Posted on 12/06/2004 2:52:00 PM PST by Angry Republican
Helen Chenoweth-Hage had a simple request. The former Idaho Congressman had been pulled aside at the Boise Airport for secondary screening to include a physical pat-down. Chenoweth-Hage had sailed through the metal detector without problem, but TSA officials wanted to scrutinize her some more.
The former Congressman simply asked to see the regulations that permitted TSA officials to pat her down. They refused. And she refused to allow them to pat her down. So they booted her off her flight.
Incidents like this have happened so many times that it is beyond absurd. The regulations of TSA, which should stand for "Thousands Standing Around," are cloaked in secrecy. In this case, a 66-year old former Member of Congress is told to submit to further scrutiny for reasons of political correctness and to inflate inspection numbers.
According to aviation industry sources, the TSA intentionally targets individuals for further scrutiny not because they pose a threat, but because their profiles fit those the least likely to complain. Groups getting extra scrutiny include government employees and the military. Other national security threats reportedly requiring further scrutiny in the past include former Vice President Al Gore and longtime Congressman John Dingell.
The two-part problem is this. First, inspecting people who clearly do not pose a threat distracts attention from those who could pose a threat. Second, the notion that TSA can subject the public to regulations that are not made public is ludicrous. It's like citing a motorist for speeding with the speed limit signs all covered.
The Transportation Security Administration has not provided real and responsible security to our nation's airlines and airports. Playing hide and seek with the regulations and subjecting innocents to absurd inspections in the name of political correctness is simply a waste of time and money.
And that's the Point.
I'm Mark Hyman.
It's called "behavioral profiling." They are looking for nervousness, evasiveness, unease, anxiety, conflicting answers to questions, etc. It works. Mineta will not allow the TSA to use similar tactics.
"Common sense"
LOL!!
"Everyone potentially poses a danger. "
Yes, they do, so you won't mind that we search your house and subject you to a rectal exam each night before you go to bed.
Thus, the entire airport "security" scheme is an exercise in power, not safety.
As long as people like you lay down for it rather than standing up for your rights, we will never have safe air travel.
Question for you knowledgable ones. Is it true that airport screeners are limited to the number of passengers of Musliim/Arab ethnicity that they can pull aside and subject to more complete screening on any given flight? And this while grandmas from Wenatchee with knitting needles, terrified toddlers and elderly senators with hip replacements are harassed, terrified, and humiliated.
Yep, I will now only fly if my job depends on it, I have to go to a funeral short-notice, or only as a last resort. I used to fly everywhere. The humiliation of being patted down and cattle-prodded is too much. I last flew in July for a funeral before they started the groping; now I don't know how I'll be able to face flying. Our liberties are being stripped away bit by bit.
P.S. If you think being searched at an airport after 9/11 is humiliating, you are emotionally unstable. It's part of life. Pat downs are not tantamount to Secret Police and Gulags. Get some perspective. Lose the hyper-sensitivity. Above all, don't be a jerk at the airport. The rest of us would like to catch our flight without some Wannabe Rosa Parks trying to make a statement and holding up the line.
You bet, and you can take that .38 of yours with you!
JOY!
Maybe, if anything they were doing would actually keep us safe. Which it won't.
It's a pat-down, it's not like he demanded a cavity search.
Wait. That will be coming soon.
Gosh, that you can read my Freepername and think you instantly know my view of reality is impressive. That you think the TSA patting down an old lady is a positive after the metal detector failed to detect anything is not.
The TSA doesn't do anything for us but unionize previously private workers. It will not prevent another 9/11 because there will not be another 9/11, since the passengers won't allow it. It serves only to annoy people who aren't a danger and studiously ignore the people most likely to be one for fear of being called racists.
Congratulations on defending these worthless p.r. lackeys for doing 'their job'--making sheep feel secure and making sure we don't spend money on a system that would protect us from real danger to our airlines and country. A nationwide El Al-style passenger profiling system. Real border control. Verifying student and tourist visa holders.
Any one of these things would be worth bothering with financially. Instead, we subsidize something worthless like fifteen union dorks (goons evidently being a PC problem with you) prancing around telling seniors to take their shoes off and raise their arms.
And by the way, you think my slant on reality is peculiar, wait until another terrorist fires up a nuke inside the U.S. because the federal government was too busy fondling old ladies for p.r. purposes instead of performing its Constitutional duty of defending the ports and borders of this nation. My slant on reality won't be so 'peculiar' then.
"There is a huge qualitative difference between "screening" someone on the one hand, and physically patting them down on the other. Perhaps this woman, who happened to be a former Congresscritter, didn't like the idea of being groped. Perhaps she, like MILLIONS of others, is ticked off at the idea that a little old lady was getting the third degree when every single day young Moslem males get a free pass in the name of "political correctness" [hawk, spit].
I am all for security, not particularly wanting to end my life by crashing into a building for the greater good of some religious fanatics who despise our country, but it must make sense (which our current screening procedures assuredly do NOT). Further, even though the government has a certain amount of authority, that authority is not unlimited. PITA she may have been, but we can't know that from the limited information here - however, PITA or not, she had a right to question where the government agents got their authority to touch her body.
The day that the gov't can do anything to us in the name of security (and we are nearly there), is the day that we've officially lost our liberties and the terrorists have won by destroying what the US used to be."
Point out where any of this is less than common sense, laughing boy.
That's exactly right; sometimes I even take along my .45, depending on my mood.
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