File it under "man bites dog"

We've read countless stories and seen videos of TSA agents groping young people trying to hop on planes. We've seen the Texas Legislature back down to threats from los federales.

The courts seem to be okay with this massive invasion of our bodies despite the fact, as Scott Greenfield points out, "scope and grope" hasn't turned up one terrorist.

But, oh, when the tables are turned, things are different. Very different.

Authorities say a Colorado woman who allegedly groped a female Transportation Security Administration agent at Phoenix's international airport is facing a felony count of sexual abuse. 

Phoenix police said Yukari Mihamae, 61, is accused of grabbing the left breast of the unidentified TSA agent Thursday afternoon at an airport checkpoint. 

TSA staff said Mihamae refused to go through passenger screening and became argumentative before she squeezed and twisted the agent's breast with both hands.
Police were called and said Mihamae admitted grabbing the TSA agent and continued to argue with officers before she was arrested.

Maricopa County jail officials said Mihamae was released from custody on Friday. They couldn't immediately provide additional information about her case.

So, while it's okay for an agent of the government to fondle your child, heaven help it if someone gropes the groper. Ms. Mihamae probably didn't do the smartest thing - but maybe, just maybe, her actions will make some people wake up and realize what we're allowing the state to subject us to. Maybe her actions will spur us to question the need for "scope and grope."

At some point I hope that we, as a nation, come to our senses and tell our government that we are sick and tired of being treated like criminals just because we have the audacity to board a plane. I hope that one day the draconian and intrusive security measures at courthouses and airports and tossed into the ash heap of history.

I fear, however, that meek sheep that we are when it comes to speaking up and doing something, that the future will bring not less, but even more intrusive measures all in the name of doing whatever it takes to protect us from whatever the threat of the month is.

Enough is enough? Apparently not yet.

By now nothing should shock us when it comes to TSA and the willingness of the American public to allow their rights and dignity to be thrown in the trash like a used paper towel.

In Florida over the weekend, TSA thugs security personnel requested that a 95 year-old woman, confined to a wheelchair, remove her adult diaper. The woman, suffering from leukemia and weighing just a tad over 100 pounds was taken to a glassed-in area and subjected to a pat down by TSA thugs security personnel. Feeling something "suspicious" on the elderly woman's leg, TSA thugs security personnel took her to a private room and notified the woman's daughter that she would have to remove her diaper because it was soiled. 

The TSA released a statement Sunday defending its agents' actions at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport.

"While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner," the federal agency said. "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

After taking off her mother's diaper, both the daughter and her mother were both asked to submit to pat downs -- which, of course, they did. But why?  

Jean Weber told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday that the security officers may have been procedurally correct, but she still does not believe they were justified, especially given her mother's frail condition.

"If this is your procedure -- which I do understand -- I also feel that your procedure needs to be changed," she said.

Weber said the two were traveling June 18 from northwest Florida to Michigan, so her mother could move in with relatives before eventually going to an assisted living facility.

Why was it so important to get on that plane that a grown woman would subject her mother to that level of humiliation? Why do people continue to play this game with the TSA? At what point will the American public take a stand and say that enough is enough?

It continues to amaze me that people just accept that this is the way that it is and don't question the reason behind the police state tactics at our nation's airports. It riles folks up to read about the child who was groped patted down by TSA thugs security personnel. It makes people mad when TSA thugs security personnel take away an object from a mentally retarded man. It makes our skin crawl when a 95 year-old woman is humiliated in the name of air travel.

But no one questions the reason for the complete lack of sense and respect our government shows for its citizens at airports.

Does it make you feel safer that you've kissed away your right to be left alone by the state? Does it make you feel safer that you've gladly handed over your dignity to a person wearing a TSA badge that isn't qualified to work for the police department?

We have become a nation of complainers. We like to sit on our couches or behind our desks and complain about the latest humiliation we were "forced" to endure because we didn't have the courage to take a stand and say enough is enough.

Asleep on the watch

So Texas state senator Dan Patrick (R-Houston) is a poseur after all.

Governor Goodhair has decided to take up the reins for everyone opposed to groping at the airport. So what if los federales are threatening to cancel flights in and out of Texas as a result. The fair-haired one has found an issue that's dear to the hearts of libertarians everywhere.

I applaud Gov. Perry for his stand against the groping fingers of the TSA but I also wonder why his sudden love of personal freedom and privacy doesn't extend to anyone outside an airport. At least we have a choice whether we wish to subject ourselves to the groping hands or X-ray eyes of airport security. We don't have a choice when confronted by a police officer on the side of the road.

Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, sent a letter to Perry on Sunday urging him to defend the "privacy, dignity and constitutional rights of our citizens."

Where's the hue and cry for an end to the legal fiction of informed consent? Where's the outrage over the violations of the Fourth Amendment in the procurement of search warrants for blood? How about the coercive effects of "No Refusal" Weekends?


It's quite ironic that the law and order set has their panties in a wad over airport security considering TSA's license to grope was the result of the right wing's assault on the Fourth Amendment following 9/11. No one on the right seemed to mind the erosion of privacy at the airport while Bush the Younger sat in Washington torturing the English language. Would this even be an issue had it begun under W's watch?


Few folks on the right have raised any concerns about the steady erosion of the Fourth Amendment over the last 50 years. Maybe it was because that Fourth Amendment was for those who ran afoul of the law. As long as it was affecting them it didn't matter how intrusive the long arm of the law became. But guess what? Shredding the Fourth Amendment for those accused of criminal conduct allowed the state to take away everyone's right to be left alone.

A little of this and a bit of that

Here are a few odds and ends you might find interesting:

Bradley out as chairman of forensic commission

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley's stint as chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission has come to an end as the senate concluded its session without voting on whether to accept Gov. Perry's nomination of Mr. Bradley.

Gov. Perry appointed Mr. Bradley to chair the commission in 2009 prior to a scheduled hearing in which the commission was to take testimony from Craig Beyler about the flawed science used by arson investigators that led to the execution of Cameron Willingham.

During his time as chairman, however, Mr. Bradley accomplished the fair haired governor's wishes to delay the release of the committee's findings until after the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Patrick cowers in fear

Texas State Senator Dan Patrick has once again proved himself to be a big bag of hot air as he withdrew his bill that would have criminalized groping by TSA personnel in airports. Mr. Patrick ran and hid in a closet after receiving a letter from the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas threatening that TSA might cancel flights in Texas should the legislation pass.

Every year on the Fourth of July, Mr. Patrick rides in a car at the Memorial Villages 4th of July parade; and every year my wife gives me an ugly face when I mock Mr. Patrick in front of my daughters. Certainly my lack of civility and uncouthness is far worse than Mr. Patrick's demagoguery.

One wonders, was Mr. Patrick worried that the bill might actually pass?

If Mr. Patrick is so concerned about privacy issues for airline passengers, why isn't he concerned with the steady erosion of the 4th Amendment?

Wanted man

John Joe Gray is on the lam for allegedly assaulting a peace officer in December 1999. He was bonded out of jail a few days later and never appeared in court. He has lived on his armed compound in Henderson County, Texas with his family ever since.

Years ago he warned local law enforcement officials to bring extra body bags if they wanted to capture him. The local sheriff has said he's not risking the lives of any officers to bring in Mr. Gray.

And the lemmings keep falling off the cliff

Here's your tax dollars at work. If a stranger did this to your child, you'd be calling the police. But, because it's our government making a mockery of the Bill of Rights keeping us safe from 6 year-olds terrorists, it's okay.

From the Houston Chronicle:

In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration says the officer followed proper procedure but that the agency is reviewing its screening policies for “low-risk populations, such as young passengers.” The statement says the agency is exploring ways to “move beyond a one-size fits all system.”

Enough said.