By DAVE LINDORFF

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07192008.html

I was injured thanks to the government’s ridiculous airport security program last week on a US Air flight from Chicago to Philadelphia. I also saw how pointless the whole thing is, if the supposed goal is really to prevent airline hijackings.

First, my injury. Because of a silly fear that I might blow up a plane with explosives tucked into my running shoes, I, along with everyone else in the security checkpoint line at O’Hare, including two-month-old babies wearing little booties, had to doff my footwear. Clad in just socks, I tried to maneuver my way around a metal counter that held those plastic trays carrying my laptop, my shoes, my belt and change and keys, and my carry-on bag, and in the process my unprotected big toe hit a sharp piece of metal protruding from the table.

The metal sliced right under my toenail, making a painful and bloody cut into the soft tissue under the nail. Cursing and bleeding, I made my way through the metal detector, and collected my goods.

Now, inside my bag, unbeknownst to the Transportation Security Administration inspectors, was a bottle of mouthwash. It was larger than the approved 2-oz size, and it was not in an approved sealed plastic bag. But TSA inspectors looking into their video screens at the X-Ray machine didn’t see it, because I made sure that it was vertical as it passed through. All they saw was a little circle of plastic. Likewise, on an earlier flight, I had made my way aboard with a Swiss Army knife. By standing it in my carry-on bag so that it would be vertical for the X-Ray, I was able to slip it through and onto the plane.

[...]

Much more at link. Will no one rid us of these damn federal thugs? Looking at baby booties? My God!

pink booties for the girls.

blue booties for the boys.

That's how to tell gender.

`

James E. Fish. A memory.

A read of the back letters?

IN `Nam, the 1st Air Cav was pinned down for two-and-a-half days. Mr Rigor Mortis was also there. Bodies bloat and smell. The 11th Armored Cav was a APC Army Unit who saved us from some war misery. A memory.

Us grunts were dang happy?

I'm not a good history pupil.

I saw war's bloody carnage.

I cuss the arm's merchants.

Profit? FOOLS. O, thee soul!

I gotta go. No flounder fish.

O, have a halibut? O Tuna.

In the scheme of things a small but important point: The problem with Hagel is not that he's pro-life. Most everyone is pro-life, a notable exception being the Bush administration. The problem is that Hagel is anti-choice.

The issue is not one of pro-life and anti-life; the issue is one of choice, a woman's right to have control over her own body. I can't imagine anyone actually being for abortion per se; what they're for is a woman's right to choose whether or not to remain pregnant and give birth.

The anti-choice crowd has dubbed themselves "pro-life," and the idiot media have adopted that name, but it's not an accurate one. A large contingent of "pro-lifers" is notable, in fact, for fanatically promoting life before birth and either neglecting it after birth or actively seeking to end it via the death penalty and war. That is not pro-life; it is anti-life. And when it comes to reproductive rights, it's anti-choice.

OK. Carry on with your tireless defense of our rights. The good you do cannot be overestimated.

It is apparent that republicans and democrats have the same conflicts regarding civil liberties and government intrusion. There is an arrogance that comes with power that has afflicted both parties. We swing between the government deciding what we should do with our property to government deciding what we should do with our sex lives.

This is all sold to us as being necessary for our own good or for the good of others. Every decision that government makes for our own good becomes a costly government program the with a life of it's own. The government must hire regulators and consulting groups to be assured that laws are written and enforced. Litigation follows quickly and citizens are often paying for both sides of the legal action. There is very little thought about freedom.

This is why I will vote with a protest vote (maybe). It will be painful but I feel that politicians have become abusive.

Groups like Cato give me hope.

I meant to say that the fact that the government's policies amount to war against me and mine no longer surprises me.

This needs to be brought up more often.

The Bush administration says it needs to be able to spy on all Americans without restraint in order to keep an eye on its enemies.

So who are its enemies? Look at who they want to spy on: all Americans. The people of the United States are its enemies.

In a very real sense, the Bush administration and his enablers in congress are waging an undeclared war against the American people. This war has been conducted on behalf of Bush's base, the 'haves and have-mores', since the New Deal, but they are making it less of a secret with every passing year. You can expect that eventually they will make no secret of it at all.

Very well, I shall.

Bring it up more often, I mean.

I reckon that, in the minds of those with power, this struggle is a struggle for their own survival.

I certainly view it as a struggle for survival--if not my own literal survival, then perhaps the literal survival of my children and grandchildren (yet unborn).

Everything is at stake.