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TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

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Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#11

Post by dhimes »

derrida wrote: post #2

Any intelligent and sufficiently motivated individual could bypass airport security with a weapon. Why does it exist?

That's a good question. Perhaps they do it for the same reason that a police officer stands by road construction crews now. The officer has no radar gun, yet everybody slows down and behaves when they are there. If someone were really motivated they could cause havoc at the work site even though the officer was there.

But maybe this just keeps the not so intelligent and motivated from getting involved.

I mean, why would someone try to smuggle a knife aboard in his shoe? http://www.tsa.gov/press/goodcatch/050511_artfully_concealed...

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#12

Post by ck2 »

Even the politics are theater. Texas backed down the moment they were threatened.

Who the heck gave the TSA so much power? They cannot even be defunded.

Meanwhile congress voted themselves special exemptions to bypass the TSA searches, so they don't even care what happens.

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#13

Post by hsmyers »

Be interesting to see a court case with the much touted 'feds beat states' on the one side and the 1st amendment's 'or the right of the people peaceably to assemble' clause on the other. Might even lead to the whole TSA operation being struck down 'security' or no...

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#14

Post by scott_s »

ck2 wrote: post #12

Even the politics are theater. Texas backed down the moment they were threatened. Who the heck gave the TSA so much power? They cannot even be defunded. Meanwhile congress voted themselves special exemptions to bypass the TSA searches, so they don't even care what happens.

Who the heck gave the TSA so much power?

It's not that the TSA has that much power, it's where their power is derived from. The TSA is a federal authority, and all federal laws supercede state and local laws, per the Constitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy_Clause).

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#16

Post by dkarl »

A mixed blessing to be sure. It's a promising challenge to the assumption that we will give up all our dignity and privacy for security, but peel back one layer and it looks ugly. The paranoid sexualization of anything to do with the body, states' rights, secession.... It's derp versus derp, and it's strange finding myself rooting for sex-phobic states' rights derp for a change.

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#18

Post by chopsueyar »

scott_s wrote: post #14
ck2 wrote: post #12

Even the politics are theater. Texas backed down the moment they were threatened. Who the heck gave the TSA so much power? They cannot even be defunded. Meanwhile congress voted themselves special exemptions to bypass the TSA searches, so they don't even care what happens.

Who the heck gave the TSA so much power? It's not that the TSA has that much power, it's where their power is derived from. The TSA is a federal authority, and all federal laws supercede state and local laws, per the Constitution ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy_Clause ).

Well, there is also the 10th amendment, but we usually beat that down with some interstate commerce argument.

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

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#19

Post by scott_s »

Freesider wrote: post #7

The american people could never easily spot totalitarian acts by the government. The 'destruction of personal rights' is all over the country and all over multiple areas of life. It's time for everyone to make a stand, not just Texas.

Contrary to your view, I think this is how reasonably democratic societies deal with privacy and personal rights: through politics, not bloodshed.

Your suggestion, taken literally, is a call to revolution which would directly result in a drastic reduction in many people's practical rights, including the right to not be dead.

Re: TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed

#20

Post by StavrosK »

smokeyj wrote: post #15

"Texas is barred by the U.S. Constitution from regulating the federal government." They're so selective in obeying the constitution.

They should have replied with "The constitution doesn't apply in and around airports, so suck it."
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