We the People have the Constitution Blues!
We must demand an immediate separation of church, state and "Ahm-wearin-a-badge" idiots who have too much power and not enough knowledge on their hands. Sorry for your trouble today, Amy.

Thanks, Ronnie - just hope more people do something, say something, squawk a little. Everyone there was so quietly compliant (everybody but me).

Lalicker is a rare name, too. Easy to find.

If it's real. I don't expect these people to be honest about anything.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad not to be your guy, Amy, because the first person to touch you like that, in my presence or not, would have to be hurt, and badly.

Sheesh, Amy, you know I wish you didn't have to go through that yet again. Do you think they have you tagged somehow?

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad not to be your guy, Amy, because the first person to touch you like that, in my presence or not, would have to be hurt, and badly."

I'm with you, Rad. I can't imagine what I'd do if a TSA inspector tried that on my wife or one of my daughters. I'd be like, "how are you going to give directions to people with the speech impediment you're about to have?"

Miss Alkon, I sure hope your return trip goes more smoothly. This is getting more ridiculous all the time.

Its bad enough you were chosen to be pat down (do you think that's a coincidence?) but to have an officer come over to reprimand you for complaining to an agent in the bathroom? Wow! I grew up learning about Communist Russia and what you went through sounds like what we learned was bad and what our country didn't do because we were the good guys who valued freedom and liberty.

I am sorry you had to go through this. A vacation, even business vacation, should be pleasurable. This is not something that should be done to our citizens. And I have to ask again...do you think you were randomly picked?

I can't imagine what I'd do if a TSA inspector tried that on my wife or one of my daughters.

I'm with you. My wife knows how much I hate the TSA and their intrusive disregard for effective security procedures, but we have a tacit agreement that I won't cause a scene when we travel as a family. So far, it's been fine - my wife wears the baby in a carrier and she doesn't get scanned or patted down, just a hand swipe for explosives (Blowing up baby, yeah!). But she knows that as soon as she is asked to do so, I'm going to create that scene and we're probably not going to fly that day.

I have enormous tits, and could hide all sorts of things in there, and yet I rarely get picked (can't even remember the last time I got picked).

I'm a housewife. You're a blogger who often criticizes TSA. I am sure you are on some sort of list.

My brother used to get picked every time he flew. He was a young man flying alone. He also used to go to lots of animal rights protests. He was most definitely on a list.

I don't have particularly big tits, but I somehow got into the line where that damned scanner machine is and my hubby didn't want me to make a fuss, so I compliantly went through it at MIA. Held my arms up and took the radiation, then, as I started to exit, the male TSA agent walked over and told me I needed to do it again. The second time seemed to take longer.

It made me wonder whether they are targeting certain females just for sexual titillation. I was dressed in a rather sexy sleeveless top with no bra underneath (though I suppose that doesn't matter).

I guess somebody would have to put them on hidden camera and see if they're picking based on looks, but it makes sense to me that while doing their mindnumbingly boring jobs, they'd try to spice it up that way.

I fly at least twice a month, all over the U.S., and twice a year to Europe to visit family. In the last year, the only place I've been patted down was Charles de Gaulle. (Obviously experiences vary for many reasons.)

It was /thorough/.

Amy, what are your feelings about being patted down in France, where you have no Fourth Amendment rights? Would you be distraught? Challenge the agent? Would you stop going back to France?

All you bad asses threatening hypothetical TSA agents on the Internet: Seriously? Why wouldn't you just have your girl refuse the pat down and leave immediately, rather than physically attack some chick?

I think you're on a list. You're easy to recognize and I'd say that TSA at LAX is targeting you. There must be a journalist who'd be willing to go undercover and get a job with the TSA to report on this. And "being on a break" doesn't mean that the employee is off-limits.

"All you bad asses threatening hypothetical TSA agents on the Internet: Seriously?"

Okay, you got me, yes, it's easy anonymous machismo (realistically, I can't see any threat of mine being greeted with anything but laughter. And handcuffs). But it's still wrong, and pointless on top of that. I couldn't permit anyone to lay a finger on my wife or my kids and I hope, if push came to shove, I'd figure out the right thing and do it.

As for being "tagged" or being on somebody's watch list. While we know that the TSA has no-fly lists, based on terrorism threats, what has become of us when we start to wonder if our names appear on some other list? Are we unjustifiably paranoid? Are we being realistic?

"As for being "tagged" or being on somebody's watch list. While we know that the TSA has no-fly lists, based on terrorism threats, what has become of us when we start to wonder if our names appear on some other list? Are we unjustifiably paranoid? Are we being realistic?"

I asked if she was being targeted because it is not her first time being picked for a search. After the last time Amy wrote about how violated she felt and started a campaign to raise awareness about the TSA. It makes me wonder if one of these agents is aware of who she is when she flies. If she flew with such great frequency that that two searches fit with the odds of getting picked, I'd think differently, but does she fly so often? I don't think so. And I think many of us would recognize her. She doesn't exactly blend in.

The fact that she can't freely tell a TSA agent in the bathroom that she felt violated and I'm sure she didn't seem threatening, without being confronted by an officer says the TSA has too much power. The fact that she felt fearful to articulate more of an argument because she wasn't sure if they'd prevent her from flying tells me the TSA has too much power.

I don't think it is being paranoid or unrealistic. And Amy, I don't know that it is big tits or a recognizable writer who is vocal about the violation and erosion of our rights that gets you picked when you fly. I lean more towards the writing.

Illegitimi non carborundum. I'm sorry to hear that they violated you again. Please keep fighting the good fight.

Lots of things can trigger a search. A friend of mine who worked for TSA said that a big one is an airline ticket that was purchased within two weeks of travel. I am not sure why.

@insufficient poison -

I believe that you aren't allowed to leave under your own power (IYKWIMAITYD) once you've been "chosen" for the feel-up.

"A friend of mine who worked for TSA said that a big one is an airline ticket that was purchased within two weeks of travel. I am not sure why."

Silly!

Don't you know that terrorists are incapable of planning for events more than two weeks in advance and keeping their intentions secret?

If you decline, you are warned that this means you must leave the security area. If you still wish to decline, then a police officer escorts you away from the security area to the "pre-security area" and you may not re-enter.

So basically if you are chosen for pat down and refuse, you don't get to fly.

Radwaste, I don't get that one. Maybe they think if you're crazy enough to pay fares within two weeks of departure, then you must believe it's your last flight on earth.

If being patted down is so traumatic for you, then why do you continue to fly? No one is forcing you to be patted down. Simply turn around and refuse to board the airplane.

"A friend of mine who worked for TSA said that a big one is an airline ticket that was purchased within two weeks of travel. "

If they did that here, they'd be searching nearly everybody. Most of the travelers where I live are business travelers, who seldom know for sure that the arrangements are complete more than two weeks in advance. I've learned not to book well in advance because, frequently, the meeting you're going for gets cancelled or rescheduled. (And most companies prohibit purchasing refundable tickets.)

From what I've seen, at least in regard to the nude-ray, the "search criteria" mainly involves choosing attractive young women. I'm not the only one who has noticed this.

If you stop flying the terrorists* win!

* Thats the ones at the tsa, I don't think al queda cares if Amy flies.

There's a countermeasure...

TSA is not unconstitutional. You do not have a right to fly.

"TSA is not unconstitutional. You do not have a right to fly."

Hmm.

This looks like a defense of the TSA. Okay. Where is the due process?

Everyone wants their exception. If you can say that, why could I not state that you do not have a right to travel by walking without being patted down?

I think you're guilty of something. Pull those pants down, right now, for this uniformed person.

Is this what you want? What do you want?

"The Constitution grants us Liberty and Freedom."

This is wrong.

It is so fundamentally wrong it is difficult to believe that someone arguing on the side of personal liberty would insist on such a thing.

The Constitution is a set of limits on government - on the things it may and may not properly do.

When the public buys the expressed thought, it's no wonder it is disregarded by every special interest.

"I think you're guilty of something. Pull those pants down, right now, for this uniformed person."

Thanks for making his point. Unlike your scenario no one forced amy to be patted down. When they asked to pat her down she could have just said "no" turned around and walked out of the airport terminal.

The fact that she didn't, and the fact that she balked at losing the money greg paid for her ticket instead of just refusing to fly shows that she doesn't think the TSA pat down is that big of a deal.

I agree that TSA's current policies are bullshit. But just say that. There's no need to be such a drama queen and say how you feel like you were violated each time you go though a TSA checkpoint, or to start crying like a little girl when they pat you down for that matter. It gets old.

Long time Amy! I'm quitting facebook and coming back to blogging.

Go see Penn and Teller while in Vegas. They talk about a lot of erosion of rights. And they SELL copies of the Constitution on metal. So they purposely setoff airport scanners.

Maybe we need to present rules to the TSA that mandate all gropemeisters undergo a 'screening' everyday. See how well they like it.

And I drive to work dressed as a pirate?

Gotta stop the weeping, though. I hate to say it, but if you want to be taken seriously you gotta stop. It makes it too easy to write you off as a hysterical female.

Now, Mike Hunter -- what do YOU want?

You're not getting security at the airport.

Name a form of travel to which YOU have a right.

While you're at it, say why TSA can't pat you down because you want to go that way.

Hey, look - no answer from Mike!

TSA agent got your toungue?