Posted on 03/04/2011 6:51:34 AM PST by mattstat
Sir? Please step over here. You need to be x-rayed. What? Get outta my way. Who are you? said the man. Sir, please step over to the machine. You have been selected for random scanning, said the TSA agent. The man did not understand or chose not to and began to walk on. Two other armed agents moved to block the mans way. Are we going to have trouble with you, sir? You have been selected for random scanning, repeated the agent. What are you talking about? Im just walking down the sidewalk in front of my apartment. Were nowhere near an airport, nor even a train station. You cant just grab innocent people off the sidewalk and bombard them with x-rays, said the man, increasingly bewildered. Sir, we are agents of the Transportation Security Administration. The law says we have to protect you in all areas of transportation. Sidewalks are public modes of transportation. We have orders to randomly scan pedestrians. Its for your protection, sir, said the agent, bored with offering the same explanation he had issued a hundred times before. Besides, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. Do you have your papers with you? What if I refuse? asked the man. You wouldnt want to do that, sir, advised the agent, as the other two agents moved in
Paranoid fantasy? Not hardly. According to documents retrieved by Freedom (!) of Information Act requests, the Department of Homeland Security (who agents are adorned in blue, and not in some other dark color), as reported in Forbes, has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Goddamit Franklin
This will not end well in my neck of the woods.
I’m packin’ too, as is my legal right in the Republic of Texas.
Documents Reveal TSA Plan To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers
The left was screaming mad when Bush wanted to monitor library checkouts of bomb-making books but dosing random people with radiation on public sidewalks is ok with them.
Well, it’s no different than “women’s rights activists” being ok with 700 million female muzzie slaves and millions of clitectomies.
It all depends on the “who”, not the “what”.
bfl
I believe we had a discussion regarding this not all too long ago Ping.
After the momentary uproar about passengers being scanned and/or felt up at airports under penalty of arrest, where’s the outrage?
If this (TSA mobile scanning) comes to pass, Americans for the most part will bitch about it for a little while, then ultimately and passively accept it too.
Absolutely correct. "Women's rights activists" only get stirred up about abortion and lesbian issues.
That went out the window didn't it?
Putting the swastika on a TSA uniform is stupid and makes me discount your argument. The Nazis were so horrible and violent and without precedent that you cheapen what they stood for. The swastika should be remembered for what it stood for. TSA workers they were not.
As long as you stay in your home, you are free!
Not fantasy, it’s happening now. TSA/MBTA Transit police select random train/subway customers at entrance to train/subway, and inspect their bags, sometimes with dogs or explosive sniffers.
Been happening randomly but consistently since 2004! Saw it at Alewife Station on New Years 2011.
Tampa:
http://www.wikio.com/video/police-state-—tsa-homeland-stations-4678206
I have observed the left never is worried when one of their own is in the WH. War in Iraq and Afghanistan OK, wireless wiretaps OK, Gitmo not closed OK, TSA sexual assault OK, yada yada yada. It is only when there is Republican in the WH they come unglued.
and people called me nuts for suggesting it...lol
sfl
“along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.”
Just because a device is CAPABLE of doing something does not mean it is intended to be used that way. True, eventually the government will get to doing everything it can (and more), but this article takes a possibility and reports it as an intention.
Don't be too sure. Remember, a federal judge has ruled that the fedgov has the right under the Commerce Clause to regulate inactivity as well as activity.
I fully agree. The swastika is an old symbol for the Hammer of Thor, and I see no reason why Mjollnir should be demeaned in such a manner. I fail to see how the God of Thunder could in any way be associated with the TSA.
No, sir, it is more than a possibility. It is an intention.
I refer you to the FOIA documents:
http://epic.org/privacy/body_scanners/Body_Scan_FOIA_Docs_Feb_2011.pdf
In Department of Homeland Security grant awarded, it says (p. 5 of the grant):
“Design goals are as follows:
* Covert inspection of moving suspects...”
This is clearly intentional.
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