TSA: More Power Than Congress
Sommer Gentry blogs at TSANewsBlog about the FOIA request by governmentattic.org, answered by the TSA after a year's delay, that shook loose 200 pages of complaints from November and December 2010 about patdowns. These included a number of letters from members of Congress and congressional committees. The best is this one from Rep. Michael Conway of Texas:
To put it mildly, the contact that [my constitutuent] was forced to endure would have been criminal if the agent touching her did not have a badge. Unfortunately, given the recent deluge of news stories, it is clear that story is not an isolated incident or a lapse of judgment by a single individual. Rather, this new screening procedure is official policy, handed down from you and your employees at TSA.We are facing a pernicious enemy who seeks to terrorize Americans, this is not in question. However, the policy that the Transportation Security Administration has implemented is hated by almost all who come into contact with it because it is degrading and offensive to those who are subject to it.
We cannot protect the public by humiliating them. I believe that there are other options available to keep the public safe and focus our limited resources on those who would do us harm.
The American public deserve better than this. They deserve an adult conversation on the dangers to the flying public, the efficacy of screening procedures, and the ability for the government to keep all people safe at all times. Our rights and liberties are not a product of some rule handed down by the TSA administrator, nor even are they granted to us by our Constitution; they are the embodiment of our humanity and an endowment from God. We ought to be a bit more forthright and cautious before we sacrifice them on the altar of homeland security.
I would appreciate if your office would extend an apology to [my constituent] for the treatment she endured because of the policies that your office approved. As well, I would like a full accounting of the rationale behind the enhanced pat down procedures and an explanation of how the new rules keep the flying public safer.
And Gentry is right on:
What's most striking about these letters is how utterly impotent even Congress has been to stop the molesting - these letters were written 18 months ago, yet the TSA is still grabbing and groping and grinding the genitals of thousands of travelers every day.A staffer told me recently that every single member of Congress continues to hear complaints about the TSA. I'll admit it: seeing that even members of Congress, under a deluge of phone calls and letters from their constitutuents, can't stop TSA Administrator John Pistole from ordering his underlings to sexually abuse innocent people makes me feel hopeless.
How exactly did one man declare himself above the Administrative Procedures Act, above the Americans with Disabilities Act, beyond the reach of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, invulnerable to Congressional oversight, and immune to prosecution for all the children molested at his orders? Can nothing stop this monster?
The bureaucrats are running the asylum.
At this point we need a constitutional convention or just start shooting people in the head.
I'm thinking I'm going to have start looking for a job in Texas and looking forward to the fall of the republic.
Jim P. at September 10, 2012 7:24 AM
Congress isn't helpless in this situation. They have a might big axe, they just need to swing it.
That axe? zero out TSA's budget during the next continuing resolution. They won't be groping anyone's parts in an official capacity if they're not being paid.
I R A Darth Aggie at September 10, 2012 8:33 AM
Sadly, Texas ain't what it used to be. Austin has been invaded by would-be-and-ex-Californians, i.e., clueless progressives. Dallas has long since been taken overby damned Yankees, i.e, business people with no particular Texan values.
Add to this the religious nuts (creationists and their ilk), who are sadly indigenous. You're left with far less than half of us who are Texan in the sense that Jim P. means: independent-minded, live-and-let-live individualists who would love to see Texas tell the feds where to stuff it, by secession if necessary.
a_random_guy at September 10, 2012 8:59 AM
"That axe? zero out TSA's budget during the next continuing resolution."
I wonder what's stopping 'em. Besides requiring guts, I mean. And a reasonably convincing alternative.
Old RPM Daddy at September 10, 2012 9:41 AM
The problem is, this is a stupid statement: "To put it mildly, the contact that [my constitutuent] was forced to endure would have been criminal if the agent touching her did not have a badge"
MOST of what cops do would be illegal if it weren't done by cops. I mean, if I tried to pull someone over and make them recite the alphabet backwards, or frisk them, or arrest them, or stake their house, those thinks would all be illegal.
The problem isn't that it would be illegal if your neighbor did it, it's that it SHOULD be illegal for TSA to do it.
NicoleK at September 10, 2012 10:41 AM
"How exactly did one man declare himself above the Administrative Procedures Act, above the Americans with Disabilities Act, beyond the reach of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, invulnerable to Congressional oversight, and immune to prosecution for all the children molested at his orders? "
The Patriot Act
nuzltr2 at September 10, 2012 10:59 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/09/tsa-more-power.html#comment-3326743">comment from NicoleKCops have to have probable cause to search you.
Amy Alkon
at September 10, 2012 1:09 PM
Even back in the late 80's most of West Texas considered Austin a lost cause.
ARG, Thanks for letting me know that I'm probably just as good off where I am. I just have to finish arming up for the zombie apocalypse. Need about 5-7K rounds.
Jim P. at September 10, 2012 3:15 PM
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