Happy Thanksgiving

I'm dining with family, and hope to avoid needing a dolly to get around after. In the meantime(I know, but this crap is important) I think this needs to be kept up front and remembered:
The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.
...
“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
And from the bastard Leiberman,
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation this past September that would authorize testing of body scanners at some federal buildings.
Yes, because having to empty your pockets and take off your belt and go through at metal detector and whatever else they'd decided lately isn't making it enough of a pain in the ass to go into one of our buildings to do business.

Note this at the top of the article:
Editor's note: This story and its headline have been clarified to show that the Department of Homeland Security has not indicated it plans to use body scanners to tighten security at transportation sites beyond airports.
Well, isn't that comforting? '...has not indicated it plans...' You could drive a Ryder truck through the holes in that wording from Napolitano & Co.

I wonder how many of the people making excuses for this crap will like it when they're given the choice of irradiation or being felt up to get on a bus or subway? Not to mention "You can't take that on the bus/into the station/on the train."

As to the "You don't like it, take the train" crap- besides the fact you can't get a lot of places that way- is the general "Fuck you, we'll do what we want" attitude from these bastards. As to the train, did you know Amtrack won't let you take a firearm even as checked baggage like an aircraft? LAST YEAR a law was passed telling them to change that:
The Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010, enacted into law on December 16, 2009, requires Amtrak to implement the procedures necessary to provide storage and carriage of firearms in checked baggage cars and at Amtrak stations that accept checked baggage, within one year of the bill’s enactment. This requirement applies solely to checked baggage, not carry-on baggage.

Amtrak’s current policy prohibits all firearms, ammunition and other weapons aboard its trains. This includes any being carried on the person, in carry-on baggage or in checked baggage. Please be advised that this policy remains in effect until Amtrak begins firearms carriage in checked baggage on December 15, 2010; starting on this date all passengers wishing to check firearms or ammunition will be required to follow the Firearms Policy.
'the Firearms Policy' being "You can't do that." All that was required to go with this law was "firearms have to be locked in the same type containers approved for airlines", but they've dragged this crap out for a year, and it wouldn't surprise me to have Biden's Bozos declare they need an extension 'for safety and security studies' or something.

Nice circular situation, isn't it? You have a right to travel, but if you want to use personal powered transport that's a 'privilege' for which you give up rights; Napolitano's Nitwits have now declared that flying isn't a transport choice, it's a Privilege for which you give up every right they think they can get away with stealing; and they want to pull the same crap on buses and trains and boats and subways. "You have the right to travel, but any travel except walking or a bicycle is a privilege. Oh, and walking into places we don't like you going is a privilege, too, so take off your clothes."
Every time we hear one of these stories, John Pistole runs for the cameras and reassures us that this isn't what is supposed to happen; that no one should be treated in this fashion or made to cry; that it shouldn't be regarded as a common occurrence or used as the basis to judge the whole program or the TSA; that they listen and are always adjusting their policy, and that--most importantly to him--we all must put up with these "enhanced searches" to keep terrorists from bringing down airplanes. And then it happens again. Each time, he circles back around to tough-talking bluster with that asinine, barely-disguised "everyone's a perp" mentality.


Bah. I'm going to try to avoid all this crap the rest of today.