Why Air Security is the Issue

The American Thinker ^ | November 19, 2010 | C. Edmund Wright

[Scanian]

I submit that if we don't beat back the TSA's assault on innocent travelers, we might lose our nation for good. Or perhaps it would mean we have already lost it.

The reality is that the TSA is no more about airline security than ObamaCare was about affordable health care. Both the organization and the bill are about the dehumanization -- and control -- of theoretically free Americans. Thus, it is critical that Americans win push back efforts against both, because if we lose on these two fronts, we have effectively lost most of our freedom.

Now I realize there have been attacks on human freedoms all over our bureaucracy-infected society long before ObamaCare and Janet Incompetano's "grope and change" policies were in place. I submit, however, that if both our medical care and our mobility are controlled by the whims of government bureaucrats -- issues like toys in Happy Meals or sodium- and fat-free restaurants will be irrelevant.

Private property rights -- which are also under attack everywhere from the IRS to the EPA -- include the acquisition of financial resources. One of the great freedoms provided by those resources is the ability to move about. Those who attack one attack the other. Citizens who are self-sufficient and on the go are much harder to control than those who are not.

It is no coincidence that liberalism flourishes in the big cities, where people live in close quarters in a high-rise urban lifestyle. A nation of Seinfelds is easier to keep tabs on than a nation of Palins. As such, the Seinfelds don't even feel the morphing grip of bureaucrats because they rarely do anything or go anywhere that threatens the bureaucratic state's ability to control.

The Palins of the country instinctively feel this grip and abhor it.

[ari-freedom]

The thing about liberals who live in big cities such as NYC is that they don’t mind the taxes and spending because most of the taxes comes from people who are so rich that it is nothing to them.
But if the crime rate is high, they’ll dump the liberal mayor. All the major airports are in the big cities and that is ticking everyone off.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Rush: Obama groping flyers to punish them for voting GOP - ‘This is all about control...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2629003/posts

[Outlaw Woman]

He nails it. If we don’t stop this crap we’ll be under a totalitarian regime within a year.

Pictures of people submitting to these searches by the TSA nauseate me. They stand there like cattle and allow these idiots to ‘touch’ them. Like he said this is not about safety, we’ve been under a psychological seige since the ba*tard has been in office. All of this is designed to break our resolve; our spirit.

Obamadeathcare, TSA, the newly passed S510 Food Safety Act, Nationalizing businesses, passing finance reform, all have been designed to bring the U.S. to its knees and dehumanize all of us; dispirit us. If we don’t rise now we will lose it all. The bastards are up there now devising more plans to further regulate/enslave us. These elitists scum that have appointed themselves gods. They deserve nothing less than hanging. I see no way out except through a bloody purging. God help us.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Use Foreign Pressure on the US/Obama, too.

Get the Foreign Ministries of major countries, like UK, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, India, etc., to issue TRAVEL ADVISORIES on their official webpages (like the State Department does on it), warning their foreign nationals that they may be subject to intrusive and rude if not obscene physical treatment by US aiport authorities on the occasion of their US visit, and that they may also enter foreign data base (i.e. USA and not their home country) in visual form, as being nearly naked. Also that challenging US airport authorities, even politely, could land one in a US prison or with a hefty fine.

I know some countries that will be ready to do this very, very soon. When that happens, all hell will break loose. The s-pot can be further stirred that when these advisories appear, the foreign press in those countries also do print and TV stories on the TSA "overreach". It will spread like a grassfire.

[Outlaw Woman]

Interesting.

“When that happens, all hell will break loose” Can you be more specific on this?

On a side note, another thread was just started on an airport opting out of TSA screeners. Heading to bed now and have no time to read it right now but this is a very positive move.

[AmericanInTokyo]

A worldwide PR disaster that the Obama Administration will not be able to stop and which will terribly embarrass the TSA, the DHS, Holder and the President, and I also think will cost him 5 to 10% in public approval ratings. That is what I meant.

[ROTB]

I see no way out except through a bloody purging. God help us.

****************

You’re wrong. Note my tagline ...

[kbennkc]

Common carriers of all sorts of goods are deemed insurers for the safe delivery of their cargo. With liability must come unfettered control to do what must be done.

This market solution is like most things market based , the only system that allocates risk , reward, control and responsibility.

Congress must make a clear statement, about the broad authority of the airline to be the final word on methods and means, and the operations are not subject to any citizens claim of infringement of civil rights arising as a claim under rights to public accommodation/ commerce clause absent a showing of criminal intent.

Since a liberal court will say that the attempt to create an exception to the commerce clause is in and of itself unconstitutional. The grant of limitations for liability of the airlines for 9-11 was a mistake. Legislation and public awareness must make clear the airlines will from now on be liable for the safety of their passenger, just like a truck company guarantees the safe arrival of a load of potatoes.

[DWar]

It’s comming.
Justified by the next terror event within the US.

1- “Temporary” expansion of the Patriot Act giving the President dictatorial powers to “Protect the people from terrorism”.
2- “Temporarily” setting aside the Constitution for the preservation of the nation.
3- Federalizing all law enforcement agencies and National Guard units to coordinate the fight against the terrorists.
4- Outlawing of opposition speech as aiding and abetting the terrorists.
5- Stationing of Federal troops inside the Supreme Court and the arrest and imprisonment of any terrorist sympathizers who speak against the administration.
6- Stationing of Federal troops inside the Senate and Congressional chambers and the arrest and imprisonment of any terrorist sympathizers who speak against the administration.
7- Stationing of Federal troops inside all media offices and the arrest and imprisonment of any terrorist sympathizers who speak against the administration. 20- Confiscation of the internet as a terrorist tool.
8- Confiscation of all privately held firearms.
9- Outlawing of the right of all assembly. (Political, religious)
10- Paycheck deductions no longer handled by employers but by government bureaucrats who take what the government wants and gives you the rest.
11- Federal anti-terrorism counselors stationed in every public school to gather information on terrorist sympathizing opponents.
12- Federal tracking of citizens through cell phone gps.

[nathanbedford]

The TSA restricts. It dehumanizes. It depresses. It invades. It costs. It fails in its stated mission as it creates jobs for the unemployable. It is government on display for all to see. It is what our health care will become if we keep silent.

It's un-American. And it's not America. Not yet. But if we cannot defeat ObamaCare and the TSA's "grope and change," we won't recognize America in the near future. This is why it is such a defining and critical issue.

This is total rubbish. The author has demonstrated no connection between this proposition and reality. To the contrary, if one plane is blown out of the air, Obama will seize on the event and impose far more totalitarian control over all of us than conjured up for us in this article.

You can submit to a picture taken of your privates or you get to have a real totalitarian control.

[Doc Savage]

Look, be truthful with yourself. the ‘real problem’ is MUSLIMS. They hate, they kill, they destroy. It’s a violent quasi-religion bent on world domination. Would you like to wake up tomorrow morning and find every muslim on the face of the earth dead? I know I would. Be a man! Admit your feelings. It’s now them or us. You like them better than peace, freedom and liberty? You like them better than your God, your family, your country? Man up you pussies! We need to rid the world of this cancer if we’re going to survive. Let’s start with Iran. Take them all out NOW!

[Vor Lady]

You can submit to a picture taken of your privates or you get to have a real totalitarian control.

Your post is confusing. Which position are you taking on this; are you for screening/groping or are you opposed?

[Citizen Tom Paine]

It has long been clear to any observer with half a brain that the “terrorists” (not gunmen, not rebels, etc) have won. They have transformed the United States more effectively than any government could possibly have done. We live in a Kafkaesque like state that perhaps was imagined in 1984.

As an example, contrast Israel’s airline security vice the US airline security. Picture an orthodox Jew getting a pat down versus an American citizen in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Then picture some PC being thrown in to the mess. The airline security mess occurs because we will not profile passengers. Has anyone ever heard of pre clearing passengers and giving them a card. How about armed personnel aboard each flight, etc. How about controlling cargo at the point of origin. How about not accepting air cargo from countries which tolerate and support terrorists? etc, etc, ...

May God have mercy on this once Great Nation. If we act stupid for long enough, by golly, you may become stupid.

[dajeeps]

“All the major airports are in the big cities and that is ticking everyone off.”

Exactly. They don’t mind big government as long as it doesn’t tick them off... and that’s the way its been for decades. Meanwhile, the politicians have built this huge and constitutionally subversive administrative state, relying on the public zeitgeist, that can be used for any purpose whatsoever. Now the reliance on the public zeitgeist is gone, the administrative state has gone rogue and there is little that can be done to stop it. You notice that DHS and TSA aren’t backing down despite the uproar over the obvious violation of the 4th amendment which requires a warrant for such searches, and travel impediment as a result of refusing to consent to such search.

[Outlaw Woman]

You can submit to a picture taken of your privates or you get to have a real totalitarian control.

Neither is acceptable and it's rather shocking that you would think it is. This article is spot on.

[Scanian]

I hope you aren’t directing that to me personally because there is no one on this site who thinks less of muzzies than I do.

To answer your question: No, if they all croaked, I wouldn’t miss them at all. Jesus forgive me.

[Alas Babylon!]

I think what everyone is missing on these threads is the vast discretion TSA agents have in picking an air traveler for special screening.

Not everyone flying will be asked to go through the Rapiscan machine. So WHO decides who will? TSA does. If certain groups complain and accuse the government of racism then you can bet the politicians, especially democrat politicians, will lean on the TSA bosses to get the word out to go easy on that group.

If you look at all the pictures, so far all I see is white middle class Americans getting the enhanced screenings.

The much-more-likely-to-be-a-terrorist-because-he-is-a-muslim is allowed through with only a casual check.

So when he blows up the plane, how will we say enhanced screening saved anyone? To an great extent, we can say it facilitated his crime!