How long until they kill someone (if they haven't already)?

If we had a working press corp, this specific case would be rubbed in the nose of John Pistole, Janet Napolitano, and Barack Obama on a daily basis.

If Republicans are not complicit in our security state, we will start hearing about the TSA and this incident on the campaign trail.

The f*cking loser TSA agent that told her to go through the scanner with the pump needs to pay for the pump. Not the TSA (not the taxpayers). The weasel that didn't know any better and couldn't bother to find out.

This girl has something to sue these pricks over and good. That is straight up reckless endangerment.

The juice is supposed to be considered a medical liquid when a diabetic travels with it. If they have an insulin reaction they need to have a known amount of sugar in a fast acting form.

Congressmen and Senators from *both* parties are complicit in our new Security State. And I intend to continue to profit from that.

The TSA confiscated my Lovenox injections when I traveled a few months ago. I have an autoimmune blood clotting disorder and require injectable anticoagulants to treat it. I had a prescription and all the syringes were in original packaging with the prescription stickers on it. They still took it and said it was not permitted. It was two weeks worth of medication I had to pay $700 out of pocket to replace (not to mention $400 at an urgent care to get a doctor to write me a prescription to replace it). I'm trying to get my money back, but so far have not had any luck. I keep being told they did nothing wrong or I'm talking to the wrong people. It's ridiculous. Without my medication I have a very high risk of blood clot, stroke, miscarriage (I'm currently pregnant and was at the time of my trip), and catastrophic organ failure. Luckily I was able to replace it, otherwise who knows.

Everyone needs to remember that TSA IS NOT a law enforcement organization and DOES NOT have power of arrest.

"Sir, you are in error. I will not comply with that instruction. I require a police officer at once."

"Sir, are you detaining me against my will in violation of federal law? Than am I free to go? Sir, either I am free to go, or you are engaged in illegal detention, or I see a cop in 30 seconds."

"Sir, you have failed to comply with my reasonable requests, I am proceeding on my journey."

If they lay a hand on you in response, it's battery. Their only recourse is to call the cops...which is what you want, because the cops do know the law, and they hate Pedosmurfs.

WHAT YOU CAN DO THE REST OF THE TIME:

Humiliate them. If you see one away from work, impugn him. Ask him if he wasn't smart enough to get a job at Arby's. Is it true TSA stands for Thousands Standing Around? That he or she would make more money more honestly sucking off sailors in San Francisco.

MAKE THEM RIGHTFULLY ASHAMED OF WHAT THEY DO, until they weep themselves to sleep, or quit in remorse.

If you really feel they are that outrageous, and they are, then publicly act like it until it's not socially acceptable to work for them.

Have any of you read further about this?

First off, it's tough to put a real price on these devices, because they vary by 50% by supplier (that's not one manufacturer vs. another). I don't buy that the scan ruined the pump, because the radiation exposure on the flight is on the order of a thousand times higher. I'd bet that the hamhanded TSA employee cracked it open and/or mashed every button trying to see what it was and if it was a real thing. Think of a monkey looking at a wristwatch. Smell it, bite it, throw it down, it's not tasty.

If it was, shouldn't the manufacturer warn about such things? Well, dang. Yes, they do.

I'm not sure why it would be vulnerable to just that machine. Welders, amateur and commercial radio and some electrical equipment radiate more strongly than a Rapiscan's backscatter beam.

Again, the big casualty is not even a vital piece of medical equipment: it's the 4th Amendment. I'd much rather see someone challenge that than complain about something reduced to another rant about money.

Again, the big casualty is not even a vital piece of medical equipment: it's the 4th Amendment. I'd much rather see someone challenge that than complain about something reduced to another rant about money. -- Radwaste at May 8, 2012 5:45 PM

Rad,

Have you taken the time to send your representatives my rant (or your own) about how useless and ineffective the TSA is?

Then don't whine about people complaining about the financial costs and delays and indignities before complaining about the Constitutional failings.

Michael Z. Williamson,

I like your advice, I really do.

Can you provide any sort of citation that what you are saying is accurate and would carry the force of law?

How about same thing that needs to be done to cops and prosecutors: get rid of qualified immunity when they screw things up like this? Cops should not be protected when they go to the wrong address to kick doors and such; prosecutors should not be when they knowingly send innocent people to jail or violate the law to try to; and TSA clowns should not be protected when they do things like this. Make the bastards pay for it out of their own pocket.

And yeah, I like Williamson's idea: make the bastards know exactly what people think of them.

We need to teach the kids better. The kid has a note from her Dr saying don't do this to the pump, and the kid takes the word of a guy with a tin badge whose probably never heard of an insulin pump before over the Doc.

49 USC § 114 covers the creation of the TSA. While there is a provision for creating LEO's, screeners are not, at this time a LEO. They have not undergone the training, don't carry a gun, and are not authorized to make arrests.

"I'd bet that the hamhanded TSA employee cracked it open and/or mashed every button trying to see what it was and if it was a real thing. "

I wonder if, in the process of messing with it, they managed to to screw up the setup parameters. One thing I learned when I was working in medical devices is that the setup of a medical device is a prescription. If someone who is not a M.D., and is not under the supervision of an M.D., alters those setup parameters, that constitutes practicing medicine without a license. To do so without the patient's permission is a felonious assault. It's the same as if they injected her with a drug against her will.

"I don't buy that the scan ruined the pump, because the radiation exposure on the flight is on the order of a thousand times higher." Yes but the band of radiation is not common, no immunity spec exists for it. Depending on how the boards and ICs are layed out you can create frequency dependent resonance, which can either fry the machine or put into some odd operating mode. Medical devices are required to be shielded from ISM band radiation and typical broadcast radiation. There is no spec for that band of radiation or if there is it's new and as yet unpublished.

The device may have just required a reset to factory and reprogramming her settings. To her it is as good as fried.

My car actually does this. When I drive from mass to NY at one specific spot on the high way every few trips the whole thing just dies. Something on that road just puts the whole car into a brown out reset. Lucky for me it's a stick so I just pop the clutch and restart the car. Kinda freaky the first time used to it now.

Congressman Demands TSA Administrator's Resignation.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/09/congressman-demands-tsa-administrators-immediate-resignation/

Back in the '80s, industrial X-ray was often used to erase EPROMs. It beat waiting around for an hour for the UV lamp to do it. One the one hand, those backscatter machines I'm sure use a much smaller dose than industrial X-ray machines. On the other hand, memory devices are a heck of a lot denser than they were in 1982. Presuming that the insulin pump has its software in flash memory, I'm wondering if a backscatter machine could create enough energy to flip a bit somewhere in the code.

"There is no spec for that band of radiation or if there is it's new and as yet unpublished."

The machines have been in use for years at seaports, and a short conversation with the manufacturers of the pump should clear this up. Note that the manufacturer did know there was a problem.

Pacemaker failure, anyone?