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TSA's VIPR Bites Rail, Bus, and Ferry Passengers
OverTheGeicoE writes "TSA's VIPR program may be expanding. According to the Washington Times, 'TSA has always intended to expand beyond the confines of airport terminals. Its agents have been conducting more and more surprise groping sessions for women, children and the elderly in locations that have nothing to do with aviation.' In Tennessee earlier this month, bus passengers in Nashville and Knoxville were searched in addition to the truck searches discussed here previously. Earlier this year in Savannah, Georgia, TSA forced a group of train travelers, including young children, to be patted down. (They were getting off the train, not on.) Ferry passengers have also been targeted. According to TSA Administrator John Pistole's testimony before the Senate last June, 'TSA conducted more than 8,000 VIPR operations in the [previous] 12 months, including more than 3,700 operations in mass-transit and passenger-railroad venues.' He wants a 50% budget increase for VIPR for 2012. Imagine what TSA would do with the extra funding."
"Take the train you unpatriotic, small-dicked paranoid liberal!"
Yeah, we all saw this coming. Papers, please.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Still think either of the two main parties in this nation are different from the Nazi's in way other than the groups they target?
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
We have become consumed by the fear of a mosquito bite, are we going to continue to give up our freedom for what amounts to a non-issue?
Maybe they will search us when we leave our home? Is there any option to refuse to be patted down? Or they will get in my home while we sleep and.....search us....
This is contrary to everything I believe in.
Look, honestly, what are you going to do about it? Complaining doesn't matter. The TSA will be here forever, and, as much as we hate to admit it, there is nothing that can be done about it. There is too much money involved, and contractors have vast amounts of power, much more so than any collection of outraged stories and messages on the internet does.
Seriously, I hope the TSA is abolished tomorrow, or hell even five years from now. But honestly without fundamental, almost revolutionary changes to the way the US government works this simply will not happen. Money talks, national security lobbyists have TONS of money, and that's pretty much the end of it.
Every TSA pat-down, especially those outside an air terminal, are illegal searches. There is no probable cause for agents of the government to initiate a search, even in air terminals, hence is a violation of 4th Amendment Rights. Every time Pistole is questioned about this by Congress, he insists that Air Travelers (and all travelers, by VIPR assumptions) are guilty until proven innocent, and that American children are all bomb carrying agents of Terrorism, because terrorists have used children and women in other parts of the world.
Next will be random vehicle searches because hey, a car bomb during rush hour would do some damage.
I thought the terrorists lost? wth is this?
crazy dynamite monkey
Is their goal to prevent anyone from wanting to use any sort of public transportation anymore? It seems like now the only way to avoid these ridiculous searches is to drive your own vehicle somewhere. Too many agencies are allowed to decide their own scopes of authority and (seemingly?) dictate their own budgets.
As the human race goes we always create whatever it is we imagine. We imagined Big Brother and "HE" is here!
How is this possibly of any use to anyone. Hey, TSA! I have this rock that keeps me safe from terrorist. To date, it's be 100% effective at protecting me and everyone else I interact with from terrorism. It's also had zero false positives! I'll be happy to sell you my rock at the bargain price of 250 Million dollars. For another 50 million, my rock will also protect you from vampires, space aliens and Bears (The football team, not the animal.)
As long as we, the people, are not heard in regards to our wishes - this kind of thing will continue. I, for one, have stopped flying because of the security theater; and I will not be forced to drive or walk to avoid being sexually assaulted in my own country - and PAY for the privileged of being mistreated.
Do the TSA people not realize that trains run on well defined paths, on well defined schedules (Well, maybe not Amtrak .. lol) , and that any terrorist worth his salt could set an IED friggin' well anywhere they wanted???!?!?
WTF is up with these idiots???
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
The first nuke, that get's detonated on U.S. soil is far more likely to get here by UPS or FedX than missile, the TSA should start groping delivery guys in shorts and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
FedX, when it absolutely, positively has to blow up there over night.
He is the only candidate that is against this sh*t...
..try to search me before I get off the train.
If I refuse? are they going to prevent me from getting off the train?
isn't that kidnapping? I mean they can search me before I get on with the threat that if I'm not searched, I can't board, but can they really keep me from getting off at a domestic stop?
If they touch me with out my permission isn't that assault?
I know that my response to it will be classified as assault.
It's bad enough that they have made air travel unbearable, do we need to let them mess up this too?
I'm sure that it will help create jobs by discouraging americans from traveling at all.
-- Sig under construction...
You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy: "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I'm a Canadian sysadmin. I love -- LOVE -- the LISA conference (http://www.usenix.org/lisa11/). It's wonderful, informative, and fun; I've made great friends there, learned an incredible amount and generally enjoyed myself enormously.
Last year was the third time I went. The conference was in San Jose. I took a bus and a train -- which took over 24 hours -- from Vancouver to San Jose, rather than fly and go through a naked body scanner. I figured if I'm going to talk the talk, I should walk the walk.
I'd already decided to skip this year's conference; it's in Boston, which is a long way to go by train or bus. I didn't want to be away from my family for that long. But I had been thinking about going next year, when it's going to be in San Diego.
I'm not going now. Not if this crap keeps up. I'll watch the video on my workstation, I'll listen to the MP3s on the bus, and I'll stay here in Canada. We have problems of our own -- but random searches and "papers, please" for the crime of taking the goddamned train are not one of them.
I'll miss y'all.
Carousel is a lie!
I didn't know we have bus service beyond a very basic series of downtown routes anymore. The TSA educated me today!
"liberty and justice for all those who can afford it"
Is it any wonder why many people simply avoid the USA? I know I avoid it whenever I travel. I go so far as to pay extra to stayover within Canada rather than Newark when I travel to the Caribbean. I lay over in Toronto not Newark because I know I'll have way fewer issues. I know there is a TSA in Canada but as my flight will not enter into the USA, it's so much simpler to deal with rather than on a flight that terminates in the USA. Whole different set of rules it seems.
Keep up this Neo-Nazi crazy shit guys! You're only killing your tourism industry.
besides in The Courts groping a Man is not a crime (possibly rude but never a crime)
[/snark]
I predict that someday a group of criminals will forge TSA credentials and take hostages in some train station (inventing all sorts of "New Regulations" in the process). Heck all you would have to do is have hidden cameras and a few boxes to "confiscate" things and you could make a nice profit.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Freedom means nothing if you are constantly searched by authorities. Not a single plot has been foiled by these searches. Millions of searches and they have turned up nothing. You would think at some point someone would say, "this is ridiculous". It's like the war on drugs, if it isn't working, do it more.
well we are but we'd be hard pressed to complain. get it? hard pressed? nevermind...
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Write PAPER letters to your state and national Representatives and Senators (and mayors and governors). Tell them that you want them to OPPOSE this.
Get your friends to write the same kind of PAPER letters to the same people.
If the politicians do not fight this on your behalf, then replace them in the next election cycle.
Get educated. Get motivated. Get involved.
A cynic who stays at home will never change anything.
This is exactly the same Democracy and Our Way of Life (TM) we have been QA'ing around the world for centuries. Field testing has shown great promise and now we are deploying it at home (after all Animal Testing abroad). If you read any "foreign news" you would have noticed it much earlier.
The Slippery Slope argument is fallacy and conspiracy theory!!!!
I drive on the freeways armed, as I'm sure many people in TN do. I ride the WA state ferries armed. (I did notice the ferries mentioned in TFA were both interstate transit). But what would they do if I set off their metal detectors? Or if they find guns on a traveler in TN? It's perfectly legal to carry guns in most of the USA.
Also, for trains and ferries, they could refuse to let someone who ignores them board, but what if you refuse a search on the freeway? I used to drive through the border patrol checkpoints in AZ and CA (but not on the border) dozens of times per year. They'd ask if I was a citizen, I'd ask if they had a warrant to compel that information. They'd tell me to answer the question. I'd ask if I was being detained. And after a minute of back and forth, they'd tell me to go. They had no authority to compel me to answer, and they knew it. The TSA should be in the same situation. Without a warrant, they shouldn't be able to do anything but request to question or search a person or vehicle.
I guess one benefit of all of this is that being so blatant about their invasive searches will push popular opinion over the tipping point, and Ron Paul won't be alone calling for the TSA's dissolution in Congress.
It's for the children. And by that I mean it's for the purpose of groping and taking naked pictures of the children.
And you complain...? Weird. It's, after all a democratic country and there's so many countries being mean and nasty to poor old America that this is all a necessity. Or, that's the official line at least. What always amazes me is that a large part of you Americans is willing to put up with all sorts of abuse. I see it a lot on dpreview.com. Every case of police being, nasty, mean or committing police brutality there's always quite a few people willing to defend any heave handed and irrational action. So... unless you guys put a lot of pressure on your politicians your TSA will get a bigger budget and pretty soon you'll have checkpoints and pat downs all over the country. Personally, I'd go to the states if my job required it, not for a tourist trip, not until sanity returns
At what point does America become the unofficial police state of the world?
January 20, 2009. The day Obama broke every campaign promise about restoring civil rights and government transparency.
They had a big party to celebrate. You must have missed it. I think there was cake.
Please refrain from lumping those hooligans with us, we're gone as far as renaming ourselves the Breast Sucking Aficionados. Hopefully our new acronym won't link us to any other unsavory organization.
Realize that in the former USSR there were similar controls (and even current Russia has some of these controls still), where people had in their passports. Yes, INTERNAL passports, that had name, birth date, parents' nationality! So in case of USA that would be nationality and religion, have to keep those Muslims on a short leash, right? There was a bunch of personal information there and the PLACE of where they live, so the address basically, and one couldn't really move from place to place without this document and couldn't really move from city to city without a lot of bureaucracy and it was actually designed in the first place to ensure a larger farmer population, to keep people from moving to cities, because living in Russian villages is not exactly wonderful (to say the least), and the gov't wanted to keep people working in these 'collective farms'.
Also this worked well for all the antisemitism in the country. Also USSR (and now Russia) had and still has this document, where they put information about every place of work, it's a 'work-book'. So one didn't need a resume, this was an official document, very important if one wanted to work at all.
Everybody was 'equal', except that some people were MORE equal than others, especially the members of the Communist Party.
For some reasons I see so many of these OWS protesters saying how they want socialism in USA. They have no idea what that actually means, they truly need to pay attention to people who LIVED in systems like that, here is a funny video about that.
People, stop before you completely screw this up for yourselves, it is NOT the right road, you are going the WRONG WAY.
The right way is to STOP the GOVERNMENT from breaking your free market capitalism. You had the most prosperity before federal government politicians figured out how to crack your system by breaking your monetary system (counterfeiting the currency, started in 1913, together with the prohibition, which is not a coincidence, US gov't used to make 50% of revenue from alcohol sales), and they started taxing your income, which is totally wrong. Taxing income is wrong for government, because government is a spending item.
Gov't spending should be PROPORTIONATE to your spending, not to your income, otherwise gov't can consume your entire income and you will have nothing left beyond the bare minimum, you won't have any savings and won't be able to invest into anything on your own.
Well, they have already achieved that goal. Majority of US citizens don't even have 1000 dollars in savings.
People, this is NOT about the 'rich' not paying some kind of 'fair share'. In fact the rich are paying much more, both, fractionally and in absolute numbers than anybody below their earning bracket. But it's OK for the rich to bear more cost, but it should not be that with more money, the income is taxed at higher rate. Well, the income shouldn't be taxed, period, but if it is taxed, it cannot be set so that majority can vote to steal more money from a minority. This is pure political BS propaganda, this is how the government takes your eyes off the ball.
The ball is that your economy is screwed, and it's only going to get worse, not better. No more better, it's going to crash and burn and you will with it, and the rich will probably escape that.
What you need is to crash and burn your government before it does it to you and you need to get back to actual sound monetary system and real Constitutional principles of government, where gov't actually only acts on its authority and doesn't grab power, so that it can sell it.
That's why you really need to vote for Ron Paul and support him in every way, because I like America, but I will never do business there again if you turn it into USSR (by stupidity, not even by design.)
You can't handle the truth.
The Nazi's didn't go this far.
The threat to buses and trains can be effected from miles/hours away. Case? Stick a large, crooked wedge of metal on a train track to derail the engine. Cost? Almost zero. Effectiveness of the TSA wiping their asses on the Bill of Rights? Less than zero.
Someday, they will tar and feather those who preferred a job with TSA, over panhandling.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Don't you effete liberals realize a scary muslim could fly one of those trains right into a skyscraper and cause mass chaos?
No,and it's not because men aren't surprised, either.
It's that men are just not such attractive nuisances to most TSA agents.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Exactly.
Congress controls the purse strings, so the selection for President doesn't ultimately matter with regards to the TSA. I'm sure it would be feasible for a President to sign an executive order dismissing it, but I imagine that would be challenged on numerous fronts and the President called a terrorist-loving anti-American.
I'm feeling pessimistic today. There's nothing that can be done to eliminate the TSA--not now.
He who has no
Remember, if you don't like it, don't travel. Travel by any means of conveyance is a PRIVILEGE, people. You don't have a right to it. Don't like it? Don't ride.
(Powering down Troll mode.)
OK, we're here. First it was planes, then rail, now buses, ferries and roads. Go baby, go baby, go baby, GO! :-)
The faster this program expands, the sooner we can get the general revolt started.
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."
It's the goal.
That's what removing social safety nets and reducing regulation is all about - creating a desperate underclass that will work for slave wages. You have to get 'those people' used to police abuse early, or they might realize how badly they outnumber the oligarchy. No, just keep telling them that abusing their freedoms is the only way to 'keep them free', and the people will be satisfied, nay, they will DEMAND abuse.
Simple, huh.
Paranoia is a Survival Trait!
They must be required to have electronic signage providing up to date reporting of the following Rolling totals:
Cost to the taxpayers of that VIPR mission to that point in time.
Cost to taxpayer per hour, per day.
Number of CITIZENS groped
# of not-so-scaryists plots prevented
Avg # plots prevented per VIPR mission
Cost $$$ per Citizen of groping
Cost $$$ per plot defeated
Finally a Direct phone line to John Pistole to express an opinion on his decision to violate their 4th amendment rights.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
And those members of the Rectal Inserters Anonymous Assembly and their buddies in the Mutated Pederasts Alaskan Association are now being persecuted because their acronyms are shared with some really sleazy scumags.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Do you really think that Ron Paul is a nutjob? Or is it the media telling you he is?
A policeman on every corner and all that. Except that they won't be police, exactly - they're much cheaper and less well trained.
With all their flaws and mistakes, I still respect the police in general. My respect for private security companies and crap like the TSA can only be seen with a very strong microscope. You can become a guy like that in a week, with a total of two days of training, did you know that? Most of those who ask you the "would you like fries with that?" question know more about their jobs than many of those bullies.
Yes, there are some good men and women in there as well. I have no idea what they're doing there, but they exist. They're the exceptions that don't invalidate the rule.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I pledged that every morning in gradeschool. How far we have come since just the 90's. I really dear for the quality of life of my kids and especially my grandkids.
mov ah, 4ch
int 21h
Hopefully our new acronym won't link us to any other unsavory organization.
It does, of course: The Business Software Alliance.
I am officially gone from
I really don't understand why people aren't up in arms over this kind of crap. It literally makes the 4th amendment for anyone who travels completely moot. There should be 300 Million Americans beating down the doors to our government demanding this stop. When did people become complacent in letting these assholes steal away our basic rights like being innocent until proven guilty or not allowing unwarranted/unauthorized searches?
I'll be giving the finger to any of these assholes if they try to pay me down, and refusing a search, especially outside of an airport (I specifically avoided air travel to avoid possibly punching a TSA officer in the face). Even the people who were for the airport searches should see this is getting crazy, no? I hope the rest of the country is with me on this, otherwise you may as well bend over and spread your cheeks now. Regardless of race, creed, nationality, political affiliation, or sex, everyone will be equally fucked if we let this continue.
"I hope you know how very lucky you are to know me, because I am so incredibly incredible."
This will ONLY stop when a large number of people begin physically assaulting TSA agents and seriously injuring them. ONLY pain is instructive with these types of people. When the agents are fearful for their lives they will refuse to do what is asked. In a short time, it will stop. There has NEVER been a voluntary surrendering of power/control, and there never will be. Only force counters force.
Well it is not in the Constitution there is plenty of precedence regarding the right to travel freely through out the country. This is starting to look like a violation of the right to travel.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Goldstein was not the reason Big Brother's tyranny continued, and terrorists are not the reason the TSA's tyranny has continued. The constant threat of terrorism is just a propaganda tool used by the executive branch of government to justified ever expanding power. The TSA is never going to find anything of value through these pat-downs, they only hope to keep people terrified so that nobody stops to question what their government is doing.
Keeping people in a state of perpetual fear is a good way to ensure that the population remains under your control.
Palm trees and 8
The White House recently added a section to their website that allows people to create petitions. Here's the link to the one against TSA: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/abolish-tsa-and-use-its-monstrous-budget-fund-more-sophisticated-less-intrusive-counter-terrorism/c7L94bFB
if any program needed to be starved of funding and die it is the TSA. It has nothing to do with making people safer and everything about making a couple rich people richer.
...on the Interstates and start searching passengers in private cars? The drivers will get a pass, of course: they're crew.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Why not do BOTH?
How much does some stationery, envelopes and stamps cost? In time and in money?
The thing is that a PAPER letter has a LOT more weight with elected officials because of what it represents. And it represents someone who is willing to GET OFF HIS ASS and get involved. And that kind of person influences his friends. That is something that you cannot buy.
The same with the protesters at Occupy X.
Someone willing to camp out in a tent is someone who won't have any problem standing in a line to vote.
The person staying home and sending them blankets and food is still more likely to vote than someone who isn't doing anything. Even if they aren't as committed as the protesters.
Staying home and doing NOTHING except complaining on /. is exactly what keeps the situation deteriorating the way it has been.
Get involved. Get as involved as you can be.
no there wasn't The cake was a lie
No, no, no. It's the Boy Scouts of America.
America is not worse than a dictatorship. You should look into it: dictatorships are much worse. Major problems where only the richest get a say in some of the most important matters, but "no one else gets a say in anything" is far from true. Items like this show things are getting worse, but it's not as bad as you say yet.
Besides, your Australia has its serious problems, too, also at the hands of the richest. Fix your own country into a leader for the rest of us instead of whining about us as if you're not in trouble too.
--
make install -not war
tl:dr: The Government is the answer as long as The Right People® are in charge.
I love Bruce, but unless he is appointed as head of the TSA for life, he would last a week. The mob would be screaming for his head after he put real security into place. The mob doesn't want real security. They want bread and circuses. They want TSA jobs.
The TSA has had a decade to get its act together and it has failed. NASA put a man on the moon with a mere 3x the annual budget of the TSA. There are some things the federal government can accomplish, but it requires the political will to make it happen. The political will for the TSA to be a well-functioning security machine is lacking. No one wants it. The mob wants to feel cozy. The politicians want to pander to the mob. The authoritarians want the government to be intrusive; and hey, if the TSA fucks up, it's because they don't have *enough* power.
Put this shit back into the private sector. If the federal government *must* have a role (and after 9/11 I'd say they should) let it be to regulate.
Jesus Christ, I'm getting a chill from all the WHOOSHing going on here. Wotta bunch of morons.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Remember Obama was against the illegal wiretaps as a congressman, but voted for it as a candidate, and has supported it as a President. (If I remember Dodd was the only Dem who voted against as a candidate). The Hope and Change came when O went from the legal scholar candidate advocating change to Bush part 3.
Wrong question- why did they submit?
I would not have, I will not, if they try you will read about me unless they just whisk me to gitmo.
"Sir, you are going to be searched"
" No, I am NOT going to submit to a warrantless and unconstitutional search, I am going to walk away, if you approach me I will consider it a kidnapping attempt and I will defend myself."
This is worth my job.
This is worth my risking my freedom.
Dave
Drive, buy an older used car (without electronics) keep your cell phone in a static bag with the battery removed, take secondary roads, pay cash for gasoline, food, etc.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
The TSA should take the extra money and pay their workers more so they won't be so apathetic about their jobs and also maybe train them better.
Because Ron Paul is a nutjob. Yeah, he's good for 5 minutes, but then he keeps on talking, and then you realize just how nuts he is.
On which issues specifically is he a nut-job?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Suck shit America. The rest of the world is laughing their collective asses off.
...except when we have to fly to the US, of course.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
WHOOOSH!
Bin Laden must be having a party in whatever place is soul is. He achieved a strategic victory beyond his wildest dreams. Not even in China they bother with this crap.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
It's vigilante justice and makes you just as bad as the people you are railing against.
Um, no.
On the one hand, you have a powerful group saying "protect!" and instead engaging in wholesale personal violation. For fun and profit.
On the other, you have (potentially) a public group provoked into mob rage by the unjust actions of the above powers-that-be. And who would probably be happier just going about their business but for the bullying actions of these same powers-that-be.
I'm not saying that either is just, but equating them is intellectually dishonest at best.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
... naked body scanners ... gropings ... bipartisan clusterfuck ...
Well, just THANK YOU very much for putting the horrid image in my head of the 112th Congress of the United States getting all sweaty-snugglebunnies in front of one of these scanners. :-P
Where's the brain bleach?
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Hundreds of years ago the church held a lot of power, which attracted certain types of people. Part of the reason the church has been corrupt in history is that it attracted people who didn't exactly join the priesthood for religious reasons.
Now, people who want to fondle children have a great career option. Others will let them do it, thinking nothing of it until someone's caught being a pervert and the cover-up isn't enough.
I blame public education.
Only now with the gropings, it gets to be pubic education! BA dum...
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
If the #occupy people wanted to make change, they should take over airports, bridges, ferries and transit hubs and take their country back from the TSA.
Have the people provide the level of security they can live with.
Who said anything about privatizing? Just terminate TSA and any program it currently supports.
How about just getting your government to make the TSA behave like most other western country's airport security? I've yet to see Canadian and European airport security turn up in a railway station and start frisking passengers.
"TSA has always intended to expand beyond the confines of airport terminals."
But of course: A bureaucracy's first priority is to survive. The second is to EXPAND.
'Nuff said.
Regards;
You would think that when they form a comic book villain organization that they would have the sense not to name it as one. Seriously. VIPR??? It isn't even an original league of evil name. Marvel should sue the US government for trademark violation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Command
I have followed his career since the mid 1980s when I first heard his interview on the David Brudnoy show on WBZ (rest in peace, David, talk radio has never been the same). In which I thought his ideas were intriguing and wished to subscribe to his newsletter.
But he's changed over the years. I've changed over the years. Purist ideology like his fails to take into account asshats. Libertarianism of his and his son's bent, only works if people behave the way they should and not the way they are.
But hey, what the fuck do I know. I've only been listening to him for 25 years.
--
BMO
Correction, it's only been 20 years. The interview was in 1991, but I can't find an archive of it. There was a Rapidshare link from LewRockwell.
--
BMO
After withholding consent to be searched and asking if you are free to go, have a panic attack and throw up on them.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, my ass.
We are in one of those historical moments when everything is gathering to a point of profound dislocation. The powers that be are unwilling to change because the status quo benefits them. But somewhere deep inside they sense that the whole thing is starting to get away from them, so they rush to grab as much as they can as fast as they can before the hammer falls, in much the same way that looters smash & grab whatever they can carry. And while the powers that be rush to steal anything that's not nailed down, they close ranks and tighten the screws on the people hoping to contain the building pressure for a little while longer so they can steal just a few trillion more.
Except, all of this intensifies the inevitable explosion. Where can these thieves go to escape the wrath of the American people? Switzerland? China? The moon? Where do they think they can go to find sanctuary when the rest of the world hates them more than we do, and when there is no place on Earth that the American people cannot reduce to smoldering rubble if they so choose, if any place should be so foolish as to give them shelter?
I for one will not allow my children to grow up in this Orwellian dystopia they are erecting. I would prefer to vote them out or even hold a second Constitutional Convention to restructure them out of existence, but if those avenues are shut off and we the People have no other recourse, then I will take up arms.
I was born in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, and that is where I will die, no matter the cost.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
It's a war we have already lost. They have been prepared for this for decades, and the American people are way behind the game. We are too little, too late. Our two sided political system is a joke, they are both bought and paid for. The main stream media has been pumping us full of propaganda for decades, crafting the American mindset to accept whatever they want to dish out to us.
Welcome to the American Nightmare. The dream is over.
Take the Red Pill.
Having thought about this a bit, I concluded that judges should be randomly selected from the lawyer pool just as jurors are selected from the voter pool. Higher level ones could be picked from those judged by their peers to have done a reasonable job at being a low level judge.
I'll just throw these out:
Gold standard. As if a super hard currency is any more helpful when it comes to making an economy more stable. See the panics of 1890 and earlier.
The "right" of businesses to discriminate in public accommodation. There's a reason why the Civil Rights Act happened. Absolutism when it comes to "the right of business" vs the rights of everyone else is just nuts. Ron and Rand's justification for this is that "everyone's dollar is equal, and businesses would not be acting in their self interest by not catering to everyone." When we know this is not true and there was 100 years of Jim Crow backed by white business interests to put the lie to this.
I could go on. But you get the idea.
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BMO
How about just getting your government to make the TSA behave like most other western country's airport security? I've yet to see Canadian and European airport security turn up in a railway station and start frisking passengers.
I agree that the German security krewe that screwed with me aren't likely to show up at the Bahnhof by mistake, but this is an international show, Mr. Moore; you can buy your tickets with Euros, too!
On my last trip to Germany (last year), I made the mistake of bringing my reading light. The trip before that one, I had gotten an airplane seat with a broken light, and I wasn't going to suffer through another 10 hours of boredom if I could help it. Unfortunately, this is a somewhat modded LED headlamp: I had one headlamp that had an OK headband and mount, and another one with really neat optics and a broken mount. So I combined them. Unfortunately, aesthetics are not usually my prime concern when I make gadgets for myself—the thing has a largish lump of black epoxy on top where the wires come out. Yeah, it occurred to me that it might confuse people if I stuck this into my pocket, but I couldn't find anything else, and hey, it's obviously a flashlight. How much trouble can that cause?
And in fact, I got through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport just fine. None of the National Security Goons said a thing about it, even though I had my usual snarling match with the dumb f*cks. Ah, but on the way back through the Frankfurt airport, the guy running the carry-on X ray machine literally danced on his tippy-toes, holding my ugly duckling light up high in the air for all to see, calling for a "Sonderuntersuchung". Yep, special handling for the Doctor.
They took me to the Room For Bad Boys (at this point, a certain amount of Reality Skew had already set in, and I was getting junior high school flashbacks). What I thought was really weird is that none of these people understood why I would want a reading light. I tried to explain to them that reading was fun, but was met by looks of blank incomprehension. This was not some sort of language problem, as the Doctor's native language is German. (Well, OK, with a heavy Bavarian accent, but I think even these damn Prussians could understand me just fine!) They kept shining my light on the ceiling (after I showed them how to turn it on); I remember apologizing several times about how dim it was, and offering to change out the nearly dead batteries. Maybe this wasn't a smart thing to say to people who probably can't tell a flashlight from a Klingon phaser. But eventually, they gave me back my reading light, and let me go.
I had taken no more than three steps when I felt a hand on my arm. I was notified (in English) that I had been selected for a "special security check". It was like the scene you've seen in 50 movies where the prisoner is released, thinks the ordeal is over—and is instantly re-arrested by hard-faced guys wearing the 20th century's most snazzy uniforms with those jagged lightning bolt runes. There were at least five of these guys, and two of them were women. Evidently, this somewhat confused paunchy 60+ year old guy with the fuzzy white beard sent the danger meter into the red zone. The woman who was seated behind a desk said, "Empty your pockets please." Further Reality Seepage followed.
I can explain why I lost control. You see, I was wearing my Vest of Many Pockets, and every pocket was filled with things I considered interesting or useful (like reading lights, books, interesting rocks, you know, the usual stuff). I had a mental image of myself emptying out a nearly infinite multitude of pockets, drawing forth who knew what (I certainly had very little memory of what I had collected in the past weeks), a process that, with the accompanying explanations, would clearly consume months. I started laughing. I couldn't help it, I was bent over in paroxysms of laughter, holding on to Frau Schnipperschnapps' desk for support, for what seemed like a
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
Why the people listen to the TSA agents? Get of a train and let you searched and patted down? Are people that stupid?
I'm not american, but I know you have something like the constitution and there is something like that: "The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause"
Why the hell do people comply with the TSA agents? I would just ignore them and told anybody to do the same.
Are the people that brainwashed by FOX News?
"The TSA's Blogger Bob writes that what the Savannah train passengers encountered is known as a VIPR operation, a randomized search "where anyone entering an impacted area has to be screened.""
Where are the law-suits? If someone gets hot coffee over their leg there is a class-action-law-suit one week later, but if an government agency violates the 4. Amendment you get just the comment: ""Their apology is kind of lame," he says. "I thought this whole thing was very unprofessional and very shady.""
Unprofessional and very shady? It's just plain illegal.
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
Reading and patting each other on the back and being all witty and intelligent. But what are WE going to DO? How about an analog version of /.ing congress with our collective voices? Otherwise this is all just a big wet fart.
Sigs? We don't need no steekin Sigs!
What do you think the odds are that everyone signing unpopular petitions at whitehouse.gov gets put on someone's watch list?
Nope, not paranoid, I've simply read too much history and science fiction (a lot of Heinlein comes to mind) since the '50s. This is gonna get a whole bunch worse before there's even the slim possibility it'll get better.
Gunner Joe AND the Stasi would've loved this. Heydrich and Beria are cackling in their graves. Even if there were a journalist with the perception and integrity of Murrow, or even Cronkite, he'd never get air time. Nope, this'll have to play itself out, rather like a cancer corrupting and killing its host.
I hope that I'm wrong, but it's slim pickens'.
With the introduction of full body scanners, the indignities of security screening have been taken to new heights. Not only is the process invasive to the point of illegality in most countries, but the required steps appear to be calculated to maximize degradation. Subjects are required to stand on certain spots and hold their hands in the air, much like dangerous criminals are treated when arrested.
Every subject (currently) has the option of refusing to be degraded like this, at the cost of a few minutes of their time. If the majority of passengers chose this option, this would act as a massive economic countermeasure against the TSA's attack on basic freedoms and dignities.
And yet, when travelling recently through the USA, I observed exactly zero fellow passengers exercise this option (I always opt out of the scanners). It is apparent that the average US citizen values their dignity somewhat less than a few minutes of their time. One wonders how they chose to spend these minutes that were so dearly bought with their liberty. Perhaps they enjoyed a coffee at Starbucks or watched TV?
What happened to the great principles that the USA was founded on?
We make governments to protect our rights. When our governments are filled with people who don't do anything, that is by design: the design of the people who damage our rights. While governments dither and deadlock, corporate people are robbing and damaging us. Every day corporate teams produce new ways to attack us, which requires government diligence that has failed miserably.
Rather than applaud from a distance, you should go to an Occupy Australia demonstration. This is direct action that you support - in principle. The more people support that action in person the more it will mean. It's the next step away from representative democracy. And since that last step is a sham, it's the closest step to it you can take. Just do it. BTW, it's a lot of fun, and the despair you might have (but might not even feel - yet) shrinks in good company.
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make install -not war
It's guaranteed to be over only if you surrender. You are a part of the American mindset. It's your job to change your mind, and as many around you as you can. We surround them.
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make install -not war
Well, several, on my way from colorado to california and back. See, Mom, I have REAL friends!!..she wont be reading this. ANYWAY....In san francisco on the way back i had a two hour delay because greyhound can go to hell. Well I saw the dumbest thing ever. People were getting patted down and having their bags searched before getting on the bus...I payed close attention here. Why? I had a fair deal of pot with me. yes yes I know, probably shoulda found a better way but anyway. During my two hour delay, i watched them. They werent making people remove their shoes. So, i went to the bathroom. I took the pot out of my backpack, and put it in my shoe..This might gross some folks out, apparently, but i tend to overheat badly because I dont sweat, like at all, from my feet. Its rather horrible as shoes can make me pass out. They searched my bags. Didnt search my shoes., I got on the bus, and successfully brought my shouldnt be illegal drugs home. Idiots. Heh.
How about setting up an airline that doesn't use TSA? We're supposed by have a "free market" right? Why not let the market decide? We have "no frills" airlines that reduce cost by cutting in-flight service. Just apply the same logic to security.
Instead of the standard TSA procedure, you get an Israeli-style interview check. The airline could even charge a premium for these "no-TSA" flights. I for one would gladly pay an extra %1 for such a ticket, and I know I'm not the only one. Actually, I think the market would be quite substantial.
Unfortunately, that will probably never happen. Because that would mean the TSA would have to give up some of its power, and entities that hold that kind of power almost never give it up willingly. Also, the security industry has already grown to the point where its lobbyists are able to prevent any such legislation getting through Congress. So basically we're screwed (or rather pawed) until we can get the money out of politics, and after the SCOTUS's Citizens United ruling, the only way to do that is by a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
You ain't free, 'cause you ain't brave. American Woman, stay away from me!
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
In this world, papers please is a necessary condition for the survival of democracy, especially. Don't confuse civil rights with defense. They're separate. Privacy ain't that important.
...SHOOT that agent.
OK, you go first; let us know how it turns out...
http://www.cla.asn.au/0805/index.php/yourrights/articles/who-s-to-blame-over
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.