Free Republic

Just when you think things can't get any crazier, Washington's politicians go another step higher on the lunacy scale. With automatic spending cuts collectively known as the sequester cutting only 2 cents per dollar out of the bloated federal budget -- a budget that's grown 71 percent faster than inflation over the past two decades -- the federal scaremongers are rushing around, putting padlocks on the control towers at the nation's airports. We're supposed to believe that a measly 2 percent cut in spending, something any business or household could handle if its spending was out of control and unsustainable,...

<p>A LOT of what we do is make-believe.</p> <p>I’ve had to screen small children and explain to their parents I had no choice but to “check” them. I would only place my hands on their arms and bottom half of their legs, and the entire “pat-down” lasted 10 seconds. This goes completely against TSA procedure...</p>

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is tightening its grip on domestic travcel. I don't mean the random, unpredictable security checks at bus, subway and train stations which already exist. I mean a coordinated and systematic police control of internal travel within America. Groundwork is being laid. Application to Make U.S. Into an Airport Screening Zone The application was tucked away on page 71431 of Volume 77, Number 231 of the Federal Register (November 30). It was surrounded by soporific references to forwarding "the new Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review...

A congressional hearing Thursday on aviation security will be missing its chief witness, who declined to testify. Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole had been asked to appear before the Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on aviation on the impact of his agency's policies on passengers and the airline industry. But Pistole said he had no plans to attend, arguing the panel has no jurisdiction over TSA matters. ... TSA regularly chooses to not even respond to simple requests for information

As the lame-duck session of the 112th Congress begins, millions of Americans are looking to the elected members of the 113th Congress to fix a host of problems ailing the country. The economy and job creation aside, one of the most pressing issues is reining in out-of-control federal bureaucracies. The Environmental Protection Agency comes to mind, as does the Department of Agriculture's promotion of GM foods. But additionally concerning is the rapid expansion of the size, scope and reach of the Transportation Security Administration, which continues to usurp authority and trample constitutional rights of more and more Americans - especially...

According to possible new TSA rules, air travelers may be compelled to "freeze" when ordered to by screeners. The federal safety agency has yet to comment on this policy, but an airline passenger claimed agents recently practiced a drill on his wife. "We heard a "freeze, freeze" or something like this coming from the output side of security (where my wife was), followed by further barking of commands," the man said. "It turns out they were doing a new drill. They want all passengers to freeze on command. My wife told me later that she didn't follow this order fast...

Mother Of Child With Cerebral Palsy Says TSA Treated Daughter "Like Osama Bin Laden" A TSA agent at JFK "started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me," says a Long Island man who used his cell phone to videotape what he describes as an unnecessarily "aggressive" security screening of his developmentally disabled daughter. Dr. Joshua Frank, a Long Island pediatrician, is the father of Dina Frank, a girl with cerebral palsy who walks with crutches and leg braces. She can't pass through metal detectors for this reason, and is usually patted down by security agents, a procedure that...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – The Transportation Security Administration is once again the subject of national scrutiny, this time after aggressively screening a 7-year-old female passenger with cerebral palsy which caused her family to miss their flight....“They make our lives completely difficult,” her father, Dr. Joshua Frank, a Long Island pediatrician, told The Daily. “She’s not a threat to national security.” Frank taped the encounter, which ended when a supervisor inspected her crutches and let them pass. But agents followed up and insisted upon doing a full inspection of Dina. Ultimately, the family missed their flight.

U.S. Rep. Francisco Canseco said he was assaulted by a TSA agent at the San Antonio International Airport. The Texas Congressman said the security agent went too far during a pat-down earlier this month. "The agent was very aggressive in his pat-down, and he was patting me down where no one is supposed to go,” said Canseco. “It got very uncomfortable so I moved his hand away. That stopped everything and brought in supervisors and everyone else." Canseco told the KENS 5 I-Team the agent said he too was assaulted when Canseco pushed his hand away. According to TSA, neither...

Full title: Weeping four-year-old girl accused of carrying a GUN by TSA officers after she hugged her grandmother while passing through security A four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line. The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a 'high security threat', while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down. Terror threat? Four-year-old Isabella was subjected to a full body pat-down and accused of carrying a gun in an airport In her terror, Isabella tried to run...

here has been no society in the history of the world that has ever been 100% safe. No matter how much money the federal government spends on "homeland security", the truth is that bad things will still happen. Our world is a very dangerous place and it is becoming increasingly unstable. The federal government could turn the entire country into one giant prison camp, but that would still not keep us safe. It is inevitable that bad stuff will happen in life. But we have a choice. We can choose to live in fear or we can choose to live...

The out-of-control Transportation Security Administration is past patdowns at airports – now it's checkpoints and roadblocks. Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!" ... now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed...

Lori Dorn, the wife of Laughing Squid's Scott Beale, recently submitted to a backscatter scan at JFK airport. The TSA pulled her aside for a breast patdown, even though she stated she had breast implants in place after her bilateral mastectomy. Of course, that didn't stop them. They didn't even let her take out the Device Identification Card that would could have explained where the implants came from and their medical purpose. No. Instead they humiliated her in public