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Post by doctork on Mar 7, 2011 20:52:27 GMT -5
I guess our best hope is that eventually they will have inconvenienced/humiliated so many people going about their daily business that the public outcry will move Congress to put a stop to it. I think everyone inside the beltway is afraid to take a stand, lest they be blamed for being "soft on terrorism" when (not if) there is another incident. However, several states are now taking action. New Hampshire, the "Live Free or Die" state, is proposing a state law that forbids the taking of nude photos as routine "security" as well as identifying the gropings as a sexual assault (as it would be if committed anywhere else). The TSO offender would then be listed as a sex offender for life, with all that entails. Representative Cissna of Alaska is also proposing state legislation that will rein in the intrusiveness of the TSA security, though details are not yet made public. I have read that the Texas legislature is also taking action to limit TSA. So maybe the states' legislators will take a stand when those inside the beltway won't. While I complain about the TSA and federal healthcare intrusions because I know them and they are what affect my life most, what really bothers me is the excessive "big government" approach to everything, including big government debt that will saddle my children, grandchildren (if that ever happens) and generations well beyond with huge bills to pay that will demand they have a lowering standard of living and a whole host of other undesirable issues. The "land of the free and the home of the brave" is quickly vanishing. Is that what our ancestors (right on down to our parents of WWII generation, and our children now serving overseas) fought/fight for? I don't think so.
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Post by doctork on Mar 7, 2011 21:01:19 GMT -5
Some good news from Tucson!
The Spring Training is starting everywhere, and today was a day to honor Christina Taylor-Green, the 9 year-old girl who was shot to death. Much celebration in her memory, and all profits from today's games, and related sales, were donated to the foundation in Christina's memory. The foundation supports children's charities in the Tucson area.
Also more good news about Congresswoman Giffords. She is continuing to make rapid progress, enough that her husband is optimistic that she will be able to travel to Florida next month for his space shuttle launch.
I think when she makes a public appearance, "rapid progress" may not look as wonderful as we would like. But it is amazing she is alive at all - largely thanks to her intern Daniel Hernandez' quick action, and the superb trauma care at U of A. I would never have thought, even with all the optimistic reports early on in her recovery, that she might be traveling to Florida for the launch.
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Post by rogesgallery on Mar 8, 2011 21:12:03 GMT -5
WASHINGTON (Rooters) - In a bold move to slash federal spending and assuage the damaged dignity of American frequent flyers, President Obama has announced plans to eliminate funding for the TSA. The proposed bill would also encourage Americans to exercise their right to carry concealed weapons.
In an anonymous statement Speaker of the House John Boehner, said “This could be a big B…Ahhh mistake for the Obama administration . Not the constitutional right to carry concealed weapons of course but the loss of 25,000 jobs, though it would be nice to have the extra money so we can extend unemployment for those Americans out of work, not that we want to encourage laziness but some entitlements are going to have to be cut, the poor are getting fat on food stamps— hunger may be the key to increased production in this country, not that we would consider starving the American public but… I digress
A source close to the Administration was heard to say that the jobs lost in the TSA will easily be replaced by the internet trade, “They (private sector video producers) can produce far better quality videos than fuzzy black and white the nude o scope shorts. Those dummies aren’t worth the money we pay them any way”
In a statement to the press, Director of the TSA John Pistole said, “The skies will be a much safer place with everyday citizens armed to the teeth and this will free us to harass... er protect the people in other areas.”
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Post by doctork on Mar 11, 2011 1:14:10 GMT -5
Help us Jesse Obiwan, you're our only hope! A British journalist referring to Ventura's lawsuit, very astute: www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/01/tsa-jesse-ventura-patdowns?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487Another addition to The Resistance - the New Hampshire state legislature is proposing new law that defines the TSA's "scope & grope" as sexual assault. If convicted, the individual TSO lawbreakers will have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives! Getting serious there. Texas, Alaska and New Jersey are joining in too. But here is what is really interesting and I say KUDOS to New Hampshire legislator Andrew Manuse. On FlyerTalk, I had posted a description of what happened to me in Phoenix last fall at the checkpoint. Another poster suggested I forward my story to Representative Manuse, as he would find the personal stories useful in persuading the other legislators to get on board. I sent him my email around 9 pm last night, 11 pm in NH. Five minutes later I received a personal response, apologizing for my unpleasant experience, appreciating being sent my story, and requesting that I please copy and paste the letter, and forward it to all the other NH legislators. He gave me the two email addresses to use to reach all senators and all representatives. Today I received two appreciative responses from other NH legislators, so I know the message has been received and NH politicians are paying attention. I am amazed at such responsiveness from NH, when I am not even a resident. I did tell the three who wrote back to me that if they ever wanted to "bounce around" any medical/legislative/health policy type questions, I would be delighted to answer to the best of my ability. Heck of a state there! Federal Congressional representatives are afraid to stand up because of being told "I told you so" after the next attack, and promptly being booted out of office. But state legislators don't make the TSA laws, so they don't have that worry. Yes the feds might challenge the states: You don't have a right to punish our workers for "doing their job." But if the feds start getting lots of backlash from state legislators, maybe they will begin to question Nappy and Pissy a little more closely. Did everyone see the viral video of a TSO groping a pregnant woman? www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvKRhdx9F9sNote that the video was taken by the husband, so the TSO was "on good behavior" since she knew she was being filmed, so this groping is far less invasive than the ones I have endured. Yet at the end, the pregnant woman said "It wasn't that bad"! Stockholm Syndrome at its worst.
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Post by rogesgallery on Mar 11, 2011 18:57:54 GMT -5
It could have been the biggest tragedy in recent Spokane history. A sophisticated bomb set off in the midst of the MLK parade. Law enforcement has just apprehended the polite young ex military white supremacist sympathizer they now believe to be the Bomber. Interestingly, it has now been revealed that more than one group of people found the bomb. The first group just thought it was a fake and ignored it. The second group was City Parks and Rec department employees that had been trained or at least instructed to be on the lookout for unusual objects.
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Post by doctork on Mar 12, 2011 9:34:10 GMT -5
Solid police work and alert citizens Roger - that is what is needed, and it is exactly what has prevented all of the recent terrorist attempts.
So many towns and cities are laying off their police forces due to budget cuts. Can you imagine if the $10 billion+ annually being wasted on TSA (who haven't caught a single terrorist) was instead distributed to those municipalities who could use the money for stronger law enforcement and security at home? The next attack is much more likely to happen at a parade, a mall, a concert arena, a school football game, or some other ordinary venue.
The airlines did a fine job on security themselves for decades, and remember, not a single security checkpoint failure occurred on 9/11 - box cutters were not prohibited items at that time. Of course TSA today misses box cutters, guns and knives regularly today - but as we know, that won't take down a plane any more anyway.
I'd rather the funds go to the real security like those in Spokane who actually prevent terrorist attacks - and in Times Square, and in Detroit, and in Denver....
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Post by booklady on Mar 12, 2011 10:25:26 GMT -5
Here in the Red Carpet to the South I've been overwhelmed this week by the news of the poor man from Ohio who came for an overnight trip as a safety inspector to a nearby nuclear power plant. Two men who'd escaped from a Louisiana prison hitched a ride here, hung out over the weekend -- among other things, having lunch at one of the casinos (I can't afford that, how can escaped prisoners??!) -- and then Monday carjacked this poor man, killed him, dumped his body behind motel in Alabama and then escaped later from troopers in Tennessee. Bizarre, bewildering and utterly uh-bominable.
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Post by BoatBabe on Mar 12, 2011 11:12:52 GMT -5
Here in the Red Carpet to the South I've been overwhelmed this week by the news of the poor man from Ohio who came for an overnight trip as a safety inspector to a nearby nuclear power plant. Two men who'd escaped from a Louisiana prison hitched a ride here, hung out over the weekend -- among other things, having lunch at one of the casinos (I can't afford that, how can escaped prisoners??!) -- and then Monday carjacked this poor man, killed him, dumped his body behind motel in Alabama and then escaped later from troopers in Tennessee. Bizarre, bewildering and utterly uh-bominable. Terrible story, booky.
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Post by booklady on Mar 18, 2011 17:06:10 GMT -5
"We'll Use Military, Obama Warns Gadhafi"
OK, this headline annoys me. We can't afford the wars we are already fighting! Doesn't anybody in Washington use the words, "we can't afford it" anymore?!
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Post by doctork on Mar 18, 2011 20:04:04 GMT -5
1. And even if we could afford it, we do not have enough soldiers to fight another war. There are already far too many serving 2nd, 3rd, 4th and lately even 5th deployments to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. They are supposed to get a full year at home between deployments, which ain't happening, and they are supposed to serve no more than 12 months at a time in either war theater. But they get "extended" to 15 months, 18 months...
2. Why is this a US problem/responsibility? The UN said "by all means necessary" and it has nearly 200 member nations. How about those "in the neighborhood" - all around the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the rest of Africa, taking up the burden?
Plus I heard that as soon as that announcement was made, Khaddafi declared a ceasefire, though I hear that fighters are still fighter. If he was gonna cave so fast, why not have made the threat several weeks ago?
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Post by gailkate on Mar 19, 2011 8:54:22 GMT -5
I think it always comes down to who has the most military - and we've made it our business to be war-ready for decades. France and the UK are involved, but we'll likely end up doing most of it. Nobody has the resources we have. Even though we can't possibly afford another war, we've invested more in the Pentagon budget than probably any other country has in its "defense" budget. (Russia and China? I don't know, but they're not in this game.)
The Prez has committed to no soldiers on the ground, but I don't like where this is headed either. It's hard to watch innocent people being brutalized, but what about Yemen and Bahrain? Where does it end?
K, I think we've been making veiled threats for some time, but it took the UN authorization to make it open to "all means necessary." At least we waited for some semblance of international backing.
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Post by gailkate on Mar 19, 2011 9:50:02 GMT -5
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Post by jspnrvr on Mar 20, 2011 7:41:16 GMT -5
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Post by doctork on Mar 20, 2011 10:19:09 GMT -5
Not to worry, I am a traditionalist, very conservative. I do not like this new-fangled "triple Mohawk." And be careful about confusing Texas and Texans with any other state or its residents. Anyone with a Colorado history is apt to be offended. And Texans of course do not think any other state can begin to compare!
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Post by TheDude on Mar 20, 2011 11:22:37 GMT -5
Maybe the guy is in (a) A Flock of Seagulls Tribute Band . . .
It could be worse: He might be in a Billy Ray Cyrus Tribute Band and sporting a triple Mullet
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Post by doctork on Mar 20, 2011 14:35:51 GMT -5
Lord help us and save us!! As my mother used to say. I spent 10 years in West Virginia, and if I never see another mullet it will be too soon!
But here is a good news story from today's Arizona Sun, the Flag newspaper.
Arizona Army National Guard veteran Al Lee who received a Purple heart after being wounded bu an IED in Fallujah in 2003 has given part of his award to Representative Gabrielle Giffords. When awarded, the presentation includes the medal, a lapel pin, and a Purple Heart coin. He is giving the coin part to Representative Giffords.
He is doing so because he feels she was wounded in the line of duty just as he was, but civilians are no longer eligible for the award since an Act of Congress in 1997. Mr. Lee has met with Giffords on several occasions, and was impressed because she always recognized him and sought out his views on military matters, so he feels she deserves recognition for being injured on the front line herself.
Lee took the medal to Giffords' Tucson office last week and presented it to Pam Simon, one of the staffers who was injured in the January 8 attack. Another staffer is presenting the medal to Giffords in her hospital room in Houston this weekend.
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Post by doctork on Mar 22, 2011 0:43:53 GMT -5
So tonight, having battled the snow to get the oil changed in my rental car, I arrived home too late for NBC & Brian Williams, so I watched AC360, and there was all this talk about "rebels" and "The Opposition" in Libya and how we (or the French or the Brits or the Qataris) are supporting them against the Big Bad Guy Leader.
I had this vague memory of other "rebels" we have supported in the past. The bad guys in Iran took our embassy hostage so we helped "the opposition" - which happened to be some guys in Iraq with a leader named Sadam Hussein!
I remember that episode quite well, as it was during my residency and I was spending a month at Esalen deciding I no longer wanted to be a doctor. Instead I wanted to join the Foreign Service, and I was busy filling out my app (yes I'd had it sent to me at Big Sur), when the news from Tehran broke. Maybe being a doc wasn't so bad after all.
Then around the same time, the Russians invaded Afghanistan, trying to move US out of that trans-stans oil pipeline possibility. After a few too many years of the Russky's farting around in what we felt was US turf (albeit by proxy), we armed "the opposition" - they went by the name "Taliban" - and those guys kicked out the Russians PDQ, using our weapons. Victory! Or maybe not.
This story is sounding kind of familiar now. Am I in that scene in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" You know, the one with Sandy Dennis, when they are playing "Get the Guest."
So anyway, I am not surprised we shoot ourselves in the foot. No, Just how fast we reload.
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Post by TheDude on Mar 22, 2011 1:02:24 GMT -5
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Post by booklady on Mar 22, 2011 6:48:20 GMT -5
On the other hand, I've been wondering, since watching the "Casey" video (which was after I posted the remark about not being able to afford another war), whether we are just sticking up for the guy (in this case, a bunch of people) being abused by a bully. Would not doing something be akin to standing there taping the bullying on your cell phone doing nothing to stop it?n I don't know. And the cost is still an issue for me, when I personally have to say no to many worthy causes because I can't afford to take them on, and it's a principle that informs my thinking.
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Post by doctork on Mar 22, 2011 8:32:14 GMT -5
There's a lot of bullies around the globe so I just wonder why we have to get involved with supporting The Opposition to so many of them - though I suspect it is actually a select few, namely those in places where they have some resource we want. I really don't know. Maybe this time will be different.
Maybe the situation is more like Charlie Brown, Lucy and that football. No really Charlie, this time I will hold the ball right here, go ahead and kick it!
As for the rental car, it is actually a "mini-lease" that I have had since September, though I did have to change it out once in January due to a recall issue. That was a hassle - had to go to AVIS at the airport between 8 am and 5:30 pm, Monday - Friday, which is next to impossible when I work on the rez an hour away, from 8 to 5. Plus I have to take everything out of the old car (I accumulate a lot in 6 months) and move it to the new one. Plus I might get a new car that doesn't have XM satellite radio, which is very nice for that nearly-an-hour commute.
That said, a lot of my friends here trade their rental car every week. Turn it in at the end of the week, go somewhere for the weekend, get a different car when they come back. They are working the "Miles & Points" thing with rental cars. I have enough trouble keeping track of my airline and hotel points!
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Post by gailkate on Mar 22, 2011 9:48:43 GMT -5
I'm so close to being fed up with my man Obama that I might send him a frownie face. You're right, K, we nose in when we have something at stake. However, apparently even Robt Gates cautioned against this move. Obama was urged to act quickly by the new Female Triumvirate - Clinton, Susan Rice, & Samantha Power ( see WaPo story nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/americas-foreign-policy-valkyries-hillary-clinton-samantha-p-5047 ). You can read the logic for yourselves, but I'm extremely dubious. It is hard, isn't it, Booky? We want to help the victims, but where does it end? And I feel distinctly misled about the supposedly limited military targets that are broadening into unadulterated acts of war. That's why we raged about Bush's war, and here we are sneaking up on another one. The UN authorization didn't seem to be endorse this air and missile barrage. Furthermore, are we just going to end up leaving the rebels (clearly an unknown quantity) to fend for themselves as we did with the Kurds after the Gulf War? I'm astonished at how some angry young men in Egypt set off something that could get completely out of control. Will Al-Quaeda end up the winners?
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Post by gailkate on Mar 22, 2011 14:07:24 GMT -5
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Post by doctork on Mar 22, 2011 15:18:42 GMT -5
Al Qaeda won ling ago, bringing the US to its knees by making us all afraid all the time.
Everyone gets X-rayed in the cancer machine at the airport, mothers can't bring pumped breast milk on the plane to take home to their babies after a business trip, and elderly women are forced to stand in line for 90 minutes at the checkpoint, then nearly arrested when their bladders let go during the groping.
For this we have spent $50 billion and not caught a single terrorist, while many billions more in wated time and effort happens. Only Chertoff and the like benefit.
OBL is laughing his head off.
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Post by doctork on Mar 23, 2011 19:42:04 GMT -5
I am worried that the powers that be are a combination of naive and cynical. Naive in that our experts appear not to have a clue about Muslim politics and culture (we seem to assume they are "the same as us" when the culture is quite different), and cynical in that a lot of people just don't care at all about the cost (dead soldiers, billions of $$ per month that bankrupt our nation), so long as they make their bucks.
OTOH, as long as I'm watching the news, I just have to comment on what a great job Richard Engel (NBC News) has been doing with his reporting from Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya. he speaks fluent Arabic, and he is fearless. It's so much different when he can hear and translate the exact words, and need not rely on a translator to get the story.
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Post by Jane on Mar 23, 2011 19:51:50 GMT -5
He has been doing a great job, hasn't he? I went to Wikipedia to find out about him, and he's as impressive as he seems. However, he looks about 14.
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Post by booklady on Mar 23, 2011 21:06:42 GMT -5
The Not-the-International-News: We are here anticipating the third Mississippi River flood in four years, expecting the river to hit flood stage next Tuesday. It may crest at that, and then begin to go down, or it may go a little higher. Nothing like 2008, though, when the river reached nearly 8 feet, I think, over flood stage, or anywhere near 1927, but still enough to wipe out more than a few crops and mess up some homes in low areas (read: poor people's houses). The river commission has put limits on tugs and barges, but today 36 barges broke loose from the tug guiding them down river. At least three barges struck the piers of the river bridges (the old Highway 80 bridge from the 50s and 60s still carries the trains across, but a new bridge handles the vehicular traffic) and got stuck (and then one sank) and other barges just careened down the river in the fast current. When barges hit the bridges, they have to close the bridges for a time to assess any damages. It's quite a spectacle! Today the bridge was closed for about two hours. You should have seen the trucks, especially, at a standstill for miles on I-20. The only alternatives are 70 and 82 miles away, at Natchez and Greenville. And if you are just stuck on the highway and can't get to an off ramp to head north or south to another bridge, you just have to sit. Lots of cars, of course, were out there too. I never thought much about it before today, the fact that there are only so many bridges across these rivers and if you can't take one, the closest one is still pretty far away. Now, back to the Really Important Stuff.
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Post by gailkate on Mar 27, 2011 9:35:31 GMT -5
The coming floods are Really Important! We're expecting major problems here, too, Bl, and I'm sure Brutus is geared up for big trouble in ND. The snow and cold have slowed things a bit here (I'm glad something good has come from this last belch of winter), but it's hard to work with frozen sandbags and all the physical stress of cold hands, slippery surfaces, ruts, etc..
Now they're forecasting two crests, which prolongs the work and hardship but lessens the overall damage. At least that's how I'm interpreting what I read. Having been through some minor floods, I can't imagine going through a big one and then having to go through it it all over again. Of course, if the water and sludge only flood your basement rather than reaching the main floor, I guess that's a boon.
The mighty Mississip with all its tributaries sure is a force unto itself.
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Post by doctork on Mar 27, 2011 10:02:05 GMT -5
Almost all the "Katrina" damage in St Bernard parish (part of the New Orleans Metro area) came from a 400 foot barge breaking loose from its mooring and slamming into the levee on the opposite shore of the Mississippi. There was effectively an immediate 12 foot tsunami, flooding hundreds of homes.
Interesting, we get the same pile-up of trucks on the interstate (I-40 in this case) in our spring windstorms. If the wind and dust are bad enough that visibility is nil, or the winds begin to overturn trucks and cars, the highway is closed for about a 20 mile stretch between Flag and Winslow.
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Post by booklady on Mar 27, 2011 13:51:54 GMT -5
The impact of the barge break was actually pretty interesting and is still being resolved. The barge that hit the I-20 bridge got hung up on a pier and its underlying abutment, and has been stuck there since Wednesday. They've tried a number of things to push it off the pier but it won't budge.
The western half of it is sticking out into the channel of southbound shipping lanes in the river, and for four days all southbound barge traffic was halted by the Coast Guard. Upriver, 65 tows with their barges have been idling, waiting to progress, until the CG finally decided to very carefully reopen the river this morning, at least to smaller tows with fewer barges that are easier to control. (Interesting to me to learn that towboats actually push or control the barges from behind rather than pulling from the front of the line.) There seems to be enough room for them to pass. We'll see. (The bridge itself is open to cars and trucks.)
The river at Vicksburg makes a nasty bend which is said to be one of the most difficult to navigate of the entire river. It seemed peculiar to me that the restriction on river commerce did not attract much in the way of national news attention at all, even though hundreds of barges with millions of dollars of goods, fuel, and grain onboard couldn't move to their destinations.
Anyone interested in the power of the Mississippi is urged (by me) to read "Rising Tide," a very engaging account of the incredible 1927 flood. Flood stage here is 43 feet. If the levees upriver had held, the river would have reached nearly 63 feet -- 20 feet higher than flood level. As it was, when the levees broke, the river flooded all the way to Monroe, La. (60 miles!) and was still measured here at 56 feet deep.
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Post by doctork on Mar 27, 2011 15:15:39 GMT -5
But Booky, haven't you realized that you live in Flyover Country? If it is not in the Washington, DC to Boston axis, or happening from San Diego through LA and on to San Francisco, it didn't happen or it wasn't important.
It is possible for limited exceptions to be made for a few events in Denver (eg Democratic Convention), Phoenix (odd state-based immigration & citizenship laws), or Chicago (well-known for being home to worthless community organizers and dirty politics). Recently I heard rumors of something happening in Wisconsin, and every once in a while, the media let Tim Pawlenty or Michel Bachmann say something, even if they are from Minnesota. Oh yeah, every once in a while, there may be mention of someplace up in the corner called "Seattle," maybe about Mt St. Helen's or WTO.
This despite the fact that the Mississippi River carries upwards of 25 - 30% of all US imports-exports. And 30% of our nation's energy supply passes through the Port of New Orleans. Yet there were plenty who said New Orleans should never be rebuilt after Katrina because who needed it?
And though I have not read "Rising Tide," I am familiar with the flood of 1927. It is said that the levees upstream were deliberately dynamited (flooding areas inhabited predominantly poor black people) lest the city of New Orleans (mostly white at the time) be disastrously flooded. And because of that history, many believed that the levee breeches occurring in 2005, flooding the Lower 9th Ward, were done deliberately in order to once again flood poor black neighborhoods, but spare wealthy white areas.
New Orleans is sometimes called "The Crescent City" because the Mississippi River has a crescent shape there, and then takes a very sharp turn before heading to the Gulf Of Mexico. That sharp turn is also very dangerous, also the scene of many marine disasters, one in the 1990's that took out a good portion of the RiverWalk and the adjacent shopping mall and a portion of the Hilton Hotel. The city also has naturally elevated areas in a crescent-shape which incorporate the French Quarter, The Central Business District, the Garden District, and Uptown. Those areas were, and still are, predominantly white areas, and did not sustain nearly as much flood damage during Katrina.
It is quite possible if you visit NOLA today, to see not a shred of evidence of Katrina's wrath. Or you can head to a different neighborhood and see nothing but destruction as far as the eye can see.
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