Go Amy! Give 'em hell.

And to think I was going to blog about my IRS audit!

Bastards!

TSA, TSA

Wouldn't it be great, Amy, if your legacy could be as the woman who brought down TSA?

I would be very proud myself, if I could have had something to do with ending this travesty and violation of our fourth amendment rights. But it seems I will have to content myself with with the knowledge that I was a loyal supporter of the Advice Goddess since the beginning.

Hang tough, Amy. We're all behind you, as much as we can be.

There are mutterings these fires might be terrorism. Build-ups to Sept 11th, or something. I'm not sure I believe that, but with so many starting in 2 days, it could be. I tend more to think it was drunken idiots over the holiday weekend. We can no longer smoke outdoors, or grill, here. Everyone in central texas is very scared. With all the smoke it's a little like living in hell. And the Pres just plays his fiddle.

Stay safe Mom of 4 - You guys are in my thoughts. I have a sister in Texas.

I don't imagine Texas (like Tennessee and the floods) will be getting much federal attention or even thoughtful acknowledgement by the Petty Tyrant. He is incredibly small minded with his resentments.

Amy, how are you holding up today?! From what I can see you are getting a lot of support. So, so glad.

I was reading some of the comments out there and doing fist pumps: "Yeh! Beat those commmie bastards!!!". I feel a David and Goliath moment coming soon.

Amy, I wish you the best of luck. There are a couple things I think your lawyer needs to plan a response to, though.

You have a history, even before this incident, of loudly criticizing the TSA. Some people are going to say that you went looking for an incident. Your lawyer should read your all your blog posts about the TSA to plan what you are going to say when the other side accuses you of this.

Good luck!

Nicole, with all due respect, that is irrelevant.

If this is truly a free country, people should have the freedom to loudly criticize the Federal government at anytime and have an absolute expectation that they will not incur sexual abuse as a result.

Don't be a "Magee".

I think it's good advice. It may end up being irrelevant, but Nicole is right that her atty should be aware that this will be coming from the other side.

GO get em Amy!
I do agree with Nicole though. The other side is going to bring this blog up and all the subsequant anti TSA rants that go with it. Have a strategy. Your lawyer seems smart so I have no doubt that between the two of you, you'll come up with something.

So glad you're standing up to this TSA woman's bullying attempt to deprive you of your First Amendment rights and hard-earned money.

Free swim link. Counterparties, a new site curated by Felix Salmon, on well, Felix Salmon-y topics:

http://counterparties.com/

I'm in my office across the street from the state Capitol in Austin and the sky toward the west is so dark you can't see the hills in west Austin. (I'm on the 8th floor in an office building @10th and Congress, and normally you can see the hills in Westlake from here.)

The Leander fire is being investigated as arson, isn't it? I doubt that it's terrorism- probably just dipshit teenagers. It's so easy to start a fire around here right now- chains hanging from trucks create sparks on the highway, idiots flicking their cigarettes out the car window, transients cooking with campfires, dry limbs near electrical wires, ranchers driving trucks over dry grass... We started our day yesterday with a discussion about what we grab if we have to evacuate. (Husband didn't want to have the discussion, by the way. Like optimism is going to keep some dumbass from discarding a cigarette butt onto the median of Loop 1 and taking out our entire neighborhood.)

I'm going to pack a grab-and-run box during my lunch break today in case we need to evacuate. My biggest fear is that a fire starts overnight.

Feebie, of course it isn't relevant, but you bet your bottom dollar the opposition will try to make it so.

Have a strategy in place, Amy.

I read an interesting pre report of a study. The study is finding the number of calories per gram varies by peoples ability to digest and absorb the contents. It specifically talked about pitashios and said that they can effectively have 20% less calories than would be indicated by the protein/fat/carb content because of the type of fat in them is not easily digest by most people. It indicated that this was already known to be true to some extent but the difference is looking to be much greater and wide spread than previously thought.

Also, # calories may vary be person's individual abilities - similar to how some people are lactose intolerant.

@ahw and momof4

Yeah, my first thought was, "Some idiots threw cigarette butts out the damn car window." My second thought was, "And people were using the grills at my apartment complex just last weekend. Smart."

Scariest part is looking at all the dead grass and knowing it could start anywhere. Next scariest part is the smell.

A bunch of my coworkers live at the Riata, where there was a small brush fire yesterday that was apparently deliberately set. Deliberately set. I can't even.

...and speaking of "I can't even": This Magee woman. At the very least, her name is now mud on Google.

This Magee behavior reminds me of that Rand Paul supporter, Tim Profitt, who stepped on a woman's head, and then afterwards demanded an apology from her. Sometimes hard to believe for normal people, but some people really are just that vile.

Hi Amy, you are my hero. Thank you so much for speaking out about this outrage. Contact the local police dept in the city where that airport is located. Download the form for a "Voluntary Statement," and file a formal criminal complaint against her personally,for the sexual assault. Go on the legal offense like Jesse Ventura.
Good Luck & Lots of Love, My prayers are with you. Cee

momof4 -- what, specifically, do you think the President should be doing about the fires in Texas?

momof4 -- what, specifically, do you think the President should be doing about the fires in Texas? -- franko at September 7, 2011 9:52 PM

Almost nothing. That is fine if the fed does the same for the northern eastern seaboard.

That they aren't tells you their thinking.

What do I think the Pres and feds should do? Not much. But given that other states with natural disasters smaller than ours (there are states with less land than we've had burned) who get lots of attention and assistance, it smacks of partisanship to ignore us. Oh, sending us tankers and pilots would be nice. You know, since the feds control the military.

momof4 - it doesn't smack of partisanship, it's revenge pure and simple for not sucking the left's collective dick.

Frankly, unless the "disaster" is from an act of war, I don't see why the federal government needs to be involved at all. Why should I be forced to pay for another state's recovery? Why should they be forced to pay for mine?

"That they aren't tells you their thinking."

We have fires in California. The Feds don't get involved.

Maybe it's time we messed with Texas after all.

Gog, get back to me when california loses more than 3,600,000 acres.

momof4, I think you like seeing bogeymen where none exist. Obama has already contacted Perry to promise relief funds. This despite the fact that Perry actually defunded Texas firefighters by some $60 Mil last year. Also, you've lost what, 500 homes? That doesn't compare in the slightest to the economic devestation in the Northeast, let alone what happened in New Orleans. If conservatives don't feel FEMA should be doling out aid in those two situations, I don't see how Texas merits any of my tax money.

Texas keeps threatening to secede -- it didn't occur to me until today that they just want to do it so they can apply for foreign aid....

We have fires in California. The Feds don't get involved.

We don't need no stinkin' feds. We have CalFire. What a ridiculous name for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Actually, the feds do get (and have gotten) involved in California's wildfires.

From the FEMA page on the 2007 California wildfires: "President Bush has issued a major disaster declaration for California and ordered greater federal aid to supplement state and local response activities in the affected areas. Federal resources began mobilizing as early as Sunday, October 21, and authorized federal funds to reimburse the state for certain costs incurred under FEMA’s Fire Management Assistance Grant Program. Under those grants, FEMA pays for 75 percent of the state’s eligible fire-fighting costs. Eligible costs include equipment, supplies, and emergency work evacuations, shelters and traffic control. A major disaster declaration for California was granted Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007, for seven affected California counties (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura)."

Franko it's well over 1200 homes, just in the last 3 days. The rest of the year? I don't know what the complete total would be. A lot of those homes are ranch houses, belonging to the people who grow your beef and corn and cotton.

I think the point of us Texans is if other people get it, we should too. Especially when it's people getting money who intentionally live below sea level, or right on the coast-where even my 2 year old knows the waves are going to knock his castle down.

If you'd like to have a discussion about no one getting aid from the feds for disasters, we can have that. But saying water is worse than fire, so some get it and some don't? Nah. We ain't down with that here.

Perry might not have had to take money from firefighters if we citizens sent less money to the feds. But there's only so much money-the more the feds take the less we have available here.

Give 'em Hell, Amy!
I hope you've seen this term "DARVO". It means "Deny-Attack-Reverse-the-Victim-and-Offender".
It's a typical behaviour for sociopaths and psychopaths.
Look up Laura Knight-Jadzik's materials at Cassiopaea.org; she's hot on the trail of the pathocrats who have taken over our blue planet, and in the process, she is receiving more and worse attacks than when she was only reporting on alien abductions and less controversial topics.
The trouble with explaining the psychotic behaviour of our government today is, psychotics cannot be understood outside the rules of their own sandbox. Psychotic behaviour simply IS. They seek to make us their victims, and if they are paid well for it, it's simply a reward. Their real motivation is the pain they inflict on us.

I rarely travel by air or train, but I did last month, and I asked myself how I'd respond to a TSA search.
I decided that I would demand to have a lawyer present, and that the TSA provide the legally mandated search warrant, accompanied by a sworn criminal complaint.
I'm not a criminal, they assure me?
Then they cannot search me like one.
They will argue and give me doubletalk, but the lawyer will be required to intervene.

I did find a TSA calling card inside my locked suitcase on my return home. I didn't have a "TSA Approved" lock installed, which strikes me as an oxymoron, but they had no trouble opening it just the same.
Next time, I will place a large placard inside my suitcase, reading "IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU HAVE JUST VIOLATED MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS."
I made a copy of their calling card and included it in a letter to my congressman, George Miller.
Miller had the chance to vote against renewing the so-called Patriot Act, but he ABSTAINED. Patriot is the worst possible legislation this country has ever created, and Miller sat on his thumbs when he could have shown balls.