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TSA Doing Random Truck Searches On Tennessee Highway
OverTheGeicoE writes "TSA is expanding its presence to the American road system. As part of its Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program, TSA agents are now working at 5 weigh stations and two bus stations in Tennessee. They are randomly checking trucks with 'drug and bomb sniffing dogs', and encouraging truck drivers to join their First Observer Highway Security Program and report anything suspicious that they see to authorities. VIPR is allegedly not a response to any particular threat."
though nothing happened in the last decade and all the ball groping that happened, they are still disturbing and irritating people.
wow.
Read radical news here
What is this, I don't even
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
They haven't prevented any takeovers of planes, so they have to add trucks. Wonderful.
I am almost sure now that this site is just a mirror of drudge.
You can't handle the truth.
License, registration, proof-of-insurance--oh, and bend over for a full body cavity search, sir.
Freedom to travel not something we have anymore?
Should I be carrying my papers?
At what point do we tell these assholes to fuck off? This is one government department that needs to be shutdown.
All the inconvenience of airport travel, coming soon to a town near you. Oh they will start with the truckers but whoever said the slippery slope is not real: watch. Dear God America, you tell the world about how you are the champion of democracy and freedom and then you go an pull shit like this. And you wonder why no one believes you?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I'm not quite sure how that meets their mission:
The Transportation Security Administration protects the Nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.
Then again, I'm not sure how much of what they do furthers their mission. It would seem that most of the things they do actually restrict freedom of movement.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
What are you so worried about? Heaven forbid someone has a bag of weed. STOP THE PRESSES!
This country is going down hill fast. By changing the definition of legal, the top 10% are using our own police forces to penalize us and label us as "criminals".
Then who is going to listen to a "criminal" when he wants to vote for new overlords or insist upon change? *crickets*
So obviously only people who disagree with the administration are targeted. One of the major things is weed. Christians hate it but their own rhetoric is of course gospel.
Fucking idiots. Ammo box here we come......
"Yes, I witnessed some people dressed in TSA uniforms at a weigh station, and I suspect they may be impostors. Could you send some agents over to check the situation?"
Are Tennessee children better looking than in other states? Why would they target Tennessee? Is it just more common to have ignorance and a lack of lawsuits when implementing this type of policy (people too poor or stupid to care, since they can't pay for the lawsuit with money or time) ?
Hey, they couldn't find terrorists on airplanes, they seem perfectly competent to not find terrorists on the roads too!
---jstlook ---For that is the way of Elves, for they say both yes AND no, and mean every word of it. --- J.R.R.T.
VIPR is allegedly not a response to any particular threat
The threat is very clear - budget cuts. With Osama gone, Al Qaeda a thin shadow of its former self (which was really never much to begin with) and no significant acts of terrorism for the last 10 years, the TSA and the DHS are in jeopardy of being pared back to a size much more appropriate to the risk -- i.e. practically nothing.
If they don't remind us to be scared, who will?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Trying to validate their jobs by bullying people.
If the "occupy wall st" people added dissolution of the TSA to their agenda, I might join them at this point...
Before: The TSA is a useless agency. It's clear they only act on a reactionary basis, making draconian regulations and procedures to solve problems that already happened and won't happen again. If the TSA is to be useful at all, they need to do some prevention tactics, not just reaction.
TSA is expanding its presence to the American road system. As part of its Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program, TSA agents are now working at 5 weigh stations and two bus stations in Tennessee. They are randomly checking trucks with 'drug and bomb sniffing dogs', and encouraging truck drivers to join their First Observer Highway Security Program an report anything suspicious that they see to authorities. VIPR is allegedly not a response to any particular threat.
After: ZOOOOOOMG OHNOES THEY ARE TOUCHING ME IN MY RIGHTS CHANGE IT BACK CHANGE IT BACK CHANGE IT BACK CHANGE IT BACK
This is the thin leading wedge of tyranny. Everyone involved in the decision making process of this program, starting with Mr. Bill Gibbons, should be fired and banned from Government employment for life, as they have shown themselves as being clearly unworthy of the public trust.
If it wasn't blatantly obvious that terrorism was being used as a scapegoat by the TSA for funding before, this definitely helps. There's no way this has anything to do with terrorism. Tennessee? That's where most drugs go through, coming from Mexico to pretty much anywhere in the Northeast U.S. Terrorists? Nary a one. Not to mention this is the perfect state to violate 4th amendment rights in, what with all the idiots.
Yay for the USA. In the 1950's it was the Communist Threat. Now it's the Terrorist Threat. Maybe after Global Warming is lead-ballooned it will become the Environmentalist Threat.
We, the taxpaying middle class, pay for this.. We pay to randomly search vehicles for hopes of finding a terrorist.. I'd rather pay government agents to search for gold nuggets.
This is at weigh stations. The trucks ALL have to go there if it's open. While getting weighed, inspected, and checked for valid tax stickers I don't really have a problem with them walking detection dogs around the truck. It is non-discriminatory. They're not pulling random trucks off the road because of 'driving while non-white.' I'd love to get the stoned truckers off the roads. It's not like they're going to find any bombs.
that he didn't stand up when they were drinking to Stalin's health." Citizens being urged to report "anything suspicious," leaves a good taste in your mouth, doesn't it?
weinersmith
My father drove trucks here for years through Tennessee, and I don't even need to ask him whether he thinks this is a ridiculous waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Every minute they waste off the road is money from their pockets. Especially when in many cases you leave the truck running during all of this bullshit in order to pull it to the various road markers for different pointless checks.
They will likely never find a single truck carrying anything of federal importance. All they'll do is use it for catching things which the THP or other federal agencies should already be handling, like catching drugs, and add one more level of red tape to the honest hard-working people.
There are only so many TSA people you can fit inside an airport.
Let's hire MORE and put them to work ... checking TRUCKS! And buses, yeah! Because that's where the terrorists will strike next.
In the year 2035, 51% of the population will be employed by the DHS/TSA to watch/search the other 49%.
"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.
I wonder, has the TSA ever found a real terrorist? Except from their employees, that is. :)
Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart.
Justice Robert Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials
...I mean, who hasn't wanted to see the naked silhouette of a beltless, shoeless truck driver?
To the USSA!
This is for your protection.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
The United Conservative Fascist States of America
Wrong, Comrade! You are so wrong! They are pro-actively protecting us from the imminent threats of massive total destruction by terrorists from Eurasia and Eastasia!
Welcome, Comrades!
Welcome to the Glorious Union of Soviet Corporatist Republics!
Ohh, ooh,Count me in! ...First, I wanna report that mathematically, the amount of effort and funding involved in countering domestic terrorism is alarmingly disproportionate to the actual threat. I have reason to believe the Bureaucracy has been infiltrated by econo-terrorists, and paranoid authoritarians. The fact that one has an enormously greater chance of being fatally stricken by a substandard driver than a bomb-harboring truck suggests that someone in the TSA is at least hostile to math - if not common sense. Second, I wish to report that unreasonable punishments for victimless/consensual crimes are suspiciously causing more harm than mitigation; I think this must be investigated. I also wish to make a confession: I think public safety is more important than awarding private contractors and private prisons, and that liberties should not be used as currency to fund a police state. I hope that helps, and please don't mess with my grandma's diaper; she's really not a terrorist, I swear.
Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck
and I was told I just shouldn't fly on airplanes.
Then they came for the truck drivers in Tennessee...
and I was told I just shouldn't drive trucks in Tennessee.
Then...
Oh, bother. I suppose California is going to oppress me with gay marriage and a lack of a failed war on drugs.
I suppose I'll have lower taxes overall as well. Since the Federal government would be reduced so drastically, the lion's share of total tax monies would be shifted to individual states (as it should be), and California in such a position could certainly pay for all our crazy outlandish programs. Even while cutting total tax amounts.
Hell, we could probably still even pay welfare to the southeastern states of the US. (We're crazy like that.)
As soon as "9/11 happened" I wrote to my congress critter and asked them _NOT_ to consider or pass any legislation in response to the attack.
I got a letter back "assuring" me that congress was working as hard and as fast as possible to do _exactly_ what I begged them not to do.
Dear Rest Of The World:
Next time you decided to deport all your religious wackos, please do not send them all to one place. It weakens the gene pool. If you'd sent us some of those criminals you sent down under to dilute the wacjobbery things would have turned out better.
Signed, the descendants of your bad choices, the U.S.A.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
It'd be a real shame if someone set off a truckload of marijuana in a crowded rest stop...think of the children!
They just know they're out there! Surely someone has seen one? Checked in the back? Under the axles, sometimes they latch on, start chewing on the power lines.
Aw, c'mon, man, give me a break, I have to catch three more terrorists this month or I don't make my rent. Look,just point at some brown-lookin' trucker you don't like, I'll take care of him for you, no questions asked, no presumption of innocence or nuthin'. C'mon, guy, I don't even get dental!
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I have driven across the entire US at least a dozen times in various cars.
Without exception, I have had no hassle from police when I have stopped
at a rest area on the Interstate highway in order to get a bit of much-needed
rest.
However, one evening in Tennessee a few years ago I was told by a Tennessee state
highway patrolman that if I did not leave the rest area immediately he would arrest me,
despite the fact that I had explained calmly to this patrolman that I was so tired I would not be safe driving,
and that I would thus be a danger to myself and others on the road. But I did leave in order to avoid being arrested,
and slapped myself very hard in the face every 30 seconds or so ( in order to stay awake ) until I reached North Carolina
where I could stop and get some sleep, because once in North Carolina I would not be arrested for trying to be a safe
driver.
What I am trying to say is that I don't think it is a coincidence that this is happening in Tennessee.
The attitude of the authorities there is extremely fascist and unpleasant. As a direct result of this, I
do not intend to ever visit the state again.
First Observer Highway Security Program an report anything suspicious that they see to authorities.
Mr. Welles, is that you? This whole thing was President Clark's idea wasn't it?
Are participants required to wear black armbands?
This will probay get me on the watch list but in my opinion President Clark is nothing but a Shadow puppet.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Who's with me?!
Who gets to make up the catchy acronyms for all these programs? That must come from the top.
Does jack squat any more. I watch as these Occupy people sit around and sing songs, people up at the capital sing slogans, and they expect things are going to change.
Not gonna happen. If you had the ability to print an infinite amount of money and give it to your friends and yourself, would you give up that sort of power and influence?
You certainly would! Right before you nuke every major city on the globe!
So this whole crapola thing with the TSA isn't going to go away without a real nasty revolution.
No way are the people who have that power going to step aside. They will put a terrorist boogey man in every place they can. If they can't they will nuke a city, and tell you if you don't give us complete control, another "terrorist" will nuke another city.
This is way out of control of the voting booth now.
I would seriously consider having a plan in place to leave the country sooner than later.
Because, if history is any guide, the next thing TSA will be doing is preventing any people from leaving the country, while of course if you are illegal, fine no problem.
There is a definite agenda here, and it is has nothing to do with terrorists that much is for sure.
-Hack.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
"We're calling it, the Knightwatch."
"Be a Government Informer. Betray Your Family & Friends. Fabulous Prizes to be Won"?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Welcome to the Korporate States of Amerika.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Last I checked, Tennessee was further than 100 miles from the national border.
Or are they including foreign embassies and Native American territories in the US as right-to-search borders now? And of the former, I don't just mean static buildings but also ambassadorial mobile vehicles. Want to search without a warrant? Invite a foreign ambassador to visit a nearby county.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
encouraging truck drivers to join their First Observer Highway Security Program an report anything suspicious that they see to authorities.
"Yes, sir, I see a bunch of people with no business digging around in the back of sealed containers en route to their destinations... digging around in sealed containers en route to their destinations."
Seriously, though, if I were contemplating placing explosives, drugs, or other contraband into a commercial vehicle, I would consider bribing a TSA agent to do the placing for me. There are so many of them, now, that it seems absurd to think there won't be at least one thinking they're underpaid and/or overworked... so many body cavities, so little time...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
If tests are any indication they probably fail to stop more than that.
I have a magic rock that protects me from tigers. I know this because I strip-search everyone I meet and so far I've found 3 people who carried tiger's teeth as good-luck charms. In the meantime, not a single tiger attack. It's obviously working.
And please don't start with the "a gun going off on a plane oh no EVERYBODY WOULD DIE" thing. It's not true.
What really stopped terrorists from attacking airplanes is the same thing that stopped them in Pennsylvania: the passengers. That and some sensible moves like reinforcing cockpit doors and realizing that terrorists might actually want to kill everyone rather than just get some ransom money and go away.
Drving, despite what the DMV and the police would have you believe, is a right well-established by both law and court decision. Yes, the police are lying to you as they overreach their authority, shocking I know.
Cites follow, the reasoning is roughly this. A citizen cannot participate in modern society without the use of an automobile. Public transportation only covers a minor portion of the geography of the US. Bicycles and walking cannot cover the routine distances involved in modern life. On the other hand, driving is a dangerous activity with significant hazards to the public at large, thus the right to "Life," balances against the right to "Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Personally, I hope the TSA does expand to random traffic stops. I hope they start impementing strip searches for walking down the sidewalk. I want them to set up shop at the OWS rally near you. The faster they can provoke a full-out general revolt against their nonsense, the happier I'll be.
Here are the court decisions I promised you:
"The use of the highways for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege, but a common and fundamental Right of which the public and the individual cannot be rightfully deprived." [emphasis added] Chicago Motor Coach vs. Chicago, 169 NE 22; Ligare vs. Chicago, 28 NE 934; Boon vs. Clark, 214 SSW 607; 25 Am.Jur. (1st) Highways Sect.163.
""Even the legislature has no power to deny to a citizen the right to travel upon the highway and transport his property in the ordinary course of his business or pleasure, though this right may be regulated in accordance with the public interest and convenience." Chicago Motor Coach v. Chicago, 169 NE 22. "
"Complete freedom of the highways is so old and well established a blessing that we have forgotten the days of the Robber Barons and toll roads, and yet, under an act like this, arbitrarily administered, the highways may be completely monopolized, if, through lack of interest, the people submit, then they may look to see the most sacred of their liberties taken from them one by one, by more or less rapid encroachment." Robertson vs. Department of Public Works, 180 Wash 133, 147.
"The right of the citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by carriage or by automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit at will, but a common right which he has under the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thompson v. Smith, 154 SE 179.
"Personal liberty largely consists of the Right of locomotion -- to go where and when one pleases -- only so far restrained as the Rights of others may make it necessary for the welfare of all other citizens. The Right of the Citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, by horsedrawn carriage, wagon, or automobile, is not a mere privilege which may be permitted or prohibited at will, but the common Right which he has under his Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under this Constitutional guarantee one may, therefore, under normal conditions, travel at his inclination along the public highways or in public places, and while conducting himself in an orderly and decent manner, neither interfering with nor disturbing another's Rights, he will be protected, not only in his person, but in his safe conduct." [emphasis added] II Am.Jur. (1st) Constitutional Law, Sect.329, p.1135.
"The right to travel is a part of the liberty of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the 5th Amendment." Kent v. Dulles, 357 US 116, 125.
"Undoubtedly the right of locomotion, the right to move from one place to another according to inclination, is an attribute of personal liberty, and the right, ordinarily, of free transit from or through the territory of any State is a right secured by the 14th amendment and by other provisions of the Constitution." Schactman v. Dulles, 96 App DC 287, 293.
"Personal liberty -- consists of the power of lo
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Could anyone think of a better way to defeat an omnipotent enemy than causing it to go Stasi on itself?
See http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-02/ff_stasi
As we say, Stasi "is TSA." Anagram-wise.
And if Alabama said "Nigger hunting season starts Saturday" would that be cool as well? After all its states rights to decide who they want and who they don't yes? don't forget it was just 40 years ago that a black could have their head bashed in for drinking at a fountain with the wrong sign on it. don't think it could happen now? Replace nigger with wetback and you'd be surprised how many would be happy to go along.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Truck search for YOU!
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Don't fly. Write your representatives demanding they abolish the TSA. Do not submit to their tyranny. They are operating in an unconstitutional manner, their methods are completely ineffective against terrorism. Their methods are designed to get "law abiding citizens" to comply with their illegal searches. Civil disobedience and protests are effective.
And why are the spending hundreds of millions of dollars on "porno-scanners" that are proven ineffective for the airports, but using bomb sniffing dogs (which are much cheaper and proven effective) for VIPR? Because it's not about stopping terrorism, it's about control and compliance.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
It's because they were under their allotted budget, so, they had to spend more tax dollars in order to get the same budget next quarter.
You didn't think this was actually about making people more safe, did you?
Don't suspect a friend
REPORT THEM!
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
TSA can't get a break. They are either responding only to threats that have occurred. Which is patently wrong as terrorists won't do it again that way. And when they aren't responding to a specific threat. They are patently wrong because there is obviously no threat.
Weimar Republic.
I drove from El Paso, TX to LA, CA ending yesterday, and there was a checkpoint just west of Las Cruces which stopped all cars and trucks, did a multi-specrtal analysis of all vehicles as well as photographed passengers and plates. They asked extensive questions as to where we came from, where we were going. Pretty much everything short of "where's your papers" which I presume they didn't need to ask for since one question was "are you the registered owner of this vehicle"?
The fruit checkpoint entering CA was also repurposed to a police state random checkpoint where the inspection was more visual and sprectral and photographic without the questions, presumably because they already captured our info.
I consider all these activities to be unwarranted random searches in violation to my rights to both privacy and liberty (from which privacy flows).
Since objecting on the legal basis I am entitled to would single me out for further scrutiny, I declined to persue that, which was a strain on my right to free speech.
I am white, but when you know you are black and have any interaction with police at all you can presume to be pulled over for DWB, and extensively "inspected" and often as was the case in the past 20 years giving a/any non-moving violation to address the non-probable cause claim most black folks have a valid claim for. We do in fact live in a police state. I say that as a law abiding, non targeted, generally compliant person.
That means it is getting bad.
The TSA has absolutely no jurisdiction on a US highway. This is like having the Boy Scouts of America police bike paths or something.
If a TSA agent decides it will be fun to pull me over, as soon as they identify themselves as TSA I'm driving away. They can't do anything about it. Follow me home, pull a gun on me, and watch me drop your ass on my front lawn for being an invasive threat.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
Tennessee Becomes First State To Fight Terrorism Statewide
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/15725035/officials-claim-tennessee-becomes-first-state-to-deploy-vipr-statewide
Whatever happened to our rights... this is a blatant violation of the 4th amendment... we might as well move to a 3rd world country
1. Buy railroads
2. Have your government friends make road transportation suck
3. ???
4. Profit!!!!!
Local cops have turned I-40 across Tennessee into something of a law enforcement gauntlet. It's a major east-west drug trafficking corridor. Drugs coming from Mexico via Texas move east towards the highly populated eastern seaboard. Cash goes west to buy another consignment of drugs. County Sheriff departments and even small town cops set up along the interstate to look for people who might fit a profile (anything from TX or FL plates to rumors of really high tech detection gear). The cops have K9 teams plus bad ass looking blacked out SUVs. Not sure what kind of surveillance gear they have. They find some pretext (slightly over the speed limit, don't signal lane change, etc.) to pull them over and then have multiple cop cars converge and start searching. I just drove from Nashville to Memphis today and saw at least two cars pulled over on the shoulder. One was getting the trunk emptied, another had cops crawling around under the car with flashlights. Funny thing, this was on the westbound side. The side allegedly carrying cash. Here's the thing. If the cops find suspected drug money, they can do a civil seizure of it and the booty into their locality's or department's budget. This does not require a conviction. They don't really care about the eastbound side, the side carrying drugs. They can't really do anything with drugs other than destroy them, plus that might hurt the supply of money.
sweet headline, A+ reporting
I always object to people who call driving a right, because political discourse is confused to the point where people confuse rights with liberties.
A right is something you have the privilege to do within the bounds of constitutional law, a thing in which no other citizen can discriminate against you or prevent you from doing, nor the government where it acts as an employer, a buyer of goods, etc. A liberty is generally something the government cannot prevent you from doing, under almost any circumstances. So they're very similar, but not the same.
Driving may have been ruled a right, but it comes with high social costs and responsibilities. It's entirely fair for a legitimate government to certify and restrict drivers in some ways. Many people define driving as a "right" when their argument really defines a liberty, something to which they have absolute privilege and over which they perceive any government oversight as some illegitimate, collectivist intrusion. That always seems to me like social-Darwinist propaganda, the notion that a tool almost entirely dependent on trillions of dollars in public infrastructure and able to kill people at any moment should be an unrestricted, guaranteed 'right'.
I still believe that driving is a privilege in the sense that it can be taken away in response to repeatedly shirking your share of the social costs or endangering other people. It is, if you will, both a right and a privilege. If police or courts are overstepping their bounds in pushing some ludicrous, alternate definition of driving as exclusively a privilege which you enjoy at the pleasure of the state, then directly attack those policies rather than inventing a second alternate reality in which you have unrestricted access to automobiles at all times and without any social responsibility attached.
You're a fucktard for equating states' rights with racism. As if the fact that one set of laws were overturned as unconstitutional has any bearing on whether states' rights is a valid concept in its own right.
FC Closer
You are a idiot and a sheep that has been programed by your federal government in to thinking states should get back the right that were always theirs.
Tell me, how was the budget deficit doing when the states held most of these rights? Now we have layer upon layer upon layer of bureaucracy at the federal level spending to their hearts content. There is no balances anymore.
Not sure what fantasy land you are living in, but laws are laws, and a federal department isn't needed to enforce those laws. And BTW, only a idiot would think that is a department of federal government went away that we would all revert to racism in a matter of days. You think that because you have not a clue what to think other then what people tell you to think.
"They are randomly checking trucks with 'drug and bomb sniffing dogs'"
Well, they were. Now all the dogs have had to check into rehab for bathtub crank...
Only a matter of time before mandatory radiation exposure and/or hand rape. What's the next step? Body cavity searches? TSA needs to change or go away. It's absolutely unconscionable that TSA can impose ANY method of search, regardless of how obtrusive, in the name of security. Adding insult to injury, anyone who complains is immediately flagged as a terrorist sympathizer, dragged off and given the third degree with a bonus of no refund on missed flights.
Adaptations of this quote to every possible privacy or liberty issue deeply offend me.
This poem was the poignant reflection of a German theologian who was actually very humble and self-effacing in his phrasing. He supported Hitler initially but became disillusioned with the totalitarianism of the National Socialists (Nazis) somewhat quickly and spearheaded a group of German clergy who opposed the party. Most of the group caved, but he stayed the course and was finally arrested in 1937. He spent the rest of the war in concentration camps, right up until liberation day. As I understand it he hardly waited till the last moment or until everyone else was gone before he objected, and he felt more guilt about what he *did* tolerate than most other Germans ever did.
So in short, the quote concerns Nazis coming to kill you after eliminating every other scapegoat and dissenting voice in the entire nation. It's petulent, hyperbolic, and actually a rather clear invocation of Godwin's Law to immediately invoke it and pervert it for every piddling privacy violation or TSA bullshit-festival.
I understand you're making an important point about social tragedy and slippery slopes, but they're not Nazis and they're not coming to *kill* you, for God sake. If you absolutely most invoke it, at least quote the original rather than making indulgent, self-righteous parodies, and please consider saving it for more extreme situations.
Is it a contest to see how many rights we can strip away? how close we can get to killing people, before our right minds miraculously come to us?
No, they're not killing anyone. And none of us think it'll ever come to that. And nobody ever thinks it'll come to that. Even when it does finally come to that.
Well, guess what... it doesn't come to that because someone says stop before it's too late. Well, it's not too late, and I'm saying this needs to stop.
Next Step: Thoughtcrime!
Doubleplusgood!
This guy has been going through checkpoints for a while: with videos.
You're a fucktard for equating states' rights with racism.
Is that you Jefferson Davis? States' rights arguments and racism go together like peanut butter and jelly. 600,000 dead Americans can't be wrong.
Adaptations of this quote to every possible privacy or liberty issue deeply offend me.
This poem was the poignant reflection of a German theologian who was actually very humble and self-effacing in his phrasing.
Sir, if I had mod points I'd mod this up.
I 100% agree with you, the "first they came for" poem has been perverted to mean "anything I dont like" and is used just as much to justify an extremist philosophy. In reality it's meant to be a reflection of your own actions in the face of something you know is wrong, not as a thought terminating cliche to push an ideology.
If you absolutely most invoke it, at least quote the original rather than making indulgent, self-righteous parodies,
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
One thing is to try to justify searches at the country borders. Another is to expand that to all flights, be them national or international (and I do not agree with this policy). But now, random checks in a highway? This does nothing to improve safety of citizenships, but helps to educate new generations of Americans into getting used to these outrageous privacy invasions. You can expect to see this kind of government behavior from a dictatorship, not from a democracy. What are we transforming America into?
Ron Paul 2012 or America is DOOMED.
Ever been to MS? How about AZ? I hate to break the news to ya pal but racism, Alive and well. I even have a nice one inch scar on the back of my head from a cop that said, and I quote "Fucking niggers and God damned worthless hippes, I don't know which I hate more". Our crime? A white guy driving a black friend in the wrong state. didn't matter that the black was a Baptist minister, as far as that cop was concerned he was a worthless nigger and I was most likely a "race traitor" for association.
So I hate to burst you bubble but "states rights" was what the excuse was during the civil war, and in case you haven't noticed you can replace the word nigger for wetback and get a LOT of folks on board. It always happens during a depression, IIRC lynching went up in the 30s as well.
Hell don't believe ME friend, go to ANY Yahoo story about Mexicans or blacks and see the amount of sheer hatred. Then remember you're only getting about 1/20th the actual effect since they police their boards and remove the most obvious racist comments as quick as they can. But don't worry even with the policing they'll be plenty of hate for you to enjoy.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
"Adaptations of this quote to every possible privacy or liberty issue deeply offend me."
That's okay, because your utter inability to get off your ass and do anything about it offends me.
Start fighting for your rights, maybe your favorite little phrase wouldn't get misused so much, asshole.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Looks like the "Spring Offensive" has become the "Fall Offensive" for TSA's Butt Fuck America First Program.
Likely a response to Ron Paul's plan to kill TSA, if elected ... or ericted ... with viagra.
So TSA goes Atomic and on the offense to show America who's got Dick, and who's to use Dick.
Why can't SAC just bomb DHS (and TSA) in DC and just be gone with the fagot louts for Christ Sake.
--
This is obviously a press release written by some TSA PR lackey.
watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M2ndwlmBOY
If you don't think DHS wants a lil' piece of that action, it's probably proceeds from a purchase you've recently made that they're looking for.
I wanted to mention that, and how in this article everyone on /. is suddenly libertarian, but of 1500 comments on Ron Paul article today, pro voices (like mine) seemed to be a minority, though consistently given +5 (go figure? Are people really afraid to post, but do not mind using a modpoint? Or, is Paul starting to catch up with casual sane people who just say "Yeah, sounds right", and Obama/Romney/Cain people have time to write lengthy rebuttals? Or what?).
And yes, 15% down with DOD budget, no war funding, and no TSA! (I was disappointed that it was not "no DHS" though...)
Paul B.
GP is the single best and most on-topic modification of the original that I've ever seen. You, sir, can go screw yourself.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
His name was Niemöller. I'd have more respect for you if you demanded the man get credit. Instead you didn't even say his name while you complained about someone expressing themselves in a way not approved by you.
And his words have a very clear message. "Speak up. Do something." Deep is the irony in trying to shame someone to silence for using the form and spirit of his words.
As for Godwin's Law, I do know it, but don't expect me to subscribe to all the other bullshit that goes with it, like "losing threads" or "offenses." Don't expect me to stand by while you try to use Godwin's Law as a bludgeon either.
Cop.. What citizenship are you?
Me.. My mother's maiden name is Schwartz...
Cop.. That wasn't what I asked.
Me.. do you happen to have access to a NY Yellow Pages... I need to call my uncle. Please, just open the phone book to lawyers and pick any guy named Schwartz... there's a few hundred of them, but there's still a good chance one of them is my uncle or cousin. By the way, can I please write down your name and badge number?
Cop.. Do you need a lawyer?
Me.. Well, I don't believe you had reasonable cause to impede my travel and conduct this "interview". I want to have him on the phone to make sure that I'm not having my rights abused by overzealous law enforcement.
Cop.. Have a nice day
None of what I said was true... but it really doesn't matter. There's only one thing scarier to a cop than a lawyer and that's a Jewish New York attorney. While I despise modern lawyers, they are currently our only protection against the TSA and law enforcement.
Here's my event.
Officer: "Have you had anything to drink tonight?"
Me: "It's only got dark in this timezone, so which one are you asking about?"
Officer: "Where are you going?"
Me: "Your mother's house, to give you another sister."
Officer: "Pull over to the side and park your vehicle and get out your papers, now!"
Freight system? Smuggling?
Sounds more like the United States compelling upon everyone around of what constitutes necessity and what is excess as Freight.
Smuggling only occurs because unjust weights and measures and a bad culture means more willingness to avoid domestic product. Likewise, don't blame drug dealers and illegal aliens because nobody was forced to buy from them. The United States hates America like Californians hate Americans.
26/11 in Mumbai, terrorists let loose carnage on Mumbai streets. So a bunch of terrorists are catching onto that.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
"VIPR is allegedly not a response to any particular threat."
Except maybe the threat of cuts to their budget unless they catch a bunch of "hillbilly heroin" smugglers?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
i don't know, seemed like a pretty appropriate adaptation to illustrate the point to me. it's not copyrighted, is it ?!?!?!111
Rich
A very, very old joke:
A man walks up to a woman and asks her if she would sleep with him for 25 million dollars.
She hesitates, looks him up and down and then says that yes, she probably would.
"So would you sleep with me for 25 dollars?"
"Certainly not - what sort of girl do you think I am?"
"We've already established that - now we're just haggling over terms"
A martian walks up to the president of the United States:
"Would you kill your own citizens without due process, create laws but keep secret your interpretation of them if..."
"Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program"
That's newspeak for security theatre. If it's not visible, there's no point, right?
You should come to Russia. Foreigners get less trouble here than you natives get in USA.
... and please consider saving it for more extreme situations.
When would be appropriate, in your opinion? When the damage is already done and there's nobody to listen? The Nazi's didn't START by gassing Jews and invading Poland, you fucking idiot. The guy wrote the poem to illustrate that evil starts small, and needs to be stopped early. Are you seriously suggesting that we wait until it's too powerful to stop, and THEN start complaining about it?
I don't think I've ever read anything so blatantly stupid.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
FIVE weight stations and TWO bus stations and only in one state.
So, they don't go into Tennessee, or they use back roads and different routes to avoid these locations. You'd have to be a Grade A moron to believe that doing this will catch smugglers.
This goes along perfectly with the Highway Patrols in TN stopping out of state vehicles and confiscating large sums of money and other things from semis and cars alike.
It's a way to:
1) Increase revenue by directly taking things from the people.
2) Cutting down on the will of people to fight it, because fighting this and being out of state is going to cost you as much or more than the money you recover.
3) No matter what they find or don't find, they will use it as a reason to expand the programs. (We found 500 tons of cocaine this year, obviously we need more coverage. You found no significant amount of drugs, obviously we need more coverage and cooperation to catch the supply lines.)
Solutions smugglers will use that are BLATANTLY OBVIOUS: Avoid TN, use local transport while going through TN, avoid checkpoints via back roads, etc.
I guess they figure people are so out of work and desperate now that they will take the risk of smuggling drugs/whatever in the country to survive. So their solution to this is to piss people off even more AND piss more money away on stupid programs and procedures.
Isn't this a thing the local and/or state police should be doing?
Not the whole random search thing, but pulling over drivers that actually BREAK A FREAKING rule first? Or how about just pull every 'soccer mom' that is randomly texting and talking on her cell phone while she pilots her 20 ton assault vehicle into my passenger side door?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
But he also wants to do away with everything else. Specifically he deeply hates democracy. Of course he doesn't say so, but it's what killing all regulations and government bodies does. A 100% free economy means no laws at and oversight at all. Especially not from the citizens. In other words: The law of the jungle. The strongest man wins, even if through mass-murder. Because disallowing mass-murder would be meddling with the economy. It wouldn't be 100% free anymore. :P (Yes, he's crazy enough that I can imagine him agreeing to this in public.)
And Paul is way too smart to not know and deliberately do this. I guess he thinks he'll be that strongest man. (Until my stone axe hits him. :P)
Unfortunately this is too relevant...would you rather wait until they are coming and dragging people away to say it is relevant? Sorry, the office of the President is now ordering the assassination of US citizens...its too late.
Stupid question in know but... Remember the Night Watch. They started as “observe and report” and then they were given complete control under martial law. Just like the Nazis’. Great now we have to watch out for the SS on wheels. 18 wheels!!!
TSA: We've all known Tennessee is a popular site for interstate terrorism forsome time now so we decided that would be the first place to deploy the VIPR system. ME: WTF are you that stupid. Don't you know there is a drug/border war going on in Arizona (and other states but Arizona has got it bad). One of the cops in that National Geo show (Border Wars) pretty much said if they (smugglers, drug runners etc) get to the highway they are pretty much gone. Do ya think MAYBE this VIPR program might actually help down there. Someone needs to smack some sense into the head of the TSA.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
For a start you can refuse to answer their questions. They cannot take that as probable cause for anything, if they did then it's lawsuit time :)
The TSA was made for one purpose only the airport. Never heard of the old system going to inspect highways away from the airports. The Dems and Repubs are to be blamed if they voted yes in which 98 percent did.
I understand you're making an important point about social tragedy and slippery slopes, but they're not Nazis and they're not coming to *kill* you
Yet. The way we stop it from happening is to be constantly vigilant. Get it?
Godwin was an idiot and his stupid, 'law' is referenced endlessly in a juvenile nerd-fest "Luke was a whiner" parody of social awareness.
Put another way: Just because people use history to stay abreast of the present doesn't make it un-cool to use history to stay abreast of the present.
The problem with ALWAYS labeling discussion of fascism as moonbattery is that it leads to denial.
http://mises.org/daily/5752/The-Fascist-Threat
us from terrorist abroad? LOL, silly rabbit. Its to protect them against us. FWIW, for the first time in my life, I was screened twice in a US airport on a domestic flight. Once at the uber gate control part and a second time right as I boarded the flight. I'm a middle aged white professional. How many airplanes have been tampered with by sober white guys?
As a Canadian, I'm concerned about living next to a police state.
This was a response to a particular threat. The threat of citizens being free and wresting control back from the plutarchy.
The purpose of the TSA is to condition the citizens to a police state.
Question everything
And they will be perfectly right in doing so--as these alphabet soup groups rise from a certain pressing need that the Government as a whole just wants to keep in check (BATF), or perform a function of government without the mechanics of Congress having to weigh in constantly (IRS), they will always be around.
Remember, the quote from the TSA: "The Transportation Security Administration protects the Nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce."
The last word is the important word, since this word is protected by the Constitution. Commerce is the function of government and society at large, so the legitimacy of their actions will be dictated totally as an extension of the tripartite Federal Government and protected by the Constitution.
That's really how these agencies make draconian administrative rules and policies without Judicial Review.
Not a response to any particular threat? Then why the fuck are you doing it?! Americans take their rights for granted so much that they don't even realize when they are losing them.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...I worked for a largish company, and as all these companies do, they had a 2-week orientation & training program at their HQ before they cut you loose in one of their trucks.
One of the last things they did at orientation was bring in the local spooks to pitch this 'observer highway safety program.' They went on & on & on about all the dangerous stuff you should look for, like people with cameras taking pictures of major landmarks, people making phone calls near major landmarks, or -gasp- people walking around near major landmarks. Oh, fill out this form with your phone number so they can call you with urgent TSA bulletins.
It was hard to keep a straight face though all the obviously useless crap being spewed, but as i looked around the room i noticed that the other drivers were taking it very seriously! They were actually filling out the forms!
Way to ignore the second half of my comment, troll.
FC Closer
Why bother with searches when they can just x-ray your shit? They just want to strike fear in people and you can't do that if they aren't being actively harassed.
Fear of the government spying?
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
Afghanistan on 7 October, just 26 days later.
Policies can obviously implemented quickly when it comes to revenge.
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
When did it become civil discourse to respond to someone's comment with "you fucking idiot"?
Jesus Christ, every time I express a strong dissenting opinion on slashdot I get multiple replies with telling me to fuck myself, calling me an asshole, calling me an idiot.
Can't you people disagree with my disagreement and leave it at that? Do you have to throw out a non-stop stream of epithets along the way? Am I really not deserving of respect or life itself simply because I disagree with you?
You could have just stuck with the first sentence. There's no need to go spouting curses just because you disagree with me. It's absolutely astonishing and inexcusable how many times I'm told to fuck myself when I dare express a contrary and unpopular opinion on this so-called forum.
i wonder how the dogs stand the smell of the TSA agents?
You're right, I shouldn't have called you a fucking idiot, and for that I apologise.
Your opinion is wrong. You need to change it. That poem is obviously about the need to fight evil at the beginning instead of waiting for it to be Too Big To Fail. This was the right time to quote that poem. If you missed that, you're missing some important cognitive skills which will help you through life.
This isn't something on which you can have opinion; It is fact. That is the meaning of the poem, and it is not open to interpretation.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I've always loved the US, and defended our systems and rules, primarily due to a lack of anything better ( in my biased opinion ), anywhere else. The nation I grew up in is gone, I mourn its loss with all of my being. I feel powerless to do anything to stp or even slow the move away from personal freedom. I figure about 40% of our population thinks all these changes are good and necessary, I think that may be in line with the support of the nazi party in Germany in 1933. I am crying as I write this, I am a stateless man, because the only state I ever wished to participate in is gone. How long until we all have internal passports, and must really have government permission to travel?
I know I'm rambling, I'm sorry, it's my way. Perhaps we need to adjust the constitution just enough to allow a dictator in extraordinary times, maybe we'll get lucky and find our own Cincinnatus, though our current crop doesn't look very promising, who knows, 100 years from now, an American Gorbichov may announce perestroika
I have no clue how to assign myself a nic or account as I'm not actually on slashdot and reached this page through an aggregator so will stay an anonymous coward for the time being, but I think I may shed the tears of us all