Thursday, September 20, 2012

A Bizzare Move By Rand Paul

Rand Paul is sponsoring a bill that will privatize airport security. Note this doesn't mean you won't get groped. It just means that a crony business operation, that is connected to the local airport, will be in charge of the groping.

The bill, S. 3303, would force the federal government to largely step down from the business of airport security and would “require that screening of passengers at airports be conducted by employees of a private screening company,” according to a legislation summary obtained by Human Events.

Rand should know better. Government-private sector operations are right out of the book of Mussolini.

What really needs to be done is to get government completely out of the faux-security business  and leave security up to each individual airline, allowing each individual airline to implement whatever security measures they choose.

Rand's bill that would put current airport security measures in the hands of private sector cronies is simply bizarre, since in his new book, Government Bullies, he writes: "Americans should be free to travel from one state to another without having to succumb to sexual harassment, public humiliation and government theft---of both our possessions and our pride."

He goes on to quote security specialist Bruce Schneier calling the current hocu pocus "security theater".

And yet Rand wants to bizarrely just move this nonsense from the government to a private sector crony. Go figure. 

14 comments:

  1. Paternity test, I truly think the hospital fucked up and switched this kid at birth.

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  2. Robert,

    What Rand is proposing is exactly what Ron Paul talked about in his presidential campaign. Namely that airport security and passenger screening is the responsibility of the airlines, not the government. Do you remember Ron Paul’s quip about mailing money?

    If you don't like an airline's screening policies, you can find another airline.

    Your attacks on Rand are bizarre.

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    1. False nonsense. Stunningly and bafflingly false. Nonsense on stilts, per Block.

      Ron Paul's approach is precisely in line with Wenzel's suggestion; 100% privatization including standards and procedures. What Rand Paul is proposing in this bill is to remove the government from direct operations of airport screening but NOT from an oversight role. So to put it another way, Rand wants the private screening companies to supply and pay the employees but what those employees actually do will be entirely up to the government to decide. This has nothing to do with what the screeners are doing and everything with who pays.

      Wenzel's "attacks" on Rand Paul are entirely accurate and warranted.

      Keep 'em up, Bob.

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    2. Rand might want the government out of security entirely, but that is not what he is proposing. He wants the federal government to award contracts to private security companies to operate airport security. They will be beholden to the DHS who will award the contracts, instead of airliners that would hire security companies in a free market. The airliners will again be absolved of blame and the gov't will be able to point their fingers at the private contractors.

      "One bill would require that the mostly federalized program be turned over to private screeners and allow airports — with Department of Homeland Security approval — to select companies to handle the work."

      Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77475.html#ixzz272tMys5n

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    3. Rand's bill merely subcontracts out the work of the TSA to a private company.


      This is not the same as abolishing it.

      But it shouldn't be a surprise considering Rand's post-endorsement shift.

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    4. Saying Rand wants the government out of the TSA is like saying we have completely left Iraq -- not taking into account all of the govt mercenary soldiers who have private contracts and doing exactly what our govt wants done over there.

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    5. And your attacks on Robert are bizarre. As the other commenters have made clear, the differences between Ron's plan and Rand's plan aren't exactly subtle. Ron never, ever called for this. When he called for privatization, he meant actual privatization, not farming out the enforcement of arbitrary government rules.

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  3. Next up. Federal financing and oversight of prisons, private ownership and profit. Then, federal oversight and backstop of banking, private ownership and profit. I guess Rand likes the FED right? It's private, but overseen by the government.

    This is what you get from compromise. Even worse solutions.

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  4. The bill provides a good case-in-point illustrating the difference (or more exactly, lack of difference) between neo-conservative crony corporatism as advocated by the Republicans, and neo-socialist statism as advocated by the Democrats. Same exact oppression of the general public, different persons doing the oppressing. Republicans are the political wing of the crony capitalists, and Democrats are the political wing of the unions and public employees. So what we end up with is a system in which vested crony capitalists and unions/public employees collude to maintain their positions of privilege by repressing free markets and sound money, and growing the power of the state. Those outside these privileged groups are divided, indoctrinated, confused and/or distracted, and thus can put up no effective political resistance to Republicrat hegemony.

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  5. Rand Paul is doing the exact opposite of the tyrannical modus operandi - that is incrementalism in reverse. If the bill passes it will be a great improvement. But who says Rand won't introduce further bills to keep the transition going.

    We all got ourselves in this deep mess after years of collective apathy - it's good that someone is trying to turn the ship around. Different warriors out there on the side of freedom trying different tactics to hack at tyranny. I reckon its unfair to knock Rand on this point and VERY unfair to compare him with Mussolini!

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    1. I think Dr. Ron Paul got it right last July when he said,

      "What we need is real privatization of security, but not phony privatization with the same TSA screeners in private security firm uniforms still operating under the ‘guidance’ of the federal government. Real security will be achieved when the airlines are once again in charge of protecting their property and their passengers."

      http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view...

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  6. For those thinking this is what Ron was talking about, you couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, Ron actually warned against those who would come up with these plans:

    "What we need is real privatization of security, but not phony privatization with the same TSA screeners in private security firm uniforms still operating under the ‘guidance’ of the federal government. Real security will be achieved when the airlines are once again in charge of protecting their property and their passengers."

    http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1884&Itemid=69

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  7. Rand wants to get rid of the TSA and let private companies do airport security. That should be simple enough. But not for the bizarre lew rockwell crowd.

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