http://www.thenewamerican.com/index....istance-to-tsa

I wish my state had leaders instead of walking, talking sewer pipes. Why can't every state be Texas?

The good thing about the US is that it's possible to live in any state and the states that provide the best quality of life are rewarded with an influx of skilled and ambitious newcomers to contribute to its economy and tax base.

If Austin can attract successful entrepreneurs, talented researchers, and skilled engineers and managers because it makes itself attractive to professionals who have to travel frequently - that's Austin's win.

The only problem is flying back to Austin from somewhere else

Thanks for posting the link. I'm in San Antonio and would drive to Austin to use their airport if something comes of this. I also forwarded the link to Drudge, don't know if they'll pick it up.

It should be noted that most of Texas is not like Austin. And both groups like it that way.

I think the idea that the City of Austin has legal responsibility for actions taken at their airport puts a new spin on the Airport Security issue.

^

It should have been the initial response of every municipality with an airport. Doesn't it make sense? Don't they arrest child pornographers, sexual molesters and unlicensed, unqualified people performing pseudo-medical radiation scans in other parts of the city? (Not that they really have to worry about people committing that last act of assault. That's just plain crazy.)Don't their attorneys warn City Government functionaries such as social workers, property assessors and building inspectors that 4th amendment violations must be avoided? Of course they do. They'd be remiss if they didn't.

There's always one in every crowd ... and, today, that's me.

I'm not impressed. Voting to recommend against installing AIT scanners, in the long run, may not amount to anything. Unless there's a squad of Texas Rangers standing at AUS, forbidding the TSA folks from taking the AIT machines off the moving truck, TSA may feel completely free to do as it wishes and start installing the AIT machines anyways.

I would, of course, be happy to be proven wrong.

I think everyone has to be concerned with radiation exposure since DHS has deployed truck mounted scanners that work on the fly.

Remember the story out of Atlanta?

QFT.

That'd be scary

Dear Portland: Please do the same thing. Thanks.

I doubt the Port of Portland Commission is reading this thread. You're going to have to do a little more work than that.

PDX is owned by the Port of Portland.

THE PORT OF PORTLAND
BOX 3529
PORTLAND, OR 97208

The Port Commission is appointed by the Governor and approved by the State Senate.

They also have a community outreach program and open meetings, but don't seem to have a citizens' advisory board, as in Austin.

PDX also has an International Air Service Committee. This is a group of business leaders who lobby airlines to support international flights to PDX - they may also be interested in factors that affect the desirability of PDX as a int'l transport hub.

why couldn't HOU have grown a pair and done this?

I agree that this is mostly symbolic. There are two very definite (potential) positives that I see here though:

1. There is actual organized opposition to the TSA on the local level. Once you have local organization in numbers those people can show up en masse at the local airport to picket and hand out literature for a day. Once you do this, they can go from having 10 opt-outs a day to 1000, and the number of calls and letters to the local congressman will increase likewise.

2. Having the support of the local government and the airport authority means that when people do show up to picket outside of the airport, they will be welcomed and defended by local law enforcement authorities (who largely control what happens outside of the sterile area), instead of being shooed away and threatened by them.

The battle for the hearts and minds of the people begins at the local level. It starts with a few people, then it grows. It is heartening to imagine what can happen if the people of Austin take the support they have gotten and build upon it, taking the protest of the TSA policies to the next level - signs, pickets, leaflets, drivers honking their horns outside the airport in support of the protesters...it can all happen, if they continue to organize and make it happen.

I can only hope that they do. Once it happens in one city, that city can serve as a model for others. Airport by airport, the fight against the TSA can be won. Not with lawsuits and certainly not with violence, but by spreading that which is most toxic to the TSA: the idea that we can speak out against them...the idea that grunts in blue shirts shouldn't control our bodies...the idea that security can be something other than what big sis tells us it is...the idea that we do not have to sacrifice every ounce of freedom, dignity and money we have in order to be safe...the idea that we have a choice. Once this idea takes hold in an airport lobby and in the local media and it displaces the current TSA propaganda the idea cannot be stopped.

This may just be just a dream that I have. But the people have the power to make it real.