Editor’s Note: After a long hiatus, we’ve just received another article submission from Richard Deekbag. His previous submission was posted here in an effort to represent a perspective opposite of Liberty Maven’s typical material. You can read that previous article, Why Ron Paul is wrong on every damn thing!, here. This new submission is being posted for the same reason. Remember, he’s an anti-Ron Paul neocon who runs the following website (we apologize for the length of the URL):
What a joke! All these idiots complaining about their junk being touched by the TSA. I say we should just stand there and take it like real men. I say, “If it’s for national security then TOUCH MY JUNK, PLEASE!!” It’s the patriotic thing to do. If you opt-out of the junk-touching then the terrorists win, pure and simple. If you opt-out of the junk-touching then you hate America!!
I do think there is room for the TSA to improve this process though. It appears that all females get to be felt up by female TSA agents and all males get to be fondled by male TSA agents. This is a discriminatory practice. The TSA should ask the traveler if he or she is a homosexual. If the answer is affirmative then the traveler should be appropriately touched by a member of the opposite sex.
Yes, all touching in the name of national security is appropriate. Other than that small change I applaud the great work of the TSA over the past few weeks. The skies are infinitely safer and there can be no one who says they aren’t friendlier with this policy in place. In fact, they just published a children’s book to help children adapt to the new policy. Here’s is the cover:
There’s been a backlash against airport screening procedures. Passengers object to scanners that reveal their naked bodies, and to enhanced pat-downs that would be considered sexual assault anywhere else.
We object to the TSA’s new procedures. But they are just the latest in a long list of indignities imposed upon you since 9/11, such as . . .
* Being forced to remove your belt and shoes when screened
* Seeing your toothpaste and nail clippers confiscated
These violations presume that you sacrifice your Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures when you want to board a plane, but the politicians didn’t amend the Constitution to achieve this. They just ignored it.
Congress created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to screen passengers and baggage after 9/11. But the TSA was ill-conceived. Potential terrorists already residing in the U.S. have little incentive to use airplanes in their plots. There are too many other, easier targets. Please take note . . .
Airline-related terrorism attempts since 9/11 — such as the shoe bomber and the underpants bomber – originated overseas, outside the TSA’s jurisdiction.
The entire TSA scheme is like trying to close the barn door after the cows have already escaped.
They say, “To cook a frog, don’t toss it into boiling water, put it into cool water and turn the heat up slowly”.
Our government would tell us that for the right (they call it a privilege) to fly on a commercial flight, we must submit either to a dose of radiation and provide a naked rendering of our body or submit to a government groping. . . or both. Either option, would be considered a crime if committed without a claimed “government authority”. The history of airline/airport security for the past forty years clearly shows that security is not the goal
Although airline hijackings have existed since, at least, the 1930′s, they didn’t “come into vogue” until the 1960′s with demands from hijackers to be taken to Cuba or some other political venue or for the payment of a ransom. This changed in 1970 when three airliners were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft were forced to fly to Jordan where the passengers were ultimately released and the aircraft were destroyed. Today, this would be classified as a major “terrorist” event. In reality, they were political hijackings, which occurred only because they were allowed to occur. In 1970, as today, the existing security measures did not address the problem nor were they meant to correct the problem. At best, they were (and are) all theater meant to provide a sense of security.
Each of these hijackings could have been prevented – at minimal cost, without government involvement and without the sacrifice of personal liberties. Simple: lock and reinforce the cockpit door. Although, we’ve all been herded through metal detectors, emptied our pockets and had our bags x-rayed, nobody thought to “lock the door” for more than thirty years; until after 9/11.
Earlier today in a business meeting one of the participants from out-of-town complained of being groped by the TSA prior to his flight earlier this morning. He said that the TSA goon knelt down in front of him and began working his hands up his leg. The TSA goon then looked up and said, “Just warning you. I’m going to keep going until I hit resistance.” The business colleague then said, “I swear I almost felt like I was raped. It was completely uncalled for.”
I think Americans are finally starting to really get fed up. Now, Ron Paul is coming to our defense, yet again. He introduced a bill earlier today about this very problem and his speech on Capitol Hill demonstrates just how fed up he is over this complete disregard for individual rights. Check out the video below.
* If you want your Congressional Representatives to take action to stop the TSA from using using scanners that will show you naked, please ask yourself . . .
* How many more people in YOUR district would need to pressure YOUR REPRESENTATIVES to get them to take action to protect YOU.
* What is the number? How many people will it take in your district?
* Whatever that number is, what can you do today, right now, to get others in your district to take the action that you are taking. Please reach out and touch people and get them to join YOU in asking Congress to protect YOU.
* Doing this isn’t up to DownsizeDC.org. It’s up to YOU. All we can do is provide you with tools to make it easier to get what you want. The rest, recruiting others to help YOU get what YOU want, is entirely up to you.
In the name of “fighting terrorism,” President Obama wants to give the FBI more powers to monitor Internet activities without a judge’s approval.
You may think this wouldn’t apply to you because you’re not a terrorist. You would be wrong. It could apply to anyone and anything that the FBI deems “related” to a terrorism investigation. FBI agents don’t even have to go before a court to explain themselves. The FBI alone gets to decide.
Obama wants this new power even though the FBI has abused the powers it already has!
Do you want Big Brother knowing the people you email or the sites you visit?
We interviewed Rand Paul the first time back when he was trailing Trey Grayson in the Kentucky GOP primary by 11 percentage points according to polls at the time. As everyone now knows he ended up winning the primary and the first money bomb (or blast) is scheduled for tomorrow (June 28th).
Dr. Paul was kind enough to take time out of his insane campaign schedule to answer some questions for us. Check out Rand Paul’s second interview with Liberty Maven below.
And don’t forget to participate by donating during the money bomb!
LM: Immediately following your landslide victory over Trey Grayson in the primary, the left-leaning media began attacking you and the attacks have not eased up. Thinking back, prior to your primary victory you probably anticipated being attacked from the left, but did you believe the attacks would be so unrelenting and national in scope as they have turned out to be? Do you fault yourself for inviting the initial attacks a bit, by agreeing to go on Rachel Maddow’s show the day after your victory?
Rand Paul: Our election night victory was spectacular. We won by 24 points. Over 500 people gathered for our victory. We had satellite TV trucks from every network and did 15 national interviews the next day. But it didn’t take long for the media to decide that they were going to be less than neutral after our victory. Since then it has been relentless attacks from the left-wing media in Kentucky and the left-wing media nationally. I joke with people that it was like Dickens wrote in the Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But the good news is that the polls still show us with a double digit lead, despite all of their attacks. I think the mood of the country is for reigning in big government, for controlling the deficit, and for bringing attention back to a government that should be restrained by the Constitution.
It’s always easy to look backwards and say I could have, or should have done one thing or another. In retrospect, going on a Left-leaning network that apparently had an agenda since they had been discussing it all afternoon and misconstruing my position was probably not a good idea.
There are many gigantic horses’ hindquarters milling about in Washington DC trying to figure out ways to save us from ourselves. I have to say though that Joe Lieberman is the biggest of them all.
Earlier, I wrote of his bill to give the president the power to shutdown the Internet in the event of a “cyber-attack”. Here he attempts to assuage the public by crying, but “it’s for national security!”:
And yes… the climax of his argument is that having the power to shutdown the Internet has worked so well for China that it should be done in the United States.
Joe, if you like China so much, just go there and leave us freedom-lovers the hell alone.
According to the AP, the DoD and Homeland Security are pressuring the FAA to open the U.S. skyways to unmanned aircraft.
WASHINGTON — Unmanned aircraft have proved their usefulness and reliability in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the pressure’s on to allow them in the skies over the United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration has been asked to issue flying rights for a range of pilotless planes to carry out civilian and law-enforcement functions but has been hesitant to act. Officials are worried that they might plow into airliners, cargo planes and corporate jets that zoom around at high altitudes, or helicopters and hot air balloons that fly as low as a few hundred feet off the ground.
On top of that, these pilotless aircraft come in a variety of sizes. Some are as big as a small airliner, others the size of a backpack. The tiniest are small enough to fly through a house window. [Continue article]
I find this Orwellian bit of news chilling. For a better look at Micro-Air Vehicles (MAVs) and other unmanned aircraft, take a look at these videos: Read More »
* to prevent terrorists from boarding planes, even though there are an infinite number of other ways to engage in terrorism
* to prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses – which only increases the likelihood they will drive without ever being tested, creating more dangerous roads http://tinyurl.com/yf5r595
Why should either (misguided) goal interfere with an American citizen’s attempt to renew a driver’s license?
Liberty Maven
Loading ...
