The grandmother of a Missoula 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect. The incident has been garnering increasing media and online attention since the child's mother, Michelle Brademeyer of Missoula, detailed the ordeal in a public Facebook post last week. The Transportation Security Administration is defending its agents, despite new procedures aimed at reducing pat-downs of children. The child's grandmother, Lori Croft, said that Brademeyer and her daughter, Isabella, initially passed through security at the Wichita airport without incident. The girl then ran over to briefly hug Croft, who was awaiting a pat-down after tripping the alarm, and that's when TSA agents insisted the girl undergo a physical pat-down/Associated Press. More here. (AP photo: Isabella Brademeyer is shown as flower girl of uncle's wedding April 12)

Question: Are you comfortable that TSA is using good judgment at most times in handling searches of air passengers?

Dalton Gardens Republican Rep. Vito Barbieri, who a year ago labeled the Affordable Care Act “socialism,” and sponsored a nullification bill of what he called “Obamacare,” this year has another federal behemoth in his crosshairs: the Transportation Security Administration. In an interview with the Idaho Reporter, Barbieri said he hadn't consulted with the TSA about a measure that would outlaw unwanted searches at Idaho airports, and he wasn't “even sure that the state has the authority to end the pat-downs,” but he still was ready to introduce a bill that would amend Idaho Code preventing TSA personnel from touching a person without consent. But in a real head-scratcher, Barbieri, in the same interview, said he also opposed full-body scans of passengers/George Prentice, Boise Weekly. More here.

Question: Would you want to go back to the way airport security was handled pre-9/11?

On Monday, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was detained by airport security in Nashville for refusing to take a pat-down by Transportation Security Agency officials. Maybe Idaho state Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, sympathizes with the U.S. senator because he is readying a bill that would outlaw unwanted TSA searches within the Gem State’s borders. In an interview with IdahoReporter.com, Barbieri said the pat-downs do little to improve airline security and are more for show than anything else. “I’m just adding that federal TSA personnel cannot touch a person that does not want to be touched,” Barbieri said. “And if they do, without consent, they are subject to the state battery law”/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. More here.

Question: Do you agree with Barbieri that TSA patdowns aren't needed in Idaho?

Item: TSA orders 95-year-old woman to remove adult diaper during 45-minute search/Associated Press

More Info: A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend. Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia. Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.

Question: Can anyone other than a TSA security guard justify this action?

Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry reintroduced a bill that would make it a felony in his state for employees of the federal Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to conduct pre-flight pat down searches at security check points. It looks like Idaho might follow Perry’s lead when lawmakers meet in Boise next year. Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, told IdahoReporter.com said he may address search methods in the next legislative session, set to begin in January.  “I do plan on revisiting the issue,” said Hart, who unsuccessfully pushed a bill to limit the use of full body scanners at public airports in Idaho in 2010/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. More here.

Question: Do you want the Idaho Legislature to ban full-body scanners at its public airports?

DeePee: I view TSA as a gigantic social experiment, designed to determine just how much B.S. normal law-abiding people will tolerate. The inconsistencies are absurd. Departing Spokane this week, I was told everything had to come out of the pockets, even my passport and ticket. (Pretty hard to show them your ID and ticket when they’re in a bucket.) Then boarding in SLC yesterday, going through the routine divestiture of jewelry, the TSA chap said, ‘You can leave your ring on; the equipment’s not that sensitive.’ On one plus side, the TSA personnel are generally more civil than they were, say, 5 years ago. But it’s still an annoyance and certainly instills no sense of confidence in the government’s ability to do anything intelligently.

Question: Have you had a bad encounter with TSA security in the last year?

On her Idaho Scenic Images Facebook page, Linda Lantzy writes: “The shoreline (of Hauser) is quite flooded which I thought made this tree scene interesting.”

Post of the Day: We really need to get over our paranoia about terrorists and flying. According to the TSA the procedure used on a six year old in New Orleans is exactly according to procedure. Fine. Change the procedures. For all of us. They supposedly are working on it. According to John Pistole, Administrator of the TSA, they're trying to work out procedures for the less risky - like children and the elderly. Yet they have to be careful because if they slack off the terrorists may take advantage of the situation/Dogwalk Musings. More here.

• Quote of the Day/A Butterfly Moment
• Chopping onions/Crazy Homeschool Mama
• Goodbye Dolly from the Sagle Flea Market/From A Simple Mind
• A Glossary of Chickens/Gathering Around the Table
• My grandmother's hands/JeanC's Cat House & Shooting Gallery
• Beef stew/Kellogg Bloggin'
• Gas prices aren't dropping any time soon/KMPO Transportation
• Standing firm/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope
• It's been a bad week, Helen/Slight Detour

Hucks Online numbers (for Tuesday, April 12): 7480/4548

Question: What do you make of the TSA following the rules and patting down the 6-year-old girl in New Orleans?

Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List. “We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren't allowed to come into our business,” one employee tells travel journalist Christopher Elliott. “We have the right to refuse service to anyone.” She says that whenever a TSA agent attempts to dine at the restaurant, “we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave… Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment”/Chris Morran, The Consumerist. More here. (AP file photo for illustrative purposes)

Question: How would you describe your treatment at the hands of airport security?

I was almost disappointed while boarding a plane the other day that nobody wanted to search my body in exquisite detail.  I entered the airport terminal patriotically ready for whatever the security forces had in store for me - even if that meant using a level of electronic scrutiny that reveals the absence of weapons on my peaceful person, albeit at a cost of exposing the saggy old man beneath my youthful duds. I went into that experience ready to put my best face forward, not to mention other parts, trying to look as attractive as I possibly could for my sake and for the sake of the poor inspector. He must stand there all day looking at constant anatomical imperfection with a device that peers through clothing/Bill Hall, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: How have your close encounters with airport security been since the TSA ramped-up the visual & touchy-feely inspections?

Signe Wilkinson/Philadelphia Inquirer

We’re witnessing what appears to be a twisted psychological experiment in what indignities Americans are willing to endure in the interest of airport security. … Now, those who have concerns about health risks or invasion of privacy are being subjected to a government-administered groping. The result is a steady stream of complaints from border to border of Americans who have been fondled, harassed, mocked and manhandled. Clearly, TSA is trying to use its police powers to make examples out of anyone who has the temerity to protest the body scanners. That’s bad enough for the adults; parents are now being told they have the ultimate Hobson’s choice: irradiate their kids or subject them to fondling by a stranger in a government uniform/Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Freedom Foundation. More here. (Also: Security boycott could disrupt Thanksgiving travel/AP)

• AP photo: Rocky Flats Gear’s Jeff Buske says his invention (radiation shielding underwear) uses a powdered metal that protects people’s privacy when undergoing medical or security screenings.

Question: Are you in favor of a loosely organized boycott of airport security that’s scheduled to take place in Boise & elsewhere this Thanksgiving season?

This is finally IT, maybe. If we turn down being screened at airports by those new-fangled, incredibly invasive, nakey-nakey devices, then we must submit to a groping…where they fondle your bewbies and/or your junk. Submitting to a groping by somebody who’s not getting me drunk first…not gonna happen. And neither is going through a freaky skin sizzling machine. Thing is, some people (survivors of sexual assault) are getting PTSD reactions to the forced probings, because, you know, they’re FORCED PROBINGS. And some idiots out there actually have the gall to say, “Those people need to stop being so sensitive about the probings”/Cassandra, 43rd State Blues. More here.

• Get loud, people, be proud/IdaBlue
• Maybe not change the world/Fort Boise
• Why did voters stay home on Nov. 2?/Kevin Richert
• Education of Idaho Democratic Party/MountainGoat Report
• Those awful earmarks: The least of our problems/The Johnson Report
  

They pay us good wages
to feel up your granny
in case she’s got A bombs
concealed in her fanny.

The Bard of Sherman Avenue

President Barack Obama speaks to the media Monday about the airliner bombing attempt on Christmas Day.

WASHINGTON – Two federal agencies charged with keeping potential terrorists off airplanes and out of the country have been without their top leaders for nearly a year.

It took the Obama administration more than eight months to nominate anyone to lead the Transportation Security Administration and the Customs and Border Protection agency.

President Barack Obama has ordered a review of U.S. security policies following the failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam. He vowed Monday to “do everything that we can to keep America safe.”

The acting heads of the TSA and CBP — both created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — will be at the forefront of these efforts. More here.

Thoughts?