Not leftists as such, but a republican administration that agreed an authoritarian solution was in order, usually a "leftist" type solution, but this time applied by a center-left administration, not an ideologically conservative administration.

I assume that you asked wanting to know. If your comment was a rhetorical one and an attempt to bring politics into this discussion, please, let's avoid that. This is not a political problem at this point but it may be resolved in the realm of politics.

Late addition:

WND is still at it today! They are beginning to post experiences. Updated article is at the top of the first page.

They have posted an Online Petition.

Also a click through to the poll results that are coming in are interesting.

An update from World Net Daily, still top of the web site, still piling on. They are bringing in the politics now, which is what they do with most reporting on issues, but that is what has made them a popular site with the ones that read them.

These guys are serious. And, when they grab an issue they are tenacious.

Left-right is a false dichotomy:

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down–up to a man’s age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order–or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. -Ronald Regan

Absolutely agree. It was the reason for the scare quotes in my previous post. This is about right and wrong, not any political ideology or position.

And in the determination of what is truly right or wrong, people from across the spectrum of politics and beliefs will find common ground. It is a beautiful and amazing thing to see it happen in such a dynamic and exuberantly uncontrolled way.

There is plenty of blame to place all across the political spectrum, and plenty of opposition all across the political spectrum now.

DHS/TSA was part of the Bush administration response to 9/11, but it was enthusiastically supported by the Democratic Congress. It was Tom Daschle who said, "You can't professionalize [airport security] until you federalize," or words to that effect. Neither liberals nor conservatives dared risk looking soft on terrorism. More recently, the Obama administration and Janet Napolitano have been more egregious still.

But the beautiful thing about today's situation is that it unites WorldNetDaily and Washington Times fans with NPR, Mother Jones, ACLU fans against TSA. Putting aside all the other disagreements about how much government ought to do and how to pay for it, at the end of the day people of all political stripes who understand how America is built agree that TSA in inherently anti-American.

When Drudge, WND, Alex Jones, Reuters, NPR, and the unions are all gunning for TSA at the same time, I'm impressed.

After all the talk about civil rights and liberties, due process and habeas corpus in Guantanamo, this is the most disappointing thing about the Obama administration.

I would expect a law professor who taught courses in due process and equal protection law to be a little more zealous in protecting citizens' civil rights. :(

I agree with you. I don't want to detour into partisan politics here, but on a whole range of civil liberties issues, from DHS/TSA to the Patriot Act to prosecuting investigative reporters, the Obama administration has been much, more worse than its predecessor.

In that spirit, let's add to the list the conservative Washington Examiner, linked to by Drudge, and their columnist who summarizes here some of the well-connected lobbyists profiting from this.

Worth a read, right up to these final lines:

...But in that same period, more than 150,000 people have been murdered in the United States. We haven't put the entire U.S. on lockdown -- or even murder capitals like Detroit, New Orleans and Baltimore.

While reducing the murder rate to zero is very desirable, we also understand that the costs, in terms of liberty and resources, are too great. But when it comes to air travel, 9/11 seems to have stripped away our ability to put things in perspective.

Politicians feed into that paranoia with their rhetoric. And lobbyists and government contractors feed on the paranoia.

This isn't a right/left issue. I know someone who is a die hard leftie who is in the "Anything for Security" crowd.

Agreed. See above. ^