Is US' TSA going too far in pat-down guidelines?

New pat-down guidelines for airplane security issued by the United States Transportation Security Administration venture to territory many passengers might feel uncomfortable with.

Beginning Friday, October 29, 2010, the TSA instituted more intrusive pat-downs, as ABC News reported:

Pat-downs are normally given at random or to passengers who set off an alarm. Right now, TSA officials are restricted as to how and where someone can be touched. But, these new guidelines now give them access to body parts that were once off limits.

This body scan machine has only been at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport for less than three months, and already security measures are changing.

TSA officials said, "If they don't want to go through the advanced imaging technology, or a metal detector, they will receive alternate screening to include a thorough pat down."

Right now, TSA officials search passengers using the common pat down method. Starting Friday, they'll be able to use a sliding motion and search parts of the body some say are too private ... like the underside of a woman's bra.

We showed a video clip of what the new searches would look like to passengers ... particularly women. Their reaction was all the same.

Pat Leppo said, "I don't think they should be able to touch anything that's kinda private."

The decision of these guidelines is timely. The announcement of the guidelines came right before the announcement Friday that British and Dubai authorities intercepted possibly explosive packages headed to Jewish targets in the Chicago, Illinois area.

AFL-CIO Now Blog: Work Till 70? Yes, if Boehner and Republicans Have Their Way

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | Work Till 70? Yes, if Boehner and Republicans Have Their Way

Massive oil stretch discovered outside the mouth of Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico

Amidst the media talk of the resolution of the oil nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico: this in from New Orleans' "Times Picayune:"

"Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta."
Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

HCR Explained: The New Health Care Law and Affordable Health Insurance, Policy, Plan Website - AARP Bulletin

HCR Explained: The New Health Care Law and Affordable Health Insurance, Policy, Plan Website - AARP Bulletin

Why the November 2 election is important. We cannot risk losing the gains we made.

Tea Party Republican Carl Paladino really goes off deep end with remarks on gays

This weekend Carl Paladino, Republican Party nominee for New York State governor, of the Tea Party stripe, really went off the deep end with comments about gays. In reacting to Democrat Andrew Cuomo's marching in the Gay Pride Parade, Paladino said,

I didn't march in the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did. And that's not the example that we should be showing our children, and certainly not in our schools.
I just think my children and your children would be better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family. And I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. It isn't.

Paladino has already shown himself to be a third-rail candidate. Remarkably, these words are worst than a hot-headed slip of the tongue, these were premeditated comments, iin a prepared statement.
And the latest word is that he is standing by his comments. The New York Times reports Paladino's Today show appearance this morning, "Paladino Strongly Defends Remarks on Homosexuality."

Global warming and detailed rising sea levels map

There is an excellent global map at geology.com for the seeing effects on coastlines from rising sea levels, due to global warming, or what some call climate change.

The map has zooming capabilities, so that you can closely look at the country or region and see just how intensely the particular areas would be affected by rising se levels. You can also set the interactive map to see how different levels of increases in the sea level, from 1, to 2, to 3, and so on up to 14 meters will affect the coastlines.

The map shows that even at modest increases, such as 2 meters, about half of the Netherlands, the entire Venice region and the lower islands of the Florida Keys will be submerged under water.

You will also note that, despite dire predictions for New York City, the areas to see the worst effects are in eastern Brooklyn and southern Queens.

Heidi Cullen's "The Weather of the Future," an urgently relevant book for our times

Heidi Cullen, a climatologist with a PhD from Columbia University, and who has appeared on PBS News Hour," has written "The Weather of the Future." Its subtitle, "Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed" contains elements of the some of the extreme weather trends in North America in the last few years.
New York City has seen two tornadoes in the past three months, something that we rarely expect to see in the city. Frequently, storms in recent months have involved uprooting of trees, felling of major tree branches and heavy local flooding.
Heat waves in cities have become longer, devastating wildfires have become more damaging.
Cullen's book notes how low-lying areas such as nearly the entire nation of Bangladesh could become devastated due to rising sea levels. In the United States, much of the southern half of Florida is similarly low-lying.

The profound vulnerabilities that the world faces high-lights the need to take decisive action to reverse the ill effects of greenhouse gases. Republicans like to rant against carbon caps as job killers. They need to realize that inaction will lead to disaster-movie scenario with variations across the planet. In terms of life-style policies we need to expand mass transit, encourage tree planting, and encourage local food networks to minimize the carbon impact that is attendant with transporting food.

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the constant drumbeat of a right-wing Tea Partier, Republican agenda that permeates the political talk and the "news,"
the Islamophobia.
If one needs a brief overview of the role of FoxNews as a transmission belt for the Republican Party, one should just view Robert Greenwald's quintessial video, "Outfoxed!"



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