Tag: security theater
To the ChristieChopper!
Turns out getting Chris Christie to little league games is a National Security Issue:
Gov. Chris Christie arrived at his son’s baseball game this afternoon aboard a State Police helicopter […] the 55-foot long helicopter buzzed over trees in left field, circled the outfield and landed in an adjacent football field. Christie disembarked from the helicopter and got into a black car with tinted windows that drove him about a 100 yards to the baseball field.
I guess we should be happy the car didn’t take him to another, smaller chopper that could land on the dugout or somesuch.
As for the chopper, it’s one of two $12.5 million helicopters purchased for the state police. The intention was to use them for “homeland security duties and transporting critically injured patients.”
GOP: trusted on the economy and National Security. Who among us doesn’t rest assured that the GOP is always taking the common sense line on spending and the appropriate limits of government. Thank FSM that folks like Christie are out there on the ramparts, Defending Freedom with Our Tax Dollars.
Keep in mind, this is the guy the GOP Commentariat are begging to get into 2012. Need more helicopter fuel? Chris Christie suggests we cut Medicaid or dump infrastructure projects. These are, after all, the only reasonable, Serious Person approaches to funding the truly important things in life.
Step in Front of the Telescreen
Wal Mart, long known to be target number one of al Qaeda, is going to be taking part in a Department of Homeland Security fear indoctrin…er, “See Something, Say Something” terrorism interdiction program. At Wal Marts around the country.
“If you see something suspicious in the parking lot or in the store, say something immediately,” Napolitano said in the video [to be played at check-out lines in Wal Mart]. “Report suspicious activity to your local police or sheriff. If you need help ask a Wal-Mart manager for assistance.”
No doubt the next 9/11 will indeed unfold in an exurban Wal Mart parking lot, unleashing a devastating attack on a number of poorly parked SUVs and abandoned carts. Well played, DHS, well played. Another sane, sober response to the relative threat. Let’s get some porno scanners into the cart area so we can finally be safe.
…conservatives and Republicans who had no problem with strong-arm security measures back in the Bush 43 days but are upset now. Charles Krauthammer is the classic example: forthrightly defending torture as, in limited circumstances, a necessary tool against terrorism, yet now outraged about “touching my junk” as a symbol of the intrusive state.
James Fallows on liberals, conservatives, and maintaining a consistent foundation to one’s thoughts no matter whose party may be in charge of executing the policy in question.
A Waste of Money and Time
Bruce Schneier gives a cogent opinion:
Exactly two things have made airplane travel safer since 9/11: reinforcing the cockpit door, and convincing passengers they need to fight back. Everything else has been a waste of money. Add screening of checked bags and airport workers and we’re done. Take all the rest of the money and spend it on investigation and intelligence.
This is exactly right, though it clearly elides the cesspool that our investigation and intelligence apparatus currently is, a critical problem that the government shows zero interest in taking on.
The 9/11 Commission pointed it out and the reaction has been to add another layer or two of middle managers and most definitely not to drain the swamp and rebuild a reactive and reasonably transparent national intelligence apparatus. Easier just to scan our junk, I guess. Kick all other cans down the road and then roundly blame the other party when the next big (but plainly avoidable) intelligence failure happens.
The Authoritarian Media
Los Angeles Times: Shut up and be scanned
Boston Globe: The new “enhanced” patdown by airport screeners has sparked an unfortunate backlash among some fliers and privacy advocates
Springfield Republican: Let’s consider these searches the 21st-century equivalent of a WWII rationing card.
Spokane Spokesman-Review: TSA is on our side. […] [M]odest traveler inconvenience is a reasonable price to pay for a little added peace of mind.
John Boehner, Man of the People
John Boehner flies commercial, just like you and me:
As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate.
I really don’t see what all the hubbub is about. These filthy proles are just never happy with anything we give them.
TSA Enhanced Pat Downs : The Screeners Point Of View
Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.
It’s just as bad for them as you might imagine. Read the whole thing.
(via Instapaper)
Another Good Time
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
Well worth a read to see just how far the TSA goes, even when dealing with soldiers returning from one of our forever wars.
Setting the CIA aside for the moment, I’m hard pressed to come up with a better example of a rogue and seemingly uncontrollable agency in the federal government.
Also: I’d wager this is likely to be the one and only link to Red State you’re ever going to see here. So live it up.
TSA implements Newspeak
TSA: Take everything out of your pockets. If you have a wallet, take it out. A handkerchief, out.
Passenger: Can you explain the reason for the new process?
TSA: [This is nothing new.] We have always done this.
Passenger: [I did what they told me to. But on the other side of the metal detector, asked the head-screener]: ‘Could you explain to me why the procedure is now different at this airport, like having to remove a wallet that never set off the metal detector?’
TSA: No, no. The process has always been the same, at every airport.
Lemkin: There is no process, there are no rules, the entire operation is so clearly defined by the whim of the officials at every particular security point. And now they want to require images of your naked body as prerequisite for boarding a plane. When does it stop? When will people have had enough? What happens when a bomb or a weapon is smuggled aboard inside a bodily cavity? http://yhoo.it/cgw7o2
Lemkin 