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Does Rand Paul Look Irate to You?
Just watch the video and tell me does Sen. Rand Paul look irate about being detained at the Nashville Airport.
He doesn’t look angry to me. Perhaps, the TSA officials at the airport that day might have added too much drama when referring to the incident.
Whatever the case may be, Sen. Paul’s incident has brought to light that it is time that the effectiveness of TSA be questioned. In an recent op-ed that appeared in The Washington Times, Paul wrote about TSA’s work should be on police work, instead of violating our Fourth Amendment rights.
If a federally funded TSA is going to exist, then its focus should be on police work and it must respect the rights of citizens. The TSA should not universally insult all travelers; it should however research, track, monitor and target people that are, in fact, threats to our nation.
This blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unwarranted search and seizure, has insulted many citizens, and rightfully so. I, along with many other travelers, do not view traveling as a crime that warrants government search and seizure. In fact, I view traveling as a basic right, for Americans are free to travel from state to state as they please.
I refused an unnecessary patdown and stood up for my rights as an American citizen. This is a battle Americans face every time they fly. It is my firm belief that TSA should not have such broad authority to violate our constitutional rights in ineffective and invasive physical searches, thus I will further push for the reinstatement of traveler privacy and rights. I will be proposing legislation that will allow for adults to be rescreened if they so choose.
I couldn’t agree more with Sen. Paul’s points. As Americans, we should not be subjected to a groping fiasco before boarding our flights, rather we should be able to go through a screening process that respects our privacy.
Republican Liberty Caucus Rejects TSA's Assault on Passenger Privacy Rights
I received this release from the Republican Liberty Caucus on TSA violating the passenger’s right to privacy before boarding a flight.
AUSTIN, TX — The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) denounces the recent changes in the airport passenger screening practices of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
RLC Chairman Dave Nalle said the intrusive nature of new TSA procedures draws attention to the fundamental flaws in the government’s strategy of attempting to address the threat of terrorism through increasingly draconian domestic security measures.
“In the name of public safety, government agencies have been given more and more power at great cost to our civil liberties and in violation of the Bill of Rights,” Nalle said. “The emergence of an unaccountable state security apparatus in America is a reminder of Ben Franklin’s maxim that ‘they who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety’.”
“The new TSA procedures of giving randomly selected passengers a choice between a full body, backscatter x-ray scan and an intrusive, hands-on body search are unacceptable,” Nalle contends. “These searches are a clear violation of our 4th Amendment rights, because they are not reasonable and are carried out with no probable cause. The increase in security at airports with more technology and more violation of the privacy rights of passengers cannot be justified on the basis of any increase in the threat of terrorism, because there has been no such increase,” Nalle explained.
The Republican Liberty Caucus believes that Americans have seen enough abuses of the Constitution and calls on the federal government to curb abuses by the TSA and other agencies. We recommend putting control of passenger security in the hands of the airlines, which have a vested interest in making sure that flights are safe. We also support Representative Ron Paul’s “American Traveler Dignity Act” (H.R. 6416), which would make TSA employees accountable for their actions.
Nalle observed, “With the increasing level of government intrusion into our lives in the name of security, America reminds me too much of what I saw in the Soviet Union, where I lived as a teenager. How long will it be before police will be stopping us in the street at random to ask for our identity papers?”
The Republican Liberty Caucus, founded in 1991, exists to promote individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise within the Republican Party.
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One thing particularly interesting is how Congress is addressing this issue. Many of our elected officials are just as outraged. Recently, Rep. Ron Paul introduced H.R. 6416: American Traveler Dignity Act. This bill will ensure that certain Federal employees would be subject to the same screenings as everyone else.
During a recent floor speech introducing the bill, Paul said:
In one recent well-publicized case, a TSA official is recorded during an attempted body search saying, “By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights.” I strongly disagree and am sure I am not alone in believing that we Americans should never give up our rights in order to travel. As our Declaration of Independence states, our rights are inalienable. This TSA version of our rights looks more like the “rights” granted in the old Soviet Constitutions, where freedoms were granted to Soviet citizens — right up to the moment the state decided to remove those freedoms.
The incident of the so-called “underwear bomber” last Christmas is given as justification for the billions of dollars the federal government is spending on the new full-body imaging machines, but a Government Accountability Office study earlier this year concluded that had these scanners been in use they may not have detected the explosive material that was allegedly brought onto the airplane. Additionally, there have been recent press reports calling into question the accuracy and adequacy of these potentially dangerous machines.
Source: Daily Paul
Hasn’t this gone on for far too long? Hopefully, Congress will end this treatment, but it looks highly unlikely at this point with the Democrats applauding the assaults.
Think Positive on TSA…NOT!
I think this video describes my feelings on the TSA groping manifesto.
If you are flying this Thanksgiving season, perhaps you could create a parody of this song:
Big Sister Assaults Your Civil Liberties
Thinking of flying the friendly skies? Think again. TSA (Transportation Security Administration) officials are going beyond the typical naked body scanners and resorting to pat downs before fliers board their flights. While TSA and the Department of Homeland Security believe that this will prevent future acts of terrorism, the public is in danger of having their civil liberties violated in the process. Whether it is the TSA groping a nun or patting down a screaming toddler, these new regulations are no doubt troubling for many travelers.
As a female, I do not want my body to be on full display for TSA agents. For one, I do not want a TSA agent grabbing at certain areas (my breasts would be one of them). It is not only intrusive to my privacy, but this is something that can be done in private.
It is troubling that we can not have the liberty of privacy anymore. There have been more troubling incidents with TSA including the below videos:
Perhaps, it is time for the TSA to be reformed. It is unnecessary for these checks to be continued, especially if eight of ten travelers believe that they are a violation of their civil liberties.
ACLU Sues DHS in the Case of Unlawful TSA Searches
Finally, there might be some reason that the ACLU gains my respect. The ACLU is suing the Department of Homeland Security in response to the unlawful TSA searches and detentions that violate the Constitution. This was in response to the recent unlawful detention of Steven Bierfeldt, who is the Director of Development for Campaign for Liberty. I reported earlier about Bierfeldt’s case, and how he was detained and interrogated by TSA officials at St. Louis International Airport for carrying a metal box of money through a security checkpoint.
The ACLU released this statement today regarding their lawsuit.
“Airport searches are the most common encounters between Americans and law enforcement agents. That’s why it is so important for TSA agents to do the job they were trained to do and not engage in fishing expeditions that do nothing to promote flight safety,” said Ben Wizner, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “It is, of course, very important to ensure the safety of flights and keep illegal weapons and explosives off planes. But allowing TSA screeners to conduct general purpose law enforcement searches violates the Constitution while diverting limited resources from TSA’s core mission of protecting safety. For the sake of public safety and constitutional values, these unlawful searches should stop.”
We should be protected by the Constitution anywhere at any time, and this includes the airport. Mr. Bierfeldt, myself, or anyone else should not be threatened with unlawful searches or detention at any time, especially if they are doing nothing wrong. Hopefully, true justice will prevail in this case.
Disturbing…Simply Disturbing
My friend, Steve Bierfeldt, who works for Campaign for Liberty, was recently the victim of TSA harassment when he was detained for having a large amount of money and a stack of Ron Paul bumper stickers. This all took place in St. Louis, as he was en route back to DC after the first Campaign for Liberty Regional Summit. The ironic thing is that he was detained after the MIAC Report was reversed, and there is no way he could be considered a terrorist, rather he is a strong advocate on behalf of liberty. It is just appalling that he had to be subject to this treatment.
Here is the video.
