Okay, when they searched Rumsfeld, I thought that was crackers, but I avoided posting. I mean what's next, the current SecDef?

They've searched grandmothers and toddlers, all of it ridiculous. They've put full-body scanners in at the expense of dogs (that are better at detecting explosives). They refuse to profile activity, which should be a no-brainer.

Now, we find out they do have an ax to grind: with white, middle-class America?

In the course of the 10 minute clip, a myriad of different behaviors are characterized as terrorism, including opposing surveillance, using a video camera, talking to police officers, wearing hoodies, driving vans, writing on a piece of paper, and using a cell phone recording application.

Despite encouraging viewers not to pay attention to a person’s race in determining whether or not they may be a terrorist, almost all of the scenarios in the clip proceed to portray white people as the most likely terrorists. Bizarrely, nearly every single one of the “patriotic” Americans who reports on their fellow citizen is either black, Asian or Arab. Imagine if the video had portrayed every terrorist as an Arab and every patriotic snoop as white, there’d be an outcry and rightly so, but this strange reversal must have been deliberate on the part of the DHS, but why? Is this merely political correctness taken to the extreme or is something deeper at work?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the DHS’ own internal documents list predominantly white conservative groups as the most likely terrorists, such as Ron Paul supporters, gun owners, gold bullion enthusiasts, and a myriad of other comparatively banal political interests that are largely the domain of white middle class Americans.

Looking for places to cut government spending? I propose DHS security specialists at the airports. Honestly, this should be done by individual airports or by the airlines. There has to be a way of motivating people to care about security instead of political correctness. As long as this "security" is federalized, the next attack is just a matter of time. Most of the TSA folks could not survive in the real world. If TSA were shut down, the job market would suddenly be filled with Paul and Paula Blarts.

Paul Blart worked for a private security firm. But he was fictional.

The rest reads like conspiracy theory.

danivon wrote:Paul Blart worked for a private security firm. But he was fictional.

But, his skill set is very real. It's on display at airports nationwide.

The rest reads like conspiracy theory.

Says the man who didn't watch the DHS video and failed to notice the pat down of Rummy. Was that fictional? Is that conspiratorial?

I'm no great fan of our "Homeland Security" nonsense (especially the TSA), but it seems to me you're being unduly paranoid, Steve. This sort of argument is beneath you--far more the type of thing I'd expect from a barking moonbat who reads all sorts of evil intentions into random demographic variations. I watched the video--I couldn't tell the race of many of the "bad guys" since they tended to be wearing black hoodies (I guess that's the latest in evil genius unisex chic; personally, I preferred the days when evil minions wore stylish jumpsuits (if they were men) or hotpants or short skirts (if they weren't)). Several did appear to be white, but it also appeared to me that the same guy played bad guy in several sequences. My hunch is that the filmmaker had a couple of guys put on black hoodies and used them as bad guys in all the black hoodie shots. I note that in the two shots where the bad guy wasn't wearing a black hoodie, one was black and another was asian. I also noticed that almost all of the people playing law enforcement officers were also white--no doubt our lefty friends read into that fact a secret message to non-whites that they aren't welcome in law enforcement jobs, or maybe to DHS agents that non-whites shouldn't be admitted to their ranks.

Whatever. The good news is that the DHS couldn't find its butt with both hands and a flashlight, so if they're actively attempting to make life difficult for white middle class Americans, we can all rest assured that they'll fail miserably. The bad news is that, pathetic and incompetent as most terrorists seem to be, they do occasionally hit on a plan that's both dangerous and within their limited ability to execute; when that happens, the most we can expect from our government in the way of protection is these jokers at DHS. It's an ugly tradeoff, but I suppose it could be worse--if DHS were even vaguely competent, your paranoia might not be misplaced. Thank God the keystone cops are chasing idiots who make Boris and Natasha look like James Bond.

What's wrong with a pat-down for Rummy?

Machiavelli wrote:I'm no great fan of our "Homeland Security" nonsense (especially the TSA), but it seems to me you're being unduly paranoid, Steve.

Maybe. I would say, though, that the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.

This sort of argument is beneath you--far more the type of thing I'd expect from a barking moonbat who reads all sorts of evil intentions into random demographic variations. I watched the video--I couldn't tell the race of many of the "bad guys" since they tended to be wearing black hoodies (I guess that's the latest in evil genius unisex chic; personally, I preferred the days when evil minions wore stylish jumpsuits (if they were men) or hotpants or short skirts (if they weren't)). Several did appear to be white, but it also appeared to me that the same guy played bad guy in several sequences. My hunch is that the filmmaker had a couple of guys put on black hoodies and used them as bad guys in all the black hoodie shots. I note that in the two shots where the bad guy wasn't wearing a black hoodie, one was black and another was asian.

Given that the US government thinks it has unlimited resources, it likely should never have tried to make this (apparently) on the cheap. In fact, the budget was so low, they couldn't afford spell-checking ("aquiring?").

Again, though, the terrorists have been of what religion? Of what ethnic groups (predominantly)? How many white American nationals have tried to blow up planes in the last ten years? How many Roman Catholics have taken up arms against US soldiers domestically?

Look at the pictures on the desktop. How many are minorities? First two terrorists they show? Ted Kaczynski and McVeigh. 4 of the first 5 are Caucasian Americans, including the guy (Stack) who flew his plane into a government building in Texas to protest the IRS.

You already know this. All I am saying is that is a remarkably unrealistic depiction of "terrorists." What this video shows is absolutely worthless. How about a genuine depiction of what terrorists have done? How about training concerning how to sort out those who are worthy of more scrutiny? I mean, really, do all terrorists wear hoodies and dark sunglasses? It looks more like the newest iteration of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six game series than anything useful in the actual world we live in.

Thank God the keystone cops are chasing idiots who make Boris and Natasha look like James Bond.

Thank God indeed. If the terrorists become more sophisticated, we are in for a bumpy ride.

What I object to the most is the absolute blindness with which TSA approaches their job. 80 year-old African-American grandmothers and 3 year-old white kids are not appropriate pat-down targets. Actually, I don't think anyone is an appropriate pat-down target. I do think they should be private, that you should have to provide a certain level of info when buying the ticket and that the airlines should be held to account for who they let on their airplanes. For example, those buying last-minute tickets would have to face extra airport scrutiny. However, everyone should receive background checks. Explosive-detecting dogs should be at the airport. Behavior should be judged and follow-up done as needed. In other words, they should be looking for actual terrorists, not presuming that if they randomly search they will eventually find one.

danivon wrote:What's wrong with a pat-down for Rummy?

What's right about it? It is idiotic.

To shift gears, a tragedy in Norway today. It's all those Methodists, I'm sure.

No one is safe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14256438

Most of the dead from the youth camp portion are allegedly by some tall blonde, which is kind of an ironic twist back to the start of this topic.

Neal Anderth wrote:Most of the dead from the youth camp portion are allegedly by some tall blonde, which is kind of an ironic twist back to the start of this topic.

Not at all.

Let's see what his religion is.

I've never said race should be THE determining factor. However, it is a statistical reality that a young Arabic male is more likely to be a terrorist than an 85 year-old Caucasian.

Intelligent profiling can and should be used. Who is more likely to be a terrorist: a male Muslim between the ages of 18-45 or a male Presbyterian of the same age?

I think Neal is on target ... I expected to read about a Muslim extremist, and now the reports are an ethnic Norwegian who is likely a right winger. The BBC is reporting that 80 people died at a youth camp.

Sure Steve is right on the stats, but you can't be complacent and think that profiling solves all our collective problems with terrorism. By the way, the Israeli profiling is primarily based on human observation, and not ethnicity, age, or gender.

A Norwegian dressed as a police officer killed at least 80 people at an island retreat, police said early on Saturday. It took investigators several hours to begin to realise the full scope of the massacre, which followed an explosion in Oslo that killed seven and that police say was set off by the same suspect.

Police initially said about 10 people were killed at the camp on the island of Utøya, but some survivors said they thought the toll was much higher. Police director Øystein Mæland told reporters early on Saturday they had discovered many more victims.

"It's taken time to search the area. What we know now is that we can say that there are at least 80 killed at Utøya," Mæland said. "It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional."

Mæland said the death toll could rise even more. He said others were severely injured, but police did not know how many were hurt.

A suspect in the shootings and the Oslo explosion was arrested. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight.

A police official said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems that this is not linked to any international terrorist organisations". The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.

The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center."
___________

It's a wretched story, truly awful to have a mass murder at a summer camp.

Neal Anderth wrote:[The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center."

Maybe. Our government has misinformed us how many times? Every terror attack here is a "lone wolf" until it turns out he was emailing Anwar al Awlaki.

I'm not ready to concede for at least a week.

It is crazy that one man could shoot so many. Sad indeed. Obviously, he knew the island would not have armed guards, police, etc.

The worst part, other than the deaths themselves, may be the punishment. I read he can get no more than 21 years. That's sick.

Ok, I'm confused. Steve, what point were you trying to make when you started this thread?

Was it that US immigration is the most irritiating in the whole world? This is something that most non-US travellers will tell you as true, though honestly is hard to prove.

Was it that American security at airports is, like the rest of the country, overly concerned with politial correctness and legal correctness (helps you to not get sued even if you're doing the right thing)? Yes, we all know this too.

Was it that really bad quality acting is prevalent in the US and that a Government agency is far from immune? Yes, we all knew this too.

So what were you trying to say, and why did you suddenly jump a continent over to Norway?