well, after being body searched 3X on my journey to l.a. last week - and being told that i had been "profiled by the authorities..." "please step aside"... the problem is, i get body searched EVERY TIME i go near an airport.
for the record:
i'm a criminal justice major, a student of law, and a member of the international honour society (3.8 GPA)... not to mention i haven't had so much as a moving traffic violation since 1979!!!
WTF?!!!
here's the poop:
for school, i wrote a paper about how bush was using his office to pursue his critics as gov of texas - and sent him a copy of it. hey man, it's a free country... or at least it used to be.
teddy's on the list too. legally, teddy kennedy has legislative immunity - and it took him six months and countless confrontations with the t.s.a. to get removed from the list. the government's standpoint was: this list doesn't exist. however, they have recently acknowledged it's existance but as a covenant of the patriot act, they are allowed to maintain it without ever having to justify their reasons for adding people.
the a.c.l.u. is in the process of pursuing a class action suit against the federal government because, once you are put on the list there is NO way to appeal your presence. after the agent @ LAX confirmed my name was on that list, i have joined the lawsuit.
he is the first president since richard nixon (& j. edgar hoover) who has used the fed authorities to keep track of critics. just like j. edgar hoover's COINTELPRO which was secretly organized to monitor and "address" individuals involved in america's civil rights struggle (martin luther king, jesse jackson, gloria steinam, angela davis, et al), bush's security staff (NSA) is charged with hassling his critics whenever possible.
the president's 'no-fly' list is but one avenue for the executive office to pursue their critics. the patriot act gives him free reins to go after ANYONE he wants, regardless of whether a legitimate reason exists.
historical footnote:
eventually, COINTELPRO was publicly exposed and judged unecessary & unConstitutional by a federal court and shut-down - much to the shame of the fbi and the nixon white-house.
