Jesse Bickel dot com

I misplaced my ID before flying this week (see the earlier post about ID requirements). The experience was not as involved as the other story I had read.

When asked for ID by each TSA agent, I truthfully said “I misplaced it.” The first agent I spoke to (Steve) referred me to the neighboring TSA agent after learning I did not have my ID “because he has more stripes than me.” This man in turn referred me to Joe. Joe was one of the behavioral specialists. He’s probably 50 years old, over 6 feet tall, calm, white, whiskered, even-voiced and level headed. He asked some questions and gauged my response. “What else do you have?” I showed my credit cards, blood card, etc. “Do you remember the last place you put it?” It didn’t appear on the surface that he was paying close attention to my responses but he definitely was. I said “I remember I was at the bar on Sunday for the game and I had it there.” “Which game?” “Eurocup.” He asked another prodding question about if I had any idea, I shook my head. He marked my boarding pass SSSS (selected secondary screening something) and said I would be searched at the next step.

I give the TSA credit for using a human. They didn’t do a machine search on my name, a behavioral specialist human being prompted me with questions and carefully analyzed my responses, looking for inconsistencies and trouble. I give Joe credit personally for coming to the correct conclusion, whether out of ignorance or out of extreme expertise: I am not a threat to anybody flying. He may have thought my situation completely benign, or he may have perceived political activism. But either way he didn’t make a judgment requiring more of a hassle. Except for the secondary screening, but that’s how it worked before the TSA secret law changed.

Secondary screening was the same as always: courteous staff, pat down, quick check in the bag, no problems, sent me on my way.

It was busy July 3 so perhaps the pressure of higher volume helped me, perhaps not. Don’t get me wrong when I speak highly of individual TSA agents. The courtesy of TSA agents does not make up for the unconstitutional, immoral, authoritarian role they fill. However, I recognize that my behavior at the airport is not going to correct the leviathan we have in Washington and these individuals are just doing their jobs.

On the whole, the situation was not a great deal different from before the change in secret law. Then again, the situation rarely changes overnight. The Department of Homeland Security role in our lives will be ever increasing unless we resist it via our legislators. If you have a legislator who has voted in favor of the police state, vote for a candidate who won’t do the same thing.

Admiral Mullen says it would be stressful to go to Iran. Maybe unpredictable what would happen.

It has been clear for some time that Adm Mullen does not want to attack Iran, but his latest remarks suggest that he is fighting hard behind the scenes for both the US and Israel to think carefully about the consequences of an attack before considering mounting it.

Go ahead and blame Bush for keeping us in Iraq, but Congress is responsible for major war decisions. Congress could have passed legislation to end the war yesterday. Congress could pass legislation that would prevent war with Iran today. Congress could end the deficit spending tomorrow. All these are in the hands of Congress, but instead they are subservient to the president. Read the Constitution and see what the actual powers are for each branch. Think back to your civics class. Neither Obama nor McCain will change a blessed thing when it comes to our perverted Congress, nor are they given that power in the Constitution. It is up to the people to get rid of our Congresspersons this coming election.

I missed this story last week. Papers, Please! reports you can no longer fly without ID. The TSA Press Relase confirms it.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

So I need to “misplace” my ID before getting to the airport and be “cooperative” with officers. I’m not sure what “other measures” means, but according to the reports at Papers, Please! you can be asked your political affiliation. I wonder what happens if you do not respond to the political party question. Is that considered “not cooperative”?

The bullion value calculator I created using Google App Engine now allows you to login with your Google Account. If you sign in and enter some values, it will store them. The next time you visit, the values you entered will be populated. If you enter new values, those will be the ones stored and populated on your next visit. Check it out. Here’s the source if you want to look at it. It takes advantage of the following api functionality: memcache (to avoid hammering kitco), users, and datastore.

I just saw a story at the Washington Post announcing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s plans for the demise of financial institutions. He thinks that because government is the expected answer to problems, we ought to give people more intervention. Because it’s a lack of intervention that causes problems or something.

Let’s see what he has to say.

“We should quickly consider how to appropriately give the Fed the authority to access necessary information from highly complex financial institutions and the responsibility to intervene in order to protect the system,” Paulson plans to say, “so they can carry out the role our nation has come to expect.”

One piece of crap at a time here. “QUICKLY.” Because this is so important we should make sure that we don’t even think very hard about it or have any meaningful debate. “GIVE THE FED THE AUTHORITY.” Because the Fed has solved every problem in the past and never caused any problems. “TO ACCESS NECESSARY [sic] INFORMATION.” Because people shouldn’t be allowed to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects. “TO INTERVENE.” Because all powers are inherently vested in the central government. “THE ROLE OUR NATION HAS COME TO EXPECT.” Because our nation has come to expect aggressive wars, indefinite budget deficits, encroachments on liberty, debasement of currency, a kingly presidency, and detainments without charge.

I think Paulson actually touches on a good point here. If we expect fascism we will get it folks.

This is a story from Monday actually, but I didn’t read the article until today. The Oklahoma House of Representatives sent a message to Washington. The Senate has yet to pass the bill, but it sure would be nice if states asserted their sovereignty like this:

“The State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.”

Listen to the optimists arguments and listen to Schiff’s arguments. This is a good battle from July of last year about the state of the economy and what is going to happen.

Apparently there’s a memcache problem with Google App Engine. Renaming my memcache key caused my app to work.

This is all in reference to my post a few days ago where I mentioned my Google App Engine Bullion Value Calculator.

Update 2008-06-17: The problems came back, so I surrounded the problem spots with try/except blocks and had it clear memcache if it had any problems. Also catching another exception. The app should seriously be working now. I mean it this time. Try it out.

Again, more checkpoints. And getting people used to having our cities feel like Baghdad. Hopefully some court somewhere will make a ruling against these checkpoints.

Story.

Two pieces of excellent news today that are very encouraging.

One: the Supreme Court ruled (pdf) that the executive and legislative branches might actually be bound by the US Constitution. And that the Constitution means what it says when it says “the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended” and that the Constitution might say what it means. Bbc’s story. Thank God habeas corpus is partially restored. Those of you who don’t understand the big deal or are in opposition to my point of view, please understand that asking “why am I being detained?” deserves an answer no matter what. Indefinite detainment without charge is simply not the American way. Terrorists are criminals and can have due process via criminal courts. If there is reason to detain, detain and charge and try. We cannot assume that anyone is able to read people’s minds and predict crime. Use reasons and charge with crimes.

Two: Ron Paul will launch the Campaign for Liberty tonight. A similar effort has been underway here in Georgia with r3volt but we haven’t gotten quite as far along.