Kick

and immense power.

Did he create the TSA, or set its policies and hiring practices? You know he didn't.

This is a horrible occurance, and the people who perpetrated this atrocity should be fired and charged with assault. No excuses.

It is Obama's place to nominate someone new. Or is there someone else who nominates TSA chiefs that I am not aware of?

Not trying to pull a "Thanks, Obama" but he said to hold his feet to the fire and I damned well will.

Let's give TSA leadership a chance to respond. Obama didn't create the TSA, and it seems to me that TSA improved greatly since Obama became president.

This is a terrible event. Let's see how TSA deals with it.

how aggressive the TSA has gotten. The last time I flew back in 2010 I remembered the TSA agents at the airport, but I didn't even think anything about it, they didn't bother me much.

When I flew out of LA a couple of weeks ago I could not believe how rude and aggressive this agency was. And everyone was being hearded around like sheep in headlights.

I was the quintessial 'road warrior'. I still have my American Airlines frequent flyer card, embossed with '2 million miles'. Back then security checkpoints were a minor nuisance.

Today, I refuse to fly. If I can't drive to where I am going, I don't go. It is as simple as that. Between the airlines nickle and diming passengers to death, the ridiculous 'security' rules, searches, patdowns, etc., and the fact that security is really all for show, it just isn't worth the hassle.

and certainly not negating any difficulties anyone has going through security procedures here or abroad, I travel, mostly internationally, about a dozen times each year.

While I think the whole airport security thing is an absolute joke, I have almost no trouble at all.

Many TSA people are downright friendly. Some are bossy, some show little respect for the people they are supposed to be serving, moving as slowly as they possibly can as if bored to death ( I am sure they are). And then there are the real assholes.. like in life...

Most of my problems arise from procedural fuck ups.. like --
1- kiosks in Toronto, refusing to print out a baggage tracking label, thus forcing me to carry on a bag and having to throw out stuff.

2- being told, when finally reaching the head of the security line in Newark that my connecting boarding pass issued in Rome is not good, forcing me to go back to the check in counter, get in line again, bully my way past everybody so I can make a flight, etc etc

3-Being taken out of the customs and immigration line in Oslo and questioned by the police because I could not remember the name of the town of the person I was going to visit and they thought my profession was fake. (He was waiting for me at arrivals so the cops called his mobile and he vouched for me. )) :&gt )

4-Being 'searched' leaving Amsterdam because I arrived, running like a madman, at the gate like 2 minutes before departure. ( Don't ever mess around with Dutch security.)

5- Having too few customs agent on hand at Incheon arrivals because of some scheduling mess up. ( It still is considered the best airport in the world, and I can understand why.)

I am also lucky in that I fly out of a medium sized regional airport with only 20 gates, which is 10 more than they need, so sometimes, depending on my flight times, there is almost nobody on the security line.

Of course the food is better in the LA basin, the Bay area and Manhattan than where I live, so there is that.

I fly often for business and holidays.

They are the nicest, most efficient anywhere. Pleasant and even cheerful. I fly there frequently and cannot overstate how much I appreciate them. In some airports, the TSA puts knots in my stomach.

Where you can destroy the global economy (and profit from it) with impunity, but don't you dare be disabled.

I thought the Police were the ones who assaulted her? Has it come out that TSA engaged in the violence?

name TSA agents as the ones who tackled the girl. Even if they did not engage in the actual violent act, they were directly responsible for NOT listening to a disabled person's caregiver and for escalating her distress AND involving cops.

They obviously have zero training in how to handle disabled people, and this is in direct violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, no?

They look at the public as the enemy when they should be helpers for the public.

It's the ex-mall security, life-long losers who seek opportunities for greater authority.

the part that I least understand and that wants to make me scream the most is them taking her to jail for the night, after seeing her bleeding and scared and confused. Did they find a weapon on her? What right did they have to take her to jail? What did she do that was against the law? And since she just had a treatment (chemo?) for a brain tumor, did anyone think to get her to a hospital to make sure the head bang didn't seriously injure her in some way?

Her mother was there. Did they not let her explain to them about her daughter's condition, even after they tackled and bloodied her? Did they keep them separated, no matter what the mother said? That should be criminal.

This is so ugly and disheartening. I haven't been on a plane in over 25 years, and probably won't ever be again. I certainly have no desire to try it. I'm not someone who can stand in long lines and I don't handle extreme authority and force well at all. I might actually end up bolting like that young girl did too, especially if two people try to grab me by my arms as they did her. Nobody has the right to touch me.

I have mental (anxiety) issues that might put me in the same danger she was. I was already accosted once by police (nicely...my town has nice police) and taken against my will to a hospital for an interview with a psychiatrist, because I left a therapist's office against his will ...because that's what I do when I'm really upset, I run away. I can't face it. So I totally understand her fear and need to run.

This is an extreme example of what we've been seeing from the police who overreact to situations and even escalate them. None of these people seem to be trained in human reactions and how to deescalate. I know why so many people run from and try to resist the overt physical subjugation of the police. Especially when they are innocent. I don't know what to do to fix this. It just continues to get worse.

It seems that New lows are reached on a daily basis.

About the physical damage of the body slam and the false imprisonment and its effects on a brain surgery/chemo patient.

My sister had a primary brain tumor and died from it 26 years ago as a young adult, despite the best of treatment at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. She worked there for the head of the Pathology Department as his assistant.

It is an ugly, ugly disease when you watch somebody wasting away in spite of the best efforts of the best doctors in the world with surgery, radiation and chemo.

And I hope these bastards at the TSA and the Memphis Police Department burn in hell and go to jail.

These people get to act out their violent crazy fantasies and get PAID for it with no threat to them or their jobs.

the poor and minorities has openly advanced to include the disabled
and the middle class.

We have seen and heard of so much abuse of power. Trayvon, Michael, Tony, Freddie, and all the cases that didn't make it to the news. No one is suggesting we don't have justice. In fact, we are insisting we actually get it.

regarding events on 30 June 2015 at Memphis International Airport

I live at great remove from the airport and am unable to peer back through a year in time and a distance of hundreds of miles to determine what exactly happened or when what should have been obvious to who

We should, of course, feel great sympathy for the young woman and her family, given the stressful life circumstances they face. Whether that sympathy should lead us to conclude the various authorities at the airport behaved in a fashion warranting damages is less clear. They may have, but I do not know that they did

The lawsuit insists that the young woman's disabilities were obvious and claims that "acts of discrimination" by the authorities against her "were intentional." I have no idea how to gauge the validity of such assertions after reading a single-source account on the internet. The TSA currently requests that screeners be informed in advance of disabilities requiring accommodation. I do not know whether or not this request predates the incident under discussion, but since screening has now been widespread for many years, I might guess that this request has been standard for some time. Neither the media account nor the lawsuit indicate that screeners were informed in advance: the story says Cohen told us she tried to tell TSA agents her daughter is partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed, and easily confused, but said she was kept at a distance by police -- which sounds as if this important information was not made available in advance, in which case policies governing immediate response might require that the non-compliant traveler first be controlled, before further interactions with compliant travelers

gynecological exam before being allowed to board an airplane if the experts thought it would improve security.

9/11 turned large swaths of this country into cowering imbeciles who will tolerate anything in the name of security.

policing where the cops are part of us, and fear-based policing where we are the enemy.

Since I hurt my knee I've been scared of this very thing.

for a response and action. Fire Neffenger. Fire the responsible TSA employees in Memphis. Demand accountability.

... they've come out from under their rocks because ...

... it's now the Republican thing to do ...

... this time, armed to the teeth with "semi"-automatic weapons ...

terrorists by terrorizing a sick woman
This one is fugging crazy

you know that law that says if you look crossed eyed at anyone in the power or authority-----------hold on to your hat--------------------they just don't F**ing care, they never ask question before the facts, they never ask questions after the fact, hell they make up there own rules, there are their rules and then there are no rules, take your pick, and hope that you don't get body slammed


Honk---------------------for a political revolution

Patriot Act and 2006 reauthorization

Clinton and Sanders voted differently on the USA Patriot Act, a 2001 bill designed to combat terrorism, in part by granting broad surveillance powers to the National Security Agency. In her first year as a senator, Clinton voted in favor of the bill, while Sanders, by that time a 10-year veteran of the House, voted against it.

The pair did not change positions on votes to renew the legislation in 2005 and 2006.

Sanders voted against a second extension in 2011 as well, three years after Clinton left the Senate for the State Department.

Honk------------------for a political revolution


Democracy begins with you tag your it

1).-- TSA says "Your feedback is very important to us"
so send Neffenger an e-mail via the TSA "Contact Us" link
http://www.tsa.gov/contact/contact-forms

2) -- Contact President Obama at the White House and ask him to do something about this
President Obama's e-mail address is -- president@whitehouse.gov

Or go to:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact#more
("Submit Your Comments and Questions Online)

Or call the White House Comment Line:
202-456-1111

Or do all of the above!

Honk-------------------for a political revolution


Democracy begins with you tag your it

When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

... that can at times make it difficult for me to walk, think, or observe well, I can't begin to tell you how much I fear being subjected to the kind of treatment this young woman endured. I don't fly, but TSA aren't the only ones who act first and think later when dealing with disabled or ill persons.

always been thoughtful and helpful to me concerning my disabilities. I am severely hearing impaired, even with my hearing aids in, and I walk with a cane. When I have to go through the metal detector without my cane, an agent always takes my hand and helps me get through it without falling down. When I don't understand their instructions because of my deafness, they are very patient with me.

I suspect that a lot of the difference in experience has to do with which airports one is flying into or out of. I fly from Kansas City and to Pittsburg, PA, Washington, D.C, and DFW.

I also suspect that when someone's handicaps are of a sort that cause them to become nervous or frantic, that might cause agents with even an hidden strain of the bully in them to respond aggressively, the way other animals respond to signs of weakness and fear. Maybe it provokes a predator to prey response, the way a small child running in fear from a large dog will cause some dogs to give chase and forget it is not a wolf.

I also suspect that the bully types respond to any sign of weakness and vulnerability, and not all handicapped people manifest such signs. Although I am a 65-year-old overweight deaf woman, I have taught college for 43 years, I ran a home daycare for 18 years during which I (firmly) raised 37 kids, including my own two (all while teaching college), and project a rather forceful, no-nonsense presence.

Oh, and of course I am white. If I were a POC, I am quite certain that no amount of presence would protect me from abuse, any more than brilliant, world-famous scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was protected from abuse by a snotty low IQ police officer who wanted him to "respect his authoritah!"