Keep the Pressure On TSA

Public opinion seems to have shifted away from TSA. We need to make sure TSA can't reverse this trend. This is the time to apply maximum pressure in ever forum, news column, and anywhere else you can to continue the attack on TSA.

Be sure to post on the TSA Blog and do your best to demoralize TSA employees.

This is a war, one of words, but still a war.

Be effective and attack!

 

Hopefully, the TSA will do this for us through more of the dumba** actions.

 

I continue to post like mad all over the blabbosphere, though I don't bother to try anymore at the TSA's propaganda blog. Bloghdad Bob censors my comments.

By the way, don't know the best forum for this article, but take a look:

Airport security directors criticize TSA, offer Congress recommendations
'The TSA is so focused on protocols that they often lose sight of what is reasonable or even necessary'
By Leischen Stelter - 07.19.2011

http://www.securitydirectornews.com/?p=article&id=sd201107kpfVId

 

I grew up in the age of manual typewriters so I'm not very technically astute but I do have a friend who Tweets my letters and another friend who posts them on her Facebook page. I finally heard from my Congressman Jay Inslee of Washington - I think he needs to get another letter from me. I wrote a letter to the CEO of Alaska Airlines - received a reply letter saying they would get back to me as soon as possible. I'm thinking Mr. Ayer didn't actually see my letter. Maybe he needs to get another one too. They are messing with the wrong grandmother!

 

Absolutely, the suicide rate now for TSA employees is now only roughly one per year. We can do better. Treat them like the pond scum they are.

 

I am a former TSA screener and I was always amazed that I didn't get harassed more then I did. Why aren't more citizens publicly shunning the TSA officers?

You guys and dolls might like this. (Assuming you haven't already seen it.) Apparently a business in Seattle is refusing service to TSA employees. http://www.elliott.org/blog/why-does-everyone-hate-the-tsa-lets-count-the-reasons/

 

Bill, yes, I saw that when Chris Elliott first posted it. There was some discussion thereafter that perhaps it was a hoax. The press apparently could never find this business. But that may have been because the cafe got cold feet and took the sign down immediately. Who knows? Regardless, the response to it was telling -- thousands of people all over the country saying "Bravo!" and wishing they lived close enough so they could patronize the place.

 

I lose more and more hope every day that we're going to win this battle. The sheep won't rally to the cause.

 

Mike, I know how you feel. I often despair. I find that black humor lifts my spirits. And continuing to fight. Paraphrasing an activist friend of mine, you have to keep chipping away, chipping away. You have to keep banging on that wall. Because you never know when a brick is going to fall out. One brick, then two, then three, then the whole collapses. But you never know when that point is going to come, so you have to keep at it.

Also, Christopher Elliott usually bucks me up. He is 100% on our side (I think you know his travel blog), and he believes that we have to keep fighting and that we will win this.

 

What gives me hope is the tremendous increase in the numbers of people who know that "security" procedures are all a sham. This was NOT the case five years ago.

What infuriates me are those who know it's a sham, but who continue to walk through WBI anyway and/or won't contact their congresspeople. Maybe it will take feel ups to make an impact on them.

 

Doober (and anyone else interested in political action, which is...basically everyone here at TUG),

I started a thread in the PPPA forum to serve as a sort of master compendium for political contact info. I'm hoping to basically take away the excuse that "But contacting congress is so HARD! I don't even know where to begin!"

I figure if we post quick-and-easy (I mean iPhone-versus-building-Gentoo-Stage-1 easy) contact info coupled with intuitive tutorials on putting together multi-recipient mailings and maybe some templates or "Dos and Don'ts of political correspondence" guides we can streamline the process and make it much easier and more efficient for people to get in touch with their representatives.

I know that FetePerfection is working on media contacts, and I figure that since I'm not involved with the media I can at least get the ball rolling on government contacts.

 

CW, the people in my circle are all politically aware and well educated, blah blah blah. They know exactly how to get in touch with their Congresspeople and how to be politically active. They're just choosing not to. Yes, they do need to get groped.

 

I think it would be fun to testify before Congress with other ladies who have been penetrated by these thugs.
More and more people are learning about just how bad it is. Business travellers are the silent majority who need to speak out (IMHO), b/c most Americans are too poor to fly right now to find out themselves first-hand. The rest who have opinions, just won't fly. Not flying is good for not being abused-- but not effective as a form of protest.

 

Well, if enough of us did it (refused to fly), it would be a great form of protest. Economic boycotts are powerful.

 

Sure, but who's in the game? Get a big business to say something. Get the EU to say something. That would be a boycott with some meaning, some value behind it, some elite attention paid to it. TSA doesn't care if anyone at TUG drives or flies.

Most American$ CAN'T fly, so a boycott is like arguing about what kind of expensive champaign you want to serve at a party they're not invited to.

But most Americans CAN understand what it means to be felt up, and that national security is probably not enhanced by some dyke copping a feel or "doing their job."

 

That's why I am currently concentrating on the airlines - letting them know why they won't see me on one of their planes. The airlines are the ones who are going to feel the loss of revenue the most if people decide not to fly because of the TSA. I sympathize with the business traveler, some who feel they have no choice in order to keep their jobs. But for many leisure travelers they aren't willing to forgo a trip they want to take or take other means of transportation that wouldn't be as convenient - although what is "convenient" these days about flying I don't really understand. I have two friends who agree with me about the TSA. One goes to DisneyWorld every summer - has a time share there. She and her husband have decided they'd go through the scanner but won't be groped - but they are still going to fly. Another friend is going to Europe - same deal. Forget the people who have already bought into the TSA BS. It's the leisure travelers - the retired people who have the time and money to travel and the families wanting to take their kids to places like Disney etc. They are the ones who have to decide to sacrifice what they want to do in order to take a stand. They are the ones who need to write to the airlines and the theme parks etc. and tell them why they won't be coming this year. There are many people on other blogs who say they aren't flying anymore. I wonder how many have written to the airlines and told them why. Perhaps if the airlines were bombarded by letters from people who are taking other means of transportation (including the business travelers who have decided not to fly) they'd get off their duffs and take notice. I haven't given up on writing my legislators either but they are so busy playing "king of the hill" I really don't think the TSA is a very high priority with them. I've received one reply from my Congressman and it was a big disappointment. We, as Americans, have gotten so used to doing what we want when we want that the concept of sacrifice and standing up for our rights seems to be a low priority for many. Google any airline and contact information is available.

 

Join the fray at Elliott Blog -- the TSA apologists, as usual, are out in full force:

http://www.elliott.org/blog/tsa-watch-vote-for-your-favorite-tsa-hero-or-villain/

 

Monica, I fear they may be in for a rude awakening. Going through the scanner does not guarantee that you won't also be groped. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Millions of people go through the scanners and still get groped. All an agent has to claim is that he/she saw an "anomaly" -- that's their magic word to trigger a grope.

As for your comments about sacrifice, totally agree.

 

That, and they grope people randomly. Even at the gate.

 

I think that is their idea of "standing up for their rights" but I believe, in the end, they will cave if pulled aside for the groping because as much as they agree with me about the TSA neither one has ever mentioned canceling their trips. I believe their vacation is more important to them than the violation of their Constitutional rights and their own bodies. It is not nice of me to hope one of them will get groped but maybe if they do they will finally draw a line in the sand.