Don't do nuttin' on the jet to call attention to yourself

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
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iWin
DENVER -- You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9559707/detail.html
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So those of use who break out our GPS may very well have a file. :eek: :hairraise:
 
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Well, the folks upstairs either don't have a clue as to what the people in the field are doing, or they are deliberately telling the public a different story.

This was from an article on shoes...

quote

...TSA's Von Walter calls the notion that screeners intentionally punish people who won't take off shoes "an urban myth" ...

end quote

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-07-20-checkpoint-woes_x.htm
 
There's some other expose' on the TSA coming this week on a local TV station.

It looks like it may be on the gate screeners, maybe on their top secret hiring practices.

You just know that every guvmint bureaucrat is envious of these guys being able to say that every screw up and brain dead policy inanity has to be secret due to national security.
 
If you don't have seat assignments ala Southwest, how do they know who is who? Or what if someone switched seats?
 
Just as I entered the TSA area where they xray your bags and you walk through the scanner on Friday in Portland, the young lady in line behind me said, "Jeez do they think I have a bomb or something?" Thank god none of the screeners heard her careless quip, I turned around and gave her my famous look of death but said nothing. We could have all missed our flights, I was pretty irate.
 
mikea said:
So those of use who break our GPS may very well have a file. :eek: :hairraise:
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Great. Before it was, "you're a pilot so therefore a suspect". Now, it's "you're a passenger, so therefore a suspect." Sigh.
 
Brian Austin said:
If you don't have seat assignments ala Southwest, how do they know who is who? Or what if someone switched seats?
Click to expand...
Prolly doesn't matter when they select a reportee at random.

"There! He looked like a Smith."
 
It's all the blond hair/blue-eyed Norwegian Druidofascist terrorists, I tell ya!

And watch out for the gnome bombs!!!
 
wsuffa said:
Well, the folks upstairs either don't have a clue as to what the people in the field are doing, or they are deliberately telling the public a different story.

This was from an article on shoes...

quote

...TSA's Von Walter calls the notion that screeners intentionally punish people who won't take off shoes "an urban myth" ...

end quote

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-07-20-checkpoint-woes_x.htm
Click to expand...

HORSE****! I got this very treatment on my flight back from Las Vegas a few weeks ago.

There I am, a rumpled classic example of the middle-american male, not a lick of metal on me, wearing my running shoes.

The lady at the metal detector said "sir you need to remove your shoes". Now I travel a LOT for business and I know the official TSA stance on shoe removal so I asked "are you telling me I have to take of my shoes?" She said "no sir but it is recommended".

I told her I would not set of the detector and that I was just tired of taking off my shoes. She looked right at me and said "if you do not take them off you will get extra screening".

So I went through with my shoes on and BAM....extra screening. So now I am FORCED to take them off and get wanded, etc. All the while my very expensive company laptop is sitting on the convery end in a gray tray. I asked if I could at least get it and I was told by the same lady "no just stand there and watch it". Now I could see it through the glass, but then the other screener had me turning around, etc. to do their thing thus taking my eye off of the laptop. Fortunately all ended fine with me in possession of my laptop...but I wanted to STRANGLE that *****.

I was purposefully targeted solely because I REFUSED to take of my shoes at their "suggestion" even when the TSA themselves do not require it!
 
Tom, I had similar experiences in Cincinnati and Louisville. And a couple of other places.

I'd suggest a to-the-point note to both USA Today and the woman from TSA. The least they can do is not lie to the public.
 
I'll take the current TSA bunch over the low life McDonalds rejects
that used to do it any time. I find the screeners at the two airports
I travel between all the time (Omaha and Miami) to be far more
professional about the whole process than before. I treat them with
respect and have had that returned every time. Dealing with the
public is tough and they sure seem to appreciate it.

RT
 
RogerT said:
I'll take the current TSA bunch over the low life McDonalds rejects
that used to do it any time. I find the screeners at the two airports
I travel between all the time (Omaha and Miami) to be far more
professional about the whole process than before. I treat them with
respect and have had that returned every time. Dealing with the
public is tough and they sure seem to appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Guess you didn't hear that part.
Ummm...they way it worked out the only people who made it through the mysterious hiring process to get the TSA jobs were the McDonalds rejects who had the jobs before. They difference is now they have federal paychecks and more power and if you ask anything about anything you can't know due to national security.

There have been countless abuses like the one where they made the elderly woman who was crippled in pain post mastectomy get out of her wheelchair and walk through the gate without nobody holding her and if you touch her we start again.
 
I get my $$ worth going through check point Charley. First, I refuse to remove my shoes (I'm diabetic and EXTREMELY careful with my feet. And the insulin pump on my hip makes my condition no secret). When they inform me of the need for a body search I demand (my right per TSA) the search be done in private with the manager on duty present. Does this slow down the process? Sure, but I always arrive at least 1.5 hours prior to departure anyhow. Am I showing my butt, maybe, but really all I'm doing is playing by the rules the TSA makes available to all of us.
 
mgkdrgn said:
TSA's Von Walter likely hasn't traveled commercial in while ...
Click to expand...

Or ever. A lot of DC bureaucrats don't travel farther than the coffee machine.
 
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