And it keeps going in the shitter.

[sharnjilraedan]

Link here for TSA's abuse of Civil Liberties.

Simply put; the TSA now is trying to say that the moment you enter the lineup in the airport you are obliged to the porn-o-tron (the scanners), or a full grope. Either way, they've made airplane travel absurb and I suspect the TSA is on a long and slippery slope.

Comments

[vonheston]

To be honest I don't care about them seeing me naked, but I am very concerned about the danger of these machines to public health. I have heard that it is 20x worse than a normal xray/than they are saying it is due to the radiation being concentrated on the skin. (since they aren't trying to see into your internal organs) It probably won't have much an impact on occasional travelers but frequent fliers should be very worried.

I also refuse to allow them to grope me out of principle.

Therefore I guess I will be traveling by train and car everywhere stateside until the TSA is brought back under control. :*(

[sharnjilraedan]

There was a comment in there regarding the radiation levels of them and that it's less than the amount of radiation you're exposed to from the atmosphere as you fly.

The best part; If you enter the secure area and refuse to have the backscatter and the grope/patdown, Homeland Security and TSA can fine you up to $10,000.

New subsection 114(v) of title 49 U.S. Code authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to impose civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation of any surface transportation requirement under title 49 of the U.S. Code or any requirement related to transportation worker identification credentials under 46 U.S.C. chapter 701. TSA exercises this function under delegated authority from the Secretary.

I'm at the point that should I ever need to travel through the US, it will be via vehicle, not plane.

And I first thought of Half-Life 2 and City 17, after the obligatory 1984 references.

[vonheston]

I just wrote my senators and my representative (who is actually the republic whip, lol) about my concerns. Not that it will do anything but you know, it never hurts to make some noise. I made the suggestion that airlines should be requires to advertise these things to people before their ticket purchase is complete and Americans should have to agree to surrender their First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth amendment rights prior to entering the secure area. I can guarantee that if it was all put on the table like that most people would refused, and the airlines would feel it in the pockets, and thus the TSA would be pwned because they don't have more money than Delta and Southwest

[sushimustwrite]

The terrorists won a long time ago.

As soon as I write down a few more things and outline a letter, I'm writing my senators and representative. If I can find email addresses for top people at the TSA (and with my Google-fu, it's possible) I'm cc-ing them on the email. This stuff really needs to be advertised because the people who know these things are a vocal minority, and thank goodness they are vocal. If everyone knew these things, there's no way in hell the TSA would get away with it.

[vonheston]

On a side note, I think we should start flooding US senators offices with copies of 1984.