Governor Goodhair has decided to take up the reins for everyone opposed to groping at the airport. So what if los federales are threatening to cancel flights in and out of Texas as a result. The fair-haired one has found an issue that's dear to the hearts of libertarians everywhere.
I applaud Gov. Perry for his stand against the groping fingers of the TSA but I also wonder why his sudden love of personal freedom and privacy doesn't extend to anyone outside an airport. At least we have a choice whether we wish to subject ourselves to the groping hands or X-ray eyes of airport security. We don't have a choice when confronted by a police officer on the side of the road.
Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, sent a letter to Perry on Sunday urging him to defend the "privacy, dignity and constitutional rights of our citizens."Where's the hue and cry for an end to the legal fiction of informed consent? Where's the outrage over the violations of the Fourth Amendment in the procurement of search warrants for blood? How about the coercive effects of "No Refusal" Weekends?
It's quite ironic that the law and order set has their panties in a wad over airport security considering TSA's license to grope was the result of the right wing's assault on the Fourth Amendment following 9/11. No one on the right seemed to mind the erosion of privacy at the airport while Bush the Younger sat in Washington torturing the English language. Would this even be an issue had it begun under W's watch?
Few folks on the right have raised any concerns about the steady erosion of the Fourth Amendment over the last 50 years. Maybe it was because that Fourth Amendment was for those who ran afoul of the law. As long as it was affecting them it didn't matter how intrusive the long arm of the law became. But guess what? Shredding the Fourth Amendment for those accused of criminal conduct allowed the state to take away everyone's right to be left alone.
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