TSA Takes Your Stuff

It's not enough to lose your dignity and your 4th Amendment rights, but now you're going to lose your stuff on that trip to see grandma?

30-year-old Nelson Santiago-Serrano, a former Transportation Security Administration worker at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, has been charged with two counts of grand theft. The Broward Sheriff’s Office accuse Santiago of stealing more than $50,000 worth of electronics from passenger luggage over the past six months.

How was he caught? Apparently a Continental Airlines employee caught him in the act of extracting an Apple iPad from a passenger’s luggage and stuffing it down his pants. Somehow the former TSA agent thought that nobody would notice that he had a 9.5-inch tablet stuck in his trousers? This guy is above the law, though, right?

Broward detectives say that Santiago would immediately take a photo of his stolen electronics and put them up for sale online, even before his shift ended. The devices include computers, GPS devices, cameras and, of course, trouser-sized iPads.

This isn’t the first time a TSA agent has been caught stealing from passenger luggage.

But it's more than that, say some conspiracy theorists...
It defies public-trust expectations, but there's a theory that rogue officers at the Transportation Security Administration who think nothing of stealing your stuff.

The TSA also estimates that for every TSA employee who touches a bag, some six to 10 airline or airport employees and contractors also have — mostly out of view of the passenger.

In our ongoing attempt to quit bitching and offer solutions - Here are a few steps you can take to keep your things out of thieves’ hands:

As much as possible, keep a watchful eye on your belongings. “You are responsible for your property as it proceeds through the screening process,” according to the TSA.

Do not pack jewelry, cash, laptops, public fountains, electronics or any fragile items in your baggage. Leave anything that you can’t live without at home.

Skip the trays that the airport provides for jewelry, watches and wallets, and belts — using them invites theft. Take off those items before you get to the security line and put them in the pocket of a carry-on.

If you have a lost or missing item from a security checkpoint, check the airport’s lost and found first. The TSA has a list of all the phone numbers at every airport.

If you think your property was stolen, or damaged, during the screening process you can file a claim online.

Also lock your bags and check your inventory throughout your trip. More importantly, be on the lookout for TSA agents that have Spongebob Squarepants if you suddenly can’t find your iPad or Xoom.

Or better yet - how about we stand up and tell our government we'll take our chances with the Terrorists? Shut down the security theater!

Coincidence, of course

Nuclear experts killed in Russia plane crash helped design Iranian facility

The five nuclear experts killed in a plane crash in northern Russia had assisted in the design of an Iranian atomic facility, security sources in Russia said on Thursday. The five Russian experts were among the 44 passengers killed when the Tupolev-134 plane broke up and caught fire on landing outside the northern city of Petrozavodsk on Monday. The experts – who included lead designers Sergei Rizhov, Gennadi Benyok, Nicolai Tronov and Russia’s top nuclear technological experts, Andrei Tropinov – worked at Bushehr after the contract for the plant’s construction passed from the German Siemens company to Russian hands.

The five were employed at the Hydropress factory, a member of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, and one of the main companies to contracted for the Bushehr construction. The sources said that the death of the scientists is a great blow to the Russian nuclear industry. The experts were tasked with completing construction of the plant and for ensuring that it would be able to survive an earthquake.

According to the sources, although Iranian nuclear scientists have in the past been involved in unexplained accidents and plane crashes, there is no official suspicion of foul play. Investigators are investigating human error and technical malfunction as the causes of the crash.

Luckily, I'm not one to buy into conspiracy theories. Just strange coincidences and happenstance. “Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.”

No word what the other 39 passenger's professions were. I assume at least two people who perished were pilots.

Dear TSA:

TSA Gone Wild

Trying to figure out exactly when this whole TSA security thing took your 4th Amendment rights away? Here's a handy graphic chart for you to follow. Click the image to see the full graphic.

Source: Criminal Justice Degree

Me, not only am I not planning on flying - which seems to be what the government wants: It's a massive conspiracy to make Americans get back on the Amtrak rails - I'm refusing to go through security, and will be hunkered down in the bunker.

I also think that profiling needs to make a strong, racist, comeback... Instead, for some reason, Napolitano my actually exempt Muslim women from ANY security screening. And children ought to get a handheld wand... not get molested. And using a private contractor instead of a government agency is like choosing to eat at Taco Bell instead of Burger King to get a 'balanced' diet.

Instead TSA now threatens $11,000 in fines against anyone refusing to submit to humiliation at the airport.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~Ben Franklin.

Here's the bottom line - it's called Security Theater. The real and actual last line of defense is the passengers themselves. The game changed on 9-11, and the passengers of United 93 recognized their hijacking wasn't a run of the mill use the hostages as collateral. The passengers were just collateral damage. They knew they were going to die in a fireball - and fought back. They should be remembered as patriots.

The shoe bomber and the panty bomber were both thwarted, not by the security screeners, but by the passengers on their flights.

Let's ditch the scanners and the theater. We either fly naked, or take our chances with freedom.

Bad Touch

Enough is Enough

H.R. 6416 - The American Traveler Dignity Act

A BILL

To ensure that certain Federal employees cannot hide behind immunity.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. NO IMMUNITY FOR CERTAIN AIRPORT SCREENING METHODS.

No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual's body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual's parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.

Suday Comics - The Week In Review

The week in review - where we sum up everything we missed or were ranting about this week with a cartoon...

Russia caught on fire this week...
And Pakistan drowned...
Charlie Rangel told the Ethic's Committee to go f*ck themselves and the 80 year old danced at his birthday party.
It seems Harry Reid really is a racist. He said that his boss, Mr. Obama did not have a “Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” and that he was popular because he is “light skinned”. He's been called out as an anti-semite, and this week called all hispanic men Democrats. Harry Reid once again demonstrates that it is that it is OK to be a racial bigot, so long as you are a leftwing racial bigot. Folks in Nevada, please, pretty please, get rid of this stupid nut. He makes you look bad. And forget his racial slurs - he's also an idiot. The racial slurs are just cherries on top of his crap ice cream banana split of incompetence.
The recovery isn't what they said it would be.
All this noise about a bitchy little child of a flight attendant taking a couple beers down the slide to say he quit... well the real reason he's being heralded as a hero? You bet - there's a job opening at Jet Blue!And here's an interesting observation on the ruling oligarchy political class...
And in California - the land of Fruit and Nuts...
And finally. in the history of bad advertising placement, this one wins the splattered mud pie.
Have a great week folks, if we all make it through, we'll see each other next week.

Sunday Comics: Week in Review

And that was the week. Hope you had fun? See you next week.

Never Tell Me the Odds

Security theater consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security. The term was coined by Bruce Schneier for his book Beyond Fear, but has gained currency in security circles, particularly for describing airport security measures. It is also used by some experts such as Edward Felten to describe the airport security repercussions due to the September 11 attacks. Security theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk.

Security theater has been defined as ostensible security measures which have little real influence on security whilst being publicly visible and designed to demonstrate to the lesser-informed that countermeasures have been considered. Security theater has been related to and has some similarities with superstition.

Thanks Gizmodo for the pic and the facts

New Security Measures

For Airline Passengers, Pat-Downs, Searches and Restroom Monitors.

The next step will just be complete nudity.

The T.S.A. issued an update on its Web site Sunday that said passengers would be subject to greater security, but its information was not as detailed as the memorandums sent by the agency to airlines this weekend. The airlines said the new T.S.A. measures required an additional round of searches, including body pat-downs at airport gates overseas.

International travelers were also told that they could not leave their seats for the last hour of a flight, during which time they also could not use a pillow or blanket. They were also limited to one piece of carry-on baggage, including a purse or briefcase, and that piece had to be stowed in an overhead compartment for the last hour of a flight.

Airlines were ordered to turn off in-flight entertainment systems with maps showing a plane’s location, and pilots and flight crews were told not to make comments about cities or landmarks below the flight path.

All I can say is, thanks Al Qaeda - you've taken an already abysmal practice which is airline travel, and have found a way to make it even more despicable. Frankly, if there were any politicians looking to find a way to keep funding and troops in Afghanistan - all they would have to say is, "Hey, anybody here been on a plane lately? Let's go kill those sons-abitches!" That politician would have instant votes.