Thank you, Jake

___________________________

“Dear Mr. President,

I’ve never written to the President before. I’ve written to my Representatives and Senators a few times. Once even with a semi-satisfying reply.
But, I find that I must express my strong objection to the latest TSA procedures. I would guess you know what I’m referring to. Invasive scans and physical searches which include people’s most intimate body parts. I find that I need to be convinced that these procedures do anything at all to make the general public safer.
I believe that the American people have already spoken on whether we think it’s acceptable to have strangers photograph us naked without our permission. And it’s not, we have laws against that.
The American people have already spoken on whether it’s OK to have strangers touch our breasts, vaginas, penis, scrotum and rear ends without permission. Its not OK. We have laws against that.
We spend BILLIONS of tax Dollars that could go to rebuilding America… for what? To give SOME people a feeling of “security”? I sincerely believe that there is a strong argument to be made against treating everyone as a suspect. There must be a better way. We are supposed to live in the Land of the Free!
Mrs. Obama once said she is finally proud to be American. Well today Mr. President, I am almost ashamed to be an American. And if you turn your back on us here, I will have to feel ashamed to have supported you.

Please consider this.”

Since it happened at an airport within the D.C. Metro area, you would think that now the people on capital hill will take notice. I wonder how many congressmen have to go through these TSA scans, or do they get to skip past them?

It’s a two-tiered system. If you’re going on a private jet, you don’t deal with any screening security at all (even though a private jet could potentially do as much damage as a commercial airliner). The TSA has considered giving private jet passengers a one-time “background check” but nowhere near the same level of groping and nudity the rest of us face. So as long as rich people get to circumvent the system, they’re quite content to let the peasants suffer.

The funny side is, that you Americans just TAKE IT. You let not only the government, but also other organisations shit on you from a great height.

Do you know that there is be a possibility to just stand up and say: “That’s enough now. We don’t want anymore of this!”

Things like these “security measures” are happening all over the globe. The difference is, if and how the public handles them. Suing the government (and winning), going on national strike, telling the government to get out and electing a new one. These are just some examples of what has been going on in good old europe over the past years.

You as the people descide how much you want to take and when the line is crossed. But americans just seem to cry and moan in the newspapers and on the internet instead of standing up and making it stop.

He did not like me saying “but this is the price for freedom, I might have had a bazooka in my colostomy bag”)

But I COULD carry a pistol in the bag, or some drugs.. so it’s best to be safe than sorry. I am 55% disabled, so it’s POSSIBLE that I could outwrestle a stewardess and hijack an American Airplane..

People say shit like that all the time.

Free speech is nice, but it takes a lot more than that to change something.

I’ve set off plenty of detectors at airports in UK and been patted down many times as a result. And I’ve never experienced a pat-down as “robust” as those now being described to us as now being done by TSA. It was a pat-down every time, not an intimate search – there is a real difference.
Read this, where the difference is explained.
http://www.hlswatch.com/2009/10/15/%E2%80%9Cdo-i-have-the-right-to-refuse-this-search%E2%80%9D/

The regulatory fingers are everywhere — not just in your pants at the airport. They’re also in your medical records (new federal mandate to put all records on computer databases), in you Happy Meals, in your fireplace (can’t start a fire on nights when the government says no, in some places), in your car, basically everywhere you move and everywhere you rest.

I hope and pray we reclaim at least some of our vanishing freedom in my lifetime.

The first step is to realize how much we’ve lost, and how precious it is.

If you think freedom lives in a Happy Meal, then I think you’re the one who’s not quite clear on how much you’ve lost, and how precious it was. Imagining why there might be a legitimate public interest in regulating air pollution or automobile safety is left as an exercise for the reader.

Well I’m sick of waiting and have come around to the fact that no intrusive pat-down by your border stasi is worth it.

Good thing your country doesn’t need my tourist dollars.

Extremists 1 USA 0

I think the issue is really more of training than anything. I seriously doubt any of the TSA workers want to be groping travellers’ junk. I can only imagine the thoughts of “Can this job get any worse?” that went through their heads when this new act of security-theater was announced. Add to that the low pay, monotonous work, and dealing with an already surly public, it’s no wonder things like this happen.

What needs to change are the rules being hatched by TSA. The decision process that results in systems such as this. And training. Get the people on the front lines some real, thorough training. And pay them better. Even hookers get paid better to handle your junk.

“Security guard,” has a very low barrier to entry, if any restriction at all. And, the TSA “agents” aren’t armed, so having some black mark on your record isn’t an impediment either.

What a miserable job, it’s not much better than the “job” of sticking flyers in the faces of pedestrians. I think doing yardwork/mowing actually requires more talent.

So, you take these kinds of people, command them to follow/enforce a list of pointless bureaucratic rules, and give them some “authority.”

Reminds me of that SouthPark Cartman cop character: “Obey my uh-thor-i-tay!”

I’m sure there are plenty of TSA employees who would be more than happy to cash in on the bounty by supplying pics. Perhaps there could be a sliding pay scale with more money paid for pics of more prominent politicians.

The pics could be posted on a website. Politicians shouldn’t have anything to hide, should they?

For this to work of course the idea of the bounty existing (whether it does or not) would have to be widely publicized. Want to spread the meme?

I hope and pray we reclaim at least some of our vanishing freedom in my lifetime.

The first step is to realize how much we’ve lost, and how precious it is.”

—

“If you think freedom lives in a Happy Meal, then I think you’re the one who’s not quite clear on how much you’ve lost, and how precious it was. Imagining why there might be a legitimate public interest in regulating air pollution or automobile safety is left as an exercise for the reader.”

—

You said it. That “happy meal” comment undoubtedly came from a Tea Party’er or “Libertarian” who believes the “free market” will _always_ solve everything, and that corporations and individuals should be able to harm anyone/anything they please.

“I hope and pray”?

Prayer: How to do nothing, and still think you’re helping.

All I can think now is that Obama will be definitely be out of office come 2012. How long before the GOP turns this against the Democrats? Its like Anthony Burgess’ “The Wanting Seed”.

THis is crazy. I don’t know what I would do if I saw someone suffer such indignities. Let alone the agents (please don’t throw things at me).

You know, almost the entire internet consists of pages not about this subject.

Let’s keep feeding this beast. TSA must be held accountable.

I would not say that all security people are terrible as I have many friends at the airport working for BAA who are very professional and respectful. But when the minority who cock up and act like thugs towards passengers are protected by their management it makes me dispair, I have had a couple of arguements over who knows their job better, them or me! I think that says it all really, they are out to please themselves not to provide a service.

And the security guy from Heathrow, shame on you for not being trained on how to handle medical equipment such as ostomy bags and disability aids. That should be a priority rather than an afterthought and why could you not communicate with Japanese passenger? My retail unit boasted several languages spoken by sales staff from Chinese and even basic Japanese as well as most european and indian languages.

your fundamental human rights acts don’t apply in these areas either…