The Transportation Security Administration…has on its Web site a “mythbuster” that tries to reassure the public.
Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy.
Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list.
“Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.”
Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,” she recalled.
The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.
After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home.
“Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked…”
On the way home last Friday, Mikey’s boarding pass showed four giant red S’s at the airport in Nassau. “Oh, random screening,” Mrs. Hicks said…Mrs. Hicks said she wanted to take pictures of her son being frisked but was told it was against the rules.
The worst kind of bureaucrat is the robot whose artificial brain can’t see beyond obeying “The Rules”. There is nothing more important in their diminutive lives than The List.
He’s only 8.. Change his name… Just like every terrorist should.
He’s not a terrorist now, but after the TSA ridind his ass since he was in diapers, his patents has better suggest he take the train.
Or else, he’s going to take the entire airport with an Uzi and some hand grenades by the time he hits puberty.
Screw flying… It ain’t worth it.
He’s not a terrorist now, but after the TSA riding his ass since he was in diapers, his patents has better suggest he take the train.
Or else, he’s going to take the entire airport with an Uzi and some hand grenades by the time he hits puberty.
Screw flying… It ain’t worth it.
Just to be safe, better taser the lil bastard.
Because requiring the the airlines to check the TSA do not fly list before they sell the tickets, and clearing this shit up before the people ever arrive at the airport would make too much darn sense.
It could be far worse, he might be named François Mario Labbé.
So what got “the real” Mickey Hicks on the list?
#3 LOL.
Get the iPhone app http://bit.ly/75SB4F take photos
HOLD IT..
THEY REFUSED a mother of the CHILD from recording the INCIDENT???
NO WAY IN HELL.
IM sorry, but WHAt is on the WATCH LIST??
Just a NAME??
THATS STUPID.
There is more info on a Employment application.
AGE, SEX, RELIGION, NATIONALITY, REASON for being ON THE LIST..
WHO THE @#$@%## MADE THIS LIST??
I never understood these conservatives who simultaneously claimed that the government can NEVER do ANYTHING right while also giving the goevernent unprecedented freedom to spy on us with no oversight.
It’s a total contradiction that not one of my conservative friends would acknowledge.
If it makes any sense what so ever the type of people “who go into” this “line of work” be it policeman, border agent or your manager or supervisor are not selected for original thinking
If anything the system precludes that
Anyone who does not follow the mindless orders of their superior – will not even get an interview for the job let alone be in the field
If it makes any sense what so ever this is why the professional police agencies will never make real headway against computer hackers
By the time the “professional” makes it out of the selection and training process , had put in their time in the field , and then decide to specialize in computer crime – they will have all their training and be adept with their Commodore 64 vs some kid or kids somewhere in the world with 64 core computers
#10
Well this is an example of the government not getting it right. And YOU on the LEFT would have the TSA run our hospitals and decidie with their rubber stamp on the best course of medical care for families, who gets a hip and who doesn’t.
As far as the NSA delusion, why is it that the Democrats control all levels of government and still continue this program? Of course because of Dick Cheney.
Smittybe,
We are not letting the government run our hospitals in any proposal on the table now. That’s just a lie you on the RIGHT keep repeating.
Medicare is show that they can run health INSURANCE better than private industry.
http://tinyurl.com/y9kfakb
Seriously, dude, look at the poll above before you keep repeating right wing lies. Medicare — even Medicare — is better than private health insurance.
But the conservative don’t even want this as an OPTION for Americans.
They want you FORCED into the inferior insurance system.
Well, the conservatives do give you another option — to die needlessly, untreated and broke.
What is not mentioned is that there is no known method to get OFF the list. No one has the courage to remove a name, no matter how obvious the mistake was.
I would be very curious for HSA to issue a statement of how many mistake these have removed from their list in 2009. I think it is zero.
I go elementary school with this kid. Trust me, he’s trouble.
“The worst kind of bureaucrat is the robot whose artificial brain can’t see beyond obeying “The Rules”. There is nothing more important in their diminutive lives than The List.” Take the best intentioned people, train them, put them to work. Let them smash their head into the bureaucratic wall for a while. Once they get used to the squishy sound. They either learn to keep their heads down, because if it pops up management slaps it down, or they quit. Don’t question authority, take the check and go home. I know all about it because I am doing it now. I took a job that I loved, doing work that I loved, notice all past tense. The bureaucratic BS sucked all the joy out of it. Once I get a few more years vested the retirement program I am out of here. I have every intention of using all that I have learned against that very self same bureaucracy. Why would I do such a thing, because as a consultant there is more money to be made on the outside, plus I hold a grudge like a mother fucker.
“The worst kind of bureaucrat is the robot whose artificial brain can’t see beyond obeying “The Rules”. There is nothing more important in their diminutive lives than The List.” Take the best intentioned people, train them, put them to work. Let them smash their head into the bureaucratic wall for a while. Once they get used to the squishy sound. They either learn to keep their heads down, because if it pops up management slaps it down, or they quit. Don’t question authority, take the check and go home. I know all about it because I am doing it now. I took a job that I loved, doing work that I loved, notice all past tense. The bureaucratic BS sucked all the joy out of it. Its more an issue of bean counting and killing trees for documents that no one reads instead of doing the damn job. Once I get a few more years vested the retirement program I am out of here. I have every intention of using all that I have learned against that very self same bureaucracy. Why would I do such a thing, because as a consultant there is more money to be made on the outside, plus I hold a grudge like a mother fucker.
oops sorry about that, its that squishy head thing popping up.
Im a boy scout
My hat is on crooked
I’m blonde
Stop I was searched at 2 years old
I cried
more Republican brain washing
I’m on the watch list – but only in Houston!
Whenever I fly to/from Houston I’m selected for extra screening with SS SS on my boarding card (nice touch – but they didn’t get the lightning font right)
Last trip I even wore a yamulke and asked the nice gentlemen searching me if it was just anti-semitism but that apparently had too many syllables.
Airport security is broken and has been sense before 9/11. None of these “security” mesures help, they don’t make flying safer they just make it harder on the non terrorists.
Like Gorge Carlin said: its not about safety, its about the illusion of safety. And there are many who would sell this country out to its enemy’s for that illusion.
13,
AND YOU know this?? how??
FROM SOME other person TELLING you what is in the BILL?? or did you REAd the whole 1000+ pages BEFORE the amendments??
I DECLARE HIM A SHEEP..Baaaaa!!!
NOW if you read it, you will ALSO know that..
1. there are 3 bills out there, WHICH one are you talking about?
2. that this bill has been brought up since TEDDY ROOSEVELT..
3. THIS is not talking about MEDICAL..DONT drive the conversation to your FAVORITE BITCH.
4. IF you want to make a STATEMENT, goto Cagematch, and have all the fun you want, and we will join in and have a REAL nut cracker conversation.
SOp for out REPRESENTATIVES..WATCH the other hand while they piss you off with NOTHING.
#17,
you dont give ROBOTS enough credit..
THEY would have a PICTURE of the person
THEY would have an AGE for the person
THEY would have a RACE/NATIONALITY for the person..
HUMANS just use a NAME..which is ASININE.
You might as well goto ANY school and arrest the PERSON named ED or BILL, how about TOM..
After the first 50 are arrested WHICH one do you choose??
I have some wierd-arse country visa stamps in my passport and expect to get hassled for it, but it doesn’t happen much.
Once my whole plane from some Arab country )I forget, now, which one) sent to a special screening area at Heathrow. That was a nuisance.
The weirdest one was a US border guard tell me that I would need a letter from my employer explaining my travels if I wanted to get back into the US again! This seemed so wrong but he insisted it was the new rules.
I did get the letter but I’ve never been asked for one again. I think that guy was an idiot and it’s not comforting that he is protecting our borders.
Keystone Cops at it yet again………… and they want to be taken seriously?
Hah!
“The worst kind of bureaucrat is the robot whose artificial brain can’t see beyond obeying “The Rules”. There is nothing more important in their diminutive lives than The List.”
Exactly: that is the way bureaucracies work. You follow the rules or you get fired. Health care is going to work the same way. In fact it already does.
It is likely that in the future at least 50% of a teachers evaluation in my state is going to be based on the value added part of their students test scores. They will (we already are) teach to the test and a lot of things a lot of people want is going down the tubes but accountability on what is on the test negates all else because you have have a make the score or you are going out the door. You wanted it and you are getting it.
27,
”””””
anD YOU ARE AN idiot….ADNIT IT…YOU LISTEN TO THE leaders, OR THE other IDIOTS…
YOU ARE SCREWED more by your OWN MIND/idiocy
THEN by anyone else.
I share the same name (Michael Hicks) and can confirm that it is always an extra hassle at the airport. The biggest problem is that I cannot do advance boarding passes. I have to go to the airport and check in at the counter with a live attendant to get my boarding pass.
Look at those cold, calculating eyes. Gives me the HebeJeebies.