Republicans and Teapartiers really are an enigma. I've been reviewing several of their websites today and most of them are using the new Airline Safety Measures - Body Scans and pat downs as another method to beat up President Obama. What an enigma. They pretend to be so concerned over Safety for the American people, they even encourage and sanction torture, yet they are duplicitously attacking the President and the TSA for implementing safety security measures at our airports, our most vulnerable target repeatedly used by terrorists. How can they forget last year's "Christmas Airline Bomber?"Last year, after the Bomber was caught BEFORE he detonated his device, these same folks were UP IN ARMS over the President not doing enough for airline safety.
This year, before the Holidays, the TSA implemented a new Body Scanner technology in many major US airports. Passengers have two choices, they can either submit to a body scan or to a body pat. Either one of these methods would have stopped last year's bombers. He had a hypodermic needle tucked away in his clothes. He had a bomb packed in his underwear.
Granted, these searches and pats are not "fun." Airline travel isn't fun anymore for anyone. Flying "coach" has always been a nightmare being confined for hours into a small space with too many pe
ople. With the large number of people travelling, this makes the target all the more convenient for terrorists. It isn't a wonder these added measures of body scanners had to be taken. Remember all of those sci-fi movies that predicted this? Airline travel is a nightmare and these safety measures are unfortunately needed.Now, however the "Party of No" is capitalizing on this Safety Inconvenience and using it as another weapon against our President and his Administration.
Today, on Meet the Press, Bobby Jindahl said there was no need to stop most people for these "invasive" searches. Jindahl suggested, instead, that the only people that should be subjected to searches is those we think are terrorists - aka Racial Profiling. Last week, conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer said the same thing. He said, "We pretend that we go through this nonsense as a small price paid to ensure the safety of air travel. Rubbish. This has nothing to do with safety - 95 percent of these inspections, searches, shoe removals and pat-downs are ridiculously unnecessary. The only reason we continue to do this is that people are too cowed to even question the absurd taboo against profiling - when the profile of the airline attacker is narrow, concrete, uniquely definable and universally known. So instead of seeking out terrorists, we seek out tubes of gel in stroller pouches."
I think it is ridiculous to racially profile those we "think" are terrorists and let the little grannies and strollers roll by unsearched. Yet the Republicans, Fox News and the Tea Partiers (aka non-minorities / ole boys) are all rallying behind this "racial profiling" suggestion. Sure. Only stop the people in turbans or people we think look like they are "Middle Eastern." Another move to Stop the Brown People. Of course that would mean that none of the teapartiers or Krauthammer would be stopped. Being a granny myself, I guess that means I would not be stopped. African Americans would not be stopped. Only brown, Middle Eastern people in their 20's - 40's would be stopped and scanned. Is that it? That means, Bobby Jindahl, YOU WOULD BE SCANNED and Body Patted. Is that OK by you? And what about the Christmas Bomber? You know, the young guy that looks a little like a young Eddie Murphy? Why profile him? According to Jindahl's and Krauthammer's recommendations, he wouldn't be.
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14 comments:
I guess the Republicans and TEA party member are guilty of every sin committed on the face of the earth and everyone else is simon pure. What nonsense! Those who are objecting the the invasive body pat downs are representative of all aAmericans as are those who are willing to put up with them in the interests of safety. I wonder where you stand on invasive body pat downs?
An Israeli security specialist suggested that profiling is the answer. Works for me.
Ultima,
Here is what you are missing.
I hate flying. I always have. However, it is a necessary inconvenience. Therefore, I put up with the small spaces, cattle calling, violation of my own space, etc. Now, due to the vulnerability and easy access by the terrorists, I also put up with the horrible inconvenience we are ALL put through for safety reasons, like these body scans and pat downs.
I remember last year, dropping my 10 year older sister off at the airport. As she passed through the security gates, they made her take off all of her jewelry, including wedding rings, even the flower in her hair. (she is an old fashioned beauty) She even handed them her cane. However, she did it, no complaint at all, even though she is an elderly great grandmother and certainly no security threat. And I watched her go through this inconvenience with no complaint either. She followed procedures, as a former military person, wife of a veteran, and mother of a son who is career military and has served 3 tours in Iraq/Afghanistan. It is what we ALL have to go through if we travel and if we want to be as secure as possible as we travel.
No need to racial profile. We just all have to understand this is what we all will go through because there are terrorists in the world.
What we cannot abide, however, is racial profiling. If we succumb to this, it will make us ALL less safe. If we do, then we really are giving in to the terrorists. All they will do is continue to move the threat to non-traditional groups (old grandmothers and children with hidden weapons) and cause those we racially profile to be targets for the angry among us.
I have no problem going through body scans and pat downs for national security. I feelit is totally necessary in this day and age. However, for you to claim that it is only the right aka Teapartiers and Republicans who object to this is just plain nonsense. There are objecters to these methods on both the right and the left.
ACLU (a leftist organization) defends stance against full-body scan
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3959535/see-no-evil/?playlist_id=87249
US Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, who with New Hampshire "DEMOCRAT" Carol Shea-Porter cosponsored the bill curbing scanner use, is sticking by his stance that the scanners could violate a traveler’s privacy, but said of his bill: “I don’t think it’s going anywhere at this point.’’
Republicans don't care about Americans or National Security. They used the bombing of the twin towers as a way to make money. Bush Cheney didn't care about keeping Americans safe they cared about keeping them scared so we the people would support their money making war machine.
GOP Continues to Sabotage START Treaty, Even as Military Leaders Urge Passage
On ABC’s This Week, Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, aggressively urged the Senate to ratify the New START treaty, which Senate Republicans are threatening to obstruct. Mullen stressed the urgency of getting the treaty ratified, as US inspectors haven’t been on the ground monitoring Russian nuclear weapons for almost a year now.
MULLEN: This is a national security issue… From a national security perspective this is absolutely critical.
AMANPOUR: …Is the Senate playing politics with American national security?
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, wrote this weekend:
Suppose that during the previous administration, the Democrats had opposed President George W. Bush’s efforts to protect airplanes from would-be bombers and had blocked his strategy to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorists’ hands… Republicans would no doubt be running ads juxtaposing Democrats with Osama bin Laden, or alleging, as they did then, that Democrats are giving “comfort to America’s enemies.” Yet right now, Republicans are providing the comfort… they are blocking a Senate vote on a treaty with Russia that is critical to securing loose nukes and keeping Iran from gaining the bomb… Republicans seem to have entered a post-post-9/11 era, in which national security is no longer a higher priority than their interest in undermining President Obama.
Anon,
What I said was, I have visited several Left/Tea-Party websites and THEY are ranting about the scanners/pats and using this as another method to target the President and his administration. A few right/wacko sites doing this include:
. Tea Party Express
. Drudge Report
. Breitbart
. Alipac
. Stormfront
just to name a few.
This type of demonization is NOT happening on the left or center. Instead their is some thoughtful discussion, not demonizing the President and and blaming him for this.
Republicans have no problem with the Patriot Act or Racial Profiling or other measures that infringe on our rights.
The true root cause for their agita is they want to yet again Privatize the TSA so their Big Business friends will take over the process and continue to fill their giant pockets with PAC Money contributions!
Since we're all adults here and subject to having our groins groped by complete strangers, let's talk real turkey. This whole pat down thing is simply ridiculous. The explosives could simply be held against the body underneath a menstrual pad or depends and the TSA isn't going to make grandma drop her depends now are they. Same thing goes for a menstruating woman or a baby's diaper. Therefore, the whole pat down thing is bogus !
So, Dee, refute that if you can.
Jools,
You cannot refute that the new scanners and/or pat downs WOULD in fact have stopped the Christmas Airline bomber last year. He hid a needle AND his crotch bomb in his underwear. The needle would have been spotted in the scanner and the crotch bomb would have been caught in the pat down. Plain and Simple.
Personally, as I said, I hate to airline travel, especially during holidays, even without the scanners and the pat downs.
We ALL know airplanes are easy targets for the terrorists. They have tried time and time again, there more than anywhere else, and we know it. Of course the TSA has to take extreme measures, and those that travel have to just suck it up. I don't know why the teapartiers and the republicans are making such a fuss. The most recent survey says 81% of the American people agree with me. I wonder why the Naysayers are making such a fuss. But then again, they ARE the party of NO and they will do anything to make our President's life miserable (just like al qaida)!
The point is, anyone with a depends, etc. can conceal a bomb under it and it will not be detected in a pat down. If the X-mas day bomber had worn a depends and gone through pat down, he wouldn't have been detected either. Furthermore, the terrorists can and have concealed bombs in body cavities. Therefore, the pat down procedure is INEFFECTIVE. If it is ineffective, then there is no justification for it.
And as for making the president's life miserable, that's laughable. Our lives are the ones that have been made miserable. He and his family aren't enduring this and neither are any of the other big wigs on capitol hill. Even Hillary Clinton said she would avoid it if she could.
As for your poll results, they certainly aren't the Gallup results which show the majority objects to the scanners and the vast majority objects to the pat downs.
Jools,
I blame the Terrorists for making airline travel worse. As I previously said, it was never great. I used to travel frequently. A while back my husband and I were travelling back from Vegas to Michigan. We had a stopover in Chicago. It was snowing. They kept us cooped up on the plane, on the runway for hours, then took us back to the terminals for de-icing, then back on the runway for more hours before take-off.
Another time, on my way back from NJ, they re-routed us to Atlanta and they kept us there, in the terminal, until morning.
I've been on very tumultuous flights where the plane shook and twisted the entire flight.
Then during holiday travel, the airports were so crowded, people were kicked off flights because they over-scheduled. Elbow to elbow. Chin to shoulder. It was awful.
I do not enjoy air travel, and I never did. Now, with these added safety measure, it is no fun at all.
However, I DO NOT BLAME THE TSA nor President Obama for these inconveniences. I blame the Terrorists. That is the point! If Body Scanners and Pat Downs stop even 1 terrorists, then they are well worth the inconvenience.
Finally blog with usable informations.
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