Defending The Skies Against Congress And The Elderly

theodp writes "After watching a burly airport screener search her lymphoma-stricken father, forcing the frail and faltering 78-year-old to hand over his oxygen meter, stand at attention with arms spread for a wand search, take off the Velcro strap shoes that he'd struggled to put on, and strain to keep his balance as his belt was tugged repeatedly, a Newsweek columnist wonders: have we lost our common sense when it comes to passenger screening?" An anonymous reader writes "CNN reported that Kennedy wasn't alone in being listed in the airport watch list as reported in a Slashdot article. Rep. John Lewis, D - Georgia, a nine-term congressman, has been stopped many times because his name appeared on an airline watch list as told to Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on border security. He contacted the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security and executives at various airlines in an effort to get his name off the list, but failed. Instead, he received a letter from the TSA indicating he has cleared an identity check with the agency even though he might still be subject to extra security checks."

Comments

Re:hmm...

[Exatron]

We have reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us.

Re:Security?

[Master of Transhuman]

Modded "Insightful"?

By whom, George Bush?

Sure, the Kennedy's are drunks and rapists, but I sincerely doubt ol' Teddy is up for molesting stewardesses or trying to crash the plane because he had too many little bottles of booz.

It's irrelevant, anyway. He's on the watch list because his NAME is wrong. (And no doubt because he's a Democrat in a Republican administration of paranoids that make Dick Nixon look sane.)