Dan Brown
Minnesota Marine on terror watch list _ Marine back from Iraq dumped onto no-fly list. His name is Dan Brown. So they are stopping everyone named Dan Brown? Baffling. This is securing nothing.
A Minnesota reservist who spent the past eight months in Iraq was told he couldn’t board a plane to Minneapolis because his name appeared on a watch list as a possible terrorist.
Marine Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown, who was in uniform and returning from the war with 26 other Marine military police reservists, was delayed briefly in Los Angeles until the issue was cleared up.
Shows the stupidity of the security people at those airport checklines. Smart people would either be upper management (and not deal with people) or not be working at the airport at all. Dumb. If someone put George Bush on the list, they’d stop the President to check.
The author of “The Da Vinci Code” is a suspected terrorist?
I’m not suprised at all, I actually ran into problems several times. The firs was coming back to the US from Korea in 2002, myself and my friend were detained and thouroughly searched, and we tried explaining we were MP’s and the TSA folks said they didn’t care.
Fast forward to 2003, on my way home after 6 months in Iraq, and I was stopped again, in uniform, and I was accused of having a knife in my carry-on luggage after it went through the x-ray machine. A very friendly (read the sarcasm here, nasty) woman totally tore through my bag, as I was trying to explain that I didn’t have a knife because I knew they weren’t allowed. When they didn’t find any knives, they grabbed my laptop and actually pried off the bottom of the case as me and my Lt stood there speechless.
What a cluster that was.
It is easier for a terrorist to get names on the Do-Not-Fly list than it is for non-terrorist to get their names off the list. If a terrorist group really wanted to have fun, they could swamp the database of names so that the police would be too busy checking everyone. Just having a list of names does not provide much security.
Fear is the opposite of Free. When the mind is fearful it projects the future (which does not exist) with fearful scenarios. When there is fear, freedom is gone. Freedom can only exist without fear that we are being watched by a suspicious government.
I am concerned about the slippery slope argument, but I do believe its time for a national ID card with biometric aspects. One has to have ID anyway for so many things, that we might as well standardize it across the country.
I would love to have just one card to carry around, and I would even opt-in if it would double as replacements for all my credit cards, and other “identification” I have to carry.
Yes, I worry about abuse, but I think the abuse is not with the identification aspects of the card, but with the “database” aspect of a national identification number. We need to harden the legislation to minimize abuse.
But the more I think about it, the more I believe that a national ID card would benefit the vast majority of americans.
We’re not even contemplating fear vs. free here. The question is one of hiring really stupid help. We witness this kind of crap in every aspect of American life.
The quality of education — as poor as it has been — continues to diminish. HR dweebs hire warm bodies to fill quotas. Few or no standards are set for quality of job performance. Just dont make waves enough to attract the attention of the style police.
6. Lou, the government cannot play with us if they do not know who we are. The politicians who play their wargames cannot call on soldiers if they do not have a national register of available 18 year-old men. This art piece by Yoko Ono says it all:
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/52150/_Yoko_Ono_Play_it_by_Trus%20t.html
I remember the biggest fight in Washington, when they federalized all the security screeners, was whether or not they could unionize. Haha, what a joke.
as a liberal it pains me to side with conservatives on this, but dude, everybody should have expected this tragic comedy of errors when they pushed for making homeland security a cabinet-level department.
simply by putting the word DEPARTMENT in the title, DHS was automatically doomed it to failure by its own hands
Ken, you’ve forgotten the first rule of government:
Any problem can be fixed by adding another layer of bureaucracy.
Via David #8: Lou, the government cannot play with us if they do not know who we are.
You want to live like the Unabomber, fine with me. But no bank in the world will give you a mortage without “knowing” who you are. No college will let you in without knowing who you are. And nobody will employ you without knowing who you are.
We don’t live in tribes anymore where reputation is known absolutely, and commerce and relationships can be based upon this personal knowledge. These identifiers and databases are CRUCIAL to living in this modern world.
I have no problem with anyone deciding not to be in a database, but I think it would be less hypocritical if one didn’t benefit from using the fact that these databases exist. Personally, I like the idea of a gov’t database making sure people don’t vote twice (and are citizens), I like the idea that the DMV keeps track of who has car insurance and who doesn’t, etc. etc.
The key to me is ensuring that these database searches are accurate (as best as possible) and that there are corrective mechanisms. And of course, as restricted access as possible to those who access it when needed. For example, cops should be able to access your criminal record, but not your tax returns (without supoena).
As to the armed forces reference, last I looked, we have a volunteer army… nobody in 30 years has been involuntarily conscripted. Whether you agree with this war/administration, waging war can be a necessary governmental function (see World War II), and my require conscription. If you deny this, slavery might still exist, and we might all be wearing swatstikas … (and some of use, myself included, would be dead).
8. david – If you think that not voluntarily registering for an ID will keep you off of some government list, you are truely and deeply uninformed. Any department that has a desire to know about you already has the information.
I am reminded of the idiocy of the Selective Service registration process. When I was 17, I received a postcard from the military with a reminder that I needed to register. DUH! If you have my name, SSN, address and birth date to send me a reminder, do the friggin’ registration yourself! I don’t need one more way to prostrate myself to the government.
Never mind that I was on a full-ride ROTC college scholarship within the next year anyway – that’s a different issue!
I’d like to see if he has a problem getting back to Iraq.
12. Lou, anything ever invented can be used for good or evil purposes. A hammer can help build a home or it can smash in somebody’s skull. Depends on who has their hand on the hammer. But closely at the person weilding that power. What if that person had utlimate power? That is power to do with NO opposition power to negate. You better hope that person– God, if you will– is benelovent or malevolent. You have to start looking at that person’s beliefs. Hitler wanted to get rid of Jews before he had power. After he staged the fire that burned down HIS OWN government symbol of democracy (the Reichstag) he was granted that power by his own people. With that power he built concentration camps. He made his dream a reality. What if the Religious Right took hold of power in the United States? No, I mean ULTIMATE power… who would they be sending to new concentration camps? They have already vocalized those just like Hitler did before he became leader of his country’s democracy. The Religious Right with their Chancellor (who will that be? hmm…) will start sending “special” people on cruise ships to a promised land. They will be homosexuals (against God), the elderly (too taxing on the budgetary system), dissenters, “terrorists”, Arabs and Mexicans (and other illegal immigrants).
Forgive me, but I believe everyone is sidetracked on this. It sure is easy to blame the screeners because the dude was on a watch list. Just like it easy to blame the cop when you get a parking ticket or the IRS agent for disqualifying a deduction. These people are on the bottom of the pole. They didn’t make the rules. The real blame in all these cases is with the higher ups. The ones who decide the parking zones, make the Income Tax rules, and decide who makes the No Fly List.
Don’t blame the guy who’s job is enforcing the rules. Blame the guy who made the rules. Oh oh, in that case it would be George Bush. Darn, no wonder he is below 40% in the poles.
I know someone who had their 3 year old held from boarding because his name was on the list. For those that don’t know, the list isn’t just a bunch of names. It has the name and a detailed description of the person in question. The name is supposed to throw the flag, and the person at the airport is supposed to compare the person with the description descretely so they don’t know the flag was thrown. If it matches stall and call security, if it doesn’t let them through. But it seems that 6ft iraqi and toddler looks the same to them.
not bad Mr. Fusion….lmao…16 posts before it was Bush’s fault.
Sadly, when they set up the new federal security check system, they basically hired the same idiots who were working the jobs before and on 9/11. The only difference was the company that had the contracts at most airports was no longer in charge. Many conservatives (the new brand and the old brand) fought hard against this…….they felt they should be new recruits by the new agency, no civil service,(so the incompatent could be fired), a union was ok….but not strangling. A lot(most) Democrats refused to think of non-civil service and wanted the old employees rehired(and some Republicans also). So rather than not get his new agency, Bush *compromised* and we have what we have.
#16…Mr. Fusion….In this case you may be right, but commen sense seems to be lacking in these people. Ted Kennedy has been full searched 3 times at airports……he must have been carrying a lethal cocktail shaker.
My son is on the watch list because he has the same name as a member of the IRA – despite the fact that the guy is currently in jail. We have to get to the airport a half hour earlier than normal to deal with this on a regular basis.