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https://nypost.com/2024/02/05/opinion/cancun-ted-cruz-wants-to-make-politicians-a-privileged-caste-at-airports/
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CANCUN TED CRUZ WANTS TO MAKE POLITICIANS A PRIVILEGED CASTE AT AIRPORTS
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Published Feb. 5, 2024, 8:20 p.m. ET
Ted Cruz justifies his travel amendment: "It's important that we take reasonable
measures to keep everyone safe." Rod Lamkey / CNP / SplashNews.com
MORE ON: TSA
* TSA FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH IS LATEST SECURITY THEATER ABSURDITY
* TSA SPARKS PRIVACY CONCERNS AMID PLANS TO INSTALL FACIAL RECOGNITION SYSTEMS
AT 400 US AIRPORTS
* FORMER TSA HONCHO EXPLAINS HOW RUSSIAN STOWAWAY MAY HAVE FLOWN FROM DENMARK
TO LA WITHOUT TICKET OR PASSPORT
* BIDEN’S BROKEN BORDER ADMISSION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — JAN. 26, 2024
Texans elected Ted Cruz to the US Senate a dozen years ago after he promised to
abolish the Transportation Security Administration.
Cruz has “grown” in office.
Instead of seeking to ax the TSA, Cruz is pushing an amendment to compel it to
treat members of Congress like royalty and protect them from riffraff at
airports.
The Cruz measure would provide “lawmakers a dedicated security escort at
airports, along with expedited screening outside of public view,” Politico
reports.
Cruz was ridiculed in 2021 after he was photographed in the airport escaping to
Cancun while fellow Texans were suffering massive power outages due to a winter
storm.
His bill should be called the No More Mockery for Poohbahs Act.
TSA already gives members of Congress “Get out of grope free” cards to avoid
checkpoint hassles.
How did that exemption to “equal treatment under the law” occur?
In 2010, TSA turned airport checkpoints into “constitutional twilight zones”
with “enhanced patdowns” and whole-body scanners that radiated travelers while
taking birthday-suit photos.
SEE ALSO
SENATE REPUBLICANS SPLIT OVER WHETHER TO WALK AWAY FROM BORDER DEAL
The following year, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the House of Representatives’
second-most-powerful Democrat, bitterly complained: “We’ve had some incidents
where TSA authorities think that congresspeople should be treated like everybody
else.”
Clyburn warned: “I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA
interact with members of Congress.”
TSA hustled to placate the political elite.
A 2014 American Civil Liberties Union report condemned “Government Placing
Itself at Top of New Air Travel Caste System.”
TSA “compiled vast whitelists of individuals” who “are automatically eligible
for expedited screening at airports,” including members of Congress and federal
judges, the ACLU noted.
Politicians also benefit from PreCheck and CLEAR programs most travelers have
chosen not to purchase.
TSA spends $800 million a year for air marshals, but almost half of them are
designated for standby for flights by members of Congress — despite zero
aviation threats on most such flights.
One veteran air marshal groused in 2021 that the DC field office “was almost
exclusively dedicated to VIP services for Congress.”
The Air Marshal National Council formally complained TSA had turned its program
into a “concierge service” and “babysitting” for members of Congress, who
exploited the program even for personal flights with no tie to official
business.
SEE ALSO
SEN. TED CRUZ ENDORSES TRUMP AFTER ‘DOMINATING VICTORY’ IN IOWA: ‘THIS RACE IS
OVER’
Cruz’s “Safe Airport Travel Specialized Screening Process” legislative fix was
forged by other indignities he suffered.
After missing a flight in Bozeman, Mont., in 2022, Cruz berated airline staff so
vehemently that a policeman was summoned to defuse the situation.
The real problem? An airport official later admitted the policeman failed to
recognize Sen. Cruz.
Does Cruz want a chorus of trumpeters to herald the procession of lawmakers
through airport terminals?
Or maybe he’d prefer a litter carried by four AmeriCorps members who sing the
“Battle Hymn of the Republic” while carting the VIP to his departure gate?
Cruz justifies his amendment: “It’s important that we take reasonable measures
to keep everyone safe.”
But almost nobody on Capitol Hill is taking “reasonable measures” to keep people
safe from TSA’s intrusive, abusive warrantless searches.
Legions of women have complained on Twitter about TSA agents grappling their
private parts in a manner far worse than Prom night.
Bethenny Frankel went viral with her own account in December.
After an Oklahoma woman sued after being strip-searched due to a menstrual pad,
Justice Department lawyers scoffed that the treatment she complained of
“amount[ed] to no more than . . . petty oppressions.”
SEE ALSO
2024 presidential election
DEMS COULD DISCARD BIDEN FOR MICHELLE OBAMA IN 2024, TED CRUZ CLAIMS
But who entitled TSA to oppress American women?
Federal court cases are documenting recent TSA transgressions against female
travelers.
For more than a decade, entering a TSA checkpoint has been akin to Russian
roulette.
Flying out of Washington National Airport recently, I scored an enhanced pelvic
patdown after the TSA whole-body scanner alerted solely due to the zipper on my
Levi’s jeans.
(Or maybe it was because I’ve bashed TSA in articles for 20 years and was
denounced by the TSA chief.)
Cruz’s amendment also “solves” the problems of sporadic horrific delays at
airport security by specifying that lawmakers will be speedily cleared through
with no delay.
10
What do you think? Post a comment.
When TSA was created after 9/11, Americans were promised: “no weapons, no
waiting.”
But that was only true for the ruling class.
Everybody else must build far more slack time in their travel schedule because
of TSA uncertainties.
Unfortunately, Cruz’s hypocrisy is only slightly more brazen than most of his
Capitol Hill colleagues’.
Rather than a new law to shield congressmen from irate travelers, senators could
mollify public outrage by honoring their oath to uphold the US Constitution.
James Bovard’s latest book is “Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty.”
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* 2/5/24
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