You citizens just need to understand that the best way to find semtex-laden toner cartridges in cargo holds is to have a full body X-ray or to be felt up by a TSA agent:
“It is irresponsible for a group to suggest travelers opt out of the very screening that could prevent an attack using non-metallic explosives,” TSA Administrator John S. Pistole said. “This technology is not only safe, it’s vital to aviation security and a critical measure to thwart potential terrorist attacks.”
Is it possible that a large number of Real Americans are finally going to be irresponsible?
(via)
gypsy howell
Oh joy. I’l be going through OHare that day. So far, I haven’t been subjected to the scan, but I will definitely opt for being groped over being photographed nude, thankyewverrymuch.
Silver Owl
I wonder if everyone wrote, “Fuck you TSA!” on their bellies and asses if it would show up on the x-ray? lol
debit
So, what happens if you moan and rub against the TSA agent during the pat down? And then tip them?
BruceFromOhio
And so, Mr Pistole, how many time have you had to drop you drawers so TSA can tickle your tummy, hmm?
I see no reason to fly anywhere, ever again, while these rubes have this bullshit attitude about travelers.
El Cid
The privacy issue is a big one, particularly the public molestation a lot of people are receiving from the TSA’s feel-up sessions.
There’s a really good diary at DKos both reviewing troublesome incidents and industry concerns (for example, pilots too are pretty hostile to being felt up), as well as a good story from someone who (purportedly) objected to the TSA’s yanking him and his stuff around nilly-willy — and in this case, getting real Law Enforcement involved, who came down on his side instead of getting locked int the Kafkacracy.
Personally I don’t the the radiation concerns are a real issue, as the exposure dosage of the backscatter X-rays are tiny, tiny, tiny, and lower than general exposure throughout the day.
Unless, of course, this isn’t true for any particular machine which goes haywire and no one knows, which could be any of them I guess.
The millimeter wave scanners I think even less so.
So far the distribution of supposed sexy scans on the internet seem to involve a lot of photoshopped hoaxes, but who knows what may happen?
I know flying on a plane is different, but in general, is there really much considered to be left of the 4th Amendment and the general right to privacy anymore? Doesn’t seem so to me.
TheMightyTrowel
At least it gives me an excuse not to fly home for the holidays. My family just can’t get it through their heads that flights between the EU and the US spike in price around thanksgiving/xmas. They think I’m intentionally avoiding them (which I kind of am…) when I don’t fly home for the holidays, mostly I’m just poor.
ChrisS
Thankfully I don’t have to fly nearly as much as I did 2006-2009. However, that could change next year. Just in time for my status to expire and I lose the very minor, but nice, benefits.
Fuck I hate flying.
Unfortunately, my special lady friend’s family lives in the UK and I don’t have much of a choice going there. Last year we flew home the day after the nitwit set his underwear on fire on a flight from Heathrow. So we were delayed about 2 hours for extra-special security.
El Cid
@debit: I’m sure that would be yet another reason they’d hold you off your flight.
debit
In all seriousness, I’m going to opt out of flying ever again. If I can’t drive or take a train, I just won’t go.
@El Cid: You know someone, somewhere is going to do it and have a video camera ready.
fucen tarmal
in the interest of full transparency in government, i suggest that it is finally time for the once hyperbolic “everyone should just fly naked”.
i mean i really don’t want the government to see things that i am not able to, and if the government declares that the lady next to me is not a threat, i want to be able to visually examine their findings for myself.
of course i do understand that some threats, and information must be classified, which is why fliers who remain a threat should remain partially or fully clothed, depending on the individual threat level that passenger still may pose. so we clothing code passengers, the most risky remain fully clothed, and the less risk, the less clothing….
i certainly think the highly trained tsa staff is qualified to make a clothing assessment/allowance, i mean what could possibly go wrong…
BR
My wife suggested that we take the various comments folks have posted at threads like this one at dkos and send them to Michelle Obama.
Especially if the stories are about children being groped or sent through the cancer machines, or of women having the “enhanced” pat down by male TSA agents.
El Cid
Another nutball right pundit primal scream about Obama’s Kenyonesian hatred of America:
Obama went AWOL on our troops this past Veterans day by visiting US base in South Korea rather than somewhere in the USA. (Perhaps a Confederate re-enactor camp.)
How are we going to deal with all these fifth-column troops who scandalously serve outside the USA?
Dennis SGMM
@BruceFromOhio:
After a couple of long years of having to fly way too much on business (Before 9/11) I’d had enough. Flying was already a pain in the ass then. You’d need a court order to get me on a plane now.
electricgrendel
I wonder what would happen if next time I fly and opted out of the full body scanner if I just stripped down to my underwear right on the spot and told them to have at it? I also wonder what would happen if I tried to shove a dollar bill in the belt of a TSA agent that gave me one of these free molestations?
Facebones
Be sure to read the comments on that WaPo story. About a third of them are pure gay panic. “OMG! What if there are GAY TSA agents!?!?”
Yeah, that’s the biggest concern I have with all this.
electricgrendel
@El Cid: Yeah- but I mean, really. When was the last time the military actually did anything in Korea, huh? ;)
Bill Arnold
I’m not a Luddite in any sense, but will probably opt out and be enhanced-groped the next time I go through screening where these machines are being used. It’s reasonable to avoid solar radiation damage to the skin, so why not avoid x-ray radiation damage?
James Fallows has been uncharacteristically shrill about these procedures, in his dry-shrill way. (There have been other postings as well.)
See also this LETTER OF CONCERN from some UCSF faculty, linked also from Fallow’s piece.
vicki
I have actually changed my preferred departure time from my small airport to avoid the groping by a certain TSA agent. I was a little fearful of that Magic Wand O’ Security winding up in my hoo-hah a couple of times. She managed to actually pull down the elastic-waist slacks of my traveling companion.
While I complained about the excessive groping in public, she asked if I’d like to go to a room nearby. “Not with you,” I shrieked quite loudly.
And the only reason to have the big x-ray machines is to line the pockets of some political cronies who manufacture them. Marketing rule #1: Find a need and fill it!
Corner Stone
I wonder how long until we have “changing rooms” where we all file into, strip naked and put on paper thin scrubs before we board the plane?
AhabTRuler
I am waiting for a fee schedule to be available:
For $100, you get a polite, back of the hands frisking from a personable agent, for $50 you get the rough grope in the hallway, for $25 you go through the machine, and at no cost to you, you go through the machine and the images immediately go up on Jumbotrons throughout the airport.
Gina
@debit: THIS! Bonus points for having it filmed, with sound. Extra Bonus for posting on YouTube with sexay music.
Punchy
Y’all gunna eschew flying just cuz some meathead grabs your junk? I dont have a prob with it. I hope all of you that have sworn off flying dont need to make a trip to India or Japan.
Dennis SGMM
@Punchy:
No, but if I did I’d consider rowing.
ornery curmudgeon
Something not much discussed is why the USA government is not able to quickly identify potential missiles launched off our coast … but it is imperative to ritually humiliate air travelers in the name of national security.
Corner Stone
Isn’t the actual issue international airports? Shouldn’t the crony capitalism funding be used to improve procedures in int’l airports with US destinations?
IOW, this is all psy-ops meant to mentally prepare us to accept any kind of treatment and abuse by “official govt types”.
The fat govt contracts are just a side bonus.
Ripley
Traveled last month from my regional airport – El Paso International. Security’s wicked-tight since it’s a border area, and we all know about the evil high-priced travel plans of dirt poor farm laborers from Ciudad Juarez, am I right?
Anyway, watched two TSA goons (and they are goons down this way; border patrol rejects, I suspect) make an elderly lady in a wheelchair go through the x-ray, after which a third was called to help them stand her up for the pat down. Jeebus. As I waited my turn in line, I saw them confer on who should be x-rayed – seemed arbitrary; they always nail me, I guess because I have the terrorist look: Middle-aged, total Celt Irish coloring, dressed for a hike. Pure threat.
Disheartening. The smirks the TSA goons wore throughout the experience amped it up to infuriating.
brendancalling
I will simply quote what i wrote at Daily Kos as Frenchy Lamour (oh for the goodle daze of blog pseudonyms…):
<blockquote cite="my plan is to take copious amounts of viagra before boarding a plane, the better to get an erection during pat-down. And then groan pleasurably during the whole thing. "you might want to look up my ass, i might have something up there. In fact, you'd BETTER look up my ass, or I'm complaining to your manager.""
who knows, I may even ejaculate in some TSA officer's hand.
I'm not kidding. i have to go through Philadelphia international airport every couple of months to pick up my son (his mom and i broke up a long time ago). they have some of the worst TSA people ever, and they're about to implement those radiation bodyscans.
well fuck that: this guy values his cancer-free life, so I'm all about the patdown. And since the TSA crew is so fucking douchebag, it serves them right if I walk in with a throbbing tumescent boner. I'll make sure that thing is visible through my pants too, like i'm smuggling a kielbasa. i don't care if I have to sit there reading looking at a copy of Hustler to get that bad boy up.
i especially hope i get a male TSA. "ooh, i might be hiding something behind my balls. you'd better reach around and give them a fondle just to make sure, or i'm telling your manager. oh yeeeeeeah, that's the spot, keep doing what you're [grunt, ughhh] doing. can i have a tissue?""
brendancalling
jesus FUCKING christ the weird blockquote formatting here is ANNOYING. That entire comment should be blockquoted and I can’t figure out how to do it.
Dennis SGMM
You only think it’s bad now. Wait until the first time some terrorist decides to hide a bomb by shoving it all the way up his ass.
Steeplejack
@brendancalling:
You have to put two underscore characters between each paragraph of the blockquote to keep it together. FYWP.
(h/t Monkeyboy © 2009)
Roger Moore
@El Cid:
Close their bases and bring them back to America. Then we could probably afford to muster a bunch of them out and stop buying them expensive equipment. That’ll show them!
Ruckus
@AhabTRuler:
at no cost to you, you go through the machine and the images immediately go up on Jumbotrons throughout the airport.
This would be my, um, choice.
First because I have no shame whatsoever and second because of the masters of the universe I can’t afford the damn ticket in the first place, so this would end up my only option. I would like to keep a copy for my doc though. Save me the cost of my next x-ray.
Bill Arnold
@Dennis SGMM:
That’s the endgame, always has been. (The colon bomb.)
Tancrudo
@Dennis SGMM: Been done, Dennis. An Ass Bomber tried to blow up a Saudi Prince last year.