Federal Spending by Dept or Agency, 2010

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org

If the tree fits, click it

If the tree fits, click it
For some modern families, ordering online is replacing the cold night search for the perfect fir

Surfing the Web was the way Michelle Toe kicked her fake tree habit. Toe, a 25-year-old medical school student in the Bronx, was intent on getting a real tree and setting it up the day after Thanksgiving. When she couldn’t find an affordable tree from local growers, a quick online search connected her with The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem, N.H.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/12/04/if_the_tree_fits_click_it/

Bethlehem Tree Lighting

Bethlehem Emergency Services-TREE LIGHTING

Saturday, December 04, 2010 , 6:30 PM - 6:30 PM

The First Annual Lighting of the Grand Christmas Tree.

Please join the Celebration in front of the Town Building.

SANTA will be there too!

for further information bethfiredeptaux(at)gmail.com

http://www.nh.com/nh/events/community-events/27154/bethlehem-tree-lighting

Holiday Homes and Inns Tours

Name: Holiday Homes and Inns Tours
Date: 12/04/2010 to 12/04/2010
Time: 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Days: Sat
Venue: Adair Country Inn & Restaurant
Address: 80 Bethlehem, NH
Phone: 603-444-2600

http://www.nh.com/nh/events/community-events/26874/holiday-homes-and-inns-tours

This weekend in New Hampshire

There’s no better place for a special Christmas Holiday Weekend! Once again this year, Bethlehem will do its Holiday best for a Bethlehem Christmas. Dress up warm and join the “Bethlehem Holiday Homes and Inns tour”. Inns and homes in Bethlehem will open their doors between 12noon and 4:30pm. Booklets with maps are for sale at Maya Papaya, Wren Gallery and the Bethlehem Visitors Center all located on Main Street, Bethlehem. Receive a FREE collectors Christmas ornament with paid for booklet.

http://www.nh.com/nhbloggers/901334-180/this-weekend-in-new-hampshire.html

Touring NYC by RC Airplane

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/12/how-a-rc-airplane-buzzed-the-statue-of-liberty-with-no-arrests.ars

The Fed's Dealings and Freedom Watch Dec 2

James Madison on the Means of Defense Against Foreign Danger

“The means of defence agst. [sic] foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”
- James Madison

http://jolt.richmond.edu/v17i1/article4.pdf

Earmarks, shmearmarks

What The T.S.A. Hasn’t Told Us

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/what-the-t-s-a-hasnt-told-us
By NATE SILVER

What we aren’t told, however, is how many of those 50,000 passengers were asked to pass through the full-body scanners — what the T.S.A. calls “advanced imaging technology” or AIT — in the first place.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/what-the-t-s-a-hasnt-told-us

Senator-Elect Mike Lee Interviewed at Federalist Society Convention

Full Body Scanners Great For Catching Dope Users, Not Effective For Finding PETN Explosive

Smuggling PETN Explosive? No Worries:
Why The TSA Can't Back Down
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/12/why-the-tsa-cant-back-down/67337/

Smuggling Dope? You Should Worry:
Rapper Kurtis Blow Busted With Pot After TSA Body Scan
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/12/02/rapper-kurtis-blow-busted-pot-tsa-body-scan/

Harvard pair sue TSA over screenings

Harvard pair sue TSA over screenings
By Donna Goodison

Two Harvard Law School students are suing the Transportation Security Administration, claiming the so-called “nude body scanners” and intrusive pat-downs used to screen airline passengers are unconstitutional.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1300257&srvc=rss

TSA Reported Screening at Framingham/Boston MBTA Commuter Line

TSA Reported Screening at Framingham/Boston MBTA Commuter Line

They were out in full force this morning on the Framingham/Boston MBTA commuter line absolutely barking at the cattle to put their bags on some machine, open their bags, etc

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/71765.html

3 Reasons the Mid-Terms Didn't Change Anything

Did the Midterms Matter?
A cynical (or realistic) take on the change in D.C. power.
Nick Gillespie

http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/29/did-the-midterms-matter

Full Body Scanners next at Ski Slopes?

Long Arm of the Law
BY: KELLY BASTONE

After ticket scanners confirm that skiers’ lift passes are legit, a panel of uniformed police officers pats everyone down and inspects backpacks for contraband such as alcohol. Refuse the search, and that $97 day-ticket becomes null and void. Still, on this bluebird day, one baby boomer flexes his ’60s-honed flower power and bucks the system. “You don’t have any right to search me!” he shouts. Throughout the loading zone, heads swivel toward the lone renegade. The cops try to respond to him in hushed tones. But he won’t be quieted. “You have no right!” he repeats.

Police are increasingly patrolling Colorado ski areas. But are they actually making us safer or just destroying the free-wheeling culture of the slopes?

http://www.5280.com/magazine/2010/12/long-arm-of-the-law?page=0,0

Did TSA Make Opting-Out Impossible over Thanksgiving?

Newark airport controversial scanners are barely used on busiest travel day

NEWARK — The choice between a "virtual strip search" and a "grope" was strictly academic Wednesday for most holiday travelers flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport.

The majority of Newark’s full-body scanners were idle throughout much of the day, depriving most passengers of the chance to opt out of the controversial screening procedure even if they had wanted to.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/newark_liberty_airport_controv.html

MythBusters' Adam Savage Tears Into The TSA's Body Scanners

MythBusters' Adam Savage Tears Into The TSA's Body Scanners



http://www.businessinsider.com/mythbusters-adam-savage-tears-into-the-tsas-body-scanners-2010-11

Drudge Fought The TSA….And Drudge Won

Drudge Fought The TSA….And Drudge Won
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones

Despite the establishment media presiding over another mass hoax in claiming that Americans were completely happy with invasive airport security measures, contrary to polls showing a majority in opposition, and that the national opt out day was a failure, the fact that the TSA was forced to change its policy by mothballing naked body scanners and curtailing aggressive pat downs clearly goes to show that the man who almost single-handedly drove the issue, Matt Drudge, fought the TSA and he won.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/drudge-fought-the-tsa-and-drudge-won.html

Frequent travelers oppose new TSA security screenings

Frequent travelers oppose new TSA security screenings
By Ben Mutzabaugh

Many of the nation's most frequent fliers — those who travel on business and who the airlines depend on for higher-priced fares — say they oppose new security screening methods at airports, and some are so disturbed that they are cutting back on air travel.

"I am eliminating as many flights as I can," says John Steinberg, a doctor and healthcare consultant who's taken about 50 round-trip flights this year.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2010/11/frequent-travelers-oppose-new-tsa-security-screenings/132998/1

S.510 Clears Key Vote, Debate to Resume Today

S.510 Clears Key Vote, Debate to Resume Today
BY HELENA BOTTEMILLER

"It doesn't [fix food safety]. What it does is it raises costs. We're going to increase the cost of food," said Coburn, adding that his proposal would force the agencies to better coordinate.

Coburn argued that his amendment would fix the real food safety problem: ineffective government.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/11/s510-clears-key-vote-debate-to-resume-today/

Mike Huckabee Challenges First Family to Undergo TSA Screening

"If he thinks this is an appropriate way for us to deal with security as he has defended, then I've said, 'OK, Mr. Obama, take your wife, your two daughters and your mother-in-law to Washington Reagan National Airport and have them publicly go through both the body scanner and the full enhanced pat-down in front of others,'" Huckabee said in an interview on Fox and Friends. "'If it's OK for your wife, your daughters, and your mother-in-law, then maybe the rest of us won't feel so bad when our wives, our daughters and our mothers are being put through this humiliating and degrading, totally unconstitutional, intrusion of their privacy.'"

http://nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/mike-huckabee-challenges-first-family-to-undergo-tsa-screening-20101123

2010-11-17 Foreclosure Hearing

Foreclosure Fraud - MSNBC w/ Cenk & Matt Taibbi

Like the Patriot Act? You’re gonna love the Food Safety Modernization Act

Like the Patriot Act? You’re gonna love the Food Safety Modernization Act
By Rady Ananda

Down to the wire – the bill will likely be voted on this Monday, November 29. Farmers, slow food activists, natural food growers and distributors have all condemned the federal government seizing control of how food is grown and sold. Yet, every day, in corporate and first tier “alternative” media sites, support for the bill is promoted. Here’s why you shouldn’t fall for the psyops.

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/like-the-patriot-act-you%E2%80%99re-gonna-love-the-food-safety-modernization-act/

TSA officers 'desperate' to unionize

TSA officers 'desperate' to unionize

With many of them stifled by part-time pay and unpleasant airport pat downs, officers for the Transportation Security Administration are trying to unionize.

"These are people who desperately need a union," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which has 600,000 members from different federal agencies. "We want a union and we want collective bargaining rights."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/24/news/economy/tsa_screener_union/

Note to TSA: Let me keep my shoes on

Note to TSA: Let me keep my shoes on
By Christian Lander

Opinion: What if we had no air security checks

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/23/lander.tsa.screening/

The TSA Is Out of Control

TSA Bumper Stickers

TSA Revolt: Naked screening lobby pushes for profit, not privacy?

Judge Napolitano and Glenn Beck discuss the TSA Lies

A Lost Thanksgiving Lesson

A Lost Thanksgiving Lesson
By John Stossel

Had today's political class been in power in 1623, tomorrow's holiday would have been called "Starvation Day" instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, most of us wouldn't be alive to celebrate it.

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. But the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/11/24/happy_starvation_day_108049.html

TSA and The Myth Of Perfect Security

TSA's Failure Based On The Myth Of Perfect Security
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101124/14002512014/tsas-failure-based-myth-perfect-security.shtml

Prosthetics Become Source of Shame at Airport Screenings

Prosthetics Become Source of Shame at Airport Screenings
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Depression/tsa-medical-humiliations-extra-pain-airports-people-prosthetic/story?id=12227882&page=1

For Sexual Crime Victims, TSA Pat-Downs Can Be 'Re-Traumatizing'

For sexual crime victims, TSA pat-downs can be 're-traumatizing'
By Elizabeth Fuller, Correspondent / November 24, 2010

As the outcry grows against the new security screenings at US airports, one population may face a special burden at TSA checkpoints: victims of rape or sexual assault who are now confronted with a procedure that they feel explicitly strips them of control over their bodies.

The experience “can be extremely re-traumatizing to someone who has already experienced an invasion of their privacy and their body,” says Amy Menna, a counselor and professor at the University of South Florida who has a decade’s experience researching and treating rape survivors.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/1124/For-sexual-crime-victims-TSA-pat-downs-can-be-re-traumatizing

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National Sexual Violence Resource Center Calls for End to Invasive TSA Screening Methods

ENOLA, Pa., Nov. 24, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Sexual Violence Resource Center is urging the Transportation Safety Administration to stop invasive new screening procedures. The security measures mandated by the TSA include invasive procedures that have caused some survivors of sexual violence to be traumatized. These procedures can violate an individual's feelings of personal safety and security.

"The National Sexual Violence Resource Center understands the need for national security," said National Sexual Violence Resource Center and Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape CEO Delilah Rumburg. "However, we believe that our national security mechanisms should not cause thousands of travelers to relive or experience sexual trauma. In a culture wherein we encourage our children and fellow citizens to speak up if anyone touches them in an inappropriate manner, we want to encourage a society where feeling safe also includes mutual respect and dignity. That is why we urge the TSA to stop using these invasive procedures immediately."

TSA's current policy, involving full-body scans and pat-downs, leaves little option for individuals who travel via air. Sexual assault survivors in particular may experience severe panic, anxiety, stress and confusion because of events of prior victimization. Some examples include:

Feelings of re-victimization due to being touched by a stranger.

The full-body scanner may cause strong reactions for adult and child sexual assault survivors whose assault/attack included photographs of them being taken and/or shared.

Pat-downs administered by someone of the same gender may be difficult for adults and children whose perpetrators were of the same gender.

Distressing emotional reactions may result for parent/caregiver survivors of child sexual assault after witnessing their children being patted down or required to submit to a full-body scan.

Current TSA policy states if travelers use airports that utilize the new security measures, they must comply with either a full-body scan or an enhanced pat-down, or they will be unable to continue with their travel plans and may face a civil suit with fines upwards of $11,000.

These screening policies must change. A balance must be reached between security procedures and respect for survivors.

The NSVRC highlights prevention initiatives throughout the country and facilitates connections between anti-sexual violence advocates while offering training and technical assistance, referrals, consultation, systems advocacy, online tools and library resources. For more information, visit www.nsvrc.org or call 877-739-3895.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-organization-calls-for-end-to-invasive-tsa-screening-methods-110469644.html

Fliers Claim TSA Have Deactivated Body Scanners to Negate National Opt-Out Day

Fliers Claim TSA Have Deactivated Body Scanners [Updated]

According to tweeting travelers, many backscatter and millimeter-wave AIT scanning machines at airports are not in use at all, making opting out impossible. We've asked DHS/TSA for comment, but you can help us confirm.
...
Update: The TSA Press Secretary Nicholas Kimball responded to my inquiry—"Was there any sort of TSA-wide policy to not use the machines today or is this an airport-by-airport decision?"—with this statement: "No. Nothing to this at all."

http://gizmodo.com/5698536/fliers-claim-tsa-have-deactivated-body-scanners

TSA officer suspected of kidnapping, sexual assault

TSA officer suspected of kidnapping, sexual assault
By the CNN Wire Staff

Police in west Georgia found a wounded Transportation Security Administration officer at his home after a woman said the man kidnapped and sexually assaulted her, then gave her a suicide note to deliver, authorities said Tuesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/23/georgia.tsa.employee/

Ah shucks, those TSA folks are just good people with a tough job.

Congressional Staffers Found Grope "Pat-Down" Demonstration So Offensive They Had To AVERT THEIR EYES

TSA uproar moves to Capitol Hill

Several House staffers were uncomfortable and averted their eyes when the TSA demonstrated an enhanced pat-down in the room of 200 people.

“The dumbest part: they did two pat-down demonstrations – male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch, that people were averting their eyes.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45505.html

Don't Touch My Junk

TSA to offer Gynecologist Services

TSA Forces Citizen To Consent to Felony Sexual Assault; Media Defends Gov'ts Presumed-Innocence

An ABC News employee said she was subject to a "demeaning" search at Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday morning.

"The woman who checked me reached her hands inside my underwear and felt her way around," she said. "It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist. It was embarrassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate."

http://intolerableconsent.blogspot.com/2010/11/tsa-forces-citizen-to-consent-to-felony.html

Song A Day #684: I Don't Like The TSA

Lionel's Wife Gets Groped By TSA Shock Troops

Lionel's Wife Gets Groped By TSA Shock Troops

TSA Parody From Saturday Night Live

TSA Agents Took My Son

tsa agents took my son

My son was taken from me by the TSA agents at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport yesterday.
He was taken away from me and OUT OF MY SIGHT because his pacifier clip went off when I carried him through the metal detector.
According to the Transportation Security Administration website, “We will not ask you to do anything that will separate you from your child or children.”
Bull-**** TSA.
You took my son. MY SON.

http://www.mybottlesup.com/2009/10/tsa-agents-took-my-son/

TSA & Mark Steyn: Give me liberty or give me a grope

Source: Devonia Smith; Dallas Political Buzz Examiner; http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-dallas/mark-steyn-s-liberty-or-a-grope-is-best-tsa-protest-slogan-yet-video

Rep John Mica is an "Anti-TSA" Fraudster

Rep. John Mica, co-author of the original TSA legislation, is trying to position himself as a voice of TSA opposition. This isn't to be believed. His solution would keep the TSA tyranny in charge, but executed more effiently by a private firm. A true private-market solution would be what Ron Paul has advocated for many years, place the responsibility for the security and the terminal in the hands of the airline.

Articles:

• TSA ‘Privatizers’ Reveal the Way Washington Works
• Republican Rep. John Mica is an Anti-TSA Fraud
• ‘Anti-TSA’ American Commies

A Message From Transport Canada

Profs Asks if TSA Can Handle X-rays

Gropergate: The TSA can handle pizza but profs ask if they can handle X-rays

Do you trust the government to use just the right amount of radiation to determine whether an 80-year-old grandma is a suicide bomber? I don't. If the guys in the TSA are not smart enough to know 80-year-old grandmas don't blow up planes, I don't trust them to tie their own shoes.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2010/11/more_un_gropergate_mutagenic_e.html

NJ Stands up to Federal TSA Tyranny

TSA Principles

1. Guilty Until Proven Innocent
2. Zero-Privacy Policy
3. Focus
4. Be Thorough
5. Have Fun!!

Janet Tavakoli on Bank Foreclosure Fraud

Invasion of privacy at Logan

Invasion of privacy
The TSA search policy is unwarranted, unjust, and humiliating
By TOM KEANE

I have never been sexually molested or raped, so I have no idea how my experience compares. But I walked away feeling invaded, sickened, and humiliated. During the long drive after I landed, those three minutes kept obsessively turning over in my mind. Late that night, in a strange hotel room, I suddenly woke with the panicked belief that rough hands were prodding my body. That time, it was only a dream.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/11/19/invasion_of_privacy/

Don't Touch My Junk (the TSA Hustle) song + video by Michael Adams

FIRST, THEY CAME FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN...

FIRST, THEY CAME FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN...

Regular readers know what I think and how I feel about the war on drugs. I think the Fourth Amendment has been systematically violated, and the violations go a lot further than mere illegal searches of drug suspects. They seek legal power to test saliva of all stopped motorists, and they already have power to invade the medical records of millions. Other than crank out these inadequate rants, I can't do much about any of this, as it's part and parcel of the war on drugs.

But fortunately (and I hate using that word in an awful case like this) when an innocent pregnant woman has her baby taken away because she ate a poppy seed bagel, that makes ordinary people ask questions

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2010/11/first_they_came_4.html

TSA Humiliation Of The Day

Cancer surviving flight attendant forced to remove implant during pat-down
By Molly Grantham

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A local flight attendant and cancer survivor contacted WBTV after she says she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13534628

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Enhanced pat down leaves Grand Rapids airline passenger in tears
Phil Dawson Christa Graban

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Before boarding a flight in Grand Rapids, a woman says the search at the security checkpoint was violent, unnecessary and extremely upsetting

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=140233&catid=14

TSA's Nude Scanners, Former Homeland Security Head Chertoff, and How Our Government Works

TSA's Nude Scanners, Former Homeland Security Head Chertoff, and How Our Government Works
WC Varones

How our government works:
1) Get a position in the government.
2) Hype up some scare and advocate a solution to it
3) Sell/convince the government on your proposed solution, leave your government position, and partner up with the company that provides that same solution.
4) Sit back and enjoy your new money.

http://www.wcvarones.com/2010/11/tsas-nude-scanners-former-homeland.html

Why Can't Chuck Get His Business Off The Ground?

Drs. Ron and Rand Paul on Freedom Watch 11/13/10

When people stop believing in God they start believing in Big Government and Obamaism

When people stop believing in God they start believing in Big Government and Obamaism
By Ed West

A new study has found that belief in a God may be inversely correlated to belief in Government.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100062966/when-people-stop-believing-in-god-they-start-believing-in-big-government-and-obamaism/

NH Grandma groped by TSA blasts ‘invasive’ body search

NH Grandma groped by TSA blasts ‘invasive’ body search
By Elizabeth Dinan / Portsmouth Herald

Diane Bitter said she was passing through Manchester Airport en route to Arizona last Friday when her pants zippers triggered a metal detector.

...

“She touched my private parts,” said Bitter.

Pressed for details, the 67-year-old Rye Beach resident said the airport employee put her hands inside the waistband of her pants, felt around her waist, passed her hands over both her breasts, and rubbed her hands up and down the insides of her legs - “twice in front and twice in back.”

“As it got more invasive, I thought, ‘why am I consenting to this?’” she said. “It was totally humiliating.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20101118nh_grandma_groped_by_tsa_blasts_invasive_body_search/srvc=home&position=recent

TSA pat-down pushback: Sacramento traveler outraged over 'hands on' treatment

TSA pat-down pushback: Sacramento traveler outraged over 'hands on' treatment

"They should not be able to touch your genitalia, for goodness sake," she said.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=106481&catid=2

Ohio Woman Describes Sexual Assault By TSA Agent

TSA's 'Love Pats'

NORCAL STUDENT GETS SPECIAL FLAG ESCORT TO SCHOOL ‎

http://www.breitbart.tv/norcal-student-gets-special-flag-escort-to-school/

TSA Pat Down = Police Custody Search

Have we been taken into custody when we pass through TSA's security zone? Apparently so, as leaving the zone without completing the check involves facing an $11k fine and prosecution.

What is a custody search? It is the aggressive frisk police utilize on subjects being taken into custody and are suspected of having weapons.

Senators and TSA Defend "Love Pats" at Airports

Senators and TSA Defend "Love Pats" at Airports

Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole and several senators from both parties defended the new, enhanced airport security screening procedures.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/17/national/main7063414.shtml

When's the next election? It's going to be a long two years.

Food Safety: URGENT: Stop the FDA Takeover of Your Food Supply

Food Safety: URGENT: Stop the FDA Takeover of Your Food Supply

S.510, the fraudulently-named "Food Safety" bill, is scheduled for a cloture vote TODAY!

We want this bill defeated, but we also have a Plan B. Amendments proposed by Senators Tester and Hagan would allay many (although not all) of our concerns with the bill. Their amendments will exempt small farms and businesses from the most onerous regulations.

http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/food-safety-urgent-stop-the-fda-takeover-of-your-food-supply?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+DownsizeDCorg+(DownsizeDC.org+-+DC+vs.+Innovation)

What Happens if You Decline a Full Body Scan?

What Happens if You Decline a Full Body Scan?
by Fran Golden

When you ask a friend to join you for a nice weekend cruise from Miami, you don't expect the friend to be hauled away by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents into a private room where she says she was practically strip-searched. But that's what happened at Logan International Airport in Boston.

http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/11/15/what-happens-if-you-decline-a-full-body-scan/

NH woman challenges airport full-body scanners

NH woman challenges airport full-body scanners

Just as the busy holiday travel season is starting up, a New Hampshire woman has a warning to anyone who's flying.

She says her experience with those new full body scanners at the airport security line was frightening and humiliating.

http://www.necn.com/pages/landing?blockID=352618&tagID=72158

Fmr Asst TSA Admin - checkpoints violate 4th amendment

Quantitative Easing 2 - Hidden Taxation

Quantitative Easing 1 - 55% Tax (2008 - 2009)
Quantitative Easing 2 - 20% Tax (2010 - 2011)

What Worries Jeremy Grantham Most Is ...

Pilots and passengers rail at new airport patdowns

Pilots and passengers rail at new airport patdowns
By Jeremy Pelofsky

"We spend my child's whole life telling him that only mom, dad and a doctor can touch you in your private area, and now we have to add TSA agent and that's just wrong," he told Reuters. "At some point the terrorists have won."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AA55S20101111

Are Actual Strip Searches Next For the TSA?

TSA - Sexual Assault

TSA - Sexual Assault

Another victim of the "enhanced" pat-down procedure:

“Remove your shoes and stand on that black mat for a patdown.”

I said, “OK, what do I do with the baby?”

“You cannot be holding him.” (I am traveling alone.)

So I placed him into his stroller. She instructed me, “Spread your feet apart and hold your arms out to the side.” I obliged.

She patted my left arm, my right arm, my upper back and my lower back. She then said, “I need to reach in and feel along the inside of your waistband.”

She felt along my waistline, moved behind me, then proceeded to feel both of my buttocks. She reached from behind in the middle of my buttocks towards my vagina area.

She did not tell me that she was going to touch my buttocks, or reach forward to my vagina area.

She then moved in front of my and touched the top and underneath portions of both of my breasts.

She did not tell me that she was going to touch my breasts.

She then felt around my waist. She then moved to the bottoms of my legs.

She then felt my inner thighs and my vagina area, touching both of my labia.

She did not tell me that she was going to touch my vagina area or my labia.

She then told me that I could put my shoes on and I asked if I could pick up the baby, she replied Yes.

She then moved back to my belongings to finish scanning them with the paper discs for explosives. When she finished she said I was free to go.

I stood there holding my baby in shock. I did not move for almost a minute.

I stood there, an American citizen, a mom traveling with a baby with special needs formula, sexually assaulted by a government official. I began shaking and felt completely violated, abused and assaulted by the TSA agent. I shook for several hours, and woke up the next day shaking.

http://www.ourlittlechatterboxes.com/2010/11/tsa-sexual-assault.html

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Additional Comment:

One Hundred Naked Citizens: One Hundred Leaked Body Scans

One Hundred Naked Citizens: One Hundred Leaked Body Scans

http://gizmodo.com/5690749/

Colbert Report - TSA Full-Body Scanners and Jeffrey Goldberg

Bachmann: 111 waivers means ObamaCare is a failure

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/15/bachmann-111-waivers-means-obamacare-is-a-failure/

See Me, Feel Me

Abolish the TSA

Full Frontal Nudity Doesn’t Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA
Art Carden

http://blogs.forbes.com/artcarden/2010/11/14/full-frontal-nudity-doesnt-make-us-safer-abolish-the-tsa/

Get the Government Out of Our Pants

Get the Government Out of Our Pants
By Steve Chapman

When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself. The federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility. And we all tamely accept the new intrusions, like sheep being shorn.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/11/14/get_the_government_out_of_our_pants_107944.html

Man Threatened with $10,000 Fine and Lawsuit After Refusing TSA Grope

http://gawker.com/5689925/man-threatened-with-10000-fine-after-refusing-tsa-grope

Invasion of the body patters

Invasion of the body patters
By Jack Lewis

So there he was, six positions back in the "first cut" line. Everyone was being diverted to the new full-body scanners, which scared Xavier even more. The Estados Unidos government claimed the machines could not hurt travelers, but that was the same government that retaliated against a Saudi terrorist hiding in Pakistan by invading Iraq. Xavier found himself unpersuaded.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/jacklewis/archives/228163.asp

The State of the 'Obamacare' Challenges

TSA pulls pants off 71 y/o man with knee implant

Christianity in Israel

Backlash grows over TSA's 'naked strip searches'

Backlash grows over TSA's 'naked strip searches'
by Declan McCullagh

"The pat-downs never used to go up a woman's skirt."

These aren't just being used at airports:

Another federal agency, the Marshals Service, has acknowledged (PDF) that tens of thousands of images from a Brijot Gen2 machine were stored from just one courthouse checkpoint.

What about the radiation?

Biochemistry faculty members at the University of California at San Francisco have written the White House saying the X-ray "dose to the skin may be dangerously high."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20022477-281.html

Growing anxiety over airport pat-downs and scanners

Growing anxiety over airport pat-downs and scanners
By Linda Loyd
Inquirer Staff Writer

one US Airways pilot who went through a pat-down had his "genitals grabbed repeatedly" and was "highly traumatized. When I was talking to him on the phone a few days later, he told me that he had just thrown up in his driveway. He was so worried about going to work. This particular fellow has two hip replacements, and so he cannot go through the backscatter machine [the full-body scanner]."

"We're telling pilots, 'Don't go through the machines anyway because of the health risks,' " Cleary said. "But, in this instance, he can't go through them. He knows that he's going to be subjected to pat-downs for the rest of his career, and the prospect of it is making him sick to his stomach."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20101111_Growing_anxiety_over_airport_pat-downs_and_scanners.html

Don’t Let Strip-and-Grope Become the New Normal

Don’t Let Strip-and-Grope Become the New Normal
by Scott Ott
The TSA wants you to assume the position and fly the little too friendly skies. (Watch a PJTV interview with pilot Michael Roberts, and a Trifecta episode on this topic.)

The middle-aged man in the blue shirt spoke gently, but directly, to Tabitha, as if he had done this a thousand times before with 12-year-old girls like her. In words tailored to her understanding, and designed to make what he was about to do seem normal, not creepy, the man in the blue shirt made it clear that if she didn’t do as he instructed she would not get to go to Disneyland. He merely wanted to show another man what was under Tabitha’s blouse and panties.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/dont-let-strip-and-grope-become-the-new-normal/?singlepage=true

Northern N.H. new brand is grand

Northern N.H. new brand is grand
Posted by Paul Kandarian

A neat component is the site’s “Grand Adventures" that include a variety of cold-weather offerings. Consider dog sledding, utilizing Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel and White Mountain Sled Dog Adventures, allowing you to mush your way over the river and through the woods of Bethlehem and Bretton Woods.

http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2010/11/northern_nh_new.html

Jamie Dimon And Bob Rubin Dodged Questions On Foreclosure Fraud

Jamie Dimon And Bob Rubin Dodged Questions On Foreclosure Fraud
Janet Tavakoli, Tavakoli Structured Finance

Foreclosure fraud isn't about losing paperwork or having incorrect paperwork. It is about committing fraud and trying to manipulate the U.S. legal system. No one--not even a bank--can show up in court with phony evidence.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/dimon-rubin-dodged-questions-on-foreclosure-fraud-2010-11

Quantitative Easing Explained

TSA To Vote On Whether or Not to Unionize

FLRA Accepts AFGE Petition for Union Election at TSA

The Federal Labor Relations Authority today accepted the petition from the American Federation of Government Employees to hold a union election at the Transportation Security Administration.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/11/12/2336886/flra-accepts-afge-petition-for.html


Big Sis Forced To Respond To Nationwide Revolt Against TSA

The Reuters article mentions the example of a father who witnessed his 8-year-old son be selected for “extra screening” by TSA thugs, who proceeded to touch the boy’s genitals.
“We spend my child’s whole life telling him that only mom, dad and a doctor can touch you in your private area, and now we have to add TSA agent and that’s just wrong,” he told Reuters. “At some point the terrorists have won.”

Local man claims TSA pat-down went too far

TSA and Making Light of Child Body Cavity Searches

The background is a cover of a fake book called "My First Cavity Search: Helping your child understand why he may pose a threat to National Security. Ages 6 and up". This was reportedly a photo of the TSA booth by the security check-in point at Indianapolis International Airport.

What is a matter with these people? Is it time to abolish the TSA already?

Source: Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/5688087/the-tsas-sense-of-humor-makes-me-nervous

Ohio GMAC Foreclosure Case May Set Anti-Wall Street Precedent

Ohio GMAC Foreclosure Case May Set Anti-Wall Street Precedent
By Michael Riley

“If courts around the country do not handle this on an individual case basis and there are later problems with the title, the courts will have participated with the clouding of the title,” [Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy] Russo said. “The potential for harm is so immense at so many levels.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-08/ohio-gmac-foreclosure-case-may-set-a-precedent-for-punishing-wall-street.html

Flier Patience Wears Thin at Checkpoints

Flier Patience Wears Thin at Checkpoints
SUSAN STELLIN

Specifically, they point to the new body scanners that are replacing metal detectors — which have raised privacy and health concerns, as well as prompted legal challenges — and the more invasive pat-downs, which have set off complaints about disrespectful treatment by agents.

“I think people want to say enough is enough, but they’re worried that they’re going to be perceived as weak on security,” Mr. Freeman said.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101109/ZNYT01/11093009/2055/NEWS?p=all&tc=pgall

Pregnant Traveler: TSA Screeners Bullied Me Into Full-Body Scan

Pregnant Traveler: TSA Screeners Bullied Me Into Full-Body Scan
By Chris Morran

They repeated again for me to just go through the scanner and it would be done in 5 seconds. I was literally in tears because I wanted a pat-down instead of going through the machine, and I felt they declined me that option. No matter how much I pushed for a hand pat-down, they pushed harder for the machine.

http://consumerist.com/2010/09/pregnant-traveler-tsa-screeners-bullied-me-into-full-body-scan.html

FDIC prepares to crack down on officials of failed banks

FDIC prepares to crack down on officials of failed banks
By E. Scott Reckard

Dozens of former officers and directors are advised to work out settlements or face legal action for their alleged misdeeds during the financial crisis.

http://articles.latimes.com/print/2010/nov/10/business/la-fi-fdic-lawsuits-20101111

Ron Paul on Bernanke's 65% Tax

Global anger swells at U.S. Fed actions

Global anger swells at U.S. Fed actions
By Glenn Somerville and Zhou Xin

* China tells U.S. trade targets smack of central planning

* German finance minister says Fed policy "clueless"

* China tells U.S. trade targets smack of central planning

* Merkel to address U.S. money policy at G20 summit

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE6A403Y20101105

Palin to Bernanke: ‘Cease and Desist’

Palin to Bernanke: ‘Cease and Desist’
By Robert Costa

And where, you may ask, are we getting the money to pay for all this? We’re printing it out of thin air.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/252715/palin-bernanke-cease-and-desist-robert-costa