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Federal Appeals Court Orders TSA To Explain Delay In Body Scan Public Hearing
New submitter rhsanborn writes "One year ago the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ordered the TSA to hold public comment on the use body scanners in EPIC vs. DHS. The order has been ignored prompting a WhiteHouse.gov petition asking for the Obama Administration's response. One year later, Wired reports, the court has ordered the TSA to explain why it hasn't responded to its original order (PDF). The TSA has until August 30th to respond."
Oh, this ought to work wonderfully.
Watch this be ignored as well.
Obama is above the law, and the Appeals court is powerless to do anything to force the TSA's hand. How many divisions of bailiffs can the Appeals Court muster?
The only solution to this is to get rid of the Security Theater senators and congressmen and start cutting budgets and repealing ill conceived panic legislation put in place a decade ago.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I would love to see some bench warrants going out on this stuff!
What do you expect? This corruption didn't start under Obama but sure as hell isn't slowing down what so ever.
In case the judge is reading this, let me do your job for you. The order needs to be:
DHS will respond by _________ or I will hold ________ in contempt and order them jailed until you respond.
Without consequences, your order is something to laugh at, frankly. And that's what they're doing. They've been laughing at you for the last year.
Do you have ESP?
All the judges on the District of Columbia Court Of Appeals have been added to the "No Fly" list.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
So, on August 31st, when the TSA hasn't responded, how about everyone go to their local airport and just walk through security. Straight on through. If the TSA can't follow lawful orders from the courts why do we need to follow their orders? Mind you, this would be true civil disobedience -- you walk through security peacefully then sit down and wait to be arrested.
What in the world kind of justice is this? "We're going to tell you to do something, and then, if you don't, we're going to tell you tell us why!"
I'm sure the TSA are just quaking in their boots.
Why don't the courts and judges grow some balls, and start issuing warrants for arrests, for contempt of court, if nothing else? At this point, the system is so laughably broken I don't know why anybody even bothers using it in the first place. Vigilante justice is more justice than this farce.
Who enforces the law? Homeland security? The courts? Who do they arrest?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
I am ordinarily not a fan of e-petitions because they're generally useless; but at least the petition system at whitehouse.gov will require *some* action from the administration. Even if it ultimately serves to highlight how there is no accountability, there is value in that too.
I know from the 'slashdot effect' that we have far more than the required 25k readers necessary to get this petition through, yet instead people would rather complain about how nobody is doing anything.
Folks, it doesn't get any easier to "do something" than this.
Or do you think that the BATF is going to come barging down your front doors because you gave your email address and zip code to register to sign the petition?
The TSA responded today that they would not respond to the order, citing issues of national security. Obama said he supports the TSA's decision, and that protecting us from terrorism is more important.
"by the people, for the people" gets so corrupted in DC because of all of the lobbying and grandstanding that goes on. This whole hype of the TSA was unnecessary and now we've created a bigger bureaucracy in Washington. The whole body scan thing was a lobbied effort. Since we know nobody in DC actually does their own work and relies on lobbyists and staff to come up with things to do, twist enough arms, throw enough cash around and you can usually get what you want. Also don't forget all of those ex-government directors and leaders who've gone into lobbying for those companies as well. All under the guises of
“Lobbyists are not the problem. Terrorists are the ones who can do harm to innocent victims."
Really? what an astute observation from somebody who gets paid to lobby in favor of this horseshit.
Blah
Lobbyists and the way Washington DC operates are at the core of our greater ills and as long as we have revolving door policies allowing ex government officials to join lobbying groups and legal practices that attempt to influence our government, it will always be driven by money because we all know fear pays. Especially for Chertoff.
Eventually people in this country will come to their senses and realize that this is all theater and doesn't make them safer, it does cost them more and makes their lives inconvenient and more exposed. So much for the land of the free.
Until then I shall continue to work on my mind scanning device that will sense brainwave patterns and automatically recover memories and thoughts so we can weed out terrorists everywhere. Once I've figured out the electronics and made it sufficiently unsafe in terms of radiation exposure, I will then get a lobbying firm and sell it on the hill. It will eliminate the need for body scans entirely however there will be some side effects I fear: Loss of Memory, False prosecutions, Secret Lists and longer lines at the airport, bus terminal, subway and any other public transit location where people congregate.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
The Federal Appeals Court should repeat ultimatum in an even firmer tone of voice. Add the words, "or else".
John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!
It's not a new problem: Any time the executive wants to flip off the judiciary, it can.
I am officially gone from
I'm just happy they were given until 08/30 this way come 8/30 they can be given another n*-$DAYS_TILL_ELECTION to resolve this mess
Because fuck you.
Why is the court considering a writ of mandamus? Hasn't the DHS /already/ been ordered to hold these hearings? Why not an order to show cause why the DHS shouldn't be held in contempt?
Court should order their budget frozen until a response is made.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Every time I fly and am faced with a body scanner, I make a big stink about how I want a pat down. I make the stink loud enough that it shocks 1 or 2 people into doing the same. I say things like, "I read the MIT/Standford/Yale reports that these have not been deemed safe." Putting that little bit of fear in others who are less technically inclined but know who MIT/Standford/Yale is will sometimes follow you through a pat down.
And to add insult to injury, I wear my megusta face during the pat down.
The TSA was formed by the Bush Administration in 2002.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Because, at the end of the day, they will have spent 100x the amount of money it would cost to screen previously, and the only thing they have to show for it are a few "tucked to the body" small pot busts.
"The TSA has until August 30th to respond"
Or.... they'll disband it? They'll do nothing at all? What are the consequences.
Shit like this is why you should always travel in heavily-armed groups.
TSA goons may have no qualms about taking out one 'wacko' with a gun, but 20 of them (or, even better, an entire airport full) all traveling together will force them to reconsider their position.
Our forefathers made sure we had a right to keep and carry weapons, to ensure we would always have a means of throwing off the shackles of tyranny - let's not disappoint them.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Like how he tried to close gitmo, and congress made sure that he couldn't.
Congress would make damn sure that he couldn't do anything about the TSA. Then they would scream that he couldn't do anything about it, even though they prevented it.
Cuz that's how they roll.
Shocked, I tell you, to even think that the Obummer administration would ignore the law!
Alice's Restaurant
By Arlo Guthrie
This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the
restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,
that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song Alice's
Restaurant.
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on
Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the
restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the
church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and
Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of
room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin' all that room,
seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't
have to take out their garbage for a long time.
We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be
a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So
we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW
microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed
on toward the city dump.
Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the
dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump
closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off
into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.
We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the
side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the
cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile
is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we
decided to throw our's down.
That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving
dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the
next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, "Kid,
we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of
garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And
I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope
under that garbage."
After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we
finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down
and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the
police officer's station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the
shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the
police officer's station.
Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at
the police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for
being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and
we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out
and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again,
which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station
there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was
both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said "Obie, I don't think I
can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid.
Get in the back of the patrol car."
And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the
quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of
Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here, they got three stop
signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the
Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars,
being the biggest crime of the la
Or what happens? Court has no power over TSA.
Now if the TSA can be disbanded by the court, THAT would be something, but as it stands, the TSA will probably go to a different court and get the comment requirements thrown out under some "security" requirement.
In the case of the TSA, security claims appear to be used only to hide the arrogance of the DHS and TSA leadership.
No matter what the TSA does, at some point, something bad is going to happen. The only way to prevent danger in commercial air travel is to stop all commercial air travel.
It appears that the only way to stop these people is to cut their budgets. WE NEED TO GET OUR REPRESENTATIVES ON THE RECORD SAYING THAT **before** this next election. Until their budgets are drastically cut, this madness will continue.
The TSA has until August 30th to respond.
Flying several times shortly before that date after several years where I've managed to avoid flying entirely. I expect a wonderful experience from such a responsive, responsible, and generally helpful organization...
Everybody holds congress in contempt. Not many people in their right minds act contemptuously toward Article III judges. Among other things, if the TSA gets the judiciary mad at them, the TSA will begin to find the Fourth Amendment much less friendly.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Therefore TSA will not respond to any USA court order.
Nothing in the Constitution about the TSA, President Barak Obama will respond. End of story.
AH. An astute reporter might just then ask Mr President Obama, 'There is nothing in the Constitution of the USA about a one Mr Barak Hussein Obama II, so is Mr Barak Hussein Obama II excused from all ethics, morals, and laws by any measure of the human imagination?
Mr. Obama will not give answer to this question.
XD
8D
XD
You can blame Bush for his active role, and Obama for refusing to get involved.
This is CLEARLY Obama's problem, and the TSA is acting EXACTLY as he has directed them to.
See anything here? Obama doesn't want to get involved right now, clearly because it's election year, and before that he's been too afraid to do anything else for fear of not being a 2-term president. OP pointed this out, did you hear a whooshing noise?