A Country Run by Idiots

A Nod to A Nod to the Gods for this My favorite ones are these three, but go read them all

3. If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote, … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

4. If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt, you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

12. If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more safe according to the government,… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 

Is Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit a trouble maker, or are Conservative bloggers being profiled?

Jim, who I have never met, seems like a good guy, and a patriot, and I am a big fan of his blog. So, I have no doubt that he never attacked anyone, which is what makes this story so weird. Jim went on Dana Loesch’ show to tell his tale

My first inclination is that someone is fabricating the incident trying to get Hoft in hot water. Liberals will certainly stoop to faking such incidents. Now, I could be wrong, but, again, I would not put that past some Lefties.

 

I will go along with increased air security fees under two conditions

Reading this story at Pirates Cove, I had a thought

(The Hill) The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday moved forward with legislation to increase airline passenger security fees, beating back a GOP attempt to keep them at current levels.

The 2013 Homeland Security appropriations bill would increase one-way fees for passengers from $2.50 to $5 in order to close a budget shortfall at the Transportation Security Administration.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said the $315 million in funding would otherwise come from taxpayers and argued it is better to stick passengers who rely on TSA with the bill.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) sponsored an amendment to strip out the fee increase and offset the loss of revenue with cuts to state and local grants, emergency food and shelter funding, and dropping $89 million in funding for a new highway interchange leading to the Homeland Security’s new headquarters in southeast Washington, D.C. Hutchison noted that the Senate had decided not to increase the fees in the recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill. (which was defeated)

My thought is that I would not mind increased security fees IF, I thought that the TSA security measures made me, well SECURE! But then I had another thought. If I am going to pay more to be groped, then I think I have a right to demand hotter TSA agents, I am thinking hot TSA women dressed like Hooters girls, or maybe Japanese school girls, yes, I know, I am a guy, so sue me. And I demand that I get to choose which agents frisk, grope, violate me. Maybe, if I am lucky, several TSA babes, dressed like Florida Gator cheerleaders will have to restrain me and do an invasive search. Now THAT I would pay for! Sure I might miss my fight, but so what? 

Sir, you have been selected for additional screening

 

Security? Or an exercise in PC?

Chris Wysocki looks at TSA, airport security, and political correctness. But mostly political correctness

Excuse me, is that a bomb in your burqa? Please proceed directly to your gate.

According to Judicial Watch, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano is actually considering waving airport pat downs for Muslim women who consider them offensive.

We mustn’t offend the Muslims!

The demand came last week from the politically-connected Muslim rights organization that serves as the U.S. front for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Calling the searches “invasive” and “humiliating,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) advises Muslim women wearing religious head covers known as hijabs to reject full-body checks before boarding planes.

Those who are selected for the secondary screenings should remind Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers that they are only supposed to pat down the head and neck and that they should not subject Muslim women to a full-body or partial body pat-down, according to CAIR’s advisory.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is actually considering exempting Muslims as per CAIR’s demands. Madame Secretary confirmed this week that there will be “adjustments” and “more to come” on the issue of Muslim women in hijabs undergoing airport security pat-downs.

Aha. CAIR is dirty, and certainly does not have America’s best interest at heart. So, why would Janet Napolitano ever consider caving to this group? Well because, Napolitano is dumber than a tree stump for one thing. Recall she said our border with Mexico is more secure now than ever before. And she sees people like Chris, and myself as more dangerous that the terrorists CAIR supports behind the scenes. Oh, and of course as Ed pointed a couple of days ago, and as Chris notes, we all know that those darned wheel-chair bound toddlers are the real menace

But toddlers in wheelchairs? TSA makes them do the Full Monty, right out in the open. Because when it comes to hijacking planes, everyone knows just how dangerous those toddlers really are.

What a sick joke! What a sad state! Is there no common sense at all anymore? Or has it been sacrificed on the altar of Political Correctness?

 

TSA inanity!

Even Canada is poking fun at us now H/T Blazing Cat Fur

Is this still America?

Milton Wolf, one of the true thinkers in our nation, writes at the Washington Times about our slowly vanishing liberty!

Public schools in San Antonio have installed video cameras, not to monitor for foul play or intruders, but to spy on kids’ eating habits. Federal food police in North Carolina have begun confiscating preschoolers’ homemade lunches because they didn’t meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines. Aghast parents have noted that one 4-year-old’s confiscated lunch of a turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice sounds more nutritious than the state-provided chicken nuggets. But that entirely misses the point. In America, parents are free to give their kids pizza and pudding with Twinkies and Twizzlers, and the government has no right to intrude.

Under the sweeping powers of Obamacare, the state has forced Catholic institutions to choose between their God and their government by demanding that they violate their own beliefs and provide birth control to their employees. Their insulting rationalization? Most Catholic women are bad Catholics and don’t follow the teachings of the church anyway. What’s more, the government has deified itself to determine which organizations are Catholic enough to be exempt. What’s next, mandated pork-chop night at the synagogues? Bacon should be a right.

Brace yourself; I’m just getting warmed up.

Armed federal agents of the Department of Education conducted a pre-dawn SWAT-style raid on the home of a Stockton, Calif., man. Read that again: The Department of Education has taken up arms against the citizenry. Meanwhile, federal Transportation Security Administration officials routinely grope our 6-year-olds and conveniently arrange that attractive women are subjected to their full-body porn cameras. Not even George Orwell’s 1984 dystopian police state went that far.

So the same federal government that waved the white flag in southern Arizona by posting signs warning American citizens to avoid American soil – effectively surrendering an 80-mile swath of our border to Mexican drug cartels – at least has the wherewithal to secure your child’s private parts.

But the heavy-handed authoritarians aren’t finished harassing your kids yet. Police officers in Midway, Ga., closed down three girls’ front-yard lemonade stand. Why? “We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance.” Well, at least the enterprise-crushing control freaks can’t be accused of age discrimination.

Fortunately, the feds are concentrating on the most ominous threats against Americans: fresh dairy milk and the ruthless Amish farmers who push their addictive contraband. “I can’t believe in 2012 the federal government is raiding Amish farmers at gunpoint, all over a basic human right to eat natural food,” said one milk addict. Believe it.

This is a GREAT piece, please go read it all, and then get mad about it. Then VOTE for candidates that will turn this madness around!

TSA VS Rand Paul

I listened to Paul getting interviewed by Hannity on the drive home today. Smitty weighs in

How do you work in an airport adjacent to Kentucky, where CNN blares 24/7, and not know the junior U.S. Senator from the neighbor state?

The White House is standing by the Transportation Security Administration in its standoff with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his father, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
The elder Paul called the TSA a “police state” Monday after Rand Paul was reportedly detained by TSA after he refused to take a pat-down from TSA officials at the Nashville International Airport.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that he didn’t have any reaction to Paul’s “police state” comments.
But Carney sided with the TSA saying, “I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe.”

Stuck on Stoopit! Typical government incompetence. It is not the fault of the TSA agents. They are simply following orders. Dafly, their orders come from morons. This stupidity could ONLY come from DC!

Well, looks like cupcakes are now a level orange treat!

Oh, the adventures of the TSA! Duane Lester highlights the latest ingenious move to combat Jihad!

Just when you think it can’t get any more ridiculous at the airport, those magnificent bastards at the TSA have gone and done it again!

Terrorist cupcakes, FTW:

Rebecca Hains told ABCNews.com today that a Transportation Security Administration agent at Las Vegas- McCarran International Airport seized her cupcake, saying the frosting sitting atop the red velvet cake was gel-like enough to violate regulations.

The incident took place Wednesday.

Hains, a teacher, said the cupcake was a gift from one of her students. She was traveling with her husband and toddler, and thought her young son might get hungry on the long trip home.

The cupcake was packaged in a glass container with a metal lid, which was why it attracted the attention of the scanner in the first place.

The TSA agent didn’t know what to do with the cupcake, so she called over her supervisor, Hains said.

“The TSA supervisor, Robert Epps, was using really bad logic – he said it counted as a gel-like substance because it was conforming to the shape of its container.”

“We also had a small pile of hummus sandwiches with creamy fillings, which made it through, but the cupcake with its frosting was apparently a terrorist threat…I just don’t know what world he was living in,” said Hains, speaking of the TSA officer.

A world where brains and common sense are unwelcome Duane nails it  for us!

Let me tell you what world this guy is living in. He’s living in a world dictated by policies and procedures, which is a mentally rocky place where the seed of logic can find no purchase. I’m not surprised Mr. Epps “was using really bad logic.” If he was using any logic, it was too much for the federal government.

You see, the people who work for the TSA have their rules dictated to them by pencil pushers and so-called experts who think they know what security is and write all their ideas down in a book labeled, “Procedures.”

AMEN! call it dumbing down. And certainly that is being done all over America. Just sit and observe people sometime. No one can THINK anymore!

Rick Perry has ideas on how to reform government

Jill has some of his ideas

Rick Perry proposes radical reforms of our corrupt, bloated, nightmare of a government. Some of his ideas:
Cut congressional pay in half and repeal the rules that prevent members of Congress from holding real jobs in their home states and communities.

Criminalize insider trading by members of Congress.

Until a Balanced Budget Amendment is ratified by the states, support cutting Congressional pay in half if Congress fails to propose a long-term balanced budget. Freeze federal civilian hiring and salaries until the budget is balanced.

Veto any bill that places a new, unfunded mandate on states,local communities, or schools.

Here are some more

• Work with Congress to pass legislation requiring a 2/3s majority to pass any increase in taxes.
• End Life-time Appointments to the Supreme Court
• End lifetime appointments of federal judges by instituting an 18-year term limit. This would have to apply prospectively (eg. not to current Supreme Court judges) and require a Constitutional Amendment.
• Issue an immediate moratorium on all pending federal regulations, order a full audit of every regulation passed since 2008 and repeal any regulation that is not affordable, effective and appropriate.
• Support legislation to automatically sunset federal regulations unless Congress votes to renew them.
• Develop an online, searchable database of all federal regulations currently in force.
• Work with Congress to dismantle, reform, and restructure wasteful, overbearing, and redundant federal agencies:
• The Department of Commerce, Department of Education and the Department of Energy would be completely eliminated. Essential duties – such as DoE’s Nuclear Security Administration, would be transferred to other agencies.
• The Department of Homeland Security (including the Transportation Security Administration, which would be privatized) and the Environmental Protection Agency would be restructured and reformed entirely.

Privatizing DHS and the TSA? EXCELLENT!

Jill also links the full video of Glenn Beck’s interview with Perry. Some very good stuff! Perry has some rock solid ideas, including returning Congress to a PART-TIME basis!

Fact is that no other candidate is calling for these reforms are they? I keep telling everyone that Perry IS the most Conservative guy in the race. I say that because he is!

Listen to the video, and pass these planned reforms around folks. And please ignore those who are in a rush to anoint Romney, or Newt we deserve a better nominee, and Perry is exactly that!

Lastly, here is Perry’s speech last night announcing his plans.

Texas revives anti-groping bill

Image via Wikipedia

I was discussing this just yesterday with someone. The Lonely Conservative has an update.

Texans don’t want to be bullied by the federal government. So the anti-TSA groping bill is back on the table. Don’t mess with Texas.

The Houston Chronicle reported:

Gov. Rick Perry announced he had added legislation that would make it illegal for TSA agents to engage in “intrusive touching” at airports security checkpoints without probable cause to the list of items for the legislature to consider during the special session.

The measure had previously failed to pass in the Texas Senate after the Justice Department wrote a scathing memo against the bill that threatened legal action against the state and the bill became enmeshed in Senate politics.

This could be an important bill, and I certainly hope it passes. I also hope other states follow suit. As to the threats that were issued by the Justice Department, I say go ahead and pass it despite the tyrannical threats. are the Feds REALLY going to shut down hubs in Dallas (American and Southwest), or Houston, (Continental)?

In the letter, U.S. Attorney John Murphy warned that the legislation would “criminalize searches that are required under federal regulations” and would “conflict directly with federal law.”

Murphy also wrote that “Texas has no authority to regulate federal agents and employees in the performance of their federal duties or to pass a statute that conflicts with federal law.” He said the federal government would seek a court order to prevent enforcement of the law if it passed.

Otherwise, Murphy wrote, “TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew.”

Again, the States have got to stand up against this, if not now, when?

I cannot wait until the TSA is unionized!

If they are this incompetent now, can you imagine how bad they will be once they get the Union Fevah?

We have been sold the line that with the new and improved back scatter x-rays, TSA agents can see what people have underneath their clothes, making it impossible to hide anything.

The problem is, you have to have people running the machines who are actually paying attention:

An undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun during testing of the enhanced-imaging body scanners, according to a high-ranking, inside source at the Transportation Security Administration.

The source said the undercover agent carried a pistol in her undergarments when she put the body scanners to the test. The officer successfully made it through the airport’s body scanners every time she tried, the source said.

“In this case, where they had a test, and it was just a dismal failure as I’m told,” said Larry Wansley, former head of security at American Airlines. “As I’ve heard (it), you got a problem, especially with a fire arm.”

Wansley said covert testing by the TSA is commonplace — although failing should be rare.

Working at an airport, as I do, I get to observe the TSA in action, performing their duties, and I have to admit that their presence does not really make me feel safer. Lots of great people in the TSA, but this is not about personality is it? This is about safety, and security, and gaps like this show a need to change the way we do security at airports. Perhaps more ex-military and police officers, who are likely better trained, and better able to both spot potential threats and better able to handle them would help. Perhaps letting private security companies handle security would help as well.

Another day, another TSA fiasco

The stories just keep on piling up don’t they?

Here is another shameful episode brought to you by Janet Napolitano and the perverts working at TSA. A woman was singled out for a very invasive search after her pantyliner obscured the image screeners view of her genitals.

“This email isn’t going to be as polished as I would normally send, but I’m upset and I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else (if I can stop it). I recently traveled via air, and was subjected to that new scanning device. “No problem,” I thought. I was wearing jeans and a linen tanktop, bra, panties, and one camoflauge pantyliner. I’m a rule follower, so I never have any problems at the airport. Not this time. I was stopped, and then held for 15 mintues while they tried to find a female supervisor. I couldn’t get to my bag, my shawl or my shoes; just standing there while the TSA agents kept me in one place. Now, I don’t want this to be about bad TSA agents; they were doing their job, they were as delicate as they could be, etc., etc. But what ultimately happened is that I was subjected to search so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assualts. Why? Because of my flannel panty-liner.

What do we really expect though? Look folks, we put poorly trained government employees, in the role of airport security, and insist that common sense  efforts like profiling NEVER EVER be used, and we place Janet Napolitano, who is dumber than a tree stump in charge of homeland security, what do we really expect?

Do we learn from what Israel does? No! Do we hire ex-military and police to run and enforce airport security? No! Do we use enhanced intelligence? No! Do we increase the presence of bomb sniffing dogs? No! Do we profile? Heavens no! That MIGHT, POSSIBLY, offend someone who is Muslim,and we would rather, it seems, offend EVERY passenger, than to risk offending that one person.

How expensive is political correctness? Take a flight and figure it out.

Tragic idiocy, PC, and the TSA!

Great post at Doug Ross! There is a lot to read there, and please go do so, but this bit of common sense struck me. Why can’t our “leaders” think this clearly?

Here’s a really tough question: what prevents the TSA from simply pre-screening the vast majority of American airline passengers who represent no threat whatsoever?

• The family of four traveling to Orlando for their sixth vacation in six years?
• The frequent flier who has 100 segments piled up over the last 18 months?
• The DOD contractor with a Top Secret security clearance?
• The grandparents who fly to Florida each fall and back to Michigan every spring?
• The 18 cheerleaders flying to San Antonio for a competition?

The list goes on and on. These are the same big government addicts who want to control your physical well-being and ration health care using a vast database of electronic health records and a panel of advisers who recommend treatments.

Yet they can’t figure out that Joe Fubar is a cleared defense contractor working on the F-22 Raptor. Or that Mrs. Beasley is headed to Phoenix for the 12th year in a row to visit her best friend.

So they end up giving each air traveler the colonoscopy they will routinely deny to seniors because of the “Complete Lives” formula. These Democrats are a freaking joke. A sad joke, to be sure, but a joke all the same.

How true that is. How sad that bureaucrats always seem so inept at pretty much everything they attempt to do.

More TSA shenanigans! How ’bout some intimidation!

We have heard the story, AND seen the video of the TSA agents searching a little boy, and have seen the boy have hist shirt removed. Well, the TSA issued a statement, and the man who shot the video says that TSA agents tried to intimidate him. Verum Serum has details

The TSA put up a response today to the video I posted yesterday of a young boy being strip searched:

On November 19, a family was traveling through a TSA checkpoint at the Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC). Their son alarmed the walk through metal detector and needed to undergo secondary screening. The boy’s father removed his son’s shirt in an effort to expedite the screening. After our TSO completed the screening, he helped the boy put his shirt back on. That’s it.

First thing to notice is that this directly contradicts the story of the witness who videotaped the incident. He wrote:

Before the video started the boy went through a metal detector and didn’t set it off but was selected for a pat down.

He goes on to say that the father pulled off the boy’s shirt because he was furious at the search. Conveniently for the TSA, there’s no video proof of their claim about the metal detector. But I also noticed that the man who shot the clip has added this to his description of what happened next:

After I finished videotaping the incident I went through the check point myself. I collected my things and went over to talk to the father and son. Before I could get to them a man in a black suit who had been talking with the other TSA officials approached me. He asked to speak to me and I obliged, wondering what was to come. He then proceeded to interrogate me about why I was videotaping the “procedures of the TSA”. I told him that I had never seen such practices before on a young child and decided to record it. The man being frustrated at this point demanded to know my plans with the video, of which I didn’t respond. Repeatedly he asked me to delete the video, hoping his mere presence could intimidate me to obey, but I refused. By this point it became obvious that he felt TSA had done something wrong and that I caught it on tape. After the interview, I left for my gate. I called my brother who told me I should put the tape on YouTube because this had been a recent hot topic in the news.

My gate was a long way off, but about 15 minutes after arriving 2 TSA agents came and sat 15 feet or so away from me. I stood up and moved so that they were in front of me and then took a picture. A 3rd and then a 4th agent came and sat down with the others. They would occasionally glance at me and talk on their walkie-talkies. I don’t know why they were there or if it was a huge coincidence but they stayed for 30-45 minutes and left just before I boarded the plan. Interesting to say the least, intimidating? Maybe a little…

Go read the whole post at Verum Serum, lots of more important info there.

If the TSA searches are so great, why don’t the elites want to be subject to them?

Things that make you go  HMMMMMM

This morning, Bob Schieffer had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Face the Nation to discuss invasive airport security screenings that are starting to turn off just about any air traveler who doesn’t show up to the airport wearing a leather hood and a ball gag.

When I heard Schieffer ask Hillary if she’d submit to a pat-down, I thought maybe Bob suspected her of smuggling cigarettes to the president, but Schieffer was instead referring to TSA searches:

Asked in the closing moments of an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” if she would submit to “one of these pat-downs” that has caused a national outcry among travelers, Clinton replied, “Not if I could avoid it.”

“No, I mean who would?,” she said with a chuckle.

TSA goes after man who dared defy their ultimate autority!

This story has everyone talking, and rightfully so. John Tyner refused to go through the “nude body scanner” and refused to go through a “groin check” and now, is being targeted by the TSA for leaving the security area.

Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a press conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. The investigation could lead to prosecution and “civil penalties” of up to $11,000, he said.

 

TSA agents told John Tyner on Saturday that he could be fined up to $10,000.  

“That’s the old fine,” said Aguilar. “It has been increased.”

Penalties for what?

“The requirement for all the passengers is that once they enter the screening area and submit themselves to the screening process, to complete the screening,” said Aguilar. “This passenger took exception.”

 

At question is how far the TSA can intrude upon our persons to allow us to board an airliner, and if the invasive body checks, and nude scanners are a threat to our liberties. And of course, who knows where the images of our naked bodies will end up? Certainly, one could easily see how images of a famous person might bring a healthy price tag.

One way or another this story will end up changing the manner in which Americans are screened at airports. Here is a roundup of what other bloggers are saying and reporting.

Donald Douglas has some updates and a video of Tyner on Fox News

Clifton asks the obvious question about payback. And sees a unlikely union joining forces to fight this battle.

Tyner was given a choice, submit to a search he found offensive or not fly.  He chose the latter and now they are going to investigate him for making that choice?  I don’t understand how he could have left without permission when he was escorted out by security.  I think TSA is looking to make an example out of Tyner so that no one else thinks to stand up for themselves. The whole thing reeks of Big Brother throwing its weight around.

I must say, the left was correct on this issue.  You will recall back in the days shortly after 9/11 many on the left squawked about trading rights for higher security.  Meanwhile many of us on the right were willing to make the trade.  Ten years later as TSA starts to push its weight around, we are starting to see the light.  Perhaps now that the left and right are on the same page, we can come together to demand the effective security we all deserve.

Bluegrass Pundit wonders if the TSA would be worse if they went the union route. One guess as to how he answers his own question

As if Americans didn’t have enough complaints about the TSA, the Federal Labor Relations Authority has decided they can unionize. Instead of letting them unionize, we need to fire them all and disband the TSA.

The Washington Post reported:

In a significant victory for federal employee unions, the Federal Labor Relations Authority decided Friday that Transportation Security Administration staffers will be allowed to vote on union representation. The decision clears the way for a campaign by the government’s two largest labor organizations, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, to represent some 50,000 transportation security officers.

Cubachi, shares some news that might offer a solution, airports, can, but will they choose to opt-out?

The TSA screenings and pat downs have become the biggest topic of conversation across the country. Even in Europe, the Germans are upset about this and are demonstrating their frustration with these invasive searches by protesting in “flesh mobs” in German airports. All of us are aware of the invasion of privacy and incredibly uncomfortable nature of these pat downs, not to mention the amount of radiation these screenings produce. Just today, news came out of 100 naked body scan pictures were leaked online.

However, did you know that local airports can opt out of TSA screeners at checkpoints?

Byron York has more:

The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.

Mica, one of the authors of the original TSA bill, has recently written to the heads of more than 150 airports nationwide suggesting they opt out of TSA screening. “When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees,” Mica writes. “As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law.”

Of course,a s we all know, and as Doug Powers points out, we are so obsessed with NOT PROFILING,that accosting toddlers is OK. Jim Hoft points out that the Fourth Amendment has become the latest victim of this perverse fixation on political correctness!

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air looks at what else our Big Brothers are looking into controlling, for our own damned good of course!

Remember, in Hopenchange, everything not expressly permitted will be outlawed.  In an attempt to deal with the supposed epidemic of distracted drivers, especially younger drivers, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that the Obama administration will review its options in blocking cell phone use in cars:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we’re looking at that,” said LaHood on MSNBC. LaHood said the cellphone scramblers were one way, and also stressed the importance of “personal responsibility.”

Moonbattery has news that a “certain religion” might mot have to endure such indinities though. Any guess which faith that is?

Nuns who don’t want to pose naked for sniggering bureaucrats are left with the option of a public groping, but the Muslims who instigate this insanity with their terror attacks can’t be expected to endure such indignities. They’re special, after all.

William Teach asks about the whereabouts of a certain four-letter group?

Leave it to the ACLU to ignore an issue that has Americans, both Left and Right, up in arms. Have you ever noticed that the ACLU tends to ignore the real issues 90% of the time? And the other 10% of the time, they usually do the right thing for the wrong reason(s). Witness the national ACLU

The ACLU said, “[During] the new standard pat-down, a screener of the same sex will examine your head, shirt collar area, and waistband, and may use either the front or back of his or her hands to feel your body, including buttocks, around breasts, and between the legs, feeling up to the top of the thigh. Women in tight skirts that don’t allow an agent to feel the thigh area may be asked to remove the skirt in a private screening area and will be given a gown or towel to put on.”

If you search the ACLU website, there is zip. Nada. Zilch. Nor any complaints from the national ACLU in the news about people getting groped and abused. A few State ACLU chapters have chimed in, but, they don’t seem all that concerned, either.

Jill ponders whether or not these searches are actually useful, or perhaps just a cheap thrill?

 

 

 

Pilots and flight attendants also object, and one pilot has filed suit:

 

Although he has a libertarian streak, Roberts’ objection to the procedure goes beyond personal privacy and political philosophy. He says the screening just doesn’t work. It doesn’t improve passenger safety or deter terrorism. It’s just another example of the federal government closing the barn door after the horse gets out, and violating the rights of the innocent to make it look like the government is doing something about security.

Roberts notes the progression of this liberty-leeching invasion:

After the shoe-bomber attempt, we had to remove our shoes. After the underpants bomber, we had to be electronically strip searched and groped.

What will happen, he asks, after the first time a terrorist smuggles a bomb on a plane inside his rectum or in a breast implant?

There was a time, not too long ago, when that would have been a comedian’s witty one-liner. Now, it sounds more like the future rushing upon us.

 

SilverFiddle offers an excellent take that is well worth your time. And Chris winds us up with some humor, that makes a great point!

Daily Benefactor News – Anger Overflows On Drilling Halt Report – More Articles

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Anger Overflows On Drilling Halt Report – Washington Times

Gulf State lawmakers are accusing the Obama administration of putting politics above science after a government watchdog said Interior Department officials misled the public by altering a report to suggest that a group of outside scientists supported a blanket ban on deepwater drilling.

The administration maintains that the flap is the result of rushed editing and nothing more. However, members of Congress from the Gulf region, already incensed over what they described as a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all reaction to the BP oil spill, are crying foul.

“This was not an accident at all. It was a deliberate attempt to use the prestige of the scientists to support their political decision,” said Rep. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of several Republicans who this summer requested an investigation into the moratorium by the Interior Department’s inspector general.

Mr. Cassidy, who said the IG’s conclusions will come as “bitter news” to about 12,000 workers who lost their jobs because of the moratorium, noted that the administration ignored later arguments by five of the panel’s seven scientists in favor of targeted inspections over a blanket ban – something he said violated Mr. Obama’s vow to let science, and not politics, guide his policies.

The IG investigation revealed that an aide to White House energy adviser Carol M. Browner who was making last-minute edits to the Interior report inserted language into the executive summary saying an independent seven-member panel had signed off on the recommendations in the document.

That implied that the experts had approved of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s proposal to ban deep-water drilling when they hadn’t even been consulted on the matter. Interior merely had asked them to peer-review a slate of drilling-safety recommendations.

“The White House edit of the original DOI draft executive summary led to the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer-reviewed by the experts,” concludes the IG report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

This is not the first time the Obama administration, particularly Mrs. Browner’s office, has come under fire for scientific statements related to the oil spill.

Last month, staff for the presidential oil spill commission said Mrs. Browner had mischaracterized a government analysis about the remains of the spill, saying most of the oil was “gone,” when the report said it could still be there.

The panel also criticized Mrs. Browner and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for implying in public venues that peer review made these estimates more precise than they really were.

In October, Mr. Salazar announced an end to the moratorium more than a month before its planned expiration, saying stiffer new regulations on oil-spill prevention and containment had made deep-water drilling significantly safer than it was in April, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana and killed 11 people, setting off the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history.

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Miller Sues To Disallow Misspelled Names On Ballots – Bellingham Herald

Votes that misspell Lisa Murkowski’s name shouldn’t count as the state Wednesday tallies write-in ballots in the U.S. Senate race, Senate candidate Joe Miller said in a federal lawsuit Tuesday.

Miller is asking a judge to stop the state from making a judgment on a voter’s intentions if the voter wrote in something other than “Murkowski.” State law allows no leeway for other spellings, his lawsuit says.

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Iran Behind Secret Weapons Shipment, Nigeria Says – Jerusalem Post

Iran’s government was behind the secret shipment of weapons that was discovered in Nigeria last month, officials have concluded.

The cargo shipped from an Iranian port was listed as building materials but contained 107 mm rockets, ammunition and arms. Nigeria’s security service believes the arms were imported by some local politicians to destabilize the country if they lose in coming elections.

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Cracks Found In Shuttle Fuel Tank, Not Just Foam – Yahoo News

NASA discovered cracks in space shuttle Discovery’s fuel tank Wednesday, an added problem that will complicate trying to launch the vehicle on its final voyage this year.

The two nine-inch cracks were found on the exterior of the aluminum tank, beneath a larger crack in the insulating foam that covers the 15-story tank. The cracks are in an area that holds instruments, not fuel.

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Home Sales Fall 25% – CNN

Any possible recovery for America’s troubled housing market hit a huge snag during the three months ended September 30, as a government tax credit for homebuyers wound down.

Home prices fell only slightly during the quarter, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), but the number of homes sold plummeted more than 25%, compared with the previous quarter.

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Attack On Police Building Kills 18 In Karachi, Pakistan – Washington Post

Gunmen and a vehicle bomber attacked a police building in the center of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, late Thursday, killing at least 18 people and injuring scores, officials said.

In what appeared to be a well-organized assault, about six terrorists opened fire on a criminal investigations office in Karachi’s “red zone,” a highly secured area that houses the provincial minister’s residence.

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Huge Human Smuggling Ring Busted On Arizona Border – CBS News

Authorities have dismantled a major cell of a human smuggling ring that may be responsible for the transportation of thousands of illegal immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Phoenix and other parts of the country, investigators said Wednesday.

Nine were arrested Wednesday after a yearlong investigation. Authorities say the group was led by a Mexican man named Mark Rodriguez-Banks.

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Americans Line Up To Join No-Fly List – WorldNetDaily

Supporters say it enhances security aboard passenger jets, but critics say it is little more than government-sponsored voyeurism for Transportation Security Administration workers.

The dispute is over the new enhanced airport security screening procedures that offer a choice of either a nude, full-body image X-ray scan or a hands-on-all-parts pat-down by a federal agent.

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Woman Attacked Cop With Sex Toy – Orange News

A woman has been charged with aggravated assault after allegedly attacking a police officer with a sex toy.

Carolee Bildsten, 56, of Gurnee, Illinois, allegedly assaulted the officer with what police commander Jay Patrick called “a rigid feminine pleasure device”. Police became involved when Bildsten allegedly ran out of a local restaurant without paying her bill.

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Man Busted For Smoking Pot At Hospital To Celebrate Child’s Birth – WFTV

Police say a new father faces drug charges because he lit up a joint, instead of a cigar, to celebrate his child’s birth at a Pennsylvania hospital.

Police aren’t identifying the man found smoking the pot in a designated smoking area of Uniontown Hospital Tuesday. Police Sgt. Jonathan Grabiak said a nurse smelled the marijuana when she took a cigarette break in the same area.

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Flood-Hit Policemen Patrol On Stilts – Australian Times

There’s clearly no high-ding place for crooks in China, even if the neighbourhood has been devastated by floods. Police in Haikou have been issued stilts so they can patrol the streets despite two-foot flood waters.

Patrolman Li Keying explained: “We are only a country police force and there aren’t many waders to go round so I started making stilts and they’re very popular.”

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Man Jailed After Admitting To Having Sex With Teen’s Dead Body – Weekly Vice

Gregory O’Bryan, a 40-year-old Kentucky man was jailed Tuesday after allegedly admitted to having sex with a teenage boy’s dead body before disposing of it in a landfill.

According to Louisville Police, O’Bryan was questioned after the victim, 18-year-old Andrew Compton, went missing and police obtained surveillance video that showed the two together on the night Compton disappeared.

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