TSA: Genitals on Parade

I think the safest way for all Americans to fly would be to strip before entering the plane, and wear TSA robes…after a full body cavity search. Folks, that is about where we are at. Just because the technology exists to take graphic x-rays of your body doesn’t make it right. When Barack Obama got elected, I wondered just how much freedom America would be willing to give up in the grandiose government controlled scheme of things. Now we know that a good portion of Americans don’t mind being seen naked in a picture. By the way, the picture to the left is what they see. If it makes you uncomfortable, then you know what I mean.

I wouldn’t mind it so much if there weren’t other means available to do what needs to be done…like profiling. Every one brushes aside the example of the insanity of searching an African from Nigeria while looking for Irish Republican Army terrorists. But this is exactly what this is. In some bizarre twist of logic, we are willing to show the genitals of ourselves, our family, our parents, our children…in order not to hurt the feelings of young Muslim males with one way tickets flying from Yemen!!

Liberals pontificate that profiling doesn’t work, like it is the 11th commandment. Everybody knows that. It’s a given. No, I don’t think so. Just look the Israelis who haven’t had a plane hijacked in years and years. Feeling up a blond haired, blue eyed Scandinavian five year old little girl does not increase our security one bit, and I defy anyone to tell me how it does.

Over the years we have subjected ourselves to cameras everywhere, drunk driving checks, and GPS systems installed on our car. Our internet activities are categorized and traced. Our telephones and credit cards are available for the world to see. Our health care records are being compiled and stored. And now we are allowing ourselves to be photographed naked in an airport; all in the name of security based on political correctness rather than common sense necessity.

In all of this, our constitution is lost. Whatever happened to unreasonable search and seizure? And while we are being groped and patted down and ogled at the airports, illegals are streaming across the border by the thousands, attending our schools, getting instate tuition…but they aren’t a threat. No, not at all! Worse, the government is suing the states trying to stop it.

Just for the record. Profiling is absolutely justifiable under the constitution. Courts continuously weigh competing rights to develope a legal basis for compelling public policy. Think shouting fire in a crowded theater. No rights are absolute. It depends on how the argument is framed.

So I ask you, pit my right to privacy and protections against unreasonable search and seizure (having my genitals displayed on a screen in an airport) against those opposing criminal profiling because someone's feelings might get hurt. Which is the better public policy position? Does the governmnet really have a compelling interest to feel up someone with an artificial knee?

If we continue down this absurd path instead of using common sense…we can tear up the Constitution. This is the face of illogical, bureaucratic, big brother liberalism. It is an ugly face, a dehumanizing face. The searches they are doing now would not have stopped 9/11, and most experts say would not have stopped the underwear bomber...who was a young muslim male, not granny in a wheelchair. Wake up America.

Quantitative Easing Explained - The Video

Just a fast comment on the TSA: name just one incident that TSA has stopped with pat downs or the invasive xrays. There aren't any. All of the near misses that were caught these past two years were based in intelligence, and the perp bypassed all screening. These intrusive, and unconstitutional invasions of our privacy are rooted in political correctness, not in any proof they do any good, or they actually work. No one should be subject to what is, for all intents and purposes, a stip search before boarding a plane, when more sensible and effective means are available to solve the problem. Grandma in a wheelchair won't have bomb. Once again, liberalism leads to slavery.

Sometimes a picture or video can do the job better than any written explanation. A friend of mine sent me this explanation of Quantitative Easing. It nails it.

The Letter the Vindicator Wouldn't Print

The Vindicator
Letters to the Editor

Sir:

Once again, Bertram De Souza’s ramble on the state of politics in Mahoning County can’t abide without comment. In his column “What Are Voters Thinking?” he once again attacks the quality of Republican Party candidates specifically referencing the Republican candidate for Auditor, Tracey Winbush. He should be ashamed of himself.

1) In what way was Tracey Winbush unqualified to be Auditor? In a previous column, he made much of her not having a college degree in accounting or law. As a lawyer, I can tell you my most successful clients don’t have college degrees, graduating instead from the School of Hard Knocks. Perhaps Bertram should do us a favor and review which of our elected public officials do or don’t have college degrees, and amend previous Vindicator endorsements accordingly. As Chairman Munroe so aptly pointed out in his letter after De Souza’s last rant, the prisons are littered with “qualified” college graduates from this area. Tracey is a business woman, has actually taken numerous college level courses, is an active Rotarian, sits on numerous area boards, is a community activist, a hard worker, a fast learner, and honest. What do you see in her, Bertram, that makes her unqualified?

2) The local Republican Party fielded some great candidates this past election, and the Vindicator chose to ignore all of them. Matt Lewis and Mike Pestian ran outstanding campaigns for State Senator and the 59th State Rep District with little resources against all odds. I was close to the Pestian campaign. He knocked on over 10,500 doors meeting the constituents. He is a successful businessman, a good family man with a great personality, and a relentless campaigner. He reached out to local teacher unions and attended other local union events not normally frequented by Republicans. Both of these campaigns were managed by a group of Young Republicans who spent countless hours doing the drudge work to make them viable. Yet the Vindicator gave absolutely NO coverage to these guys notwithstanding numerous attempts to bring attention to their efforts, qualifications and issues…not five words. So Bertram, don’t you and your paper dare complain about the lack of qualified Republican candidates and the lack of new young local political activists when they are right there in front of your face and you deliberately choose not to see them. How about getting up from your desk, talk to some of these folks about what is going on in this area, and do some actual reporting instead of pontificating?

3) Finally, a word to those Republicans at all levels of the party, who donate money on a regular basis to Democratic candidates and not the Republican candidates. Stop it. Come home. If you want Mahoning County to have a viable two party system, now is the time to re-examine what we have to offer and work with us to further develop a viable alternative to one party county rule. There is a new wave sweeping the nation and state. It is now here in Mahoning County. We would be glad to have you join the ride.


Mark G. Mangie
Attorney at Law
Finance Chairman, Mahoning
County Republican Party

Quantitative Easing - $5.00 Bread and $5.00 Gas

The Federal Reserve System was set up in 1913 by the government in order to help quell a series of financial panics. It is quasi-independent, which means it is a creature of the United States government, but acts independently and without review of the government. Among its many purposes is to act as a central bank, regulate other banks, and establish the country’s monetary policy which, prior to 1913, was subject to the political whims of Congress.

How does it do it? It can raise and lower interest rates on loans from one bank to another. It can establish the amount of reserves banks must have to back up outstanding loans. It can put money into the economy, or take money out of the economy. All of these things are supposed to keep our financial system stable. How’s that working out for you?

Over this past week, you may have heard about the Fed doing “quantitative easing.” That means the Federal Reserve is pushing cash into the economy. They are literally printing money, and putting it into circulation. How do they do that? The United States government owes a lot of people a lot of money. They borrow the money by issuing bonds to folks like you and me, corporations, investors, and other countries. If the Fed wants to add money to the system, the Federal Reserve buys up those bonds that are being issued by the government, and pays for them with money that is literally printed up. In other words, the government buys back its own bonds.

In this second quantitative easing done over the past several months, the Fed is buying back $600 billion worth of bonds…or it is simply putting an extra $600 billion worth of currency into the world financial system. This “easy money” policy is directed at flooding the system with so much money, that the banks will start to lend money to businesses…which the banks can’t do because the FDIC, another arm of the government, has tightened the lending standards for the banks. Does it sound confusing? It is, and you wonder why things are FUBAR!!

The immediate effect of this much money pouring into the system is a devaluation of the currency…an old trick of debtor nations. That's us!!! Experts believe this quantitative easing will devalue the dollar by 20%. So the government will pay back a $100.00 debt with money that is only worth $80.00! Neat trick! But there’s a catch.

When the major currency of the world is being devalued, investors look for places to put money that will protect it from the devaluation…usually hard assets. You, as a consumer will get the double whammy. Let’s say you wanted to buy a pound of widgets for $100.00. But the currency is being devalued. Speculators start to buy up widgets driving the price up to $120.00. As the currency is devalued, your money is now worth less…only $80.00. So what would have cost you $100.00 last month, will now cost you $140.00 in devalued currency…the speculators drive up the price, and your money is worth less. That is called inflation.

And you are seeing it right now. There is already a rapid rise in all commodity based goods. That includes not only gold, silver and oil…but also food….including sugar, corn (at an all time high), wheat, coffee…you get the picture. There is a real possibility that you will be paying $5.00 for a loaf of bread...and just as much for a gallon of gas within a year.

But even as prices begin to skyrocket, the government will tell you there is no inflation, because it figures inflation by a formula that leaves all of these things out…seriously. The inflation figure will be “ex food and energy.” So there you have it. All is right with the world. Such are wages of government borrowing and spending. Quantitative easing is a way the government can tax you without taxing you. And it is only going to get worse.

This is what the Tea Party movement is all about; and why these folks are so upset.