TSA vs. VF, Round 1: Ding ding!

[hoipolloi]

"Yesterday, the San Antonio TSA verbally and viciously harassed, and expelled from the terminal a member of the Vision Forum Ministries staff who was returning home to his family and who peacefully and respectfully agreed to submit to all procedures except those which involve offensive touching of the privates. Following the initial incident, multiple plainclothes agents were committed by the TSA to stalking our staff member outside the terminal even as he stopped to get a drink in the airport Starbucks." (visionforum.com/news/blogs/doug/2011/08/9568/)

Perhaps if the TSA had asked to see the staff member's anaconda, there wouldn't have been any trouble!

[Alecto]

And if you buy their story, I have some lovely oceanfront property just minutes from St Louis I'd love to sell you.

[doggie]

I am sure the TSA knew they were god fearing (anaconda fearing) visionary missionaries and thats really why they were stopped.

[Guest Anonymous]

My condolences to the TSA

[Patsy]

I am sure the TSA knew they were god fearing (anaconda fearing) visionary missionaries and thats really why they were stopped.

The socialists will not intimidate me against proclaiming the truth! I am an anaconda-fearing citizen and I have NO shame in declaring that I fear Dougie's anaconda!

[Guest Anonymous]

The socialists will not intimidate me against proclaiming the truth! I am an anaconda-fearing citizen and I have NO shame in declaring that I fear Dougie's anaconda!

Would it reassure you if I told you that I plan to laugh (like a hyena) at it?

[Patsy]

I am and remain terrified of any mere mention of Dougie and anacondas.

[VVV]

I fly in and out of the San Antonio airport fairly often and have never encountered any aggressive or rude TSA agents. Wonder what the VF person did to provoke them?

[hoipolloi]

Wonder what the VF person did to provoke them?

My thoughts exactly. :animals-worm:

[Wanted an anaconda smilie but could only find the worm. On second thought, the worm may be more appropriate.]

[Terrie]

When they have to state that he was "peaceful" and "respectful" I immediately become suspicious.

[Burris]

I pretty much always err on the side of people who hate the TSA - except for this time: I don't believe that story for a second.

I can see an overworked TSA agent getting all snippy and power-hungry over someone who refuses a pat-down, but I can't see the VF staff member being a) viciously harassed, b) expelled from the terminal, and c) followed by plain-clothed officials merely for politely refusing to be frisked. That's just bullshit. It doesn't make sense.

And besides that, if anyone deserves the TSA, it's Vision Forum. They sat on their hands when real damage was being done to US Constitutional protections, but now they object and only because the invasions of privacy affect them directly rather than merely hobbling some brown people they don't like. Fuck 'em. They can sink in their own cesspool.

[MamaJunebug]

I pretty much always err on the side of people who hate the TSA - except for this time: I don't believe that story for a second.

I can see an overworked TSA agent getting all snippy and power-hungry over someone who refuses a pat-down, but I can't see the VF staff member being a) viciously harassed, b) expelled from the terminal, and c) followed by plain-clothed officials merely for politely refusing to be frisked. That's just bullshit. It doesn't make sense.

And besides that, if anyone deserves the TSA, it's Vision Forum. They sat on their hands when real damage was being done to US Constitutional protections, but now they object and only because the invasions of privacy affect them directly rather than merely hobbling some brown people they don't like. Fuck 'em. They can sink in their own cesspool.

Good morning, dear Burris. The part I bolded, above? To what do you refer? (This thread and the one about the Attention-Seekers and Norway have awakened me, this morning! Yea, FJ!)

[Burris]

Good morning, dear Burris. The part I bolded, above? To what do you refer? (This thread and the one about the Attention-Seekers and Norway have awakened me, this morning! Yea, FJ!)

Remember a few years ago when the religious right was in bed with Dumbya, rubber-stamping every bad idea he had and allowing him to wipe his ass with that "God-damned piece of paper" otherwise known as the US Constitution? (Or, in the case of Vision Forum, simply failing to speak out against it because the enemy of their enemy is their friend.)

This involved, if I remember correctly, the suspension of habeas corpus, permission for warentless wiretaps, and "extraordinary rendition."

Yeah - all that. Well, it also made TSA scanners and deep pat-downs permissible...you know, to "keep America safe" for mom and apple pie and the Bible.

So when VF bitches and moans about the loss of privacy at airport security checkpoints, I have no choice but to laugh at them and their silly, antiquated notions of personal privacy and liberty, After all, they don't have a problem with tacitly approving liberty-limiting measures for others. Now they can just suck it up, too. They made their own hell. The least they can do is shut up about it.

[MamaJunebug]

Remember a few years ago when the religious right was in bed with Dumbya, rubber-stamping every bad idea he had and allowing him to wipe his ass with that "God-damned piece of paper" otherwise known as the US Constitution? (Or, in the case of Vision Forum, simply failing to speak out against it because the enemy of their enemy is their friend.)

This involved, if I remember correctly, the suspension of habeas corpus, permission for warentless wiretaps, and "extraordinary rendition."

Yeah - all that. Well, it also made TSA scanners and deep pat-downs permissible...you know, to "keep America safe" for mom and apple pie and the Bible.

So when VF bitches and moans about the loss of privacy at airport security checkpoints, I have no choice but to laugh at them and their silly, antiquated notions of personal privacy and liberty, After all, they don't have a problem with tacitly approving liberty-limiting measures for others. Now they can just suck it up, too. They made their own hell. The least they can do is shut up about it.

Aah, I see! thank you.

And now, to confirm your suspicions that I spent most of the 00's in a perpetual state of fog,

Who the heck called the Constitution a "God-damned piece of paper"????

[Maggie Mae]

Aah, I see! thank you.

And now, to confirm your suspicions that I spent most of the 00's in a perpetual state of fog,

Who the heck called the Constitution a "God-damned piece of paper"????

No one: http://factcheck.org/2007/12/bush-the-c ... -of-paper/

[PBrooke]

My guess: the VFer refused the scanner because of the radiation from Japan (I kid, I'm not nuts about those either) but then insisted that he shouldn't get a patdown, either. He then probably either a) asked for some proof in the Constitution that this was legal; b) demanded to know why they would target a plainly Godly man when the REAL problem is those heathens; c) looked at the agent with the crazy eyes of a VFer.

[Deleted12]

I mean, isn't the point of the TSA to keep crazy religious extremists off of airplanes?

[Sola]

I don't buy it at all.

That said, I so, so wish it had been Dougie and that the TSA agents had wanted to do a body cavity search...

[Guest Anonymous]

I don't buy it at all.

That said, I so, so wish it had been Dougie and that the TSA agents had wanted to do a body cavity search...

He would have stretched out his arms and begged, histrionically "Take me, take me!".

[hoipolloi]

I hate the TSA and all they represent, and have cut back air travel to a minimum necessary. Nonetheless, in this case, the benefit of the doubt goes to the TSA. At the least, the TSA & VF totally deserve each other.

[anniebgood]

Ah the TSA and body searches. the official position is that when you have a search they go up your legs (spread wide) until they hit resistance. Perhaps there was a little more resistance than normal. :lol:

The only plainclothes people the TSA uses are the screening managers at the terminals, otherwise everyone else rocks the smurf blue, even the Behavior Detection Officers, TSA Inspectors. This sounds like the frantic imaginings of a VF staffer. :twisted:

They don't expel you from the terminal, they tell you either submit to the screening or don't fly. Let's get all huffy. I get the search, can't go through the screener due to my arm. If you won't comply, you don't fly. Simple as that.

:o

[Buzzard]

he probably refused to go through the scanner (even though the new ones arent at all graphic) and wouldnt let them do a proper pat down. Sorry, but air travel aint a right. You agree to security procedures. If you dont like it, dont fly. Gonna be real hard to get to the amazon, though!

[margiebargie]

he probably refused to go through the scanner (even though the new ones arent at all graphic) and wouldnt let them do a proper pat down. Sorry, but air travel aint a right. You agree to security procedures. If you dont like it, dont fly. Gonna be real hard to get to the amazon, though!

I guess they'll have to find their anacondas locally.

[anniebgood]

I guess they'll have to find their anacondas locally.

Or drive to Florida, I hear the swamps are full of them there.'

[hoipolloi]

Dougie has been huffing and puffing about the TSA "enhanced patdowns" for months now.

I wondered if this might lead to VF extorting money requesting donations that would allow them to charter Lear jets or ocean liners for their overseas junkets missions.