TSA pat down demo makes white house staffers 'avert their eyes'

[Liberal_in_LA]

said that several House staffers were so uncomfortable they averted their eyes when the TSA demonstrated an enhanced pat-down in the room of 200 people.

“The dumbest part: they did two pat-down demonstrations – male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch, that people were averting their eyes.”

:blush: :blush: :blush:

“They shot themselves in the foot,” the staffer continued.

Obama administration and TSA officials have been trying to downplay public horror stories that have exploded on the Internet and in the media in the last few days at the controversial screening procedures, suggesting that some of them are exaggerated or even fabricated. ...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/1110/House_staffer_on_TSA_patdown_demo_They_shot_themselves_in_the_foot_.html?showall

[woo me with science]

1. To really drive the point home,

they should demonstrate on family members of these staffers.

[Pacifist Patriot]

32. Indeed.

[WinkyDink]

33. No; on Michelle and daughters.

[derby378]

38. BOOM! goes the dynamite

One "pat-down" search of Michelle, and the searches will be history before Malia and Sasha are subjected to the same thing.

[DeschutesRiver]

50. I want Obama wearing a full urine bag AND a colonostomy bag, receiving

the same search that the 61 year old special ed teacher received that popped his urine bag open. Oh, add the extra extra large pants needed to accommodate the bags, so that they will fall to Obama's feet when he first is instructed to remove his belt. Like they did to that poor teacher.

Add a single pat down of the new intrustive style to Michelle and yes, to each girl, as could be demanded/required of all American familes. Let him see that happening to his family, as he tries to find a public bathroom to wipe and reseal his urine bag, etc - same walk of shame that teacher was subjected to...while for all that anyone knew (or still knows), there could be people "passing" these new inspections with explosives in their body cavities that are guaranteed to go undetected. Some safety measure this is - not.

Only then, if he goes through himself what he casually wishes upon us, will I listen to Obama's opinion on how this thing should be implemented upon the rest of us if we don't agree to be radiated during a machine screening. Simply because someone needed to make a profit off a bunch of scanners, and now must get the public to agree to scanning use in a lesser of all evils choice.

Piss on them - I get this is about economics of a bad business purchase instead some valid safety concern, and won't be participating in this charade.

[a la izquierda]

82. My husband said if I have to get patted down...

when we go to Mexico in January, he's going to end up in jail. I can't imagine what Obama would actually do.

[Richard D]

43. And televised.

Full on. Multiple camera angles.

[Swamp Rat]

55. Broadcast live to the whole world and recorded in HD for posterior...

posterity. :)

[bonzono]

103. reverse angled

Overhead, down bloused, upskirted,
Reverse angled, Sharron angled,
with instant slo-mo replay
streamed on the internet for the
amateur voyeurs of the planet.

[SammyWinstonJack]

106. +1.

[matt819]

94. Better yet

They should do those demos on family members of the TSA employees.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[COLGATE4]

3. I don't think that using the 'to the ovens' analogy is appropriate here.

It is obviously gross hyperbole, and using the Holocaust as an analogy for government policies with which you are not in agreement really does nothing except to diminish the magnitude of the Holocaust. As a person who lost relatives to the gas ovens, I find comparing that event to TSA screening at US airports to be incredibly offensive.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. 50 of my relatives died at Treblynka

and this is part of the lesson... never again...

Sorry if this bothers you but at this point there are reasons to speak this way... even if TSA worries me less (RIGHT NOW) than oh Boehner and Newt... (who use eliminationist language on a regular basis)

[Raster]

10. Thank you for sharing something so poignant about your family's history.

It is time for America to ask the questions: (1) why the TSA; (2) are we safer in the continental United States; (3) is this just another example of our government's "Terror Theater"; and because this was the brainchild of the planners and players of Coup de bush*: who is profiting off of TSA, it's policies and it's new high-tech arsenal?

I'm sorry, but the whole concept and the execution of TSA leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Something about this agency, it purpose(s) and it's methods of operations, DOES NOT PASS THE SMELL TEST.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Actually dems were against it

lieberman was all for it.

And as I said, the threat from AQ is real... we have gone about it the wrong way. And TSA could work for real security. But there are several things here at play.

1.- Americans do honestly believe what others do don't work here, yes we need to find out water boils at 212 degrees. (Yes why all the excuses as to how real security works won't work in the US... and of course technology works better than people)

2.- There is a level of corruption in the US that is about where it was at the gilded age, if not worst. It took Tea Pot Dome to break that one. We are getting close to that.

3.- don't worry, we are at Constitutional crisis point. So a lot of this will seem like navel grazing next year...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9613965

[Raster]

22. If lie-ber-man was all for it, that's possibly one of the rats I'm smelling.

1. Americans are force-fed the bullshit that nothing but our rampant militarism will combat the terrorist issue.

2. Agreed. The level of corruption in the US government is approaching historic levels. This government CONSISTENTLY advocates and enforces plans and positions NOT in the best interests of it's citizens.

[Jackpine Radical]

46. Teapot Dome was peanuts compared to the outrages we have seen

in recent years. Enron, Duke Cunningham, Abramoff, etc.

Just goes to show how far we've "progressed" in outrage fatigue.

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. Nah it was the same

Corruption at the highest levels...but most americans don't know history.

For god sakes...it went all the way to the office of the President.

[Jackpine Radical]

52. From Wikipedia--

For those who aren't familiar with the scandal:

In 1921, by executive order of President Harding, control of U.S. Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and at Elk Hills and Buena Vista in California, was transferred from the U.S. Navy Department to the Department of the Interior. The petroleum reserves had been set aside for the Navy by President Taft. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Harry F. Sinclair of Sinclair Oil, and the field at Elk Hills, California, to Edward L. Doheny. In 1922 and 1923, these transactions became the subject of a sensational U.S. Senate investigation conducted by Senator Thomas J. Walsh (Democrat -- Montana).

It was found that in 1921, Doheny had lent Fall $100,000, interest-free, and that upon Fall's retirement as Secretary of the Interior, in March 1923, Sinclair also lent him a large amount of money. The investigation led to criminal prosecutions.<4> Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000, the same amount that Doheny had lent him. In another trial for bribery Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted, although Sinclair was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury in his case. The oil fields were restored to the U.S. government through a Supreme Court decision in 1927.

[LiberalArkie]

53. But, the news media back then was not entertainment but news.

[Jackpine Radical]

54. And a few politicians still had some sense of decency.

[nadinbrzezinski]

63. We're in the midst of a crisis very close to 1859

Hell Krugman joined me in that view.

[nadinbrzezinski]

62. Again Americans don't know history

It WAS entertainment...it wasn't called yellow journalism for nothing.

[Jackpine Radical]

64. The press always favored the moneyed interests.

The papers were locally owned, but they still slanted stories so as to keep their advertisers happy. Just go back & look at the coverage of, say, Haymarket Square or Kentucky's "Bloody Harlan" events, or the use of the militia to put down the "Bonus Army" before WWII to see what I mean.

[nadinbrzezinski]

65. But we had a parallel press

Which we lack these days

[ProudDad]

66. Actually, this board and the blogosphere

on the internet tubes are examples of the "parallel press"...

And have about the same effect on the capitalist masters as the Worker's press had back then... :shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

67. That's why we have strikes every day

I forgot.

[Jackpine Radical]

89. There were certainly some muckrakers.

Jakob Riis comes immediately to mind. And certainly there was a leftist press, and some cities had progressive newspapers. To take Wisconsin for an example, the old Milwaukee Journal was heavily influenced by socialism in its earlier days, and the Madison Capital Times was a direct outgrowth of LaFollette's progressivism, and even 'way up north in Superior, Tyomies was a Finnish-language Communist paper that published into the '70's. Nevertheless, most of the press was under the control of thebusiness aristocracy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

97. Some things haven't changed

Here is one, found to my chagrin how little we teach of Bacon's revolt...let alone the 20th century.

[Jackpine Radical]

108. You got me on that one, Nadin.

I had to Google to find out about that rebellion against the Governor of Virginia a full century before the colonies declared independence.

[whoopingcrone]

85. ... and Doheny

had a street named after him in LA

[mommalegga]

78. not true

Dems were all for it. I explicitly remember Bush resisting the "federalization" of airport security, but eventually caved.

The law that created the TSA:


http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s107-1447

Almost unaminous; so plenty of blame to go around...


edit to correct link

[awoke_in_2003]

93. "were" being the operative word...

who knows, though- maybe this little demo will change things.

[MadMaddie]

44. You have to ask a few other questions

1. The government has stated that terrorist are talking about using prostetics to deliver terror...Uh...Our large security apparatis is just now thinking about this? WTF was Junior's "security people and Chertoff" doing?

2. Why is the U.S using machines that Chertoff is heavily invested in? Conflict of interest?

3. Why is the U.S not studying Israel's security of airports and attempting to implement something similar? The excuse that Israel is small is not an excuse, for hecks sake we are America and we have the capability and the manpower to make anything happen.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

57. Follow the money:Bush's Director of HLS owns the company that makes the scanners, Michael Chertoff

[ProudDad]

68. To be fair and balanced(tm)

Chertoff's "consulting company" (lobbying firm) "represented" one of the major manufacturers of the porno scanners...

You are most correct though: "follow the money"

[Hawkeye-X]

12. My grandfather survived Auschwitz

He passed away 9 years ago. I miss him.

[Mimosa]

35. The measures to intimidate and control always start in the name of 'security'

Later, rebels are labeled threats. Our beloved Constitution is nothing more than old parchment now with idealistic words.

[WhiteTara]

13. I lost family to the witch burnings in Europe as well

and I think that each little step we take willingly is just that much faster we will "be put in the ovens."

I had a dream a few years ago that has stayed with me. In this dream, we were all cattle. First out in the outer range, but slowly and surely, we were being moved forward toward a chute that narrowed us down so that in the end only one could go through the passage at a time. At the other side was a big sledge hammer killing each one as it came through. Now in this dream, I could see that we were be herded closer together and I kept moving to the back of the herd. But it seems in the end, we will all just get smashed in the head with a big hammer, or "be put in the ovens" as it were.

If you think that we are being dire; well, you must be young.

[Number23]

26. Thank you for saying that. Hopefully it will have some impact. Words matter

History matters.

[flyarm]

79. Actually I do believe the Analogy is correct!I was just at Berlin's Topography of Terror Museum

The first two rows of the exibition ask repeatedly ..how this happened and why. Thee reasons pointed to over and over were ..The breaking of the RULE OF LAW that set up the conditions that made the destruction of Germany's Democracy possible, and the propaganda and intimidation by the police state that had been formed in secret to make vunerable the people of Germany, made the the take over by the Reich fairly easy.

They showed even Jews allowing themselves to be used by the police state for Propaganda Voluntarily, so they could "belong" to the "new In crowd" of the Reich.

To ignore History is to repeat it.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. This reminds me of the movie The Time Machine

(1960 version which was infinitely better than the remake, in my opinion) where the Eloi were so conditioned by that air raid siren that they willingly went underground to their deaths. TSA = Morlocks?

[Goldstein1984]

47. The Rich and Powerful = Morlocks

The TSA is a tool of a developing authoritarian security state, not the cause.

[Swamp Rat]

56. Exactly!

[Blue_In_AK]

59. And of course you're correct.

Some of them even look like Morlocks, just cleaned up a little. Rupert Murdoch, for instance.

[Blue_In_AK]

60. Dupe

[kath]

6. Headline should read HOUSE staffers, not White House staffers.

[WhiteTara]

14. thanks for the clarification

I didn't read the story today. This makes more sense and will have greater impact.

[Ikonoklast]

8. Unrec for misleading headline.

[Bonobo]

9. Not misleading at all. Rec. It is a direct quote, so what is misleading?

From the article:

"People were averting their eyes."

[Starbucks Anarchist]

19. The subject says White House, not House of Representatives.

[Pirate Smile]

20. It is the House, not White House. That is the part that is wrong. The direct quote isn't the

misleading part.

[ProSense]

23. Doesn't matter

It's all on auto pilot.

:rofl:

[uppityperson]

25. seems so.

[uppityperson]

15. Indeed " Democratic and Republican House caucuses convened a rare House-wide staff briefing"

NOT The White House but Congress. And for anyone who says "what's the difference between The White House and Congress", educate yourself.

[Hawkeye-X]

11. Then these people are truly morons

if they can't understand that the 'enchanced patdowns' doesn't work.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Not for the general population

but hey all these gear et al would have a place ONLY with probable cause... which we are not paying attention too

Don't worry, we ARE now at the crisis point

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9613965

All this will look like navel gazing next year... what many of us have been warning about it is here. And most will not recognize this crisis for what it is for a little while.

[Lasher]

16. Unrec for misleading headline.

House staffers, not White House staffers. Big difference.

[tblue37]

27. Instead of unreccing, why not just ask the OP to correct it. nt

[Lasher]

29. The error was pointed out twice to the OP before I posted.

I was the third. There were two more after me. And yet there was no correction or response of any kind from the OP. Do you think the title would have been eduted if I had asked nicely for a correction without unreccing?

I figure the OP has an actual life besides DU and was not sitting at the keyboard when these responses were posted.

[ProudDad]

69. Some people have actual non-internet lives

so the OP just might not have been there at your beck and call...

Worst excuse for an unrec I've heard yet... :eyes:

On Edit: "I figure the OP has an actual life besides DU and was not sitting at the keyboard when these responses were posted." :wtf:

[Lasher]

86. That's exactly what I was saying.

I uncecced the OP, not the person. How on earth could you possibly have missed that? Guess what, I don't need any excuse - and certainly not permission from you - to unrec anything.

Many of us here on Planet Earth have evolved with capabilities called 'reading comprehension skills'. Develop some.

WTF right back at your unrec whining with a double dog on top.

[ProudDad]

95. My comprehension skills are 2nd to none...

you might want to spruce up your incoherent posts...

[tblue37]

104. But what purpose is served by unreccing an interesting post (that many people would

probably want to read) just because the OP made an error in the title. As you said, he/she might have a life beyond DU, so he/she might not have seen the corrections right away. But that also means that yor unrec would have had no immediate impact on the title, either. You seemed to be saying that if you hadn't unrecced, the poster would not have been sufficiently pressured to fix his/her error, but my guess is that if he/she was there to see that he/she had made a mistake, he/she would have fixed it immediately, without the slap of an unrec.

Also, it isn't his/her fault that DU has such an oddly limited editing window so that if he/she doesn't catch the mistake fast enough, correcting it is not an option any longer.

I know from personal experience that it is all too easy to post something in a bit of a hurry and then neglect to proof it carefully enough, only to realize too late that I have committed an emarrassing typo that I can no longer fix.

[Lasher]

105. I said why initially, 'misleading headline'

It's just that simple. There are times in life when a writ of habeas corpus is just not called for.

[Liberal_in_LA]

98. OP speaking. I was offline for 24 hours. Too late to correct. Plenty will

see your comments about the headline. Thanks

[Lasher]

99. Welcome back.

Nothing personal. I confess I myself sometimes flub a line or two every now and then. And I'm glad to see some of us have actual offline lives. I might break away into the real world myself for awhile.

[Liberal_in_LA]

100. Thanks.

:hi:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

18. House, not White House.

[ProSense]

21. Rec

:rofl:

[ProudDad]

70. You mean this White House?

link

[chill_wind]

28. I don't care if it's WH staffers or Hill staffers

they (all policy makers involved in this) should be forced to see images like this, the same as the child forced to experience it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9614046&mesg_id=9614737


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How fucking convenient that our government gets to "avert its eyes" to every police state and criminal action it commits, whether it's of this nature or even on far worse levels of atrocity-- like war crimes, killing and dismemberment and torture. Moral cowards!

[pecwae]

30. ++

[Frisbee]

41. This is how they should be forced to watch...

[LibDemAlways]

77. I love this. Thanks!

[northernlights]

48. +10,000,000,000 nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

107. +1. nt

[Shining Jack]

31. Interesting comment after the article:

"I hope a news person asks President Obama, (with tape rolling), if he would be willing to allow his daughters to go through a pat down by the TSA. I'd like to hear the evasive non-answer he would give."

I'd like to know too.:(

[LibDemAlways]

40. His answer would be something to the effect of:

Well, you know, that's a good question. As President my responsibility, of course, is to keep our nation and its citizens safe, and I intend to keep working hard to ensure the safety of every citizen. As for my daughters, well, they don't travel commercially these days so that's entirely hypothetical. But, as I said, and let me be clear about this, I will continue to work with TSA to address the threats and make sure measures are in place to keep our skies safe.

Next question?

[ProudDad]

71. Next question, Mr. President

Are you familiar with the term "Blowback" and how USAmerican military adventures are assuring that we shall remain highly susceptible to it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9612936

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1105-30.htm

[ProudDad]

72. (Answer - "Blow WHO??? That's what got Slick Willie into trouble!"

"Next Question."

[Enrique]

34. once again, no mention that this is from Politico

Politico gets tons of shit here, some of it very well justified but a lot of it just shooting the messenger.

Now here's a story that I think SHOULD get shit. This characterization of the demonstration is based on a single anonymous source. Who is that "house staffer"? Democrat? Republican? Who?

A lot of times news stories will say that the characterization was corroborated by other sources. But not this one. Which leads me to wonder if the characterization was a total lie. That's been known to happen, right? Remember that recent Rachel Maddow piece exposing Politico printing lies by a republican staffer?

[Ikonoklast]

36. As long as Politico catapults the propaganda that posters on this site froth over,

it will be linked to, unsourced, vague, fabricated...doesn't matter to them.

That Politico was created by and run by right-wing propagandists doesn't matter either.

[struggle4progress]

45. "I just can't start my day until I've had a bowl of Noisy Outrage™ !"

Politico loves serving up the Noisy Outrage

[Lucky 13]

37. I don't understand what people are upset about here.

The posts after the OP have clarified that it was HOUSE staffers, not WHITE HOUSE staffers...

But does that matter? Does it make it more or less horrible that it was House staffers averting their eyes and not White House staff? Does it make it more or less HYPOCRITICAL that it doesn't involve White House Staff?

And it's from politico... not a favorite news outlet of mine... but does that mean it didn't happen?

Jesus Christ people, can we keep our eye on the prize here and not dither about bullshit.

HOUSE staffers were given a demonstration. Many were uncomfortable and averted their eyes. Why? Cause it's a FUCKED UP policy. House, Senate, and/or the White House need to stop this trampling of constitutional rights. NOW.

[dbmk]

96. Actually in Politicos case..

.. it is not unreasonable to think that theres a chance that it did in fact not happen.

Or that maybe it was 2 persons averting their eyes. Or maybe it was everyone.

But when it comes from Politico, especially when citing limited an unnamed sources - it should always be presented, regarded and debated in the context of a sizeable disclaimer until corroborated by a more credible source.

But doing all of that makes it a lot harder to pass Source Critique and go directly to Outrage.

[indepat]

39. The administration must do everything humanly possible to avert any potential terrarist act lest

they be labeled soft on terra and weak on national defense, which of course, tends to make Dems soil their pants which must be avoided at all costs. ;)

[KansDem]

42. Were they fined $11,000?

Oh, wait...they "averted" their eyes...they didn't try to leave...

[BetsysGhost]

51. ya,

I've been watching the discussions on MSNBC. They show a clip of a pat-down where the TSA guy has his hand between the guys legs and then the Government guy goes for the passengers balls.

I saw this scene once, everytime since then I have to avert my eyes too. This is disgusting and I don't know why anyone would or should allow the United States of America to assign one of their Government Agents the rights to violate them or the Constitution in such a vile manner.

al-qaeda or other terrorist groups of course are so stupid and fearful they would never think of inserting some explosive material up their rectum and getting straight through this American idea of security.

Blows me away that people in this country will stand for this. I won't now or ever.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

58. Follow the money:Bush's Director of HLS owns the company that makes the scanners, Michael Chertoff

[ProudDad]

84. To be accurate, chertoff owns the Lobbying outfit

that flacked for one of the companies that makes the porno scanners...

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/352109/body_scanner_companies_poured_cash_into_lobbying_efforts?page=entire


"Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan."

Hmmm, fairly decent bang for the buck... $271,500 spent, $41,200,000 in return --

$1517 per dollar return on investment -- better than the stock market by far!

[Vinca]

61. A little while ago Thom Hartmann was talking about how the screeners

(or gropers if you prefer) don't change their gloves between people. YECCCCHHHH! If they're sticking their mitts inside waist bands and running the gloves through hair, they can be spreading everything from infections to head lice. Absolutely gross.

[LibDemAlways]

75. This morning I came across an article from a few months ago that

illustrated one of the tools TSA uses to recruit these people:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.cristyli.com/%3Fp%3D9205&usg=__fEzzVS6TOxoGIGn-Xms4sYcueD8=&h=375&w=500&sz=80&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=eJ5KYMiW2sohoM:&tbnh=162&tbnw=236&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtsa%2Bpizza%2Bboxes%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1330%26bih%3D820%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=157&vpy=94&dur=5013&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=99&ty=113&ei=JiHsTKPEKoW-sQOV4Nj8Dg&oei=JiHsTKPEKoW-sQOV4Nj8Dg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

Yes, this highly skilled workforce is recruited from ads on pizza boxes. And the ads mention "x-ray vision."Do you feel secure yet?

[Vinca]

80. That's mind boggling.

[Mimosa]

92. I saw one of those pizza boxes a couple of years ago.

Some independent local pizzaria used them. :D

[elias7]

87. Actually, that is a potential public health problem

That should be addressed by CDC. I am a physician in a community ED, and if I did not wash hands or change gloves between patients, I'd certainly be guilty of being a public health risk. In fact, I think I'll write them a letter now. Thom Hartmann is one of the best...

[Alameda]

101. OMG....is this true??? How gross ewwww......

:puke:

[Rex]

73. Can I feel ashamed yet or do I still need to wait?

GOOD! Do THEY wonder if it is fascism yet or did they ALL have something in their eyes? Why didn't one of them volunteer to find out how it feels? :eyes:

I've read peoples reports saying they've had no problems with airport security, to some that feel like they were violated by a govt employee. Personally, I think anything we can do to catch terrorists we should do provided it do not infringe on our personal rights or liberties. Want a solution now? Spend some of that 3 trillion dollars we shit away with GWB on new technologies or just have a DOG at the gates Fer FUCKS sake! Yeah...a DOG, cheap and reliable. He could smell every passenger, they already do this in other countries.

I'd rather have a dog sniff my crotch, than a strange cold hand cupping my balls.

[OnyxCollie]

74. But Then It Was Too Late.

They Thought They Were Free
The Germans, 1933-45
Milton Mayer

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

~snip~

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

The whole "War on Terror"™ is based on a conflict of interest. John Yoo cites Scooter Libby to claim it's a "war."

MEMORANDUM FOR ALBERTO R. GONZALES
COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
-
WILLIAM J. HAYNES, II
GENERAL COUNSEL
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
FROM: John C. Yoo - Signature of John C. Yoo
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Robert J. Delahunty - Signature of Robert J. Delahunty
Special Counsel
RE: Authority for Use of Military Force To Combat Terrorist Activities
Within the United States


It is vital to grasp that attacks on this scale and with these consequences are "more akin to war than terrorism."1


' Lewis Libby, Legal Authority for a Domestic Military Role in Homeland Defense, in Sidney D. Drell, Abraham D.
Sofaer, & George D. Wilson (eds.), The New Terror: Facing the Threat of Biological and Chemical Weapons 305,
305(1999).

From the Project for the New American Century Statement of Principles

Our aim is to remind Americans of these lessons and to draw their consequences for today. Here are four consequences:

• we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global
responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future;

• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;

• we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad;

• we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.

Signed by I. Lewis Libby

Should we be surprised that Chertoff has a financial interest in these machines?

[Alameda]

102. fantastic analysis, thank you for putting this all together.

[Catherina]

76. How demure of them. Fucking bunch of Marie Antoinettes. Have some more cake please. n/t

[flyarm]

81. an ACLU director was just on my Fla local news, he said the TSA Agents have not been trained to do

the Pat Dows in most cases.

So then how can this be implemented when the agents have not been trained to do what they are actively doing??????????

He also said Delta Airlines has requested that Flight attendants not be required to do this seceurity proceedure as they are in the same Safety profession as the Pilots who have now been exempted from these security proceedures.

[ProudDad]

83. Body Scanner Companies Poured Cash into Lobbying Efforts

Big surprise... :shrug:

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/352109/body_scanner_companies_poured_cash_into_lobbying_efforts/


"Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan."

Hmmm, fairly decent bang for the buck... $271,500 spent, $41,200,000 returned --

$1517 per dollar return on investment -- better than the stock market by far!

[Little Star]

88. Lets not forget to mention this little ditty in the article you link to:

"Its lobbyists include Linda Daschle, a former Federal Aviation Administration official."

Tom Daschle's wife.

The right & left pigs all feed at the same troughs.

[Xicano]

90. And you KNOW this demonstration was for PR purposes so its going to be not as bad as regular ones

All this could be a non issue if they just use explosive detecting dogs and would be much cheaper, faster and probably more effective.

[bc3000]

91. Unrec for misleading title.