Comments on: They Lie To Your Face

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:56:20 +0000

The whole process is flawed and is theater to appease the masses as well as a tool to control opposition.

This is the Nixon dream taken to its logical conclusion.

By: Reality

Reality — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:00:29 +0000

The No-fly list has never been anything but a political weapon. Don’t believe it? Consider how Sen. Edward Kennedy ended up on the list and it took months to get off of it. TSA is a joke and has done nothing to make us safer. Getting through security at a large air hub is so onerous, many people, like myself, will travel by air only when absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, TSA has done nothing to beef up airport security outside the terminal. Anyone can easily get onto the fight line and do whatever they wish to an airliner.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:25:09 +0000

We have been having a number of tourist disasters around here.

There were the changed rules after 9-11 which really impacted the Canadians who used to come down for the winter. Then there were the hurricanes in 2004 and 2005. That was followed by a couple of incidents of shark bites. Followed by some over publicized drownings, including a CNN person.

You throw in the SS antics of TSA, the high fuel prices, the bursting housing bubble, and 4 people struck by lightning at the Blue Angles show this past weekend, and the local touring industry is down the toilet, passed the trap, into the main line on the way to the treatment plant.

It’s so bad that the day labor places are having to hire Americans because the undocumented workers have left.

I figure it will either be a major oil spill or an unknown volcano next.

By: mapaghimagsik

mapaghimagsik — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:47:52 +0000

One of the few industries that can benefit from a weak dollar is the tourist industry. I guess we’ll screw that up, too.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:58:15 +0000

Living in a tourist area, Kryten, I can tell you that this stuff has really hurt the local economy, and then the housing debacle finished us off. I have seen two Canadian plates all year, when they used to be a common sight, and I haven’t heard German spoken in two years. After the Canadians, the Germans were our biggest group. With the value of the dollar in the tank, and rental prices down in dollars, we should be overrun with them, but we aren’t.

The stupid thing, Jack, it that all the people at the airport seem to have is names. There is obviously no other identifying information available to the airlines or there wouldn’t be many of these problems. I would have been on pretty shaky ground to even do a weapons pat-down based solely on a name, much less an interview.

With the rising prices and security hassles it’s not surprising that airlines are in trouble.

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:43:48 +0000

…one of my best friends is apparently on a list, perhaps not the “no-fly” list but one that calls for increased scrutiny. We have learned that, if we are flying anywhere, we should book separate flights, and he will be along eventually. In that disturbing way so reminiscent of every movie you ever saw about life in Nazi Germany, nobody is in the slightest bit interested in explaining to my friend or his wife why this blond-haired blue-eyed native son of English descent needs to “follow me, please” to some alternate location to discuss the nature of his trip…

That ‘Catherine Stevens’ thing probably demonstrates how insanely out of kilter the whole system has become. I seriously doubt that Yusuf Islam would have ever have elongated the first part of his stage name ‘Cat Stevens’ to ‘Catherine’ . Having been a small-town DJ in my late high school years during his “Moon Shadow/Peace Train”heyday, I know I never heard him referred to as ‘Catherine’…

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:28:55 +0000

Hey Bryan! 😀 😉

Ya know… I’ve been wondering why ASIO has been sooooo quiet since the security debacle in Sydney with the Bushmoron… He liked them so much, he took them back to the USA with him! Good… you can keep them! 😉 LOL

Ehhh, it is a load of BS. Is there any agency left that hasn’t been politicized and taken over by the GOP?

I can’t decide if the no-fly list was intended to piss-off citizens so much they emigrate, or stop foreign visitors even thinking about visiting the USA. Either way, it’s working.