On: Two New Fed GPS Trackers Found on SUV

[protomyth]

Have you actually talked to any of the "conservatives" in the Tea Party? Most of them are super fed up with the TSA and all this crap. Heck, here is an example from today: http://www.redstate.com/tabithahale/2011/11/08/no-tsa-i-will...

If you notice, there is a Democrat in office who hasn't ended this crap, but kept it going in new ways.

[tptacek → protomyth]

I'm fed up with the TSA. Everyone is fed up with the TSA. The TSA is a joke. It's clearly not a "liberal" or "conservative" issue.

But I'm not prepared to lump everything that law enforcement does in with the TSA. One of the biggest problems with the TSA is that they're not a real law enforcement agency; they're lowest-bidder contractors and subcontractors that exist almost entirely for the purpose of making people feel safer, because anything as annoying as the TSA must be making us safer.

Let's be as specific as we can.

[protomyth → tptacek]

I agree its not a liberal or conservative issues, and yes, the TSA is security theater, but according to the government they are real law enforcement.

Law enforcement throughout the country has another problem: the drug war and the militarization of the police force.

My dispute was that it is "conservatives" pushing this crap and that is far from correct. It is big government types who are in both parties.

[tptacek → protomyth]

"Real law enforcement" is trained and sworn in. The TSA is not. Random people in the government can say whatever they want; they could also call mall cops "law enforcement" of a sort. The fact is that words mean things, and TSA "agents" are not sworn officers.

[sarchertech → tptacek]

TSA agents may not be sworn LEOs but they are not contractors or subcontractors. I do agree that they exist entirely to make us feel safer.

[tptacek → sarchertech]

How sure are you about the way the TSA staffs checkpoints?

[sarchertech → tptacek]

If you mean their highway checkpoints, I'm not sure about that, but you said

>One of the biggest problems with the TSA is that they're not a real law enforcement agency; they're lowest-bidder contractors and subcontractors

You didn't say there are some TSA contractors, you said they are all contractors and subcontractors.

[onemoreact → protomyth]

As long as the "Tea Party" is just a vocal minority within the Republican party there is little meaningful difference.

Or can you actually point to an elected official that says, let's END social security, medicare, and farm subsidies, cut the DoD budget by 80% and gut the rest of the federal budget?

[protomyth → onemoreact]

Conservative is not equal to Republican and hasn't been for a while.

[onemoreact → protomyth]

Yea, I find it sad.

I would self identify as a fiscally conservative proponent of free markets and I vote for the Democratic candidate most of the time though I have been leaning to the Libertarian party lately.

[andrewpi → onemoreact]

Doesn't Ron Paul basically say that?

[onemoreact → andrewpi]

Some of the time.

Yet Paul’s plan would not return the country to the 1990s, let alone the 19th century. It calls for total outlays of $2.9 trillion in 2015, which is about as much as the federal government spent as recently as 2003, adjusted for inflation. http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/8278110-452/ron-paul... Counting savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Paul calls for $832 billion in cuts over four years, which would leave the Pentagon’s base budget in 2016 about 2 percent lower than it is now

Now compare that with the perfectly reasonable idea of only spending 300 billion a year vs. 1,200 billion which is still more than any other country in the world. http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/20/weinstein-is-wrong-about-d...

[anamax → onemoreact]

> Or can you actually point to an elected official that says, let's END social security, medicare, and farm subsidies, cut the DoD budget by 80% and gut the rest of the federal budget?

I'm confused - are you claiming that the Tea Party supports all of those things? If so, some cites would be nice. (There is some Tea Party support for ending farm subsidies and possibly "gut the rest" for some definition of "the rest".)