting, professional people who can be trained to respect traveler rights and traveler dignity while performing a cursory, limited search for only weapons, explosives, and incendiaries (no drugs – irrespective of your opinion on drug legality, crack, weed, heroin, MDMA and the like are not a threat to aviation).
I’d go so far as to require signage at the checkpoint explicitly stating “These screeners are NOT POLICE – if you have a problem with screener conduct, please call (number) with the screener’s employee ID and file a complaint.” The employee ID would be required to be embroidered directly on the uniform in print too large to cover up (TSA clerks are known for flipping their ID laminates around so as to hide their ID numbers to avoid accountability).
Thanks for taking note of TUG, by the way. It’s a great community and while I acknowledge a lot of the members there are right-leaning, I get along with them just fine on the basis of wanting to put a stop to TSA.
Well thanks for the information. Our site may seem a little left leaning – but closer inspection shows its all about the issues and policies. Right / Left – who cares – only the issues matter.
In that case, I think you’d fit right in at TUG. Only place I’ve ever seen where hardcore conservatives and hardcore liberals (and a few outliers like me who don’t fit neatly into either camp) can set aside political differences and band together on a big issue. I think that if I met these folks on another site, we’d probably be trading bitter barbs. As it is, though, I’m proud to call them my friends.
I am SO tired of people painting those who are against the TSA’s abuses as “conservatives”, or Republicans or Tea Partiers or whatever.
I’m a died-in-the-wool liberal, and proud of it. I believe that society has an imperative to help the less-fortunate. I believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and that no American should have to die of a treatable disease because they can’t afford a doctor. I believe that two adults in love should be able to get married and receive the over 1000 legal and financial benefits that all other married couples receive, regardless of their gender. I believe that no American should be forced to live under the tenets of a religion to which he does not believe or subscribe, and that religion needs to stay the hell out of government. I believe that the wealthy should not be able to pay lower tax rates than the poor/middle class. I believe that mankind is exerting dangerous negative impacts on our environment, and we need to work harder to stop and even reverse these impacts.
AND I believe that no American should be forced into allowing strangers to touch their genitals, manhandle their medical devices, or paw their children in order to exercise their right to travel about the country.
HOW are these two sets of beliefs mutually exclusive??