Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “said in an interview that he plans to refile legislation that would drastically scale back the Transportation Security Administration’s reach” — nice try, Rand, but you and I know it won’t do any such thing — “by privatizing security screening operations at airports and creating a series of passenger protections.”
“Privatizing” the TSA is an unforgivable scam Our Rulers perpetrate on the agency’s victims. It sounds good, doesn’t it, with its implication that the feds will turn aviation’s security over to the private sector. But that’s not how it works. The TSA remains firmly in charge, setting policies such as gate-rape and irradiation and supervising “private” thugs as they grope and X-ray serfs. Those assailants are the only “private” aspect of “privatization”: personnel agencies would hire them out to the TSA, just as a temp agency hires out receptionists and secretaries. Said receptionists and secretaries do whatever the boss at the client’s tells them to, and so would the “private” bullies the TSA employs. The unconstitutional searches at unconstitutional checkpoints would continue apace; blue-shirted goons would abuse passengers just as they do now; flyers wouldn’t notice any difference at all. Indeed, something like 17 airports nationwide are already “privatized”: do you know whether you’ve passed through one? Neither does anyone else because they are identical to “non-privatized” ones. This is precisely the situation that prevailed on 9/11, though then it was the FAA rather than the TSA dictating to “private” screeners. Which explains why the fedbugs–sorry, Al Qaeda was able to pull off the murder of 3000 people.
Ah, but don’t worry: Rand will provide travelers with a “bill of rights” as well. Thanks, but I’ll take the original with its iron-clad guarantee that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” {Emphasis most emphatically added.)
If Rand’s two “reforms” sound familiar, it’s because he proposed them last year as well. “‘I really think there is some bipartisan support for reforming the TSA,’ he said.” And why not? His measures won’t diminish government’s power one iota. Meanwhile, another story on Rand’s “reforms” tellingly describes the agency: “TSA has repeatedly come under scrutiny for inappropriate pat-downs, stealing from passengers, inappropriate use of nude body scanners, discrimination, and arresting passengers without valid reasons.” You tell me: is that a bureaucracy ripe for reform — or for abolition and criminal prosecution of employees?
“‘But’ [Rand] added, ‘It’s hard to move anything around here.”” Intriguing. Ever notice it’s not at all difficult to destroy our freedom? Congress charters bureaucracies to write hundreds, perhaps thousands, of regulations daily that demolish liberty, but reclaiming that liberty, reining in the bureaucratic monster it created — no, that’s just too hard.
And so Rand’s “refiling” his useless legislation “unless we get some suggestions on changes.” Yo, Rand, glad you asked, because here’s my suggestion, simple as it may be: abolish the TSA.
6:23 am on February 1, 2013
