More TSA mission creep

[Xicano]

Here's another brick in the wall for you. TSA now deployed on highways to conduct random checks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUjIPLFMB5g

[liberal N proud]

1. What are they going to do ask me for my papers?

Airport, I need a boarding pass to get past TSA, on the highway????s

Show me your papers!

[Vincardog]

2. FASCISM is coming to America wrapped in a flag. We have got to stop the rush to the right now.

[dtexdem]

3. Big Brother is watching the interstate.

Will I have to take off my shoes?

[KamaAina]

4. How is that even legal?!

:scared:

[Taverner]

23. PATRIOT Act, actually

:grr:

[awoke_in_2003]

31. As Taverner points out...

the Patriot Act makes it legal. It is, however, unconstitutional- but good luck getting that heard in front of the Supreme Court.

[Dawson Leery]

5. Break up the TSA. It is NOT their job to patrol the highways.

[chrisa]

6. While this is probably legal, it is indeed mission creep and terribly stupid

How could they even expect to find anything out there? Needle in a pin-cushion, and not even worth the cost. :shrug:

[KansDem]

11. Aren't TSA agents essentially glorified rent-a-cops?

Or are they on par with state troopers and police officers who go through academies and training and are part of the public-safety systems of local, county, state and federal levels?

I mean, would we want the rent-a-cop at the local WalMart inspecting our cars and persons?

[AnneD]

15. They are...

hired brown shirt thugs. They hire a certain type because they are not here to protect you from terrorist but to keep you in line.

[SomethingFishy]

14. LEGAL? Are you kidding? What about the right to

unreasonable search and seizure? If this is "legal" then it was in the Patriot Act(Thanks Bush and Thanks Obama) because we were at one time protected from being searched for no reason.

[Matariki]

17. You give up that right when you leave your house.

:sarcasm:

[SomethingFishy]

22. Glad you put the sarcasm thingy there..

and apparently you give it up in your house too. I seem to remember a story not long ago about how the cops are getting around those pesky rights you have.

[Matariki]

24. I've seen that argument one too many times about flying

as if constitutional rights can be signed away via a commercial transaction. The erosion of rights is a creeping thing - first it's flying, then other public transportation, then driving, then your home. People need to understand that. It's important not to rationalize away any ground.

[SomethingFishy]

27. Oh yeah, remember

Sduderstadt? guy used to come in all the time and tell how great TSA was and how if you didn't like it you shouldn't fly and how our safety is so important that we should give up all our freedom to be safe.

I'm almost positive that we have already gotten to the point where all the cops or feds have to do is say the word "terrorism" and you rights are all gone. Too bad I can't confirm it because for my safety I'm not allowed to know how many of my rights have been taken away.

[StarsInHerHair]

33. yeah I had that fool on my iggy list

[awoke_in_2003]

32. Legal and Constitutional...

are two different things. Of course, the Supreme Court would NEVER hear a case against the Patriot Act.

[shanti]

38. it's all those dadgum pot smokers

:eyes:

[Hoopla Phil]

7. How can the President allow this to be happening?

I'd expect this under the rethugs but seriously, WTF??!!

[guyton]

10. ask him right after he finishes closing gitmo ... n/t

[KansDem]

8. See something suspicious? Yeah, TSA, I saw something suspicious!

I saw President Bush sit on his butt and do nothing after being told our country was under attack!

Suspicious? YOU BET IT WAS!!! Now, DO SOMETHING!!!

[guyton]

9. "if you see something suspicious ...say something about it"

Yes TSA, I see something suspicious. I see my constitutional rights being eroded on a daily basis. Is there a hot-line for reporting fascists?

[LadyHawkAZ]

12. Would anyone like to chime in yet again about

how we can totally avoid the TSA searches because we don't HAVE to buy a plane ticket and fly? Is it now "we don't HAVE to drive"?

[truebrit71]

26. No shit, right?

They can't just arbitrarily pull you over and search you...that is a blatant violation of the 4th amendment (not that the airport gropings aren't as well, but that's a different fight)...

I think the even spookier part of this video is the encouragement for citizens to snitch on other citizens...That way when they bust down your door late at night they can say that they had probable cause because your teahadist neighbour dimed you out...

[AnneD]

13. Tomorrow....

there will be a test of the EBS. Instead of coming from stat, it will be national. It was first to last 3 minutes. With the modern technology, they can interrupt every electronic device from game boys, tv, cell phone.

For my money, that is just a little bit too big brother. And if TSA or Homeland makes the announcement, call it what it is. A fascist state.

Oh BTW, they are already doing road block, train and bus stops for some time now. And you thought those were for profit prisons...they are fugee and political prison center that Halliburton built.

[SomethingFishy]

16. You know, they can stop "protecting" me anytime now.

I'd rather get blown up by a terrorist than live in paranoialand.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. That goes for me too

I am shocked, ashamed, and outraged that my fellow Americans will just lie down for this.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. +10

[PufPuf23]

18. Border Search Exemption

From Wiki:

The border search exception is a doctrine of United States criminal law that exempts searches of travelers and their property from the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement.

>>The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), ICE-HSI Special Agents, and Coast Guard officers (E4 grade and above) who are all customs officers (those tasked with enforcing Title 19 of the United States Code) with the United States Department of Homeland Security, are permitted to search travelers and their belongings at the American border without probable cause or a warrant. These searches are therefore exempted from the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. Pursuant to this authority, customs officers may generally stop and search the property of any traveler entering or exiting the United States at random, or even based largely on ethnic profiles.<1> However, customs may only conduct searches of the traveler's body — including strip, body cavity, involuntary x-ray, and in some jurisdictions, pat-down searches — if the Customs officer has reasonable suspicion to believe the traveler is concealing contraband.<2>

Although border-searches are exempted from the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement, they are still subject to the amendment's reasonableness requirement.<3> Whether a border search is reasonable depends on a judicial analysis that balances the intrusion into an individual’s legitimate privacy and dignity interests against the government’s legitimate interest in the subject of the search.<4> In reviewing the reasonableness of border-searches under the Fourth Amendment, many courts have distinguished between "routine" and "nonroutine" searches.<5> Customs may conduct "routine" searches without any level of suspicion, while "nonroutine" searches must be supported by "reasonable suspicion".<6> Under this analysis, searches of a traveler's property, including luggage, briefcases, wallets, and other containers are "routine," while searches of a traveler's body, including strip, body cavity and involuntary x-ray searches, are considered "nonroutine."<7><< etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception

My understanding is that the "Border Zone" is now defined as 100 miles from border including coastal borders and subject to stop and warrantless search.

FWIT I do not see how anyone can deny that the USA has devolved into a new form of paramilitarized and perverserted justice police state. The difference is so much different from experience and perception as a Boomer youth.

If the USA spread peace and prosperity rather than brutal violence, there would be less terrorism.

[Matariki]

25. 100 miles from the entire coast and Canadian and Mexican borders?

That's a lot of major populated areas that have lost their constitutional protections.

[SomethingFishy]

21. Kicking...

20 threads about Cain, 20 threads about the Duggers on the front page but this, our next step into facism falls to page 2? I don't think so.

[hootinholler]

28. Bomb dogs and dope dogs

WTF do drug dogs have to do with the mission?

[meow2u3]

29. Are they going to strip-search drivers in the middle of the road?

That sounds creepy. :scared:

[LisaL]

30. Why not? It's for the name of security, isn't it?

[Hoopla Phil]

36. No, you need to get your propaganda straight. "It's for the children".

I really don't know if I should laugh or cry over this. This is not the country I want, and not the country that was given to us by such great progressives as our founders.

[StarsInHerHair]

34. this must be stopped

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

35. I have been telling the Border Patrol to go fuck themselves or an animal for twenty years

I will happily extend the same courtesy to the TSA.

Presumably the TSA will be the agency charged with finger-banging your children before they board the school bus too.

[krabigirl]

37. the security state is out of control

[GeorgeGist]

39. Another true testament ...

to the American dream. Or is it a nightmare?

[woo me with science]

40. K&R. The country cannot endure four more years of this sort of "creep."

We desperately need a real Democrat.