Re: Are Air Travelers Criminal Suspects?

Yes.  I'd like to think things have reached a tipping point, or critical 
mass, when it comes to govt. intrusion.  However I am afraid that the govt. 
is only too happy to have us rubes focusing on naked images and the 
occasional grope while travelling.  It keeps our attention off of what is 
still going on with the Fed and Wall Street.

Enjoying Matt Taibi's Griftopia quite a bit.  Maybe enjoy isn't the right 
word but it is a good read and chilling to see the evidence for how far the 
fix is in.   Anybody who refers to Alan Greenspan as "The Biggest Asshole in 
the Universe", (it’s the title of chapter 2), is on the right track.

Here's a quote from Chapter 1:

"There are really two Americas, the one for the grifter class, and the one 
for everybody else.  In everybody-else land, the world of small business and 
wage earning employees, the government is something to be avoided, an 
overwhelming, all powerful entity whose attention usually presages some kind 
of financial setback, if not complete ruin.  In the grifter world, however, 
government is a slavish lapdog that the financial companies that will be the 
major players in this book use as a tool for making money."

Taibi comes from a left wing perspective and is too insulting of the tea 
party, even while begrudging that many people within it do have valid 
objections/points.  But his attention is mainly focused on the greedheads 
who have used this country like a cash cow for their own enrichment and 
neither party is spared.

Highly recommended.

Mike F.





-----Original Message----- 
From: Ronald Hatton
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 4:09 PM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] Are Air Travelers Criminal Suspects?

Just wondering: does anyone else sense there is a link between the "Tea 
Party" attitude (for lack of a better term) and this "revolt" that is 
growing against TSA practices and policies? There seems, to me, to be the 
same undercurrent - resentment towards a government (or government entity) 
which is seen as overstepping its authority and stripping individuals of 
their individuality. Whether it is rebellion against runaway spending and a 
tendency towards taxing productive people to pay for entitlements for the 
non-productive (I'm speaking of a mindset here, not necessarily my opinion, 
so I don't want this to go off on a tangent), or an agency that violates our 
privacy and treats people more like cattle than human beings, there seems to 
me to be a common thread.

-Fr. Ron

On Nov 22, 2010, at 4:32 PM, david white wrote:

> http://paul.house.gov/index.php?
> option=com_content&view=article&id=1797:fighting-tsa-abuse&catid=31:texas-
> straight-talk
>
> Are Air Travelers Criminal Suspects?
>
> The growing revolt against invasive TSA practices is encouraging to 
> Americans
> who are fed up with federal government encroachment in their lives.  In 
> the
> case of air travelers, this encroachment is quite literally physical.  But 
> a
> deep-seated libertarian impulse still exists within the American people, 
> and
> opposition to the new TSA full body scanner and groping searches is 
> gathering
> momentum.
>
> The growing revolt against invasive TSA practices is encouraging to 
> Americans
> who are fed up with federal government encroachment in their lives.  In 
> the
> case of air travelers, this encroachment is quite literally physical.  But 
> a
> deep-seated libertarian impulse still exists within the American people, 
> and
> opposition to the new TSA full body scanner and groping searches is 
> gathering
> momentum.
>
> I introduced legislation last week that is based on a very simple 
> principle:
> federal agents should be subject to the same laws as ordinary citizens. 
> If
> you would face criminal prosecution or a lawsuit for groping someone,
> exposing them to unwelcome radiation, causing them emotional distress, or
> violating indecency laws, then TSA agents should similarly face sanctions 
> for
> their actions.
>
> This principle goes beyond TSA agents, however.  As commentator Lew 
> Rockwell
> recently noted, the bill “enshrines the key lesson of the freedom 
> philosophy:
> the government is not above the moral law. If it is wrong for you and me, 
> it
> is wrong for people in government suits… That is true of TSA crimes too.”
> The revolt against TSA also serves as a refreshing reminder that we should
> not give in to government alarmism or be afraid to question government
> policies.
>
> Certainly, those who choose to refuse the humiliating and potentially 
> harmful
> new full body scanner machines may suffer delays, inconveniences, or 
> worse.
> But I still believe peaceful resistance is the most effective tool against
> federal encroachment on our constitutional rights, which leads me to be
> supportive of any kind of “opt-out” or similar popular movements.
>
> After all, what price can we place on our dignity, personal privacy, and
> physical integrity?  We have a right not to be treated like criminals and
> searched by federal agents without some reasonable evidence of criminal
> activity.  Are we now to accept that merely wishing to travel and board an
> aircraft give rise to reasonable suspicion of criminality?
>
> Also, let’s not forget that TSA was created in the aftermath of 9/11, when
> far too many Americans were clamoring for government protection from the
> specter of terrorism.  Indeed it was congressional Republicans, the 
> majority
> party in 2001, who must bear much of the blame for creating the Department 
> of
> Homeland Security and TSA in the first place.  Congressional Republicans 
> also
> overwhelmingly supported the Patriot Act, which added to the atmosphere of
> hostility toward civil liberties in the name of state-provided “security.”
>
> But as we’ve seen with TSA, federal “security” has more to do with
> humiliation and control than making us safe.  It has more to do with
> instilling a mindset of subservience, which is why laughable policies such 
> as
> removing one’s shoes continue to be enforced.  What else could explain the
> shabby, degrading spectacle of a long line of normally upbeat Americans
> shuffling obediently through airport security in their stocking feet?
>
> TSA may be merely symbolic of much bigger problems with the federal
> government, but it is an important symbol and we have a real chance to do
> something about it.  We must seize this opportunity, before TSA offers 
> some
> cosmetic compromise or the media spotlight fades.  If you don’t live in my
> congressional district, please consider contacting your member of Congress
> and asking him or her to cosponsor HR 6416, the American Traveler Dignity 
> Act
> of 2010.  With enough help, we can push the bill to a vote early next 
> year.
> Unless grassroots Americans take action, federal agencies like TSA will
> continue to bully us and ignore our basic constitutional freedoms.
>
> -- 
> dadl-ot mailing list
> http://mail.thehood.us/mailman/listinfo/dadl-ot_thehood.us
> http://news.gmane.org/gmane.music.dadl.ot


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