Very, very true. Tha's why I discontinued my a.net membership.

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Yeah, he said that awhile back in a discussion with me. Thought I had him pegged for a FAM. He said he wasn't, but he did work for TSA in another LEO capacity.

I'm sure if I'm not remembering correctly he'll let me know. :)

I have a cousin who has worked for TSA in DC since it was formed. He is just a pencil pusher with no authority, but constantly says that the agency is FUBAR.

Right here. But in my view, any old arabic t-shirt will suffice. WESC clothing sells t-shirts with their slogan "We are the Superlative Conspiracy" in about 20 different languages, including arabic. Maybe someone should make an arabic version of "Kip Hawley is an Idiot"?

Uh, did you mean Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971)?

Uh, yes.

There seems to be another legal issue here besides free speech or discrimination. An airplane ticket is a legal contract. Doesn't the airline have to honor it?

Even if the CocC or some law or government rule says that the airline can deny boarding to passengers who the airline has reason to believe will be some sort of threat, surely a reasonableness test applies. (In fact, Jetblue's CoC specifically says that boarding can be denied to "assengers whose transportation on Carrier is reasonably deemed by Carrier to be inadvisable or inappropriate due to special circumstances..." [emphasis added.]) No matter what catch-all clauses apply, surely a passenger with a valid ticket can't be denied boarding because an airline employee doesn't like the passenger's attitude, or hears the passenger criticize a talk radio host, or sees the passenger carrying a copy of a book by a liberal or a conservative author. Does denying boarding because of a t-shirt slogan fall into this unreasonable category?

Idle thought: What would happen if a vaguely middle-eastern looking man tried to board an airplane wearing a t-shirt reading "God bless America the Greatest Country in the world," printed only in Arabic?

a leo for the tsa but not a fam does exist in the i/g's office. that was goalie-sis up until friday. she got fed up with the b/s and other associated fubars and snafus and was on the verge of burnout so she's now gone into the private sector.

Thanks polonius. ^

Or someone is prevented from boarding plane wearing a shirt with "bin Laden's" picture on it, which turns out to be in fact Bob Marley's portrait ?

Supposedly happened, but I can't find a reference.

Madness.

My old friend google says:

كب هاولي هو أغبياء

Goalie, help me out here: what does "i/g" mean?

I've got two guesses, probably both wrong, but both still reasonable when in relation to the TSA:

• Immensely Grumpy?
• Incomprehensible Garbage?

Although I assume that the i/g really means something else?

Inspector General - you know, the guy who keeps getting fired from DHS for telling the truth.

beat me to it :) (but could also be the name of and old danny kay movie, too ;))