Nov 16 2010
TSA About To Ignite Citizen Revolt
Major Update: If the TSA allows an exemption for Muslim women to these invasive and uncalled for “pat downs” (more like the forced gropes Iraqi women used to get from Saddam Hussein’s thugs) all hell will break lose. If a woman from Pakistan or Yemen can get a waiver but a 3 year old girl from America must be forced to be patted, this country will rise up and take action. There is a lot of civil disobedience available to bring this nation to its knees. The liberals in DC are heading towards and even worse shellacking than the November elections. There will be mass resignations for incompetence and idiocy if Team Obama does not get itself on the right track here. – end update
TSA is bungling along with the same arrogance and deafness that caused the voters to eject the Democrats en masse in the 2010 elections. Only through blind arrogance could an agency charged with our security become the wrath of broad and deep anger. Incompetence helps, along with rigid thinking bolstered by a bunker mentality. You will note our police and military do not suffer the same anger as TSA does. And there is a reason for the difference.
First off, the Obama administration has been talking out of both sides of its incompetent mouth on terrorism. These leftists spent two years pretending there was no threat and we could relax our guard. They attempted to censor the use of terms like “War on Terrorism” and “Islamic Terrorists”. They even began to dial back our alert status, making it harder to investigate potential risks, all in the naive idea that less harsh talk would sweet talk al Qaeda into ending their bloody ways. This relaxation meant we took our eyes off Anwar al Aulaqi, the American JIhadist in Yemen who was the nexus of the Ft Hood Massacre, The Christmas Day Bomber, the NY Times Square Bomber and much more.
Thanks to this momentary blindness implemented by Team Obama/Holder/Brennan, we lost track of countless individual Jihadists heading to America to kill Americans. All we know from the ones we have caught and who so far failed their mission is that more on here or on the way.
Thanks to this misstep we now have to pat down children and old people at Airports. But we have to be smart about this and not blame a fed up American people who were told the threat from al Qaeda would go away when President Bush left office. This administration spent two years telling us not to overreact – and here they are overreacting in airport screening.
While most of us know we are at risk, the TSA better get a grip on itself. We don’t need to be patting down 3 year old children. We need a process for background checks that allow vetted people to move with minimal concern. We need a threat assessment so we focus on individuals who represent a threat, and not little old ladies in wheel chairs or metal hips. And we need to let people opt out when they want to. Going after people not happy with TSA is only going to create a backlash that will spread like wild fire across this nation:
Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000.
TSA agents had told Tyner on Saturday that he could be fined up to $10,000.
“That’s the old fine,” Aguilar said. “It has been increased.”
Aguiler is about to get his ass fired. The man objected and was told he could not fly. That is enough. To go after him is a sign of insecurity and arrogance. Anyone flying can get see how the system works. This is abuse, plain and simple.
I have pretty much laid low on this subject because it is not cut and dry. Even so, we have come to a point where the terrorists are destroying our freedoms as the bureaucracy quivers in fear of missing an attack they failed to stop in the first place. Patting down children and nude full body scans will not cover up for the mistakes of this administration.
I have no plans to fly until this mess is worked out. If I must I will, but I would prefer to avoid this. I doubt I am alone. There is a revolt building and it will become universal – everyone flies and hates it. As the stories spread of mindless invasions of privacy and robotic processes that treat people like some foreign object instead of human beings, this is going to escalate and fast. TSA and DHS better figure out a face saving way out of this – but demanding to continue on as they are going now will only create the backlash, and then the opening terrorists are waiting.
TSA is going to ignite a decade of frustration with what we have lost since 9-11. They will be the focus of a lot of pent up anger with the hassles and cost of flying. And they will have brought this all on themselves.
Sadly, hoping this administration is not as dumb as they have proven to be over the last two years at this juncture is probably more like whistling past the grave yard. This group’s incompetence knows no bounds. If I had to lay odds the explosion is a week away – when we hit Thanksgiving travel. And then all hell will break lose and our government will become the enemy of the people.
Update: Great article about what TSA should be gripping – or grasping.
FTA:”As the stories spread of mindless invasions of privacy and robotic processes that treat people like some foreign object instead of human beings, …”
In my expericences, THIS is sadly what many hard left are: empty and hardened on the inside and acting that out on all of us.
Great post, AJ…sending it around to all.
Watch for interstate bus service to skyrocket. Probably worth the extra day it takes to get to your destination.
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I’ve thought TSA was a ticking time bomb from its inception. It was ALWAYS Security Kabuki Theater, run by Barney Fife’s idiot cousin.
I merely marvel that it’s taken this long to blow up. And in Obama’s face, instead of Bush’s.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fellow.
Honestly, our whole approach to air security has been a counterproductive farce. TSA has caught nothing…stopped nothing. Watchful passengers have been responsible for every success. It’s a resource worth tapping into – except that it’s outside of bureacuratic control.
Okay, then…
I’ve heard bits and pieces about the Israelis managng to control this without the idiocy described.
Let’s hear from people who have actually flown El Al. What did you have to go through? What are your experinces?
With its reputation, that airline has to be a prime target for terrorists; think what a coup it would be to pull off a massive disastern there.
So, what are the facts about how they o it so much better with the dreaded profiling and so on?
Is much of it just a myth? Or, do they have a system that actually works, and that we should consider and political correctness be damned?
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OOPS!
Should have read the linked article in the Update first. Of the 79 comments to it (at this moment), many cover what I just said.
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Poke, poke, poke … Tyrants follow the same path, nudge, shove, then shoot.
Looking for the limits, so they can escalate.
I read where they said the fine was for leaving the security area without completing the search, but then I read where he was ‘escorted by a police officer” from the secure area. So I would think if someone ‘in charge’ took him from the area without him having complied with ‘the rules’ that they are the culprits.
But in my opinion, if you get into security and you don’t want to do what they request, the option should just be to leave. I don’t even see the need for an escort.
All the airports in (or around) Silicon Valley, and probably all over California, are staffed by mostly foreign born people, some with very limited English skills.
Extremely rude, full of themselves and very ABUSIVE.
What happened in San Diego with that dude is common place, based upon my experience.
He just recorded the whole shebang.
Many of us do not, but we hate it just as much.
Furthermore, the tension in the country is building to an alarming level.
I reside in the same area with that child who was banned from school only because he had the American flag on his bike and have never seen regular folks so furious and ready to explode.
The common thread I hear is that they see how this country is stolen from them and their children, and destroyed.
God help us all.
We have flown in and out of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport a few times. They don’t make you take your shoes off and they don’t make you put liquids in 4 oz bottles and they don’t do a lot of that other nonsense. They profile. Plain and simple….
KayeB
…and they have not at an incodent in decades.
I only travel for business. I hate airports. I use to fly from Dallas to Ct with my wife and kids to see my parents but for the last 10 years we have driven. Will never fly again, the drive is enjoyable and we spend just as much talking about the trip as we do the visit.
[…] spin? more… Ramirez on leadership – hotair.com 11/16/2010 Points. more… TSA About To Ignite Citizen Revolt – strata-sphere.com 11/16/2010 TSA is bungling along with the same arrogance and deafness […]
Hannity is reporting that CNN is reporting that Muslim women may be getting an exemption. There will be a citizen revolt if this happens.
Alert, If Muslim women from Pakistan can get an exemption over 3 year old girls from America – watch the lid blow off this thing. I saw the same news, had not posted on it yet.
Resignations, AJ? No.
The Republicans will fire up the Impeach-O-Matic and run it full bore.
And I think they have just found their Fiscal Civil Service (well, sort of) Sacrifices.
Personally, I’m not traveling until January. Things should settle out a bit by then. In the meantime, I’m considering marketing a line of pre-packaged tar and feathers. 🙂
Luckily, I have no need to travel by air in the next six months or so.
I think it is funny how we are paying so much attention to the Muslim women getting an exception to this type of search when the Muslims and their families had been getting an exception from those liquids and searches since the UK incident.
My next door neighbor described what they had to do to go through security while witnessing a Muslim family behind her and her family in the security line and being excepted from the same searches and verification of their liquid bottles.
If they let Muslim women get an exemption that just means a Muslim man using his sister’s passport will carry a bomb onto a plane.
can anyone dress up like a muslim woman and claim religious standing? if not, why not? Does a muslim woman have to prove that she really has religious convictions? just asking…….
I hear that Obama has not a clue what he is doing. The airport fiasco is only one little example. Obama is the leader of the free world, and his cabinet. Holy Cow Obama, please start leading……..morons are in charge.
When I was young, we could put on a pair of shoes and stand with our feet in a box that took ex-rays, so you could see the foot bones in the shoe, and see how well they fit. They lasted a year in shoe stores and then were deemed to dangerous to be used…..ie ex-rays are not good for your health. How many ex-rays are good for your health, people also go to the dentist and need ex-rays for other things. Pilots have a case for sure.
I flew in October when I went home to see my family. I went through a body scanner and a pat down. I have to say, I did not really care. I did not see anyone who did.
I heard they are going to stop doing pat downs on kids under 12…and I am not sure about the Muslim women being exempt. I did not see anyone being exempted, but then I was not really paying that much attention either.
I don’t think the Israeli methods would work here. There would be people who would claim they were unconstitutional as well..and to be honest..there are too many people flying here. Approaching everyone before they buy their tickets and questioning them about their plans will not work here. And they have a lot of cameras and scanners too, inside and outside the airport. They don’t just talk to people.