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State Legislatures Attempt To Limit TSA Searches
OverTheGeicoE writes "Here's a familiar story: a breast cancer survivor's mastectomy scars showed up on a TSA scan, which forced a horrifying pat-down ('feel-up' in her words) of the affected area. The woman decided that she would not subject herself to that again, and was barred from a later flight from Seattle to Juneau for that reason. But now the story takes an interesting turn: the woman is Alaska State Rep. Sharon Cissna, and once she finally made it back to Alaska she started sponsoring legislation to restrict TSA searches. Her many bills, if passed, would criminalize both pat-downs and 'naked scanning,' as well as require better health warnings for X-ray scanners and even studies of airport screenings' physical and psychological effects. Other states, including Utah and Texas, are considering similar legislation. For example, Texas State Rep. David Simpson is preparing to reintroduce his Traveler Dignity Act again in 2013 if he is re-elected. The last time that bill was being considered the Federal government threatened to turn all of Texas into a 'no-fly zone'."
It's about time the pendulum starts swinging away from the abusive, oppressive practices that the terrorists have set in place over our society.
America is supposed to be the land of the free, home of the brave. Not the land of the willing to consent to invasive and abusive practices because of drummed up fear.
Oh for effen crying out loud! When it is THEM then well we have a PROBLEM! But if they are not affected and we complain to the wahzoo we are complainers! No I want the TSA to keep going because I want THEM to start understanding how WE are dealt with by a government!
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Call me a cynic, but why did this woman not actively support regaining our rights and dignity BEFORE she became a victim of the TSA? It seems a little self serving for her to suddenly pick up that flag only after her own personal traumatic experience. As a fellow human, I can sympathize with what she's gone through, but as a politician it looks less than righteous.
The TSA was created to comfort passengers after 9/11 by providing a highly visible change to the airport security measures through inconveniencing all passengers as much as possible.
In reality, even without the TSA, the nature of in flight security changed forever on 9/11. Now everyone understands that the risk of hijacked planes is far greater than just the lives of those held hostage on the plane. By showing the larger threat hijacked planes pose as weapons, the hijackers on 9/11 effectively ended hijacking as a means to terrorize the greater population since most will accept that hijacked planes must be shot down before the plane can be used to pose a larger threat. Passengers and crews now know that their only hope for survival in a hijack attempt is to take down the hijackers themselves and regain control of the plane.
Security is still required to keep weapons and bombs off of flights, but even the security before 9/11 was sufficient to deter the hijackers from bringing guns or other large weapons. As prisoners have shown, sharp weapons can be made from virtually anything solid, but these weapons would be less effective in a hijack today since the passengers and crew would be willing to be cut to overpower hijackers.
The only minimal additional security provided since 9/11 is in limiting compounds that could be used to make explosives with the intent of destroying a plane rather than hijacking. This is battle of diminishing returns, where ever growing intrusions into personal privacy and intrusions provide ever smaller degrees of increased security and protection.
I have no problem with scanned luggage and carryons, but requiring everyone to remove shoes and clothes is purely an attempt to make each passenger feel and intimately experience the security.
These are psychological steps that accomplish virtually nothing to improve our security, but only raise the perception of safety.
The same situation occurred back in the day with Montana's [lack of posted] speed limit.
Its all about the federal income tax pulling from the pockets of [state] citiziens, then giving the funds back to the states if they play by the Federal "rules".
This is how the highway system has worked for years.
However, if taxes were decreased at a federal level and increased at the state level, the states would then be able to pay for their own roadwork without Federal involvement. But, how would that help Federal control?
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Agreed, but that purpose was already served by the armored cockpit doors. Nothing else is required to prevent cabin access, and passengers are very unlikely to tolerate threats to other passengers or flight personnel as they did in the past.
Unfortunate as your loss was, this is a prime example of why we shouldn't let people who have been emotionally compromised to make decisions.
The really sad thing is that after 9/11, pretty much the entire country was emotionally compromised. Look where that got us.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
The TSA are wasting boatloads of money sexually assaulting and generally harassing everyone they can get their hand on. The reason whoever hijacked a number of planes at the same time is that they knew it was a one time thing, do it once and it will never work again.
If anyone of average intelligence with moderate funding wants to blow up some big landmark he won't use a hijacked airplane next time.
"Pretty much the entire country" except for the "moon bat" left. It was obvious us from 9/12 that the overreaction to the attacks would be far worse for the country than the attacks themselves were. Of course when we spoke up we were smeared as unpatriotic. You probably don't remember that the lead up to Iraq war included some of the largest demonstrations in history. Of course we were mostly ignored by the "main stream" (aka hard line statist) media. Over a decade later, I have no problem saying "I told you so".
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