[...] Cory Booker! Whatever would g...
Did White House threaten Cory Booker for criticizing Obama’s attack ad? « Full Metal Patriot on Obama threatens to withhold Social Security checks despite sufficient funds [UPDATED] Social Security Chief Actuary exposes Obama deception
It’s National "Opt-Out" Day
*** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES ***
For those who are outraged by the Transportation Security Administration’s invasive new “virtual strip-search” scanners and “enhanced pat-down” body searches, today is National Opt-Out Day.
(Or, as jcrue proposes, “Derek Smalls TSA Day.”)
Grassroots airline boycott effort We Won’t Fly is organizing mass x-ray scanner opt outs at airports around the nation for National Opt Out of the Airport Scanners Day, November 24 in order to highlight the health and privacy dangers of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) backscatter x-ray airport scanners.If you have to fly on November 24, opt out of the porno-scanners for your own health and privacy. Say “I opt out!” Tell your friends, family and community so they know how to protect themselves, too. Be prepared for delays and intimate TSA groping. But at least your skin and eyes will be safe.
Why are so many Americans wanting to resist these new procedures (apart from the fact that they still can’t detect PETN explosive hidden in body cavities)? Well, it could have something to do with the fact that we don’t want the TSA stealing our money and making false criminal accusations.
At what point does an airport search step over the line?How about when they start going through your checks, and the police call your husband, suspicious you were clearing out the bank account?
That’s the complaint leveled by Kathy Parker, a 43-year-old Elkton, Md., woman, who was flying out of Philadelphia International Airport on Aug. 8.
She says she was heading to Charlotte, N.C., for work that Sunday night – she’s a business support manager for a large bank – and was selected for a more in-depth search after she passed through the metal detectors at Gate B around 5:15 p.m.
A female Transportation Security Administration officer wanded her and patted her down, she says. Then she was walked over to where other TSA officers were searching her bags.
“Everything in my purse was out, including my wallet and my checkbook. I had two prescriptions in there. One was diet pills. This was embarrassing. A TSA officer said, ‘Hey, I’ve always been curious about these. Do they work?’
“I was just so taken aback, I said, ‘Yeah.’ “
What happened next, she says, was more than embarrassing. It was infuriating.
That same screener started emptying her wallet. “He was taking out the receipts and looking at them,” she said.
“I understand that TSA is tasked with strengthening national security but [it] surely does not need to know what I purchased at Kohl’s or Wal-Mart,” she wrote in her complaint, which she sent me last week.
She says she asked what he was looking for and he replied, “Razor blades.” She wondered, “Wouldn’t that have shown up on the metal detector?”
In a side pocket she had tucked a deposit slip and seven checks made out to her and her husband, worth about $8,000.
Her thought: “Oh, my God, this is none of his business.”
Two Philadelphia police officers joined at least four TSA officers who had gathered around her. After conferring with the TSA screeners, one of the Philadelphia officers told her he was there because her checks were numbered sequentially, which she says they were not.
“It’s an indication you’ve embezzled these checks,” she says the police officer told her. He also told her she appeared nervous. She hadn’t before that moment, she says.
She protested when the officer started to walk away with the checks. “That’s my money,” she remembers saying. The officer’s reply? “It’s not your money.”
At this point she told the officers that she had a good explanation for the checks, but questioned whether she had to tell them.
“The police officer said if you don’t tell me, you can tell the D.A.”
…Thirty minutes after the police became involved, they decided to let her collect her belongings and board her plane.
“I was shaking,” she says. “I was almost in tears.”
When she got home, her husband of 20 years, John Parker, a self-employed plastics broker, said the police had called and told him that they’d suspected “a divorce situation” and that Kathy Parker was trying to empty their bank account. He set them straight.
And most people I know would prefer not to be doused with urine by inept TSA screeners.
A bladder cancer survivor from Michigan who wears a bag that collects his urine said the head of the Transportation Security Administration called to apologize for an airport pat-down that caused the bag to spill its contents on his clothing.Tom Sawyer, a 61-year-old retired special education teacher, said the experience left him in tears before he caught a flight to Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 7. …Sawyer said that once he got through security, he changed his bag, but didn’t have time to change his clothing and had to board the plane soaked in urine.
It makes me wonder what was the level of training of the screeners in both those cases.
Rob at Say Anything pokes a colossal hole in the argument of those willing to trade their civil liberties for a false sense of security.
We all want to live in a secure society without fear of terror attacks, but such a society is unachievable. Just as one free of rapes and muggings and murders is unachievable. We don’t allow cops to search whoever they want when they want because we’re afraid of murderers, so why should we allow it to happen at airport security?
Of course, if you don’t want the TSA taking your naked photo or fondling your genitals, you can always just wear a Muslim hijab and tell the screener that they’re not allowed to touch you below the neck. That’s the double-standard hinted at by Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano.
When asked today if she will insist that Muslim women wearing hijabs must go through full body pat downs before boarding planes, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano did not say yes or no, but told CNSNews.com there will be “adjustments” and “more to come” on the issue.
Ironically, that’s almost the same response given by al-Qaeda.
—
UPDATE: Foursquare is getting in on the “don’t touch my junk” meme.
As millions of travelers prepare for the US’s busiest travel weekend of the year, foursquare has released a new badge picking up on America’s latest punchline, the TSA. It’s called Baggage Handler and it’s available starting today.To unlock the badge, all you need to do is check in at any airport and include something like “TSA,” “grope” or — my personal favorite — “Don’t touch my junk, bro!” in your shout. The unlock text reads: “Looks like you’ve had your baggage handled. Happy Holidays and have a safe flight!”
—
UPDATE: You can go through security and still make a political statement like this guy did…in a Speedo. (h/t: The Political Jungle)
Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
We need to stop flying if possible.
Happy Thanksgiving