Maine Liberty Journal

AP via DailyBreeze.com – 4/15/2009:

A program that allows Orange County defendants charged with some misdemeanors and low-level drug felonies to go free in exchange for a DNA sample worries some judges and defense attorneys, who say it raises questions about abuses of power and public safety.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, who has clashed with the Sheriff’s Department over the collection of genetic evidence, quietly rolled out the program last year for misdemeanor crimes and expanded it earlier this year to include some low-level drug felonies, the Daily Journal in Los Angeles reported Wednesday.

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You buy a ticket to fly somewhere in a commercial airplane. Between your home and your destination, you will be confronted by TSA agents who demand you remove your shoes, your belt, your jacket, your laptop from its bag and the contents of your pockets. You will be forced to throw away your water bottles and bottles of shampoo that are larger than 3 oz. (Half full 4oz. bottles must also be thrown away.)

All of this charade is to present the image that America faces a major security threat in our nations airports, AND that the US government is the best equipped entity to provide the security in order to intercept the threats.

Unfortunately, the TSA doesn’t even seem to be able to screen its own employees who have been robbing passengers blind for years.

Airport Screener Sentenced 3 Years For Baggage Thefts
wpix.com – July 15, 2009

A former baggage screener at Newark Liberty International Airport, who ripped off more than 100 cameras, laptop computers, and other items from checked luggage was sentenced to a three-year-prison term.

Pythias Brown, 47, of Maplewood pleaded guilty to criminal charges in March when he admitted to stealing two to three times a week from bags beginning in 2007. Police didn’t nab him, though until the following year, after he apparently stole a camcorder belonging to a CNN employee and attempted to sell it on eBay.

Just for entertainment, here are some stories I found by putting some of the following terms into a search engine: airport, baggage, theft, TSA

PHL Airport Baggage Worker Charged with Theft from Luggage
April 3, 2009

Missing luggage? Theft ring busted at Portland airport
April 29, 2009
TSA Under Fire for Rising Theft by Baggage Screeners
Government Screeners at 30 Airports Arrested for Stealing
NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2004

Theft From Luggage Rampant At Sea-Tac Airport

A never-before-released federal database shows thieves steal something nearly every day from Sea-Tac passengers.

Theft From Luggage Rampant: Sea-Tac Airport Among Nation’s Worst

Is Baggage Theft at Airports Growing?
Thursday, May 19, 2005

TSA agent steals $200K worth of gear, resells it on eBay
Tue Oct 14, 2008

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Paulson reveals US concerns of breakdown in law and order – UK Independent July 17, 2009:

Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat, asked Mr Paulson to reveal details of officials’ concerns, which were relayed to Congress in hasty conference calls last year. The calls included discussion of law and order and whether it would be possible to feed the American people, and for how long, according to Mr Kanjorski.

“In a world where information can flow, money can move with the speed of light electronically, I looked at the ripple effect, and looked at when a financial system fails, a whole country’s economic system can fail,” Mr Paulson said. “I believe we could have gone back to the sorts of situations we saw in the Depression. I try not to use hyperbole. It’s impossible to prove now since it didn’t happen.”

As redefined by the USA Patriot Act:

A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act “”dangerous to human life”" that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. Additionally, the acts have to occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States and if they do not, may be regarded as international terrorism.

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