THE TSA ARE THE NEW PIRAHNA BROTHERS

ITEM: Tea Party conservatives in the Texas legislature recently introduced a bill that would make it illegal for TSA officer to conduct “enhanced pat-downs” on airline passengers without reasonable suspicion on the grounds that they were invasive searches.

The TSA duly paid state senator Dan Patrick (R-Houston) a visit to share their view of the bill – specifically, that the law contradicts federal law and would probably result in shutting down all the airports in Texas.

Support for the bill pretty much dried up in the house and senate that day.

Patrick, as you might expect, is livid that so many legislators caved in: "This was a chance for Texas to take the lead and probably change the policy of TSA, because does anyone think that they’re really going to close down all the airports tomorrow?"

Fair point. On the other hand, there has been debate on whether any state has the legal ability to tweak TSA security policies. I’m not an expert, so I couldn’t tell you if the bill would hold up in a court challenge.

But the whole thing did kind of play like a scene from a British gangster film:

Texas: Let’s pass this bill to keep the TSA from feeling up passengers for no reason.

TSA: You’ve got a lot of nice airports here, guv. Be a shame if they all had to be shut down for safety reasons. Be real inconvenient-like, wouldn’t it?

Texas: ………… Never mind.

Which gives you an idea of how permanent the TSA’s policies are likely going to be for the foreseeable future.

Nice.

PRODUCTION NOTE: It’s not often you’ll hear me agree with the Tea Party, so you might want to bookmark this.

Though of course these things are relative. For a start, Dan Patrick is already pushing the “retribution” angle, which is taking this into the kind of territory that usually puts me at odds with the Tea Party in the first place.

Also, technically I’m on the same side as Alex Jones on the TSA issue too. And he’s fucking nuts.

But that’s the great thing about not being a party or wing loyalist – you can afford to support a position without having to worry about whether or not it puts you in the same camp as people you otherwise wouldn’t want anything to do with. Otherwise you find yrself taking the damnedest stances just to avoid agreeing with The Enemy.

Like, say, arguing that concern over TSA nude scanners and fondling is an Astroturfed smoke screen to cover up of a secret plot by the Koch Brothers to keep govt employees from unionizing. Because no one’s GENUINELY upset with the TSA over no-fly lists and nude scanners and searching babies for bombs. It’s all obviously a cheap Tea Party trick to take away the collective bargaining rights of everyone in America ...

Yes.

Spoiled for choice in the Batshit store,

This is dF

THE PATRIOT ACT: FOUR MORE YEARS

ITEM: The “temporary” parts of the Patriot Act have been renewed for another four years.

No surprise there. Harry Reid and John Boehner told you it would happen. The only real surprise was that Rand Paul (of all people) managed to hold off the vote a couple of days to try and work in a couple of amendments toning the extensions down a peg. (They failed.)

And why not? No one really cares anymore, if they ever did. All the arguments against it, all the abuses of it, the unconstitutionality rulings – all of them have been public for years.

Hell, this week alone, at least two (2) US Senators went public with a warning that the DOJ has been secretly interpreting the law in a manner far different from its public interpretation of the law that gives it a hell of a lot more power to collect massive amounts of data on people.

For all the difference it made. 

As I said before, the Patriot Act is the new Normal in the realm of govt surveillance limitations. It’s so normal that President Obama couldn’t even be bothered to sign it in person. They used an autopen, the sort of thing you typically save for routine things like minor bills, fundraising letters and (if yr Donald Rumsfeld) letters of condolence to the families of soldiers killed in combat.

I realize Obama’s in Europe and there was a deadline consideration here. Still, for something this grave (and considering one of his campaign planks was to reform the Patriot Act to curb potential abuses), the least he could have done is show up.

None genuine without my signature,

This is dF