Here’s a story that's not making too many waves in the non-wingnut press but Matt Drudge has been beating the drum on almost daily.
For some reason, Drudge is intent on making this some kind of issue, through his extraordinary propensity for self-referential ‘reporting.’ He seems to think that if he says it and someone else notices that he said it, then it’s newsworthy. He writes about a ‘backlash’ building, but when one looks deeper, the article he references is simply an article noting that Drudge himself is drumming up the story.
He is hyping up the loonies to believe that the security measures that the Transportation Safety Agency are undertaking are an invasion of people’s privacy. The way he portrays it, Janet Napolitano, or Big Sis, as he likes to call her, and the Obama administration are overstepping their bounds and usurp our freedoms and liberties.
Those freedoms? - The freedom to board an airplane without being scanned by a full body x-ray scanner, or being patted down.
Why would Big Sis want to violate our rights? – Well, because Obama is a Statist, of course, and he wants to control everything we do. He probably wants to promote some satanic homosexual agenda designed to convert straights into homosexuality. Why else would he sponsor same sex public fondling and demand nude photographs of all air travelers. Oh yeah, the fact that some dude put some liquid explosives in his jock strap last year that the metal detectors missed might have something to do with the increased screening too.
It’s not clear how decreasing the level of security would be a position that the terror conscious public would want to support. It is patently clear though, that the only reason that Drudge is doing this is to ride an anti-government wave and to paint every single move made by the administration as bad – even protecting travelers.
This whole theme is ridiculous because the right wing loonies never expressed any opposition to heightening airport security after 9/11. They never expressed any concerns for people’s right to privacy when they supported all of the intrusive provisions of the Patriot Act. One would think that the right wing security hawks would want to make sure that terrorists are thwarted in any attempts to board our airplanes with explosive materials.
And let’s be clear, when Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Chiefs proposed and enacted strict security measures – including authorizing the procurement and usage of full body scanners, Drudge never complained. In fact, if anyone complained about heightened security, there were tarred and feathered as anti-American terror enablers. Drudge’s hypocrisy is laughable at best.
Last night Bill O’Reilly picked up the story for Drudge, opining on whether or not people had the legal right to refuse a full body scan and a pat down. (Watch)
O’Reilly seemed genuinely worried that an airport screener of the opposite sex would be able to view his body scan, because heaven forbid it if a woman saw his putz. Maybe O’Reilly secretly wants only men to see his private parts – Lord knows most women want nothing to do with them.
Ok, ok. I get it. It might be unpleasant and uncomfortable for a traveler to have a screener checking our their naked body no matter the sex, but not as unpleasant as blowing up, right? And not for nothing, this is the ‘pornographic’ image O’Reilly objects too….who needs Playboy when you’ve got this;
O’Reilly also expressed his discomfort at potentially being patted-down by ‘Vinny or Lenny.’ I’m thinking he’s afraid of some unexpected reaction to Vinny’s hands caressing his wingnuts, if you know what I mean.
When the so-called Underwear bomber attempted to blow up a plane last year, the right wing howled that Obama wasn’t doing enough to secure the skies. And now, a little less than a year later, they are howling that he’s doing too much. Pick a side, crazies.
Drudge is running a blaring headline today trying to increase the freakout, saying; “BIG SIS MOVES TO STOP REVOLT - HOLIDAY TRAVEL ON THE BRINK!”
On the brink of what exactly?? -- On the brink of being secure? On the brink of potentially foiling an attack? Oh, no!!
The Reuters article referenced by Drudge says the following;
“With the busiest holiday travel season nearing, fliers face long security lines and new rigorous patdown checks begun in recent weeks aimed at discovering hidden explosives. As a result, some travelers are questioning whether to fly at all.”
Is that serious? Flyers are questioning whether to fly or not based on the alleged intrusiveness of the TSA screening process. Where have these people been living? These people aren’t questioning whether they want to fly or not based on the fact that some fanatic might have some plastique in his jock strap, they question flying because the security measures are too stringent. The stupidity boggles the mind.
The article went on to quote a father who preferred to remain unnamed, but volunteered that he was a ‘lobbyist’ in DC;
"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."
You know when they terrorists have won, dad? When they blow you and junior out of the sky because they got a bomb on the plane. They also win when we give up our way of life, not when we are extra vigilant to the threats they pose.
Again, I get that a person can feel uncomfortable being patted down, but its either the full body scanner or the pat-down. Your choice. You can’t refuse both. We live in a time when bombers are putting stuff in their shoes and underwear and who knows where else, that is the reality.
So, you know what? If you would prefer that a bomber is able to smuggle his weapon onto a plane instead of you getting screened, then just stay home.
Drudge links to a report that the Council on American-Islamic Relations is also urging American Muslims to refuse the full body scan and the pat-down below the necks. This is great, the Muslims and the Teahadis have some more commonalities. I wonder if O’Reilly will support their legal right to refuse to be screened. Oh yeah, I forgot, only right wing Christians have rights in this nation.
If Drudge and O’Reilly want to gin up their fans to refuse to be screened, then they need to take responsibility when someone is able to board a plane with an explosive devise.
Do O’Reilly and Drudge actually want the holiday travel season to be an economic failure so that they can blame that on Obama? Do they really want to see another attack happen so they can blame Obama for that too? Or is it just more of the black is white, up is down, knee jerk opposition of anything this President does?
Its insane and absurd and a bunch of other words I can’t even think of right now.
111210 MSNY
