Liberty and Tyranny

Synonyms for the TSA: totalitarian, despotism, authoritarian, police state, Orwellian, draconian, tyrannical, dictatorship, autocracy, fascism, oligarchy.

Antonyms for the TSA: democracy, freedom, liberty, representative government, equality, emancipation, republic, egalitarianism.

Terrorism
1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

People are intimated, coerced and in a state of fear and submission based upon TSA actions and threats.

I fly for business several times each month and am concerned about TSA's new "enhanced security" methods for several reasons: safety, privacy, ineffective procedures, and most importantly, the procedures are a violation of my Fourth Amendment rights.

The Backscatter X-Ray Scanners, aka Porno Scanners have not been adequately tested for health impact and the safety data cited is provided by the machine's manufacturers' and government contractors who are in many cases, former administration officials. Providers of the machines have a vested financial interest in their deployment.

The imaging amounts to a virtual strip search and invasion of my privacy. Photos from machines used in an Orlando, Florida courthouse have already been leaked online. TSA and other government agencies have issued conflicting data concerning whether or not images can be saved, in what manner, for how long, who has access, and how images can be dissiminated.

The "enhanced pat-down", also referred to as Love Pats by idiot Senator Claire McCaskill (democrat, Missouri) are invasive, aggressive, ineffective, and would be considered sexual assault if attempted in any other venue.

Neither search method, Backscatter Scanners or Enhanced Pat Downs will detect materials carried within a body cavity. These new procedures are merely a display of power, a political theater that will not enhance security and will anesthetize the American people to further unwarranted searches in other areas of our daily activities.

Security measures currently in place and newly introduced do not work.

Individuals targeted by the No Fly List are allowed on airplanes (the Christmas Day attempt by the underwear bomber), CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) demands that women in hajib or burka NOT be screened or touched in any way, fear of retribution in our senior military leadership allow Major Hassan to remain on active duty and massacre dozens of American servicemen and citizens. And on, and on, and on. All in the name of political correctness.

Yet we are asked -- no, TOLD -- to believe that virtually strip searching granny, physically searching a three-year old child, patting down a teenage girl (by a male agent), injuring a person with disabilities (stomach feeding tube and ostomy nightmares), or making a sexual abuse survivor submit to a stranger's assault... all actions and assaults perpetrated by ill-trained, minimally educated, and often arrogant individuals who are wearing the uniform of a TSA agent and wielding the full power of the State against the Citizen, we are supposed to believe that these actions will make us safer.

We do have recourse. Record your encounters with TSA (although some airports have made the act of recording agents a crime in itself). Politely, to avoid arrest, tell your screening agent what you think of their behavior by using various descriptive adjectives. We can destroy their morale and help initiative a revolt from within the TSA agent ranks.

Excerpt from TechDirt.com, comments from TSA agents regarding their role in the enhanced pat downs as well as comments directed at them by travelers:

"It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh. Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!"

"'Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep'. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country."

Individual agents should be charged with felony sexual assault. Regional directors should be named in class action lawsuits. And TSA Director John Pistole and Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano should be charged with High Crimes and Misdemeanors against the American people in their blatant disregard for our Fourth Amendment rights.

For those who say that the screening is necessary in a Post-9/11 world. Yes, screening and security measures are necessary. But they must WORK. The methods in place now are reactionary not revolutionary and they explicitly avoid a proven method in long use, specifically by the Israelis: PROFILING, BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT AND INTERVIEWING.

Until the United States Government abandons its assine and treasonous affectation that profiling is not acceptable, then Innocents will continue to be treated as terrorists, while the true threats to our Nation walk through the security lines unaccosted.

And their leaders laugh as our Liberty is traded for a (false) security.