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TSA 'Secured' Metrodome During Recent Football Game

McGruber writes "Travel writer Christopher Elliott touches down with the news that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration was spotted standing around outside a recent American football game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers (picture). According to Mr. Elliott, the 'TSA goes to NFL games and political conventions and all kinds of places that have little or nothing to do with ... travel. It even has a special division called VIPR — an unfortunate acronym for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team — that conducts these searches.' He continues, 'As far as I can tell, TSA is just asking questions at this point. "Data and results collected through the Highway BASE program will inform TSA's policy and program initiatives and allow TSA to provide focused resources and tools to enhance the overall security posture within the surface transportation community," it says in the filing. But they wouldn't be wasting our money asking such questions unless they planned to aggressively expand VIPR at some point in the near future. And that means TSA agents at NFL games, in subways and at the port won't be the exception anymore — they will be the rule.'"

91 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Nazi America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why not just get it over with and change your flag to the swastika, we all know that's where this is heading.

    1. Re:Nazi America by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why not just get it over with and change your flag to the swastika, we all know that's where this is heading.

      Well, I think the first step is to change their uniform shirts to a sort of a chocolate brown color, that has a "calming" effect...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:Nazi America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not just get it over with and change your flag to the swastika, we all know that's where this is heading.

      Well, I think the first step is to change their uniform shirts to a sort of a chocolate brown color, that has a "calming" effect...

      I think they may have all ready deployed their troops - look closely, the next time you THINK you see a UPS man.

    3. Re:Nazi America by Phrogman · · Score: 5, Funny

      One night it will all crystallize, and you can all see where its heading...

      --
      "The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
    4. Re:Nazi America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How was this marked troll? This is making it look like the US is gifting itself with a third, politically inspired police corps. Just like the SS.

    5. Re:Nazi America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's part of American culture and you should be tolerant. Americans are mostly supportive of these security measures since they overwhelmingly voted for either Republican or Democrat, both of which look to expand domestic security. As you are tolerant of Middle Eastern dictatorships and countries like China, you too should be tolerant of America. Your criticism is a sign of bigotry.

    6. Re:Nazi America by crazycheetah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Americans are mostly supportive of these security measures since they overwhelmingly voted for either Republican or Democrat

      You're forgetting the part where most Americans are brainwashed into thinking that the only point that their vote is going to do any good (or bad for that matter) is if they vote Republican or Democrat. I keep meeting more and more people that hate both parties but vote for them, because "there's no other choice that's not throwing my vote away!" There's a pretty good chunk of people in the US right now that despise our government and are trying all kind of different means outside of starting a revolution to correct it. Unfortunately, that's MUCH easier said than done.

    7. Re:Nazi America by paiute · · Score: 5, Funny

      The United States of America lost 75% of its Constitutional rights by following this one weird trick!

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    8. Re:Nazi America by waspleg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
      --C.S. Lewis

    9. Re:Nazi America by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Informative
      --
      "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    10. Re:Nazi America by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Informative

      One night it will all crystallize...

      For those under 30...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    11. Re:Nazi America by Golddess · · Score: 2

      I keep meeting more and more people that hate both parties but vote for them, because "there's no other choice that's not throwing my vote away!"

      What states do they live in? If it's a solidly red state, and they vote Democrat, tell them that they are already throwing their vote away. Likewise for solidly blue states and Republican voters.

      --
      "I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
    12. Re:Nazi America by mschaffer · · Score: 2, Funny

      To be more accurate, I thought the TSA uniform's insignia should depict someone stacking trays. After all, doesn't the TSA stand for "Tray Stackers of America"?

    13. Re:Nazi America by clonehappy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And they will have nicely drawn-out lists of who to round-up.

      Read in PBS-Style voiceover: "This list brought to you by AT&T, Verizon, Facebook, Twitter, and other message board posts like yours!"

    14. Re:Nazi America by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bush created this monster, and Obama plans on growing it for his control.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    15. Re:Nazi America by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      100% that the next president ALSO won't disband it.

      so, no need to blame this or that president. other than bush the bastard, who started it all going, that is.

      it would take a powerful person (will-wise) to undo the security theatre we have. but we have not had a strong willed president since, well, kennedy? its been longer than I can remember, at any rate.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    16. Re:Nazi America by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 4, Funny

      For those who slept through high school and currently have a career as TSA agents...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht [wikipedia.org]

      FTFY.

    17. Re:Nazi America by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 4, Informative

      Quite possibly. However, that does not detract from the wisdom of it. Just leave off the quotation marks and keep using it. It's a warning worthy of perpetuation.

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
    18. Re:Nazi America by koan · · Score: 2

      Neither one of those men are in *control* of what's going on, they are merely facilitators.

      And that above comment will one day be illegal and retroactively punishable so that when I get that jay walking ticket in 2035 they will review my comments history and try me for that as well.

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    19. Re:Nazi America by koan · · Score: 2
      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    20. Re:Nazi America by ranpel · · Score: 2

      Perhaps by allowing it to accelerate - as clearly we are doing just this. Sure, it could get messy with suffering, pain and death and likely will but, really, is it not the quickest remedy? Maybe on the next go we'll get to 300 years. There is not enough pressure apparently to encourage "normal" people to realize the time to choose approaches quickly. If one ignores it long enough they still might die happy with the thought that their life was mostly free.

      It's sort of funny, in a horrid way, that every time I see a TSA headline, any TSA headline, the very first thing that comes to mind are brown shirts. Something tells me that there is a reason for that though voicing it seems brash and somewhat unjustified - for the moment. And yet I think it.

      --
      \r
    21. Re:Nazi America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How do we change it?

      Now you begin to understand why common citizens really do *need* AR-15 rifles.

    22. Re:Nazi America by shikaisi · · Score: 2

      Yes, and drop the "T". Just call it the SA, so we know who we are dealing with.

      --
      No left turn unstoned.
    23. Re:Nazi America by clarkn0va · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Learn to love Alaska [romancingalaska.com]

      But still encouraging others to go there?

      --
      I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
    24. Re:Nazi America by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2

      To make cute little "ping" sounds against the armour of the Abrams bearing down on them?

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    25. Re:Nazi America by CptNerd · · Score: 3, Funny

      They're not automated yet (skynet) so whoever's driving has to get out to pee or eat sometime...

      --
      By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
    26. Re:Nazi America by aztracker1 · · Score: 2

      Last November, I didn't vote for a single incumbent in any race, voted no on all ballot initiatives, and voted third party (L), where there was an option...

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
    27. Re:Nazi America by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      It's a friend's blog, who, when I first changed my sig to that, um, what, 10 years ago, had Google ads, and about 30% of his ad revenue came from visitors directed there from my sig. So it was support of a friend, not any particular affinity to Alaska. Though the more people that move there, the better off I am, at least until I finally sell my house there.

      But owning a home free and clear, a nice 4-bed 3-bath in a good neighborhood, makes more sense to hold and rent, than sell. At least until the children are 18+ and decide whether they want to go back to the homeland, or stay in any of the other places they are entitled to live. Unless the tunnel under the Bearing Strait gets built, or he natural gas pipeline to the lower 48. If either happen, I expect a land boom like the one in the 1980s, and I'd get out at the top of the bubble, rather than hold through a bubble grow and pop. Though nothing would prevent me from buying in again at the bottom of the trough that would come after the pop.

    28. Re:Nazi America by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Informative

      I mean, really, having security at major sporting events, is that really the equivalent of murdering millions and millions of people? Really?

      Remember Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. That's what's lurking under the surface.

      --
      No sig today...
    29. Re:Nazi America by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All hail the new King. Same as the old King.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    30. Re:Nazi America by TheLink · · Score: 2

      Don't you already have a police force for that? Why expand the scope of the TSA? Have they proven themselves to be better at this sort of thing?

      --
    31. Re:Nazi America by TheLink · · Score: 2

      If you're talking about revolution think about this: Do you really think the voters will do better with their bullets than their ballots? Or are you planning to silence all those voters Mr Dictator?

      Maybe the voters are voting for what they think is the best. If you disagree you can vote differently, but it doesn't mean your voice should be louder than theirs.
      If they are voting against their best interests, it may be stupid but it is still their choice (and responsibility). And it's a lot less messy when done with ballots than with bullets.

      --
    32. Re:Nazi America by EvilIdler · · Score: 3, Funny

      "The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine." --Abraham Lincoln

    33. Re:Nazi America by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 2

      For crying out loud. My post was only four short sentences, one of them being about NOT attributing the quote to anyone specific. Please try to read to the end next time before you get in such a hurry to post some contrarian nonsense.

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  2. TSA at Every Home by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It won't be long before there is a TSA agent posted at every home, to interview its occupants before they are allowed to leave.

    1. Re:TSA at Every Home by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Oh, you're going to the movie theatre? Didn't you say you were a student? How is a student able to afford gasoline and movie tickets?

      (I have actually been asked by a TSA agent how I was able to afford airline tickets.)

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:TSA at Every Home by newcastlejon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      (I have actually been asked by a TSA agent how I was able to afford airline tickets.)

      What was your answer? Did it include the words "none", "damn", "business", "yours"?

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    3. Re:TSA at Every Home by 0111+1110 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To which the TSA brute would reply, "Do you want to fly today?"

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    4. Re:TSA at Every Home by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...actually, being a Canadian, I started giving my life story until she told me to shut up. I think the only thing people can really do to defend themselves against the TSA is to waste the agency's time.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    5. Re:TSA at Every Home by paiute · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...actually, being a Canadian, I started giving my life story until she told me to shut up.

      Something along the lines of this:

      "I don’t reckon them times will ever come again. There never was a more bullier old ram than what he was. Grandfather fetched him from Illinois–got him of a man by the name of Yates–Bill Yates–maybe you might have heard of him; his father was a deacon–Baptist–and he was a rustler, too; a man had to get up ruther early to get the start of old Thankful Yates; it was him that put the Greens up to jining teams with my grandfather when he moved west. Seth Green was prob’ly the pick of the flock; he married a Wilkerson–Sarah Wilkerson–good cretur, she was–one of the likeliest heifers that was ever raised in old Stoddard, everybody said that knowed her. She could heft a bar’l of flour as easy as I can flirt a flapjack. And spin? Don’t mention it! Independent? Humph! When Sile Hawkins come a browsing around her, she let him know that for all his tin he couldn’t trot in harness alongside of her. You see, Sile Hawkins was–no, it warn’t Sile Hawkins, after all–it was a galoot by the name of Filkins–I disremember his first name; but he was a stump–come into pra’r meeting drunk, one night, hooraying for Nixon, becuz he thought it was a primary; and old deacon Ferguson up and scooted him through the window and he lit on old Miss Jefferson’s head, poor old filly. She was a good soul–had a glass eye and used to lend it to old Miss Wagner, that hadn’t any, to receive company in; it warn’t big enough, and when Miss Wagner warn’t noticing, it would get twisted around in the socket, and look up, maybe, or out to one side, and every which way, while t’ other one was looking as straight ahead as a spy-glass. Grown people didn’t mind it, but it most always made the children cry, it was so sort of scary. She tried packing it in raw cotton, but it wouldn’t work, somehow–the cotton would get loose and stick out and look so kind of awful that the children couldn’t stand it no way. She was always dropping it out, and turning up her old dead-light on the company empty, and making them oncomfortable, becuz she never could tell when it hopped out, being blind on that side, you see. So...."

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    6. Re:TSA at Every Home by blackraven14250 · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Isn't that the usual reason why people buy airline tickets?"

    7. Re:TSA at Every Home by frosty_tsm · · Score: 2

      ...actually, being a Canadian, I started giving my life story until she told me to shut up. I think the only thing people can really do to defend themselves against the TSA is to waste the agency's time.

      How can you waste the time of an agency setup to waste time AND money?

  3. Your papers, please... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not far off.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Your papers, please... by mrquagmire · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think the US Border Patrol already beat them to it (no pun intended).

      --
      giggity
    2. Re:Your papers, please... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2

      The smartcard and gates cannot come soon enough.

      The smartcard tickets in Melbourne are difficult to get without a credit card. Police have an interface to track movement of individuals through the public transport system using identity information from the credit card purchases. Personally I paid for my ticket with cash but most people won't.

  4. Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by ericloewe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's time for the US to get rid of the TSA, which has caught no terrorists, foiled no plots, cost millions, irradiated thousands with backscatter x-ray scanners, has stolen quite a few personal items and is actively trying to expand its sphere of influence.

    Replace it with common sense and profile people. That's how airprort security works, not by wasting millions of dollars.

    1. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It was time to get rid of it when it was created. The first thing Obama should have done when sworn in was dismantle the Department of "Homeland Security" and fold everything back to how it was before the World Trade Center attacks. With the exceptions of Customs, let the airports handle their own security, and get rid of the "Constitution Free Zone."

    2. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by Spad · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good luck finding a politician willing to commit career suicide by dissolving the TSA.

      Even in the extremely unlikely event that it's seen as a popular move with the electorate as a whole, do you really think all the campaign contributors with financial interests in the TSA supply chain would let them get re-elected?

    3. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 2

      I'' do it. Vote me in as President and I'll do it

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    4. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by Scarred+Intellect · · Score: 2

      Freedom is inherently risky. My fellow Americans need to realize that. To be absolutely safe necessitates living in an absolutely oppressed society.

      What do you want, freedom or oppression?

      The way it looks now, too many Americans are leaning towards oppression, because being free is just too scary.

    5. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by jcr · · Score: 2

      cost millions,

      Billions, actually.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    6. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well they can't get rid of it now, can they? There would be a deluge of people who were undereducated, disgruntled and unemployed. Furthermore, these people are conditioned to see terrorism opportunities everywhere, they have insider knowledge of airport security, and they would have a motive to 'prove' that firing them had worsened security.

      "Going TSA" will be the new "going postal".

    7. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      see: pussification of america.

      carlin (was it carlin? I think so) was right. we are pussies, by and large. soccer moms (oh, puke!) care more about perceived safety than the real things that we were founded on.

      they can't see past the end of their snowflake's report card.

      that's the core of the problem, in a nutshell. mommies and daddies who don't see the big picture and only see their own little lives.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    8. Re:Bureaucracy tending towards opression... by Type44Q · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Good luck finding a politician willing to commit career suicide by dissolving the TSA.

      Would that be the same "career suicide" that Kennedy commited when he became a threat to those who control our nation's intelligence services? :)

  5. At least it will create jobs. by khasim · · Score: 5, Informative

    My biggest problem is that the TSA has not caught a single terrorist yet.

    Everything they do and all the money they spend has accomplished NOTHING except to harass regular people.

    1. Re:At least it will create jobs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It has also greatly increased the government's awareness of the locations and activities of regular people. In-and-of itself that isn't valuable, but the moment any of these regular people become problematic (by engaging in perfectly-legal protests, for example), the knowledge will be invaluable in shutting them down.

      Catching terrorists is only the ostensible purpose of the TSA. The real purpose is to keep YOU and your ilk in line.

      And since Americans seem to love trading freedom for security, you may as well get used to it.

    2. Re:At least it will create jobs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We're seeing an erosion of our freedom and privacy and your problem is that they just haven't caught a terrorist yet? Does that imply that there actions will be justified if they do? Would it therefore make more sense to give them even MORE power and take away even more personal liberty if that helps and leads to catching terrorists?

    3. Re:At least it will create jobs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Ahh, not a bear in sight. The bear patrol must be working like a charm."

    4. Re:At least it will create jobs. by 0111+1110 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, it would merely indicate that a non-lazy terrorist finally got his shit together and blew something up. Damn lazy terrorists. They are so soft and lazy they may as well not even exist. Oh wait...

      If we had lots and lots of attacks on non-aviation or non-transportation targets or in the airport security lines themselves then you would have some evidence of a deterrence effect. So far you've got nothing more effective than a magic anti-tiger rock. Except that an anti-tiger rock won't cost you 7.85 billion USD per year. Of course if you wan't to pay that much I could sell you one. After all, you get what you pay for so my 8 billion dollar anti-tiger rock will be way more effective than one you found on the side of the road or whatever. Personally, I would feel just as safe if the US purchased an 8 billion dollar anti-terrorist rock and then dissolved the TSA. It would save taxpayers and travelers a whole lot of money in the long run as well since the rock is just a one time purchase.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    5. Re:At least it will create jobs. by poity · · Score: 2

      I don't think the TSA is used to catch terrorists (doesn't the FBI do that anyway?) as much as it is used to displace potential acts of terrorism to lower profile targets/less critical infrastructure, in order to mitigate 1. public hysteria and 2. economic fallout. The latter probably being the more important consideration. A terrorist could bomb an office building or super market right now and still kill a lot of people, but the economic impact wouldn't be as great as that experienced by the airline industry in first few months following 9/11.

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    6. Re:At least it will create jobs. by memnock · · Score: 2

      You make an interesting point with "... less critical infrastructure ...". I'm not saying you're wrong, but by applying what you're saying, the TSA (thus the Feds?) considers a sports arena a critical infrastructure? Sounds like the perfect way for the security theater apparatus to claim just about anything critical infrastructure in order to apply their mission creep and extend their tentacles into everything else around.

      Geez, when is the security bullshit gonna stop piling up?

    7. Re:At least it will create jobs. by Mitreya · · Score: 2

      We're seeing an erosion of our freedom and privacy and your problem is that they just haven't caught a terrorist yet? Does that imply that there actions will be justified if they do?

      No, I just think it would be a no-brainer to dismantle an organization that serves no purpose. Even if they had caught a terrorist I'd suggest dismantling them, but in that case there would be two sides to the argument (one for TSA, one against TSA)

      As it stands, there seems to be only one side to this debate -- a long list of reasons why TSA should be eliminated. You'd think it would be easier to get rid of a completely useless organization (rather the one that is simply less useful than the associated expense)

    8. Re:At least it will create jobs. by Firethorn · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If they stopped a bomb/terrorist attack every day, I might be willing to put up with the erosion. As the actual rate is, at this point, somewhere below a thousandth of that, we could suffer a 9/11 attack something like once every 3 years and STILL be better off without the TSA.

      Some practical changes like the reinforced doors make sense. Combined with the attitude changes of the passangers and that threat has already been pretty well remediated.

      Making us take off our shoes and go though the x-ray scanners as opposed to a simple metal detector is overkill.

      The TSA is practicing risk avoidance, not risk management. The military learned that lesson over 30 years ago. It simply costs too much to avoid ALL risk; you end up not being able to do anything. Thus, you manage the risk - don't take stupid chances, but don't fret over extremely unlikely events, out of proportion of the damage it could cause. The underwear and shoe bombs were too small to have any realistic chances of taking the plane down. Ergo, they could have done as much or more damage in the waiting line at the TSA. More, if they turned it into a proper suicide vest with fragmentation additives. Or at a mall or some such.

      Risk management is simple in theory. You look at the risk - the chance that it will happen as a percentage, and the average damage it would cost. If mitigating the risk would cost more than the damage multiplied by the chance it'll happen, then you don't perform that mitigation.

      That's the simple type, of course. Some mitigations fix multiple risks, for example. Armored windows that will stop a gunshot also tend to be rather overkill for hurricane/tornado, after all. Vehicle barriers not only stop vehicle bombs, they stop drunk drivers. Etc...

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    9. Re:At least it will create jobs. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have a large rock in my backyard. it keeps tigers away.

      and its about as effective as the TSA is in their 'goals'. but my rock is a lot cheaper.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  6. Hey Republican Congress! by Rougement · · Score: 5, Informative

    You're looking for spending cuts to balance tax increases? I think I just found one!

    1. Re:Hey Republican Congress! by Nimey · · Score: 2

      Bah. Republicans only want to cut spending on programs that help people who aren't stinking rich.

      Besides, I think almost everyone in Washington is terrified that if they dismantle this monster and any terrorist attack anywhere in the States succeeds, they'll be blamed. The whole situation is reminiscent of the FBI under Hoover, and I suspect the very best we can hope for is more oversight of TSA and Fatherland Security.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    2. Re:Hey Republican Congress! by Nimey · · Score: 2

      I never said the Dems care about the little people. In fact, if you'll carefully read my post you won't see a single thing about the Democrats.

      It's kind of pathetic that you have to answer criticism of Your Team by blowing smoke and complaining about the Other Team instead.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  7. Hey TSA: Fuck off by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You provide little actual security within your primary area of focus. Confinscating water bottles, nail clippers, groping little boys and girls, strip-searching people and putting unsolicited fingers on and in their privates, and using technology that your own people are now developing cancer from being near. You talk about terrorist threats, but how many terrorists have gotten away with irradiating our citizens? How many terrorists have stolen millions in camcorders, cell phones, and other electronics? How many terrorists have smuggled drugs onto commercial airlines? And the real kicker: Compared to those numbers, how many TSA agents have been caught doing the same?

    You bring a level of institutional incompetence to the show that makes the current fiscal cliff negotiations look like someone forgetting to give the change back after buying a candy bar... you're overpriced, underwhelming, and frankly... the "cure" you provide is worse than the disease. And the only reason the TSA hasn't been drop-kicked out the door is because the media keeps people in perpetual ignorance of just how incompetent you guys truly are.

    So when you come into my town and say "this will be the norm", I can't help but wonder how long until nobody flies, goes to public events, or even leaves their fucking house-- not because of terrorists, but because of the inconvenience of having to deal with your bullshit. Your organization is incompetent and useless. Go away.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Hey TSA: Fuck off by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Funny

      You provide little actual security within your primary area of focus. Confiscating water bottles...

      That's pretty much it right there. The NFL probably saw what a great job they did at preventing outside beverages inside airport security, and how much better the overpriced food vendors inside security are doing as a result, and they're probably hoping that the TSA can repeat that success at their establishment.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:Hey TSA: Fuck off by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Funny

      My theory is that they wanted to watch the game and they didn't want to buy tickets. Thus, they have to be there "for security reasons." Which is why they have to be in the luxury boxes later on...

  8. Catch 22 by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Loyalty oaths should be required throughout the day. You should have to sign one to go to the shops or eat at a restaurant.

    1. Re:Catch 22 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Loyalty oaths should be required...

      I work for a California public college.

      I had to sign that I would be willing to take a loyalty oath as condition of employment (didn't have to actually take an oath, though).

      This shit has been around (at least) since the last time right-wing crazies shit all over our civil liberties-- the "red scare."

      Each time the right manages to get a bit more of this shit entrenched. Maybe this time will be the one or maybe 3 more of these right-wing police state takeovers, but eventually we will not be able to come back-- we will be in a permanent police state. "Your papers please!"

    2. Re:Catch 22 by swillden · · Score: 2

      I work for a California public college.

      I had to sign that I would be willing to take a loyalty oath as condition of employment (didn't have to actually take an oath, though).

      This shit has been around (at least) since the last time right-wing crazies shit all over our civil liberties-- the "red scare."

      Each time the right manages to get a bit more of this shit entrenched. Maybe this time will be the one or maybe 3 more of these right-wing police state takeovers

      Yeah, those California universities are bastions of right-wing radicalism.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    3. Re:Catch 22 by Maow · · Score: 2

      Loyalty oaths should be required throughout the day. You should have to sign one to go to the shops or eat at a restaurant.

      Best to start that kind of thing in school. Oh, wait:

      "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

      ...

      the fact that the people who are most likely to recite the Pledge every day, small children in schools

      Gotta wonder if it's time to bring back the good ol' fashioned method:

      Swearing of the Pledge is accompanied by a salute. An early version of the salute, adopted in 1892, was known as the Bellamy salute. It started with the hand outstretched toward the flag, palm down, and ended with the palm up. Because of the similarity between the Bellamy salute and the Nazi salute, developed later, United States Congress instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute.

      Thanks Wikipedia.

  9. TSA - Are you the baddies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU

  10. Re:Scary by 0111+1110 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's fine because voting is the same as not voting at all too.

    --
    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
  11. It was written over 100 years ago... by 101percent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. ... To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  12. Re:Parallel by mill3d · · Score: 2

    That sounds like the Randian utopia, but with the bad stuff swept under the carpet. Progress indeed.

    --
    Nothing is enough for whom enough is too little - Confucius
  13. And in Denver or Seattle? by bdwoolman · · Score: 2

    The question is obvious. During a routine search at a sports event one of the TSA agents finds cannabis on your person? Of course at an airport they would contact law enforcement (happens all the time). Would they turn you over to the local authorities, who would give you back your legal weed. Or would you be turned over to the FBI?

    Hyperbole aside, an expansion of the activities of this unpopular and relatively incompetent agency is unsettling to say the least. Most Americans would like them to disappear,. Not multiply. Feh!

    --
    "No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
  14. Re:Parallel by Meyaht · · Score: 2

    The giant communist robots will provide

    --
    I believe in karma, which is why, when I do something bad to people, I assume they deserve it.
  15. As foretold by the prophet Osama Bin Laden by 0111+1110 · · Score: 4, Informative

    We will work to continue this battle, God permitting, until victory or until we meet God. I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in -- and the West in general -- into an unbearable hell and a choking life.

    Osama Bin Laden. 2002.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/01/31/gen.binladen.interview/index.html

    --
    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
  16. VIPR by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

    an unfortunate acronym for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team

    It's not an 'unfortunate acronym,' they chose it exactly BECAUSE it spells VIPR. Someone in the system likes that name.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  17. domestic security? by whathappenedtomonday · · Score: 2

    Ok, I get that, and I also get that none of this is about security, but merely about control and power. What I don't get is why the security theater / homeland security smoke screen is so effective, but that's probably just me and owed to the fact that I've been taught history. History tells us where all of this will lead. As we now by now: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

    --
    I hope I didn't brain my damage.
    1. Re:domestic security? by canesfan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ok, I get that, and I also get that none of this is about security, but merely about control and power. What I don't get is why the security theater / homeland security smoke screen is so effective, but that's probably just me and owed to the fact that I've been taught history. History tells us where all of this will lead. As we now by now: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

      As for why the "security theater / homeland security smoke screen is so effective"? Stop and think and honestly try and take stock of how many people you currently know personally who could be objectively called independent thinkers who are not afraid to live what they proclaim they believe. I am in my 40's and I can say this is not the America I grew up in. Very few people have the courage to live by the set of principles which made America a great Country to begin with.

    2. Re:domestic security? by jahudabudy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Very few people have the courage to live by the set of principles which made America a great Country to begin with.
      Uh, like self-centered obsession with getting ahead personally regardless of the expense to others? Not that there haven't been some few stellar individuals that stood out, but the overall history of America is voracious greed thinly disguised as "individualism" or "manifest destiny". There are no longer free resources that are easily taken from the natives, or an endless supply of desperate newcomers to step on; we can't even overtly loot Central and South America now, thanks to global international relations. So now, we have turned inward and are eating ourselves. Very few stood on principle when it was every one else being digested, especially since the American middle class got the scraps. Don't pretend that now that it is the middle class that is the entree that somehow the principle of the matter has changed.

      --
      ...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
  18. If you don't like the TSA, then don't fly! by clonehappy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is what I've been being told for years now. When I point out that it's been the plan ALL ALONG to expand them out into a Stasi-style force on the highways, in the subways, at the shopping malls, at sporting events, I was branded a tinfoil-hat nutter.

    Now what, bootlickers?

  19. US Intelligence is in chaos now, so parasites grow by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

    US Intelligence is in such chaos now that it was possible for the FBI to remove the head of the CIA on "moral" grounds and thus assert their dominance. In such a mess a parasite such as the TSA cannot be controlled and will grow whatever way it likes.

  20. Had we not flown... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Had people simply refused to fly as long as the TSA continued to exist, the expansion would have ended. People kept flying, even when they could have taken a train or bus, and so the TSA never felt the heat, and eventually grew larger. People will not boycott sports events either, nor will they refuse to drive when the TSA starts creating highway checkpoints, nor will they refuse to go to malls when the checkpoints come there.

    Boil the frog slowly is how the major parties operate; the major parties consist of politicians either too corrupt to stop or too inept to even realize what they are doing.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
    1. Re:Had we not flown... by Saxerman · · Score: 2

      My wife and I did take the train for our holiday travel rather than flying, explicitly because I hate being manhandled like a criminal. Total transit time, one way, would have been about 4 hours by air or about 13 hours if we drove straight there. By train, one way, transit time was 28 hours. Certainly, the train was a lot less cramped than either a car or plane, plus we have outlets and no restrictions on using our electronic toys, and a dining, cafe, and observation car. (Kudos to the team who played more than 12 hours of Settlers of Catan in the observation car!) And our layover at one train station did include complimentary propaganda TSA video playing continuously.

      Which is to say, yes, we do have a few options to try and boycott the growing police state in this country. However, they are not without some serious compromises, and even those of us who do value freedom have to balance that value against the many other priorities in our lives. My wife and I had the privilege to spend an extra two of our vacation days on travel, but not everyone is so fortunate. And I have no idea how we're going to manage a trip to Alaska.

      --

      A steaming cup of soykaf would be real wiz right now.

  21. SHUT UP! BE HAPPY. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We interrupt this program with a special bulletin:
    America is now under marshal law
    All constitutional rights have been suspended.
    Stay in your homes.
    Do not attempt to contact loved ones, insurance agents or attorneys.
    SHUT UP.
    Do not attempt to think
    or depression may occur.
    Stay in your homes.
    Curfew is at 7 PM sharp after work.
    Anyone caught outside the gates of their subdivision sectors after curfew,
    Will Be Shot.
    Remain calm,
    Do not panic.
    Your neighborhood watch officer will be by to collect urine samples In the morning.
    Anyone caught interfering with the collection of urine samples Will be shot.
    Stay in your homes, remain calm.
    The number one enemy of progress is questions.
    National security is more important than individual will.
    All sports broadcasts will proceed as normal.
    No more than two people may gather anywhere without permission.
    Use only the drugs prescribed by your boss or supervisor.
    SHUT UP.
    Be Happy.
    Obey all orders without question.
    The comfort you requested is now mandatory!
    Be happy, at last everything is done for you.

    Lyrics from the album Freedom of Speech (Just Watch What You Say) by Ice T, released 1989.

  22. Re:In the USofA, too.... by tehcyder · · Score: 2
    There is no connection between what rightwingers call the Nanny State and an actual police state (left or right wing).

    A so-called Nanny State merely protects the most vulnerable from harm, e.g. by providing unemployment benefits, medical care and education by the state. This results in a reduction in freedom only to the extent that rightwingers believe all taxation is theft.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it