TSA-Grope Or X-Ray

[mortdooley]

 I am surprised that no one has posted anything about the new Grope or X-ray strip search. Since I fly 3 or 4 times a year it bothers the he11 out of me and I sent an E-mail to my favorite airline to tell them they won't see me as long as this is done. Of course they are not responsible but I can't get to my plane without this pointless indignity so airlines are the ones hurt financially. I have been to the last three NRA conventions but I don't have the time to drive to the next one so Houston will be the next one I attend. And just so you know, TSA has never caught a terrorist but they have caused a world of grief for innocent people.

[twyacht]

Amtrak...   Why we haven't mirrored El Al (Israeli Air), which has NO gropes, but better trained staff is beyond me, and ZERO incidents.

I guess with our HSA/TSA, we just do things the stupid and hard way. Leave it to our gov't to turn a miserable flight, into a humiliating one as well.

Check Drudge, the nun getting patted down is really classy....

[MikeBjerum]

OK, I'll post on it:

I flew round trip to New Orleans, and I'm pissed about the new grope and feel screening!!!

Four major airports and no one rubbed or groped me once    I didn't expect a crotch grab the first time, but at least a little fondling to make a traveler feel welcome 

[tombogan03884]

Week end before last I spent an hour with 2 cute nurses  holding my groin.  
The Catheter and Arterial bleeding took most of the fun out of it though    

Almost made me forget this,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101116/ap_on_bi_ge/us_airport_security

By JOAN LOWY and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Joan Lowy And Adam Goldman, Associated Press – 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Nearly a week before the Thanksgiving travel crush, federal air security officials were struggling to reassure rising numbers of fliers and airline workers outraged by new anti-terrorism screening procedures they consider invasive and harmful.

Across the country, passengers simmered over being forced to choose scans by full-body image detectors or probing pat-downs. Top federal security officials said Monday that the procedures were safe and necessary sacrifices to ward off terror attacks.

"It's all about security," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It's all about everybody recognizing their role."

Despite officials' insistence that they had taken care to prepare the American flying public, the flurry of criticism from private citizens to airline pilots' groups suggested that Napolitano and other federal officials had been caught off guard.

At the San Diego airport, a software engineer posted an Internet blog item saying he had been ejected after being threatened with a fine and lawsuit for refusing a groin check after turning down a full-body scan. The passenger, John Tyner, said he told a federal Transportation Security Administration worker, "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested."

Tyner's individual protest quickly became a web sensation, but questions also came from travel business groups, civil liberties activists and pilots, raising concerns both about the procedures themselves and about the possibility of delays caused by passengers reluctant to accept the new procedures.

"Almost to a person, travel managers are concerned that TSA is going too far and without proper procedures and sufficient oversight," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, an advocacy group representing corporate travel departments. "Travel managers are hearing from their travelers about this virtually on a daily basis."

Jeffrey Price, an aviation professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver, said two trends are converging: the regular holiday security increases and the addition of body scanners and new heightened measures stemming from the recent attempted cargo bombings. Also, several airports are short-staffed, which will add to delays, Price said.

Homeland Security and the TSA have moved forcefully to shift airport screening from familiar scanners to full-body detection machines. The new machines show the body's contours on a computer stationed in a private room removed from the security checkpoints. A person's face is never shown and the person's identity is supposedly not known to the screener reviewing the computer images.

Concerns about privacy and low-level radiation emitted by the machines have led some passengers to refuse screening. Under TSA rules, those who decline must submit to rigorous pat-down inspections that include checks of the inside of travelers' thighs and buttocks. The American Civil Liberties Union has denounced the machines as a "virtual strip search."

Concerns about both procedures are not limited to the U.S. In Germany over the weekend, organized protesters stripped off their clothes in airports to voice their opposition to full-body scans.

More at link

[Bidah]

I fly about as much as MB, so that means at least 2 times a week, every week.  I opt for the full body rub and pat down instead of the scanner in every instance that I can.  Yes, if you choose to 'opt-out' they love to humiliate you in front of the others by yelling up and down all the screeners that they they have an 'opt-out'.  I don't really care and find it amusing.  So far all the body work has been done in a professional manner.  Then of course I have not been to Chicago or Newark which are the usual suspects for that behavior.

-Bidah

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

............Then of course I have not been to Chicago or Newark which are the usual suspects for that behavior.

-Bidah

I was thinking I'd go for the scanner if I were at the Philadelphia airport.  (city of brotherly love)

[DGF]

There is an old joke about a Bar in Texas that is so tough that when you enter they ask you if you are carrying a gun or a knife, if you answer no, they give you one.

Extreme, but it seems to me that if those of us that are not terrorists were armed the terrorists might be a little slower to hijack a plane. Homeland Security perpetuates the myth that box cutters were successfully used to hijack one of the 9/11 planes. This is untrue, what was used was the terrorists saying that the plane was going to be landed safely and they would make their demands known. Since no-one had ever crashed a plane into a building before, the passengers were passive. That is no longer the case, act up on a plane now and angry passengers will settle you hash quickly.

On the question of bombs it seems to me a quick sniff by a trained dog would suffice. Who here hasn't been sniffed by a dog? Nothing new there.

[Hazcat]

Week end before last I spent an hour with 2 cute nurses  holding my groin. 
The Catheter and Arterial bleeding took most of the fun out of it though   

Almost made me forget this,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101116/ap_on_bi_ge/us_airport_security

By JOAN LOWY and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Joan Lowy And Adam Goldman, Associated Press – 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Nearly a week before the Thanksgiving travel crush, federal air security officials were struggling to reassure rising numbers of fliers and airline workers outraged by new anti-terrorism screening procedures they consider invasive and harmful.

Across the country, passengers simmered over being forced to choose scans by full-body image detectors or probing pat-downs. Top federal security officials said Monday that the procedures were safe and necessary sacrifices to ward off terror attacks.

"It's all about security," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It's all about everybody recognizing their role."

Despite officials' insistence that they had taken care to prepare the American flying public, the flurry of criticism from private citizens to airline pilots' groups suggested that Napolitano and other federal officials had been caught off guard.

At the San Diego airport, a software engineer posted an Internet blog item saying he had been ejected after being threatened with a fine and lawsuit for refusing a groin check after turning down a full-body scan. The passenger, John Tyner, said he told a federal Transportation Security Administration worker, "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested."

Tyner's individual protest quickly became a web sensation, but questions also came from travel business groups, civil liberties activists and pilots, raising concerns both about the procedures themselves and about the possibility of delays caused by passengers reluctant to accept the new procedures.

"Almost to a person, travel managers are concerned that TSA is going too far and without proper procedures and sufficient oversight," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, an advocacy group representing corporate travel departments. "Travel managers are hearing from their travelers about this virtually on a daily basis."

Jeffrey Price, an aviation professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver, said two trends are converging: the regular holiday security increases and the addition of body scanners and new heightened measures stemming from the recent attempted cargo bombings. Also, several airports are short-staffed, which will add to delays, Price said.

Homeland Security and the TSA have moved forcefully to shift airport screening from familiar scanners to full-body detection machines. The new machines show the body's contours on a computer stationed in a private room removed from the security checkpoints. A person's face is never shown and the person's identity is supposedly not known to the screener reviewing the computer images.

Concerns about privacy and low-level radiation emitted by the machines have led some passengers to refuse screening. Under TSA rules, those who decline must submit to rigorous pat-down inspections that include checks of the inside of travelers' thighs and buttocks. The American Civil Liberties Union has denounced the machines as a "virtual strip search."

Concerns about both procedures are not limited to the U.S. In Germany over the weekend, organized protesters stripped off their clothes in airports to voice their opposition to full-body scans.

More at link

And there is the truth of it.  "Officials" are "preparing the public" to put up with more and more regulations on every aspect of life.  When will we stand up and say "ENOUGH"!

[JC5123]

There is an old joke about a Bar in Texas that is so tough that when you enter they ask you if you are carrying a gun or a knife, if you answer no, they give you one.

Extreme, but it seems to me that if those of us that are not terrorists were armed the terrorists might be a little slower to hijack a plane. Homeland Security perpetuates the myth that box cutters were successfully used to hijack one of the 9/11 planes. This is untrue, what was used was the terrorists saying that the plane was going to be landed safely and they would make their demands known. Since no-one had ever crashed a plane into a building before, the passengers were passive. That is no longer the case, act up on a plane now and angry passengers will settle you hash quickly.

On the question of bombs it seems to me a quick sniff by a trained dog would suffice. Who here hasn't been sniffed by a dog? Nothing new there.

+1

[billt]

I don't see how this can possibly last. Especially with the Thanksgiving and Christmas travel days coming up. It won't be long before someone gets knocked on their a$$, or some hot babe files a high profile law suit. Look at most of these idiot's who work for the TSA. Their turnover rate is sky high, and most look as if they have the I.Q. of room temperature. This is a disaster waiting to happen. I don't think I could stand still while having some 250 pound moron massaging my crotch multiple times. Watch, it will only be a matter of time before some university comes up with a study stating the scanners are causing cancer in rare gay jungle mice. Leave it to the government to cause problems with zero results, and waste billions of the taxpayers dollars in the process.  Bill T.