Now reported, his laptop set off the explosives sensor. If you don't want people that trip that sensor checked again for <2 minutes, you're naive. (also reported the remaining 43 minutes was spent dealing with the mother, with the two officers coming over and holding them because she was irate and making a scene at the checkpoint, harassing the tsa worker. They also rescanned their bags during the pat down).
All this over a 2 minute patdown after they ignored instructions AND set off alarms. WTF people...please don't support this.

Side note, it's totally inappropriate that he was flying barefoot too, they should have been refused entry to the airport for that alone, it's a liability issue.

You are not a special unique snowflake. Had you listened to instructions and removed the computer from the bag, you wouldn't have been flagged for further inspection, probably. If normal pat downs cause your child trauma....don't make them fly because it's likely they'll have one, and don't complain about it when they do. I would bet that 30/45 minutes was spent dealing with the irate mother, because we just saw the patdown take around 2 minutes.
I did this this morning, I was "selected" for extra screening (like every time I fly, maybe because I'm bald), it took 2 minutes because I didn't make a fuss about it and interfere with them performing their duties.
Flying is a privilege, not a right, and there are rules and procedures you must follow. They didn't.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

hmmmmm....
Who benefits over the TSA controversy?
The civil liberties fight over airport body-scanning and patdowns is tainted by corporate interests. It's time to follow the money
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamer
ica/2010/nov/26/air-transport-theairlineindustry
Congressman Seeks to Ditch TSA for Private Firms, Some of Them Campaign Donors
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/19/airports-consid
er-con">http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/19/airports-consider-congressmans-ditch-tsa/#ixzz16huP7lCLhttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/19/airports-cons
ider-con
gressmans-ditch-tsa/


Isn't their money in the scanners for someone already though? And if it wasn't the government, by nature it would be private firms, right? If they government wasn't involved with regulating those firms it wouldn't have implied power to install its "buddies" either. If it was completely left up to airports, and their partners, the airlines, and their primary customer, the traveler, I would say it would most likely be a better process overall. Did you see that other sift about the bomb dogs? Seems like a pretty neat solution, depending on the effectiveness.

You are right though, we want to avoid another Goldman Sachs level corporate scandal of the TSA...err should I say MORE of a scandal, or furthers scandal.

hmmmmm....

Who benefits over the TSA controversy?

The civil liberties fight over airport body-scanning and patdowns is tainted by corporate interests. It's time to follow the money

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/26/air-transport-theairlineindustry

Congressman Seeks to Ditch TSA for Private Firms, Some of Them Campaign Donors

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/19/airports-consider-congressmans-ditch-tsa/#ixzz16huP7lCLhttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/19/airports-consider-con
gressmans-ditch-tsa/

Getting a patdown in London made me happy I don't have boobs or wear skirts.

I still remember when discussing (well before the new body scanners, years ago) with someone about the TSA and the checks they do. He seemed to be OK with whatever they did and was of the standard "well if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" crowd. I had asked him "Well what if they started doing (insert unlikely scenario here) would you be ok with that then?" and he did not seem to really think that would happen. He just eventually would call me paranoid, although I think he probably imagined as secretly being a terroist. Or something. With the past week of news about the TSA now I do not feel so bad looking back.

The biggest trouble is that the TSA is always knee-jerk reaction to whatever threat that occurs rather than looking forward. They will always forever be playing catchup rather than implementing procedures that work. Shoe bomber? Have everyone x-ray their shoes... afterward. Underwear guy? Full body scans... afterward. What's next?

Granted there is no perfect solution. Regressing on the security back to the 60s would yield an incident (hijacking, bombing, etc) where everyone will just panic and demand more intrusive scans than before. Israeli level interrigations and questioning (they do high security through profiling/body language/etc rather than relying on machinery) while being skilled is impractical in the US. Throwing out the fact you would need to show up to the airport hours early it would simply cost too much for a country our size.

What gets under my skin from sheer stupidity though, is why are the pilots being subject to this? They just have to push the stick forward to be a terrorist. Going through those scanners day in and day out (when even TSA agents themselves have worried about its radiation from the outside) cannot be a good thing for them. Damn right they should be protesting this crap.

Personally? I'm really torn. If someone does The Dark Knight or uses a buttplug bomb I can only forsee flying in the US becoming The Fifth Element where everyone is simply knocked out for the duration of the flight. As much as this country puts up with I would have a really hard time believing that the average citizen would put up with downright cavity searches before getting on a plane.

Then again... I am probably sounding naive. This security theatre bullshit has got to stop either way. I'm genuinely more afraid of the TSA goons than the remote chance of someone blowing the plane to smitherines. Fuck, mechanical failure or some other fault is likely much more of a threat than terrorism.

</rant> The reason I sound pissed off is that if I want to fly I have to go through the redneck rivera TSA that is part of MCO here in Florida. I knew they were lying about the stored images from the start but what is batshit stupid is they installed the scanners there just the past week and already the images are being leaked out. Pardon the expression but Jesus Holy Titty Fucking Christ.

(Reference: http://gizmodo.com/5690749/ This is what I read earlier today, and what just makes my blood boil. Then again when the local news website posted the story about the guy who is in hot water over refusing the scan and patdown facing fines... most of the commenters were of the "Flying is a privilege not a right" or "YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO FLY BECUASE OF 9/11 GOD BLESS THEIR SOULS" bullshit. I guess in Florida its ok to shred the 4th amendment as long as it you are a believer.)

Fuck this. I'm cancelling my damn trip next year. I'll fucking drive.

I seem to recall McCain making statements about Obama being dangerously naive and not having a correct mindset for our "post-911 world" -- which at the time I considered to be about the best endorsement that McCain could make for Obama. I think the steps of implication here go like this:

1. new scanners and patdowns piss everybody off
2. they come from the TSA
3. the TSA is part of the government
4. Obama is the boss of the government
5. Obama is a democrat
6. Democrats are pissing everybody off! Vote republican!

Before getting caught in that trap, remember what McCain said. Did he give you the impression that if he had been elected, he'd have been stronger about homeland security and have a better "post-911 world" mindset by being less extreme in TSA crackdowns? I rather doubt it.

That being said, some accountability is a good thing. The woman is the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. A real "change I could believe in" would be for Obama to boot her out of his cabinet, and then to disband the entire Department of making everyone in the Homeland feel more inSecurity, along with the TSA.

Of course that won't happen, but I do think that some more unrest and civil disobedience, lawsuits, etc. could restore some measure of sanity back to the system.

I'll share the story I told peggedbea in the lounge some time ago:

In high school I participated in an exchange program with a school in India. We were a group of 10 or so norwegians who visited the indian school, and also traveled around a bit in India. It is relevant to the story that I was rather longhaired at the time.

India is located in an area with some political tension, so security at indian airports is very high. When we were about to board a domestic flight there was a full patdown of all passengers. India is a very gender segregated society, so it would be unseemly for male security guards to pat down female passengers. So the security routine was that all passengers had to pass a big burly moustachio'd indian military officer on a pedestal who did the patting. But if you were female, he waved you to the side to be patted down by female officers behind a curtain.

So there we all were in a line waiting to be searched for suspicious goods. When it was my turn I went boldly up thinking I had nothing to hide. The moustachio'd one took one look at my long wavy hair and waved me to the side. I looked very questioningly at him since I perceived myself as undeniably male. But he was very stern, and I know better than to argue with a stern foreign military officer with a gun at his side. So I trotted along behind the curtain where two female officers searched my person for threats to national security. They quickly discovered that there had been a mistake and were rather swift to send me on my merry way, even though I gave them my best smile.