"Give The TSA The Bird"
That's how a commenter titled himself on an entry about TSA agents humiliating a woman who had breast cancer -- and is still bald from chemo -- and has inserts in her chest to prepare for breast reconstruction after a double mastectomy.

His comment is below. About the "middle index fingers," he's referring to a practice by my wonderful First Amendment attorney, Marc J. Randazza, who shows the TSA agents earning a living violating our rights the respect they deserve: Sticking out both middle fingers as he gets the ridiculously named "pat-down." (Let's call it what it is -- the "futile groping of Americans' sex parts in order to groom them to be docile in the face of more of their civil liberties being yanked from them in the future.")

Amy: Just a few days ago, I had to go through O'Hare. Mindful of your experience, I deliberately raised my middle index fingers on both hands when forced into the scanner. Immediately, a swarm of TSA agents, supervisors, etc. surrounded me.

I was told that this was not the "correct" position to stand in via the scanner, and whether I wanted a pat down instead. I informed them that since they supposedly were trying to see what was underneath my clothes, I could arrange my hands however I liked, and then they could try to justify a further "search" of my bare hands if they had probable cause or a warrant. Supervisor #1 threatened to call in Chicago police. I asked him if he was seriously threatening to detain me for engaging in political speech.

He informed me that my hand positioning was not political speech. I informed him otherwise. He suggested that the Chicago Police might tell me I was wrong. Supervisor #2 then came over and said he was "asking" me to cooperate. I stated that I would be perfectly fine with going through the metal detector, as half the other travelers were doing. He refused. Then I informed him I maintained my position.

He grabbed my boarding pass, and warned me that if I didn't cooperate, I was likely to miss my flight. I asked if I was being detained. He again said I should just cooperate. I said I was fully entitled to engage in political speech. He asked if I wanted a pat-down. I refused. After going around and around for another 10 minutes, he finally had me step into the scanner.

They deliberately scanned me three times. Another TSA agent kept me standing in the scanner, and then as I went to exit, told me that the scan was "no good" and they had to do it over. I told him that the light had gone on and off three times, and, realizing he was caught in a lie, let me step out of the scanner. I was told to stand outside the scanner. I was left standing there for 15 minutes.

I asked repeatedly if I was being detained. No TSA person would respond to me, except to say that they couldn't let me move until their supervisor said so. Supervisor #2 had deliberately moved to a different part of the scanning area so as to be out of visual or hearing contact.

None of the TSA agents would give me their name or his. All were clearly pissed off that I wanted to give them the finger while being forced into their nude scanning machine. In the interim, five more people went through the scanner and were passed on their merry way.

As soon as the boarding time on my flight arrived, Supervisor #2 magically reappeared and indicated to the minions that I could leave.

So there you have it, folks. TSA agents knew that they had absolutely no good justification to detain me. But they went out of their way to push the limits while maintaining plausible deniability. TSA can't take any criticism, and are going out of their way to punish those who seek to engage in one of the most mild, yet classic, ways of conveying to authority, fuck off.

They were actually offended that I was upset with THEM. Ummm, THEY are the ones that demand as a condition of my travel (necessary for work) that I either get a radiation scan and nude exposure, or a sexual assualt. They should hang their heads in shame every day they go to work. If they actually had balls, they'd quit.

I have the person's email address, so I emailed a thank you:

Hi there -- I am so appreciative of what you did. It is terribly upsetting to me that so many are so cavalier about our rights being violated -- as a course of normal daily business travel -- and that they do nothing about it.

I've been very upset about not being able to place this op-ed I wrote and your comment was a little reminder that there are others who care deeply about our civil liberties. Thank you so much. I will get the op-ed placed, but it's distressing that mainstream media outlets so far will not publish it. All the best,-Amy

Note per above and as I've blogged, that the government's grab of our rights started with our Fourth Amendment right against being searched without reasonable suspicion we've committed a crime and has now moved on to a chill our First Amendment right to speak up about it.

If you aren't seriously afraid, please ask one of the attendants to sign you up for lobotomy repair.

Oh, and see Cohen v. California, the "fuck the draft" case, for naughty words as an integral part of free speech:

The Court, by a vote of 5-4, per Justice John Marshall Harlan II, overturned the appellate court's ruling. "[A]bsent a more particularized and compelling reason for its actions," it said, "the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense."[1] In his opinion Justice Harlan famously wrote "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric."[2] Harlan's arguments can be constructed in three major points: First, states (California) cannot censor their citizens in order to make a "civil" society. Second, knowing where to draw the line between harmless heightened emotion and vulgarity can be difficult. Third, people bring passion to politics and vulgarity is simply a side effect of a free exchange of ideas--no matter how radical they may be.