Comments on: Tourists deported from U.S. for Twitter jokes (Updated)

By: Paul Snow

Paul Snow — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:03:00 +0000

In other words, it didn’t bother you a bit, so why care?

By: Gene N

Gene N — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:25:00 +0000

First, it is not TSA. TSA has nothing to do with it. Us Customs (and Border Protection) is the agency involved. Second, There is no big travesty here. They APPLIED for admission to the U.S. They were denied. Just that simple. They were not arrested, beaten, held for days, simply turned around. Just as the UK does to plenty of Americans.

By: coastwalker

coastwalker — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:28:00 +0000

Amongst other things it is clear that the DHS are completely incompetent. It is an amusing thought that hanging shrunken heads up as a warning in airports would probably be twice as effective as these lazy fools. No wonder Americans think their taxes are being wasted if this is a representative example of what they are being spent on. What a pathetic bunch of loosers.

By: Fnordius

Fnordius — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:52:00 +0000

You know, I just realised a funny reply could have been “But I meant Detroit! Damn you autocorrect!”

By: Fnordius

Fnordius — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:47:00 +0000

Oh, remember when NBC tried to break into the European market? Jay Leno made his slogan on their television adverts “we’re going to ruin your culture just like we ruined our own!” – I wonder how DHS would react to a Brit claiming the same before going on tour in the US?

By: Anon_Mahna

Anon_Mahna — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:41:00 +0000

If the government can round up someone and never be required to explain why, then it’s no longer the United States of America as you and I always understood it. Our enemies have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They have made us become like them.

–Garrison Keillor

By: loroferoz

loroferoz — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:02:00 +0000

There should be more evidence/leads than a joke or off color remarks… Before you suffer any consequences of any kind.
And if you suffer them being innocent, you should be apologized to, not be harassed further.

You cannot yell fire in a crowded theater, but you can yell fire all you want outside of a crowded theater, even joke about doing it inside a crowded theater on every media on Earth, and nobody should make you suffer consequences of any kind as long as nobody shows IN A COURT OF LAW that you effectively yelled fire in a crowded theater to cause mayhem or planned to.

These hijinks will stop any, I repeat ANY terrorist. In fact they waste time and money and make security a joke.

In fact if I were a terrorist, specially a homophobic religious fundamentalist I would get some dupes, or accomplices (or hack their accounts to that effect) to say such things for distraction’s sake. Then I would tweet about how I gay I have become, coming out of the closet and visiting my new American boyfriend.

It seems TSA “intelligence” is not correlated to real-world intelligence: info gathering kind or smarts. The ones that catch terrorists.

Mohammed Abbasi could also be a christian (10% of Arabs for starters) or an atheist, or anything with that name. Intelligence, not racial profiling.

By: Michael W.

Michael W. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:06:00 +0000

One of the driving forces behind the generation of tweets is people quoting things from TV shows they find funny and posting them often without any accompanying hash-tag or contextual frame.

So how many fucking people are now on a no-fly list or being surveilled because they tweeted something from American Dad or an episode of South Park?
It’s so ridiculous it belongs in a satirical novel about the War On Terror.

By: Michael W.

Michael W. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:52:00 +0000

That’s fabulous!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:14:00 +0000

His other articles paint a picture of an angry, red-faced, little man impotently shaking his tiny fist at a universe full of imagined slights.

By: Rob Beschizza

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:33:00 +0000

I wouldn’t have bothered, but that Glenn linked it.

However, any excuse for triple snaps.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:21:00 +0000

What is a “Ted Frank” and why would anyone care what it thinks?

By: Another Kevin

Another Kevin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:40:00 +0000

And … of course, anyone who goes out to paint the town red must be plotting vandalism.

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:53:00 +0000

Do you think that just maybe that statement was fallacious because it was intended to be somewhat ironic?

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:52:00 +0000

He… threatened to dig up Marilyn Monroe. *stares at you in disbelief* You and I must have VERY different ideas of what can be taken as a serious national threat.

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:51:00 +0000

Whoosh!!

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:50:00 +0000

If we could only harness the wind power, generated by Rob’s joke about the Sun and Mail, whooshing over so many people’s heads…

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:50:00 +0000

Whoosh.

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:49:00 +0000

Yes, but we’ll all giggle at you for missing the blatant joke.

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Cool! Can I use this? “Your honor – I couldn’t possibly have blown up that bus full of nuns – I’m gay! The defense rests.”

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:19:00 +0000

So you’re saying “Mom” runs the DHS these days…? Or Grampa runs the DHS and Mom is in charge of the TSA?

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:12:00 +0000

It’s really pretty sad that you can’t see how this kind of complete knee-jerk overreaction to a stupid, flip comment goes WAY beyond the pale on the part of the TSA or anyone else. Who hasn’t said something like, “We’re going to wreck the place” in mockery of the fact you’re probably going to go bowling and eat a pizza and fall asleep in the car during your wild night out? I’m sure that’s all it was – he was probably coming here for a checkers championship or something he knows sounds lame, so he made a joke of it – “Yeah – I’m gonna go to the United States and destroy the place with all of my checkers-playing buddies, ’cause we’re all bad-asses like that”. All I can say is, W.T.F. have we become that we won’t let someone into our effing country because he’s a smart-ass? They’d better deport my white butt if being a smartass is now a crime; I’m the Hannibal Lecter of smartassery…

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:07:00 +0000

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=destroy

By: Lindsay Fitzgerald

Lindsay Fitzgerald — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:06:00 +0000

Had to make this once I read your comments, lol

http://cheezburger.com/View/5765955840

By: autark

autark — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:43:00 +0000

Did DHS really get records from Twitter to determine this user’s actual identity? Or did they just go by the name he had publicly posted on Twitter?

If the latter… how long until fake twitter accounts are getting celebs and politicians on no-fly lists?

By: Nothing Much

Nothing Much — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:34:00 +0000

Saturate twitter and facebook with irregular and regular postings of probable and improbable search terms that the DHS is looking for. Choke the system.

By: BrendanAdkins

BrendanAdkins — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:32:00 +0000

A photo that appeared in the Sun or the Mail is about as much credible evidence as a Vogue cover shoot.

By: BrendanAdkins

BrendanAdkins — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:28:00 +0000

I’m with you, Gunn. This is as fake as the McNugget-diet thing from last week. There are multiple tweets from @MelissaxWalton on the 23rd, talking about how she did a “double session” at yoga and planned her bachelorette party, nothing about going to LA at all. This got picked up by BB, the Washington Post, and Forbes, all without anyone considering that the only source is a FREAKING TABLOID THAT MAKES STUFF UP.

By: Hemlocke

Hemlocke — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:41:00 +0000

“Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither, and will lose both.”

Someone who could be categorized as a terrorist uttered that, but we like to call him a “Founding Father.” NO U.S. citizen should feel anything other than shame for what our nation did today.

By: cjporkchop

cjporkchop — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:34:00 +0000

So when fundies say that gay marriage will “destroy America,” does that mean the DHS can count that as a credible tip and search the homes of every gay married couple?