Show of Hands: Who's Pissed Off? (Did the TSA Overreact?)

This morning on the news, I saw a lady at an airport (Washington National I believe, I refuse to call it "Reagan") who was pissed that she had to dump her EXPENSIVE facial lotions. I'm sure LOTS more people around the country feel this way. That stuff can be VERY expensive - lotions, makeup, even toothpastes, mouthwashes, and so forth.

And just what will the TSA do with those BARRELS of liquid goods? Dump 'em? Sell 'em to China?

Show of hands - who's pissed off? Do you feel the TSA overreacted here, or are they justified? Will you keep flying as normal or are you cancelling all your plans?

Making women throw away their makeup is just ridiculous.

Cheap...

I flew recently (two weeks ago) and discovered that airports or airlines or security companies (I didn't catch which) have occasional "sales" of items confiscated from passengers checking through security. I had perhaps the naive belief that these items taken from passengers were returned to them at the end of their flight. I had no idea they were taken and sold in a kind of airport flea market!

now that they have barrels of expensive lotions and perfumes to go thru.

And you can BET they will have a field day. Oh yeah -- watch the local garage sale go up. They will not only take them for use, they'll sell them for profit.

I used to see TSA-confiscated scissors being sold on e-bay in large lots.

The more we allow them, the more they'll treat us like domesticated livestock.

would be handled properly. shows me they are not afraid. so why dump peoples things

i find it outrageous, rules that make no sense what so ever always bother me

Especially with the liquids, to limit to this degree, he maintains, makes no sense.

And yes, to not be given a chance to salvage, to put these expensive toiletries in checked bags or even a pouch mailer to post back home would make me angry. To suggest to someone that they remove contact lens solution from a case--which would amount to 3 or 4 DROPS--only to have them dry up and crack, rendering them worthless.... That is ridiculous. No thought was given to the risk versus benefit of these policies, it is clear. Given that matches have been allowed all along--despite the "shoe bomber" incident, says it all, IMO. This isn't about prevention. It is about SHOW.

Those things are EXPENSIVE!! Most people have the disposable kind now, but still...for some people that might mean at the least another trip to the doggone eye doctor. And what if a person brings a spare box of contacts on board? Have to dump those altogether because they're in non-resealable packaging!

This IS bad.

I wonder if it's just to scare the public, period, to force the National ID on everyone AND, of course, vote Republican because we're doing all we can to keep you safe. Including pissing you off and doing things we don't have to just to promote fear.

in the Corporate Media Orgy of Terror Show.

The restriction on all liquids is to drive home the terra. It would be rational to ban all liquids over 6 oz., or whatever it takes to make an effective bomb, but this blanket prohibition isn't necessary.

And hell yes, I'm pissed. I haven't checked bags in 15+ years of traveling all over. The ramifications of this crap will:
- put a strain on a weak baggage handling process
- result in more lost luggage, hence more claims for $$$ from airlines (good luck trying to get your $$$)
- loss of business revenues at airport stores in "sterile" areas: no liquids, no duty free items like perfume, alcohol, etc.
- even more pissed off flight attendants who have to accommodate increasing demands for liquids & food on board, just when people were starting to be able to take care of themselves
- piss off business people who travel because of the inconveniences & time wasted should they have to check baggage

Feel free to add to the list...

for days after they've soaked into materials.

I go over to FlyerTalk.com every so often to see what I can learn from folks who fly a lot more often than I do (I fly about 2x month, so I'm a rank amateur compared to these folks, who fly 2-3x/week)

Most of these folks are corporate types - mostly guys and pretty conservative.

Threads would start out "it's what we have to do to beat terra" but eventually segue into many more posts that show a little more commonsense: "who are you kidding? do you know how easy it would be to get stuff through if they wanted to? It's GOOD POLICE WORK that brings down these plots, along with reasonable security"

What happened to the program the government was going to allow the airlines to implement that provided a "quick check" process for those willing to provide vital personal data?

Also, the airlines make their money on the business travelers. Piss off the business travelers & you've got a huge economic problem. T

We should all encourage everyone -- and especially the corporate types -- to contact their representatives to rant about how pissed off they are at these stupid restrictions. And also remind the corp. types whose fault all of this is...Are we safer now than we were 5 years ago??? HELL NO! Vote the bastards OUT!

& other electronics. How on earth could anyone put a laptop in check baggage, knowing the cheap little NSA approved locks are frequently left hanging open after NSA rifles through your bags--not to mention the possibility of crushing, or other breakage...? :shrug:

On Wednesday, people were allegedly planning to make explosives out of carry-on liquids. On Thursday, the alleged conspirators were arrested. On Friday, everyone is suddenly a suspect to make explosives out of carry-on liquids.

It seems to me that since the people who were planning on making bombs out of Gatorade were arrested, there's way less risk of Gatorade bombs on Friday than there was on Wednesday. If anything, they should have had the restrictions in place before yesterday and lifted them once the arrests were made.

if they don't overreact?

Sheesh.

pissed list. Truthfully I would have demanded a ticket refund and cancelled my trip. I cannot afford to throw away essentials. Ordinary people are being terrorized and at great cost.

apparently our government has known this to be a potential threat for a long time:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Terrorism/story?id=2300460&page=1

A Threat the Government Could See Coming

This kind of plot may sound new to most of us, but it's a threat government agencies have known about for years.

It's a loophole in security they haven't fixed.

In February 2005, a Government Accountability Office report determined that the Transportation Security Administration had "delayed the development of a device to detect weapons, liquid explosives … in containers found in carry-on baggage or passenger's effects."

A different report, issued jointly by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, noted in its title the "Possible Terrorist Use of Liquid Explosive Materials in Future Attacks."

This report mentioned that liquid explosives could be set off by the filament of a single Christmas light.

Meanwhile, people of every age were waiting in line at the airport, shoes in hand.

This time, however, shoes were not the problem.

U.S. agencies knew there was a threat of liquid explosives for which they weren't prepared.

Bush and Blair's approval ratings...

sad to say, it's so obvious

El Al profiles all it's flights and is far more effective at ferreting out a nervous suicide bomber, than trying to determine if it's a bottle of Evian or a bottle of nitroglycerin.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-23080...

These are the names of 19 suspects reportedly being held by the police after the foiled plot and whose assets the Treasury has sought to have frozen.

Umir Hussain, 24, London E14
Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17
Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17
Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17
Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe
Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17
Cossor Ali, 24, London E17
Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham
Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17
Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17
Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington
Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17
Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe
Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10
Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe
Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe
Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17
Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5
Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest

They sell all the liquids and lotions for carry-on.

a website, petitions, boycotts, etc and hold these assholes responsible for the way they TREAT US.

*I* am NOT a criminal and I'm sick of being treated LIKE ONE.

The airlines need to be told that we WILL shut them down (no violence being preached here Mr Gonzales you scumbag), as CONSUMERS. I will take my business ELSEWHERE.

We need to get a Million signatures and HAMMER the airlines, make THEM tell Bush to go piss up a ROPE.

Maybe TravelNoMore.com or something like that..

my site Takebackthemedia.com has had great success before when we created a boycott of Rush Limbaugh's corporate sponsors, all of a sudden I was on the O'Reilly show one day, and Scarborough's soon after that.. We shut down (all of us working together) Geico, See's Candies, Red Lobster, Radio Shack, and tons of other biz's money flowing to BoilAss's coffers, some of these companies folded the FIRST DAY, that same afternoon that we started..

It scared the shit out of them.

I've got some other projects I need to finish up on (and somehow Earn MONEY as a liberal media warrior -), or should that be Worrier? :) but when I get some time I'm in the mood to create some boycotts.

My son has a orthotic he has to wear on his head and we have to fly from Hawaii to LA every three weeks for about 4 to 5 months during his treatment, and this pisses me off ROYALLY.. my little sweetie boy at 19 months gets scared shitless at those checkpoints, he literally shits his pants in that line, and it really gets me outraged.

They actually swabbed his head and I gave that TSA guy a LOOK that backed him up as he approached my sweet kid.

So NOW he's not supposed to have any Cheese Fish snacks or cereal, or FOOD during a 5 hour flight? They're going to starve MY KID?

BULLSHIT.

at least half the time I've flown through that damn airport, I've had cases rifled through and stuff stolen.

All those yummy checkeed laptops and iPods, are probably their wet dreams come true.

So, if you can't carry on your expensive face creams, but you can pack them into your checked baggage, what's to stop a girl from emptying out her tube of Strivectin and loading it up with nitro or something and just packing it with her undies? Many's the time that I thought my Oil of Olay had something funny in it anyway. But if they're examining the checked in luggage, then one could use a half empty dummy bottle of that new "sensual, warming spray lubricant." Nobody wants to check that...E-E-Eww!

those people to have to go out and buy replacements!

Save America! Spend! Spend! Spend!

The Professor