Name on government watch list threatens pilot’s career – CNN.com — This out-of-control list has stopped being funny for too many people. When the lawsuits begin to accumulate maybe something will be done about it.
For Erich Scherfen, being on a government terror watch list isn’t just a matter of inconvenience. It could end his career. Erich Scherfen served 13 years in the military, including flying National Guard helicopters.
Scherfen served in the U.S. military for 13 years, as an Army infantryman in the first Gulf War and then as a helicopter pilot in the National Guard. After receiving an honorable discharge, he was hired as a pilot by Colgan Air Inc., a regional airline operating in the Northeast and Texas.
In April, Colgan informed Scherfen that he was on a government watch list and would be suspended from his job. He was told he faced termination on September 1 unless he was able to clear his name.
But Scherfen, of Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania, has been unable to do so and said he fears that it could mean he has no future as a pilot.
“My entire career depends on me getting off this list,” he said. “I probably won’t be able to get a job anywhere else in the world having this mark that I’m on this list.”
Witold Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Scherfen and his wife in a lawsuit, calls the government actions “unfair” and “unjust.”
Found by James York.
How do we get James Hill on this list? I mean… you don’t want to hear his whining on a three hour flight…
#1 – Fuck no, I’d take that plastic knife and slit my wrist.
It is scary how many people are being flagged who are not the people they are looking for…
#3 – Who said they have to be looking for you to be on the list?
I wonder if we’ll ever learn how many people are on the list because they said or did something that just ticked off some weenie who had power to put them on the list.
And this man is licensed to carry a gun in the cockpit. Nice job, TSA and Homeland Security.
I wonder if the new president will kill this list.
I don’t know but the solution is heading toward being as bad as the problem.
The problem is I doubt if anybody is in control or even knows why he is on the list. You don’t get your day in court, etc.
#7
Unfortunately, the next president will have to resign when his name gets placed on the list. Can’t have a terrorist for president can we?
I get so weary of the party-line Republicans who say,
“Yawn. Stop with the whining about Bush’s trashing of our Constitutional protections, already. If you’re not guilty you have nothing to worry about.”
When the lawsuits begin to accumulate maybe something will be done about it.
Not as long as the Republicans have the courts packed. With a subservient Judiciary, the Government will always win.
#11 bhelverson
Clinton (two terms) Trial/Appeals/Supreme court total appointments – 373
GW Bush (two terms) Trial/Appeals/Supreme court total appointments – 296
Don’t worry though your ‘government will always win’ theory is correct. You just need a math lesson. Consider yourself schooled. Can’t help ya with the liberal blindness, sorry.
McCain
Obama
No difference
Vote no!
#11, #12. actually, they don’t NEED to pack the judiciary – they can just dismiss the lawsuits through legislation, like with the telcos.
Hey, even TED KENNEDY WAS ON THE LIST !!! I guess you need the pull of a Senator to get off !!! Just goes to show how INCOMPETENT THE REPUKES ARE !!! Can’t even beat the “Rag-Heads”, who have NO ARMY, NO NAVY, AND NO AIRFORCE, after SIX YEARS OF “WORLD WAR” !!! These STINKING A-HOLES AREN’T QUALIFIED TO BE DOG-CATCHERS, let alone “LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD” !!!
Wow JimD. You convinced me. All it took was the capital letters.
JimD, your left pinky is apparently dead and unknown to you hitting the caps lock key. Please bury it along with that comment.
Did this guy serve in the military or anything? Maybe fly helicopters? If so, for how long? Was it like 13 years or something?
>> The Pirate
>> McCain
>> Obama
>> No difference
>> Vote no!
Seriously dude, ff you can’t tell the difference between Obama and McCain you really should not be voting.
A little perspective. Back in the 1940s & 50s, they had something called “The Blacklist”. It mainly applied to people in the entertainment field. Movies, Tv and radio. It served to destroy a lot of people’s lives and careers. Because to be on this list, meant you couldn’t get a job. And the only crime that got you on this list, was to have a different political opinion than the majority of Americans. It was more than likely a political tool, created by the movie studios to stop the formation of labor unions. But it developed a life after that, when certain political heavyweights took to using it for their own gain. Eventually, this list was abolished.
A few decades passed. And now we have yet another stupid list. That destroys people’s lives and careers. And it too exists above the laws of our land. Because there is no court that oversea redress or removal from this list. It is therefore unconstitutional. And yet the Presidency and Congress both support it’s existence. With yet another boogieman rationale for having it.
Instead of these so-called educated men of letters, rising above the the insanity of mob rule. They have embraced it. So why do they hold office, if they have no better moral standards or ethics than the lowest common denominator of our society? Fear and distrust.
It does appear to take much for these men to throw away our rights, for whatever fashionable justification comes their way.
#19
It [b]doesn’t[/b] appear to take much for these men to throw away our rights, for whatever fashionable justification comes their way.
Fixed.
At first I just thought Bush was an idiot and that he just didn’t care. The totally inadequate response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita and his actual praise for that bonehead “Heck-of-a-job” Brown at first just seemed stupid. But then time and again executive branch activities just kept getting even more and more stupid. It occurred to me that someone, perhaps whole committees of experts, must be deep in thought somewhere, coming up with the most stupid things it was possible to do without fomenting armed rebellion, then directing people to do those things.
I have come to the conclusion that it’s all a big act; that it’s part of a conscious strategy to weaken the federal government by conditioning Americans to think of it as terminally stupid and worse than useless.
It’s all part of Grover “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub” Norquist’s strategy.
I’d just like to mention that the gentleman in question served in the military for 13 years and flew National Guard helicopters. The story barely alludes to that.
Okay I guess most of you do get it. When you set up an organization that is basicly free to do as it pleases with out proper oversight it becomes the problem.
Why our fearless leaders don’t get this is beyond me or maybe they are the problem.
That stupid list just continues to confound and confuse me. If the guy is so dangerous that he can not be let onto an airplane, why isn’t he arressted at the checkpoint when he attempts to board the plane? How can there possibly be millions of terrorists? Who is in charge of ensuring the accuracy of the list? Don’t they have Air Marshalls on most flights to make sure nothing happens on board the planes now?
I am so tired of hearing about the Boogie Man. I wish they would just beef up the CIA and quietly go put these mopes out of our misery.
Don
Sue the airline that won’t let you on the plane for violation of your civil rights. If enough people do this and win, watch the no-fly list go in the crapper where it belongs.
I’d like to be on the list. C’mon, put me on the list you wacky security people. I’ll bet the ones who keep and maintain the list had really poor childhoods and are making up for it now in their sick little childlike way that affects so many innocent people. I’d bet that Jon C D is on the list.
I’d like to be on the list. C’mon, put me on the list you wacky security people. I’ll bet the ones who keep and maintain the list had really poor childhoods and are making up for it now in their sick little childlike way that affects so many innocent people. I’d bet that John C D is on the list.
Maybe there should be a website where people can be asked to be put on the list. Let’s be proactive and help out where we can to make the world safer….
Ok, Georgie Bushie, you and your misadministration first.
Thanks for the correction “The Pirate”. That one slipped thru my checks.
I’ll just bet that there isN’T any “No Railway Travel” list. And yet there seem to be more accidents on trains, than planes. I’ve suspected that some airline stockholders like to have the railroads sabotaged, now and then. Why are we the only major industrialize nation, with the poorest form of rail travel? Would it kill the US to have a few high speed rail lines going east and west? Or farther south than from Boston to DC? Thanks Gov. Jeb!
http://www.trainweb.org/hsr/