House Dem Leader Calls For Special TSA Treatment for Congress
Jan 9, 2011, 11:28 am
#16
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 733
Tieing the 2 together is absolutely reprehensible.
Jan 9, 2011, 11:32 am
#17
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 42,130
This is ridiculous -- a legislator-slimeball trying to leverage the tragedy in Arizona to score smoother airport transit for himself.
The next guy will claim the shooting means he shouldn't have to fly commercially anymore and needs a government Gulfstream of his own.
And Congress wonders why everybody hates them.
The next guy will claim the shooting means he shouldn't have to fly commercially anymore and needs a government Gulfstream of his own.
And Congress wonders why everybody hates them.
Jan 9, 2011, 11:46 am
#18
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
Sub-state-level militias and such militants have a long history of being crushed by the national government. Apparently the Second Amendment of the US Constitution has no history of being the ultimate check and balance on the federal government.
Jan 9, 2011, 11:50 am
#19
Join Date: Dec 2004
Programs: AA, WN RR
Posts: 3,122
What do you suggest, that the individual states re-establish their own well-organized militias and finance them to wage war against the federal-level mandarin class?
Sub-state-level militias and such militants have a long history of being crushed by the national government. Apparently the Second Amendment of the US Constitution has no history of being the ultimate check and balance on the federal government.
Sub-state-level militias and such militants have a long history of being crushed by the national government. Apparently the Second Amendment of the US Constitution has no history of being the ultimate check and balance on the federal government.
Jan 9, 2011, 11:56 am
#20
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: RDU
Posts: 263
Jan 9, 2011, 12:28 pm
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,072
Nor would I, TSA would burn you at the stake for admitting the truth, that screeners do grope gentials.
Jan 9, 2011, 12:39 pm
#22
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,718
I have less faith than ever in an engaged citizenry. I think if martial law were declared tomorrow less than 5% of the population would actively resist. Another 20% would oppose it by writing blog posts and signing online petitions. About 20% would be all for it and turn their neighbors in for reeducation because they drive Saabs, and the rest would miss the whole thing because they're playing Farmville or watching "Dancing With the Stars."
Jan 9, 2011, 12:42 pm
#23
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 3,728
A top House Democrat said the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) should change how members of Congress are screened at airports.
“I really believe that that is the place where we feel the most ill at ease, is going through airports,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves as assistant minority leader, said on "Fox News Sunday."
“I really believe that that is the place where we feel the most ill at ease, is going through airports,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves as assistant minority leader, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Jan 9, 2011, 2:07 pm
#24
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: An NPR mind living in a Fox News world
Posts: 14,157
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.138 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)
Your fellow screeners in SLC treated Rep. Chaffetz "just like everybody else" and he is now about to become your worst nightmare.
Originally Posted by gsoltso
Congressman Coble, Congresswoman Foxx and Senator Burr come through our checkpoint just like everyone else does when they fly from Greensboro (quite often I might add). I am uncertain as to how much traction this will get at this point.
Jan 9, 2011, 2:25 pm
#25
Join Date: May 2010
Location: FLL - Nice and Warm
Programs: TSA Disparager Gold
Posts: 1,025
The best comment of the bunch:
^^^^
by "THE TRUTH HURTS"
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...age=2#comments
“Well, the fact of the matter is, we are held to a higher standard in so many other areas, and I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA interact with members of Congress.”
No, sir. There are no titles of nobility in the United States of America. If you actually defended the Constitution as you have sworn to do, you would know that. You are an ordinary citizen just like everyone else. The only difference is that you represent other citizens in the United States government by their choosing. Therefore, if you believe a law or regulation is unfair for you, then you should consider it unfair for everyone, and you have the responsibility to change it … FOR EVERYONE, not just you and other self-serving elitists.
No, sir. There are no titles of nobility in the United States of America. If you actually defended the Constitution as you have sworn to do, you would know that. You are an ordinary citizen just like everyone else. The only difference is that you represent other citizens in the United States government by their choosing. Therefore, if you believe a law or regulation is unfair for you, then you should consider it unfair for everyone, and you have the responsibility to change it … FOR EVERYONE, not just you and other self-serving elitists.
by "THE TRUTH HURTS"
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...age=2#comments
Jan 9, 2011, 2:49 pm
#26
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2,425
What do you suggest, that the individual states re-establish their own well-organized militias and finance them to wage war against the federal-level mandarin class?
Sub-state-level militias and such militants have a long history of being crushed by the national government. Apparently the Second Amendment of the US Constitution has no history of being the ultimate check and balance on the federal government.
Sub-state-level militias and such militants have a long history of being crushed by the national government. Apparently the Second Amendment of the US Constitution has no history of being the ultimate check and balance on the federal government.
It won't take many states to make a significant dent in this process. The states have a status, power, and levels of organization that make this route preferable to the 2nd Amendment. A case could be made that the founders saw the 2nd as buttressing these powers of the states in their ability to resist encroachment from the federal.
You do not have to win this fight. You just have to make it expensive for the TSA to continue looking at our spouses and children naked and feeling their sexual organs.
Anyway, I do appreciate gsoltso's candor and willingness to admit that there is a problem in this area. We are lucky that there are some, and perhaps many in the TSA who see that there is a problem here and do not like this at all. Those types of folks have basic decency and that should always be respected.
Jan 9, 2011, 3:08 pm
#27
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
I'm sure there are TSA employees who are not happy with the orders they have been given and/or who are unhappy with the way their colleagues and/or higher-ups are (mis-)behaving with passengers. But a lot of that has to do with a discomfort with behaving in a manner that would be considered criminal sex predator activity if done by a random stranger on the streets. Toss in homosexual contact, and it's no surprise that some TSA employees are unhappy about the situation even more than many passengers are unhappy with it.
Having had some personal exposure to how people behave in the immediate aftermath of declarations of emergency rule in otherwise democratic environments with far higher participation levels, more varied segmentation and diversity of opinion than seems to be the case in the US, I remain of the thought that the above scenario is probably far more generous than would be the actual case in the US. In other words, I expect there to be far less American resistance in any form to the creepy authoritarianism that is a persistent threat to what remains of American liberty.
I will mention in passing how it was the constituent states of the then-young US that are responsible for the federal government supremacy in so many matters, including those of arms and armed violence. Welcome to the results of those constituent states wanting the national government to assume the state-level Revolutionary War debts that were due to their having militias in various states of organization. Guess who pushed for that national debt roll-up of state debts? John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and a bunch of cronies living off British trade. Guess who opposed? The likes of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were strongly opposed. Now we live with the consequences of a bunch of Anglophile sell-outs getting their way some two centuries ago.
Until there is a massive change amongst the the currently passive American masses, the American mandarins and a bunch of their foreign partners/patsies will continue to get their way no matter what critics of DHS/TSA wish. And Clyburn, for example, will remain in office (1) until he chooses otherwise or his health is such that it no longer permits continuing in such position; or (2) unless another group of self-serving American mandarins manage to rig him out office somehow or another. That's been the way it's been for centuries now.
I have less faith than ever in an engaged citizenry. I think if martial law were declared tomorrow less than 5% of the population would actively resist. Another 20% would oppose it by writing blog posts and signing online petitions. About 20% would be all for it and turn their neighbors in for reeducation because they drive Saabs, and the rest would miss the whole thing because they're playing Farmville or watching "Dancing With the Stars."
I will mention in passing how it was the constituent states of the then-young US that are responsible for the federal government supremacy in so many matters, including those of arms and armed violence. Welcome to the results of those constituent states wanting the national government to assume the state-level Revolutionary War debts that were due to their having militias in various states of organization. Guess who pushed for that national debt roll-up of state debts? John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and a bunch of cronies living off British trade. Guess who opposed? The likes of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were strongly opposed. Now we live with the consequences of a bunch of Anglophile sell-outs getting their way some two centuries ago.
Until there is a massive change amongst the the currently passive American masses, the American mandarins and a bunch of their foreign partners/patsies will continue to get their way no matter what critics of DHS/TSA wish. And Clyburn, for example, will remain in office (1) until he chooses otherwise or his health is such that it no longer permits continuing in such position; or (2) unless another group of self-serving American mandarins manage to rig him out office somehow or another. That's been the way it's been for centuries now.
Last edited by GUWonder; Jan 9, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Jan 9, 2011, 3:21 pm
#28
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nashville, TN - BNA
Programs: Hilton Gold, WN RR
Posts: 1,818
All Federal employees, including and especially Congressmen, should have to go through the metal detector, the nudoscope, AND get a full and thorough grope, because we DO hold you to a higher standard.
From an article in the POST HERE thread back in December...
http://www.lacanadaonline.com/news/o...,7066397.story
Churchill remained in London during the Blitz. He was in a position to move to safer areas. He was in a position to pull rank. He refused. Every night during the bombings Churchill remained in London. As soon as the all clear sounded, he hit the streets in a very public fashion. He visited areas in London bombed out by the German Luftwaffe. He stayed in London in unpleasant and dangerous conditions. Londoners viewed Churchill as one of their own. They were inspired by him because he did not lead from the rear.
The United States Marine Corps also has a long history of leadership. Marine Corps officers are taught to put their enlisted troops first....Ever since 9/11, frequent fliers have put up with the TSA shenanigans because we want to cooperate with our government in the battle against terrorism. Sadly, airline passengers bear witness to TSA's bumbling and inconsistent application of what appear to be nonsensical airport security rules.
(snip)
If Winston Churchill were alive today, and if he thought this TSA stuff was that important, he'd be the first in line, along with his family, to publicly undergo the enhanced pat down and the back-scatter X-ray. He would do it to empower us, to show us that he is one of the people and to keep TSA honest. He would undergo both the back-scatter X-ray and the enhanced pat down each and every time he boarded his taxpayer-funded, private jet.
I call upon President Barack Obama his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, their daughters, and Vice President Joe Biden and his family, and all our elected officials to follow Winston Churchill's example.
The United States Marine Corps also has a long history of leadership. Marine Corps officers are taught to put their enlisted troops first....Ever since 9/11, frequent fliers have put up with the TSA shenanigans because we want to cooperate with our government in the battle against terrorism. Sadly, airline passengers bear witness to TSA's bumbling and inconsistent application of what appear to be nonsensical airport security rules.
(snip)
If Winston Churchill were alive today, and if he thought this TSA stuff was that important, he'd be the first in line, along with his family, to publicly undergo the enhanced pat down and the back-scatter X-ray. He would do it to empower us, to show us that he is one of the people and to keep TSA honest. He would undergo both the back-scatter X-ray and the enhanced pat down each and every time he boarded his taxpayer-funded, private jet.
I call upon President Barack Obama his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, their daughters, and Vice President Joe Biden and his family, and all our elected officials to follow Winston Churchill's example.
Jan 9, 2011, 3:26 pm
#29
Join Date: Jul 2006
Programs: United
Posts: 2,710
^ ^ ^
From an article in the POST HERE thread back in December...
http://www.lacanadaonline.com/news/o...,7066397.story
From an article in the POST HERE thread back in December...
http://www.lacanadaonline.com/news/o...,7066397.story
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...o-Britain.html
Jan 9, 2011, 3:30 pm
#30
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,145
“Well, the fact of the matter is, we are held to a higher standard in so many other areas, and I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA interact with members of Congress.”
