New Tizona Post

A huge victory for the cause of freedom: a Federal court has ruled that cops can no longer treat videoing them in the course of executing their duties as a criminal offense.

Let the punishment fit the crime

There are numerous - far too numerous - cases where the punishment flat out doesn't fit the crime. Murderers who get 8 years. The guy who sells a bag of weed with just over an ounce in it gets 15 years.

But this is clearly a case where the proposed punishment is more than appropriate.

Lawmakers and residents engaged in heated debate Tuesday over a bill that would make random airport security pat-downs and body scans criminal in New Hampshire.

The bill (HB628-FN) "makes the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault," according to the introductory text of the bill.

"Let's put their name on the sex offender registry, and maybe that will tell them New Hampshire means business," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry.

"That is a crime in this state, and we should charge them every single time," said bill co-sponsor Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield.

Yes! Let's brand those TSSA* perverts with the scarlet 'S' for 'sex offender'! Let's make sure that those trolls understand that "No means no"!


* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Justifiable discrimination

Anyone who has read this blog more than about 5 times knows that schadenfreude is one of my favorite things. Forget raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. I want to see despicable people suffer!

And speaking of despicable people, who among us wouldn't include the TSSA* in that category.

A Seattle area restaurant certainly does.

Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List.

"We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren't allowed to come into our business," one employee tells travel journalist Christopher Elliott. "We have the right to refuse service to anyone."

She says that whenever a TSA agent attempts to dine at the restaurant, "we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave... Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment."

The restaurant claims that 90% of its patrons are in agreement with their stance and that the local police have actually helped escort TSA workers off the premises.

"Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector," says the employee.

Is that awesome, or what? "Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment."

Let's hope more businesses pick up on this and start to do likewise. There's no one more deserving than the TSSA's goon squad. No one.

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

The TSSA wants its monopoly back

In the wake of all of the hubbub regarding the TSSA*'s "gate rape" pat downs, a number of airports invoked a little-known provision in the enabling legislation that created the TSSA which allows for individual airports to "opt out" of having their security provided exclusively by the TSSA. Apparently, there were so many airports opting out that TSSA had to put the brakes on.

A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program.

TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.
[...]
But on Friday, the TSA denied an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce, and in a statement, Pistole indicated other applications likewise will be denied.

The government HATES to cede its authority over anything to anybody. I believe that the original "permission" to the 16 airports was a diversion to take some of the heat off of the TSSA for the "grope down" tactics it was forcing on the public. There was never any intent to honor the opt-out provision. There was only the intent to divert our focus away from their abuses.

On the subject of the TSSA, a reader named Lauren sent me a link to this info-graphic. It is a highly informative look into how airline security progressed over time to the totalitarian nightmare we endure now. I highly recommend it to all

*You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

The obvious, stated

It appears that someone FINALLY gets it.  Anne Applebaum of Foreign Policy magazine says in a mainstream publication what I've been saying for years on my little blog.

HOMELAND SECURITY HASN'T MADE US SAFER

Hardly anyone has seriously scrutinized either the priorities or the spending patterns of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its junior partner, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), since their hurried creation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Sure, they get criticized plenty. But year in, year out, they continue to grow faster and cost more -- presumably because Americans think they are being protected from terrorism by all that spending. Yet there is no evidence whatsoever that the agencies are making Americans any safer.

DHS serves only one clear purpose: to provide unimaginable bonanzas for favored congressional districts around the United States, most of which face no statistically significant security threat at all. One thinks of the $436,504 that the Blackfeet Nation of Montana received in fiscal 2010 "to help strengthen the nation against risks associated with potential terrorist attacks"; the $1,000,000 that the village of Poynette, Wisconsin (pop. 2,266) received in fiscal 2009 for an "emergency operations center"; or the $67,000 worth of surveillance equipment purchased by Marin County, California, and discovered, still in its original packaging, four years later. And indeed, every U.S. state, no matter how landlocked or underpopulated, receives, by law, a fixed percentage of homeland security spending every year.

As for the TSA, I am not aware of a single bomber or bomb plot stopped by its time-wasting procedures. In fact, TSA screeners consistently fail to spot the majority of fake "bombs" and bomb parts the agency periodically plants to test their skills. In Los Angeles, whose airport was targeted by the "millennium plot" on New Year's 2000, screeners failed some 75 percent of these tests.

Terrorists have been stopped since 2001 and plots prevented, but always by other means. After the Nigerian "underwear bomber" of Christmas Day 2009 was foiled, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed "the system worked" -- but the bomber was caught by a passenger, not the feds. Richard Reid, the 2001 shoe bomber, was undone by an alert stewardess who smelled something funny. The 2006 Heathrow Airport plot was uncovered by an intelligence tip. Al Qaeda's recent attempt to explode cargo planes was caught by a human intelligence source, not an X-ray machine. Yet the TSA responds to these events by placing restrictions on shoes, liquids, and now perhaps printer cartridges.

Given this reality -- and given that 9/11 was, above all, a massive intelligence failure -- wouldn't we be safer if the vast budgets of TSA and its partners around the world were diverted away from confiscating nail scissors and toward creating better information systems and better intelligence?

Amen, sister!

Now that it's been said out loud in the mainstream, can we PLEASE have a rational debate about this colossal monstrosity Washington has created?

Keep in mind that the REAL purpose of DHSS* isn't to protect us. The real purpose of DHSS is to convince the American people to forfeit their freedoms in exchange for purported protection and safety.  As Ms. Applebaum has appropriately noted, we haven't gained a lick of enhanced security from the agencies of oppression, DHSS, and its bastard stepchild, TSSA*. 

Isn't it time to stop pretending and put an end to this mindless charade?

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Two-bit terrorism in the PRM

Terrorism has hit in the Great State People's Republic of Maryland!  Call the National Guard!  Call DHSS*!  Call Janet Napolitano!

Terrorism in the PRM?  Uh, yeah....about that...

State and federal officials are investigating small incendiary devices that "flared up" at the Maryland Department of Transportation's headquarters in Hanover and a state government building in Annapolis on Thursday.

What do you mean "small incendiary devices"?  Who's behind it?  What kind of damage did the devices cause?  The answers:

A disgruntled "lone wolf" is believed to be behind incendiary devices sent to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley, investigators believe.

The two devices burned the fingers of two employees when they were opened in Annapolis and Hanover 15 minutes apart Thursday.
[...]
When the worker opened the package that had five holiday postage stamps on it, it produced a "puff of smoke and a sulphur-type smell, like if you would strike a match."

That's it?  A stink bomb that resulted in some burned fingers?  C'mon, are you kidding me?  I've had camping trips that resulted in more carnage than that!

Yes, one of the packages was address to Governor Martin O' Owe-Malley...hey, how 'bout that [/sarcasm].  Old Marty was unharmed by the "attack".  He can go on taxing and spending with impunity.

Of course, you just KNOW that law enforcement and the DHSS are going to WAAAAAAY overreact to this little prank.  Are we going to be subjected to TSSA* groping when we go to the post office?

Kinda adds new meaning to the phrase, "Let me inspect that package, sir!"

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Piling on: more TSSA abuse

TSSA (you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S) is the hot topic these days, crowding out the G20 Summit, the ConAgra/Archer Daniels Midland/Big Agra food industry takeover bill, and, well, everything else. And why not?  After all, they make it so easy!

The latest is this tale of humiliation.

A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

Long story short...

I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”

The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”

Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer said he had to walk through the airport soaked in urine, board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean up.

Ah, but don't worry, Mr. Sawyer.  Il Duce feels your pain.

President Obama said today he sympathizes with passenger complaints about aggressive body pat-downs at airports, but his counter-terrorism aides say they are necessary to guard against hidden explosives.

Balancing privacy and security is a "tough situation," Obama told reporters at a news conference following the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

"One of the most frustrating aspects of this fight against terrorism is that it has created a whole security apparatus around us that causes a huge inconvenience for all of us," Obama said.

Uh, no, Mr. President. It is NOT a huge inconvenience for ALL of us.  You traipse all over the world in the opulence that is Air Force One.  And even those members of Congress who make a big show of flying commercial (hey, how 'bout that? [/sarcasm]) manage to skip the humiliation reserved for the rest of us (hat tip: Ye Olde Journalist).

No airport pat-down for the incoming House speaker.

On Friday, the GOP's John Boehner was guided past the metal detectors and hand inspections given to other passengers on his flight home to Ohio.

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said his boss followed procedures set by Capitol Police and the Transportation Security Administration. Steel said the same rules apply to other congressional leaders.

Yeah. The same rules apply to other congressional leaders. Because, after all, only we mundanes should be humiliated, NOT the elites who rule us.

Toes forwarded a proposed solution to the TSSA madness. I think it's a huge improvement over the current MCF.

Solution to issue of full-body scanners at airports: A booth you step into that will detonate any explosive device you may have hidden on or in your body. The explosion is contained within the booth. Win-Win? No profiling and will eliminate long and expensive trials. Hmmmm: In the airport you hear a muffled explosion. Later an announcement, "Attention, standby passengers! Seats now available on flight number...

Priceless.

More TSSA fun and games

Last evening Toes alerted me to this amusing post by IowaHawk.  I liked it.  I've never followed IowaHawk, but I'm starting to think I should.  After all, a guy who suspends himself from his own blog has definite potential.

Seems all of the blogosphere opiners is taking their best shots at the TSSA (you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S) -- and why not?  The bastards just keep on giving us ammunition.  You thought that getting groped through your clothing was bad?  That ain't NOTHING!

The TSA’s invasive new screening measures include officers literally putting their hands down people’s pants if they are wearing baggy clothing in a shocking new elevation of groping procedures that have stoked a nationwide revolt against privacy-busting airport security measures.

Forget John Tyner’s “don’t touch my junk” experience at the hands of TSA goons in San Diego recently, another victim of Big Sis was told by TSA officials that it was now policy to go even further when dealing with people wearing loose pants or shorts.

This is sick. Read on, if you can.

Stone [noted] how the TSA thug directly patted down his testicles, penis and backside while his hand was inside Stone’s pants. Stone was initially embarrassed to reveal the full scope of the groping but related the details of what amounted to nothing less than outright sexual molestation.

A 54-year-old Missouri City man experienced similar treatment when he was going through security at Fort Lauderdale Airport.

Thomas Mollman was subject to a groping by a TSA officer that was tantamount to sexual molestation.

“I was wearing shorts at the time – between the underwear, right on the skin, all the way around the back, all the way around my front, 360 degrees, touched inappropriately,” he said.

“This was an assault. This was no different than a sexual assault,” said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy.

You got that right, Joel!

You would think that the TSSA goon squad would at least KISS you first before they go to third base with you.

Vulture Droppings: "Check your bag, sir?"

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

---

Not content to merely annoy and harass, the TSSA (you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S) has moved on to actual assault.  Their new policy - submit to the nudie ray or get groped - has a lot of people in high dudgeon.

The Germans staged an innovative protest of the scanners -- you wanna see me naked?  I'll come to the airport naked!

Vox Day has opined.  So have Will Grigg and Ye Olde Journalist.

Now it's my turn.  This edition of Vulture Droppings is brought to you by the letter "G", as in "grope"

---

"What's the big deal?", I hear some so-called "conservatives" ask.  We NEED the government to keep us safe in the airports.  Even if that WERE true (I believe wholeheartedly that it isn't), how is groping 13-year-old girls for sport keeping us safe?  Yeah, you read that right - only children over the age of 12 get groped. Bet that makes all of you fathers with hot 15-year-old daughters happy.

"You don't HAVE to get groped!  You can go through the scanner, you know!"  Yeah.  Not any better.  The scanner shows everything God gave you in graphic detail.  Think I'm kidding?  Check this out - not only can you see dude's junk, you can tell that he's not circumcised.  Again, the question to all of you fathers with hot 15-year-old daughters -- you want your little girl leered at by Tommy TSSA like she's some sort of common whore just because she's flying to see grandma?

---

"But the pictures are purged after they've been viewed! The embarrassment is only temporary!"  No, no they're not - at least not all of them.  Body scan pictures are starting to crop up in various places; one courthouse in Florida (figures!) has over 35,000 saved images!  Now, fathers, ask yourself this: how would you feel about scanned images of your hot 15-year-old daughter showing up on the internet?  Are you STILL a supporter of the scanners?  I can't see how.

---

TSSA, naturally, stands by the scanners and their new grope-down procedures.  They deny that any groping is going on, notwithstanding the growing number of complaints from the molested (see here, here, and here also).  Nor are they too happy with those who protest against being scanned or groped - this guy faces possible criminal charges.

---

The issue is apparent. So is the solution, IMO. Abolish the TSSA. Let the airlines handle their own security. You may not feel safer, but you'll feel less violated.  And you'll get back the freedom you once had to enter an airport without being molested.

Of course, if you like that sort of thing....in which case, I say - TO THE AIRPORT WITH YOU!

---

Vulture Droppings: Electoral Defeat

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

---

Some of you are going to read the title of this point and come to the conclusion that I've finally gone around the bend.  You're going to assume that I've completely LOST IT.  While you may, in fact, be right about my failing sanity (until you've lived a workload like I've had for the past 4 months, you have NO IDEA what insanity really feels like), I am speaking from the heart here.

This edition of Vulture Droppings deals with my analysis of the 2010 elections, which are, thankfully, finally over.  If I had to watch one more ad for Candidate A in which Candidate B was painted as Hitler's more evil twin, followed apace by an ad for Candidate B in which Candidate A was painted as worse than Stalin, I think I would have stuck a pencil in my eye.

---

It is said that a pessimist views the glass as half full, while the optimist sees it as half empty.  So what does that make me?  I see the glass as nearly empty, leaking, and what little water remains in it is polluted.

What most so-called conservatives are touting as a major electoral victory is nothing of the sort.  Team Elephant won the House - hey, how 'bout that?  "Oh come on, Vulture!  Even you have to concede that the historic taking of the House is a major victory!"

No.  No I don't.

The House will make for a nice, boisterous legislative soap opera for the next two years.  But the Senate is still under the control of Harry Reid (more on that later), and the White House is still in the clutches of Il Duce.  Good luck getting anything constructive done in the next two years.

---

What constitutes victory? What defines defeat?  Let me take a stab at it.

• Victory would have included a major purge of Team Donkey leadership.  

See Harry Reid?  Still standing.  See Nancy Pelosi?  Sure, she's no longer the Screecher of the House...but she's still standing.  See Barney (Elmer Fudd's evil twin) Frank?  Still standing. Team Elephant might not have had a legitimate chance at taking down "Air Force 3".  But that senile old fool Harry Reid was ripe for the taking.  And Barney Frank was extremely vulnerable, given his cozy relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  But the elitist snobs that run Team Elephant (into the ground, I might say) weren't about to lend any material support to a commoner like Sharon Angle.  She wouldn't fit in at a Washington cocktail party at all!  Neither was there any real effort on the part of the Elephants to take down Frank.  You leave Harry Reid and Barney Frank standing -- that's not victory.

• Victory would have included a change in the kind of candidates elected by the Elephants.  

Set aside for a moment Rand Paul's win in Tennessee.  See anyone else "different" winning anywhere?   I don't.  And, no, Marco Rubio doesn't count.  I think he's every bit the faux conservative that John Boehner is.

Sharon Angle?  Joe Miller?  Christine O'Donnell?  They were undermined at every turn by the Elephant elites.  Face facts, conservatives: your side threw the game.  They were happier with losing those races than with dealing with commoners in their midst.

But don't worry.  John McCommie won reelection.  Yeah....

• Victory would have set the stage for the dismantling of Obamacare.

You can't roll back Obamacare with just the House.  Face facts -- we're stuck with it.  In 2 years, even if the Elephants win the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, they'll throw up their hands and say that Obamacare can't be rolled back because too many people are dependent on it.  That's Washington DC Realpolitik.

---

You're going to think I've lost my mind, but I'm actually sorry that Russ Feingold lost his Senate seat in Wisconsin.  Yeah, he's a big Lefty.  But he's an HONEST big Lefty.  And he was one of the few in Washington willing to stand up to the abuses of the DHSS (you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S).

---

One final observation on the election.  No matter the political climate.  No matter the economic parameters.  Even if the very survival of the human race were at stake, it just wouldn't matter.  The People's Republic of Maryland will vote Democrat.

The Elephants didn't even bother to field a candidate against Senator-since-Reconstruction Barbara Mikulski.  Yeah, there was some guy's name with an 'R' next to it on the ballot.  But I wouldn't recognize him if he was standing in my kitchen carving the turkey at Thanksgiving wearing a sweater with his name embroidered on it.

6 of 8 Congressional districts went Donkey.  The 2 that didn't?  Frederick County and points west, and the Eastern Shore, both heavily agricultural.

Martin O'Malley, quite possibly the worst governor in the State's history, won in a crushing landslide against former governor (and RINO) Bob Erlich.

Yeah, I'm ready to move.  You can't live in Libtardia for 20-plus years and not have it affect you.

---

TSA - the "gift" that keeps on giving

It seems that the Transportation Security Administration (TSSA - because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the second S) just can't stay out of trouble. I expect that they'll be providing me with blog post material for the foreseeable future.

Their latest "accomplishment"? It's a beauty.

Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.

Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.

The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.

Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.

The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.

The alarm went off.

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

But surely the screener's supervisor would handle the situation properly - surely they would see the ludicrous pointlessness of what the screener was asking, right? Uh....no.

By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.

"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "

The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said.

Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.

"You know why we're doing this." Because you're imbecilic tools? Because there are thousands of developmentally-challenged 4-year-olds just DYING to blow up a plane for Allah? Because it gives you totalitarian wood?

Face it, there was no good reason to require the child to remove his braces. TSSA even admitted it after the fact. Of course, TSSA never admits to ANYTHING until the press gets involved. Your feeble little complaint at the time of the violation of your person or dignity? They couldn't possibly care less.

Keep flying, sheeple. Keep submitting to the degradation.

May your chains rest lightly upon you.

More TSSA unnessary roughness

The Transportation Safety Administration -- TSSA, because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S -- pops up in the news quite regularly due to its penchant for running roughshod over the citizenry it is ostensibly charged with protecting.

Their most recent "achievement" was to scare a 22-year-old coed half to death by planting contraband in her bag as a "training exercise". Apparently, the TSSA tool in question thought it was funny. Funny. Right.

Now they're at it again, and, once more, the site of the affront is Philadelphia.

The businesswoman spent a night in the lockup at 55th and Pine after Transportation Security Administration agents said she assaulted them during a screening at the airport.

Uh huh. A tiny 57-year-old woman assaulted two TSSA thugs. Sure.

Look, I'll be the first to say that Ms. Pellegrino doesn't come across as the most sympathetic of victims in this case. Her over-the-top germaphobic QQ'ing and whiny tone defy sympathy. But the tapes of the incident have been disposed of by the TSSA because, "...most of the incident took place outside the cameras' view, either in the private screening room or at the doorway".

Uh huh.

If you think for one second that the tapes would have been disposed of if there was ANY corroborating evidence to support the TSSA gorillas' claim of assault on them then you're either a TSSA employee or a moron. The tapes were disposed of because they would either vindicate Ms. Pellegrino or, at minimum, introduce some doubt as to whether the TSSA actions were justified.

The fact is that TSSA thugs treat ANY failure to passively submit to their every command as an assault. And that isn't about to change anytime soon until the American people wise up and let their elected officials know that they're not going to put up with it any more.

Which, knowing the lack of spine and intelligence of the vast majority of Americans, leads me to believe that we will never be free of the excesses of the TSSA.

---

How have the interwebs changed the world? I was alerted to this story by an Aussie living in South Korea. Is that awesome, or what? Hat tip t'ya, Bingbing.

TSA - the 'A' stands for ?

Apparently, at least in this case, it stands for "A-hole".

In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile.

The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.

Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school after holiday break. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff, given the new regulations.

She would be flying into Detroit on Northwest Airlines, the same city and carrier involved in the attempted bombing on Christmas, just 10 days before. She was tense.

What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.

After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.

A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.

Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.

She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?"

Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn't looking.

She'd left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line.

Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.

Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears.

Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't.

Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.

Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.

And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall.

Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened.

A joke? You're not serious. Was he hitting on her? Was he flexing his muscle? Who at a time of heightened security and rattled nerves would play so cavalierly with a passenger's emotions?

Can you believe this? She cried - I would have messed my pants! What in the name of God's green earth would possess this mendacious jerk to single out this poor young woman - hell, to single out ANYONE - for that kind of stress when going through a TSSA checkpoint is stress enough for anyone?

There's more.

When she complained to airport security, Solomon said, she was told the TSA worker had been training the staff to detect contraband. She was shocked that no one took him off the floor, she said.

"It was such a violation," the Wynnewood native told me by phone. "I'd come early. I'd done everything right. And they were kidding about it."

I ran her story past Ann Davis, regional TSA spokeswoman, who said she knew nothing to contradict the young traveler's account.

TSSA (two S's, because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the second S) wouldn't come out and say what sort of punishment this tool was given for this patent violation of...well, if nothing else, the laws of human decency. But a TSSA spokestool did say that the individual was no longer associated with the agency.

Hey, how 'bout that? [/sarcasm]

And people ask me why I'm so anti-TSSA.....

Wiener of the Decade

I've been awarding a Wiener of the Week since November of 2007. I've been awarding a Wiener of the Month nearly as long. I've awarded a Wiener of the Year three times as well. Now, in the year 2010, with the end of the nameless decade I'll call 'The Aughts', I'm presented with a rare opportunity for a new, first-time award: the Wiener of the Decade.

So many things happened during the course of The Aughts that negatively impacted our lives.

9-11 was an attack on America; what our President and Congress did in its aftermath -the Patriot Act, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHSS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSSA) [two S's required in each name, because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S] - was an attack on Americans and American freedoms. That last sentence is sure to inflame True-Believer Republicans who are convinced that the aforementioned affronts were an important concession necessary for a nation at war with radical Islam. I dispute the benefit. The detrimental aspects of those actions, however, are beyond dispute. The worst part is that we've yet to see the Patriot Act exercised to its fullest by a mendacious, cruel ruler of the type that Il Duce has the potential to become.

The fraud that is AGW began to gather a head of steam in The Aughts. Al Gorebells, the chief propagandist for Big Warming, actually won a Nobel Peace Prize for his fraudulent over-the-top propaganda movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It was the single most outrageous example of the politicization of the Nobel Prize until 2009, when Il Duce was awarded his Nobel for.....uh....well, no one has figured that one out yet.

Two wars raged throughout the decade, in Afghanistan and Iraq. While American popular support for the war in Afghanistan was justifiably high, that support fell off in a hurry when the Iraq conflict because a quagmire where our men and women in uniform were left in an untenable situation.

Pop culture became more and more debased. The "reality show" became a staple of network television. Janet Jackson flashed a nipple. Bono dropped an F-bomb. The government responded to those two events in the only way government knows how: by further restricting freedoms.

Technology, particularly the exponential growth of the Internet, has made it possible for more and more voices to weigh in and, to a small degree, has broken the grip of Big Media (the BM for short) regarding "truth". The Dan Rather forged documents scandal was an example of bloggers - simple citizen reporters and opinion writers - fighting the BM and bringing out the truth. Rather was forced out by CBS as a result. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Okay, enough with the history lesson. Let's review the also-rans first.

• Al Gorebells. Very few people had as much impact on the world in the past decade than Mr. Gore. His bald-faced propaganda, coupled with complicit "science" and an even more complicit media, have led to treaties and legislation designed to create global governance and to tax away the wealth of the West. Mr. Gore is a hypocritical enemy of freedom and a scumbag. Wiener-worthy, to be sure. But, alas, he's just an also-ran.
  


• Alan Greenspan. Mr. Fed fed the dot-com boom-and-bust, then turned around and drove interest rates lower and lower, creating first a credit boom, then a housing boom, both of which went bust. The current economic woes we are experiencing would have occurred sooner and would have been less severe had Mr. Greenspan just done...wait for it....NOTHING! Wiener-caliber? No doubt!
  


• Big Media. The BM called King George the Dim everything but a Child of God during the course of his presidency, then has the audacity to grumble about the "incivility" of politics now that their guy, Il Duce, is running things. And make no mistake, he is THEIR GUY; the love affair between Il Duce and the BM during the 2008 election was absolutely appalling. What occurred in that election cycle was nothing short of journalistic fellatio. Were they capable of shame, I would say that they should be ashamed. I wish I could give them the Wiener, but, alas, they too are also-rans.
  


• John McCommie. Not since Bob Dole has there been a Presidential candidate less appealing or more curmudgeonly. Not even the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket could make a silk purse out of this sow's ear. And let's not forget First Amendment-shredding McCain-Feingold! Definitely a Wiener; just not the winner.
  


• Team Elephant. A dispassionate observer might well conclude that the Republicans threw the 2008 election by pumping a 70-something, nasty, borderline Socialist candidate as the "conservative" alternative to Il Duce. In my opinion the Republican party has spent the last 20 years trying to pay penance for Ronald Reagan. True Wieners, this crowd.
  


• Congress. What a collection of elitist, out-of-touch, officious douchebags. These collectivist bastards wipe their collective fat asses with the Constitution daily. Their contempt for ordinary Americans is breathtaking, particularly Nancy "Air Force 3" Pelosi. Bastile Day would be too good for those scumbags. Definitely Wieners. Definitely.
  


• The Supreme Court. Talk about judicial malpractice! These clowns actually ruled that McCain-Feingold was Constitutional! Are you effing kidding me?!?!?! WHAT is more indicative of the founders' insistence on free speech than POLITICAL SPEECH?!?!? Yet these fossilized crypt-keepers turned their backs on the Constitution and upheld that completely absurd and freedom-limiting POS. Wieners for sure!

That's quite a collection. I grudgingly omitted additional candidates such as "Judge" Barbara Walther and Prosecutor Mike Nifong since they were previously named Wiener of the Year. Their Wiener-worthiness is indisputable.

The Wiener of the Decade is the man who stood largest, for better or worse, throughout the decade. Indeed, one cannot think of The Aughts without thinking of the biggest ZERO of a decade of zeroes: George W. Bush, AKA King George the Dim.

If you look at the events of The Aughts, GWB's fingerprints are all over everything. While he was borderline brilliant in the aftermath of 9-11, pretty much everything he did thereafter was cover-your-eyes awful.

He was the force behind the Patriot Act and the creation of the DHSS and TSSA. He and his Neocon cronies pushed and pushed to get us a war with Iraq, and disingenuously made Iraq an extension of the war on terror.

He pushed for yet another government-provided "entitlement" with the Medicare prescription drug benefit. I said at the time that the Medicare legislation was the camel's nose in the tent, that King George had set the table for Hillary Health. Little did I know how right I was.

He pushed for the gigantic 2008 bailout of the financial sector ("They're too big to fail!!!"). He tried to appoint Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. That woman isn't qualified to be a CLERK of the Supreme Court!

But the worst thing he did was to make Il Duce possible. It has been said for decades that it took Jimmy Carter for us to get Ronald Reagan. Conversely, it took 8 years of King George the Dim to give us Il Duce. Of all of the unforgivable things King George did, THAT is the most unforgivable.

Congratulations, GWB - you're the Wiener of the Decade.

Wiener of the Year - 2009

It's time for the least prestigious unknown award currently offered on the old WWW - The Vulture's Wiener of the Year.

I started with a list of potential nominees I considered to be quite deserving. Toes made some suggestions of her own.

My nomination for WotY is the Prezbo. Second is a 3 way tie between Pelosi-Reid-Nepolitano. Can't forget Al Gore or the Nobel Committee

All good candidates, all deserving of the dishonor.

Before I name the Wiener, I'd like to give appropriate "props" to the also-rans.

• President Obama, Il Duce to you regulars. What an MCF of a presidency this guy has had so far! Stimulus dollars for his well-heeled buddies. The Fascist takeover of a large portion of the financial sector and 2/3 of the Big Three auto makers. Special deals for his "friends" buried in the disastrous health care reform Fascist takeover of 1/7 of the nation's economy. And let's not forget his participation in the grotesque charade that is the AGW myth. He's awful, and most deserving of a Wiener.
  


• Al Gore and his sycophants who comprise Big Warming. Not even the smoking gun of the leaked emails of faux scientists actively perpetuating fraud in the service of One World Socialist Utopia (AKA Climategate) has slowed Mr. Gore and his ilk from pursuing new ways to destroy the economies of the West and bring about their desired One World government. He's deserving of a Wiener; hell, he's deserving of a Lifetime Achievement Wiener!
  


• Pottawattamie County, Iowa, prosecutors. As I detailed last April, these execrable slimeballs deliberately hid exculpatory evidence that might have cleared two innocent men from prosecution for killing a police officer. For these lowlifes, winning the case took precedence over justice. They deserve to spend the same 25 years in jail that the two defendants endured. Wiener worthy? You bet!
  


• Congress. Where to begin? (I believe I used those same words for last year's detailing of Congress' Wiener qualifications). Ah, the accomplishments of this Congress! Nationalization of a large percentage of our nation's financial sector. Nationalization of 2 of the Big Three automakers. Passage of Cap and Trade. Passage of health care reform the fascist takeover of 1/7 of the nation's economy, pending committee resolution of the House and Senate bills. And let's not forget H.R. 4173, the "financial reform" legislation passed by the House earlier this month, which provides for as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. God help us when these avaricious clowns are in session. Most Wiener-worthy, particularly leaders Nancy "Air Force 3" Pelosi and Harry Reid.
  


• Big Media (the BM for short). These Il Duce-worshiping tools have been most successful at ignoring news that is inconvenient to his royal worship's dismantling of our economy. They've also managed to almost completely ignore Climategate. Virtually all news related to Climategate and its particulars has come from the British press. The BM should be ashamed. As I wrote last year, they are, collectively, as pompous, imperious, and out-of-touch a group of people as anyone on this planet outside of Congress. Their Wiener-cred is unchallengeable.
  


• Judge Barbara Walther (last year's Wiener). She has done everything in her power to steamroll through convictions against FLDS men accused of crimes in the wake of the militaristic (and questionably Constitutional) raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch last year. She has shown her true colors as an authoritarian who wipes her ass with the Constitution. She is worthy of a Wiener, but more appropriately deserves prison time for judicial malpractice.
  


• The Team Elephant establishment, who insist on marginalizing populists like Ron Paul and Sarah Palin in favor of Rockefellerite losers. There will be no two party system in this country so long as elitists run the Republican party. Wieners? You betcha.
  


• The Team Donkey establishment. The party of John Kennedy, Scoop Jackson, and Hubert Humphrey is now the party of Bill Ayers, ACORN, and Nancy Pelosi. This is NOT a party interested in advancing America or American interests. They are all about establishing a One-World Socialist Utopia. The only question is whether they are more deserving of a Wiener or to be brought up on charges of treason.
  


• Janet Napolitano. What a waste of oxygen! From the minute she took her position as the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHSS - you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S) she has been an epic fail. Her handling of the latest act of terrorism was epic in its incompetence. She needs to be fired. She's a walking example of what the Wiener award is all about.
  

This year's Wiener was chosen because of the harm that people like these pose to a free Constitutional republic (or, in the case of the USA, what REMAINS of a free Constitutional republic).

The 2009 Wiener of the Year is shared by two blogs: Caput Penitus Culus and FLDS Texas.

These two sites exist solely as a meeting place for bigots where they can share their bigotry in a little echo chamber.

They are openly hostile to arguments that bring their bigotry into question. They engage in the worst sort of character assassination imaginable against those whose views are different from their own. I was actually called a pedophile for simply opining on the Constitutionality of the YFZ raid!

Commenters who persist in questioning their views - particularly if those commenters match venom with venom - are banned as "trolls". There is no reaching these people with logic, reason, or even baseball bats.

So what makes them a threat to our Constitutional freedoms?

These are the very sort of people who made the Third Reich possible. They are people who are more than willing to attribute the worst sort of crimes to people different than themselves. They are people who are more than willing to see these scapegoated outsiders punished to the fullest regardless of what kind of shady actions were taken by the government to secure those convictions. All that matters to them is that the outsiders are punished (or, preferably, expelled).

They willingly sell our freedoms - particularly the 1st and 4th Amendments - just to assure that the government can "get" the outsiders. Then, as if that weren't enough, they pronounce legal justification for what has happened!

They are too caught up in their hatred and bigotry to figure out that they have imperiled anyone who is "different" in any way to be a target of voracious agents of der Staat. They're too stupid to realize that they've imperiled THEMSELVES.

You may disagree with my choice for WotY; if so, have at me via comments.

Congratulations, bastions of bigotry! You're the Wiener of the Year!

Terror Attempt

Great! As if air travel in this country weren't enough of a drag, now another Islamic douchebag has to go and try to blow up another plane.

A senior U.S. counterterror official says a passenger aboard a Delta Air Lines flight in Detroit was planning to blow up the plane but the explosive device failed, the Associated Press reported today.

A White House official said the incident was an attempted act of terrorism.

AP said it learned that early indications were the passenger said he was acting on behalf of Al Qaeda.

Okay, so this bozo tried to flame up some sort of improvised explosive device - and failed. But who failed more, the bozo, or the TSSA (two S's required in order to correctly abbreviate Schutzstaffel)?

If you answered TSSA, go to the head of the class. If you're the TSSA, this just won't do. So, naturally, in order to give the impression that they're "doing something", the TSSA is going to go to extreme, even absurd lengths. After all, nobody does absurd like the TSSA.

God help us all.

Domestic terrorists...us?

DHSS (not a misspelling - you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double 'S') has determined that there is a grave threat of internal terrorism in this country. This threat isn't from active, organized groups like ALF (Animal Liberation Front) or ELF (Environmental Liberation Front), groups who have an actual history of terroristic acts. No, this threat is from Right-Wing Extremists. You know, like....well, apparently, anyone to the right of Mao Tse Tung.

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

Yep, that's right. As someone who 'reject[s] government authority in favor of state or local authority', yours truly is, according to der Staat, a domestic terrorist. Never mind that this Vulture has neither engaged in nor advocated any act of violence against the US government (or, for that matter, acts of violence against anything at all with the exception of computer keyboards). Never mind that this Vulture is a hard-working taxpayer living what's left of the American dream and whose only 'crime' is a wish to return to the founding principles of Life, Liberty, and Freedom. I oppose collectivism; I am, therefore, a thought criminal.

And it isn't just me! If you're ex-military, you're a likely terrorist! Why is that? Why, Tim McVeigh was ex-military. Ergo, all ex-miltary are suspect, according to chief DHSS asshat Janet Napolitano.

"I was briefed on the general topic, which is one that struck a nerve as someone personally involved in the Timothy McVeigh prosecution," Ms. Napolitano said.

Quod erat demonstrandum. NOT!

The White House has distanced itself from this inflamatory report (WHY does that seem to be a running theme with the Obey-me administration? One of the organs of der Staat issues a controversial 'ruling', and the White House runs for cover).

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, a Democrat, was extremely unhappy with the report and wants answers - now!

"This report appears to raise significant issues involving the privacy and civil liberties of many Americans -- including war veterans," Mr. Thompson said in the letter sent Tuesday.

"As I am certain you agree, freedom of association and freedom of speech are guaranteed to all Americans -- whether a person's beliefs, whatever their political orientation, are 'extremist' or not," Mr. Thompson said.

The report "blurred the line," and Mr. Thompson said he is "disappointed and surprised that the department would allow this report to be disseminated" to law enforcement officials nationwide.

The American Legion has slammed the report as well.

American Legion chief David Rehbein on Tuesday blasted the report as "incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased" and took special aim at its warning that returning veterans having difficulties reintegrating society could be recruited by right-wing groups for possible terrorist attacks.

In a letter to Napolitano, Rehbein underlined the document's mention of Oklahoma City bombing author Timothy McVeigh's US Army background and called it "as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam."

"The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," said Rehbein, who group comprises some 2.6 million members.

So what's my take on it? It's simple, really. When King Obey-me took office, he appointed former Clinton administration cronies to head key federal agencies and cabinet positions. Hearken back with me to those halcyon days of yesteryear, when Clinton administration paranoia about Right-Wing Extremists ran amok. For the nostalgic among you, this is just like going back to 1993 all over again...except without the dreadful Mariah Carey soundtrack.

This is DoublePlusGoodHopeChange. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Update: William Norman Grigg hits it out of the park. Seriously, if you haven't checked him out, do so! He's positively brilliant.

TSSA in the news

I know, it's been a while since I last went on a rant about the TSSA (no misspelling: you can't get the full effect of the American version of the Schutzstaffel without the second 's'). But you have to admit that they've kept a lower profile of late, with stories of TSSA abuses trickling down to practically zero. I'm not naive. I understand that this is mostly a product of last year's election and to the endless stream of news about the cratering economy.

But you just KNEW it couldn't last. Totalitarians never operate in total obscurity.

And now, like a poltergeist, they're baaaaaaaaaaaack.

For the first time, some airline passengers will skip metal detectors and instead be screened by body scanning machines that look through clothing for hidden weapons, the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

An experimental program that begins today at Tulsa International Airport will test whether the $170,000 body scanners could replace $10,000 metal detectors that have screened airline passengers since 1973. Airports in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City will join the test in the next two months, TSA spokesman Christopher White said.

The scanners aim to close a loophole by finding non-metallic weapons such as plastic and liquid explosives, which the TSA considers a major threat. The machines raise privacy concerns because their images reveal outlines of private body parts.

The machines raise privacy concerns? Why JUST the machines? Why doesn't the very existence of an agency that can pretty much make you strip naked on command not raise privacy concerns? We're talking about an agency that is exempt from illegal search-and-seizure laws. We're talking about an agency that wipes its collective ass with the 4th amendment. But, in the minds of most Americans, that's okay. It's the thought of someone seeing an outline of your body that's a "privacy concern".

At what point did I cross over into this parallel universe where all of this can happen in broad daylight with nary a peep from the sheeple?

Fortress DC

Preparations for the Coronation of King Obama of DoublePlusGoodHopeChange (the Savior of the BM) have been heavy on security. Okay, that's a major understatement. They're effectively shutting down the city in phases starting Monday, with some restrictions not lifting until Wednesday. Unless you're some kind of dignitary or a glutton for Schutzstaffel abuse, you don't want to be anywhere NEAR this MCF. I'm not even going to try to get to work on Inauguration Day, and I work 15 miles from downtown on the other side of the river.

The official list of bridge, highway, and street closures is pretty daunting. To see it represented graphically, click on the picture to the left or click here.

Our forefathers would be appalled. The very idea that the ceremony to inaugurate a a new President would be accompanied by a walled-off city full of Schutzstaffel goons! This is NOT the way a freedom-loving nation behaves. This is the way third-world tyrants behave.

Oh, sure, you'll hear about the extra security being necessary because of the terrorism threat or because they're afraid that some racist scumbag will try to kill the new President. That's a smokescreen. They are afraid of those things, to be sure. But they're just as afraid of ordinary Americans, none of whom they want to have show up to spoil their pretentious mockery of the principles on which this nation was founded. So ordinary Americans can attend the outdoor events on the Mall. They can even walk the streets, within limits. They just can't be allowed anywhere near the Ruling Class. THAT's the real reason for the impregnable fortress.

The treatment of GW Bush

Pappy Bush is in the news today. He is pimping Jeb as a future presidential candidate. He's also not happy with the treatment his dimwitted son King George has received from the media. Boo frickin' hoo!

Just after the election, this clown lamented the way his champion had been maligned.

Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right.

This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans.

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It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.

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The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

Pardon me while I barf!

Are we talking about the same GWB, Mr. Shapiro? The one who routinely wipes his ass with the Constitution? The one who sold out the Republican party? The one who gives away billions of tax dollars against the will of the American people after a similar give-away was rejected by the Senate? The one who has us entangled in foreign wars without end? The one who, worst of all, saddled us with the Department of Homeland SSecurity (der Shutzstaffel).

Mistreatment? How about HIS mistreatment of this country? King George the Dim is one of the foremost enemies of personal freedom this nation has ever seen, and it's seen a few. His "treatment" may have been harsh. But, aside from the moonbat contingency who hate the mere fact that he breathes, nearly all of the criticism of King George has been, if anything, too little, too light, too unfocused.

Our Founders would have strung him up. Instead, we the taxpayers will pay him a handsome retirement pension, provide him with a praetorian guard 24x7, and pay much of the price for his future Presidential library (to include both books he's ever read).

You've got to put down the pipe, Mr. Shapiro. Put it down. Step away from it. Join us back here in reality land.