Both of my readers will remember the Tale Of The Belt, in which is recounted the story of my last run-in with airport security, trying to get both #1 Son and his bullet belt down to California and back again.

Today, the Portland Tribune reports that just in time for Thanksgiving PDX Airport Security has instituted a new “up close and personal” approach to passenger screening. Too personal?

According to the Tribune, the new procedures are:

TSA screeners are supposed to be the same gender as the person being checked. They talk you through the process. First, the screener runs a hand along the back and then under the arms, between the breasts, under the breasts — checking bra straps found along the way — and between the legs. She can use the front of the hand in most areas but must use the back of the hand for the breasts, genitals and buttocks.

[…]The TSA is well-aware of the sensitivity of the new pat-down process. A headline over a summary of the process on the TSA Web site says, “Pat down, other screening enhancements must be carried out appropriately.

Golly… that sounds fun, doesn’t it? And how will the lucky recipients be selected?

First, some passengers are chosen at random when issued boarding passes. Passengers traveling on one-way tickets or who paid cash for their tickets also are selected at this stage.

Second, passengers get sent through enhanced screening when, for whatever reason, they set off the metal detector. And third, the screeners themselves can designate someone.

“We rely on screeners to make a visual inspection of passengers,” [Jennifer] Peppin [TSA spokeswoman in Seattle] said. “If there’s someone wearing something baggy with irregularities or something protruding that doesn’t look right, they have the latitude to use the new method.”

Well, it looks certain that #1 Son, at least, will be in the “doesn’t look right” category when we head to Las Vegas for Christmas, although his clothes are usually tight enough to preclude any hidden weapons. And The Belt is not going near the airport. But I think I’d better be prepared to be patted if I want to fly.

To be fair to PDX security, it is the Transportation Security Administration that has adopted the new screen rules requiring more frequent and more physical searches in reaction to the bombing of two Russian jets. But is it really necessary to subject passengers to this kind of invasive procedure? The planes blew up in Russia — not here. How does current airport security in the US compare to current airport security in Russia? How much more privacy do we give up “willingly” in the name of “Homeland Security?”

Awhile ago I blogged about Yes Bush Can, an interesting team that was asking the blogging community to debunk certain false documents. Today I received the following email from the guys at Yes Bush Can:

A week ago, we sent you an email asking for help debunking anti-Bush
documents. After receiving hundreds of responses, it become clear that
all the documents were actually real: the Bush/Cheney DUIs, the Ken Lay
letters, and even the bin Laden memo. For more information visit the
documents page:
http://www.yesbushcan.com/falsedocs.shtml

We also received hundreds of emails from concerned bloggers that
eloquently expressed the problems with the Bush administration. And as
we traveled across America campaigning for Bush, we learned more than
we wanted to know about Bush’s policies. We came to see that this
administration is a catastrophe for most people.

As a result, we are abandoning our support of Bush and officially
endorsing John Kerry for President. You can read more at the Yes Bush Can web site:
http://www.yesbushcan.com/
We deeply regret our misguided support and apologize for our previous
email. This will be the last email we will send directly to bloggers.
If you want to join us in supporting Kerry, you can find out more here:
http://www.yesbushcan.com/act.shtml

Thank you for your understanding,

Yes Bush Can

I have only one thing to say… 😆

I’m still sorry that I missed these guys when they came through Portland. The Yes Men Movie is currently playing downtown at the Fox Tower 10. Here’s the writeup:

“Yes Men” follows a small group of prankster-activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization on TV and at business conferences around the world. The bizarre story begins with Andy and Mike setting up a website that mimics the World Trade Organization. When their satire website is mistaken for the real thing, Andy and Mike play along with the ruse and soon find themselves invited to important functions as WTO representatives.

Consumer confidence down:

Consumer confidence fell in October to its lowest level in seven months. The downturn is fueled mostly by soaring energy costs, sluggish hiring, the war in Iraq and an increasingly nasty election. Analysts worry that the downturn in confidence will result in less spending by already debt-laden consumers.

“Consumers are more concerned about the future than they are about current conditions and I think that has a lot to do with the high oil prices we’re seeing and probably some of the election rhetoric,” said Gary Thayer, chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.

Consumer confidence in hiring is up very slightly, but businesses remain cautious about hiring workers given the record oil prices and the rise in health care costs.

“While consumers’ assessment of the labor market showed a moderate improvement, the gain was not sufficient to ease concerns about job growth in the months ahead,” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.

This is not good new… especially here in Oregon where we still face the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

The election

The Transportation Safety Administration, the government agency in charge of airport security, spent nearly a half-million dollars on an awards ceremony at a lavish hotel to pat themselves on the back. Among the expenditures:

The event planning company, MarCom Group Inc. of Fairfax, Va., was paid $85,552 for its work and given an additional $81,767 for plaques, $5,196 for official photographs, $1,486 for three balloon arches and $1,509 for signs.

The reception included finger food, coffee and cake that averaged $33 per person. Seven cakes cost a total of $1,850; three cheese displays, $1,500.

[…] Awards were presented to 543 Transportation Security Administration employees and 30 organizations, including a “lifetime achievement award” for one worker with the 2-year-old agency. Almost $200,000 was spent on travel and lodging for attendees.

Sounds like a nice little party. But that wasn’t enough for the poobahs in the TSA! They apparently thought that more was owed to them that just a lavish bash:

The investigation by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, also found the TSA gave its senior executives bonuses averaging $16,000, higher than at any other federal government agency, and failed to provide adequate justification in more than a third of the 88 cases examined.

[…] Federal agencies on average gave cash awards to 49 percent of their executives in 2002, while 76 percent of TSA executives received them in 2003.

The inspector general reviewed 88 employees’ files and found that 38 percent “had no individual recommendation and justification for the performance award.”

“The legitimacy of such large awards is called into question by the lack of an appropriate selection process and the reliance on boilerplate justifications that could be applicable to anyone,” the report said.

The report also noted that fewer than 3 percent of nonexecutive employees received bonuses in 2003.

I guess the moral of that story is that it doesn’t pay to be a worker-bee in the TSA.

But what this taxpayer is really pondering is… how does this make us safer?

SpaceShipOne has won the Ansari $10,000,000 X-Prize for the first commercially viable manned spacecraft!

MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) – SpaceShipOne, the world’s first privately funded manned spacecraft, on Monday reached space for the second time in less than a week to win a $10 million prize designed to spur commercial space travel.

The stubby, three-seat rocket plane hurtled to a height of 368,000 feet traveling at more than three times the speed of sound to reach space on the last of two flights required to win the Ansari X Prize.

“We are proud to announce that SpaceShipOne has made two flights to 100 kilometers (62 miles) and has won the Ansari X Prize,” Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize announced to reporters at Mojave airport.

Congratulations to Paul Allen, Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie, everyone at Mojave Aerospace Ventures, and anyone else who was involved in this historic flight. Welcome to the real space age!

Now, where’s the hotel that Richard Branson promised? He better get a move on if he plans to open in 2007!

British entrepreneur Richard Branson plans to launch the world’s first passenger service to space in 2007. His zero-g flights will be offered for a mere $198,600 (more or less, depending on the exchange rate). He’s teaming up with Paul Allen to build five capsules for the flights.

The flights will climb to about 130 kilometers, roughly six times higher than regular commercial planes, and include four minutes of weightlessness, views of the horizon from 1,200 miles away and possibly a gin and tonic if granted a liquor license.

That’s a pretty short flight for the price, I think. But perhaps the gin & tonic makes it worthwhile. Do you get to keep the glass? Does it have to be gin? I’d much prefer a vodka martini — straight up with a twist, please, and shaken, not stirred.

Branson said he planned to use the proceeds from the first well-heeled customers to bring prices down in the next few years to make space travel affordable to the regular tourist.

“The orbital hotel will happen,” he said.

Virgin expects 3,000 customers in the first five years.

But, will the orbital hotel be ?? If I’m paying upwards of $200k just for the flight up there, I expect turn-down service, at the very least!