Poor Austin

The center of some of the best activism against the TSA and its porno-scanners and groping, Austin, has lost the battle: Scanners have been installed.

Abel on the NH and TX bills

Jennifer Abel has another good write-up in The Guardian on the TSA scanners. This time, she focuses on the bills in NH and TX which criminalize TSA actions.

Austin activism goes to the legislature

Texas has proposed legislation along the lines of what New Hampshire is proposing. Rather than holding individual TSO's responsible for sexual assault, it is holding the airports liable for such breaches of human rights. JH Huebert at LRC gives the backstory, which we've been following along here as well. It would be great to see some of this legislation pass and for more states to follow suit.

Of course, as my last post shows, as long as security is in the hands of the federal government, we will not be safe from the abuses. They will just move onto trains, buses, sporting events, concerts, and more.

Austinite challenges scanner safety

The Washington Examiner (a widely-read free paper, I believe) has a layman's plea for more caution about scanner safety. An excerpt:

One of the most unfortunate aspects of the TSA scanner controversy is that the technical specs of the scanners have not been made available to the public. Nor, to my knowledge, are scanners being made available for independent testing. We’re simply supposed to trust the word of the TSA, the FDA, and hand-picked radiation “experts” that the scanners are safe. This lack of transparency (no pun) is both frightening and illiberal considering the dangers these machines could pose to public health. At the moment, these machines are ‘black boxes.’

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2011/02/tsa-scanners-safety-questions-linger#ixzz1DzONmLKI

More on Austin's noble resistance

A really nice write-up of the events in Austin.

Three great speeches in Austin

Thanks to Wimpie for posting this in the comments section. It's an Austin City Council meeting from last week where three citizens ask they're city council to be the last line of defense protecting their rights at the Austin airport.