TSA Opt-Out And Filibuster – Both Legitimate Forms Of Protest

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – That was the other thing, our government treats us today as if we are all terrorists.  They tell the TSA to treat four-year-olds as though they are terrorists, do they not?  They tell the TSA to treat 88-year-old grannies with Depends undergarments on as if they are terrorists, do they not?  They tell the TSA to treat teenage girls and prepubescent boys as if they are terrorists, subjecting them to pat-downs and gropes and feel-ups, do they not?  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Dave is in Pennsylvania.  You are first up on The Mike Church Show.  How are you?

Caller Dave:  Good morning, Mike.  Here’s a movie, how about “When Harry Met Randy”?  On a more serious note, I think Senator Paul should have expanded his argument and demonstrated how the Obama administration uses the Constitution as an impediment to their whole view of the future of America, and how he circumvented the Constitution through executive order and unconstitutional recess appointments such as those he made with the National Labor Board in this fight against Boeing.  Those appointments were shut down in court but nobody talked about it.  The Labor Board said they’re going to continue on with their policies anyway, even though those appointments were viewed as unconstitutional because the Senate was never officially in recess.  There are other examples that I believe Senator Paul could have used.  By showing a pattern of this administration’s view of the Constitution and how they tried to get around it, it would have enhanced his argument about the use of drones being unconstitutional and that this administration will do anything.  That’s why when we live in a society of sound bites and late night comics, unfortunately Rand Paul’s filibuster may be viewed as a diatribe and not taken seriously by a majority of the American public.

Mike:  No, no, no.

Caller Dave:  Not by me.

Mike:  Even the New York Times has an editorial today.  Gail Collins who is a lib’s lib writes about Rand Paul, “Talk of the Town.”

[reading]

Senator Rand Paul has his faults. But you have to give him credit for effort. On Wednesday, the capital was under a snowstorm warning, and you know how wimpy people in Washington get when there’s even a hint of snow. Everybody wanted to get out and get home. Then Paul brought the Senate to a grinding halt by staging a filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan to be head of the C.I.A.

“I’m here today to speak for as long as I can hold up,” he announced. And off he went.

Paul had no particular problem with the nomination, which he acknowledged was going to pass once he stopped talking. But the debate over Brennan had brought up the question of drone strikes. The junior senator from Kentucky wanted President Obama to promise not to use drones to kill Americans on American soil. “At least we need to know what are the rules,” he said sometime during hour five.

Fair enough. The Obama administration had been unnecessarily dodgy on this point. The very fact that the president was ordering the death of American citizens anywhere without oversight was worrying. [Mike: Worrying, Gail? Really, worrying? That’s the best you got? How about tragic? How about tyrannical? How about outrageous? How about unprecedented?] Shouldn’t there be a special court to sign off on these things?

[end reading]

Mike:  Of course there should.  All the guys I mentioned that did not show up to stand with Rand last night are the same ones that vote for warrantless wiretapping.  Rand also talked last night about the fact that in the new NDAA and Patriot Act, did you know that your credit card statements are now fair game?  The general government, the federal government, can now ask a credit card company to see your credit card statement so they can see what kind of activity you’ve got on it?  [mocking] “We don’t know what he’s up to, but we can find out.”  They don’t need a judge to do this.  As Rand was saying, I use my credit cards a lot.  I don’t want you looking at my credit card statement.  It’s basically what I do with my money which is my own business.  [mocking] “Yeah, but we don’t know what you’re doing with your money and we need to know.  There are terrorists out there and you may be one of them.”

That was the other thing, our government treats us today as if we are all terrorists.  They tell the TSA to treat four-year-olds as though they are terrorists, do they not?  They tell the TSA to treat 88-year-old grannies with Depends undergarments on as if they are terrorists, do they not?  They tell the TSA to treat teenage girls and prepubescent boys as if they are terrorists, subjecting them to pat-downs and gropes and feel-ups, do they not?  The fact that you still go through line like a bunch of herded cattle or sheep, remove your shoes because the government tells you to, even though there is no security purpose for this – people do know this.  There is no purpose for this.  The TSA has admitted and people that are intimately familiar with the practice admit it serves no purpose other than inconveniencing people, yet we all do it.

The last time I went to the airport, the line was long.  I got there just in the nick of time.  They were forcing people to go through the porno scanner.  I won’t do it.  I did not do it.  I just raised my hand and said opt out.  The TSA guy looked at me and cocked his head to the side and put his chin down on his chest as if to say: Really, dude?  Really, sir?  What’s the big deal?  Go through the scanner.  I went: No, I’m not going through the scanner.  He’s like: You know what I have to do then?  I’m like: Yeah, I’m familiar with the drill.  Let’s get it over with.  Every time you see at the airport an American citizen standing on the fatigue mat with the yellow footprints on it — of course, I wouldn’t stand on the footprints.  I didn’t stand on the footprints and the TSA agent had to tell me: Your feet need to be on the marks on the mat.  I just looked at him as if to say: Just get it over with.

Every time you see an American citizen standing on one of those mats with their arms out to their side and a blue-shirted TSA agent with blue gloves on feeling them up, know that that particular citizen, if they weren’t chosen for a random screening, is saying to the national legislature and to our tyrannical almighty federal overlords: No.  It is a sign of protest.  It is a mini-filibuster.  If more people did the opt-out instead of the sheeple move of going through the scanner, and if the grope-up line because so unruly and unmanageable that TSA agents no longer wanted to perform it, that would actually force a change.  The fact that there’s compliance to the scanner is what gives the Transportation Security Administration the license it thinks it has to make you take your shoes off.  These are all acts of contrition.

End Mike Church Show Transcript