Pistole is an authoritarian creep. Napolitano is inept. Obama is a wimp. ‘Nuff said.

“Obama is a wimp” suggests that he has a good agenda and won’t stand up for it.

Obama is a conservative.

He can be counted on to do the same as Bush at nearly every opportunity, often worse, because the left bites its tongue and the right calls it Marxism.

So, in the “only Nixon can go to China” way, he can take RomneyCare/Heritage FoundationCare nationwide, unilaterally create the Catfood Commission, escalate drone killings, expand faith-based initiatives, and much more with virtually zero meaningful pressure from the left.

He’s not weak or accommodating, he’s foursquare against progressive values and interests. But it’s painful to admit, because to do so estranges us from our tribe and forces us to ask a lot of questions with very unpleasant answers about how we got to this pass in what promised to be a change election.

This is way, way, way, and a thousand fucking times way on top, worse than Bush. Even a putative President Palin-harpy will struggle to live up to the fascist strides taken by her likely direct, one term, predecessor. How are brown coloured shirt sales currently doing amongst the US populace btw? A good barometer for when the real putsch will finally take place. Beer hall and all.

I’m still interested in understanding it technically. Is the picture formed from the radiation bouncing off of tissues? Or is ‘back scatter’ referring to decay products produced from impacts?

I’m trying to remember how X-rays work. I know the ones that go right through you are supposed to be less damaging that the high energy stuff coming out of something like uranium.

Is this in the middle damage wise? That sounds really dangerous to me. I really don’t know anything about it, but I also don’t even remotely trust our government to tell us the truth about it. Maybe they plan to find out how dangerous it is by using it.

Congress should not be exempt from the new scanners and the enhanced pat-downs. By making them “uncomfortable” each and every time they travel, these new security measures will be dropped ASAP. If pilots are subject to the new security measures, Congress should be, too.

I think the pilots have been granted a “pass” on the screenings

X-Ray radiation is energy in the upper RF spectrum, less energy than light but more energy than radio. The energies are high enough that it can interfere with the valance electron (outer electrons) of any but the densest of materials. X-Ray radiation is commonly referred to as ionizing radiation.

X-Rays are generated and directed at an item to be scanned. The X-Rays will pas through the item and they will knock the valance electron of any atom in it’s path slightly off it’s natural orbit, thus imparting energy to the atom and creating a temporary ionized state.

The atom impacted by the X-Ray beam will eventually return to it’s normal non-ionized state and release the energy imparted to it by the passage of the X-Ray. (this energy too, can be captured and measured, but not in this case, measuring this released energy is at the foundation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging though)

X-Rays that pass through this material will also be nominally affected, losing some energy and being mildly distorted in it’s normally direct and straight path.

Normal medical imaging will place a photo sensitive plate behind the item being scanned and denser material in the path (bones/tumors) will de-energize MORE of the X-Ray beam while less dense material (skin, fat, lighter organs) will allow the X-Ray to pass through relatively unchanged.

Areas on the photo sensitive plate that are directly behind the less dense material will then be hit with MORE X-Ray while areas behind MORE DENSE material will be hit with LESS ENERGETIC X-Ray. In This way, varying shades of gray are then presented on the photo sensitive plate. Lighter shades representing areas where the X-Ray passed through tissue while darker areas represent areas where the X-Ray interacted with bone or tumor.

At the same time, when the X-Ray interacts with something very dense, the path and energy of the X-Ray beam is severely impacted resulting in what’s known as “backscatter”. This “scattered” X-Ray energy still contains useful “information” and with the aid of computer algorithms can actually be accurately interpreted.

These backscatter scanners are capable of interpreting both methods of imaging, direct pass through and back scatter by using front and back X-Ray sources as well as back and front photo sensitive sensors. The energy picked up by the front and back plates is then captured and interpreted by computer algorithms to produce the images you’ve seen.

Back Scatter images, when digitally combined with the pass through energy, are very good at picking up details of the very dense materials that are scanned by the sensor such as weapons or other metals.

I have no direct knowledge of these specific machines, I base this comment on several years as a field engineer for a medical imaging company. As such, there may be some inaccuracies, however, the general premise of the theory behind these scanners should be accurate.

I hope this helps.

He can be counted on to do the same as Bush at nearly every opportunity, often worse, because the left bites its tongue and the right calls it Marxism.

Bush, in this situation, probably would’ve stood up and said “No more groping!”

This is a no-brainer. There is no support for these procedures and the public outcry is growing. Time to be oportunistic and tell the TSA not to do this anymore. Obama can’t even do that, though. He is a wimp.

I worked for Radiologists and Hospitals for 15 years. Somebody must calibrate those machines on a regular basis and CERTIFY the calibration. Otherwise, people could be having their organs FRIED!

Don’t tell me accountabiliity thru the TSA, it won’t happen. The machine manufacturer will be in the slurping sound of the drain.

Glenn Greenwald recommended that people print out some copies of your sheet and pass them out at the airport.

here is a Mother Jones story I found earlier in the day (Ridgeway has been reporting on this since at least last January) – anyhoo, scroll down til you see the link to the “redacted report” link – there’s a lot there about how these machines actually scan – and of course, how effective they are

thought it might make more sense to someone with your background :D

The more I think of this the madder I get. Why on earth are we allowing our “freedom” to be given up so easily. The terrorist are not taking it from us, we are GIVING it up!

The billions being spent on Security in all departments is not working if Grandma has to take off her shoes, lift her skirt, jiggle her breasts around just to fly to the kids house for the holiday!

It is just plain sick!

did you see rosalind’s diary on this yesterday ?

link

I really think we need to keep pointing out that they changed the pat down when the cancer camera came on, they made that pat down more aggressive, more personal, more appaling and they did it as extortion so fewer people opt out of the cancer camera

they have palms up, there is NO reason for that and they can feel under your briefs/panties/bra

there is only one reason for them to make this change and that is extortion

tweets for you.

great bit of information there xboxer in shorts

let me ask you;

I have a metal hip, does this act as any kind of antennae/conductor that puts me more at risk for radiation damage?

Not only that but I’ll bet their idiotic demonstration didn’t include TSA employees yelling at and bullying their gropees like they do at the airport.

CBL, yes I did. I commented on it. I thought she did an EXCELLENT JOB!
It’s not as if we already have radiation coming at us daily with microwaves, tv, cell phones, etc. NOw they want a person to walk thru an x-ray machine every time they board a plane.

Somebody is going to have to get real on this before the tumors and fried organs start showing up!

Outstanding! TSA accomplishes what dissenting others can’t. The truth speaks.

Perhaps we can get another post going to list everyone’s suggestions for actively undermining the scanners and pat downs in ways that won’t result in being barred from a flight? Usually when there is a power imbalance, direct confrontation by those on the short end of the stick proves fruitless, if it doesn’t in fact reinforce the exercise of power by those with the advantage. Several ideas along these lines have already been offered on other posts. Can we work on a compilation?

Nor fingers going over your crotch when they invade the underwear.

I find the idea of them demonstrating this in a room full of people hilarious.

Did they really think it was going to go well? Pistole couldn’t have actually thought public grope-sessions would change peoples’ minds.

I think we all need to show up at the gate nekkid. No need to scan or grope there.

The TSA just accelerated that process by going up to Capitol Hill and demagoguing terror before collectively embarrassing a bunch of staffers by feeling them up.

I have to admit, it is pretty funny that the Capitol Hill demo blew up right in their faces. Poor staffers are going to need years of therapy, however.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, can I have your attention please? After the TSA demonstration we’ll be screening Deep Throat, in case any of you get worked up and need to finish.”

only see 1 – is this thing on ?

pls re send if there are more

It’s just punishment for refusing to go through the rapescan. They make the consequences for refusing to be photographed nude as unpleasant as possible to enforce compliance.

X-rays are more energetic than visible light, which is more energetic than broadcast radio spectrum. If what you said were true, visible light would be highly damaging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Magnetic resonance imaging is done with a magnet, not with ionizing radiation. Perhaps you are thinking of Computerized Axial Tomography.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging

Unfortunately, these misstatements make everything else you claim to be giving an expert opinion on suspect.

I do agree, if these machines aren’t regularly inspected and calibrated, and we already know they are run by poorly trained people, many people could be in for some very severe dosages.

When I was a young boy, shoe stores had X-ray machines that would let you see how your shoes were fitting. Thank goodness those didn’t last long.

wondering if they gave everyone their own ‘safety word’

LOL!

Maybe they should wheel one of those scanners into the hearing room and ray up some of those congresscritters that think it’s all good.

I’ll bet a few Republican staffers will have to spend the holidays in remedial ex gay camp…

We could probably convince them it’s a good idea if we set up a private viewing room and walk all the interns through the scanners… Charge em $1.00 a minute to watch.

I just solved the budget crisis!

Yeah. “Ooh, baby”

There are plans for Karl Rove’s papa to do a PSA for the TSA. They’re going to show how much fun ‘aggressive patdowns’ can be. Especially if you’ve got genital piercings!

Bush thought John Pistole was a genius! Enough Said

People like John Pistole are useful to the intelligent left.

John Pistole actions surrounding the TSA porno scam is giving a lot of energy to the we think Obama is a Moron campaign.

John Pistole phone is probably ringing off the hook from Air Line CEOs, who are telling him, if you cost us money, your head is going to ROLL, with your boss Obama.

the foolish politician and crooked scanner CEOs trying to make some easy cash off scanners, just pissed off the AIR LINE CEOs.

Again the John Pistole of the world must be used by the intelligent left.

(spilt coke moment)

Hey, you are on to something there! It certainly would knock a big dent into that deficit! They wouldn’t have to wait on a lobby group to bring them one.

wait

there will be “a method” to avoid both, you will have to “be a frequent flier” (rich) or go through “pre-screening” (join a subsription service and be rich to do it)

but if you’re rich, white and willing to pay you won’t have to go through it for too long

I suspect the cia will soon experiment with making those who go though it unable to have children

He’s NOT a wimp! If you look real close, you can see where the strings pass through his hands. And the puppetmaster? The MIC.

It’s all kabuki to make you feel like you live in a democracy, you don’t.

The MIC controls everything.

personally, i think at every politician’s town hall for the forseable future any constituent coming up to the mic to ask a question should “assume the position” – arms high, legs wide – while they do the asking (with a self-grope optional).

the fact that this would look absurd & make people uncomfortable is, of course, the point.

They just have to inconvenience folks to the point that people are willing to be implanted with RFIDs to avoid the lines. Then they’ll have what they really want.

The metal hip causes lots of ‘scatter” which usually resulted in unreadable medical images. denser tissues are more at risk to cellular damage from ionizing radiation. So, I don’t think the replacement hip puts you at grave risk from this scan, but it could make it so that you’d be forced to get groped instead.

Pistole is an authoritarian creep. Napolitano is inept. Obama is a wimp.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Who coulda anticipated.

The very least that travelers should expect is soft lights, music and a little wine. s/

Or post the link on Facebook.

http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2010/11/KnowYourRights.pdf

does anyone know if those of us with metal internal parts are more at risk going through the cancer camera?

thanx xbox, just saw your answer to my question

looks like the “method” is to buy some groovy, I am pre screened card from Chertoff’s crowd

link

Congress should not be exempt from the new scanners and the enhanced pat-downs.

But they will be, just like the pilots, and we proles will get stuck with the choice of radiation or being groped.

I think everyone should ask the TSA screener “Can you at least buy me a Cinnabon first?”

there ya go, I knew I read about that somewhere

wow

the man that brought us the cancer camera is also making money on avoiding the cancer camera

BRILLIANT!

this reminds of a joke, something like a prostitute giving her services away for free but charging 500 bucks for the condom

A further thought, what happened to the “no fly list”?

I guess they threw it away huh? Ineffective? Or just couldn’t be bothered?

I’m kidding, I wish I weren’t, this has all the hallmarks of “conditioning”.

Wanna fly? Submit to whatever we can think of. It’ll get you used to it for when we introduce it into bus stations, train stations, public buildings, shopping malls.

Oh, and all electronic devices will now come with a video camera linked to the G’s surveillance team.

Curse Eric Arthur Blair AKA George Orwell, he wrote an instruction manual, not a novel!

Which is, of course, perfectly foolproof.

What if, for example I am Jane Doe, ordinary non-terrist American. I go get me a Friends of Chertoff badge to avoid screening and groping. I am then recruited for terrist activities on planes. While my true friends are in line to be groped or scanned, me and my junk and my weapons are expedited onto the plane.

Duh.

Come here often, sailor?

What pisses me off is this concern for “possible sperm mutagenesis” among men, but … NO concern for “possible ova mutagenesis” among women? So … radiation only harms sperm, not ova? Or is it that only men matter? Further, why are pilots (mostly men) exempt from these scanners, but flight attendants (mostly women) are not exempt?

I left this before but would like to ask your indulgence in my putting it out there again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrKvweNugnQ

This is in German but perfectly understandable. Watch to the end, where the guy gets scanned and then is able to pull out all his bomb making material, that was never seen on the stupid back scatter (what an unfortunate name!) scan. These machines do not work as we’re being told they do. This is just another money making scheme.

OMG! Tears in my eyes! thanks – needed the laugh!

Sexual assault is only sexually arousing to sadists.

I’m so darkly geeked up, have actually re imagined The Blindside – with Chertoff in the Sandra Bullock role, and Underwear Bomber in the Michael Oher role – all about how the kind, extremely wealthy family took in a young confused terrorist and he wound up choosing the very Christmas Day flight the family wanted him to choose X~o

What’s the procedure for people in wheel chairs? Does anyone know?

It’s not about safety, it’s about obedience and submission to the state.

Americans are being violated and humiliated, just like Muslims in Abu Ghraib were. Strip them with scanners, humiliate them, take away their dignity and will to resist. The same tactics of control are being used, every airport is a corridor of Abu Ghraib now, the guards just wear different uniforms.

It’s a blatant waste of time and money

They either have to have — every — single — person (especially, and including the muckety-mucks in Congress; pilots; airline CEO’s; baggage handlers; — everyone, no exceptions) go through the porno-scanners or the TSA sexual molesting line

Or it has to be purely random — no exceptions

Carnival Booth (scroll down after clicking the link to read)

To improve the efficiency of airport security screening, the FAA deployed the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening system (CAPS) in 1999. CAPS attempts to identify potential terrorists through the use of profiles so that security personnel can focus the bulk of their attention on high-risk individuals. In this paper, we show that since CAPS uses profiles to select passengers for increased scrutiny, it is actually less secure than systems that employ random searches. In particular, we present an algorithm called Carnival Booth that demonstrates how a terrorist cell can defeat the CAPS system. Using a combination of statistical analysis and computer simulation, we evaluate the efficacy of Carnival Booth and illustrate that CAPS is an ineffective security measure. Based on these findings, we argue that CAPS should not be legally permissible since it does not satisfy court-interpreted exemptions to the Fourth Amendment. Finally, based both on our analysis of CAPS and historical case studies, we provide policy recommendations on how to improve air security.

CAPS was a profiling system which selected a group of people for further scrutiny, which probably sounds good to a lot of people, but what that did was open up huge hole in their alleged security theater, because whomever wants to cause trouble just has to find someone who can be their “mule” instead

Once you make exceptions, they have their mule

It has to every. single. person. especially Congresspeople. or purely random

Bin Laden must be getting a kick out of how total his victory has been. Not only has his one time attack set us squarely on the course toward a much more authoritarian society, but it’s also almost totally wrecked our economy behind the trillions pissed away bombing the ruins of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq for what exactly? Now this almost farcical situation , when will this all end?

I forgot the third, best option

Drop the charade, and don’t have the porno-scanners or molesting line at all

I wish there were some sort of “comment of the day” award. If there were, I’d put VastLeft’s into nomination. I thought it was perfect, because it’s true in a way that many have yet to face, and there it is to be faced.

Pilots are not given a pass; the Airline Pilots Assn. is advising pilots to opt out & take the physical search if standard magnetometer devices are not available for them to pass through.

http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2010/11/KnowYourRights.pdf

Yeah. Lefties who I have talked to in detail have a hard time giving up on the guy. I get such comments as “Don’t be too hard on the man,” or silence, or “he did the best he could,” or “he was naive about the forces he was up against.” Those comments and reactions after in-depth discussions, including directly addressing their points earlier in the conversation. Lot of denial still around.

Pilots are not given a pass

Oh, yes they are:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/tsa-exempt-pilots-screenings/

How can I say this?

If you are a pilot, you can walk thru the TSA Porno Scanner or get the TSA GROPE A DOPE, and still run the plane into a BUILDING

If the pilot is a terrorist GAME OVER!

Daily X-Rays or daily molestation by the Gestapo. Who wouldn’t want a career in commercial aviation?

Corporate jets – completely exempt. No searches. No groping. No porno scans. No nothing. Just fill it with whatever you want to, jump in your fuel-laden jet and aim it. Not even a flight plan required before take-off.

This is a charade brought to you by fascists. Enjoy your ride, prisoner. The real Americans, the wealthy fucks who brought us this hell, stroll casually by the apparatus and the molesters. They are called OUR REPRESENTATIVES.

They’ve met the enemy and it’s you and your terrorist grandmother.

I wish to send a Great Big Thanksgiving thank you to Jane and to everyone who participates in this action. They are holding the line against the paranoid dolts who are trying to destroy our rights and liberties.

Well… thank Gawd NBC didn’t send Kelly O’Donnell to cover it. She’s been clearly trying to find special angles for her unique… um… qualities since the Iraq invasion.

There’d have been riots for sure.

They’re groped. An elderly man in a wheelchair had his pants pulled OFF during the grope session because his artificial knee (about which he warned the screeners) set off the scanner.

Can you be arrested or prosecuted for handing out the informational sheets?

Does Chertoff get a percentage of every fine levied against protesters?

Roxi Copland – I’ll Be Groped for Christmas

That fatheaded asshole chris matthews was crowing about how only right wingers hate pat downs and the naked pictures aren’t really naked naked just look naked and we shouldn’t complain.

He kept saying so what if your 10 year old is groped or scanned, we have to prevent the next attack.

He went about his usual routine of talking over the dissenter.

He attacked the dissenter for being a republican and it being a political attack and went on and on about saying how groping isn’t so bad and scanners are AWESOME!

Even Ed is for this saying that only the right is against the groping and since only 2% of people get patted down it’s all cool!

I’d side with ann coulter and huckabee and against Chris and Ed on eliminating the TSA in a second.

Even Ed is for this saying that only the right is against the groping and since only 2% of people get patted down it’s all cool!

Chris Matthews isn’t that great a surprise – but Ed Schultz? Truly sad – and a gruesome illustration of the drawbacks of reacting in knee-jerk fashion against anything the other side says, just because they’re the ones saying it.

I do not know why airport security is privatized. The mysterious company ICTS seem everywhere. For-profit security will be more expensive. But Undie was let through Schiphol Airport by ICTS. Privatized airport security profits by ramping up fear. They could pull another Undie Bomber anytime.

Tweety’s a tool. Nuff said

The mysterious private company…kin to chertoff?– doesn’t seem to be spending much money on gloves. that would be GLOVES. those blue things that the TSA gropers never seem to change.

Excuse me. Do you want to be groped by gloves which recently conducted a rectal exam? Pretty gross. Think about it for a sec. How about a vaginal probe with gloves which recently probed an HIV positive/active clap/syphilitic/ok maybe just a yeast infection….name your disease. They’re all out there even in the best of families. This is a strange kind of sharing.

Think about this for a sec. A non medically trained individual is going to do multiple (!) septic exams on dozens of adults and then reach for your six year old. In the name of safety. What kind of sickness is this? And our president defends it! Amazing. He should send his daughters through first. Full out in public. Then I’ll consider it. Maybe.

Funny, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab went through Schiphol which uses ICTS, and not only that, the shoe bomber also took off from Schiphol

Then there’s El Al flight 1862 that took off from … (drumroll) … Schiphol

Check out number 10

Of course the lesson learned isn’t that we should avoid the few airports that use this security company … the lesson learned by the geniuses in DC is that we need to submit government authorized sex crimes

My. Chris and Ed spouting propaganda from the WH.

It’s no coincidence both have the same talking points. It’s the way the system works regardless of which major political party is in power.

Happy Thanksgiving from the only truly professional terrorists in America – the freaks you elect to run your government, the wealthy tyrants who finance them and those pundits who do the bidding of both.

And, yes, Jon Stewart. That is a long A sound in Rapiscan.

I think this is from some copy their ad people were tossing around a few months back. Or not. But let’s see how well it all sells now!

Rapiscan! Don’t like it? Heck, we’d rather feel you up inside your underwear with our eager fingers, but it takes so long to… to thoroughly grope every passenger. That takes so much time, and it just gets so hot in here.

You don’t want your flight to leave without you, do you? Let us X-Ray your genitals!

Good citizens get scanned daily!

Congratulations! You’ve got cancer!

Now that our so-called “conservatives” have turned into fascists, the statement “Obama is a conservative” implies something else which is a lot more disturbing.

Some background: the famous case of radiation damage to patients was in a GE machine for therapeutic radiology operating in a medical setting. When some switches were set up carelessly, the software tried to guess the dose from the patients body size and the calculation was faulty, leading to serious overdose.

This shows that even a company as famously obsessive about product defects as GE can screw up. And this can happen when the machines are frequently calibrated and the people using them have solid technical training.

My guess is that the official statements about negligible radiation dose are true, but they apply to new or recently calibrated machines set up properly. Most of the machines are new, so I wouldn’t be anxious about the dose (although I’d refuse on principle). But over a period of months to years, I’m not sure I trust the maintenance. There’s also a question of an untrained operator fiddling around with settings. The worst outcome would be that the machine puts out 100 times the rated dose, which wouldn’t cause symptoms but would cause cumulative damage in frequent travelers. It might be easy for this to go unnoticed for a long time. When airplanes aren’t maintained properly, there’s feedback in the form of a crash. But a scanner could be out of whack for years and nobody would notice.

The fact that they lied about the ability to save images doesn’t increase my level of trust.

They and the Bush twins should be required to be scanned and groped daily by uniformed TSA agents because they might be terrorists, just like the man with the colostomy bag, the woman with the prosthetic breast, the child terrified of the radiation apparatus and his molesters in uniform, as well as the man in the wheelchair whose pants were removed so agents of the government could see his prosthetic knee for themselves.

Everyone’s a terrorist except the people profiting from fear. We used to call them terrorists. They say they are just angels looking out for us.

So, let’s demand our politicians be scanned and groped daily before entering the secure zones in Washington.

Do they work for us or do they work for someone else?

Demand the scan. For them.

FYI:

On July 2, 2010, EPIC filed a petition for review and motion for an emergency stay, urging the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) full body scanner program. EPIC said that the program is “unlawful, invasive, and ineffective.” EPIC argued that the federal agency has violated the Administrative Procedures Act, the Privacy Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Fourth Amendment. EPIC cited the invasive nature of the devices, the TSA’s disregard of public opinion, and the impact on religious freedom.

Link.

This website is an excellent source of information that many people have been asking about. Link.

See also this piece by Matthew Harwood at Truthout.org

If it’s the same incident, it was from software. When in use, a technician backed up a screen to correct an error. That mistakenly set the unit into maintenance mode where a lethal beam was discharged, boring a hole into the patient. The machine was shut down and no one could find anything wrong with it. So they powered it back up again and resumed treating patients. All went smoothly until a someone again backed up a screen. Another patient had a hole bored in them.

These scanners are X-Ray backscatter radiation devices which should only be used in a medical setting with well-trained personnel and constant attention to maintenance. They should not be applied as security devices by rent-a-cops.

The molestations must require glove changes between sexual encounters, period.

The people tell the government they don’t want these. The government goes ahead and invades their privacy, threatens their health and sexually molests passengers as if they were all jailed.

I did not surrender my rights. I am not a prostitute, The government will not mandate any X-Ray of my body in exchange for a seat on public transportation, PERIOD.

See this

Scientist: X-ray scanners deliver “20 times the average dose that is typically quoted by TSA.”

and this

How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA

Of course, tonight, Tweety just can’t see what the problem is. He probably “gets a tingle down his leg” thinking of it
I generally turn him off a couple minutes into the show

Wait ’til these things cause a spontaneous miscarriage or several. Let’s see what the Christain Wrong has to say about them then.
Nothing like a bunch of underpaid thugs given a little bit of power to let things get really out of hand ( pun intended)

Well, he hasn’t gone thru one yet, either….nor the groping.
they haven’t reached MN yet

Video Please!

Or is it too pornographic to record. Like Wizzer White said – “I know it when I see it.”

Maybe shame will have an effect. Let’s joke about it!

Did you hear about the TSA agent who wanted to go to work at the crack of Dawn?
Had to do Harry’s, Maude’s, and Little Johnny’s first!

…Did you hear about the stripper that went through TSA security?
Made $7!

Uh, no, X-rays are beyond light in the spectrum, and as such have a higher energy than light,not lower. The progression is: Radio waves , Microwaves, Light, X-rays …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electromagnetic-Spectrum.png

I think the best approach will include returning the humiliation. Example: Men could turn on their mental erection makers (think sexy thoughts) a couple minutes before the groping occurs so that they have a full erection prepared for the TSA groper.

1 glove = 200 herpes cases

Michael Whitney is upstairs!
Why Is bin Laden Smiling?

It’s interesting that John Pistole has had such a public face to this fiasco. That means, he’s the fall guy. Janet Napolitano has been sorta quiet, eh wot? She goes down only if the issue gets bigger for the Obama people.

from Rep Rush Holt: http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=651&Itemid=18

I saw Ed do it this evening. Ed, you’re on the wrong side of this issue! It is not a pat-down. These searches involve applying mild to moderate pressure with the fingers and/or palms, and rubbing, occassionally closing the fingers partially to feel areas like the penis, like the inner part of the rump (the butt crack), and around and beneath breasts. And, each area is searched in this manner four times, according to the information I’ve seen. In other words, the groper goes back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.

No Fly is still there. I work for the feds and two colleagues of mine recently had to attend training in Virginia. Apparrently, one of them has a name that is the same as someone on the “no fly” list, because, in spite of carrying a government CAC (ID with computerized information including some biometrics) and carrying papers that showed he was on “official government travel” he was pulled from line and given the treatment every single time he went through a security checkpoint.

Sucks to be him.

Thanks, Romberry!

“X-Ray radiation is energy in the upper RF spectrum, less energy than light but more energy than radio.”

I was not a physics major. But I believe that X-ray has more energy than radio, microwave, visible, or ultraviolet light. It is right up there with gamma rays.

Perhaps you are thinking about millimeter-wave radiation, the basis of the other technology used? Millimeter waves occupy the part of the spectrum just below infrared and visible light and just above microwaves (“centimeter” waves) and radio. They are thus less energetic than light and more energetic than most forms of RF (radiofrequency).

I’m actually a sceptic about most health worries over technology. But we need to remember that backscatter X-ray and millimeter-band technologies are very recent innovations (1990s according to Wikipedia). So there is little or no obvious reason to assume that they are safe simply because other, more tested and familiar uses of the electromagnetic spectrum have been more or less safe.

Yes, someone on another post mentioned getting hopped up on Viagra and another suggested the tin foil wrapped, Spinal Tap zucchini.

I’m considering screaming maniacally if I get “selected” for a scanning/pat down this holiday season. I’ve got to try something, if for no other reason than keeping my own sanity and humor. Plus, I’m at an age where I find myself thoroughly bored with the US and not giving a damn if I make a spectacle of myself. I’m trying to channel Abbie Hoffman for help. We’ll see what happens.

Cough!! Now turn your head the other way, Mr. Johnson. Cough, again!!!

Hey, if I’m going to go through a government checkpoint at an airport to get on an airplane, and be felt-up by someone, then I’d like it to at least be a physical.

And if the TSA cranks up the x-ray machines, I bet people could be x-rayed like they are in a hospital, thus killing two birds with one stone, with a physician at the airport looking at the x-ray and saying, “I have some bad news for you Mr. Johnson. From your x-rays, it looks like this will be your last flight anywhere anyway.”

Oh, wait, I guess this would be government-run health care or something. My bad.

Excellent point. If the designed radiation doses from these machines are indeed safe under laboratory conditions, that does not meean that laboratory conditions are maintained in the field. How often are these things calibrated, how easy are they to calibrate, and how well do the settings hold over time?

Technology is only as good as its case-by-case implementation and the conditions under which it operates. When someone says, “Trust us, we’re experts” instead of specifying the inital and boundary conditions, he isn’t selling technology. He’s selling magic. I don’tbelieve in magic.

I was thinking more like wearing a leotard and tights – under the clothes and over the underwear.

Permit me to recommend carrying a boombox cranked up to the highest volume setting playing the soundtrack from a porno flick . . .

BOOM-BOOM-SPLITZ,

Wow-Chick-a-Wow-Wow

AAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

BOOM-BOOM-SPLITZ.

I’m a pretty uptight Scandihoovian. But when provoked, I try to rise to the occasion, in spirit at least (the flesh may be weak in an airport).

A guy I used to know that travelled a lot on business hated even the old screenings so much that he took to checking his suit and shoes and wearing rubber flip-flop sandals, nylon swim trunks, and a mesh tank top. He’d pull the wasteband of his shorts out a helpful six inches or so while walking through the checkpoint on the the theory that anyone that needed to find anything out could just look.

If the above does not seem practical (I’m always cold on airplanes), how about insisting on a non-private grope and then:

* asking if you can have your choice of screeners and genders?

* asking if you can have more than one screener at a time (while looking hopeful)?

* asking how much it is for the Happy Ending?

* asking if the screener would mind setting you at your ease by referring to you as “Big Daddy” during the procedure?

* moaning and shouting “yes! Yes! YEEES!!” throughout?

* telling the screener that you think you and he/she really made a connection (asking for a phone number optional)?

* asking if you can have another if you leave the secure area and come back (look eager)?

The last kind of appeals to me, because it turns the punishment angle on its head. If they are worried that even one person who insists on a grope will slow down the system, think of the effect of those who WANT to be groped and take six or seven turns each?

If the above seems too provocative, how about wearing editorial T-shirts (T-Shirts for America or TSA), such as:

* “I want to see the ring first!”

* “What? No dinner? No movie?”

* “Don’t ask, and I won’t tell!”

* “What happens in my pants stays in my pants.”

* “You can feel mine, if I can feel yours.”

* “Do you EAT with that hand?”

* “What a way to make a living!”

Yeah. I’m on that list too–despite having the second or third most common combination of male first and last names in the country (think about the cost and inefficiency of that).

I used to be able to get around it by booking using my middle initial or middle name. I was told that joing a frequent-flyer group would also short-circuit the process.

Jane, thanks for the blog but I do not think even if TSA lower level officials are this dumb I find it hard to believe the TSA people who authorized it on Americans such intrusive bill of rights violating actions are that dumb.

I always thought Human Self-Dignity for any person in the world is Priceless.

This episode with TSA showed me that they were able to put a monetary value to it. If one wants to avoid the crappy two Far-Right options of Rapin Scan or Gropin Hands and get away from it all if one is lucky not to make a long distance travel one has to Pay $11,000. I am wondering how they calculated this monetary value for self-dignity.

Beg to differ, but you are simply mistaken. X-rays are far more energetic visible light. Millimeter waves (on the other hand) are somewhere above RF and below visible light in energy — and there are some scanners that use millimeter waves. What you have said is in fact false for X-rays but true of millimeter waves, so maybe it’s just some simple confusion in the heat of typing.

I’m not blowing smoke here. X-rays, microwaves, RF, have all been part of my job during a scientific/engineering career spanning almost 40 years. I started out with lead aprons and radiation badges — the whole bit. Now I do calculations of RF penetration into objects which model a human head.

Low energy X-rays are dangerous exactly because they don’t penetrate beyond the skin, so the dosage is concentrated there. X-rays are ionizing radiation — that is, they create free radicals (i.e. they bounce electrons out of molecules.) Free radicals are highly reactive and dangerous to the cells, and can be mutagenic and, in consequence, carcinogenic. Millimeter waves are not ionizing radiation — far from it– and probably no more dangerous than your microwave oven — which can cook you, but will not generate free radicals.

Heckuva job, Johnnie Pistole!

Re: polls.
Look how these polls are phrased:
“TSA Screening & Thanksgiving Weekend
# Yes. It’s yet another inconvenience in what is a huge traveling weekend for most Americans.
# No. It’s more important to get to and from a holiday destination safely, even if that means using enhanced screening methods.
# Undecided.”

“Inconvenience” is pretty innocuous word for violation of 4th amendment, scans and groping with potential medical problems, harassment and more civil rights violations, isn’t it? If they phrased it: do you want TSA’s scummy hands on your children, I don’t think I would be the only one answering: no I do not want TSA’s scummy hands prodding and poking my under 12 family members. I don’t want them anywhere near the kids. And come to think of it, I don’t want the fascists anywhere near my kids, anyone else’s kids, grandma or anyone else. Especially given the links to the Dept of Homeland security which has a bad record of hiring preverts.

I never stated that magnetic resonance imaging uses RF/X-ray energy. I stated that the energy from the excited atom returning to it’s de-energized state is what is measured.

I stand by everything I posted with the exception of X-Ray energy’s position within the energy spectrum. Robspierre and Magnetics and correct and I thank them for clarifying my error, and adding to the discussion.. X-Rays are of the same Spectrum as Radio and Visible light but more energetic than visible light.

While we’re counting, Randi Rhodes as well. They’re anxious about their own flights home, so never mind oi polloi, we want you to submit! To Randi’s credit, she’s given some personal information on what happens, but apparently she’s just fine with it.

I’m not.

As I’ve posted elsewhere, locally they won’t even say if the machines are at the airport or not. So, you go and you turn back if you see them? I have heard that they won’t let you turn back.

Thank goodness I don’t have to fly. But I am just as outraged about the folk who do.

Pistole, like Obama, seems addicted to snatching defeat out of the jaws of both victory and defeat.

Thank goodness I don’t have to fly. But I am just as outraged about the folk who do.

I’ve decided not to fly for any reason as long as the current scan-or-grope procedures are in place.

Maybe shame will have an effect. Let’s joke about it!

Someone on MSNBC (I can’t remember for certain who it was – I think it was a guest on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown) proposed a porn parody, to be entitled Debbie Does Dulles.

Also, the Chinese animation with the “private room” and the terrorist eating popcorn in his prison cell while watching news reports and LHAO probably had at least as much to do with taking the protests over the tipping point as Tyner’s experience did.