A Federal Appeals Court says the full body image scanners showing up in airports are Constitutional.

TSA screeners will now have the right to join a union. Or at least a union that can’t actually negotiate much of anything.

Complaints from Rush Limbaugh tthat the ACLU is ignoring the intrusions into America’s civil liberties by the TSA are completely unfounded.

Statue of Liberty goes through airport scanner.

Donna D’Errico isn’t too happy with the TSA: A former “Baywatch” beauty is feeling overexposed after going through what she says was a humiliating body scan by Transportation Security Administration agents at Los Angeles International Airport. Donna D’Errico, who was the Playboy Playmate in September 1995, says she got a few leers along with the [...]

After days of hype, National Opt-Out Day fizzled. It’s a classic collective action problem.

Gate Rape: Sexual groping of one’s genitalia at airport security by agents after a traveler refuses full body x-ray search.

Looking to avoid airport body scanners? You might not be able to do it on any form of public transit if Janet Napolitano gets her way.

Top administration and congressional officials can skip the indignities of airport screening, even when they fly commercial.

The People In Charge telling us that something is Necessary For Our Own Good makes a large number of people accepting of the inconvenience, no matter how asinine or unsupported by evidence.

A retired special education teacher was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers.

“It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh. Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!”

Ron Paul has introduced a law (the “American Traveler Dignity Act”) that would punish TSA agents for groping and x-raying Americans.

Cathy Bossi, a U.S. Airways stewardess and cancer survivor, was forced to show her breast implants to TSA agents when her prosthetic implants triggered alarm during a pat-down.

The Denver Post’s Craig Walker has captured this image of a TSA agent performing an “enhanced pat down.”

It appears that full body scanners, operated by leering yahoos under the cover of government authority, may finally be rousing the sheep who have meekly submitted to the absurd delays and indignities that have been piled on since 9/11 and sundry botched attempts.

Via the BBC:  Rochdale man ‘took 200 fireworks on US plane’ But, God help you if you have a big bottle of shampoo in your bag…

American cops increasingly think they can harass innocents in the name of keeping us safe.

The goalies for the U.S. Olympic hockey team have been told to remove slogans on their facemasks. U.S. netminder Jonathan Quick will be ordered to remove the slogan ‘Support Our Troops’ from his helmet for contravening Olympic rules on political propaganda, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) said on Monday. Netminder Ryan Miller, Quick’s team [...]

The When You’re Hot, You’re Hot Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (AFP/Narinder Nanu)

Yet another incident aboard Flight 243 from Amsterdam to Detroit. Sources tell Fox 2 that a flight from Amsterdam into Detroit Metropolitan Airport was held on the tarmac after landing because of unruly behavior by some of the passengers.The source says four men from Saudi Arabia were saying something in Arabic that alarmed four on-board [...]

One refrain we’ve heard lots of since the 9/11 attacks, with an uptick every time there’s a new incidents, is that the United States should get serious about airport security and be more like the Israelis. FP’s Annie Lowrey recounts a personal trip through the security at Ben Gurion. Once inside, a team of pleasant [...]

Longtime national security blogger Michael Yon posted this on his Facebook page about an hour ago: Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but [...]

The Obama administration has announced that citizens traveling to the United States from 14 countries will undergo more intensive airport security screening.   Eric Lipton for NYT: Citizens of 14 nations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, who are flying to the United States will be subjected indefinitely to the intense screening at airports worldwide that [...]

There’s quite a bit of chatter this morning about the fact that two travel bloggers of whom I’d never previously heard have  had their computers confiscated pursuant to subpoenas after publishing unclassified but sensitive TSA screening procedures.  AP’s Eileen Sullivan has the rundown: As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring [...]

Two days after a Nigerian al Qaeda operative tried to blow up Northwest Flight 253 as it landed in Detroit, we had an eerie repeat.  Another Nigerian on the exact same flight locked himself in the lavatory and refused to come out.  Thankfully, it was a case of the trots, not a terrorist plot. The [...]

Not surprisingly, TSA is going to make flying even more aggravating in a stupid overreaction to the Detroit terror plot. In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed a new layer of restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability [...]

The botched attempt by one Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly somehow connected to al Qaeda, attempting to blow up a passenger jet as it made its descent into Detroit quite naturally has the blogosphere buzzing. Richard Fernandez and Josh Marshall have good roundups of the news as  it was developing throughout the evening, along with the [...]

Are you a terrorist who would like to blow up an airliner but confused about how best to elude screening?  Well, luckily for you, the Transportation Security Administration has published a How To manual to answer all your questions. In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening [...]

Chris Battle is surprised how often he hears the question “How many terrorists has the Department of Homeland Security caught?” He argues that DHS’ job is prevention, not apprehension; that’s what the FBI does. The implication of the question — usually the questioner already knows the answer — is that the failure to catch members [...]

The Clear Card program whereby pre-screened passengers are expedited through airport security is no more.  I received this email overnight: Ensuring that this wasn’t some sort of odd email fraud scheme, I did a quick news search and, sure enough, it’s true: Clear began in 2005 with the potential to make airport security quicker and [...]

Seth Godin has a number of “random travel thoughts,” several of which relate to airport security: When I go through security, why do I need to remove a cardigan sweater but the woman standing next to me can keep her cashmere blouse on? Are certain kinds of wool inherently risky? What would happen if Imagineers [...]

The company that’s contracted to provide Clear Card, the TSA’s handy-dandy system for screening out terrorists (or, at least, providing people willing to shell out 150 bucks slightly shorter lines) has managed to lose its customers’ sensitive data and compromise the entire system. The company that runs the Clear system, which speeds customers through airport [...]

Alex Tabarrok muses, There’s nothing like visiting a foreign country like China to get an appreciation of what it’s like to live under an authoritarian regime. I was reminded of this when I arrived home and found that the TSA had rifled through my baggage. That’s the entirety of his post. I presume he means [...]

Some Obama supporters are apparently taking advantage of Google’s terms of service to silence anti-Obama blogs, Simon Owens of Bloggasm reports. The company automatically shuts down sites upon receipt of TOS violation claims until they’re able to do a human audit, a rather slow process with given little priority on the free BlogSpot service. After [...]

The Senate easily invoked cloture yesterday, ending a threatened filibuster of a major overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The revised bill is expected to pass today. This may be the most important bill we pass this year,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), an architect of the [...]

Just when it appeared that the Associated Press had come to its senses, they’ve now announced an exorbitant up-front fee for even short quotations of their works, Tim Conneally reports for BetaNews. They’ve created a handy-dandy online form to calculate what we owe them. Hmm. Well, surely, an organization as large as the AP, which [...]

Those who wish to fly without ID cards have but a few more days. Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist [...]

Domenico Montanaro notes that, while everyone is focusing on the Democratic National Committee’s likely “compromise” solution of awarding Florida and Michigan half their original allocation of delegates, it’s actually much more complicated than that. [A] 50% cut and a halving of the delegates is not the same thing. For instance, if Florida delegates are seated [...]

Mathew Shugart examines often-heard claims that the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is “close.” He looks at the pledge delegate counts and sees Obama leading Clinton 52.4 percent to 47.6 percent and concludes, “I will grant that this lead is not a ‘landslide’ by any means. But, quite independent of any realism (or [...]

Responding to reports that American Airlines will enact numerous cost-cutting measures that will make flying even less pleasant, including charging $15 for the privilege of checking a suitcase, Kevin Drum wonders where it will all end. Airlines have spent years trying to bully passengers into reducing their carry-on luggage — with TSA pitching in to [...]

The Star Pupils Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

Steven Royster, Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, had this to say of the tragic cyclone which has killed tens of thousands of people in Burma: When a crisis like this strikes around the world, the Department of State’s first thought is for the safety of American citizens. As the [...]

Abu Muqawama‘s Charlie unleashes a diatribe against Lee Greenwood and, especially, the “miserable, treacly song” for which he is most known. Noting that the old warriors at a weekend Special Forces gathering “stood for it like it was the National Anthem,” she asks, “Is this some sort of Army thing? Does graduating from the Q [...]

Vladimir Putin has accepted the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party chairman of the United Russia Party, further consolidating his power. Putin has already said he will serve as prime minister once his protege, Dmitry Medvedev, is sworn in as president on May 7. The premier is subservient to the president in Russia [...]

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to that plastic bottle you’ve thrown out of your car window, be aware that there’s a chance it may have wound up as part of a new continent in the Pacific Ocean–a continent of garbage. If by chance you are missing a basketball, you may be glad to know [...]

Today’s WaPo has a short feature on Clear Cards, whereby travelers get to bypass TSA security lines at select airports for a small fee. Fast-pass security lanes officially opened at Reagan National and Dulles airports Wednesday for travelers with special clearance. Heres how it works: Fliers undergo a Transportation Security Administration background check and have [...]

Matthew Shugart tallies up the popular vote totals from both parties’ primaries and notes that “Obama is closing in on a majority of the popular vote” while “McCain has yet to crack 40% of Republicans.” While I don’t think there’s any doubt that Obama is more popular among Democrats than McCain is among Republicans, there’s [...]

Cato’s Tim Lee wonders, “Why are today’s Democrats less concerned with civil liberties than Republicans were a decade ago?” Jim Henley retorts, “Why are today’s Republicans less concerned with civil liberties than Republicans were a decade ago?” His guess is that its because 1996 Republicans were trying to protect “their voters, the right-most fringe of [...]

Mark Steyn reports that the only McCain supporters he spotted at CPAC were illegal aliens disguised as college kids: I arrived at CPAC just before Mitt began to speak and was struck by the number of young student-ish types milling about in McCain T-shirts. While my minder went off to check her coat, I was [...]