[careinke]

I wonder if as a man, I can claim to be uncomfortable with another man patting me down, and get a female to do it?

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'n') any event, it would be better to just accept some risk of airplane attack and have decent but not ridiculous security. We have made it so airplanes cannot be used as weapons, that is all that really mattered. Use some of the saved billions for medical care, and far more lives will be routinely saved than the potential few planes that could be downed

[rangerone314]

I keep hoping the airline industry becomes financially crippled and goes down for good. I'm doing my part by refusing to fly. The last time I was on a plane was my honeymoon in 2005.

The worst thing that came out of 9-11 wasn't the 3000 killed or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; it is that collectively, Americans' balls have dropped off.
"Home of the Brave" indeed... cower under the bed while Dancing with the Stars plays in the background and you call Homeland Security because you saw a Sikh in the grocery store.

Minimal security and you would probably still have a greater chance of winning the lottery than being killed by a terrorist.

Osama bin Laden can parachute into my yard for all I care. I'd use his turban for target practice.

[Sixstrings]

Drudge has this pic on the front page:



I really think the problem people have with the pat-downs is mostly the embarrassment factor. Looks like the guy had to take his belt off.. overall pretty humiliating, taking off your shoes and belt then getting frisked in front of everyone. Having a screened off area would at least afford some privacy.

Another issue I didn't think about before are kids.. I don't think it's appropriate for them to get pat-downs. Maybe female officers should do all the pat-downs.. I'd guess both women and men find getting frisked by a man the most objectionable.

[Sixstrings]

Here's a woman who says a TSA officer pulled her blouse down, exposed her breasts, and laughed about it:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') WOMAN is suing over an incident where airport staff allegedly pulled down her top and joked about her breasts in public view.

The 23-year-old traveller, from Amarillo, US, is suing the US Government for the emotional distressed she says the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents caused.

The woman says she was singled out for "extended search procedures" while preparing to board a plane to Amarillo in May 2008.

“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/airport-staff-exposed-womans-breasts-laughed/story-e6frg8ro-1225955345734

[Dreamtwister]

"Are the airport pat-downs going too far? "

Apparently not, since people are still willing to tolerate them.

[dinopello]

Just remember the phrase "you touch my junk and I'll have you arrested".

That's a pretty boring video. Here's some other ideas

Eat you veggies!

Find the right argument!

[dukey]

Would you get on a bus or a train without having a naked body scan or being sexually molested ?????????????????????

[basil_hayden]

Something tells me the porn industry has a future in TSA.

You know they'd do it right, in a way no one would complain.

[Timo]

All during W's term as Preznit, if the TSA had started these types of body scans and pat-downs, they'd simply justify it by an Orange Terrorism Threat alert, and everyone would just accept these inconveniences as a necessary part of the War on Terror. Put a Democrat in the Big House, and suddenly these body checks are a sign of socialism! Republican security measures? OK. Democratic security measures? How dare you!

On the other hand, maybe the public's outcry will finally get Amtrak back in business as a legitimate alternative to air travel.

[Sixstrings]

UPDATE: Folks flippin' out about these patdowns:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Cancer surviving flight attendant forced to remove prosthetic breast during pat-down

A Charlotte-area flight attendant and cancer survivor contacted WBTV after she says she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.

(snip)

She says they stopped when they got around to feeling her right breast… the one where she'd had surgery.

Pat-down Backlash: Child groped during pat-down? What are the rules?

"She put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?'. And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that'."
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13534628

[Serial_Worrier]

Full body cavity searches on nuns!

[rangerone314]

I do wonder if it isn't time to organize Americans to form an alternative government... an actual democracy, and one that excludes money as power. (ie have all public financing)

I say scrap the current system, hold a constitutional convention, write a new constitution and one that scraps corporate personhood as a legal concept.

[Sixstrings]

UPDATE:

Here's a video of a little boy singled out for pat-down; the kid tries to get away when the officer begins touching him inappropriately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQTz1bccL4

I'm beginning to see why so many people are complaining about the pat-downs; it's ridiculous, there's zero evidence to suggest that American children are terrorists.

and

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]TSA Groping Leaves Bladder Cancer Survivor Humiliated and Covered In Urine...

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

(snip)

Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”

(snip)

“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”

The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”

Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer said he had to walk through the airport soaked in urine, board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean up.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40291856/ns/travel-news

[mos6507]

You guys should be celebrating this. I mean, shouldn't we be flying less? You know, peak oil and global warming and all that? Instead I see people universally bitching that we're making it too inconvenient to fly.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '.')..we're making it too inconvenient to fly.

[frankthetank]

Yeah. Lets give away all our freedoms. I don't mind being molested and groped and sent through some full body pornoscanner. Nothing wrong with that. As long as the terrorist underwear bomber doesn't get us.

I do agree that this "should" cut down on air travel, although Americans are such sheep that they might just go along with this disgusting form of security...Only sheep would be OK with this type of behavior...

Oh...SNL had something on the TSA last night:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/ ... a/1261478/

Private jets aren't subject to cavity searches...so if your rich, your good to go..

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', '
')Only sheep would be OK with this type of behavior...

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '
')Until another plane goes down and then "TSA Follies" is all about how we didn't try hard enough.

[rangerone314]

Why don't we simply threaten al-qaida to drop a 10-megaton H-bomb on Mecca (groundzero at Kaaba) should they bring another airplane down? Terrorists like taking hostages sometimes... we should respond in kind. Hold the Kaaba hostage to al-qaida's good behavior.

I'd rather do that than live in the budding dictatorship that we are becoming to justify fighting terrorism. Since when have the politicians valued American lives? (They don't care if corporations poison us... just read up on the research done on the cocktail of chemicals present in the average American... this one about minorities but I've heard the same of Americans in general: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=newborn-babies-chemicals-exposure-bpa) They only care about power... namely increasing theirs at the expense of ordinary Americans.

I have contempt for the sheep that continue to fly because they are endorsing fascism. I will not get on a damn plane for any reason.

I have contempt for the people that continue to vote because they are giving legitimacy to a one-party political system. (The Republocratic Party, run by corporate money)