if American's want to put a stop to TSA nonsense then the people have to stand up for their rights and use civil disobedience to put a stop to them.

How you may ask?????

Make TSA hand search every single person, refuse to be body scanned.

TSA lacks the manpower to search everyone, they rely on people being sheep and doing what someone in a uniform tells them to do, go through the scanner...bleat.....once the airlines see the lines and flight delays because of security, the searches will end.

Want change stop being a sheep!

me to bring you a care package in jail? If you mess around with TSA you will be arrested...they have way too much power. We should have seen this coming in the post 9-11 fear that swept the country.

and then they have to hand search you.

If everyone opts out of the scan it crashes they system.

100% legal and non violent.

Gandhi would be proud.

Get it now?

In public.

And I talk to the agent while it's going on.

"Why don't they let you wear dosimeters?"

"You know they've banned those machines in Europe because they're not effective and dangerous."

"Any idea how much money Michael Chertoff makes from the sales of the scanners?"

We must remain vigilant.

Agreed though, the results ain't pretty..

they said the same thing about me I would immediately remove my Depends and throw it in their faces.

the comedians will never run out of material...

An anomaly in the crotch area...WOW! You could do a whole sitcom around that line alone...

Search no one?

What words would YOU use to explain why you thought there was a need to search someone?

I'm not saying the entire 'war on terrorism' thing isn't bullshit. It is. I'm just saying that TSA, for the most part, does the job it was designed to do.

We hear about the worst cases of incompetence immediately. That doesn't mean there aren't thousands of uncontroversial searches every day.

Let's pretend we're them.

And again, how do you -or anyone- think a situation like this should have been handled? Don't search anyone? That's a valid response, all I'm saying is that TSA, for the most part, does its job.

but I see no need to search anyone by body scanner or pat down. to go even further I am willing to fly with airplane full of passengers that have carried on full bottles of shampoo, breast milk, or bottled water not from an approved airport vender. They can carry matches or for that matter, toenail clippers as long as they have the good manners to not do personal grooming in public. And I don’t for a moment believe that 19 men brought down 3 jets with box cutters.

The vast majority are unnecessary. But no politician will stick his/her neck out to say this and then when a plane is hijacked or crashed, that politician's career will be over.

So we're stuck with this ludicrous situation.

I just like to point out that demonizing TSA appears to be in fashion on DU and for the most part its workers are simply doing the job they were hired to do.

We hear about the occasional outrageous example of over-reach. But that doesn't mean TSA is out to destroy our precious bodily fluids as some seem to imply.

and the easiest way to do that is to point to examples of bad behavior on the part of its employees. If TSA employees aren't trained well they aren't effective security.

Frankly, I think if Obama runs on a platform of overhauling the TSA and shifting resources from passenger searches to more effective procedures I think he'd pick up quite a few votes. Right after 911 passengers were willing to put up with just about anything in the name of security but these days I would hazard a guess that most passengers resent the pocket-emptying, liquids in a bag, shoe and jacket removal procedures and the choice between full body scans or "enhanced" pat down.

Planes were highjacked for decades before 9/11. Passengers and airline personnel were told to go along with the highjackers and nobody would get hurt, and for the most part that's what happened. That's why people went along with the highjackers on 9/11. They had not been warned of Osama bin Laden's plans to use airplanes as missiles. Too bad Bush, who knew those plans, didn't tell the airlines.

Since 9/11, there is no way that anybody could ever highjack a plane without the full revolt of passengers and personnel. We've seen what happens when somebody tries or when some random passenger acts out or even has a medical emergency - passengers jump them, pins them to the corridor, and the plane is immediately diverted to the nearest airport where federal marshals arrest the passenger.

Most of what TSA is doing is theater, designed to frighten people into going along with the Patriot Acts, etc.

that a cockpit door is ever going to be opened in flight again, unless a flight attendant uses the 'safe' word, or something like that. We might see commercial aircraft get bombed, but they will not ever be able use them as guided missles again.

They should know better than to search the crotches of journalists or their family members. Bad PR and all that....

high speed rail. When you add the three or four hours it takes to get to and from an airport and the time it takes for a full body cavity search, air travel, and the anxiety associated with flying becomes a less attractive way of getting from point A to point B.
A train traveling at 300 MPH can traverse the country in 10 hours. Take into account the time wasted going to and from the airport and the bogged down and humiliating security measures, it's feasible that high speed rail could address the needs for domestic travel.

that TSA will be allowed to infest train terminals also. Allowed is probably too weak—authorized and mandated are probably closer to reality

That would require that the TSA first own up to how they measure the effectiveness of each procedure and test whether less intrusive passenger searches used by other countries would be more cost efficient without increasing security risk.

systems, and consider copying those!

I'm sure the lady survived. I could survive that, especially at 79. It's not a bomb, officer.

Al Qaeda has "won" over this?

I overheard a TSA agent instructing a newbie, she said, "See the ones who look like they don't want to obey the rules? Target them".

Eventually, they'll fuck over some really influential members of Congress.

must be obsolete concepts now.

Sad.

Except for not having to take off my shoes, it seemed pretty much the same. I've never had to go through a full body scanner at a non US airport (it's maybe a third of the time in the US?) but I don't much care about that. I'm not naked, I know I'm not naked, and the idea that someone is seeing a faceless image of me that kind of makes me look naked doesn't much bother me.

That doesn't mean i like it. I think that airport security is probably 80% theater and no more than marginally more effective than it was 15 years ago (and quite possibly not even that).

But I don't blame TSA agents and I think the vast majority are good people trying to do their jobs the best they can.

I'd probably be annoyed if a TSA agent asked me if I were wearing a sanitary pad (I'd probably be more annoyed if my son in law put it on the Internet). I wouldn't think it was a violation of my civil rights or a symbol of the decline of America. In fact, if the choices for security were either putting everyone through it -- old ladies, babies, the disabled, whoever-- or only perceived "likely suspects", like, say, Middle-easterners, through it, it seems more consistent with American values to put everyone through it.

Anyway, I'm sure there are other possible choices, but I'm not sure what. Like I said, except for the shoes and the type of scanner, I didn't notice any European airports doing it better.

The TSA will set up checkpoints at bus and train stations.. and at rest areas on the interstate.

Very soon.. look for a passport needed within the U.S.

"Your papers please....."