Leave it to the ACLU to ignore an issue that has Americans, both Left and Right, up in arms. Have you ever noticed that the ACLU tends to ignore the real issues 90% of the time? And the other 10% of the time, they usually do the right thing for the wrong reason(s). Witness the national ACLU
The ACLU said, “[During] the new standard pat-down, a screener of the same sex will examine your head, shirt collar area, and waistband, and may use either the front or back of his or her hands to feel your body, including buttocks, around breasts, and between the legs, feeling up to the top of the thigh. Women in tight skirts that don’t allow an agent to feel the thigh area may be asked to remove the skirt in a private screening area and will be given a gown or towel to put on.”
If you search the ACLU website, there is zip. Nada. Zilch. Nor any complaints from the national ACLU in the news about people getting groped and abused. A few State ACLU chapters have chimed in, but, they don’t seem all that concerned, either. And, yes, flying is a privilege, not a right, as the saying goes, yet, we do still have a 4th Amendment, and the people doing this stop and gropes are federal employees, with all the power and none of the responsibility. Were they a private business doing the security, one would think that the airlines would have slapped those who go overboard down, as well as adjusted the written procedures.
Now, if you’ve had problems, let the ACLU know. Because, apparently, none of them actually watch or read the news in this era of 24 hour cable news channels and easily accessible news on the ‘Net.
Fortunately, they are concerned with
- Now’s the Time to Hold President Bush Accountable for Torture
- ACLU Letter to the House Opposing H.R. 5566, the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010
- Join Us for a “Fair Game” Screening in NYC Next Week!
- ACLU Says Lawsuit Charging Wal-Mart With Wrongfully Firing Medical Marijuana Patient Should Proceed
Back to the original article the quote came from, the writer makes an excellent point
After telling your child for years to not let anyone touch them, you’ll now have to add an addendum … unless it’s a TSA employee.
Meanwhile, Janet Napolitano appears to be about to cave to CAIR
“On the pat downs, CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] has recommended that Muslim women wearing hijabs refuse to go through the full body pat downs before boarding planes,†CNSNews.com asked Napolitano at a Monday press conference. “Will you insist that they do go through full body pat downs before boarding planes?â€
“Look, we have, like I said before, we are doing what we need to do to protect the traveling public and adjustments will be made where they need to be made,†Napolitano responded. “With respect to that particular issue, I think there will be more to come. But, again, the goal here, you know, we’re not doing this just to do it. We’re doing it because we need to keep powders and gels and liquids off of planes that are unauthorized just as we need to keep metals off of planes.
CAIR has put out their own little primer for jihadis, er, Muslims, to go through security. Anyone want to be that the TSA quietly changes their rules to accommodate the folks that we are most concerned with, you know, the members of a religion involved in the vast majority of airplane hijackings?
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU. sit back and Relax. we’ll dRive!
Teach I got a LOT of hits when I googled ACLU and TSA and most of them seemed to show that the AXLU has been fighting qith the TSA in court for some time. And here is a link to the ACLU itselfhttp://www.google.com/search?q=aclu++tsa&hl=en&ned=us&tab=nwhttp://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/tsa-pat-down-search-abuse
with a link to file a complaint. http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/tsa-meets-resistance-new-pat-down-procedures https://secure.aclu.org/site/SSurvey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=1440
The ACLU fought and lost against the xray machines when they were first introduced under Bush.
The argument that ‘flying is a privilege’ seems weak to me, even ignoring that we always retain our rights against government agents, even when engaging in a privileged activity. Driving is a privilege, yet I don’t give up my 1A or 4A rights when I am stopped by the police for speeding.
The ‘privilege argument’ can easily be applied to motorists – if there are a sudden rash of car bombs resulting in building collapses and a high number of fatalities, will we accept random stop and searches by the TSA, after they are granted authority to patrol the highways? Driving is also a privilege.
Taken to it’s logical conclusion, even people who walk on the public street would be subject to similar searches if people started blowing themselves up in public places, the logic being ‘traveling in a public place is a privilege therefore you must submit to random searches.’
One would think that this couldn’t happen, yet here we are with people being told at random that they must submit to a physical search, exactly like the one Police perform when detaining or arresting you.
The whole thing doesn’t sit well with me because I don’t believe random searches are an effective deterrent, and I see this as an extension of government authority that will only continue to expand.
Once we get used to being ‘handled’ at the airport, what else will we submit to?
There are actually several links on the ACLU website referencing the new TSA policy. This first link says the ACLU “is assessing possible responses to this policy” and gives a link to “report your experience” with TSA manhandlers.
http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/tsa-pat-down-search-abuse
This blog post on the ACLU website calls the policy TSA’s “latest bit of security theater designed to try to make us feel safer without actually increasing safety.”
http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/tsa-meets-resistance-new-pat-down-procedures
John and Sam, you might notice that I actually mentioned the “TSA meets resistance” link, which doesn’t actually say anything but “hey, let us know if you have problems,” because they obviously do not read the newspapers or watch the news.
Funny that you both take the same tact: did you get your TPM email today?
That’s an excellent point, Larry. Because of the steel rod in my leg, I am almost used to being patted down. And they have put in rules that makes it an offense if you opt out of that.
[…] Teach asks about the whereabouts of a certain four-letter group? Leave it to the ACLU to ignore an issue that has Americans, both Left and Right, up in arms. Have […]
Quote:
Women in tight skirts that don’t allow an agent to feel the thigh area may be asked to remove the skirt in a private screening area and will be given a gown or towel to put on.â€
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! Are you ok with your daughters and wives being forced to disrobe and put on a towel awaiting to be groped?
THEY ARE SEARCHING Toddlers and babies. Do you really think this is OK?
And, what is even worse, they are doing these searches on flights INSIDE the USA. Do you really think a farmer from Kansas going to Kentucky should be groped?
Why are we even doing the groping and Xray scans? I thought the metal detectors and the large vacuum chambers solved all the issues?
The only way this will change is to stop flying. When the airlines feel the pinch, then the TSA will listen. And, put TSA back under the control of the airports.
[…] it. There are a few other articles from the ACLU, which a few commentors have remarked on when I said they were absent (failing to notice I had already mentioned those same articles), yet, the ACLU is simply saying […]