JohnneeO

We'll have a lot more posters qualifying for OMNI soon, with all the inflated post counts resulting from this thread!

batuceper

It may be a matter of time only, if Senor Chavez has his way.......or if we keep going the way we are going.....

GUWonder

That is not true: Kim Jong-Il and Osama bin Laden cannot violate my constitutionally-protected freedoms memorialized in the First Amendment of the Constitution. DHS/TSA, however, is perfectly capable of tearing apart the First Amendment; it's just that they are not supposed to -- if they are law-abiding.

The OP's actions are not the problem; the problem is that DHS/TSA was out of control at MKE.

TwinsDG

Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame because that's what you were looking for.

1amwendy

[QUOTE=doober]Welcome to FT, Wendy.

May I ask if you are the woman who was required to take her slacks off to prove to the TSA that she wore a prosthetic?

That would be me... the pants thing was at least as bad as the next time I flew out of that airport, where there were TSA hands in places of my body that would be illegal if it happened in a strip joint...

GUWonder

The OP, however, did not do all that you mention above. If you wish to do that for the reasons named above, that's your right.

What's your opinion about the TSA's actions? Should DHS/TSA have a political litmus test, checking people for their constitutionally-protected political opinions, to determine who to hassle more?

Superguy

In the MyFlyerTalk options, you can change it to display 40 posts per page. Makes things a bit more manageable.

mikey1003

Now OP has 15 minutes of fame

If already posted above, oh well! (Is this really worth 800+ posts????)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&type=politics

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a...00010000000001

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092801437.html

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Sep...curity,00.html

GUWonder

This is less about "15 minutes of fame" than it's about being hassled by government employees for expressing a constitutionally-protected political opinion.

ggregl42

OK, I admit it. I am a newbie. I only fly 30-35 weeks a year. Just found this website and I am favorably impressed. Spent a little time scrolling thru this set of posts. Thought I would toss in my two cents worth.

The Bill of Rights is the most important part of the US Constitution, in spite of the actions of the current and several past administrations and congresses.

Having installed security equipment in transportation settings, I can offer my professional opinion that the Department of Homeland Security and TSA are in fact large beauracracies that are designed to off the illusion of security while providing a plethora of good paying gov't jobs and depleting the coffers.

I would feel safer if the went back to allowing us to carry pocket knives and bottled water on board. I can assure you that if I see someone trying to light the latter, I will stop him with the former.

I prefer freedom to security. Life is short and fragile. I will take my chances on the odds, versus ceding my rights to the gov't.

I love my country, but don't trust my gov't. It isn't because I think they are evil or that there is a conspiracy, but because I think it is staffed largely with people who couldn't get a job at Walmart.

Anyone who thinks that there isn't a war going on, is not paying attention. There is a large and growing section of the Islamic faith, that is committed to a Caliphate. They will convert the world to Islam by whatever means necessary or die trying. We do not have that kind of commitment among most of our nonuniformed citizens. It has been growing for 20+ years, it is gaining momentum, 9/11 was just a milestone. It was not the start, it will not be the end.

Greg

PTravel

At first, I thought this post was tongue-in-cheek. Evidently I was wrong.

Actually, he didn't do anything to prevent the 9/11 attack, but that's OT for this thread.

Nope, not even close. We're complaining about airport security measures because (1) they don't make us safer and, (2) they have resulted in numerous violations of Constitution rights.

Yolanda? Is that you?

No, they are not there for our own protection. They are there to convince casual flyers who don't know any better that it is safe to fly, thereby helping out an airline industry with a history of mismanagement that needs every dollar it can grub to stay afloat.

If the security measures were there for our protection, then air cargo and U.S. mail, which is placed aboard virtually every commercial aircraft in the U.S., would be completely inspected. I'll bet you didn't know that it isn't. Do you feel protected now?

Time for remedial high school civics, I see.

The exercise of constitutionally protected rights can never be abused, except by a government that usurps power that it never had and acts in contravention to those rights. A right is not a privilege.

No, the officer was wrong, as you (you are Yolanda, right?) confirmed. No state actor has the ability to restrict core value, i.e. political, speech, except through content-neutral reasonable time place and manner restrictions that are the least restrictive means and support a compelling state interest. That, by the way, is the law in this country. Why do you advocate breaking the law?

Wow! No disrespect intended, but where did you go to school? What you've written is the most un-American thing I've ever seen on FlyerTalk.

No. I think that the Constitutional restrictions on government that protect the inherent rights of the American people are far more important than the illusion of security that you seem to prefer.

No. The officer was not doing his job. He is an officer of the Executive Branch of our Constitutional democracy and, as such, has no more power than was ceded to the government at the time of formation and pursuant to any amendments to the Constitution. He has no power to detain anyone for engaging in pure political speech (which this was). As such, he was not doing his job.

No, he was not. Censuring someone for saying "Kip Hawley is an idiot" has nothing to do with safety.

This wasn't anything that could remotely be construed as threatening.

You really, really, really need to do some reading about the Constitution. You don't understand it, or America, at all.

TwinsDG

I just would like to fly without attention-seekers trying to get their mug on CNN and doing stupid stuff like this bag thing with the potential to hold up the travels of everyone else following the rules.

I have the right to safe travels - I'm not quite sure about the rights of idiots and those intentionally breaking rules and testing those hired to do a job.

If you don't like the rules, don't fly.

GUWonder

LessO2

To me, it's about getting the word out to Ma and Pa Kettle about the asinine way airline "security" is executed.

VADemocrat

Where have you been for the last six years?? This have ZERO to do with 15 minutes of fame. OP (MKE) had the guts to do something that he probably knew would bring him some guff, albeit probably not the drama he got, but he did it because he can! No one, not the TSA, NSA, CIA, FBI, DOD or any other "alphabet soup" can take that away. He did it for you and all the rest of you who just can't seem to grasp the concept of the bigger picture here.

So, one more time in case you haven't been paying attention:

YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT (that's the one that guarantees free speech) CANNOT BE ABRIDGED BY ANYONE ON U.S. SOIL, that includes in airports. Get it?