Monday, January 23, 2006
(1:43 PM) | Dave Belcher:
We are being fucked over...
TSA has apparently instituted a plan to create background checks on travelers in order to determine whether or not they are terrorists…of course they are using the incentive that it would speed up security checks to goad travelers into the deal. “The program will create reserved lanes for people who pass the background check and pay an annual fee, expected to be $80 to $100. Security requirements such as removing jackets and shoes will be lifted as approved passengers go through metal detectors.” This does not fall under Congress’ ban against TSA from using data on airline passengers—a ban that came after it was discovered that they had stored 100 million “records on travelers when it said no data storage would occur”—because the background search is “voluntary and the background checks would be done by companies at an airport.” But, even if one were to submit to the background check—which in my mind is exchanging what seems so bad…security checkpoints…for something much worse…allowing TSA to invade every corner of your life not attached to your body, but made a part of your body by the capitalist mode of production—the tests aren’t entirely accurate! And since the background check must give "a high degree of confidence that an individual is not a terrorist," one could easily be mistaken for a terrorist when in fact they are just trying to get to Seattle. Furthermore, technically, all “the terrorists” would need to do is get somebody who has a “clean” background to submit to the test, and then walk through the detector with a bomb in their shoe. How utterly ridiculous.This comes on the same day that former NSA security chief said, "Had this program [you know, the illegal surveillance of phone and email conversations that Bush and his cronies have been conducting for God only knows how long] been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the al-Qaida operatives in the United States." TSA and the administration in bed together? One need not perpetuate such rumors...one only has to recognize that there are a lot of fucking people out there that have bought into the fear precscribed by the Bush administration, and will do anything to avoid "the worst." Anyone who wasn't scared of Bush's outlandish usurpation of authority before should be frightened. And with the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito on the horizon (I think it's on Wednesday, right?), the question of Bush's reigning in unlimited power to the executive branch makes our situation seem downright fucking hopeless. If there was ever a time for hope in the eschaton, it is now.
