TSA puts ads on pizza boxes

"A career where x-ray vision and federal benefits come standard"

From the Washington Post:

TSA using pizza boxes to recruit new workers

Federal agencies often head to college campuses, job fairs or buy newspaper classified ads to announce new job openings. But the Transportation Security Administration is reaching out with pepperoni and cheese.

"A Career Where X-Ray Vision and Federal Benefits Come Standard," reads a TSA ad appearing on pizza boxes across the Washington region.

...

The boxed ad campaign was developed last year in an effort to reach a broader applicant pool, according to TSA spokesman Greg Soule. The agency routinely uses ad space on Metro trains, at gas stations and in newspapers or buys ad time during movie previews. But no word on the cost of the pizza box campaign or which restaurants are using the boxes.

...

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The comments people left on the website of the Washington Post are priceless:

"'The boxed ad campaign was developed last year in an effort to reach a broader applicant pool.' And that pool would be what? Ignorant lard butts? Just what the TSA needs - more obese cows clogging up the already inane security process."

"Recruiting via a pizza box. How appropriate since the security measures performed by TSA are both cheesy and loaded with fat."

"They should advertise on McDonald's Happy Meals since the behavior of the TSA agents at National Airport resembles a playground at an elementary school rather than serious professionals concerned about national security."

"As other commenters have already noted: The pizza box advertisement does seem to be the ideal demographic for TSA employees. The bottom of the Federal Ladder for sure......I'm sure they were meeting resistance on college campuses to have a career in telling people to throw away their shampoo."

"Put ads on cheap beer and the demographic goals will be complete."

After the aforementioned comments were posted about the article, the Washington Post disabled the ability for readers to comment about the TSA.

A blast from the past: TSA-like security in Airplane I and II

Doctors: TSA spreads bad diseases via pat down searches

From WND:

Doctors sound TSA germ alert

Dangers include syphilis, lice, viruses, ringworm

Syphilis, lice, gonorrhea, ringworm, chlamydia, staph, strep, noro and papilloma viruses all are part of the possible fringe benefits when airline passengers next go through a full hands-on pat-down by agents of the federal government's Transportation Security Administration, according to doctors.

WND reported two days ago on alarmed passengers who noted that TSA agents doing the pat-downs that have been described by critics as molestation since they include touching private body parts were not changing gloves between passengers. In fact, some apparently were patting down dozens of passengers or more wearing the same gloves.

But neither the TSA nor federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control was willing to comment on the possibilities that infections and other loathsome afflictions could be passed from passenger to passenger.

Now two doctors – and several others – have confirmed that there is the definite possibility that passengers will be able to catch whatever someone in front of them in line was suffering from via the latex gloves TSA workers use.

"There is no doubt that bacteria (staph, strep, v.cholerae etc.) and viruses (noro, enteroviruses, herpes, hepatitis A and papilloma viruses) can be spread by contaminated vinyl or latex gloves," Dr. Thomas Warner of Wisconsin told WND in a letter to the editor.

"If a traveler has diarrhea and is soiled, as can and does happen, the causative agent can be spread by this method since bacteria and viruses in moist environments have greater viability."

He continued. "The traveler readjusting clothes can easily get the infectious agents on their hands and therefore into their mouth, nose or eyes."

Added a pulmonary critical care physician from Connecticut who did not want to be identified by name, "That doesn't make sense that they're not changing gloves."

"Anything can be transmitted. If there are open wounds and they [TSA agents] are not aware, there's syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, chlamydia, lice, ringworm."

...

Warner told WND some of the infections are "a tough little beast" and easily would be spread through the contact being used by the TSA.

"Staphylococci are also tough and can be spread on fomites (eg . towels, tampons or gloves ) and survive in dry conditions. Methicillin resistant staph creates havoc in hospitals AND in those awaiting surgery (eg. traveling for a transplant ) when the 'carrier' patient must be clear of the bacterium before elective surgery," he said.

...

"Air travel passengers across America have been complaining of the TSA fingering their genitalia and touching their sex organs. Just this week, an ABC News employee was fingered by a TSA agent who felt around inside her underwear. ... This process of touching traveler's genitals without consistently changing latex gloves means the TSA is involved in extremely risky behavior that could spread disease," the website warned.

...

"If an athlete with jock itch (a fungal infection) undergoes a TSA pat-down, that TSA agent could spread the passenger's jock itch from his crotch to his armpits and neck. The same is true for a person suffering from ringworm or other skin fungal infections: Merely touching them and then touching another body part can cause them to spread," the website said. "Even worse, if that same TSA agent does not change his or her gloves between pat-downs, they could be spreading jock itch, ringworm or other infections from traveler to traveler. So traveler #2 could end up with the jock itch picked up from traveler #1."

...

TSA agent kidnaps and rapes woman

From La Grange News:

TSA employee accused of kidnap, assault

 

A TSA employee remained hospitalized today after being accused of kidnapping a young female in Atlanta, then taking her to his Hogansville residence and sexually assaulting her.

Randall Scott King, whose age and street address were not given, abducted the woman Wednesday evening from a MARTA parking lot in southwest Atlanta, police said.

The alleged victim said after the assault, she was released by her captor, who gave her a suicide note and instructions on where to deliver it.

Union City police alerted Hogansville police about the incident early Thursday.

Hogansville officers obtained search warrants and found King at his residence with what appeared to be self-inflicted wounds. Police did not describe the type or extent of his wounds. King was airlifted to Columbus Regional Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition this morning.

Criminal warrants against King were obtained by MARTA and Hogansville police. The charges were not specified.

King was identified as an employee of the federal Transportation Safety Administration, which is assisting in the investigation.

Hogansville police said the investigation is ongoing and further details will be released when the probe is completed.

Woman wears bikini to avoid TSA groping

Woman: TSA thugs singled me out because of my breasts

From Click Orlando:

Woman: TSA Agents Singled Me Out For My Breasts

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the agency will look further into allegations that two male TSA workers picked a woman for additional screening because of her breasts.

Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport and told Local 6 she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size.

"It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over," said Sutherland. "Not a comfortable feeling."

Experiences like Sutherland's have been reported across the country, leaving many people to join a group planning to boycott the TSA's new full body scan in an effort to clog security lines on the day before Thanksgiving. Whether it's pat-downs or full-body scans, the changes are making some people question who gets chosen and why.

But it appears out of the tens of thousands going through security, only a small part of them may have to deal with this controversial checkpoint.

...

Colleen Moskaly went through a full body scan recently while her security agents performed a pat-down on her infant son. She said, "I'm not good with people touching me and touching my son."

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Ron Paul subjected to TSA thuggery; calls it "absolutely disgusting"

Activist goes through TSA checkpoint in speedo

TSA agents spreading skin and venereal diseases to passengers via pat-downs.

From WND:

Spreadin' the glove: TSA infecting U.S.?

Those latex gloves Transportation Security Administration agents wear while giving airline passengers those infamous full-body pat-downs apparently aren't there for the safety and security of passengers – only the TSA agents.

That's the word being discussed on dozens of online forums and postings after it was noted that the agents wear the same gloves to pat down dozens, perhaps hundreds, of passengers, not changing them even though the Centers for Disease Control in its online writings has emphasized the important of clean hands to prevent the exchange of loathsome afflictions.

"Herpes via latex glove ... ewwww," wrote one participant on the independence-minded AR15 website forum.

Responding to the question, "Does the TSA change latex gloves after each sexual assault?" another wrote on the same forum, "I seriously doubt it. Gloves are for their protection, not yours."

In fact, TSA officials in both national and regional offices declined to respond to WND inquiries about the policy for changing gloves to prevent an infection that may be on the clothes or body of one passenger during a pat-down by TSA agents from being transmitted to other passengers, including children, in line

Martha Donahue in a commentary at Resistnet said she'd spent 30 years in the medical industry.

"For those of you who fly and opt for the 'pat down,' you need to demand the TSA thugs change their gloves. I've been watching on the news how they operate. People are being searched [with] dirty gloves ... gloves that have been in crotches, armpits, touching people who may be ill, people who pick their noses. Do you want those gloves touching you?

"These thugs are protecting themselves from you. You need to be protected from them," she wrote. "In a hospital, nursing home, in-home care, or even labs, that would never even be considered an option."

ABC reported one of its news employees documented how a TSA worker reached inside her underwear.

"The woman who checked me reached her hands inside my underwear and felt her way around," the ABC employee said in the network's report. "It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist. It was embarrassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate."

Asked today about the possibility of contamination being spread from one passenger to another on the gloves of TSA agents, a spokesman for the CDC bailed.

"Please contact the Dept of Homeland Security and/or TSA on this issue," the spokesman told WND.

...

On a TSA blog promoting the agency's actions and policies, one screener explained, "Changing gloves is fairly simple ... . When I gate screen I carry about 10-12 pairs in my pockets."

Respondents to the comment were outraged, "That's just plain disgusting and most certainly not acceptable ... procedures as set forth by the CDC for usage of gloves for protection," said one. "Reasoning being is that the bacteria count in your pockets is about the same is your mouth or armpit."

Wrote another forum participant, "Those gloves are soiled if they come out of your pockets and before handling my stuff you will be expected to obtain a clean, from the original container, pair. ... Who knows what filth inhabits your pockets!"

...

"Those gloves are worn for the protection of the agent," wrote the commentator. "You must request that they change the gloves in your presence or you risk acquiring venereal disease resulting from a fondle/molest search."

7-Year Old Girl: "Grandmama, they [the TSA] touched you on your special girl spots"

From Vision to America:

7-Year Old Girl: 'Grandmama, they touched you on your special girl spots'

Antonia Riggs Miernik reluctantly rolls up her left pant leg, revealing a scar that runs down her knee. When Miernik was 27 years old, she was injured in a car crash, and “basically destroyed the knee.” Now, she has a metal knee implant.

One of the effects of the implant is that whenever the New Port Richey woman flies, she triggers the metal detectors at airport security. She says the normal procedure is that she is then subjected to a TSA pat down. She has experienced multiple pat downs since Sept. 11.

“I feel molested. I’d like to go take a shower with Lysol (afterwards),” Miernik said, describing the pat downs, which she said includes being “touched all over.”

Miernik said the worst experience she had came when her 7-year-old granddaughter was at the airport with her. When her granddaughter saw the pat down, “She went ‘Grandmama, they touched you on your special girl spots.’”

Woman: The TSA took my baby

Click here to read the chilling statement by the mother who had her baby taken from her by the TSA.

Pervert TSA agent caught pleasuring himself at airport

From the Daily Squib:

Body Scanner Operator Caught Masturbating at Colorado Airport

DENVER - USA - A full body scanner operator was caught masturbating during a scanning session by airport staff late Tuesday.

Airport officials at Denver International airport were on high alert yesterday when a full body scanner operator was caught masturbating in his booth as a team of High School netball players went through the scanner.

"The young ladies were going through the scanner one by one, and every time one went through, this guys face was getting redder and redder. His hand was moving and then he started sweating. He was then seen doing his 'O' face. That's when the security dragged him out of his booth and cuffed him. He had his pants round his ankles and everybody was really disgusted," Jeb Rather, a passenger on a flight to New York told CBS news.

The controversial scanners display every minute detail of a person's body and have been called intrusive by privacy campaigners. Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate that critics have likened it to a virtual porn shoot. Technologies vary, with millimeter wave systems capturing highly detailed pictures of genitals, and backscatter X-ray machines able to show precise anatomical detail. The U.S. government likes the idea because body scanners can detect concealed weapons better than traditional magnetometers.

American war hero beaten up by airport security

Young boy strip-searched by TSA agents in public

TSA thug leaves cancer-survivor covered in urine after "pat down"

From the Detroit Free Press:

Cancer survivor tells of humiliating pat-down at Metro Airport

A Houghton Lake man says he was so aggressively patted down by an agent at a Detroit Metro Airport security checkpoint this month that it caused the lid on his urostomy bag to come loose, spilling urine on his shirt and pants.

Thomas Sawyer, 61, said he sent complaints to several Transportation Security Administration officials Saturday.

 

...

 

Sawyer said he and his wife were heading to catch a plane to Orlando on Nov. 7 when he went through the airport’s new full-body scanner and was then selected to be patted down by a TSA agent.

 

...

 

Sawyer said one agent began the pat-down, but when he began sliding his hand firmly down his chest, he said he told the security officer that the pressure could pull the lid off his urostomy bag — which, Sawyer said, is what happened.

 

“When I got out of the room my wife knew something was wrong and I just broke down crying,” he said. “I was just so embarrassed, so humiliated.”

 

He said once through security, he changed his bag, but didn’t have time to change his clothing and had to board the plane soaked in urine.

“I was embarrassed to death,” Sawyer said.

He said he was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2007 and had to have a procedure that left him with a urostomy bag to catch re-routed urine.

...

Sawyer said he came home from his vacation Tuesday and waited to go public with his story until he was able to write a statement that satisfied him.

He said he was assisted by the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, a group he said he is a member of.

Claire Saxton, executive director for the network, called Sawyer’s claim “the most egregious incident I have heard of since the new procedures have been put in place,” and said agents should be trained to understand such medical issues.

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Woman: What the TSA agent did to me was "sexual assault"

From KMOV:

Woman says her Lambert security screening was sexual assault

More Americans are growing angrier, over what the Transportation Security Administration, admits are more intrusive security put downs at airports.

One woman is comparing her experience at Lambert Airport to a sexual assault.

 

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Moroney explains “Her gloved hands touched my breasts...went between them. Then she went into the top of my slacks, inserted her hands between my underwear and my skin... then put her hands up on outside of slacks, and patted my genitals.”

 

“I was shaking and crying when I left that room” Moroney says.  “Under any other circumstance, if a person touched me like that without my permission, it would be considered criminal sexual assault.”

 

Moroney complained to the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, supervisor and then complained on the ACLU’s website.

 

The national office is now monitoring what it calls a “flood of complaints” from across the country.

 

...

Michigan Woman: I was subjected to "violent" pat-down.

From WZZM13:

Enhanced pat down leaves Grand Rapids airline passenger in tears

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Before boarding a flight in Grand Rapids, a woman says the search at the security checkpoint was violent, unnecessary and extremely upsetting.

"When I got on the plane all I wanted to do was sob," says traveler Ella Swift.

Swift was one of an increasing number of passengers Transportation Security Administration officers are thoroughly searching by hand. They call it an "enhanced pat-down."

Swift says they told her she was singled out because she was wearing a skirt. She says the search earlier this month was very rough and left her in tears.

"The female officer ran her hand up the inside of my leg to my groin and she did it so hard and so rough she lifted me off my heels," she says. "I think I yelped. I was in pain for about an hour afterwards. It just felt excessive and unnecessary."

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Gov. Jesse Ventura to not fly until TSA ends policies

Michigan State University professor bites airport security officer; student supports prof

From the State News:

MSU associate professor fights government power

Every day, our government increases its power and control over our lives. The Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and wiretapping are but a few of the many onslaughts against personal liberty brought on by an increasingly bold and absolutist government.

So when I heard someone (MSU Associate Professor John D. McCallie) stood up to a uniformed imperial storm trooper, my first reaction was not to scorn him for not submitting, but to applaud him for standing up for his dignity. If more people did so, instead of acting like slaves, the government might not be able to act so tyrannically.

I don't know the details, but it is foolish to believe that people should bow down to an oppressor because they wear a uniform of state, as The State News appears to feel. I suppose they also look down on the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto who shot uniformed agents of the law when they came to kill them.

Last year's stories condemning Michigan's passages of a measure that would decriminalize shooting an assailant without first running away betrayed The State News' belief that individuals have no business defending themselves from a criminal, especially with a gun.

Now we know that The State News also thinks it's wrong for people to use their teeth when the airport Nazis (it seems like the right term judging by how they dress and act) come to arrest them for littering.

David Garlock
music senior


From the State News:

Professor arrested for biting officer

MSU women's basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie witnessed a whole new defense tactic when she saw her husband bite the finger of a Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport police officer Wednesday.

John D. McCallie, an associate MSU economics professor and husband of Joanne P. McCallie, became hostile after his bag was lost at the Florida airport, said Bob Mattingly, the vice president of operations and maintenance at the airport.

McCallie was arrested on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement official.

"It's like the guy kind of flipped out," Mattingly said. "He got belligerent, and the trash container — he started swinging it in the air. It was at that time that he was placed under arrest."

The McCallies had flown to Florida for an annual vacation to unwind between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, university spokesman Terry Denbow said.

When the couple arrived at the airport, they realized they were missing one of three bags. When the McCallies spoke with airport officials about finding the bag, they were told they would need the baggage claim tickets that were attached to their other two bags before the flight.

The McCallies had thrown the tickets away upon receiving the bags — a common move made by travelers, Mattingly said.

Upon hearing he would need the tickets to verify which bag was missing, McCallie started going through the trash bin to search for the tickets.

"He apparently then dumped some trash on the floor and couldn't find it and dumped another out, and at that time, people were taking note," Mattingly said.

During the trash mulling, a police officer approached McCallie. A scuffle ensued as McCallie became more hostile and bit the police officer on the finger. It took more than one officer to subdue him, Mattingly said.

McCallie was released on a $2,700 bond and is expected to continue his work at MSU today, Denbow said.

In a statement made Sunday by Joanne P. McCallie, she thanked those who have offered their support and warm wishes during this time.

"First, I want to thank all members of the immediate Spartan family and many others for their support and understanding over the past few days," McCallie said in the statement. "The McCallie family is very grateful and, based upon our years as Spartans, certainly not surprised."

Denbow spoke with Joanne P. McCallie on Friday, who told him all sides of the incident have not been revealed.

"She said, 'Remember there's two sides to every story, and only one side of this story has been out,'" Denbow said.

The McCallies couldn't be reached by The State News but have retained an attorney, Denbow said.

"We have to be concerned on the eve of the NCAA tournaments. The focus has to be on the team and the players," Denbow said.

"The players deserve it, so she will not be talking about this because she believes in her heart and soul that the team comes first at this time."

TSA agents: Americans upset over fondling are abusing us! Our morale is low! We cry!

From Boarding Area:

TSA Enhanced Pat Downs : The Screeners Point Of View

In the past few weeks since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) implemented its new “enhanced” pat down procedures there has been considerable backlash from the traveling public. This backlash has been loud and angry … but what is not heard or seen in the media is the quiet resentment of this new policy within the TSA.

A few days ago I contacted 20 TSA Transportation Security Officers (TSO) to ask their opinions of the new “enhanced” pat downs. Of the 20 I reached out to, 17 responded. All 17 who responded are at airports where the new “enhanced” pat down is in place … and the responses were all the same, that front line TSOs do not like the new pat downs and that they do not want to perform them.  I expected most to not like the pat downs … but what I didn’t expect was that all 17 mentioned their morale being broken down.

Each of the 17 TSA TSOs that responded to me detailed their personal discomfort in conducting the new pat downs, with more than one stating that it is likely they are more uncomfortable performing the pat down than passengers are receiving them.

Some comments from these TSOs include:

...
 
“Being a TSO means often being verbally abused, you let the comments roll off and check the next person, however when a woman refuses the scanner then comes to me and tells me that she feels like I am molesting her, that is beyond verbal abuse. . . .

“I was asked by some guy if I got excited touching scrotums at the airport and if it gave me a power thrill. I felt like vomiting when he asked that. This is not a turn on for me to touch me it is in fact a huge turn off. There is a big difference between how I pat passengers down and a molester molesting people.”

Aside from the issue of TSA TSOs being required to physically touch passengers in places they do not want to be touching them during the ‘enhanced’ pat down, morale is decreasing for front line TSOs, due in part to an increase in verbal abuse.  Each of the 17 TSOs who responded to me detailed a new level of verbal abuse they are experiencing at work.

...

Some comments from these 17 TSOs include:

“Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”

...

“Do people know what a Nazi is? . . . I am Jewish and a TSA Transportation Security Officer, an American Patriot and to call me a Nazi is an offense beyond all other offenses.”