Washington Post Report: Ralph Nader says TSA screening techniques Extremely Voyeuristic and Intrusive

SCAN OR HAND?

 The Story That Just Won't Go Away

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Airport travelers call it groping, prodding or just plain inappropriate - a pat-down that probes places where the sun doesn't shine. The Transportation Security Administration calls it the new reality of airport security.

The examinations routinely involve the touching of breasts and genitals, invasive searches designed to find weapons and suspicious items.

The new pat-downs have prompted a growing backlash among pilots and flight attendants, civil liberties groups and security-weary passengers who say the touching goes too far.

In the latest escalation of the debate over the balance between security and passenger rights, privacy advocates have enlisted consumer rights activist and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who called the screening techniques "extremely voyeuristic and intrusive."

"If anyone is going to try to get through, they're going to [conceal items in body cavities], so this isn't going to stop that," Nader said. "My prediction is that TSA is going to lose all of this."

 Brian J. Sodergren of Ashburn, who works in the health-care industry, is organizing an "opt out" day to encourage passengers to say no to advanced imaging technology, known to industry insiders as a "virtual strip search." He's planning the protest for one of the busiest travel days of the year - Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving.

Another group launched a Web site, WeWontFly.com, and says it has gotten more than 70,000 hits per day since going online a week ago. The Web site asks passengers to say no to scans and pat-downs and for TSA to remove its "porno-scanners" and "gropers.

"We're opposed to letting TSA treat us like criminals," said James Babb of Eagleville, Pa., an activist who is organizing the We Won't Fly campaign.

But while passengers can opt out of being put through the full-body scanners, if they want to fly, they can't also opt out of the pat-downs.

Several of the country's leading passenger advocacy organizations, as well as pilots' and flight attendants' unions, have publicly criticized the heightened screening, questioning its effectiveness and asking the Department of Homeland Security to make pat-downs and full-body scans a secondary security measure.

Several of the country's leading passenger advocacy organizations, as well as pilots' and flight attendants' unions, have publicly criticized the heightened screening, questioning its effectiveness and asking the Department of Homeland Security to make pat-downs and full-body scans a secondary security measure.. Click Here for more info.

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Too Many Greatful Dead Parties Leads to Attempted Governmant Land Grab...Bank Account Seized

DEA files suit to seize farm, site of 
Schwagstock, former Camp Zoe

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007:
St. Louis' own, The Schwag, plays the farewell show to a sold out crowd at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis.
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Campers enjoy Sinking Creek at Camp Zoe.

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Echo Bluffs on the Sinking Creek at Camp Zoe 
campground in Shannon County.
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Grateful Dead music lovers will no longer be truckin' down to Shannon County for outdoor music festivals if three law enforcement agencies get their way in federal court.
On Monday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a joint complaint in the Eastern District of Missouri asking to seize the 350-acre Zoe Farm, alleging rampant drug dealing and drug use at events.
According to its website, the farm, called Camp Zoe, is located 150 miles southwest of St. Louis near Salem and hosts a popular Grateful Dead festival call Schwagstock every year, as well as biker and pagan rallies and individual concerts. Once a popular summer camp for kids, the property was purchased in 2004 by Jimmy Tebeau, a member of the Schwag, a Grateful Dead tribute band. He opened the grounds to recreational camping and float trips and began hosting the festivals soon after the purchase.


Tebeau has not been charged with a crime. Nor would he have to be for the court to approve the seizure of the property under a civil asset forfeiture law that enables the federal government to take property that is relied upon by criminals as part of an illegal money-making enterprise. The complaint values the farm at $600,000.


It appears that the law enables the government to bully innocent property owners and take land, money and homes nearly at will.


One doesn't even need to be accused of a crime, let alone convicted of one to be threatened with the loss of everything you own.


Tebeau discovered this week that officials had cleaned out his bank account, yet he has not been served legal notice on that forfeiture.


The farm remains in Tebeau's ownership pending the outcome of the case.. Click Here for more info.
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The Schwag/Dead Ahead at Camp Zoe Schwagstock 43 - Aiko Aiko 5-29-2010

Shot from the soundboard showing the full production. www.campzoe.com
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Ted Koppel: Talking Heads and the Death of Real News: I Am The Slime...

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Former Nightline managing editor Ted Koppel uses the recent suspension of Keith Olbermann for making campaign contributions to muse on the changes in how news is presented and how the public wants its news.


He wonders in a column in The Washington Post why MSNBC bothered to discipline Olbermann since the cable networks today celebrate and encourage taking sides.

"We live now in a cable news universe that celebrates the opinions of Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly -- individuals who hold up the twin pillars of political partisanship and who are encouraged to do so by their parent organizations because their brand of analysis and commentary is highly profitable," Koppel says.


The problem with the "news" we are getting is that it's only what we want to hear, Koppel writes, akin to the fashion industry which is making men's jeans 3 to 6 inches bigger in the waist but labeling them as "small."


"We celebrate truth as a virtue," he writes, "but only in the abstract.". Click Here His Article
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Mizzou fends off Kansas State 38-28

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Preserving a perfect home season, Mizzou beat Kansas State 38-28 on Saturday at Faurot Field to improve to 8-2 overall and 4-2 in Big 12 play.

With its fifth straight loss to Mizzou, Kansas State fell to 6-4 and 3-4.
. Click Here for more info.

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Is Our Food Safe? 'Whistle-blower' sues Whole Foods Market in Brentwood Missouri Over Firing

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A longtime employee of the Whole Foods Market in Brentwood is suing the company for firing her after she complained to her superiors about the alleged mishandling of organic produce.
Elisha Wellman of St. Louis had worked at the store since 2001. But in late August, she was fired, the lawsuit says, after she repeatedly pointed out unsanitary display crates and shelving, and the commingling of organic and non-organic produce.

"She attempted to bring this to the attention of her managers, then brought it to a regional level, and then a week or so later she lost her job," said Gary A. Growe, Wellman's attorney. "They accused her of being involved with some customer complaints some six or eight months ago, that she had nothing to do with.

Under the "at-will" doctrine, Wellman had the legal ability to quit at anytime, while Whole Foods could fire her at any time, for any reason, unless the termination was discriminatory. But, Growe explained, the law contains a "public policy exemption" that prohibits a company from firing a person if they point out violations of law or policy. It's under this exemption that Growe is making his case.

"The law gives you the term 'whistle-blower,'" Growe said.. Click Here for more info.
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Saturday, College Football: Kansas St. at Missouri LIVE: MIZZOU, Blues, Cardinals return to Dish Network...

Memorial Stadium

Columbia, MO

Home of the Tigers

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 In case you missed this story:

The Blues and Mizzou Have returned to Dish Network.

Saturday, November 13
11:30 a.m.    College Football: Kansas St. at Missouri    LIVE______________________________________________________________________________



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BIG BROTHER Hard at Work In South Gasconade County...

UPDATED with related story link.

K-9 UNITS SWEEP PARKING LOTS: 

 Original posting: 11/4/10--12:59 PM

Officer Robert Green of the Owensville Police Department searches the interior of an Owensville High School student’s car Thursday morning during a narcotics sweep conducted by OPD and regional police agencies at the request of school officials. . Click Here for more info.
Click Here for a Related Story.

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Joe Walsh: Welcome to the Club (1975 ALBUM: So What)

Lyric's @ the 3:53 mark:

...You Play the double agent,  both your covers blown,
you got the place surrounded, there ain't nobody home...
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Google to Be Investigated by FCC...for collecting emails and passwords from unsuspecting internet users...

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FCC to examine Google Street View's collection of personal data

Google's collection of personal information – including emails and passwords from unsuspecting internet users – by its Street View cars is to be investigated by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The data capture, which occurred when Google Street View cars took photographs for the panoramic imaging service, has already been ruled unlawful in many countries, including Canada and the UK.
The US communications regulator said it will now examine whether the collection violated the Communications Act, confirming in a statement that consumers affected by "the breach of privacy" will be given the opportunity of redress. The investigation, thought to have been prompted by a complaint from the pressure group Electronic Privacy Information Centre, comes just two weeks after the US Federal Trade Commission dropped its investigation into the data breach.

Google originally acknowledged the collection of personal information in May, posting an apology on the company's blog and claiming only fragments of information were collected.
However, following an investigation by Canada's privacy commissioner, it transpired that the technology giant had collected so-called "payload" data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks.. Click Here for more info.
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Missouri Indian Summer Coming to an End

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Big Sis Forced To Respond To Nationwide Revolt Against TSA

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UPDATE LINK: DHS chief tells pilot, tourism reps scans and patdowns will continue

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
November 12, 2010


The federal government has been forced to respond to the accelerating backlash against new TSA measures which have outraged the nation, with TSA Administrator John Pistole and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano set to meet today with executives from the travel industry and heads of pilot associations.
Following intense and sustained focus on the issue by the Drudge Report, Infowars and Prison Planet, Reuters reports that, “Executives from the travel industry, including online travel sites, theme parks and hotels, were set to meet Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Pistole on Friday to discuss their concerns that security is crimping travel.”
The feds were forced into action after five prominent pilot and travel associations, along with a flight attendants union, vowed to boycott naked body scanners as well as the new invasive pat down procedure, threatening travel chaos. The backlash has also been characterized by new cases of individuals being abused at the hands of the TSA, stories which continue to pour in on a daily basis.
In addition, the TSA is reviewing its policies towards children at security checkpoints following widespread revulsion at the fact that TSA workers, some of whom may be pedophiles given the agency’s poor standard of background checks for its own employees, are openly groping children’s genitals in airports across the country.

“We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from travelers vowing to stop flying,” said Geoff Freeman, an executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, which set up the meeting with the Obama administration officials.
“You can’t talk on the one hand about creating jobs in this country and getting this economy back on track and on the other hand discourage millions of Americans from flying, which is the gateway to commerce,” he said.

It’s vital that those representing outraged Americans at today’s meeting with Napolitano and Pistole do not allow themselves to be placated by the rhetoric they will undoubtedly hear about the supposed terror threat making the new TSA measures a necessity.


As we have documented, the TSA’s non-existent background checks on its own employees underscore the fact that the agency couldn’t care less about security, otherwise it wouldn’t have allowed illegal aliens to work in sensitive areas of airports or have given them the green light to fly planes.
Furthermore, as the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed, TSA workers told him directly that they refer to the new body scanner devices as “dick measurers,” and that the more aggressive groping measures had nothing to do with security and were in fact instituted solely to force people to choose the scanner over the pat down.
The so-called “pat-downs,” which in reality fall not far short of sexual molestation, have nothing to do with security. They are about ritualizing the process of making Americans submit to complete degradation at the hands of authority figures, no matter what level of humiliation that process encompasses. If you allow the government to get away with groping your children’s genitals there’s no limit to the abuse they will subsequently engage in.
The Reuters article mentions the example of a father who witnessed his 8-year-old son be selected for “extra screening” by TSA thugs, who proceeded to touch the boy’s genitals.
“We spend my child’s whole life telling him that only mom, dad and a doctor can touch you in your private area, and now we have to add TSA agent and that’s just wrong,” he told Reuters. “At some point the terrorists have won.”
The fact that the TSA and Homeland Security has been forced to respond to the national outrage over groping and naked body scanners is a major victory, but we cannot rest until the groping, not just of children but all passengers, is ended and the cancer-causing body scanners are removed for good.
No terror threat, be it genuine or contrived, can justify the federal government treating American citizens with less respect than farmyard animals, and since TSA workers openly admit that the sexual molestation of travelers is about forcing them to use the scanner and has nothing to do with security, this underscores the fact that the groping procedure and the scanner are both tools of oppression that have no place in a free society.


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DHS chief tells pilot, tourism reps scans and patdowns will continue

Janet Napolitano rebuffed industry concerns at a White House meeting today, frustrating pilot & tourism representatives worried about an economic backlash and traveler revolt
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Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
November 12, 2010
In a hastily-called emergency meeting at the White House today, DHS director Janet Napolitano told despite the backlash of concerns about airport security, TSA’s use of invasive body scanners and humiliating patdowns, including the groping of passenger’s breasts and genitals, would continue. The frustrated executives were anything but satisfied by her statements, as well as the travel & tourism lobbies that
Geoff Freeman, Executive Vice President for the U.S. Travel Association, walked away from the meeting stating that it was “not entirely reassuring.” With tangible irritation, he commented, “We understand the challenge DHS confronts but the question is where we draw the line.”
The ramped up security measures have set off what Freeman says are hundreds of calls from travelers threatening not to fly. A whole range of interconnected tourism industries are concerned about the detrimental effect of security on business and travel. The airlines estimate that they’ve lost $9.4 billion in revenue due to “avoided” travel. Further, a 2008 survey found that 41 million potential fliers stayed home due to concerns about a “broken” or badly impaired system.

“You can’t talk on the one hand about creating jobs in this country and getting this economy back on track and on the other hand discourage millions of Americans from flying, which is the gateway to commerce,” Freeman railed.
However, Napolitano made clear that TSA’s operations would not only continue but expand as new technology is rolled out. “Trusted Traveler” programs have been scheduled for implementation, and would utilize biometric data such as retinal scanning for identification.
Travel-related industries are particularly concerned that the onset of a ‘travel revolt’ and a flurry of news coverage about groping and molestation occurrences at check points have come right before the holidays, the heaviest travel season of the year. Citizen groups have advocated either not flying or refusing to go through the body scanners. A “National Opt Out Day” protest has been coordinated on Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest single day for air travel of the entire year.


Representatives for pilot organizations were also at the meeting with Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole.
John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, objected to the unnecessary scrutiny of airline pilots and flight attendants, who, unlike TSA’s own employees, have already undergone background checks and who have been cleared to enter the cockpit. Pilots have already been trusted to operate the most dangerous potential “weapon” aboard any aircraft– the plane itself. What contraband could they could possibly conceal on their person that would be of greater concern?
“Pilots are not the terrorist threat,” Prater commented. “Seeing scarce security resources being used on pilots makes absolutely no sense.”


Also challenging security policy, Capt. Mike Cleary, president of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, wrote a letter this week advising pilots not to subject themselves to body scanners (i.e. Advanced Imaging Technology) due to health concerns about the radiation as well as concerns about the intrusiveness and behavior of TSA agents.
In truth, the security measures have not been put in place to curb terrorism—major media outlets have reported on the fact that in TSA’s nine year history, it has failed to stop even one terrorist.
Instead, the economic and privacy costs of security are shifted directly into the private security complex. Michael Chertoff authorized contracts for the body scanners and other security technology during his reign as head of Homeland Security, only to benefit directly from multi-billion dollar contracts as an industry representative and lobbyist for the body scanners after leaving the Bush Administration.

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