Airlines will have to hand over passenger information

[UpInArms]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/8218238.htm?1c

The federal government will order airlines to hand over passenger information so it can begin testing a passenger screening/ data collection system, officials said Wednesday.

The system will run basic passenger data through a vast network of computers to verify passengers' identification and assess the likelihood of them being terrorists. Based on the test, a small percentage of passengers will be detained by law-enforcement personnel.

Although Congress gave the Transportation Security Administration the authority to issue a security directive without a comment period, David Stone, the agency's acting head, said Wednesday that the TSA will instead issue guidelines "in a couple of months" that require the airlines to turn over the information.

...more...

[AspenRose]

1. Road trip, anyone?

I see myself logging a lot of road miles for vacation.

[rexcat]

18. We try to drive on vacations as much as possible...

Unfortunately I have to fly to some of my sites. The distance is just to much to drive. I have cut down my flying. I will drive to a site if it is within 5 hours driving time from home.

The really sad thing about this program is the experts say it doesn't work. What we will find is people who are politically opposed to the administration will end up as "yellow" or "red" on their f--king list!

[Kitsune]

2. Yet another reason not to fly.

As if there weren't enough already.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Exactly!

This is an attempt to keep tabs on peace activists.

[tom_paine]

3. Sonovabitch!

Rat bastard Big Brother Imperial Bushevik SCUM!

Yeah, we can all go on road trips...until the National ID Card and the return of "Papers, please!"

:grr: :grr: :puke:

[freeforall]

22. Or until the government gets all those nifty GPS units

installed in all our vehicles so they can track us around.

Horse and buggy anyone?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

24. anything electrical can be, uhmmmm, faulted, as they say

in the UK.

[EdGy]

4. I guess I'll be flying from Toronto or Montreal...

what bullshit!

[liberalhistorian]

5. Reason no. 1,976,999

why I will NEVER NEVER fly again, I don't care how fucking far I have to drive if I need to get somewhere.

Included in this cute little data-mining "experiment" is our medical, credit, financial, employment, civil (including divorce and bankruptcy), and criminal records, including any stupid traffic tickets. Also presumably included is any record of public letter-writing, and ways they can find out which organizations you belong to.

And the kicker is that you're not even allowed to know what information they're using about you to base their decision on so that you can correct any inaccurate information which, I can tell you having worked for a credit bureau and employment background check firm at one time, is far more common than anyone wants to think. My own credit report was riddled with errors and inaccurate, out-of-date information last time I checked it.

I'm with the airlines on this one, they've fought it tooth and nail from the very beginning knowing exactly what the public reaction would be and that a great many people, all with nothing to hide, would simply not want to deal with such bullshit and have their life information out like that, or take the chance that the government wouldn't like it if they were a member of, say, the Sierra Club or ACLU or Greenpeace, or anything else like that. They know it's going to destroy what little business they have left. I hope they sue the government for it, too!

[reprobate]

6. The US airline system is about to self destruct.

With peak oil just down the road, the US airline system is facing a problem for which there is no solution. As fuel prices rise, ticket prices must keep pace. The higher the ticket prices go the fewer people will be able to afford to fly. With fewer ticket sales the ailines will experience a financial crunch from which they will not recover.

Due to the airline industry influence in congress we now have NO passenger rail system to fall back on. Yes, I know about AMTRACK, but that's not a system. It's a few underfunded runs that must beg for money each year to keep from bankruptcy.

We will soon be in the position as a country where there is no mass long distance transport system available except the automobile. But the automobile too will be stuck with the peak oil problem. The higher fuel prices will keep many from being able to travel at all. We will become a nation of separation.

We will become a third world nation.

[saigon68]

7. Adios NWA and your world center in DTW its been fun

Its off to Toronto by car

[Kolesar]

9. 10% of our petroleum use goes to aviation

Just so that people can vacation thousands of miles away or so that grocery stores in Boston can stock leaf lettuce in January.

10% !

[Matilda]

20. I've been wondering why more Americans don't just travel by rail instead.

Please tell me why the cross-country rail system has been downgraded,
and how it happened.

I've seen all those old Hollywood movies where everyone travelled on
those fabulous trains, and thought they were still around.

[UpInArms]

21. most of the tracks have been

pulled up and there are very few rails that even have Amtrak service - no north/south and two east/west.

I love the train - am going to take a 4000 mile roundtrip ride in a couple of weeks :)

Best way to go - no driving, someone else does the cooking, cleaning and all I have to do is eat, sleep and enjoy the people on the train
- I will try to spread as much information around as possible on my journeys :evilgrin:

[arcos]

8. Iberia is moving it's Americas hub from Miami...

to a place yet to be determined... it could be either Cancún, México or San José, Costa Rica.

This is yet another reason not to fly to the US...

[SoundWave]

10. My last flight was 17 years ago

and I'm still not planning on flying ever again. It's ridiculous the way the government is using the events of 9/11 to invade the privacy of every American. Soon there'll be full body cavity seaches for everyone before they can board a plane.

[havocmom]

11. Maybe we need a DU forum for travelers and people who will house them

on long road trips; sort of an evilDUer hostel posting board for mini-meet ups. It seems likely that more and more of our members will start showing up on the 'no fly' list as time goes on.

[laylah]

23. I have a trundle bed

in my humble abode in the QC area of Illinois. As long a one is not a "terraist", or, worse yet, a republican, I can, and would, offer "safe haven".

Jenn

[genius]

12. Expect to see yourselves on the no-fly list

They'll probably soon give a rough time to those criticizing Bush on the Internet.

[liberalhistorian]

17. EXACTLY! THAT is what

I'm really afraid of. I've written plenty of critical letters to various newspapers and magazines, as well as governmental agencies and I'm sure that would be a part of my "file." And what about members of the Sierra Club, ACLU, etc.?

There have already been reports of people who are Green Party members not being permitted to fly because of things they've said against Our Great Leader, etc.

[KittyWampus]

13. Do DU'ers Realise That Currently Name Recognition Is The Screening Method?

Has anyone heard of Gore's Commission on Airline Safety or the Hart/Rudman Report?

Apparently, some on this forum feel that checking Airling Passenger Info isn't worthwhile.

[liberalhistorian]

16. Well, excuse me, but there's a big difference

difference between that and THIS particular plan, which invades every single aspect of our lives and makes decisions about our "safety level" based on that information.

Information of which they have no context (people with not-so-great credit, for whatever reason (such as yours truly) will be given extra scrutiny for no other reason than that they don't have good credit), and they have no right or reason whatsoever to delve into medical, financial, employment, etc., records, especially when we don't know what the context they're looking for is and we aren't even allowed to know what information they're using to base their decision about us on.

[revree]

15. Time to boycott

Don't fly if you can help it. Make it hurt where it counts, in their pocketbooks.

[Bandit]

19. It won't stop with the airlines ~ Trains ,ships, buses, all have passenger

lists and they will be compiling lists and data bases. I think the only way is to go by personal vehicle but sometimes it isn't possible. I wanted to make a trip to the big Island for my Brother-in-law's upcoming wedding but maybe not....

[teryang]

25. Surveillance America

With every traveler subject to government surveillance and tracking, you can kiss the Constitutional rights to travel and privacy goodbye.

I find it interesting that this "security" move is (coincidentally) accompanied by a move by Blackstone to consolidate its access and control of the lodging industry.

Now they can track you on the plane and watch you at the hotel. The opportunities are endless.

[Piperay]

26. I don't fly but

if I did I would get a time share or a charter flight through a club and never bother with commercial planes at all.

[Lori Price CLG]

27. Possible solution to this latest act by the Bush dictatorship:

Arming the Left: Is the time now? --by Charles Southwell "As long as we pose no REAL threat to the powers-that-be, to what is shaping up into a dictatorship, we will continue to be ignored. Right now, we are ignored because we present no organized power to fight this onslaught of anti-democratic, totalitarian government that we are up against... We should remain committed to the absolute condemnation of individual acts of violence or terrorism."

[Endangered Specie]

28. Im guessing if your name is very close to the top of the alphabet...

you get +5% chance of terrrorist?

Mohammed = +10?

[grasswire]

29. Today...

..I took a 60 mile trip on a public bus line to a nearby town. My bag was searched and I was wanded.

It's getting ludicrous.

[PartyPooper]

30. I saw a preview of this last month flying from the west coast.

I checked in at Delta with one of their new kiosks. I had earlier booked a flight online. I inserted a CREDIT CARD. And, then, my boarding pass popped out.

Later, at the gate, they had this overhead (hanging from the ceiling) monitor with a list of names (with, as I recall, green and yellow designations for 'certain' passengers.) There was even a recording..."please be sure you have cleared security / regarding color code before boarding." The names on the monitor never changed. So, I figured this was a test run. But, it made me VERY uneasy. I had read about this new security procedure at DU. And, I was sure this was a test for things to come!

:evilfrown:

[LibDemAlways]

31. Are the feds so dumb that they honestly think

a terrorist is going to present a valid ID? I work for an insurance company with a 200 thousand plus name data base, mostly of Calif. residents, and there are thousands upon thousands of variations of every ethnic name imaginable. They'll be busily searching for people named "Mohammad" while a Richard Reid or Timothy McVeigh get waved through. What a joke.

[question everything]

32. I thought that we had a choice

That if we surrender our privacy we can move faster through security check.

Well, I guess we will take the extra time to be in the airport two hours before departure and just take the slow lane.

Last fall we had a wonderful time in Ireland. Kinda hard to drive there, or to take the train. Not to mention that we had only one week paid vacation.

[struggle4progress]

33. kick

:kick: