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"A grassroots group of fliers who say they are fed up with airport “feel ups” and who call TSA X-ray machines “porno scanners” are cooking up a Thanksgiving Eve revolt that, they vow, will turn the nation’s heaviest travel day into “holy hell.”
Fueled by two new websites — OptOutDay.com and WeWontFly.com — as well as by several awkward, security-point frisking videos that recently went viral, movement members are vowing to unleash a surreal spate of Nov. 24 disruptions just as millions of Americans fly off for annual family feasts. Atop the protesters’ tactical list: urging passengers to “opt out” of full-body scans, forcing TSA employees to instead administer “enhanced,” hand-sliding, pat-downs that can include feeling a person’s inner thighs and buttocks.
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One X-ray glimpse typically takes TSA employees about 30 seconds, but the more-intimate, physical searches — implemented by the federal government three weeks ago — can last several minutes per passenger. If a large enough portion of travelers choose to “opt out” of the scans, security lines could potentially coil to record lengths at multiple airports — and travelers may miss their flights.
While John Pistole, head of the TSA, called the planned, collective opt-out “irresponsible,” a TSA spokesperson promised Wednesday that the agency will be “well prepared” and “fully staffed” to handle any such actions.
Protesters have their doubts.
“TSA is not going have the manpower to stick their hands in the pants of every man coming through there,” said James Babb, a 42-year-old advertising consultant from the Philadelphia area who co-founded WeWontFly.com. “We are really encouraging people to not just opt out of the radiation scan but also opt out of the groping by not flying at all.”
The Patriot Act Fucked us all. When the alternative to flying takes exponentially longer or impossible then it is not a consumer choice but a necessity. Sheep in some cases, the homeland securities bitch in most cases.
Suggestion:
Wear an adult diaper with a full load. TSA grope away and enjoy the smell!
Foldie responding to a comment by shotgunBOOMBOOM
11.22.10 - 9:38 am
All this media attention to this subject has me wondering why such a slick campaign against this??? I'm not talking about the ACLU, or these boycott sites. I'm talking about all the major media giving this issue so much attention.
Amy Goodman on Democracy Now was talking about how she watched everybody go through the scanning machine and she was the only one who refused. She ask the TSA officer if she was the only one to opt for a pad down. He responded, "pretty much, most all of the people go through the scanners."
I know one congress member pushed for the privatization of the TSA. I think there is something more to this campaign of attention against these machines then meets the eye?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
i think they should privatize the TSA. if our tax dollars are already being spent to irradiate travelers and humiliate cancer survivors, i'd much rather have a private corporation do it more efficiently. and while we're at it, let's de-regulate the FAA. if flying is safer than driving, we're spending too much!
Pull ur head out of conspiracy land. one question mark will suffice.
This issue has ballooned for several obvious reasons.
1) ppl have been fed up with this shit for years, its only now that the techniques have gotten so invasive that bar of annoyance has captured more people's attention.
(this is no less unconstitutional than taking off ones shoes ... its just more visceral)
2) Great Branding: "Don't Touch my Junk" and funny/scary photos/ video ensure that this is will sell newspapers & ads
3) The right usually bends over for inspection if a rethuglican is in charge, but with a the hated one in office, they LOOOOOVE to make this about invasive government, its taylor made for their narrative.
Basically this is a perfect storm of cultural circumstances.
Not to discount the desire to privatize NSA, but as you know, its not necessary to create a catastrophe to be willing to try take advantage of situation to further ones political aims.
As your girl Naomi Klein has aptly argued:
In moments of crisis (in this case pr crisis) pols & businesses will do thier best to take advantage.
This is a perfect situation for privatization too.
We went from the airports / airlines being responsible for keeping travel safe, to the government taking over that job. Ppl were too busy folding up their constitutions post 9/11 to consider wether the fed even had a legal right to search every one without probable cause.
Now people are starting to ask if these searches are even legal under the 4th amendment. Its a fair question. But its to be expected that any walking right wing talking point will use this (or any other "crisis") as an opportunity to try and destabilize obama's government and privatize something. anything.
It's pretty simple. Make the fed employee based search so horrifying that you are thankful to walk through an xray machine which used to seem invasive but no longer when faced with a fed goon fondling your package.
Fight back. Opt out and moan like a pornstar when they touch your ding dong.
A probable explanation I was presented with is....A distraction from the Food Safety Bill that was going through the Senate while all the hoop la was raised about the TSA groping and scanning.
Latest good news on the Command and Control of Food Bill is that there was a revenue raising provision in the Senate's version of the bill. The Senate can't originate a revenue raising provision. This procedural problem may hold it up and kill the bill. :)
I'm a little sad because I am gonna fly next month so I will have to deal with this crap.
I'm opting for the pat down for sure. I had to get surgery and some post-op treatment for cancer a couple years ago and I am not really eager to expose myself to any more of this kind of BS than I have to.
Never seen Glenn Beck, except in the backround tv at the gym. Didn't have volume but I thought it was hilarious that he would but on the half glasses and have this Ben Franklin vibe about his look, while using a marker board like he was Gene Scott with pictures of the countries forefathers in the back. My impression of the guy is what everybody says about him and excerpts I have seen about him. The Cartman character created on the South Park facebook episode, that was hilarious also, I think it was a cross between Beck and that emotional financial guy who advised everybody to stay in Lehman Brothers the day before it crashed.
Did Glenn Beck cover the Food Safety Bill? What he say about it? I would be surprise that corporate tv would have a problem with it, when the bill was favored by big food business to make it harder and cumbersome on small farmers and small food producer to the point of putting them out of business.
sexy responding to a comment by sack or crack you choose
12.3.10 - 1:52 pm