Are we losing our rights in the name of safety?

[ChriswUfGator]

Nothing prevents a terror minded person from taking a private lear and smashing it into the Independent Square Building.

You'll never get all the senators, congressmen, political donors, corporations, banks, and every other politically-connected user of all the (just as deadly) private planes to submit to the kind of absolute asinine bullshit that the TSA has foisted upon the plebian class of the American public. The TSA knew better than to even try that, the outcry would be far less public but far more effective.

What do all you teabaggers think would happen the first time Dick Cheney got his balls grabbed trying to get on the Halluburton 737 a/k/a "BBJ"? The head of TSA would have been out of a job. WTF happened to equal protection? Or is that another constitutional concept these alleged "strict constructionists" have conveniently forgotten?

[cityimrov]

"TSA chief John Pistole to put priority on rail, subways"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-07-16-tsa16_ST_N.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tsa-chief-john-pistole-put-priority-rail-subways/story?id=11175996

Stopping TSA is going to be hard since the majority of the general public seems to love them and the rich powerful minority don't care since they ride private planes and cars.  

I guess if you can't beat them, join them?  So, what's the best way to earn $100 Million so I can buy my own private jet with pilot?  

In other news: http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-met-thanksgiving-travel-1118-20101118,0,4519617.story

This sums it up:  "Next week, 94 percent of Thanksgiving travelers nationally are expected to drive â€" up from 86 percent in 2008 and 80 percent in 2000, according surveys conducted by AAA.

The air-travel share is projected at 3.8 percent this Thanksgiving, the lowest figure in a decade. Air travel accounted for 13 percent of Thanksgiving travel in 2000, AAA said."

[Burn to Shine]

With that said, I'm sure the majority of TSA "agents" do not enjoy it anymore than we do, however no matter how intensive the training...there has to be a personal disdain, a moral intuition against the spontaneous deflowering of American citizens going home to see grandma for Thanksgiving. 

I mean there has to be a collective brain somewhere within the organization that knows deep down (no pun intended) that groping people at will is not right.  It's not making anyone any safer.  It isn't even constitutionally fitting.  The TSA "agents" should be just as humiliated and outraged at the goings on in our "post 911" airports as anyone who is subjected to demoralizing gate rape. 

Maybe I'm giving the employees too much credit, considering their job recruiting tactics have been advertised on the likes of pizza boxes...but by God we are not all criminals or terrorists guilty before proven innocent.  A little bit of common sense and empathy is necessary.  One cannot just follow the rules implicitly.  The power trips and hard line tactics of these modern day rent a cops is not helping the situation run any smoother.  Breaking colostomy bags and demanding to see prosthetic breasts is not something smart, free thinking people should be doing.  Lemmings cannot possibly make anyone feel any safer.     

I'm not afraid of terrorists...I am afraid of being molested at the airport...because I have been poked and prodded without cause, without warning, and without explanation.  It does not make me feel safe one bit.  It makes me feel horrible, degraded, gross, disgusted, mistrusted, misguided, upset and ticked off.  I do not intend to be further subjected to being touched inappropriately or set to be scanned naked by strangers in order to enjoy my vacation.  It's just not part of my itinerary.  I may be one person who doesn't make a bit of difference in the grand evil scheme of things but I will stand up for myself and for my rights as an American however small my voice may be. 

And most of the people who read this, or any other disdain for the process will be thinking it's no big deal...until you are the one being felt up in the name of safety.  To the people who joke about it and say they like it...I think that is very sad.  IMHO. 

[simms3]

I haven't been poked by the TSA yet, though I have flown twice since the new procedures.  I feel safer.  The more security they have, whether effective or not, at least calms my nerves and probably thwarts more attacks.  Look for a more advanced shoe screening measure to be in airports within a year.  We soon won't have to even take our shoes off...we will step on mats.  Sounds like an improvement to me.

[cityimrov]

The main arguments for the TSA's current practice is about Peace of Mind isn't it?

[BridgeTroll]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/media/29carr.html?_r=1

The Media Equation
A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A.
By DAVID CARR
Published: November 28, 2010
If a squadron of mad scientists surrounded by supercomputers gathered in a laboratory to try to conjure a single news topic that would blow up large, they could not touch the T.S.A. pat-down story.

It began with a Drudge Report link to a video on Nov. 13 of an intrusive pat-down, and then leapt to social media and the rest of the Web. Twitter lighted up, flashing 4,000 posts an hour with cheeky hash tags, and in just the first two days of last week, there were 60 million Google queries for information on the change in the Transportation Security Administration protocol, according to Trendrr, a social media measurement company.

Soon enough, an online protest calling for a National Opt-Out Day popped up, with a call to refuse to submit to scans and to clog airports on Wednesday, one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Cue the media mushroom cloud: by Tuesday, there were print reports about the new scanning technology, heavy-breathing blog posts about the government using the technology to alter or gather DNA (yow), and every cable channel featured wall-to-wall speculation about what would happen when people got to the airport on Wednesday and how many would be carrying lanterns and pitchforks.

“This story tapped right into the central nervous system of the collective consciousness,” said Mark Ghuneim, chief executive of Trendrr. “It was huge.”

But then, in the real world, nothing happened.

A few passengers opted out and, if anything, lines were shorter because airport security was staffed up and people arrived early just in case.

The occasional protester was surrounded not by angry crowds but eager reporters. Under all the buzz, 80 percent of Americans traveling were still encountering the same procedures that have been in place for years.

By midday Wednesday, a forlorn CNN correspondent was wandering around during a live shot with nothing to report, with a nearby keening baby the only indication of terminal rage. No word on whether the diaper was breached.

The pat-down story was the equivalent of vaporware â€" it seemed as if something huge was about to happen, but it turned out that it was a story about a story, the noisy, fervent sound of a news system feeding on itself.

What made the T.S.A. story so sticky and irresistible, a nearly perfect Perfect Storm?

TIMING
It arrived during a news season slowed by holidays (how many stories can you do speculating about which turkey will be pardoned by the president?) in the midst of the busiest travel weeks.

EXECUTION
The government’s below-the-radar rollout of the new protocol (Memo to the T.S.A.: never sneak up on the American public) gave it a conspiratorial sheen.

MYSTERY
The screening technology seemed ominous, yet cool â€" like the X-Ray specs advertisements on the backs of comic books that promised to allow you to see through clothing.

DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT
At a time of incredibly fractionalized politics, the pat-down was a single issue we could all rally around. For liberals, it was Big Brother grabbing liberties (with both hands) and conservatives once again felt the intrusive touch of Big Government in their pocket.

Just in case it didn’t seem wasteful enough, YouTube came through with a video of a shirtless child being patted down by a burly security guard.

RELEVANCE
Many people hate, yet need, to travel by air. And now, once we get through security, we can expect a host of new indignities on the plane (even longer delays, $5 pillows, flights packed like a Japanese subway). By the way, you know who travels a lot? Reporters.

NOTHING. AND EVERYTHING.
These incremental changes in technology and intimacy of searches may be a step toward the Big Brotherification of American life, but it is just not that big of a deal outside the media bubble. But the issues at hand were momentous: liberty, security and the American way.

DISPLACEMENT
Deep in their hearts, Americans know that the country has spent almost a decade on a two-front war that has made them feel no safer. Rather than dwelling on the blood and lucre that have been spilled, it’s a little easier to hate on the guy in the blue uniform wearing a cheesy badge and making $15 an hour. Beats thinking the terrorists have won.

RACE AND CLASS
Even though air travel is far from luxurious, it is a still a big expense during a time of significant economic upheaval, so the people affected tend to be a little better off and more entitled. While many nonwhite Americans have grown up in a country where they are sometimes searched while merely going about their business â€" unwarranted stop-and-frisks have gone on for decades â€" white people aren’t used to having the hands of the state on them without cause. Unfamiliarity breeds outrage.

GOOD VISUALS
The story has crowds, people in uniforms, conflict and a familiar backdrop, so TV loved it. And the story kicked out all sorts of juicy links to video, umbrage and polemic, so it was more viral than a sneezing passenger in 16E.

In a story like this, the crowd of reporters â€" in this instance, anybody at an airport with a smartphone â€" is already deployed. If they hit the sweet spot, like the kid who went through Salt Lake City security in a Speedo, millions will see it via YouTube.

GENDER
The issue of personal searches and enhanced visibility on scans would seem to be a more acute one for women, given the objectification of women in general and greater history of assault. But discussion on Twitter included two times as many men as women, according to Trendrr. Something primal is at work here, that speaks to both machismo â€" boys don’t touch boys â€" and certain male insecurities about being visible to strangers. You thought that dream of being in high school in your underwear was bad.

I could go on, but you get the idea. A mainstream media that has been run over in the past â€" the rise of the Tea Party comes to mind â€" has begun to understand that the Web is a great place to listen as well as publish.

“NewsHour” on PBS was among the throngs, with an embeddable widget that let people post to Twitter their experiences in the security lines â€" so the mainstream media are now on a hair trigger, reacting, and sometimes overreacting, to social media and Web-borne protests.

In a sense, the pat-down is a test of a new kind of emergency broadcast system, a hybrid contraption of old and new media, call and response, a place where protests are lodged, articulated and commenced. No one can argue that this episode made us any safer, but then I’ve yet to hear anything that suggests that the scanners and pat-downs do either.

[BridgeTroll]

Cue the media mushroom cloud: by Tuesday, there were print reports about the new scanning technology, heavy-breathing blog posts about the government using the technology to alter or gather DNA (yow), and every cable channel featured wall-to-wall speculation about what would happen when people got to the airport on Wednesday and how many would be carrying lanterns and pitchforks.

The pat-down story was the equivalent of vaporware â€" it seemed as if something huge was about to happen, but it turned out that it was a story about a story, the noisy, fervent sound of a news system feeding on itself.

[Dog Walker]

Tempest in teapot?  Subject not worthy of a thread?

[ChriswUfGator]

It most certainly IS bollocks...

From what I can see, the TSA intentionally took action to sidestep the issue, both to avoid further media scrutiny, and so they could sit back and say "See, we told you, nothing to see here." The TSA chose not to utilize the new screening procedures at most of the busiest airports. Over on Flyertalk, many are reporting the new machines weren't even turned on. Additionally the TSA brought in significant levels of extra staffing, despite this holiday travel season not having been particularly busy. The TSA simply pulled a CYA move while they were the subject of media attention.

IMO, what happens when national attention isn't focused on the issue is what matters. And that remains to be seen.

[uptowngirl]

I am pretty conservative even a registered Republican, and have had many a debate here with our more liberal friends. I think I may owe some an apology. I too, like BT and some of the others argued over the original implementation of the patriot act, and TSA regulations. I felt we needed  this to be "safe". People like Stephendare told me it was the gateway to losing even more rights, and like BT and Simms I felt this was just crazy talk, we needed the ability to track, monitor, and catch these terrorist. I now see that was wishful thinking in most cases. The government I mostly respect, and felt confident in has perverted the power we gave them in the name of safety and are taking more and more rights away from us and people are still marching to the drumbeat of "it is all to make us safer", never even bothering to look at "whats next". I would never have supposed they would install naked picture takers, nor invasive pat downs in the airport when they first introduced taking your damn shoes off. Now it is not such a small jump to rectal exams of small children is it?

Stephen I bet you could find a lot of those old conversations (along with my rebuttals)... it might be an interesting recap....to see how far we have gone compared to what was predicted back then :-)

[CS Foltz]

There has to be limits of some sort.............my question is "Who decides the limits"? I will not fly anymore, I set the metal detectors off due to metal in my carcase, wish I could ride rail but will drive to where ever I need to go! TSA is stepping over the boundaries of good taste as well as personnel rights and there has to be some guidelines and TSA should not be setting those guidelines! If I had to fly, the first sucker that does a rectal exam on me, is going to be missing teeth and probably going to be hurting........them and their buddies! I will not stand for it and that is why I will be driving! Just for additional info........Congress members do not have to be subjected to cavity searches/body scans nor do people higher in the government agencies go through what the public goes through!They need to be subjected to the same thing that the taxpayers go through and maybe this invasion on personnel rights would be halted?

[ChriswUfGator]

This should give everyone some insight into how the TSA controlled the information and the media bought it hook, line, and sinker. It is truly hilarious that many newspapers were already publishing the TSA's press release regarding there having been no protests by 7 or 8am, when most airports had only been open an hour or two;

This is some seriously interesting reading:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1152419-media-reports-nood-no-show-merged-threads.html

So as I stated before, "National Opt Out Day" was a dud because the TSA turned the machines off for the day, instead using traditional walk through metal detectors, and then lied to the media in advance, stating there were no opt-outs, when in reality there was nothing to opt out of. It was a calculated PR dis-information campaign. And FWIW, I predicted that is exactly what they would do. And I'll say it again, this won't be settled until we see how TSA behaves after it believes the media attention has shifted elsewhere.

[KenFSU]

I disliked the idea of a "national opt out day" from the beginning. It's counter-productive. If you truly believe that the TSA's new policies are invasive and unconstitutional, then every day should be opt-out day. Focusing all efforts on one particular day of travel kind of puts you in an unwinnable situation.

[ChriswUfGator]

I disliked the idea of a "national opt out day" from the beginning. It's counter-productive. If you truly believe that the TSA's new policies are invasive and unconstitutional, then every day should be opt-out day. Focusing all efforts on one particular day of travel kind of puts you in an unwinnable situation.

Well, naturally, because the TSA sees it coming and just won't act up on that one day. Duh. Then they sit back and say "See, told you, nothing to see here" and score a win by manipulating the media, before going back and doing whatever they wanted to do to begin with, having dodged the bullet. The way this was handled gave the TSA an opportunity to pull the exact stunt they pulled, and was extremely counterproductive in terms of finding a balance between civil liberties and actual (not illusory) security. I am disappointed that the organizers did not foresee this obvious outcome.

[Dog Walker]

But, all in all; I really enjoyed the video of the young lady going through security in her speedos!

Wow!