This put a smile on my face:

It Is Said That Philadelphia TSAs Are A Bunch Of Assholes

On the curb outside Southwest airline ticket counter Two TSA Screeners are talking. A Southwest employee is smoking nearby.

TSA Employee: (talking about new uniform with a REAL badge) “We have badges, they should give us guns, after all we are agents of the Federal Government.”

Southwest employee: “So is the mailman and works in worse neighborhoods than you do.” (BTW the next day this guy had a “random” inspection)

PHL Airport terminal E
Overheard by Philly Joe Camel

Such quality customer service. If only they had split the people into 3 lines this never would have happened I’m sure. Or maybe it’s the old white uniforms they may have been wearing. They need the darker blue ones with badges to feel the confidence not to harass the fliers.

http://www.themonitor.com/…

Preparations for Tropical Storm Dolly include plans by the federal government for thousands of illegal immigrants in custody at the detention center.

But U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Sarita checkpoint will not stop motorists evacuating from a hurricane, an official said Monday.

“We’re not going to be stopping people and asking where they’re from,” said Lloyd Easterling, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C. “We don’t want to slow the evacuation process. Life is paramount at this point.”

Isn’t that nice of them. Tom from New Hampshire on last night’s FTL said that representitive Ciro Rodriguez, who was on a plane with Ron Paul which had to make an emergency landing yesterday in New Orleans, said that people evacuating should bring identification just to be sure. Never know when the thugs will change their minds.

In other news, the police state wants to make it easier for you to be harassed.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/…

TSA asked luggage makers to come up with prototype designs that will make it easier to view a laptop in the X-ray machines, basically by building in a place to store the laptop in a back or front compartment where there are no straps, pockets, zippers etc. Cables and chargers would have to be stored in side pouches.

“We’re looking to see what works in terms of fewer obstructions in the bag itself that often mask what’s really in it,” said Dwayne Baird, a TSA spokesman in Seattle. “One of the biggest things we hear is people saying, ‘we’re tired of pulling out our laptops.”‘

TSA says not having to remove laptops would speed up security lines and reduce the number of claims it gets for computers damaged during screening.

One manufacturer says it hopes to have a bag ready by this fall that will meet TSA’s specifications. Tustin, Calif.-based Pathfinder Luggage will begin producing a rolling style briefcase (14 x 8 x 17 inches) with wheels and separate zippered compartments that would retail for around $100.

The laptop changes would follow on the TSA’s new “Black Diamond” program that calls for passengers to segregate themselves into color-coded security lines based on their traveling expertise.

In place at one security check point at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, it calls for travelers to voluntarily go to different lanes — black for “experts,” meaning frequent fliers who pack light, know the security drill and won’t hold up the line; blue for “casual travelers” who fly just a few times a year and may not be familiar with all the new rules; and green for families with children or others needing special help.

Nice to know the criminals want to make the victim as comfortable as possible. They wouldn’t be able to continue if they started getting all uppity.

http://consumerist.com/…

David becomes our first reader to fly under the TSA’s new ID policy. Formerly, if you refused or were unable to show ID you could still fly — but were required to undergo secondary screening by the TSA. Now they’ve altered their position slightly— fliers who willingly refuse to show ID are now barred from flying. The new rule went into effect over the weekend, and David says that in order to board the plane after forgetting his driver’s license he had to answer questions about his political party affiliation and previous addresses.

The new regulation doesn’t apply to those passengers who claim to have forgotten their ID— so essentially you are barred from claiming that you have a constitutional right to refuse to show ID to get on a plane. Here’s how the TSA explains it:

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.”

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

It turns out that “and other measures” include questions about political party affiliation and other questionable invasions of privacy, according to David:

Finally satisfied that I didn’t have ID, Laurie took my boarding pass and went away. She came back a few minutes later having photocopied it, and also had an affidavit that she requested I sign. It asked for my name and address, and stated in small print at the bottom that I did not have to fill it out, but if I didn’t I couldn’t fly. It also said that if I choose to fill it out and then provided false info, I would be in violation of federal law.

After filling out the affidavit, Laurie called a service to verify my address. The service needed me to then correctly answer three questions about myself, which Laurie relayed to me. The first was my date of birth, the second was a previous address (which I only got right on my second try), and the third was “You are registered to vote. Which political party have you registered with?” I got all three right, and only then did Laurie clear me to go through security.

Your party affiliation is public information isn’t it? At least in most states? What good does that do in confirming who you are? If it wasn’t shouldn’t that data not be used for identification purposes like this?

TSA’s Badges Are a Sore Spot With Cops

Screeners at the nation’s airport checkpoints are going to start wearing police-style badges - but real officers aren’t too happy about it.

Some sworn officers fear airline passengers will mistake screeners for law-enforcement officials with arrest powers.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is starting to equip its 48,000 screeners with 3-inch-by-2-inch, silver-colored, copper and zinc badges that will be worn on new royal-blue police-style shirts.

The attire aims to convey an image of authority to passengers, who have harassed, pushed and in a few instances punched screeners. “Some of our officers aren’t respected,” TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said.

Nor should they be. Not only is what they do an egregious infringement on the 4th Amendment but also the 9th and 10th and perhaps the 14th. It’s also an affront to private property. It doesn’t matter what outfit you wear. This, this, this, or this. You make people’s lives more difficult without any benefit.

“A lot of cops at airports are not real thrilled about it,” said Duane McGray of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, an airport police association. “It’s another way of saying (to airport police), ‘You’re not important.’ “

Boo fucking hoo. Police in general are far less important then they think they or wish they were. The war on drugs has given the police officer profession a sense of importance that is completely undeserved. Do consumers want protection services? Sure. But the police don’t offer protection.

I hope this leads to a showdown between the local and federal authorities in the same way the Real ID law is. Reminds me of another South Park reference:

AUTHORITARIAN FIGHT!!

http://www.tsa.gov/…

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

Under the law that created TSA, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, the TSA administrator is responsible for overseeing aviation security (P.L. 107-71) and has the authority to establish security procedures at airports (49 C.F.R. § 1540.107). Passengers that fail to comply with security procedures may be prohibited from entering the secure area of airports to catch their flight (49 C.F.R. § 1540.105(a)(2).

This initiative is the latest in a series designed to facilitate travel for legitimate passengers while enhancing the agency’s risk-based focus - on people, not things. Positively identifying passengers is an important tool in our multi-layered approach to security and one that we have significantly bolstered during the past 18 months.

I think we can now agree that the reason for the TSA’s existence is control and security theater. Ignoring this. 1. No person with malicious intent would want to raise suspicion or awareness of themselves by refusing to show identification. They’d just get false IDs. 2. How is refusing those who refuse to show ID any safer than giving them a secondary search? You’re going to let these people still walk around the airport correct? If they are strapped with explosives and refusing to provide ID they could just take out all those in the security checkpoint which very likely is backed up because of the TSA’s inefficiency.

This puts people like myself in a difficult situation. Break our principles to ease transportation or utilize ground and water based methods and hope the State doesn’t move to “secure” them. I very rarely fly so the choice at the moment is simple.