MSM turning TSA issue into "Tea Party was right" declaration.

[WilliamPitt]

It's one thing to see DUers agreeing with the likes of Mike Huckabee and other far-right luminaries on the TSA issue. I have a busted watch at home that's right twice a day, so I suppose Huckabee and his ilk could be right once.

But now comes the Times:

===

The latest controversy to envelop the Obama administration is only partly about the specific rules governing body scanners and pat-downs. It has to do, too, with the federal agency Congress created to deal with airline security and the tension that has been building for years between its latex-gloved employees and the traveling public.

In this way, the “Don’t touch my junk” fiasco raises, yet again, what has become the central theme of Mr. Obama’s presidency: America’s faltering confidence in the ability of government to make things work. From stimulus spending and the health care law to the federal response to oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Obama has continually stumbled — blindly, it seems — into some version of the same debate, which is about whether we can trust federal bureaucracies to expand their reach without harming citizens or industry.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/us/politics/24bai.html?_r=1&hp

===

Stumbled?

Or was this "government sucks" theme forced down our collective throats by the same MSM that happily rebranded the GOP base into the "Tea Party," and then highlighted their insane gibberish on a daily basis until it became the central theme of the 2010 midterms.

Huckabee's right. The insane new House chairman of the Transportation committee is right. Now we hear, right between the lines, that "the Tea Party was right," too.

Great.

[emulatorloo]

1. "Obama is a Socialist who wants to Touch Your Penis"

The finger prints of the right wing noise machine is all over this story. The usual suspects employing the usual exaggeration and hyperbole and divisive rhetoric.

I did not hear this kind of right wing outrage over airport patdowns during the Bush administration.

[WilliamPitt]

2. "...The usual suspects employing the usual exaggeration and hyperbole and divisive rhetoric..."

And many around here fall for it hook, line and sinker.

Again.

[emulatorloo]

6. Nice piece on the Huckabee "statement" from Josh Marshall at TPM

DU Thread Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=532927&mesg_id=532927


Lurid and Corrupt
Josh Marshall | November 24, 2010, 12:04AM

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/11/lurid_and_corrupt.php?ref=fpblg

I did a brief segment on Hardball this afternoon. And as I was waiting to go on, I listened through my earpiece to the preceding segment on the on-going TSA/pat-down controversy saga. The key is that I was mic'ed up so could only hear the audio. I wasn't able to see who Matthews was interviewing. But it was a rank introduction to the level of lurid and vulgar demagoguery a lot of conservatives are resorting to to milk this story for political gain. The guy Matthews was talking to kept referring to people's right not to be forced to have "nudie" pictures taken of them or their daughters and wives. Always with the menfolk unwilling to let their daughters and wives be 'scanned' -- but that's another story.

In any case, it's worth remembering that the idea that your daughter or whoever strikes you as your most inviolable kin is having a 'nude' picture taken of them is just nonsense. Whatever else you can say about the backscatter scans, they usually reveal about as much as you do walking around the pool in a tight bathing suit. (Note: A number of the more revealing 'backscatter' pics you find on Google are actually fakes.) Of all the issues I've seen raised in this story, the invasiveness of the backscatter imaging strikes me as by far the weakest. And a poll out today shows that the public overwhelming approves of the use of the scanners as a tool to combat airliner terrorism. The pat-downs are another matter. And I've heard enough to make me wonder about the longterm risks of repeated exposure to these scans.

Next up was a clip from Mike Huckabee in a really gutter-minded, scurrilous voice daring President Obama to take his wife and two daughters to National Airport and have them get an aggressive pat-down in full view of the public if he wants 'our' wives and daughters to submit to the same. The mix of race and sex and populist demagoguery packed into Huckabee's verbal slash was enough to bring you back to one of a hundred or a thousand rants below the Mason-Dixon line fifty or sixty or seventy years ago.

Now, let's stipulate to the obvious fact that having you or I get a pat-down in a crowded airport while most people are more concerned about getting to their planes on time or aggravated about standing in line or whatever is a rather different matter than even imagining the sort of nutso media circus that would ensue with the president having to drag his 9 and 12 year old daughters down to DCA for a pat-down that would amount to a ritual humiliation in front of the international press corps. The comment itself, the visual created, is simply disgusting, as is the whole personalizing of the situation with regards to the president.

He's president. He's ultimately responsible. But President Obama didn't come up with this idea. And bringing the air of looming sexual threat to his daughters or even his wife in cheap political hustler comments is just shameful.

There's no other way to put it.

[Mojorabbit]

10. I was complaining loudly against it

during the last admin when I was forced to stand with my legs apart with a tsa person yelling at me to keep them spread while I was groped.

[emulatorloo]

13. I know! But was Huckabee and Drudge and Limbaugh?

It is very fishy, I question their motives.

[dennis4868]

3. This anti government talk that is making its way into the MSM is scary....

It was the government that saved the auto industry, wall street, created/saved 3 million jobs, keeps people alive by helping folks with health insurance, and keeps us safe everday....FUCK YOU NY TIMES AND ALL THOSE FALLING FOR THE REPUB/TPARTY NARRATIVE.....it may sound good but your argument is without substance.

[krabigirl]

30. Yes, it is so terrible to question the government. .......

[n2doc]

4. This is what happens when one has an out of touch President

Obama could have stopped this, could have taken the lead on understanding people's fears. He did not, spewing the same old authoritarian "It's for your own good and nothing will change" crap. So the loonies are going to run with it.

Don't blame folks for having an entirely rational distrust and fear of oppressive security measures. Blame our leaders for accepting and implementing such measures.

[emulatorloo]

5. Or it could be this month's "Ground Zero Mosque"

hyper inflated scandal of the day

[democrat_patriot]

8. He should do away with any airport security.

Let an attack happen, and resign.

Good plan.

You want the POTUS to micro-manage the entire federal government? Really? He should fire his cabinet and disband every federal institution so he can run it all from the oval office. With 1 secretary and a Blackberry?

The President stays above these types of things for a reason. He's not GW rushing back to Washington to save terry Schiavo. It's the story of the week, that's it.

Grandma was patted down in an airport? Oh. My. God. Whatever shall we do?

Much more important than the economy, North Korea bombing South Korea or 1000 other things he has to deal with every day.

Focus on something important.

[n2doc]

11. Straw man, much? n/t

[democrat_patriot]

18. This whole discussion is a Straw Man.

And saying Obama is out of touch because he hasn't waded into the morass of this particular argument is disingenuous at best. And a Republican/Tea Party talking point at it's worst.

[tavalon]

24. I'm not a teabagger. I'm definitely not a Republican

The ACLU has one of its pages devoted to this privacy violation.

Here's my posting about it from the other day:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9608293

[krabigirl]

31. +1

[bigtree]

7. it's the latest wedge

. . . being used to fan the flames coming from the left, as well as from the right. It's not just anti-government, but more anti-Obama than anything else. It feeds into the narrative that he's something other than American. Funny, though, that the 'national security' regime is a Bushian product born right out of the Rove playbook. So is this backdoor attack through the left. In this political climate where the President is being attacked from all sides, it's clear that conservative hacks aren't doing their part in the plethora of attacks on the WH out of some deeper conviction other than their cravenness to win or defeat the President. It is a shame to see Democrats fall for the hype and adopt the same tone and rhetoric that freepers and other bigots deploy. It's really become too easy for anyone on the right to gain traction on the left with the bullshit they spout against President Obama.

Huckabee and his TSA rant is the latest example of this developed tactic of the right. If he's so concerned, why doesn't he just call his republican Homeland Security friends (in and out of government) who founded and perpetuate the regime and give them the benefit of his cornball wisdom?

[PVnRT]

9. Never mind that the left has been screaming about this for years

Well, at least some of them have, a lot have seemed to drop their concerns about civil liberties based on who is in the White House now.

[Poboy]

14. Yes. Some have been PO'd about this shit since the Patriot Act. But due to

complicity, duplicity, or just plain weakness, our side didn't fight. No one would stand up for us.
So, now the vaccuum has been filled. The caused has now been champoined by others, due to the FAILURE on the left.

[guardian]

21. +1000 n/t

[seabeyond]

17. mazing how conveniently people forget, isnt it. i have been on this for a long time and

because right is now on it, i am suppose to shut up?

i dont think so.

[tavalon]

27. I've been screaming about it for years

and I haven't stopped under this administration. I wondered why it suddenly grew legs this week but I've seen issues that I've fought for years grow legs without any apparent reason before and I find that that is the time to scream the loudest. Creepy bedfellows if the teabaggers and Limpballs are on it, but I've only been here and at the opt out site and I sent an email to the White House, (so I didn't know they were screaming too). But I do that on some subject or another almost daily. It's like my daily absolutions. One day, I'm praising them, the next I'm scolding, sometimes I plead and sometimes I thank, but I sure do a lot of emailing to them.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

12. I found it interesting that the "Don't touch my junk" guy immediately made the RW media circuit. nt

[tjwash]

15. Hmm...TSA employees start to grumble about low wages, long hours, and drop hints about unionizing...

...and all of a sudden, 7/24 on every single news channel, message board, and radio show, they are transformed into the devil incarnate, and need to be replaced with "private contractors."

Never mind that the reason that the TSA was developed in the first place, was that private minimum wage/shit-bennie rentacop companies were just doing such a bang up job up to 9-11-2001. The news, radio shows, and message board warriors seem to be conveniently omitting that little tidbit from their collective ranting.

And now on fox/cnn/nbc-ge/abc news, a message from our sponsor...the company formerly known as Blackwater.....

[seabeyond]

16. dems were fighting this fight first.... during bush. we are just being consistent. the right

has only jumped on the bandwagon the last week. cant help what msm is creating. but then, there is a reality

[noise]

29. Exactly right

Criticism from the left isn't the same as that of the teabaggers.

[BeFree]

19. So, ya know what?

I look at my dollar bill... that piece of paper that somehow makes me feel richer.
Flip it over and what do I see?

A BIG EYE staring back at me.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

20. Demonize, Destroy, Privatize - typical strategies for union busting, not to mention ACORN, Muslims n...

[sally cat]

22. Trying to turn this into a rightie thing to scare off the left isn't working.

[woo me with science]

25. DingDingDingDingDingDingDing!

This is the correct answer.

[krabigirl]

32. thank you.

[somone]

36. Exactamente

I've seen airport security evolve over the years, I've experienced and witnessed TSA stupidity. (No, I haven't flown in the last few weeks so I haven't been groped). But this business of forcing the scanners and gropers on the public to enrich a few corporate CEOs is simply not acceptable and should be condemned.

[tavalon]

23. I can't really tell from your post where you stand on this

I've been angry about these scanners for a number of reasons for quite a while now. I was happy to join the chorus when it finally grew legs this last week. I'm not a teabagger, obviously, but if this is an area where I happen to agree with them, so be it. This is a slippery slope and we've already gone half way down the hill. It needs to stop.

As I said in my post the other day, this isn't about your safety, it's about your obedience. The airport is a training ground, both for the TSA as the enforcers and for the public as the docile sheep. They've crossed a line and I hope we continue to push back. I doubt it in this day and age of daily outrage (which, damn it, I thought was going to diminish after the Shrub!).

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. And next comes PRIVATIZE since we all know Elite

will do this much better... CACHING!!!!

[Major Hogwash]

28. Dude, they'd really be happy if there was a real catastrophe for them to whine about.

It doesn't matter. You don't get it.
It doesn't matter what Obama does, he's wrong.
If he implements more stringent air travel rulez, he's wrong.
If he relaxes air travel rules, he's wrong.

If he doesn't help CBS, NBC, and ABC increase their ratings, he's wrong.
If he doesn't let an airplane blow up somewhere, he's wrong.

And now, that's about what it would take to make them happy.

So, then they could say, why didn't Obama prevent this, he's wrong.

The MSM sucks.
I thought we all agreed to that a long time ago when we came to the DU.
What the hell do you think we're all here for?

Because the news is not on the MSM.
It's on DU.

Turn off the boob tube.
There's a reason they call it that, ya know.

[janet118]

33. You said it all . . . n/t

[kentuck]

35. But they win either way...

If we are attacked, they win.

If we are not attacked, they win. Because Democrats are against freedom.

[kentuck]

34. I would not be surprised...

If the Repubs turn this on the Democrats. The Democrats are fascists. They want to intrude on every facet of your life. There is no freedom in America.

This would be a great political issue for the Repubs and the Democrats would be lost in the wilderness.

[Generic Other]

37. Sorry Bush retains the title to this mess but he gave the lemon to Obama

If Obama drives it, he gets blamed when the bald tires and bad brakes go out causing an accident. The man behind the wheel gets hauled into court. Unfortunately, that's the reality.

Just because he doesn't own this piece of junk, doesn't mean it's not still a piece of junk.

Many of us on DU have been yelling about it since Day 1 of Patriot Act. I have no illusions whose fault it is that we are all riding in this lemon. Only Obama has the power to apply the brakes. Why shouldn't we expect him to do this?

Why is Chertoff still calling the shots?

[somone]

38. Bingo: "Why is Chertoff still calling the shots?"

Thanks for a perfect executive summary of the whole mess.