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Just Don't Fly: Where Might the TSA Take Us Next?
The American Thinker ^ | November 24, 2010 | Mark Browning

Posted on 11/24/2010 1:41:50 AM PST by Scanian

"Don't fly." That's Janet Napolitano's answer to those who oppose the regime of poke and grope that is today's Transportation Safety Agency. America is, after all, a land of choices. When you arrive at the airport, you can allow some complete stranger to irradiate you with a device that allows the operator to see you naked. Or you can allow some friendly security agent to put hands in places where they have no business. Or you can drive.

Before you jump out of line and into your car, however, be warned that you can be fined up to $11,000 for changing your mind at the airport. After all, we wouldn't want terrorists with hand grenades walking away from the screening area when they realize that all the rumors about metal detectors and such are true. If you're going to take Secretary Napolitano's advice, be sure you opt not to fly before you reach the airport.

The problem with this "If-you-can't-stand-the-pat-down-get-out-of-the-terminal" attitude lies in its future. For now, Janet Napolitano says "if people want to travel by some other means, they have that right." That seems reasonable enough on the surface, but is air travel the only option vulnerable to this sort of reasoning.

Let's imagine a really nasty scenario. Terrorists identify several particularly important rail corridors, perhaps ones that carries large amounts of coal to power plants. They smuggle explosives onto several passenger trains and detonate those bombs at critical spots on the railroad grid. Result? Perhaps hundreds of people are killed, but also rail transportation is severely compromised until repairs can be completed. In response, the Department of Homeland Security extends the TSA airport protocols to Amtrak stations.

If you don't like it, don't take the train. After all, rail travel is no more a right than air travel. The bus system could come next.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deviousness; fines; napolitano; overreaching; paranoia; policestate; tsapervs
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To: x_plus_one

Many observers, myself included, see the takedown of the airlines as Obama’s objective with Muslim Rights though PC being the means of manufacturing a crisis.


21 posted on 11/24/2010 2:57:18 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

“If you don’t like it, don’t take the train. After all, rail travel is no more a right than air travel. The bus system could come next.”

Now you know why the Left wants to push public transportation.


22 posted on 11/24/2010 3:06:48 AM PST by ari-freedom (Islam is at war against America, while America is at the mall.)
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To: BigCinBigD

Sure; here in the NYC metro area when they first introduced EZ Pass some people had reservations that it could calculate your travel time between 2 points (toll plazas) and you’d be mailed a ticket for speeding if the average speed was too high. The gubmint insisted they wouldn’t use it for law enforcement purposes, then proceeded to do just that when they used it to catch two sh!tbirds driving in a stolen car days after one of them had killed the owner. They didn’t know the car had an EZ Pass gadget on it, so they were being detected going through these toll plazas in NYC/northern NJ (paying the tolls, but the scanner was reading the vehicle ID anyway). The police even admitted they’d used it to catch them, and nobody raised any questions...

This isn’t tinfoil helmet crap; cell phones are working the same way now. Some unassimilated minorities were driving on a highway up here, and one called the police to say he’d seen their vehicle and someone was brandishing a weapon or something. The idea was that the police would stop the vehicle and the dirtbags would collect millions of dollars in a “racial profiling incident”. However, the police were able to prove (I believe it was through cell towers combined with tracking of the SIM card?) that the call had originated from the vehicle, and their “get rich quick” scheme fell apart. Apparently just turning the phone off didn’t prevent it from being traced; the card had to be removed from it...


23 posted on 11/24/2010 3:08:32 AM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: ari-freedom

Because once public transportation is your only choice, your only choice will be to follow their rules.


24 posted on 11/24/2010 3:11:28 AM PST by ari-freedom (Islam is at war against America, while America is at the mall.)
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To: ari-freedom
Now you know why the Left wants to push public transportation.

Exactly right. It's completely about control.
25 posted on 11/24/2010 3:16:31 AM PST by aruanan
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To: Scanian

Haven’t heard a peep from the airlines over this fiasco. As for rail lines, terrorists don’t need to ride a train to disrupt train travel or rail cargo.


26 posted on 11/24/2010 3:17:27 AM PST by Bobby_Taxpayer (Don't tread on us...or you'll pay the price in the next election.)
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To: Scanian

“Before you jump out of line and into your car, however, be warned that you can be fined up to $11,000 for changing your mind at the airport. After all, we wouldn’t want terrorists with hand grenades walking away from the screening area when they realize that all the rumors about metal detectors and such are true. If you’re going to take Secretary Napolitano’s advice, be sure you opt not to fly before you reach the airport.”

At what point do I have the right to NOT engage in commerce? I have never read the fine print on “purchasing” a plane ticket.


27 posted on 11/24/2010 3:29:33 AM PST by steveab (When was the last time someone tried to sell you a CO2 induced climate control system for your home?)
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To: Scanian

Maybe they can be stopped in 2012 if it is not too late. We have a few people in Congress now who can mount a delaying action.


28 posted on 11/24/2010 3:34:28 AM PST by screaminsunshine (Americanism vs Communism)
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To: Scanian

Does TSA have Law Enforcement Powers? What are they?


29 posted on 11/24/2010 3:38:32 AM PST by screaminsunshine (Americanism vs Communism)
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To: Scanian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AWw7t5zj0

30 posted on 11/24/2010 3:41:43 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???)
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To: Scanian

Mobility in any culture is a value. Based upon the time-place aspect of economics when you take away mobility you take away value. That’s exactly what has happened here. And the terrorists (with our own goverment’s inadvertent help) are using competetive strategies to accomplish their goals.


31 posted on 11/24/2010 3:47:27 AM PST by Portcall24
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To: Portcall24

I have to question whether it is inadvertent.


32 posted on 11/24/2010 4:27:12 AM PST by Scanian
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To: ari-freedom

Next step for body scanners could be trains, boats, metro
By Jordy Yager - 11/23/10 02:09 PM ET
The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.

“[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on “Charlie Rose.”

“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/130549-next-step-for-body-scanners-could-be-trains-boats-and-the-metro-


33 posted on 11/24/2010 5:06:59 AM PST by broken_arrow1 (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country - Nathan Hale "Patriot")
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To: Scanian

I think that Zero and his minions are attempting to steer us in the direction of “we had better shut up or they will only make it harder on us”. I suggest that we go the other direction and take a page out of the Alinsky handbook. From Rules for Radicals “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”

A dash of Alinsky and spoonful of MLK will result in useful disruption. While it is still legal, why not have a national go the airport day? Parking lots will overflow, traffic will back up and toilet paper will run out in the non secure areas.

Jan the Man and Boy Wonder will overreact. Many airports have more than one point of entry. All will have to be policed to determine if the people have any reason to go to the airport. Many people with a legitimate reason to be at the airport will be turned away due to arrogance of the gatekeepers and traffic will back up. Some will say that a tactic like this will delay millions of people. Well that is true. But the value of exposing just how much control these liberals are willing to take from citizens may be worth it.


34 posted on 11/24/2010 5:09:41 AM PST by lovesdogs
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To: screaminsunshine

Isnt that something, one federal agency will issue a TWIC card (federal backgroud check) then another agency (TSA) won’t accept that. I have a TWIC and a conceal carry license from the state of Texas, but that makes no difference to the TSA. So based on this and janet incompatano telling us not to fly, it would seem that this is a backdoor attempt to nationalize the airline industry.
They have already nationalized the auto industry, banking, housing and the entire medical industry. If the airlines suffer huge financial losses, where do they go to get bailed out? Uncle sugar, who will gladly step in to rescue them and then run them.
We will have to wait and see.


35 posted on 11/24/2010 5:19:19 AM PST by Texas resident (Hunkered Down)
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To: Texas resident

Right. The TSA and DHS are creations of Bush and expanded by Obama. I get a kick out of those who think Bush was a good President. He is a sellout.


36 posted on 11/24/2010 5:27:17 AM PST by screaminsunshine (Americanism vs Communism)
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To: Scanian

There is already talk of installing scanners on rail stations, subways, buses, and malls.

But don’t worry comrade! It is for your own good!


37 posted on 11/24/2010 5:35:13 AM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: Scanian
It is my personal belief that the current admin. is using the TSA and eventually the unions as a tool to disrupt and diminish air travel and drive them into bankruptcy for a federal takeover such as we have seen with the Automakers , Healthcare , the banks , and all other public transportation which will now include air traffic . Over regulation will force the airline industry into taking a federal bailout thus becoming another private sector casuality to the strong arm of BIG GOVERNMENT .
38 posted on 11/24/2010 5:47:56 AM PST by lionheart 247365 (-:{ GLENN BECK is 0bama's TRANSPARENCY CZAR }:-)
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To: Scanian
["Don't fly." That's Janet Napolitano's answer ]

Uhuh. IOW - "everybody who has the balls not to become a pacified sheep in the tolerant service of us Übermensch transhumanist/postgenderist rug munchers, please egress the bus through the rear exit..."

Submit - or be ostracized.

Well, Butch,



...and the gelded horse you rode in on.

Got Starvation? 
 

39 posted on 11/24/2010 6:17:14 AM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: Scanian
"Don't fly." That's Janet Napolitano's answer to those who oppose the regime of poke and grope that is today's Transportation Safety Agency.

Welcome to demonrat Amerika! Now that the pleasantries are over...

Up against the wall, citizen. Your rights are what we tell you they are:

You have the right to shut the 'F' up, spread and submit.

40 posted on 11/24/2010 6:44:52 AM PST by GBA (Not on our watch!)
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