Freedomshift

What began with the passage of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse . Since then, we have been terrorized, traumatized, and acclimated to life in the American Surveillance State. The bogeyman’s names and faces change over time, but the end result remains the same: our unquestioning acquiescence to anything the government wants to do in exchange for the phantom promise of safety and security has transitioned us to life in a society where government agents routinely practice violence on the citizens while, in conjunction with the Corporate State, spying on the most intimate details of our personal lives. Ironically, the 14 th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks occurs just days before the 228 th anniversary of the ratification of our Constitution . Yet while there is much to mourn about the loss of our freedoms in the years since 9/11, there is virtually nothing to cele...

Since New Year’s is traditionally a time for resolutions, and since the new Congress convenes this week, I thought I would suggest some New Year’s resolutions for Congress: 1)  Bring the troops home — Congress should take the first, and most important, step toward ending our hyper-interventionist foreign policy by bringing our troops home and closing all overseas military facilities. The American people can no longer afford to bear the cost of empire. 2)  Pass the Audit the Fed bill — The American people deserve to know the entire truth about how the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy benefits big-spending politicians and financial elites while harming average Americans. 3)  Repeal the PATRIOT Act and rein in the National Security Agency — It is approaching two years since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA’s unconstitutional spying. Yet Congress still refuses to put a leash on the surveillance state. Congress should take the first step to...

In her recent hit song “Slow Down,” pop princess Selena Gomez attempts to make TSA molestation sound sexy and trendy. Gomez sings; Now that I have captured your attention. I wanna steal you for a rhythm intervention. Mr. TSA, I’m ready for inspection. Show me how you make a first impression. What kind of sick deviant would think that being groped by a blue-gloved TSA goon could in any way be sexy? What’s next? Is Selena going to regale us with tales of how alluring it is to be molested by a rapist?  More: here

The LAX TSA shooting story is beginning to fall apart as the government and its propaganda dispensing media jostle to exploit the incident as a pretext to further militarize TSA procedures and also demonize official enemies, including Alex Jones and Glenn Beck. In similar fashion to the government generated narrative on the Boston Bombing and “active shooter” incidents over the last two years, the cover story for the murder of a TSA agent in Los Angeles has a number of glaring incongruities and oddities. It was initially reported that the shooter was a fellow TSA agent. “Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that the gunman was a Transportation Security Administration employee at LAX,” the media reported shortly before noon on Friday. “The gunman was killed by authorities after he opened fire Friday morning. He allegedly shot and killed a fellow TSA employee.” Less than an hour later, it was reported that a “federal law enforcement official said that the...

If you're an air traveler who feels the urge to pull your hair out every time you enter a security line at the airport, you may have considered taking Amtrak or even the bus instead. If so, you may want to scratch that idea. The Transportation Security Administration, you see, is showing up in train terminals. Perhaps you'd rather drive? TSA has not shown itself to be exceptionally useful for thwarting terrorism. It has never caught a terrorist in its airport checkpoints or anywhere else, as far as anyone knows. But the bureaucratic urge to expand cannot be easily suppressed. Lacking evidence of its value in airline terminals, TSA is branching out to other places where it can be equally ineffective. Read more: here

A Purple Heart Marine was groped and swabbed by TSA agents recently at a California airport while on his way to a ceremony to honor him as veteran of the year in his district. Cpl. Nathan Kemnitz sustained severe injuries from a IED detonation while on duty in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. While traveling to Sacramento, to receive the award, TSA agents at Sacramento International Airport pulled Kemnitz aside for additional screening. When the screeners ordered him to lift up his arms for a full body scan, the decorated veteran told the TSA goons that because of his injuries, he cannot lift up his right arm. ‘My right arm doesn’t work. It’s a lot of hassle for me to do that,’ Kemnitz told The Military Times. The screeners then proceeded to probe underneath Kemnitz’s medals, while feeling under the Marine’s waistband and swabbing his shoes for explosives. Disgusted with his treatment, Kemnitz’s escort Patricia Martin snapped photos of the search and made them public. Read more: here

I knew that, by and large, TSA agents were a dour, rigid lot with no respect for freedom and human dignity, but until I heard about this latest incident, I didn’t know that they were soulless too. In July of last year, Indiana resident John Gross was flying out of Orlando International Airport on a return trip to Indiana with his grandfather’s remains in an air tight glass container clearly marked “Human Remains”. This shouldn’t have been a problem, folks. TSA has rules about this sort of thing and those rules state that crematory remains are allowed in a carry-on but must be able to pass through x-ray machines. TSA policy also states: “Out of respect to the deceased and their family and friends, under no circumstances will an officer open the container even if the passenger requests this be done.” So that was the end of it, right? Wrong. Read more: here