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Senator Blacklisted by No-Fly List
sig writes "Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was turned down for a flight from Washington, D. C. to Boston because his name turned up on the TSA No-Fly list. He eventually got on a flight, but was again denied on his way back to D.C. It took 3 weeks of calls to Tom Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security for the ordeal to get straightened out. But what are ordinary citizens supposed to do if the Secretary of Homeland Security won't take their calls?" There's also a New York Times story.
For a lot of good reading on truly effective security practices, read Bruce Schneier's stuff, http://www.schneier.com/, his crypto-gram newsletters have lots of interesting reading.
Riiiight. So basically anybody called 'T Kennedy' isn't allowed to fly.
According to the 1990 census information, 0.067% of Americans have the surname 'Kennedy' - given a rough poulation of 300million, that makes around 200,000 American Kennedys.
Now, also from the above information, 4.25% of the male population and 3.35% of the female population have names beginning with T.
This means that just from that single name on the no-fly list, roughly 7600 Americans could be excluded from flying.
It's utter, utter madness.
The next pasture is always greener
Kenneth Star spent upwards to $50 Million dollars investigating Clinton and all he could show at the end of it was that Billy lied about getting a blow job. Of course, Newt couldn't find ANYONE in congress to initiate proceedings against Billy because all Newt's people were guilty of similar offenses.
So, excuse me, but get YOUR facts straight. Billy was impeached (f*cking unbelievable) because he decided to lie about his blow job. You can be assured that if Kenny had any suspicion that Billy was guilty of a REAL crime that he would have spent another $20 Million chasing it down.
Ted's a nickname...
Washington Post states the actual [bad] entry in the system was "T. Kennedy" that trigger this whole event.
Scenario: When you goto the airport, they look at your drivers license and it says "Richard Bruce Cheney" (or Richard B. Cheney). I'm sure you will not be flagged against "D. Cheney" if it shows up in the database, otherwise all we need is a J. Smith to be entered in the database and viola, system overload... Anyway that's where profiling comes in to place I guess to prevent that ;)
Sounds like human error or poor judgement (or good judgement, depending on political party preference) but obviously blamed on a computer/database.
I didn't get the joke, so I googled a bit:
here
On the evening of July 19, 1969, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts drove his Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, drowning his passenger, a young campaign worker named Mary Jo Kopechne. The senator left the scene of the accident, did not report it to the police for many hours, and according to some accounts considered concocting an alibi for himself in the interim.
At the time, Kennedy managed to escape severe legal and political consequences for his actions thanks to his family's connections (which helped to contain the inquest and grand jury) and to a nationally televised "Checkers"-like speech broadcast a week after the accident. But virtually no journalist who has closely examined the evidence fully believes Kennedy's story, and almost 30 years later, the tragedy still trails the senator, with aggressive press investigations revived in five-year anniversary intervals.
Probably more than any other single factor, Chappaquiddick - a frenzy without end - has ensured that Ted Kennedy would not follow his brother John to the White House.
It's bad enough when comment posters don't RTFA, but the submitter?!?!
From the article:
A Kennedy aide said the senator nearly missed a couple of flights because of the delays
This is NOT "turned down for a flight". Sheesh!
Not that I support Clinton...
But my understanding is that Clinton asked the Judge to define Sexual relations.
And the Judge said Sexual relations = intercourse.
And Clinton correctly (according to his story) stated that he did not have sexual relations with ML.
By the Judge's definition oral sex was not considered sexual relations.
After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge, resulting in the death of one of his aides. This event has haunted his entire career, is the reason you'll see far-right activits show up to his events wearing life preservers, and is recognized as the single most important reason he has not nor ever will run for President of the United States. Check out Wikipedia's entry on Ted Kennedy, as it contains far more about the situation than it does on his career.
/. readers probably don't know this, and the joke went way over their heads.
This is not Karma farming... I don't need it anymore, and I realize that the vast majority of summer
you are not fucking kidding, my WIFE gets stopped EVERY TIME she boards an airplane, especially when she has our son with her. *I* on the other hand, was only stopped once, when I was next to her in line and said I was her husband. From now on, we enter the lines seperately when our son is with us. The only remotely logical explanation is that she took trips with her parents to Hungary and around Europe before she was 10 years old and thus is on some sort of watch list.
Fuck 9/11 and fuck homeland security. If someone is determined and smart, they can blow up any goddamn thing they want, no amount of flag waving bullshit security is going to save us. Its reality and people don't want to face it. The only way we catch these people (the ones REALLY determined to hit us) is a LOT of hard work by LAW ENFORCEMENT (NOT MILITARY!) with an extra hefty scoop of LucK. Terrorism is a law enforcement issue, not an issue of war.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
"Ok...here's a proposal. [
I fully agree. Another critical angle is to contact your representatives and be heard. Your phone call is actually more powerful than your vote in many ways. Your vote gets the person into/out of office, your phone calls/email/letters gives them direct feedback on specific issues.
Followup ideas on How To Do It Better to follow shortly, but I've got to knock out a conference call first. Yeah, work. The nerve of them. ;-)
You should check out what snopes has to say about the dry run. Seriously. The air marshals were at least as concerned about the behavior of the woman who wrote that article as they were about the musicians, maybe more. If you don't want to put faith in the snopes article, read thier sources. If you don't want to put faith in their sources, I can't help you.
For people nervous about links: http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/skyterror.asp
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
From the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 6:
[...] They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same [...]
This clause is sometimes put forward by congressmen to try to avoid tickets, since they are "going to and returning from" their sessions. See Sen. Robert Byrd: Invoking an ancient rule to avoid a modern law to find out more.
And this kind of crap is not going to be buried by the media!
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
See: www.gregpalast.com
Why presume when you can RTFA? Senator Kennedy wasn't cleared by "second level checking", or even the first 2 of 3 calls to Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security. You've obviously decided that the system is good, and aren't interested in having your mind changed by the facts. Sounds like you work for the Department.
--
make install -not war
The 2nd question was because of your 'wrong' answer to the first. INS (or whatever they call themselves now) are required to ensure that you have enough funds to support your visit so that you won't resort to asking for handouts or robbery. The bizarre thing is that the law that codified this requirement was written a long time ago and the amount of cash required wasn't index linked, so it wouldn't cover a meal in a decent restaurant today. I can't remember exactly what the figure is, but it's something like $20.
When I was dating my now wife and make frequent trips into the USA without a green card, I used to keep $40 in my wallet just to avoid that hassle even though I, like you, used ATMs to support my stay.
You get used to it after a while. What I do is basically:
1) Don't carry anything valuable. They'll make you dump everything on a table, which they don't watch very well. For security staff, they're pretty slack about other people's stuff.
2) Wear cheap, flat 'deck' shoes, like $12 pairs fron a cheap show chain. You may lose them at some point.
3) If you wear a belt, use a cheap flat belt. You may have it torn open at some point.
4) Wear clean underware, with no holes. You may wind up with your pants around your ankles with 20 strangers there, as you try to stand straight, with no belt, and your arms straight out from your sides. (Happened to me at San Diego, in the hole they call Gate 1.)
Expect to be laughed at by the wanker TSA employees. Do not make any remarks or show any expression in response. Remarks about a**holes results in an extra hour or two in a small room while you wait for a cavity search 'specialist'.