That jackboot will land on our faces any day now...
Found this at www.digitaljournal.com:
Houston- The TSA will help undercover police perform random bag searches and other security activities in a new program on the METRO bus system, marking the maligned federal agency’s latest foray out of airports and into other forms of mass transit.
Spearheaded by U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D), "Bus Safe" is a collaboration between the TSA, METRO, and Harris County Constable's Office Precinct 7, according to KPRC 2 News.
"Patrons riding METRO on Friday, April 13, or any given day, may be sitting next to an undercover MPD officer," states a press release on the METRO website.
In addition to making unwarranted searches of personal property a way of life for Houston bus travelers, this effort will introduce arbitrary sweeps by K-9 crews to the general public.
The press release goes on to say that the TSA will be lending their counter-terrorism expertise and support, despite the fact that no airline passengers stopped by the TSA have been convicted of terrorism since the agency was created in 2001.
Jackson Lee joined local and federal officials in announcing the national pilot program at Wheeler Transit Center last Friday. "If you think you're going to be a bad actor on buses, get ready," she warned. "You are going to have a short-lived time frame."
Houston Free Thinkers, a local civil liberties group, has already begun to challenge the legitimacy of this security venture. "If we do not take a stand now, and realize that we can not give up our freedoms in the pursuit of safety, we will find ourselves stripped of every freedom brave men and women fought and died for," wrote Derrick Broze in a blog post on the organization's website.
A member of the group was also present at the press conference, and reported that Metro Police were questioning passengers who were leaving buses about their destinations and their reasons for riding the bus.
The "Bus Safe" program makes Houston the most recent city to allow the TSA to conduct objectionable security activities outside of airports.
In February 2011, AOL News reported that train riders were subjected to invasive pat-downs and searches of their luggage by the TSA after disembarking at a station in Savannah, Georgia.
According to passenger Lee Gamble, his wife Traci and a family friend were forced to lift their shirts up while TSA agents patted their bras.
A passenger also recorded video of children being frisked by TSA agents at the Savannah station.
(Story ends, my comments follow.)
So it goes, the gradual erosion of our personal liberties continues. IMHO unless theres a really good reason for the questions, why I'm riding on public transportation and what my destination is should remain solely my business.
Here's the line that gets me laughing, "...the TSA will be lending their counter-terrorism expertise and support,.."
Oh. Please.
By their own admission, this group has had no hand in the apprehension of various nogoodniks who successfully boarded airplanes, raised Hell until subdued by airline personnel and passengers. Examples of this include the Christmas BVD Bomber of a few years back, the Shoe Bomber of some time before that, and various others. The TSA did zippo in the way of detection/apprehension of those fools.
But now we'll be subject to an increasing likelihood of their intrusive searches? As for what I mean by "intrusive", well there was the Ron Paul supporter who was detained a couple of years back for carrying a large amount of cash. The TSA didn't relent until an FBI agent came and warned them to back off because they had NO probable cause for detaining the man. How about the women forced to drink their own breast milk to prove the bottles they carried were really for the babe in their arms? The senior citizens forced to strip search? The list goes on and on...
It's past time to stand up and object. We're now in the realm of thought control, as evidenced when Ted Nugent, a man known for his outlandish (but often true) statements gets a visit from the Feds because he opined, ""I'll tell you this right now: If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."
Now contrast that to the really over-the-top statements made about G.W. Bush by various celebrities during his time in office. I'm thinking about calls for his assasination, characterization of him as a war criminal, etc. Did the Feds have a chat with anyone over such things? If they did and the MSM ignored it then I'm Elvis.
So yeah, it's thought crime time ladies and gents. All of us sheeple (I really detest that term but it fits) had better meekly submit to the inevitable cavity search at the Greyhound Station or we'll find ourselves shipped off to reeducation centers. While we're there our kids will be turned over to the tender mercies of the State, the IRS will crawl up our asses with a microscope (check out how the Tea Party's various groups are getting scrutinized by that entity lately), we'll be blacklisted and inevitably join the ranks of nonpersons.
Welcome to 1984. We're already there and it won't matter who is in the Oval Office next year, it'll continue. The best hope is for us to start pushing back, to speak up, to pass along the information of these civil liberty intrusions. Get mad, get really pissed, find others of a like mind. Theres safety in numbers and if enough of us yell loud enough, long enough, there may be no need for Liberty's Tree to once again be nourished by the blood of patriots.
God have mercy on us and may His will be done.
2 comments:
Bit by bit, we are losing all the freedoms in our Bill of Rights.
Mercy! Trains and buses? Figuring out the ticket machine for the Caltrain was confusing enough without frisking and bag searches. :(
(Actually, I didn't have too bad a time with the TSA on my recent trip to the States. In fact, most of them were really nice and friendly, with the exception of one man who interrogated everyone and glared at me like he expected me to confess to murder, or terrorism, or possibly even planning to work without a Visa! :) That said, he might have just been naturally ornery.)
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