Congress exempts itself from TSA pat downs, etc

[Agorism]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/no-security-pat-downs-for-boehner/



No Security Pat-Downs for Boehner
By JEFF ZELENY


3:37 p.m. | Updated Representative John A. Boehner, soon to be the Speaker of the House, has pledged to fly commercial airlines back to his home district in Ohio. But that does not mean that he will be subjected to the hassles of ordinary passengers, including the controversial security pat-downs.

As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate.

Mr. Boehner, who was wearing a casual yellow sweater and tan slacks, carried his own bags and smiled pleasantly at passengers who were leaving the security checkpoint inside the airport terminal. It was unclear whether any passengers waiting in the security line, including Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat who lost his re-election bid, saw Mr. Boehner.

At a Capitol Hill news conference after Election Day, as Mr. Boehner began laying out the changes he would make when he becomes House Speaker, he announced that he would continue to fly commercial airlines (usually Delta) back to Ohio. It was a not-so-subtle dig at the outgoing Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, who had been criticized by Republicans for flying military airplanes when she returned home to San Francisco.

“Over the last 20 years, I have flown back and forth to my district on a commercial aircraft,” Mr. Boehner said at the time, “and I am going to continue to do that.”

And so on Friday, he did. But not without the perquisites of office, including avoiding those security pat-downs that many travelers are bracing for as holiday travel season approaches.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for the Republican leader, said in a statement that Mr. Boehner was not receiving special treatment. And a law enforcement official said that any member of Congress or administration official with a security detail is allowed to bypass security.

“The appropriate security procedures for all Congressional leaders, including Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, are determined by the Capitol Police working with the Transportation Security Administration,” Mr. Steel said.

[virgil47]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/no-security-pat-downs-for-boehner/



No Security Pat-Downs for Boehner
By JEFF ZELENY


Well they are the Lords and Ladies and we are serfs.

[Bruno]

If I would have spotted him going around the security gate, I would have shouted out something at him.

[MelissaCato]

I would have shouted WTF .. then prolly died from the taser. :rolleyes:

[Rancher]

Laws are for peasants.

[tangent4ronpaul]

How about a law that any congress critter that voted to make us go through this BS - ie: for the patriot act and DHS/TSA be required to be locked in stocks an an elevated platform for an hour but neeeekid while those of us they are subjecting to this BS pass by them. A basket of rotting vegetables placed in from of said stocks would be a nice touch...

This as a requirement for them to travel.

-t

[HOLLYWOOD]

As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate.

You have to speak out against all these Elitists in their comfy home inside the DC Beltway.

i would of put him on the spot... and exercised my 1st Amendment Rights loud and clear. Everyone probably just gawked and stood there like obedient Americans.

No one is above the law... except government.

[torchbearer]

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

[GunnyFreedom]

Getting a hitch on preexisting TMO flights should cost way less than flying commercial. I know that the Pelosimonster made the military charter her own flights special, but that doesn't mean that commercial flights are preferable to military flights across the board. If I were a congress critter who needed to take flights to wherever, I'd just hitch an already scheduled TMO flight and sit on a webbing bench next to some airman or private. The cost to government in that case should be literally one fraction of one percent of the cost of the commercial flight. I prefer TMO over commercial in any case, although technically I suppose it's considered way less comfortable.

[Bruno]

So, I take it Boehner is not taking Ron Paul up on his challenge to Congress to all get groped and see their scanned images?


All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

+ rep

[AdamT]

I lol'ed at how utterly typically outrageous this is.

[angelatc]

Getting a hitch on preexisting TMO flights should cost way less than flying commercial. I know that the Pelosimonster made the military charter her own flights special, but that doesn't mean that commercial flights are preferable to military flights across the board. If I were a congress critter who needed to take flights to wherever, I'd just hitch an already scheduled TMO flight and sit on a webbing bench next to some airman or private. The cost to government in that case should be literally one fraction of one percent of the cost of the commercial flight. I prefer TMO over commercial in any case, although technically I suppose it's considered way less comfortable.

Do you think they routinely fly from DC to Ohio?

[johnny.rebel]

They are begging for revolt. How much longer with the people put up with this shit?

[MyLibertyStuff]

If I would have spotted him going around the security gate, I would have shouted out something at him.

Same. Works out well because he has such a stupid name too.

[Matt Collins]

YouTube - RINO Alert: John Boehner Voted for the TARP Bailout (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ja9q386ek)

[Anti Federalist]

They are begging for revolt. How much longer with the people put up with this shit?

Americunts?

Revolt?

You got a better chance of seeing God.

Besides, don't you know, talking of revolt means you want to kill innocent kids.

You must not have gotten the memo...

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

They are begging for revolt. How much longer with the people put up with this shit?

Haven't you heard? The GOP cleaned house last election. We're saved!

[johnny.rebel]

Americunts?

Revolt?

You got a better chance of seeing God.

Besides, don't you know, talking of revolt means you want to kill innocent kids.

You must not have gotten the memo...
lulz AF ... It's time for revolt! But I don't want anybody dead, I'd just like to see the criminal "ruling class" and their "media minions" behind bars.

[awake]

When the shortages and rationing start, they will be exempt from the consequences of their decisions as well - everyone else pays the price.

[johnny.rebel]

Haven't you heard? The GOP cleaned house last election. We're saved!
1994 all over again. :rolleyes: Do you mean like Newt and Dick saved us with the "Contract with America"?

[ItsTime]

Is Pelosi still flying on a private jet?

[TruckinMike]

Having a rotten tomato in your pocket sure would've come in handy.:D
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_J7XOitHZ_UQ/SPx-DWPE-AI/AAAAAAAAAEs/93Pz5_yS3GA/s200/Tomato+Splatter.SL-906.gif

[HOLLYWOOD]

TSA has met the enemy — and they are US!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20101121/capt.e2eb68cfaa1c4f25953d6ec028d78eea-e2eb68cfaa1c4f25953d6ec028d78eea-0.jpg?x=213&y=313&xc=1&yc=1&wc=278&hc=409&q=85&sig=mRCufF1bTtXvtq4M6ysqig-- (http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/FILE---Sept-25-2006-file-photo-TSA-security-official/photo//101121/480/urn_publicid_ap_org_e2eb68cfaa1c4f25953d6ec028d78e ea//s:/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash)

AP – FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2006 file photo, a TSA security official holds a bag of liquids and gels as …

By ADAM GELLER, AP National Writer Adam Geller, Ap National Writer – Sun Nov 21, 9:01 am ET
How did an agency created to protect the public become the target of so much public scorn?
After nine years of funneling travelers into ever longer lines with orders to have shoes off, sippy cups empty and laptops out for inspection, the most surprising thing about increasingly heated frustration with the Security Administration (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash#)may be that it took so long to boil over.

The agency, a marvel of nearly instant government when it was launched in the fearful months following the 9/11 terror attacks, started out with a strong measure of public goodwill. Americans wanted the assurance of safety when they boarded planes and entrusted the government with the responsibility.

But in episode after episode since then, the TSA has demonstrated a knack for ignoring the basics of customer relations, while struggling with what experts say is an all but impossible task. It must stand as the last line against unknown terror, yet somehow do so without treating everyone from frequent business travelers to the family heading home to visit grandma as a potential terrorist.

The TSA "is not a flier-centered system. It's a terrorist-centered system and the travelers get caught in it," said Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University who has tracked the agency's effectiveness since it's creation.
That built-in conflict is at the heart of a growing backlash against the TSA for ordering travelers to step before a full-body scanner that sees through their clothing, undergo a potentially invasive pat-down or not fly at all.
"After 9/11 people were scared and when people are scared they'll do anything for someone who will make them less scared," said Bruce Schneier, a Minneapolis security technology expert who has long been critical of the TSA. "But ... this is particularly invasive. It's strip-searching. It's body groping. As abhorrent goes, this pegs it."
A traveler in San Diego, John Tyner (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash#), has become an Internet hero after resisting both the scan and the pat-down, telling a TSA screener: "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested." That has helped ignite a campaign urging people to refuse such searches on Nov. 24, which immediately precedes Thanksgiving and is one of the year's busiest travel days.
The outcry, though, "is symptomatic of a bigger issue," said Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, an industry group that says it has received nearly 1,000 calls and e-mails from consumers about the new policy in the last week.
"It's almost as if it's a tipping point," Freeman said. "What we've heard from travelers (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash#)and again is that there must be a better way."
Indeed, TSA has a history of stirring public irritation. There was the time in 2004 when Sen. Ted Kennedy complained after being stopped five times while trying to board planes because a name similar to his appeared on the agency's no-fly list. And the time in 2006 when a Maine woman went public with her tale of being ordered by a TSA agent to dump the gel packs she was using to cool bags of breast milk. And the time in 2007, when a Washington, D.C. woman charged that another TSA agent threatened to have her arrested for spilling water out of her child's sippy cup.
TSA denied the last, releasing security camera footage to try and prove its point. But that did little to offset the agency's longtime struggle to explain itself and win traveler cooperation.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. After Congress approved creation of the agency in late 2001, the TSA grew quickly from just 13 employees in January 2002 to 65,000 a year later. In the first year, agency workers confiscated more than 4.8 million firearms, knives and other prohibited items, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
But even as the new agency mushroomed, officials at the top, pressured by airlines worried that tighter security would discourage people from flying, looked to the business world for lessons on systems, efficiency and service.
TSA set up "go teams" pairing government employees with executives from companies including Marriott International Inc., The Walt Disney Co., and Intel Corp., to figure out how to move lines of people through checkpoints efficiently and how to deal with angry travelers.
But the agency was working under what Freeman calls "an unachievable mandate." Congress demanded an agency that eliminated risk. But the risks are always changing, as terrorists devise new methods and government parries. That has led to an agency that is always in crisis mode, constantly adding new policies designed to respond to the last terror plot.

President Barack Obama says he has pushed the TSA to make sure that it is always reviewing screening processes with actual people in mind. "You have to constantly refine and measure whether what we're doing is the only way to assure the American people's safety," Obama said Saturday. "And you also have to think through, are there ways of doing it that are less intrusive."

TSA operates on the belief that a key to foiling terrorists is to keep them guessing, agency watchers say. But it has never really explained that to a flying public that sees never-ending changes in policies covering carry-on liquids, shoes, and printer cartridges as maddening and pointless inconsistency.
"If you ask what its procedures are, how you screen people, its `I can't tell you that because if the bad guys find out they'll be able to work around the system'," said Christopher Elliott (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash#), an Orlando, Fla.-based consumer advocate specializing in travel. "That's why a lot of what they've done has not really gone over well with air travelers. They perceive it as being heavy-handed and often the screeners come across as being very authoritarian."
Over time, TSA has settled into a pattern of issuing directives with little explanation and expecting they be followed. But increasingly fed-up travelers don't understand the agency's sense of urgency and aren't buying it.
"I don't think the law enforcement approach is going to work with the American public. You've got to explain yourself and reassure people. And they're not doing it," Light said.
That goes beyond public relations, experts say. As more and more layers are added to air travel security efforts, it creates difficult and potentially unpopular choices. But the TSA has been unwilling to openly discuss how it arrives at policies or to justify the trade-offs, highlighted by its insistence over the need for the scanners.
"They're very expensive and what they (TSA officials) should be able to do is answer if it does reduce the risk, how much does it reduce the risk and is it worth it?" said John Mueller, a professor of political science at Ohio State, who has researched the way society reacts to terrorism.
The pushback against the body scanners (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_us/us_airport_security_backlash#) and pat-downs shows the agency at its worst, Elliott said, issuing a policy that wasn't properly vetted or explained, but determined to defend it.
Growing dissatisfaction with TSA has even led some airports to consider replacing the agency with private screeners. Such a change is allowed by law, but contractor must follow all the security procedures mandated by the TSA, including body scans and pat-downs.

But frustration with the TSA was building even before the latest furor. In a December 2007 Associated Press-Ipsos poll asking Americans to rank government agencies, it was as unpopular as the Internal Revenue Service. Even so, a poll earlier this month by CBS News found 81 percent of Americans support the TSA's use of full-body scanners at airports. The poll, conducted Nov. 7-10, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Elliott said that better communication would probably win the TSA more cooperation. But the pushback suggests that a growing number of consumers, particularly frequent travelers, are questioning the premise at the heart of the agency's existence.
"I think at some point Americans said to themselves, maybe in their collective subconscious...there's a line here where it's not just worth it anymore," he said. "There's a growing sense that that line has been crossed."

[Agorism]

Reminds me of how congress made it legal for congress members to do insider trading, yet they all give tough on wall street crime speeches and how they will crack down on people cheating the system.

(Yet they're the ones who are the crooks)

[tangent4ronpaul]

Reminds me of how congress made it legal for congress members to do insider trading, yet they all give tough on wall street crime speeches and how they will crack down on people cheating the system.

(Yet they're the ones who are the crooks)

Had heard of this and assumed it tru, but do you have a reference?

thanks,

-t

[Agorism]

Had heard of this and assumed it tru, but do you have a reference?

thanks,

-t

Of course insider trading is legal for congress critters. Thats why they are so rich and why they never do ethics trials for each other.

If it was illegal, the entire congressional docket would be filled with ethics trials instead of "passing bills" (bills that launder money through their relatives who work as lobbyists and that always make the government bigger regardless of party.)

But of course it's legal. Just google it. We've had lots of threads about it on the ronpaulforums in the past.

[Lucille]

Had heard of this and assumed it tru, but do you have a reference?

thanks,

-t

Denninger: Why We Will NOT Fix This (http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=168787)

Yahoo Finance: Congress Refuses to Outlaw Insider Trading For Lawmakers (http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/congress-refuses-to-outlaw-insider-trading-for-lawmakers-478701.html)

Related (http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2010/11/congress-median-household-net-worth-one.html):

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2DePAZe2gA/TOf607WxqNI/AAAAAAAAPKE/-Pry3pDPDu8/s640/chartbigcongress.jpg

Back to the TSA. If we can't get this crap to stop, and unless the TSA gets it's filthy fascist paws all over the private charters, I predict a budding business:

The Private Way Around the Checkpoints (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/business/09road.html?_r=1)

[tangent4ronpaul]

Thanks!

-t

[Anti Federalist]

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