A passenger onboard the same Northwest Airlines flight that was attacked on Christmas Day was taken into custody in Detroit on Sunday after becoming verbally disruptive upon landing, officials said.
A law enforcement official said the man was Nigerian and had locked himself in the airliner’s bathroom. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
Officials told NBC News the passenger refused to come out and may have had “stomach problems” that prevented him from leaving. The passenger became abusive when flight attendants opened the door and dragged him out, NBC News reported.
Let’s see. A man in his seat tried to ignite an underwear bomb, and they decided to ban electronics and require everyone to stay in their seat. Now that someone was caught dropping a “bomb” in the bathroom and became disruptive, I predict they will ban toothbrushes, women named Ruth, and all passengers will have to remove their left lens from their corrective eyewear.
john b
first?
donovong
“All passengers are reminded that they should have thought about taking a shit before leaving the airport. And we thank you for flying Gitmo Airlines!”
Corner Stone
If I’m in the bathroom for an hour…God help the flight crew that has to come in to get me out.
licensed to kill time
How long before they start putting CC cams in the toilets?
(haha – Smile, you’re on CC Camera!)
General Winfield Stuck
Bloomer Bomb please. I am trying to invent an internet phrase. K
One that rolls off the tongue.
DO SOMETHING OBAMA!! NOW!! TERROR SELLOUT!!
hOW CAn hE PASS hC ReFORm WITH BloomEr BoMbeRs iN THe
Sky. IMpeaCh !!
mcd410x
Do they still sail ships across the Atlantic? Oops, wait, they’re may be u-boats lurking out there …
calipgyian
Doughy Pantload is already calling for Napolitano’s resignation because no one got killed. Or something. Also.
kid bitzer
sigh….
there’s going to be a lot of ridiculous over-reactions in the next while.
oddly enough, i don’t think this was one of them. i really don’t blame the flight crew for going ballistic on a guy who refuses to get out of the bathroom, on the same international flight, a day after a bombing attempt, etc.
yes, there will be other incidents where i’ll rail at the tsa and the bed-wetters. somehow, this one does not make me feel like the flight-crew overreacted.
StonyPillow
How about they just chain us all into our seats by the ankles and give us Air Oars?
calipgyian
How long until the Corner some weird screed about how all the new TSA regulations are a nasty, green-commie plot for getting people off polluting, gas sucking planes and on to the high speed rail from LA to Harry Reid’s bordello?
NobodySpecial
Perhaps they were afraid he had a Burrito Bomb secreted in his stomach.
demkat620
Good god, dude had a stomach flu.
Betcha a “concerned” passenger turned him in.
demkat620
@calipgyian: I’ll give them until noon tomorrow.
The Grand Panjandrum
I was so sure that when Richard Kimble found the one-armed man America would be safe forever.
cleek
as if i needed another reason to avoid airlines. now i run the risk of being pulled out of the crapper, with my pants around my ankles ?
David
It’s like living in a prison.
I had an almost empty 4 oz tube of toothpaste — 3 oz is the limit — that was confiscated by airport security and then walked through with a package of eight 12-inch shish kabob skewers in the bottom of my carry on bag that I had forgotten about.
Rosali
Could it be just a horrible misunderstanding because Umar didn’t get the concept of “chestnuts roasting on an open fire”?
CaseyL
I watch old movies where people get on planes – no scanning, no security, just get on the plane – and even though I’m old enough to remember that era, it’s still like looking at life on another planet. One I want to move to, like, NOW.
OK, I am NOT joking about going up to Vancouver if I want to fly anywhere. This is just deranged.
kid bitzer
@10–
“a nasty, green-commie plot ”
you forgot, “…by al gore”.
AkaDad
To improve security and the health care bill, we need to insert language that replaces all airline security personnel with licensed proctologists.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Steeplejack
Why doesn’t Northwest just stop flying that flight? Obviously it’s a terrorist magnet. Duh.
Punchy
Damn you Cole. You stole my bit.
Find it hard to believe that a guy needs 1 hour in the loo. Even during the most nasty of Code Browns, one can at best get about 25 minutes on the whitey before the legs fall asleep and the bowels dry up. Something stinks about this story.
calipgyian
@kid bitzer:
Funded by George Soros.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that both of these Nigerian fellows were actually George Soros in disguise.
General Winfield Stuck
I would add “Bonnie” and “Ma Barker”. Just to be sure.
demkat620
@calipgyian: So, I thought maybe you were kidding and I looked at the Corner.
Um, so let me get this straight, Michael Chertoff was Head of HS when Katrina struck. He was totally worthless but he got to keep his job and was lauded by Doughy when he didn’t do his job.
A guy lights his crotch on fire and Napolitano needs to be fired. How does that make sense?
licensed to kill time
@Punchy:
Respectfully, and without knowing jackaloo about the truth in this story, there are stomach bugs you can pick up that have you wanting to live on the crapper to avoid yet another futile mad dash. I would elaborate but will spare you all the details.
Corner Stone
@David: How the fuck does one “forget” about those in a carry on?
Leelee for Obama
@StonyPillow: Welcome to Ben-Hur Airlines!
@donovong: This caused monitor cleaning! Thanks!
@General Winfield Stuck: Did you register that name? Get on it Stuck!
RedKitten
@licensed to kill time:
True — although it’s incredibly disturbing that this incident now will have right-wingers trying to recreate the scene in a sandbox with their GI Joe dolls in order to prove that it’s impossible for someone to stay on the crappier that long.
Chad S
The next step is to ban all passengers from flights.
calipgyian
@demkat620:
I never claimed that Lucianne’s little boy was smart. It’s obvious that he is dumber than mashed shit.
That somehow Napolitano is responsible for lapses in security at Schipol, or that the Dutch are obliged to screen passengers based on our “not quite a no fly list but keep an eye on this guy” lists is pretty dubious.
And yes, the guy is on a watch list, not a no fly list.
Grace Nearing
@mcd410x: Why yes, yes they do. If you’re not in a hurry, it’s very, very pleasant. Another bonus: no jetlag upon arrival. If you want luxe, take the Queen Mary II. If you want just the basics, you can book no-frills passage on a container ship (I highly recommend Maersk).
anticontrarian
Guy was obviously a terrorist who hates our freedom to go to the bathroom whenever we want.
Leelee for Obama
@demkat620: Michael Moore is fat, as is Al Gore, who also has a large domicile, and Obama is Black. And, they are all Democrats, or reasonable facsimiles thereof. What part of this do you not understand?
Midnight Marauder
Devil’s advocate here, but maybe it’s a good thing we don’t have any more freedoms that the terrorists hate us for, amirite?
calipgyian
@Grace Nearing:
Freighter travel is surprisingly cheap, if you have the time to burn. I’ve looked into it myself. And, you can take a car!
licensed to kill time
@RedKitten:
You made me chortle imagining RW’s crouched over a litter box, proving the theorem.
SteveinSC
Ruffles and flourishes—TaDa! Worried about security in the air? Irritated by the long and insulting TSA process? Your solution is at (in?) hand!! Announcing the grand opening of NudieAirlines, your solution to anti-terrorism airport hassels! No more “take your shoes off!” No more let me see that belt! The End of Interminable Delays and rude searches. Guaranteed straight to the airline sevice* Sign up today and receive your American Sunbathing Association Discount Card worth thousands!
*One cavity search may be required.
Mark
@CaseyL – you only think you’re better off in Canada!
– Back when I used to live in Canada, I had my bags dumped out at the airport by Canadian customs. My crime? I was 12, and I brought back a box of chocolate my grandmother had given me without paying duty on it.
– Another time, my car was surrounded by dogs as security agents looked under my car with mirrors. My crime? Crossing the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge in Niagara Falls. Apparently nobody ever uses that bridge.
– Yet another time, my trunk was searched and the agent was convinced that my well-used rollerblades were a recent purchase that I was avoiding duty on.
– And yet another time, I was accused of having illegally imported my cell phone into the country. Did you know when you fly out of Canada, you have to get a certificate from Industry Canada stating that all of your electronics were purchased in Canada?
That’s only a sampling of the idiocy I was subjected to. Canada was a pioneer in bringing Kafka to air travel. Long before the U.S. started taking away your tweezers, Canadian security made you turn on and off all of your electronic devices as you went through the metal detector. Flight attendants would threaten you if you weren’t sufficiently attentive during the security announcements.
Don’t forget that an actual aircraft leaving Canada was blown up by terrorists, killing hundreds of people, and the security services bungled the entire case.
David
27 Corner Stone:
I picked up the skewers from a friend who had borrowed them and put them in a shoulder bag I carry every day. They happen to fit exactly in the bottom of the bag.
burnspbesq
I would find this funny if I weren’t a frequent traveler by air for work. My quality of life just took it in the shorts (no pun intended).
Face
Wow. Already declared to be a non-issue and CNN wont stop their coverage. They keep showing this plane mired in fog, as if it’s about to explode at any moment.
I’ve never been more disgusted at the media. This is insane.
General Winfield Stuck
@burnspbesq:
Airline travel has really hit bottom.
ono
Forget the fact that TSA let that idiot on the plane, or that his father warned the US consulate in Nigeria a month ago about his wacko son, or that the failed (thank God) bomber was on the so-called Terrorist Watch List. The predictable reaction will be to take it out on Americans. Panty searches before boarding are probably in the works.
In a somewhat related matter, next week my bank is going to institute “digital fingerprinting” of anyone cashing a check drawn from that bank that does not have an account there. How long will it be before they start fingerprinting account holders? What a sick country we live in.
Midnight Marauder
@Face:
Dubious.
Martin
@Mark: We moved pretty seamlessly in and out of Canada 3 years ago. The only hiccup was bringing some Canadian roast beef into the US which we offhandedly mentioned not realizing it was on the ‘ZOMG, CANADIAN COWS HATE AMERIKA!’ list. Fortunately it was lunch time, so the family made sandwiches at the border and we were allowed to proceed once I presented the empty bag to the customs agent.
Given how much shit we were hauling on a 3 week trip with 2 kids, they could have made it hellishly difficult, but it really wasn’t a problem.
Protip: 5 year old girls in pigtails really grease the wheels. I’m pretty sure we could have smuggled at least a half dozen liberated Russian nukes across the border on that vacation.
licensed to kill time
@ono: DNA swabs, coming up!
Mari
The TSA philosophy is a bit like the philosophy of disaster capitalism. Every time an incident happens, the TSA uses the incident as excuse to impose a fear-generation (not security) measure that they’ve always wanted but couldn’t get away with otherwise.
The TSA has never liked electronics; the underwear bomber provided an opportunity to tighten the noose by restricting them.
It’s anyone’s guess what’s next on the TSA’s wishlist, but we can all be sure that the TSA will be sorely disappointed if today’s toilet-dwelling Nigerian turns out just to have had stomach flu.
ono
If the media called the Shoe Bomber the Shoe Bomber, why aren’t they calling this jerk the Panty Bomber?
serge
I can’t wait for my next intercontinental flight.
By next spring someone will have attempted to ignite the fuse of a stick of dynamite up his ass. Passengers nearby will have been able to notice the man pulling his trousers down and then using a hand mirror to position his lighter…once subdued, he was found to be as insane as Richard Reid.
Oh, for us though, we’ll have to drop trou in line, spread the cheeks to prove we’re not insane. How many billions of air passengers had to remove their shoes, boots, flip-flops for christ’s sake, since 2001? Did they catch any flip-flop bombs?
Travel just became an even greater ordeal. This guy’s father went to the US embassy in Nigeria a month ago to report his son. That wasn’t even enough to get him on a no-fly list. Meanwhile everyone named David Nelson is on it. Ozzie and Harriett were a wholesome couple, but I never picked up on the Islamic education of their sons.
Liberty60
And here we have YET ANOTHER airline incident, where a “disruptive” passenger (from the Eastern Bloc yet!) is removed from a flight:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/27/ivana-trump-gets-belliger_n_404219.html
How long will we wait until we DEMAND Janet Napolitano’s resignation???
Jebus Gawd!
Haven’t we invaded somebody yet??
Rosali
From the NYT about a Paris–>JFK flight:
No indication on how long the restrictions on that flight lasted.
Demo Woman
Will C @ 108 in the previous post left this message
He did not say where he was flying to.
Mari
@Rosali:
The ability of aircrew to have pax sent to Gitmo just might have something to do with how few complaints that bitch got….
Gwangung
@Liberty60: Well played, well played!
mcd410x
@Grace Nearing: I want to go IN a container, a la Dexter.
Maybe without the blood.
Would be better than air travel!!
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Face:
Nor have they, at you.
Corner Stone
@Mari: No shit. You even look at one of the airport personnel crossways and you are in a stress position post haste.
Seriously though, there is no recourse against anything they tell you to do. You’re just done. Good luck with a lawyer.
someguy
I believed that there’d be a few policies that carried over from the Bush administration but am surprised that they are the ones involving a reflex to panic and sic the FBI attack dogs any time a brown skinned man gets up on a plane, and the one that directs the government to subtly Blame Muslims First. I’d hoped for better.
demimondian
@ono: I’m hearing him referred to as the “Nad Bomber”
Corner Stone
@Mari:
Probably not a really good reason to call her a “bitch” but ummm, I’ll go with you being snarky here.
Cause I’m innappropriate usually too.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
All in all, what’s the worst case scenario in this situation?
I would say, it’s when the cockpit calls back to the cabin crew and asks them to send up some toilet paper.
Face
@Demo Woman: Wait. For the whole flight, or just in the last hour?
Really, no iPod or Gameboy for a 8 hour flight across the pond? Jeebus.
Corner Stone
@someguy:
If it helps you out any, I recently read an article where Obama told the brown/Muslim community:
“Gentleman, I am the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
I’m sure that’ll give you some comfort.
Loneoak
As someone who has had amoebic dysentery on a 16 hour flight, I feel for the dude.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
Obama refers to brown Muslims as “gentlemen?”
Good fukking Christ, he is weaker and more naive than we thought.
Demo Woman
@Face: The message was on the previous post. He did not say where he was going. He could have been talking about a domestic flight.
Corner Stone
@Face: He was coming from Cancun into the US.
YellowJournalism
@Rosali: Well, what were they supposed to do? Any little complaint can be construed as a verbal threat resulting in being thrown off the plane before take-off or, worse, being banned from future flight and/or arrested after landing. And I hate to say it, but every now and then you get a member of the flight crew who loves lording this new “power” over passengers who dare complain.
Corner Stone
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio: I understand he was concerned they may have been investors in the big banks and/or trading houses.
Deference was called for.
Loneoak
@ono:
If the media called the Shoe Bomber the Shoe Bomber, why aren’t they calling this jerk the Panty Bomber?
I like ‘Scrotal Bomber’ myself.
Corner Stone
@YellowJournalism:
Why do you hate to say it? Ever see the series where Southwest employees were featured?
They were either being abused by drunk scum trying to board a plane to Vegas, or were abusing normal people just trying to complete their flight somewhere.
It wasn’t even close.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Corner Stone:
Okay, as long as he did not refer to any of them as “massah.”
Mari
@someguy:
The Cossacks work for the Tsar.
Like it or not, Obama owns the TSA’s abuses. Everyone knows the TSA needs a major overhaul, if only to purge the agency of wingnuts who use the TSA to harass prominent Democrats. Obama, however, has done nothing to force the TSA to rationalize its policies in any way whatsoever.
You don’t need 60 votes in the Senate to clean house within the TSA by executive order.
Corner Stone
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio: Nope, he’s still good.
“My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks. ”
Pitchoforko
Corner Stone
Man, my guess is that even if Clooney was not a movie star, that dood would be scoring left, right and middle wherever he flew to.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@Corner Stone: You got a cite for that Muslims/Pitchforks paraphrase? ’cause it sounds a lot like something Obama actually did say — but to Financiers:
bago
I’m actually partial to the phrase “Knicker Bomber”. It just rolls off the tongue.
Corner Stone
Woodrow @ 77 – for some reason I can’t reply to you.
But yeah, it’s a quote from the whole finance fiasco.
I was fucking with someguy.
ETA – it’s pretty clear what I was doing here.
jcricket
As one of those breeders who dares to bring his kid on a flight, these new regulations are going to make flying with kids even worse – for the kids, for the parents and for the other travelers.
My kid’s fairly good – esp. when we can get him a snack we bring on-board, a DVD in our little portable DVD player or some other kind of activity. He also likes the treat of whatever drink we get from the cart. But guess what, he still needs to go to the bathroom often (sue him, he’s 3). If he can’t get up from his seat for the first 30 minutes and last hour, that pretty much guarantees an accident – or we try and bar him from drinking the whole time, guarantees him whining. Or if we can’t get his DVD out for an hour before landing and have to put other stuff away, you can guarantee more whining.
And I’m sure some crazy Ghanan is figuring out new ways to hide stuff in their underwar that’ll blow up a plane, making it so that we all have to go commando on the plane next, stay strapped down with our arms up in the air where the flight attendants can see our hands at all time.
Geebus fucking christ – if the airlines aren’t all out of business next year I’ll be shocked. Flying’s getting so unnecessarily bad that no amount of add-on fees (baggage, faster lines, foods, pillows, lube during rectal exam) is going to save them.
General Winfield Stuck
Jarvis Hill
That was a 10 for style and accuracy. Well played sir!!
And Another Thing...
@bago: Win.
mcd410x
Oversees flying was already mostly untenable. On a ticket to the UK, the ticket costs $410; the taxes, surcharges, etc., $369. … And I can’t go potty?
EDT: jcricket said this much better.
Violet
These new restrictions are going to make air travel just awful. As if it’s not horrible enough already. The last domestic flight I was on, the woman next to me had flown from San Francisco to Newark on Continental and told me the in-flight entertainment system only worked if you activated it by paying with your credit card. So on those flights, if you aren’t willing to pay, you won’t be able to do anything but sit there.
Heard on the news this morning, you can’t use blankets and pillows in the last hour before landing. Where are they going to put them on international flights? When you board they’re on your seat. Are they going to collect them? I’m guessing you won’t get them at all anymore.
Ugh.
AhabTRuler
@Corner Stone: Ask Barry Switzer.
Corner Stone
@AhabTRuler: With respect, I ain’t asking Switzer about a damn thing.
I get more stupidity and inanity here from random Stuck quotes than I need to go begging for one from Switzer.
General Winfield Stuck
How about them Browns!!@Corner Stone:
Heather much LOL
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@Corner Stone: Well, I might be just dense, so we’ll leave it at that. :)
On the OP — I’m flying to BOS in 3 weeks, and a good friend is flying to India very soon. I really hope this puts a spotlight on revamping not just the (been-obvious-for-years) watch lists and related crap, but the whole TSA process as well.
eemom
maybe they could start staffing the planes with ruler-wielding nuns instead of flight attendants. They know how to manage things like requests to go potty and properly folded hands.
Anne Laurie
@Grace Nearing:
I’m imagining the Doughy Pantload on the deck of the QMII, scouring the horizon, while he taps out a post accusing President Obama of deliberately sending Real Americans(tm) to be kidnapped by Somali pirates. The fact that those pirates are working out of an entirely different ocean is central to his point!
Skepticat
The TSA doesn’t do security checks in foreign countries, only in the United States.
Corner Stone
@Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill: Nah, I don’t think that. I was giving someguy the business, that’s all.
It’s got nothing to do with you that the epically stupid Stuck is trying to bite off your post.
Davis X. Machina
It’s time to bring back the 2001-vintage “Why would you fly overseas? Everything you need is here in America” op-eds.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
General Winfield Stuck
OT
I hope for another pet thread. Got some new and dangerously cute Charlie pics today.
bago
I believe it is time to point out the fact that “somebody set us up the bomb”.
freelancer (itouch)
Monday’s Onion headline: TSA announces passenger ban on all US-bound passenger flights. Spokesman sez, it’s really for the safety of all passengers that no one be allowed to board these flights.
The Dangerman
@demimondian:
After apparently blowing at least one of them off, it looks like he went from a Bibomber a Unibomber.
Anne Laurie
@Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill:
Seriously? If President Obama just did a TV speech announcing, “As of next Monday, we’re dropping all the airline-related TSA security theatre; basic screening for guns, explosives, knife blades over four inches, and Pauly Shore DVDs, and any would-be suicide bomber is free to enjoy his crotch burns and the tender mercies of his fellow passengers, because we are busy grownups and not panicky livestock”…. his approval ratings would skyrocket among the most desirable voting demographics. Sure, the fReichtards would pull all their burdened groin muscles screaming in terror & outrage, but that should be considered a net positive, right?
turducken
@David: Back in 2003 or so, my Dad (a pipe smoker) went through security with a forgotten 6-pack of disposable lighters. He was stopped and informed about the contraband, and was understandably embarrassed. He told the TSA agent that he forgot they were in his bag and that he was of course okay with leaving them behind. He was told that wouldn’t be necessary – he only needed to surrender 3 of them. He was shocked, and left behind all 6.
Elie
@burnspbesq:
I hear you completely and am not looking forward to the further degredation of the flying experience which is awful enough…
We seem to psychologically stay in a mode of extreme hysteria about something or the other. I do, however, agree that I am a bit suspicious of a person that will not open the bathroom door after an hour.
I can hardly wait to travel again in a week and a half…
Brian CB
I think that this will be referred to, in the future, as “A mile-high clubbing.” God, my father worked for the FAA. I remember the days when flying was expensive, but dignified. Now, it’s like cellphone service, only you can be jailed for it. This is stupid. And, I’m a frequent flier from Middle Eastern airports where you’re subjected to everything but a sigmoidoscope before takeoff. I pass through TWO metal detectors and my baggage is X-rayed THREE times and I’m frisked. But, they let you keep you shoes on because, well, inspecting your shoes is just stupid.
Violet
@Anne Laurie:
If Obama announced they were going to revamp security procedures based on proper science and real risk assessment, rather than just doing security theater, his ratings would definitely go through the roof. Any frequent traveler knows the security system is ridiculous and doesn’t do much.
kid bitzer
@98–
you know, this is like something i was suggesting the other night, about running an airline that offered no-frills security with much faster lines. (and, yeah, some higher risk of attack, but that looks pretty desirable given the tsa option).
so what is the sensible minimum? you mentioned screening for guns, knives, bombs, but could you do that and avoid the current long lines?
grant that a lot of what we go through in the terminal is security theater; still, which parts are not theater? how would we go about pruning out the useless theatricality, and what would be left?
i guess i’m just wondering: how, practically speaking, would we roll this back, even if we were in charge?
Corner Stone
@Brian CB:
GET HIM!!
Elie
@Violet:
Yeah, I heard we are going to have to strapped into our seats an hour before landing. I presume that for short flights, you may never be able to leave your seat to go to the bathroom..
I just wish I had another way to travel cross country…nothing but hassle
woody
Nothing like such an incident to drive the cretinous, drooling dullards of the TSA boarding gate “front-lines” into ever more egregious forms of harassment.
I am glad I no longer really need to get anywhere badly enough to fly there…
Jay in Oregon
@licensed to kill time:
My wife had one of those last weekend. Was alternately throwing up and sitting on the toilet all night long.
And she tends to need restroom breaks quite often, so I’m not sure how well being confined to her seat for the last hour is going to go over…
Uncle Glenny
Uh-oh:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/27/yemen-international-jihad-destination
toujoursdan
The new measures are just creating chaos at the Canadian airports.
I was in Montréal visiting my dad this weekend. We called Air Canada after watching the news late yesterday to find out if/how I was going to get back to New York City. They couldn’t give me any answers. RDI, the French news channel said U.S. customs preclearance @ Trudeau Airport was closed for several hours and then was so backed up that many U.S. bound flights were being cancelled because people couldn’t get through it. There were lines snaking out the airport. Air Canada blamed the Americans and wasn’t rebooking flights at the airport. They were just handing people a phone number to call and you were on your own.
I got nervous and gave up and took the bus home early last night. It cost $84. I arrived early to get a seat as the bus was oversold. Left Montreal at 10pm and got back into New York Port Authority at 7am this morning. Customs at the U.S. border at Champlain felt tense but wasn’t too backed up. It only took about an hour to get through.
General Winfield Stuck
Jonah Goldberg is calling for firing Napolitano. The Dutch are relieved No doubt. so much stoopid on the internets. can’t get no relief.
Midnight Marauder
@Corner Stone:
FTW! These guys definitely approve.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@Anne Laurie: Problem is, we know who’d get all the screen time, with their “serious” attitudes towards the “obvious degrading of critical security installations”. There’s a reason my nickname for this is “Hollywood Security”; we’re up against guys who think the TV show 24 is a documentary, and that sells on the news much better than what guys like Schinder say.
I’m not sanguine that this White House can really push back, but that interview with Gibbs gives me some hope they’ll try.
AkaDad
@Jay in Oregon:
Wearing adult diapers is a small price to pay for freedom…
MikeJ
@Uncle Glenny: Rectum? Damn near killed him!
Corner Stone
@Midnight Marauder: It just can not be said enough.
Elie
@AkaDad:
Either diapers or fluid restriction for 12 hours before flying — similar to before surgery..
I tell ya, the way I feel about flying anymore, surgery is an appropriate comparison…
Uncle Glenny
@MikeJ: Does sound strange out-of-context.
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
Their anti-Napolitano fervor is weird. They’ve really been gunning for her since day one.
It really makes me ill how they pick these individuals and build this whole cohesive right wing narrative, based on connecting unrelated dots.
She’s in favor of “amnesty” because she’s contra to that ridiculous clown-sheriff who is running what amounts to a freaking extra-legal immigration enforcement system, she’s “targeting” right wing extremists, they see an opening or vulnerability, and they pile on, and add on to the narrative they invented.
“This is the last straw!” Yeah, except you made up everything else.
Laura W
@AkaDad:
Ah, Christ. Don’t make me choose between this and MJ’s ashes.
(Edit: Especially funny and relevant because I identify 100% with Mrs. Jay in Oregon.)
KCinDC
These foreigners are so inscrutable. First we have to deal with strange Middle Eastern customs of taking offense when people disrespect your daughters or carelessly kill a few of your family members. Now we have some odd Nigerian habit of becoming belligerent simply because people burst into the bathroom and drag you out in the middle of your bout of diarrhea.
HRA
@General Winfield Stuck:
What did Janet Napolitano mean by “the system worked”?
It does not make any sense.
General Winfield Stuck
@HRA:
It was a dumb remark that doesn’t make sense. Prolly, she let the wingers bait her from the constant criticism she has gotten since and before being confirmed. Not a reason to call for firing though.
HRA
@General Winfield Stuck:
Definitely not a reason to call for her firing. I was wondering about it is all.
pablo
I think the smartest thing to do is to let the marketplace take over airline safety from the TSA!
lizzy
I’m not flying ANYwhere soon. If I can’t there by car or train, fogetaboutit……
2th&nayle
@General Winfield Stuck: How ’bout Boom of the Loom or A BVD-IED? Bloomer Boomer has a nice ring to it.
mcd410x
Can I put my shoes back on now?
General Winfield Stuck
@2th&nayle:
I like it!!
Dino
Everyone flies naked from now on.
Mr Furious
My wife and daughters (2 and 7) flew to Detroit yesterday. They are due to return on Jan. 2.
I have a hunch I’ll be in the car all day on New Years driving up from NC to get them if this horseshit is still going on.
Mnemosyne
We flew from Phoenix (AZ) to Burbank (CA) today and didn’t have a single problem. Breezed through security, which was pretty surprising to me since TSA in Phoenix tends to take themselves Very Seriously. No new restrictions on electronics, bathrooms or anything in your lap. They did say that Southwest has a policy that you can’t line up in the aisles to wait for a lavatory, but considering how much turbulence I’ve run into on the last couple of flights I’ve taken (including this one), that could be a safety and not a security measure.
OriGuy
Wish me luck. I get on a plane tomorrow in Indianapolis and change in DFW for San Jose. One the way out, I spent five hours in DFW waiting for the plane from DC that was going to Indy. TSA at IND is usually not too bad, and it’s a new terminal so the logistics should be ok, but I’m not looking forward to it.
Mako
@Chad S:
bingo!
The Other Steve
Anyway, grandma flew yesterday from MSP to Amsterdam, and today she’s on the flight from Amsterdamn to Moscow. As far as we’ve heard no issues.
But that’s because Russians don’t have Irritable Bowel Syndrome.