Interestingly,ultra liberal Village Voice is the only major newspaper on the net to cover this so far, and it uses Obama’s excuse to ignore the drive to decriminalize marijuana it-says "Oh this is -just- the voice of the Internet-"http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/09/petition_to_abo.php
The Village Voice also claims people will be very angry if they aren’t groped “Also, what do you propose replacing the TSA with? It’s not that we like the TSA – they’re always groping people – but, you know, you’d need to replace them with some other kind of security system otherwise people would get very, very upset”
Do you agree with the Village Voice that without TSA’s invasive search techniques people will be very upset? It’s important to remember what the MSM debate has left out:groups like the 1 in 6 women that have been affected by sexual violence or elderly/disabled men & women with implants.
Do you think the viral nature of this new petition shows a common resentment Americans have towards the new TSA security policies,understandably because they’ve have been found to allow multiple known instances of harassment, theft, extortion and sexual abuse by its employees and have failed approximately 70% of undercover efficacy tests? Or is this, as Obama said during 2 town hall meeting in response to questions about marijuana decriminalization, the makings of the Internet audience?
Here is a great article “The Things He Carried” (title spoofs a popular war book by Tim O’Brien) for discussing this topic, about if what the TSA is doings is even worth it let alone unethical.
Reported for forum change.
663,000 names on petition protesting Troy Davis’ execution. He was executed anyway.
You have the right to petition the government. They don’t have to listen. I can’t think of any petition that has ever resulted in a major policy change. If the TSA changes it will be because people make their case in other ways.
The Village Voice is “MainStream Media” now? Ultra liberals prefer to be groped at the airport now? This is a very confusing OP.
More people for the No Fly list… 
This is different, this is the White House forming a system for people to sign the petitions,called We the Peoples. This will be more direct. It’s much easier to ignore petitions on these other sites,some petition sites aren’t the best quality. This one is “official” and it’s just more satisfying to sign these petitions knowing the results are on WH website…
-The Village Voice is “MainStream Media” now?
I said it was “the only major newspaper -on the net-”,not the MSM(should’ve said news site instead?). But it was difficult to categorize the VV-they have name recognition but aren’t part of the MSM , they have local subscribers but also have an online reader base.
- “Ultra liberals prefer to be groped at the airport now”
That’s totally out of context
I said “ultra liberal Village Voice”(replace ultra with far left if it’s a bad description)
And part 2, I said “Village Voice also claims people will be very angry if they aren’t groped” -this was meant to be sarcastic,sorry it didn’t come through. The article which I quoted said that people “would get very, very upset” if TSA current security was changed and not replaced with more security. I find this misrepresents many frequent flyers I know. The people who would be very upset if they stopped doing the random invasive searches are the TSA employees.
@Doctor Who I disagree because this would mean the TSA was designed partially to harass Americans. I think they are just a poor bureaucratic response, with some hostility towards the public just like many cops.
But because tracking 17,000 people all of a sudden would just make the system more vulnerable to error by clogging it with a growing number of petitioners These people obviously aren’t terrorists.
That is why I disagree that it will add people to the no-fly list.
@Dewey Finn ahh, I see. Is it possible to move the thread myself?
No, it’s not possible to move a thread yourself. I’d recommend clicking on the triangular symbol in the upper right hand corner of one of your posts (even the original post), which is the Report Post button. That will allow you to alert a moderator or administrator that you want them to do something for you.
I think maybe you’d get better responses if you didn’t use trigger words and phrases such as MSM, ultra-liberal, or far left. It makes you appear really, really partisan.
FWIW, I disagree that the TSA should be completely abolished, but I do support repealing those policies and specific legislation (i.e., the Patriot Act) that leads to excess curtailing of freedoms and privacy in the pursuit safety and security. Specifically, I would like to see the elimination of the extremely expensive, utterly impractical and potentially unsafe backscatter x-rays and ineffective millimeter wave scanners as well as the unnecessary and offensive “enhanced patdowns.” I am not, however, opposed to all security measures and support the use of mechanical sniffers, dogs and traditional metal detectors.
I also think the 3-1-1 policy is dumb and inconvenient (and inconsistent) and for the love of all that is holy give me my goddamn nail clippers back. How do you hijack a plane with nail clippers? Let’s be reasonable with the carry-on prohibitions, yes?
I’m not a huge fan of flying to start with, but the idiotic TSA policies does make it quite a bit more unappealing than it has to be. We all know that there are risks for flying, just as in there are risks in taking a train, getting on a bus or going to a rock concert. Why live our lives in constant fear? Just roll with it, people. End the theater.
Also here’s the link to the VV article you cited. I agree with them that the petition is dumb. But not just for the reasons they cited, but because the petitioners don’t address the need for any airport security at all, which is just silly. Does that make me an ultra liberal?
And BTW, I didn’t see anything about the decriminalization of marijuana in there.
The TSA is now a fully-entrenched Federal agency-with its own lobbyists, its own agenda, and its own interests.
So it will ignore any petitions from “We The People”-it doesn’t care!
All its bureaucrats want is:
-a bigger budget
-more regulation
-a fat salary and a big pension.
This is what happens in Washington-the TSA management doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the American public.
The only kind of petitions I know of that have produced change are the petitions to get initiatives on the ballot in California. And they have resulted in about as many bad changes as good ones.
15 thousand people is not enough to worry the White House about anything. A million might mean it gets mentioned in a meeting – if public opinion web surveys were already on the agenda.
Utterly different. That is a process with a set end point. Get x number of petitions and your proposition is automatically on the ballot. That has nothing to do with y number of people making their feelings known to empty air. People are always making their feelings known. Petitions have nothing to add to that unless a formal process is involved. The only formal process the federal government has is elections.
A big ol’ THIS. It is also to hammer home the point that we are now subjects rather than citizens. A repeat of 9/11 was impossible as of 9/12. Reinforced cockpit doors were the icing on the cake. TSA serves NO purpose other than to let you know who is really boss. Move along, “citizen”.
I hate conspiracy theories, but, sadly, in this case I agree. Especially after the scene I witnessed the last time I flew. Now this happened in Montreal, but it was on a flight to the US for which they use somewhat different procedures than on domestic or other international flights. For example, you don’t have to take your shoes off except on flights to the US.
This happened to the woman in front of us in the checkout line. She was traveling unaccompanied by another adult, but with a toddler between 2 and 3. The child was wearing crocs (which are open sandals) without socks. The guy ordered her to take them off. She refused and started to bawl. The guy then ordered the mother to take them off. She did and the child lay down on the floor and had a meltdown on the spot. The guy ordered the child to go through the x-ray. She refused. The mother tried to carry her through, but the agent insisted the child go through on her own. Finally, the mother cajoled her to go through and she did. Then the mother went through and they told her (the mother) that she had been selected for a pat-down in a small separate room. She grabbed the child and headed for the room, but they told her she had to go in alone. Needless to say, the child, deprived of her mother, had a second meltdown.
Now if the purpose of all this was other than to make sheep out of us, I cannot imagine what it is. Protesting will only get you on the no-fly list. If the tea party cannot protest this, what are they for?
Moving to IMHO from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator