Amen brother - stop the security theater and do something real!
Posted by snowpeeps7 at November 7, 2008 03:21 PMPS:
* Change the frickin' name of DHS. Homeland Security smacks of a fascism that this blog and it's readers have remarked on several times.
* Officially destroy the color-coded terror warning system. I'd suggest a public burning, but that might be taken wrongly, particularly after the previous comment.
Posted by idiosynchronic at November 7, 2008 04:17 PMFUCK THE FUCKING FUCK, YES.
Idiosynchronic, I think they quietly retired that horseshit .. dunno when, but haven't seen it since - oh, around Oct 04
Para, I think it will take a while for specifics like this to change .. there will be a national breathing, unwinding .. of course I want it fucking NOW and tomorrow, officially .. but something momentous has already happened, unofficially .. every single participant in this bullshit is soon to be under a different boss ..
But yes, let's never stop pushing .. we the people must destroy these tendrils of facsism .. fucking Job One.
Posted by Sharkbabe at November 7, 2008 04:32 PMNo kidding.
Homeland always seems to sorta imply there's a need for...Leibensraum.
Doesn't it?
Posted by snark at November 7, 2008 04:33 PMSnark, that would be Lebensraum". Liebensraum is something rather different.
Posted by Shirin at November 7, 2008 05:21 PMParadox, you and I are of the same mind. Time to roll back the "get in line and shut up, it's for your own good" attitude.
It has been just ludicrous having to remove our shoes and send them through and x-ray monitor...as if someone intent on blowing up the plane couldn't easily stash some C-4 inside of a money belt. Sheeesh.
Then again, TSA quality control tests show that present procedures only catch 50% of banned items, including fire arms. What does it mean?
Simply that there are no terrorists trying.
The GWOT is a fraud kept alive by extremists, overt and covert, in and out of world governments. Will Obama call it for what it is? Or will any geo-politcal foe continue to be automatically be associcated with "Al-Queda".
I've had it with the Likud stategy of counter-terrorism...it has the effect of perpetuating conflict.
Posted by brisa at November 7, 2008 05:23 PMChange the frickin' name of DHS
I always thought Heimlandversicherheitsamt would have been more appropriate.
Posted by Anonny at November 7, 2008 06:42 PMSnark, that would be Lebensraum".
Spelling Nazi. Somehow fitting in this instance.
Liebensraum is something rather different.
So is asshat, which is another word I didn't use.
But I think my point was clear even if my spelling was not.
Posted by snark at November 7, 2008 07:14 PM"Homeland" and "security" BOTH suck ass.
I hate the fucking word "security" anymore. It means "surrender to Erik Prince World, bitches."
There is no "security" in this world and life, and Job 2 is exposing this fucking fraud "security" industrial complex for what it is .. hucksters yet again preying on the reptile brain .. for your "security" they'll steal your last dime, then make you grateful for their "security" patrols under the bridge where you and your family are living ..
Posted by Sharkbabe at November 7, 2008 07:21 PM"But I think my point was clear even if my spelling was not."
Yes, your point was clear. However, it was not merely spelling I was correcting. Lieben and leben are two completely different words with completely different meanings.
And yes, I am a bit of a language nazi. So sue me! :o}
Posted by Shirin at November 7, 2008 08:59 PMFunny...I always thought of the no-fly list whenever I heard that line in the JetBlue commercials:
"You are now free to move about the country!"
Posted by Dr. Wellington Yueh at November 7, 2008 09:04 PMOK, you asked for it buddy. Questioning State Authority is a thought-crime. You're on the Double Extra Secret No-fly list...
Posted by Darryl at November 7, 2008 09:05 PMOn the other hand .. a couple weeks ago when I flew from Dulles to Brussels .. just from living on the internet I was expecting to be stripped, hooded, and sent to a black site somewhere for commenting on blogs like this .. really except for the shoe bullshit, I felt the airport security to be in some actual reasonable place .. like not every schmuck on the planet (e.g. me) is suspect.
But I'm a middle-age white blond female murkan thing .. it fucking sickens me the harassment, detention, theft of electronic devices, etc, that has been done to men and women of "other" status here ..
Well, on every domestic flight I took last year there was a notation on my boarding pass that indicated I had been "randomly" selected. So, all my things were taken from me, I was placed in a roped off "corral" where I waited until they let me out of there and put me into a plexiglass box where I waited some more. I was then let out of the box and taken to an area where I was told to stand with my feet on two markers more than shoulder width apart, frisked rather thoroughly, and then stood and watched while all my belongings were examined, and gone over with some sort of chemical-impregnated paper or cloth that I guess is supposed to detect explosives or something. And finally I was allowed to go on my way.
Although I do have an "exotic Middle-Eastern name", I am a middle-aged, reasonably attractive, well-groomed, well-dressed, well-behaved female American citizen. And yet I am "randomly" selected for this special treatment every single time. It is very demeaning, and I can imagine that if I were a timid person, or a visitor or an immigrant and insecure about my status it would be very intimidating and frightening. As it is it only pisses me off every time it happens.
Posted by Shirin at November 7, 2008 09:41 PMHave a look at my site - www.liberalrevolution.wordpress.com
Doubt if i'll get a look-in at the US now lol
Someone write to Barack and tell him!
Posted by John at November 8, 2008 02:50 AMI wish somebody could hammer you guys' message into the heads of the UK government. They are determined to bring in an Identity Card scheme for all of us, which will entail a gigantic database of personal information. Passports will involve biometric info. They are cunningly starting it off with people like foreign students, hoping that good old British xenophobia will ensure no protest about that. Then they'll stealthily extend it to the rest of us. The thing is, over the past year or so, hardly a couple of weeks has gone by without news of a hard disc or memory stick of personal data being lost - left on a bus or something. Both opposition parties are against it, and if the Tories, who seem likely to win the next General Election, make a firm commitment to scrap the scheme, I shall, after half a century of voting Labour, vote Tory for the first time. It won't make too much practical difference, as Blair has moved the Labour Party further to the Right than the Tories!
Posted by Colin at November 8, 2008 03:49 AMYes, your point was clear. However, it was not merely spelling I was correcting. Lieben and leben are two completely different words with completely different meanings.
I never typed the word "Lieben" or "Liebensraum". You did. So I'm not quite sure how you were correcting anything more than a spelling error on my part. But if you feel inclined to provide a German grammar lesson go right ahead.
Posted by snark at November 8, 2008 04:13 AMwhat do lieben and leben mean then ?
katherine
Posted by Katherine Hunter at November 8, 2008 05:54 AMAs someone who travels regularly for work, this really made me laugh. They are so reactionary! I sometimes wonder what would have happened if there had of been a pants bomber instead of a shoe bomber.... And don't get me going on the liquids...
Oh well, at least they are bringing the priority lanes back at security.
Posted by Tex at November 8, 2008 06:08 AMSuppose President Obama keeps the Bush regime Enabling Laws in place. Will it be an "Oh well, never mind?" Over on DailyKos someone was savaged for pointing out the contradictions of voting for change and getting Rahm Emmanuel as CoS.
Posted by skeptic at November 8, 2008 04:14 PM1) They could start paying the TSA employees a living wage. You get what you pay for.
2) Get serious about Airport security. Passengers are not the only security risk at airport, employees have access that a passenger would never have. Local TV News has done many reports about: gang members being hired to handle baggage, employees not turning in badges and access keys when fired or otherwise leaving employment, unsecured access doors.
...getting Rahm Emmanuel as CoS.
Who would have thought that Obama would pick a politically experienced friend from Chicago to be his CoS?
Posted by uptown at November 8, 2008 04:18 PMYeah, I was really hoping for an administration full of people chosen just because they aren't Washington insiders.
The fuck with actually getting anything accomplished the next 4 years.
Posted by snark at November 8, 2008 05:48 PMThe entire security thing is a patent FRAUD anyway.
IF a terrorist really wanted to cause a total shut-down of the entire country, all they'd need would be to hire about 10 fanatics like the 9-11 hijackers, send them to the U.S. with enough money to go to gun shows in 10 different states.
Anybody with the money can purchase any kind of rifle they want and pick it up the same day at a gun show. No background check, no nothing. Thanks NRA!
The ten terrorists buy sniper rifles, each in a different state, and then, on a certain date they each just drive to a freeway overpass in their area and start shooting randomly at cars passing below on the highway before driving off.
If they get away, they pick another overpass on the next day, and then the next until they're caught or killed.
It would bring highway traffic in the U.S. to a complete standstill. There would be no way to guard all the hundreds of thousands or even millions of highway overpasses in America. No way at all.
By day 2 it would be certain that America was under another terrorist attack, and nobody would have any idea how many terrorists there were, or whether there were more out there, etc.
The fear would go on for months after the last was caught or killed because of the uncertainty. People would be afraid to drive, and everybody needs to drive to get to work.
The effect would be FAR greater than any airplane hijacking.
I wouldn't even mention this idea, except that those insane domestic terrorists in MD already did it, so anybody who's crazy enough to want to do it already can read all about how they managed to avoid getting caught for so long.
Two guys, one insane veteran with a sniper rifle, and one getaway driver, caused massive panic for weeks, immense traffic snarls as police closed down the highways looking for suspects (in all the wrong places of course), and made everybody wait in 4 or 5 hour lines to get home from work.
It's easy to cause massive disruption of American society. Everything is so interconnected.
Hijacking airplanes is SO 2001. There are much easier and more difficult to guard against means today.
Posted by Cugel at November 8, 2008 09:39 PM"Lebensraum" is "elbow-room", "space to breathe". "Liebensraum" would mean more like "Enough space to have sex". What was written, "Leibensraum", would mean more like "[pants] that fit your fat gut".
Posted by rilkefan at November 8, 2008 10:19 PMwe should consider ourselves lucky the shoe bomber wasn't the underwear bomber.
Posted by Richard W. Crews at November 9, 2008 01:03 AMWhat was written, "Leibensraum", would mean more like "[pants] that fit your fat gut".
So what I typed actually IS appropriate for fat ass Americans!!! ;)
Posted by snark at November 9, 2008 05:47 AMI prefer "enough space to have sex." Those airplane bathrooms are so fookin' small!
Posted by iamcoyote at November 9, 2008 06:23 AMWhile we're at it, let's stop the degrading and humiliating treatment of non-citizens too. Non-US visitors are fed up with what we do to them and aren't coming. Let's make them welcome to come
here, play tourist, buy things, study, and let the good times roll. We can control our borders
(at the very least at the airports) without making
non US visitors feel like they're arriving at a
prison.
Citizens of the this country are not malleable children, they’re Americans.
47% are apparently still malleable children, looking at the election results.
Amen on the airport security theater. I visited Australia and was relieved to find they don't bother with the shoe-removal and no-liquids crap on domestic flights. And the security they had was much more low key, courteous and professional, not the rule-driven authoritarian-asshole-with-a-badge mentality too often seen in the US.
Posted by Kyle at November 9, 2008 03:58 PM