The Drip, The Perv, and Their Dog-and-Pony Show

Recently by Becky Akers: Does Anyone Still Doubt We Languish in a Police-State?

Let me count the ways I love the English language, with its depth and breadth and height, its "feeling out of sight/For the ends of Being and ideal Grace," its precision, flexibility and color. But we exhaust even its pejorative riches when describing the cowards, cretins and con-men of the US Senate.

These sociopaths recently convened another farce in their continuing series entitled "TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11: THE NEXT WAVE IN AVIATION SECURITY." Yes, they are so immature and so contemptuous of us that they not only title but sub-title their silly "hearings." Among the other volumes in the set were September 13's "TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11: ARE WE SAFER?" – altogether now: "NO! Thanks to you clowns and your totalitarian war on freedom, we've descended into a police-state that murders missionaries disembarking from airline flights and sexually molests little kids" – and "TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11 AND THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS: PROTECTING AGAINST BIOLOGICAL THREATS" on October 18. Alas, the schedule reflects no upcoming "TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11: PROTECTING AGAINST GOVERNMENTAL THREATS."

The ringleaders of these glorified bull-sessions include that annoying drip and "committee chairman," Joe Lieberman (Independent, so-called-CT) and the bland, boring, "ranking member" Susan Collins (R-ME). Could we present better proof than these two that the Senate is nothing more than grotesquely expensive make-"work" for lunatics sporting delusions of grandeur and a tyrannical streak wider than Jerold Nadler?

Meanwhile, unless you're a congresscritter, bureaucrat, or owner of a toxic-emissions monitor, you're probably blissfully ignorant that "TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11" has devoured our taxes for almost two months now. Which prompts me to ask the point of this pointless nonsense.

Knowing politicians' adoration of microphones and cameras, fervent enough when aimed at us but frighteningly obsessive when focused on themselves, we might assume such "hearings" are an attempt to grab newsrooms' attention. But reporters seldom bother covering these gabfests because they're multitudinous as adulterous politicians and usually concentrate on ludicrously stupid stuff ("Improving Educational Outcomes for our Military and Veterans." Geez. Have these morons ever heard of studying and, when that fails, cheat-sheets?).

And for sure it isn't to exchange information. Your Intrepid Reporter read the "prepared statements" from "TEN YEARS AFTER 9/11: THE NEXT WAVE IN AVIATION SECURITY." Or, more accurately, I skimmed a few: lewrockwell.com doesn't pay me nearly enough to read all of them. Or to watch and listen to these dimwits for 173 minutes, every second of which is irreplaceable and unrecoverable. No, I stuck with the transcript – almost literally when I nodded off and pitched head-first into my computer. Before that very necessary nap, my eyes were so glazed I could have served dinner on them. When I woke, I realized there was absolutely nothing in this bilge that the corporate media's average story on the TSA doesn't divulge.

Here's a sample from Joe the Drip's welcome (delivered in his distinctive drone: I bet you, too, would rather undergo root-canal than allow this gutless invertebrate to assault your ears): "Good morning and welcome to our hearing. Today we will take stock of our efforts over the past 10 years to secure aviation travel, and to discuss where we must go from here to make the system more secure, more efficient, and, if possible, more convenient for the majority of travelers, without diminishing security." Yeah, it would be hilarious, if only The Drip understood even remotely how to deliver a joke. "I want to thank TSA Administrator John [u2018The Perv'] Pistole, who has spent a lifetime in service to the security of our nation, and our other witnesses for being here today."

NB: as groped, irradiated passengers scream their fury coast-to-coast, Joe Drip shamelessly lauds the deviant ordering thugs to grope and irradiate them. Nor was he the only one. "Senators at the hearing generally praised the TSA for its work [sic]." (See? I wasn't exaggerating when I said English lacks words bad enough for these criminals.)

The Drip fancies himself some sort of expert in security; later, he announced as confidently as if he knows, “'We’re not at a point where we can ignore looking for dangerous things' and just focus on dangerous people …" Amazing, is it not, that a wimp who quavers for a living fearlessly lumps himself with the TSA's pedophiles and thieves?

But identifying himself with brutes didn't content Joe Drip: he also demonstrated his ignorance beyond all doubt: "He suggested that TSA publicize when it finds [sic for u2018steals our'] weapons" – Yo, Drip: it already does – "because u2018the average person going through the line…doesn’t see somebody get stopped with a weapon, and it’s very important to remind people why we ask them to go through this.'” [Emphasis added.]

Whoa! A bit of truth at last! The TSA exists to disarm us though no studies or research anywhere equate defenseless passengers with safe ones. Indeed, stripping what the TSA insists is a valued "layer of security" of everything but their bare fists and expecting them to fight off armed hijackers is patently absurd.

It's also Our Rulers' ambition for all of society, not just aviation's passengers. No wonder that when the FAA imposed checkpoints on airports forty-some years ago, politicians capitalized on the opportunity to grab our guns.

Their warrantless robbery continues to this day, with The Perv bragging to Joe Drip et al that his goons "find four to five guns at checkpoints on a typical day. … More than 900 guns have been recovered at checkpoints this year, the TSA says." Intriguing verb, which I again took the liberty of emphasizing, don't you think? What, does Leviathan own our firearms, too, in addition to our homes and land so that it "recovers" its property when it purloins ours? "All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee."

The Perv also bragged about his unconstitutional interrogations at Boston's Logan, in which the TSA's buffoons quiz every passenger at the checkpoint about his destination, intentions, etc. “We’ve had probably a dozen or so people who were referred to law enforcement because of their response,” The Perv gloated. “And it turned out, some of these individuals had outstanding warrants for them. Some were illegal immigrants.” Uh-oh: the latter probably hoped to destroy our way of life by picking our fruit and cleaning our homes. But not a single one of the "dozen or so" was a terrorist.

Perhaps that's why "a 2008 survey of air travelers who took one or more flights in the previous year found that one in four respondents (28 percent) avoided at least one trip because of the hassles of air travel, which include aviation congestion and passenger screening," testified Roger Dow, president of the US Travel Association. "That loss of travel translates into a $26.5 billion dollar loss to the U.S. economy … Compare that … to a 2010 survey conducted by Consensus Research, which found that American travelers would take an additional two to three flights per year if the hassles in security screening were eliminated. These additional flights would add nearly $85 billion in consumer spending and support 900,000 American jobs."

Tragically but predictably, Rog's dire numbers inspired him to suggest reforming rather than abolishing the TSA. He's a lobbyist, after all, offended when corporations in the industry lose money but insouciant at travellers' enslavement.

We close with this good news from Mary Landrieu (D-LA), one of the "senators at the hearing generally praising the TSA." She admits that the agency has "taken a severe toll on efficiency and privacy – some might even say dignity," with victims "undressing and being groped at security checkpoints…" And this troubles her because "the average American citizen interacts with Transportation Security Officers more than any other segment of the federal workforce, which means TSA employees and procedures have a profound impact on people's impression of the federal government as a whole."

I trust you're grinning as happily as I.

November 5, 2011