TSA - Thievin' Security Agents

I just can't get enough of the TSA bullshit!  It's like no government bureaucrat can seem to penetrate their proverbial wall of silence. People are looking for answers and demanding sweeping changes yet once again, Mr. Pistole manages to avoid the answers or just change the answers as the mood strikes.

The flying public is meanwhile left surrendering their Constitutional rights just so they can get from points A to B in a reasonable amount of time. There is still NO answer to the often asked question - "Is the radiation at acceptable levels?" A recent TSA press release says that answer will be forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. They're just being cautious to ensure that no "sensitive data" about the scanner is released along with the safety information the public is demanding.  In other words..........
well, you fill in the blank.

Now comes this little bit of news....

A TSA supervisor at Newark's Liberty Airport was recently arrested in an undercover operation for stealing cash from passengers, and taking bribes and kickbacks from his colleagues. In a one year period, he managed to pocket almost $30,000.

Michael Arato admitted in court that he regularly took money from passengers during security screenings and deliberately targeted foreigners who could speak little to no English. This investigation was initiated last fall when the Dept. of Homeland Security received an unusually high number of complaints from foreign travelers who were missing money after having boarded their overseas flights from Newark.

(I knew there was a reason I never liked Jersey -- besides that stupid show!)


I leave you with this thought....

More TSA Bureaucrap

Once again, the TSA is refusing to release safety information on the radiation concerns from their full body image scanners.  Freedom of Information Act requests were filed months ago and still, the bureaucrats refuse to budge.
Even the TSA Agents themselves have tried to get answers, including going through the CDC in Atlanta. They ran in to more bureaucracy there.

First the TSA says that their full body image scanners are incapable of storing or transmitting images of unsuspecting passengers.  Well, a Federal courthouse in FL showed the world that the US Marshall's office made it a habit of saving over 10,000 images and then the images started showing up on the internet for the world to see.  Then they say that they only use these pictures for training purposes.  Then they said that the "save" switch was turned off so that can't happen anymore.

Does anyone see a pattern here?

"They don't call it Rapiscan for nothin'!"



Prison Planet.com  has gathered all the facts in this eloquent article.

The Anchor Baby Theory

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."  


It's a pretty clear passage in the Constitution that defines who can be a citizen.  


Last month, Rep. Steven King of Iowa introduced legislation that would exclude US born children of undocumented immigrants.  


Astonishingly, 73% of babies born to illegals were born in the US, making them eligible for costly benefits that are ordinarily granted to US citizens.


While there's nothing new about changing this regulation, the method that King is using, government legislation, is far more easier than actually ratifying a Constitutional Amendment.  There is so much weight and legal precedent that upholds the "natural born" right, that there doesn't appear to be much hope in changing it.  Rep. King's intent appears to attempt to put he US in step with most of the world, in that merely being born in a country does not automatically grant citizenship.  In fact, most nations assign citizenship to that of at least one of their parents or will require illegal immigrants be long-time residents before their children can be born citizens.


"They come here to drop a child," Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC) said of immigrant mothers. "It's called drop and leave."

That being said....It's quite clear that the system is broken. What will curb the illegal immigration problem?  
Maybe Arizona has the right idea, but the wrong method.  Whatever path they choose will not be popular and will no doubt lead to costly legislation.  

The Birther Conspiracy

There was many a "Birther Conspiracy" theory that President Obama was not a natural born citizen, as is required under the Constitution and that he is thereby not qualified to serve as president.

At issue was his birth certificate. The State of Hawaii says they were inundated with requests for a copy of his birth certificate. Considering it privileged information, all requests for copies were summarily denied.
The State of Hawaii Health Director said that they would often get 10-20 requests per week, often from the same half dozen people.

People sued. In fact, quite a few.
Berg, Donofrio and Kershner, were prime examples of litigants who were intent on uncovering what they thought was a conspiracy to defraud the American people.

In an attempt to appease these many inquiries, a scanned image was finally released to the public.

The US Supreme court ruled that the birth certificate is in fact genuine, and that there is no obligation to continually release it to the general public other than in the above version. The Republican Gov., Linda Lingle, then signed a bill that allows state officials to ignore duplicative requests for birth records. Because of that, requests dissipated.

Ok, maybe privacy is a concern as I'm not real comfortable with some moron obtaining my birth certificate and stealing my identity. Oh alright, that may be an extreme reason, but privacy is paramount, especially to the US President.

Now, for the grand finale -

5 Democrats introduced legislation that would allow anyone to obtain a copy of the President's birth certificate for a minimal fee of $100.00.  For this fee, it would entitle the person making the request to a certified copy from the state office and NOT the scanned copy that was released by the President himself.
This legislation will still have to make it's way around the privacy laws that are already on the books.

The Democrats aren't taking themselves too seriously on this however, as Rep. John Mizuno stated that he "had no problem looking into innovative ways to bring revenue to the state."

I hope he's not thinking that a $100. fee is any kind of deterrent. Because some people will pay outrageous sums of money for some of the stupidest things.  And yea, this ranks right up there.


Whether you believe in this theory or not, there's not a damn thing we can do about it.  The majority voted him in and we're stuck with him for another 2 years.

The TSA reconsiders

On January 13, TSA Administrator John Pistole said in a speech before the American Bar Association that they were attempting to find less intrusive ways of screening the traveling public.

During his speech, he eluded to the fact that they were considering using a full body scanner that shows stick figures.

Their goal is to be as minimally invasive as possible.  Ah, little late on that end. The stick figure full body scanner is already in use in Amsterdam and the TSA is going to decide this year whether they should switch.

They're also considering adopting another method similar to that used at Israeli airports.  PROFILING.  Yes, the Israelis profile....but they don't call it that.  No. They have a more civilized explanation. They rely less on the physical security but more so on the visual scrutiny of the passenger the minute they walk in the door.  If their suspicions are elevated, they will engage this person in a conversation, assessing things like, demeanor and body language and yes, they do take in to consideration sex and race.  Imagine that.  What a novel idea.  It could work.

The Greatest American Novel

 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
 by Mark Twain 

is about to be censored -- all in the name of political correctness. That's right. A brilliant book and literary classic is about to be changed after over a hundred years. This is a tale of adventure involving many unique characters, as told through the eyes of a misfit boy in the deep south.  This book was first published in 1894 and made reference to the "N" word and "injun" numerous times.
Now the world wants to do a rewrite and replace those words with "slave" and "Indian" respectively.  Oh come on, people!

This is censorship plain and simple!  Are we going to rewrite history too?
On last night's episode of the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert said it best in all of his scary truth humor,
"It's great that they took the N-word out of "Huckleberry Finn." Now get to work on "Moby D-Word."


What other exceptions could be made for the rule? Any thing goes: historical documents, books, movies, songs. What else needs to be changed? 


Samuel Longhorn Clemens aka: Mark Twain, a renowned author and humorist, probably wouldn't be laughing at this one.
Editing and censoring a classic piece of literature is a horrible act.

Crack Head uses His Crack

Felix Booker, of Oak Ridge, TN gets the supreme dumb ass award.

Concealing crack in your crack results in a trip to the hospital for a serious body cavity search.

Click on the defendant's name and read the details of what our stupid ass friend did to deserve such a prestigious award.

The defendant's attorney is testing the boundaries of case law when it comes to how far law enforcement can go in their search for illegal drugs and whether it outweighs the health and safety of the jack ass who put it there.

The novelty of this legal issue will almost certainly draw the attention of a federal appeals court and this guy is going to be the butt of endless ass jokes.