--The Right rampages against airport pat-downs while supporting military tribunals, secret 'National Security Courts,' testimony admitted under torture, the USA 'PATRIOT' Act, and Bush/Obama's illegal NSA wiretapping.

We read: Airports consider congressman's call to ditch TSA 18 Nov 2010 In a climate of Internet campaigns to shun airport pat-downs and veteran pilots suing over their treatment by government screeners, some airports are considering another way to show dissatisfaction: Ditching TSA agents altogether. Federal law allows airports to opt for screeners from the private sector instead. The push is being led by a powerful Florida congressman, who's a longtime critic of the Transportation Security Administration and counts among his campaign contributors some of the companies who might take the TSA's place. In the past 13 years, Rep. John Mica of Florida (R) has received almost $81,000 in campaign donations from political action committees and executives connected to some of the private contractors already at 16 U.S. airports.

Amid airport-security backlash, a push to privatize pat-downs 19 Nov 2010 U.S. air travellers continue to push back against "nude" scanners and "enhanced” pat-downs. They’ve settled on their villain: the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA sets the rules. They also staff the vast majority of the checkpoints. High-profile Florida Congressman John Mica wants to change one of those things. He' behind a push to kick most TSA staffers out of Orlando’s Sanford International Airport and replace them with private security contractors.

Ah, then came the dawn. This Drudge-born populist revolt could be seen marching down Broadway from a mile away. The corporate-owned media is pushing pat-down outrage 24/7 while remaining *silent* on USA 'PATRIOT' Act excesses, Bush/Obama illegal NSA wiretapping, and the quest for secret 'National Security Courts.' In the same week the US rightwing clamored for an invocation of civil rights, the same bloggers, pundits and office-holders were defending --nay, demanding -- military tribunals to replace civilian courts and insisting that testimony in such kangaroo courts military tribunals should be admitted under torture. This hypocritical outrage harkens to the summer of 2009, with armed Tea Party protesters yelping 'hands of my Medicare' while simultaneously decrying Obama's push for 'socialized medicine.'

GOP congressmen, acting at the behest of their Wall Street paymasters, are calling for privatization of airport security. Under a privatized airport 'security' world, Blackwater/Xe's former waterboarders and their ilk would face NO regulation. The rule of law did not constrain mercenary interrogation teams in Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and elsewhere. Such mercenaries were given a free hand to carry out 'enhanced interrogation techniques' aka waterboarding, and other acts of torture. Of course, contractors will not be waterboarding people at the airport, but their over-priced pseudo-security processes will face little, if any, scrutiny. The cost of contractor-based security will bloat and skyrocket, and there will be an absence of regulation to constrain Blackwater's groping goons and DynCorp's predators.

Note that the only beneficiaries to privatizing US prisons were/are the contractors and the Congresscritters on their payroll. The TSA has indeed over-reached with their 'enhanced' pat-down procedure, obviously implemented to punish travelers who wish to avoid Michael Chertoff's dangerous, privacy-invading body scanners. But, replacing the TSA with Blackwater, DynCorp or any other merry band of corpora-terrorists would be an expensive national security disaster.

By: Lori Price, www.legitgov.org, Nov 21 2010