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Reporter stopped by TSA agent who didn’t know District of Columbia is in US
KIROTV ^ | July 15, 2014 | WFTV - Orlando

Posted on 07/15/2014 5:22:34 PM PDT by moonshinner_09

WFTV - Orlando ORLANDO, Fla. — It's something most students learn in elementary school -- the United States is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia. But Cox Media Group reporter Justin Gray found out it's a lesson that an Orlando agent with the Transportation Safety Administration seems to have missed. Gray, who lives in Washington, D.C., was flying out of Orlando International Airport when a TSA agent said Gray's District of Columbia driver's license wasn't a valid form of identification. Gray said his license is legal and up-to-date, but the TSA agent didn't seem to know what the District of Columbia was when Gray arrived at the security checkpoint over the weekend. When Gray handed the man his driver's license the agent demanded to see Gray's passport. Grays told the agent he wasn't carrying his passport and asked why he needed it. The agent said he didn't recognize the license.Gray said he asked the agent if he knew what the District of Columbia is, and after a brief conversation Gray realized the man did not know. Gray was able to get through security and then stopped to complain to a TSA supervisor. Critics of the TSA said that what happened to Gray is a sign that the problems at TSA are bigger than just not knowing geography. "They simply have not been either applying or maintaining standards for good personnel," said Douglas Kidd, with the National Association of Airline Passengers. A TSA spokesman contacted Gray just minutes after he tweeted about the problem. He confirmed that a District of Columbia license is an acceptable form ID.

(Excerpt) Read more at kirotv.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Government; Society
KEYWORDS: 3rdthread; districtofcolumbia; donate; florida; tsa
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To: moonshinner_09
Hey no big deal. Living in NEW Mexico it happens all the time, traveling, moving, economy, etc. You name it, we see it. We even have columns in the New Mexico Magazine and some newspapers giving examples of supposedly knowledgeable (although public educated) people not realizing there is not a blank space between Texas and Arizona.

I and supprised the TSA agent was even able to speak English or Spanish. I would not even be surprised to find this event happend at one of the airports around DC, i.e., Maryland, Virginia, or DC.

41 posted on 07/15/2014 6:10:50 PM PDT by ProudFossil (" I never did give anyone hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." Harry Truman)
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To: bigtoona
We are living in the movie ‘Idiocracy’. Pray for president Camacho to save us!

Wrongo. They finally realized how stupid they were in the movie. We just keep getting worse.

42 posted on 07/15/2014 6:12:42 PM PDT by ProudFossil (" I never did give anyone hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." Harry Truman)
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To: moonshinner_09

I always enjoy stories where members of the media are inconvenienced by the stupid people they’ve created.


43 posted on 07/15/2014 6:14:29 PM PDT by PressurePoint
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To: ProudFossil

The tsa employees in my experience aren’t the brightest bulbs. I really think they would be unable to get a job any place else. Most are bumbling and somewhat attitude-prone. What a pathetic lot.


44 posted on 07/15/2014 6:14:38 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: moonshinner_09

Does the District of Columbia driver’s license comply with the Real ID act, or does the Real ID act just apply to the states?


45 posted on 07/15/2014 6:17:05 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: moonshinner_09

The TSA is a jobs program.

They may as well just serve coffee at airports.


46 posted on 07/15/2014 6:18:41 PM PDT by Oliviaforever
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

His previous job involved evaluating birth certificates. ;’)

Thanks moonshinner_09.


47 posted on 07/15/2014 6:22:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Oliviaforever

No visible IQ required. . .just be able to inhale and exhale.


48 posted on 07/15/2014 6:24:22 PM PDT by Maudeen ("End Times Warrior - Just a Sinner Saved by Grace")
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To: moonshinner_09
.Gray said he asked the agent if he knew what the District of Columbia is, and after a brief conversation Gray realized the man did not know.

Imagine the trouble you'd have with a New Mexico drivers License!

49 posted on 07/15/2014 6:24:55 PM PDT by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Gene Eric
I don’t know — stupidity adds an interesting dimension to probability...

The probability that a terrorist is going to outsmart this TSA agent at some time in the near future??

50 posted on 07/15/2014 6:31:58 PM PDT by GOPJ (A ship once out of port is hard to capture:know this now before it is too late. - Solon)
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To: Maudeen

I bet some of those TSA guys have sent people from New Mexico to Immigration.


51 posted on 07/15/2014 6:35:57 PM PDT by Oliviaforever
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To: GOPJ

Are you suggesting we need the TSA?


52 posted on 07/15/2014 6:46:02 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: ErnBatavia

close enough haha


53 posted on 07/15/2014 6:46:25 PM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: TaMoDee

I was born and raised in Michigan and until I retired here in Virginia in the late 90s I maintained my Michigan residence.

I was traveling from where I was stationed in North Dakota to my home in the Lower Peninsula to go deer hunting with my family and decided to stop in Escanaba to eat. It should be noted that Escanaba is in the Upper Peninsula.

Since there was a K Mart next to the restaurant I went to their sporting goods department to pick up my license and the clerk told me I had to buy an out of state license since I was hunting in the Lower Peninsula even though I showed him my Michigan driver’s license. I had to have the store manager order the guy to sell me the in-state license and the clerk still insisted I needed the out of state license.

It is amazing how many people are ignorant, stupid, or both.


54 posted on 07/15/2014 6:53:19 PM PDT by OldMissileer
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To: bigtoona
>" Pray for president Camacho to save us!"

At the DMV.

55 posted on 07/15/2014 6:53:23 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist (Jeremiah 50:32 "The arrogant one will stumble and fall ; / ?)
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To: moonshinner_09

New mexico has this problem.


56 posted on 07/15/2014 7:04:01 PM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: morphing libertarian

#17: If you are talking about former Governor Richardson, then yes, “he is a foreign country and sometimes a Mexican state”.

That is how he acted and still does. Too much desert sun!


57 posted on 07/15/2014 7:19:12 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

One and the same.


58 posted on 07/15/2014 7:20:11 PM PDT by morphing libertarian (Advanced technological development.)
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To: moonshinner_09

funny on my last trip out to CA for a wedding. i did all carry on with two back packs small and the larger one stowed. My small back pack i use every day to work to carry lunch stuff. when i get CA i’m poking around in the small pack and there in the pack is a 12 inch dinner knife (i take stainless for lunch) and my bike toolkit kinda swiss army without knives. right thru the screener. left them in CA to be mailed back.


59 posted on 07/15/2014 7:30:43 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2 (civil law: commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong Blackstone Commentaries I p44)
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To: Gene Eric
Are you suggesting we need the TSA?

Yep, we do need them! They can go to assist the border patrol at the Rio Grand......

60 posted on 07/15/2014 7:50:00 PM PDT by eeriegeno (<p>)
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