Unacceptable
Posted by TFG on August 14th, 2005
Congress — Good for thee, but not for me:
It also recommends that certain categories of passengers be exempt from airport security screening, such as members of Congress, airline pilots, Cabinet members, state governors, federal judges, high-ranking military officers and people with top-secret security clearances.
That’s bloody well typical. And it bloody well better not be in the final proposal. Not when I’m schlepping the lines 10 or 15 times a month, earning the wages that pay the taxes that slop the government trough that these hogs have their snouts buried in.
I could rattle on for hundreds of words, but why bother?
Big Bill Quick calls them out:
You want to make sure there isn’t a single shred of support for waging the war on terror? Make it plain, then, that our lords and masters consider themselves too good to endure the hardships they order for the rest of us peons.
War on terror, good. Wanding six-year olds and bomb-sniffing their Sponge Bob backpack*, bad.
* Actual true-life story.
August 14th, 2005 at 10:33 am
I suppose the thinking behind this is that those people have already been security-cleared (whatever the proper word is — I woke up late, I’m on my first cup of coffee) by their various professions. On the other hand, after decades of distrust-authority, the-government-is-our-enemy propaganda — much of it justified — the people are no longer capable of coming to this conclusion. If the government wants to get people in the mood to sacrifice, they are going to need to set an example themselves. A congressman who really cares about the votes he gets will volunteer for searching, not grab the first opportunity to get out of it.
As for who should be searched, I’m not against the searching of cute widdle babies per se; I think that terrorists have no qualms about using their non-Arab girlfriends, wives, kids, and grandmas as bomb carriers. It’s ridiculous, of course, to take we-don’t-want-to-offend-anyone measures like searching every fifth person (Ali Bomb-Carrier will take care to be number three or four) or picking “at random” which amounts to the same thing. Search everyone. This will of course slow things down to a crawl, but are we in a war or not?
August 14th, 2005 at 11:24 am
I know exactly what they think they’re thinking. Do the math, though — how many people with bona-fide security clearances are standing in line with the other 2,000,000 daily air travelers? This is favoritism at it’s finest, Andrea. Rather than think hard about real solutions to the real problem (explosives), the first rattle out of the box is making life easier for their buddies and NOT the average American citizen.
Like I said, I could type out a hundred paragraphs on this subject. But it’s pointless, because it’s another government full-employment act that’s not designed to make us safe, but to make them look like they’re doing something.
August 14th, 2005 at 10:40 pm
Oh I know that. Glad I don’t have to take a plane anywhere.