Justice Department Threatens To Ban Flights Out Of Texas If Texas Makes TSA Groping Illegal
from the showdown dept
We've already covered the proposal in Texas to make TSA airport gropings illegal, and we've already noted that the TSA insists that it can safely ignore such a law (an argument that some dispute). However, now the Justice Department is apparently telling the Texas legislature that if it passes the law, flights out of Texas could be banned:If HR 1937 were enacted, the federal government would likely seek an emergency stay of the statute. Unless or until such a stay were granted, TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.That's a mighty big stick the feds are pulling out there. The sponsor of the bill says the whole thing is ridiculous. He notes (quite craftily) that the bill clearly exempts TSA officials from being liable for criminal prosecution under the bill, if they can show the Constitutional reasons that allow them to grope anyone's private parts:
"The bill clearly states that an agent is exempt from prosecution as long as a constitutionally sanctioned federal law directs them to perform the invasive, indecent groping searches-including touching breasts, sexual organs and buttocks," noted State Representative David Simpson (R-Longview), the bill's author.Things certainly could get interesting. In the meantime, perhaps don't plan too many trips that involve flying out of Texas in the near future.
"Instead of threatening to shut down flights in Texas, why doesn't the TSA just show us their statutory authority to grope or ogle our private parts?" asked Simpson.
"All that HB 1937 does is require that the TSA abide by the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution," Simpson continued. "We aren't even prohibiting the pat-downs, per se. We're just saying you can't go straight to third base. You have to have a reason-you have to have probable cause-before groping someone's sexual organs."
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Better headline:
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Subheadline
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There may be a positive side to this if it keeps some of the patent lawyers away from East Texas.
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On the other hand keeping Texans from leaving Texas isn't really a law I can be against.
also ""We aren't even prohibiting the pat-downs, per se. We're just saying you can't go straight to third base."
Hilarious
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Hilarious
Yeah, I got a good laugh from that one too.
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What about other countries?
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I was on a flight from Japan to San Francisco, where at the gate to enter the plane, several Delta employees wearing surgical gloves "patted-down" certain passengers. However, I was not subject to it, and from what I saw, they weren't as invasive as the TSA pat-downs.
Of course, when I stepped off the plane in San Francisco, I was subject to two separate pat-downs. Once upon leaving the plane, and then again when entering the domestic terminal. Of course, I also had a customs agent go through my wallet for every bit of identifying information she could get. As I walked away from the customs office (but still in range so she could hear me,) I told my co-worker, "Damn, its good to be home." Nowhere else in the world where I have travelled, have I been subjected to the crap that occurs in our airports. And the funny thing is, I feel a hell of a lot safer travelling in/through foreign countries because, a) their security folks give a damn, and b) they attack the problem, not hide the symptoms behind theatre.
I'd love to see more states get the cahones to stand-up to the TSA.
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Heh. Yeah, Japan was like that at one time. Now they just export armies of tireless workers. PvP by economic action...
Japan doesn't really like our marines either, but as much as they don't like them, I get the feeling that they are between a rock and a hard place because they want them there to protect them from North Korea.
I love the Japanese too...but then again, I love the people in just about every country I've been to. Call it wide-eyed idealism, but with exception of one country I've been to (which I won't name,) people are just a hell of a lot nicer everywhere you go except here (there are nice people here, just not a lot because we are all so damn self-centered.) Even when they don't speak your language, and you don't speak theirs, they try to help you out. Here (and in one other country I've been to,) not so much (and I spoke their language there, though not my birth language.) Been to Africa, Europe, and Asia, and it is pretty much the same world over...even in Canada...people are a hell of a lot nicer there.
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Yes, Japan has a Self Defense force, but the reason we are on Okinawa and 3/4 of the main islands is to act as a buffer between Japan and N. Korea. The citizens may not like us, but believe me, some of those people are truly ignorant when it comes to foreign issues.
Talking to some of them and all they want to do is say is 外人 は バカ！ (Foreigners are stupid)
The xenophobia continues to run rampant in Japan, and that's especially a problem with them. Yes, they tolerate Americans, but you have to understand that this is also the same country that seems to benefit courting Americans for their money and using the talents of other industries.
I recall that there was an article in the Economist that they treat Chinese workers pretty badly, who come over with work visas.
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Oh, I am not naive enough to think that doesn't happen. It happens here too. I have friends who are Asian, some of them Japanese, and hear the same from them about how there isn't anyone who can properly eat with chopsticks except the Japanese and the like. However, like other countries I've been to, they may think foreigners are stupid, and may say it, but they don't say it to someone's face like they do here (or if they do, they certainly say it with a smile.)
But back on topic, when they have a problem with your luggage, they pull you aside and go through your luggage with you present, unlike TSA, which wants to loot your luggage in secret. And when they have issue with you, like if you set off the metal detector, they don't take naked pictures of you or give you the same examination in public your doctor gives you alone in an examination room.
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The US isn't alone and is in good company with these other shining democracies:
China still occupies Tibet.
Russia still occupies parts of Georgia, Moldova and Chechnya.
Morocco still occupies the Western Sahara.
...
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High school flashback
How many times did you hear that one?
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Wife: "Come again?"
Nom: "Well, if you insist."
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Also, a bit of advice, if you're going to surprise your girl by bursting in on her while she's in the shower, never do so while simultaenously shouting in an over-the-top italian accent, "Hey, it'sa me, a-Mario!"
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Lord knows I do...
http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/W3BcIm5d6Pk/1.jpg
god I wish i could post pictures right in here.
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The naked scanners and groping is a farce
BTW, avoid lines 12 and 14 and you will avoid the naked scanners/groping. So far I have gone through those lines twice. Once I was groped when I refused the naked scanner. The other time I got lucky and the naked scanner was backed up with sheeple so they sent me through the metal detector.
So just how necessary are they if only a small percentage of flyers go through them and with a little planning you can avoid them?
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Re: The naked scanners and groping is a farce
I'll bet that right now, someone sitting in a large and impressive office in a federal building is wishing with all his might that people would just stop paying attention long enough for him to quietly implement option #3.
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Nothing to worry about here...
I'm sure it's all clearly explained in the renewed PATRIOT Act, under the Feds "classified" secretly reinterpreted definitions. It's for our own good, of course. /sarc
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"We're just saying you can't go straight to third base"
"Stop right there!
I gotta know right now!
Before we go any further--!
Do you love me?
Will you love me forever?
Do you need me?
Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?
Do you love me!?
Will you love me forever!?
Do you need me!?
Will you never leave me!?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life!?
Will you take me away and will you make me your wife!?
I gotta know right now
Before we go any further
Do you love me!!!?
Will you love me forever!!!?"
Thank you, Meat Loaf, for those words of wisdom :)
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Re: "We're just saying you can't go straight to third base"
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Re: "We're just saying you can't go straight to third base"
Let me sleep on it.. I'll give you an answer in the morning..
Let me sleep on it.. Baby baby.. Let me sleep on it...
Let me sleep on it.. I'll give you an answer in the morning..
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... quick, stop all flights!
Wait ... wouldn't that imply that they have to cancel all flights immediately? They already cannot ensure the safety of passengers and crew, because all the TSA currently does is pretend they make flights more secure, while consuming lots of tax dollars.
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Re: ... quick, stop all flights!
(More likely it would simply redirect the "opt out" people through a velvet rope maze and a metal detector, out of sight of the scanner line, then quietly send them to the gate.)
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Well, I guess we need to cancel all flights in the TSA does the screening for.
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They can't ensure the safety now, so does that mean they have to cancel all flights throughout the US?
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So in other words, all flights in the US should be cancelled?
From what I understanding, the groping doesn't appear to make flights any safer than not groping...otherwise, why not do the touchy-feely on every traveler?
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> pulled due to "influences" by the Lt. Gov
Yep. Lt. Governor Dewhurst has already killed the bill and blamed it on others after an immediate public outcry occurred. Bluff by the the government successful.
Incidentally, for those who don't know, in Texas the Lt. Governor is the real power center of the executive branch. The Governor is really just a figurehead and is the weakest governor of all 50 states.
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"Justice Department Threatens To Ban Flights Out Of Texas"
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Re: "Justice Department Threatens To Ban Flights Out Of Texas"
The TSA? That we do not need.
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I haven't flown since the TSA started groping, and have no intention to start.
The United States is becoming a country I no longer have an interest in occupying, regardless.
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The United States is losing it's rights slowly but surely based on the fear of terrorism and fear of pedosexuality.
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this is why the USA is in absolutely no danger of ever getting invaded :P
nuked maybe, but not invaded.
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Too Bad
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
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Who cares?
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Old News
http://www.abc27.com/story/14357574/pa-legislator-seeks-to-criminalize-tsa-airport-searche s?redirected=true
Nobody threatened to stop flights here at the time.
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TSA
As a retired law enforcement officer from California, TSA is out of control. Trained Law enforcement officers do not have the authority that these marginal security guards at best do.
Other states should pass similar laws and take on the TSA!
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