[FreedomCalls]

Contrast this story with this one from 2004:

Gun found in congressman's carry-on bag

The congressman said he did not know the gun was in his bag and apologized, the official said.

"He was pulled aside and questioned," and then was allowed to take a different flight, Jahr said, adding that he didn't know if the gun was confiscated.

There seem to be two sets of laws in this country -- one for the well-connected and one for the rest of us.

[goldstategop]

Agreed. A hide-bound bureaucracy goes after a grandmother for an inadvertant offense. The TSA sucks.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[NonValueAdded]

TSA should be passing out knives to passengers as they board. An armed flight is a peaceful flight. Let’s Roll!

[randog]

"My concern is that if that's the way they're treating American citizens I would hate to think how they're treating other people. It's crazy."

Oh, they're getting along just fine, thanks to the lobbying of their victim-rights groups.

[GOPJ]

There seem to be two sets of laws in this country -- one for the well-connected and one for the rest of us.

The real two Americas.

[Grizzled Bear]

A friend of mine flew out of LAX a year ago and ran into trouble. His buddy had borrowed his leatherman and had put it in his rucksack instead of his A3 bag.

All the screener did was confiscate it. They let him keep the case...

[Old_Mil]

It’s time to get rid of the dept. of homeland securiity and the tsa. We aren’t any safer because these clowns are working at the airports, but we do have another Federal Bureaucracy draining our wallets.

[Wolfhound777]

She says screeners refused to give her paperwork or documentation of her violation, documentation of the pending fine, or a copy of the photograph of the knife.

"They said 'no' and they said it's a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point ... you don't have any'."

Yep, this is what it's all about. Nothing but scoundrels and charlatans running all three branches of government these days. The Kings and Queens don't want the subjects to have any constitutional rights and made sure of it with the un-patriot act. Yet illegals and mullahs preaching hate get a free pass. I think the pattern is anyone that will destroy the Republic is fine, and anyone else with "Constitutional" ideas or reasoning must be thrown into a hole somewhere on secret charges.

[sgtbono2002]

She had better pray that Johnny Sutton ,Fitzgerald or Nifong isnt the prosecutor. This could turn into a capitol crime.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..There seem to be two sets of laws in this country -- one for the well-connected and one for the rest of us."

That has always been the case.

It is a shame there is no common sense applied in these matters.

[RKV]

Disband the TSA. Its all security theater anyway.

[KoRn]

ping

[Lancey Howard]

[highlander_UW]

She should have just told them she was a muslim...and they would have relented and not put her on a terrorist list.

[Duke Nukum]

Someone should sit these bozos down and explain to them the difference between protection and harassment.

[llevrok]

Dear Abbey

On my present business trip, I mistakenly put my 6 oz. tube of hair gel in my carry on rather than in the little zip lock bag

How will I be able to return home with it?

Signed
Gel Boy

[RGSpincich]

Sounds to me like they just consfiscated the knife and gave her a ration of $hit. Maybe her explanation was good enough.

[null and void]

*shrug* they just let me forfeit my 6” plastic dagger. No muss, no fuss.

[Rome2000]

you don't have any'

Finally, an honest apparatchik!.

The ragheads will have no trouble getting around the geniuses at the TSA when they launch their next attack.

[WildcatClan]

I agree and understand it is a small price to pay, yet, on the other hand I want it to be a fair price. When they are taking granny’s butter knife and overlooking the obvious, the price is too high. Why must we insist on pretending we don’t know things we know in this PC bassackwards society? What some would call racial profiling, I would simply call applying a modicum of common sense. I felt more secure just after 911 when there were m-16’s and soldiers around. I think the TSA, Homeland Security and Chertoff are all jokes and I sometimes wonder how many of them are legal citizens, as we have all seen the illegals in there, saw them terminated at different locations and times. Homeland Security only ever needed to be a clearing house for information not this inflated bureaucracy it has become.

[CharlesWayneCT]

A congressman or his relative had this same mistake last year, and had to plead guilty to a crime and pay a fine and was put on probation.

As to the story, everybody knows you can't bring knives on board. If every time someone is CAUGHT doing so they get to argue that "it was a mistake", then the screening is meaningless. We have to be able to punish people objectively for objectively breaking the rules.

On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler.

The Cooler was a "carry-on", which means it was a SMALL cooler. How "deep" could the outside pocket be? 4 inches? 6 inches? Maybe a full 10 inches "deep"?

It would have taken her a minute to empty the entire contents of the cooler, and repack it. EVERY person should completely empty their carry-on luggage RIGHT before they leave for their flight, and re-pack it carefully, to ensure there's nothing hiding in the bags that would get you in trouble.