I previously posted about the latest rash of scandalous photos coming out of Afghanistan showing U.S. military atrocities under Obama’s command, and wondering if the media would pick up on it the way they did when it was Bush’s army… Well, here’s a twist I wasn’t expecting: yes, one of the U.S. media, Rolling Stone, [...]
Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic, cast a spotlight on yet another disgustingly overt example of pure bias in the mainstream media, particularly at the anti-Semitic Reuters newswire. He points to a Reuters news item which contains the following despicable sentences: Police said it was a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian [...]
In the [sparse] reporting of the Palestinians’ massacre of the Fogel family, several newspapers stand out with their distorted sense of “balance”, i.e., where they feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable describing the barbarity of the Palestinians without at least taking a swipe or two at the Israelis, no matter how patently irrelevant or disgustingly disrespectful it comes [...]
TSA Oversteps Its Bounds
Print This Post
Email This Post
In an Associated Press report out today, the ACLU is filing a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration for overstepping its bounds with an unreasonable and unnecessarily extensive search.
The story is that Steven Bierfeldt, a Ron Paul supporter, had taken part in hosting a fundraising event and was traveling on a domestic flight with $4,700 in cash raised at that event. This is a perfectly legal thing to do and in doing so, one is not required to declare anything, let alone should one have to deal with an interrogation from the TSA.
So, when he was stopped and questioned, he refused to answer, which prompted more grilling over the course of a half hour. While one can easily say that he should have just answered the question, I can understand where Bierfeldt is coming from in standing on the principle that he is not obligated to explain the money. However, a TSA spokesman takes issue with that particular defense, saying that all passengers must cooperate with the TSA screening process.
The real question, then, is not whether he should have answered such questions or kept silent (because according to the TSA spokesman, it’s not a question at all); rather, the question is whether or not those questions should have been asked in the first place.
That leads to precisely what irks me most about the TSA. The TSA, while admittedly having come a long way since its inception in terms of its professionalism, is still hampered by a significant number of imbecilic screeners, who waste their time chasing obviously skimpy leads and doubtful suspects, while often ignoring other, more suspicious leads. Although they may not have had better suspects to bother in this case, I have seen this situation myself more than once while on flights, where I (or some helpless old British lady) was “selected” for extra screening, having all my personal belongings spread out in front of everyone, while several much more suspicious-looking people continued on unmolested simply because they weren’t randomly selected for this special screening.
As long as the TSA maintains its politically correct policies and continues to employ many of these idiots who wouldn’t know a bomb from a paperweight, we’re really no safer for all the beaurocratic hassles we’re enduring. Until they wisen up and learn from security experts like El Al Airlines how to properly screen people and how to properly profile people (yes, I said profile people!), we’re mostly just wasting everyone’s time and patience.
So, for once, I’m on the ACLU’s side in a battle.
[...] See the original post: TSA Oversteps Its Bounds [...]