Interesting message left on the View web site.

Submitted by glassa39 19/04/2011 08:24 pm PDT

Westboro Baptist Church Goes To Mississippi – And Loses
Posted by: MacAoidh on Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 18:00
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Tagged with: Military/Security Westboro Baptist Church
On Saturday USMC Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers, who was killed in action in Afghanistan April 7, was buried in Brandon, Mississippi.
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That, by itself, is a sadly unremarkable – though certainly noteworthy and solemn – occasion for us to mark.
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And in fact when Sgt. Rogers’ body returned to Brandon it was greeted by hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of well-wishers who gathered at the roadside to honor the fallen American hero. The dashboard camera from Mississippi state trooper Elmo Townsend’s cruiser gives an indication of the scene last Thursday.
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What is most notable about Sgt. Rogers’ funeral in Brandon, however, is what didn’t happen.
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You see, the troglodytes from Westboro Baptist Church had threatened to spew their poison at Sgt. Rogers’ funeral.
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But the Westboro mob wasn’t on the scene, and Sgt. Rogers was laid to rest without incident – thank God.
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Why weren’t there protestors?
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Planning ahead by the locals, as it turns out.
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From an Ole Miss sports message board, a tidbit of information…
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A couple of days before, one of them (Westboro protestors) ran his mouth at a Brandon gas station and got his arse waxed. Police were called and the beaten man could not give much of a description of who beat him. When they canvassed the station and spoke to the large crowd that had gathered around, no one seemed to remember anything about what had happened.
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Rankin County handled this thing perfectly. There were many things that were put into place that most will never know about and at great expense to the county.
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Most of the morons never made it out of their hotel parking lot. It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over. Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out.
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A few made it to the funeral but were ushered away to be questioned about a crime they might have possibly been involved in. Turns out, after a few hours of questioning, that they were not involved and they were allowed to go on about their business.
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Fred Phelps, the disbarred lawyer and Democrat activist who leads the Westboro congregation, will undoubtedly pursue some form of legal action for the way his people were thwarted in Brandon. Let him try. There isn’t a jury in Mississippi which will see things his way.
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This is a template for how to handle the Westboro people. If lawsuits don’t work, other means will. Whatever it takes to keep them from harassing bereaved military families on the day their fallen loved ones are laid to rest.

Submitted by davila869..... 19/04/2011 08:45 pm PDT

Glassa, thank you for this post. Eventually, they will no longer be able to create their special brand of havoc. I hadn't heard about this particular story. Thanks again.

Submitted by RoseNiland1 19/04/2011 08:50 pm PDT

Way to go Mississippi!

Submitted by Cinnuint.17 19/04/2011 08:52 pm PDT

When the law will not work in the favor of what is right and decent, then it is time for the people to show others what will work. It is more than clear to me, the phelps bunch is not welcomed in one of the most hospitable states in the country! Now if others would just follow their example, we'll be able to put the likes of the phelps in their place. Bravo Mississippians!

Submitted by davila869..... 19/04/2011 08:56 pm PDT

Hi Cinn! I could be wrong, but I think it just took a little bit of time to get the story out about them. Now, who doesn't know about them? They'll never be able to hurt anyone again. I love it. And, it's all been handled (relatively) peacefully...They will run out of steam, before we run out of patriotic Americans.

Submitted by springsun3 19/04/2011 08:57 pm PDT

Love it! Phelps is a democrat huh?

Submitted by davila869..... 19/04/2011 09:09 pm PDT

I don't have a clue about his politics; everything I need to know about him comes from what I know about his heart. He's evil and that's all that matters.

Submitted by HereOnMars. 19/04/2011 09:45 pm PDT

Good article, glassa. It's a shame that these funerals have to shadowed by the fear these wackos will show up. I think there are enough people in this country that won't let them get near. The Patriot Guards are one group that comes to mind. Good people! :)

Submitted by Cinnuint.17 19/04/2011 10:50 pm PDT

Davila!!! I love that comment ~ "They will run out of steam, before we run out of patriotic Americans."
PRICELESS!!! Hope all is going great with you and yours! ♥

Submitted by RoseNiland1 20/04/2011 05:52 am PDT

Submitted by MONTALBAN427 20/04/2011 05:41 am PDT
I never hear a word ushered about Fred Phelps from every single Baptist Church I've visited. Does God have a deaf ear?
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I'm quite sure the Baptists don't like the direction this country is headed. They don't mention President Obama's name either. What's your point?

Submitted by JustplayNya 20/04/2011 06:02 am PDT

"Why don't they mention Fred Phelps?"
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Because he (Fred Phelps) isn't worth the breath it would take to speak his name.

Submitted by Baphomet. 20/04/2011 06:40 am PDT

I say ignoring them and not giving them the attention is still the best way to handle them.
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If they win any monetary settlement in this Brandon,MO case then they win. They make their money by suing municipalities.

Submitted by sandie..04 20/04/2011 07:03 am PDT

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way the people in Mississippi handled this America Hero's funeral. GOOD JOB!!!

Submitted by Baphomet. 20/04/2011 07:07 am PDT

Whoops! Thanks Sandie, Mississippi not Missouri.
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I got Brandon, MS mixed up with Branson, MO. LOL

Submitted by Auntiecyn3 20/04/2011 07:09 am PDT

I think we all love what good people did in Mississippi. Did anyone stop to find out how many were republicans and how many were democrates? No, of course not. However, first the reporter makes a big mistake by saying the group is democratic and then some moron here thinks its an important part of the story. Too bad, it was a nice post.

Submitted by wacagain 20/04/2011 07:42 am PDT

Glassa!! Thanks for this thread, you have made my day.
This is so creative how the Phelps were handled. Kudos to Branson,Ms. for their part in this story.

Submitted by again39 20/04/2011 07:52 am PDT

Every religion on earth has it's fanatics and radicals.I don't hear the Catholic up in arms over the child abuse in the church or the Mormons up in arms over the treatment of young children or the pentacostal religion over some of their fanatics.There job of the Churches is to teach the religion and not spread hate.If you really want to protest the Westboro Baptist Church, do just that.People of all races,creeds and religions should surround the church during a service very loudly.Make sure there are member off the military or Reserves or National Guard there.Don't make political or trash a whole religion because one group happens to be radical.

Submitted by jason.barrett7884 20/04/2011 07:53 am PDT

Good article, but for future reference... unlike the Army, the Marine Corps does not belittle the rank of which we have achieved. There for, when writing Rogers' rank it should appear as Ssgt Jason Rodgers. This devil dog deserves every bit of rank that he earned. Semper Fi.

Submitted by che.guev.6 20/04/2011 08:15 am PDT

"This is a template for how to handle the Westboro people. If lawsuits don’t work, other means will"

Then why is it wrong to attack other groups of people that someone disagree with(g4y rights parades, atheist conventions etc)

Submitted by Baphomet. 20/04/2011 08:33 am PDT

The Southern Baptist Convention has denounced Phelps and Westboro on their official website.
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SBC is not only the largest Baptist convention in the US, it is the largest Protestant denomination in the US.

Submitted by Caresalot61 20/04/2011 08:39 am PDT

I love the fact that this group was thwarted. Believe me when I read this article I cheered for the people of Mississippi. I have to say though maybe the police hauling them for questioning might have been going a little too far because I suspect they opened themselves up to a lawsuit. I hope people of other states and towns take heed and use some of their techniques to thwart this group in the future. Way to go Mississippi!

Organize and sue: plan to fight emergency management law

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obamas visit Chicago to film Oprah episode

President and First Lady will appear on May 2 show

Cliff Owen  /  AP

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama headed back to their hometown of Chicago briefly Wednesday to film an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

 

CHICAGO — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are back in their hometown of Chicago to film an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

The Obamas arrived in Chicago on Wednesday morning for the filming. Later in the day the president is traveling to New York.

The first couple is to appear on one of the final episodes of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which is taped in Chicago at Harpo Studios. Winfrey is ending her popular talk show this May after 25 years.

The Obamas' show is to air on May 2.

Obama releases detailed birth certificate

The last episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will air May 25. That episode will bring to an end what has been television's top-rated talk show for more than two decades. It airs in 145 countries worldwide.

Hot Topics: Obama's Birth Certificate

April 27, 2011 | Posted at 11:16 AM

The ladies discuss President Obama releasing his birth certificate and Donald Trump taking credit for the release!

1BizeeGma Says:

April 27th, 2011, 6:25 pm

In regards to this mornings hot topics I'm in total agreement with Joy and Whoopi. Though it's a very bitter pill to swallow, racisim is still vey much alive and seems to permeate more and more from an overwhelming number of individuals who have spent coutnless years camouflaging their true identities(in regards to race relations). Having a Black President has made it very difficult for many to remain silent;however I do understand because in the miniscule minds of those in this catagory it was never expected that an African American would or could reach such a pinnacle of success.

PolWriter1 Says:

April 27th, 2011, 7:09 pm

I am on the record on the View comments as saying that this birth certificate issue was unenforceable and a wild goose chase. I would suggest to Whoppi not to be so reflexive about calling out politicians as racists unless hard evidence exists.This is a dirty campaign and everybody on the top may be accused of dirty politics but you need more on them to say they are haters. Obama in the 40s in popularity is still popular. I don't want to hear his school record it is not important to me. Barrack Obama was elected in a rainbow coalition. The Black electorate comes in at 11%. That probatively indicates that he was elected by a huge majority of White and Hispanic voters. Racism still undeniably exists in the US but not anywhere like it was when I was a kid in the 1950's.

mrsdrc Says:

April 28th, 2011, 12:39 am

BRAVA, BRAVA, BRAVA!!! Thank goodness for Whoopi on the View. Her comments are rational, educated and intellegent. Her comments on Trump were right on and what everyone is thinking.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Whoopi! Please do not stop speaking the truth. I think you are the only voice of absolute in the midst of clear insanity. So many of us are soooo tired of the obvious abuse (regarding gasoline) and true lunacy (regarding the birth certificate, no jobs, etc.). Moreover, we have no where to state how we think or feel.

rockstar683 Says:

April 28th, 2011, 6:41 am

So Whoopi is gonna play the "race card!" So what else is new? She always does. She is a racist of the highest order. She always excuses or dismisses bad behavior from black celebrities or politicians while hammering the white guys. Nothing new here.

She stomps and stews when people don't agree with her...just witness her recent stomp off during the O'Reilly interview. She is like a petulant child. One of the reasons I don't watch anymore.

Did You Fall for It? America's Outrage Over TSA Naked Body Scanners Was Right-Wing PR to Prevent Workers from Unionizing

The right fears nothing more than unionized workers, and found a cunning way to scapegoat workers to derail a campaign to organize the TSA.

April 28, 2011  |  

 

 

 

 

Nation questioning the media-driven anti-TSA campaign, which we argued smelled of AstroTurf. For one thing, it made little sense that an issue like TSA pat-downs, offensive as they were, could dominate headlines for two straight weeks at a time when America was suffering from unprecedented corruption, lawless evictions of homeowners, unheard-of inequality, and wars that barely make news.

Sure enough, we uncovered numerous Koch-linked libertarian activists spearheading the campaign to demonize TSA screeners, DC lobbyists specializing in fake-grassroots campaigns setting up “Opt Out” websites while posing as regular Joes, and sleazy Republican hacks who had shown little interest in protecting civil liberties suddenly getting their ACLU on over the TSA’s intrusive pat-downs and “porn scans.” Progressives were understandably drawn into the anti-TSA campaign and hysteria, as the PR campaign cleverly framed it not as a union-bashing operation, but rather, as a purely civil liberties issue.  

The anti-TSA campaign was at its media-hysteria peak in the weeks after the Republican election sweep, spurred on by last year’s hero, John Tyner, who refused a pat-down, telling TSA agents, “You touch my junk and I'm going to have you arrested.” Tyner disappeared from the scene after he apologized on his blog, and admitted that he didn't tell the whole story and had actively tried to erase it(Tyner did not return our call or answer our message requesting comment).*  But the slack was quickly picked up by waves of anti-TSA campaigns ever since, drawing together an alliance of rabid Christian homophobes and neo-Confederates, warmongering neocons and notorious anti-union lobbying outfits, and even a few blasts-from-the-right-wing-past, like the Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead, a onetime Christian “reconstructionist” who all but disappeared after running Paula Jones’ sexual-harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Whitehead, whose outfit once advocated the death penalty for homosexuals, recently re-emerged in the public eye leading several high-profile lawsuits against the TSA. Bob Barr, onetime Republican Congressman and Libertarian Party presidential candidate, added the anti-TSA campaign to his client list in his new gig as a DC lobbyist, joining Haiti dictator “Baby” Doc Duvalier as well as for-profit education. Others include the homophobic Public Advocate of the United States, a Reagan-era anti-gay group, whose leader accused the TSA of pursuing a “homosexual agenda” with its enhanced pat-downs and scans, echoing charges by the leader of the Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, who called for a prohibition of gay TSA screeners because they “might get turned on” while patting down passengers.

To understand why such a diverse range of right-wing Republicans -- many of whom had previously shown little interest in civil liberties, if not outright hostility to them -- would suddenly unite last November to rage against the porn-scanner machine, a brief history on the TSA, unions, and their struggle for collective bargaining rights is in order:

Until 9/11, the task of managing America’s airport screeners was left to the private sector, which squeezed profits by hiring low-qualified, poorly-trained screeners willing to work for at or near minimum wages, making pre-TSA airport screeners among the lowest-paid security workers in the nation, according to one investigation.

After 9/11, the frightened and traumatized public demanded better security in the form of higher-quality, better-paid federal screeners. The private sector, as in so many instances, could not be trusted to put the public’s interests over the CEOs’ profit interests. But President Bush and the Republicans resisted the public’s demands: They worried less about security, and more about creating a brand new federal agency for airport screeners, whose employees would likely unionize. At a time when most Americans were still too traumatized to pay attention to such seemingly arcane bureaucratic issues, the Bush White House had Iraq invasions and union-busting hot on its mind.

Their logic then was the same as it is today: If TSA employees are allowed to unionize with collective bargaining rights, it would represent perhaps the single largest pro-unionization drive in decades, adding tens of thousands of dues-paying members to the public sector union rolls, reversing decades of decline and, most importantly, funnel money to pro-labor and predominately Democratic candidates. Former House Majority Leader and current FreedomWorks head Dick Armey, who voted against federalizing airport screeners, explained in 2001, ''It's all about union membership in a union that imposes compulsory dues that fund their campaigns.” Of course, this is just another classic right-wing anti-union lie: dues aren’t compulsory as they like to allege. But Armey’s fixation on those union dues was real -- the Republicans would rather staff airport security with rent-a-cops and burger-flippers than risk enabling unions to collect dues and spend them on political campaigns.

Robert Poole, who left the Koch-founded Reason Foundation to serve as President Bush’s top advisor on airport security, laid out the White House’s opposition to federal screeners just a few weeks after the terrorist attacks:

“A federal workforce would resist the use of labor-saving technology, object to being reassigned freely, and almost certainly become unionized.” [italics ours]

Unfortunately for Republicans, the public wasn’t convinced: A Time magazine poll showed that 77% of Americans wanted federal workers in control of airport security. So the Republicans gave in and passed a law federalizing airport and baggage screeners, but with one unusual caveat: no collective bargaining rights for TSA employees, unless their boss, the appointed head of the TSA, gave the green light. Not surprisingly, Bush’s TSA chiefs were as opposed to TSA workers unionizing as Bush himself.

In early 2003, just as TSA workers were going through the first stages of organizing by the American Federation of Government Employees, the TSA’s boss, James Loy, signed an order “precluding collective bargaining.” Only now, instead of opposing unionized TSA workers on the grounds that they might become a base of Democratic Party support (which was too obviously cynical even for Republicans), Loy parroted the new official line, first put out by Reason’s Robert Poole, claiming that unionized screeners would threaten national security:

"Mandatory collective bargaining is not compatible with the flexibility required to wage the war against terrorism.

…Fighting terrorism demands a flexible workforce that can rapidly respond to threats. That can mean changes in work assignments and other conditions of employment that are not compatible with the duty to bargain with labor unions.”

Attempts to organize the TSA’s nearly 45,000 security screeners -- who make up the majority of the agency's approximately 55,000 employees -- roughly went nowhere all throughout President Bush’s two terms. Even after the Democrats’ 2006 Congressional sweep, they failed to overcome opposition led by Sen. Jim DeMint, who urged President Bush to veto any Homeland Security bill that included collective bargaining rights for TSA employees, even if a veto meant defunding the Homeland Security Department and shutting it down. DeMint made no bones about which threat bothered him most; unions or terrorists: 

"Unionizing the 43,000 security screeners at TSA could give labor unions a $17 million annual windfall in the form of new union dues," he said. "This is a hearty payback to the unions for helping Democrats win the past election. These dues can then be kicked back to lawmakers in the form of political contributions without the consent of rank-and-file union members."

With the GOP blocking all attempts at unionizaton, TSA employees had little recourse and almost no leverage against abuse at the hands of all-powerful TSA managers, whose abuse was clearly encouraged by an atmosphere in which it was clear that TSA employees would not have the same rights and protections as other federal employees. As numerous complaints of sexual harassment, illegal firings, and rampant bullying by TSA management piled up, the agency consistently ranked as suffering from the lowest morale among over 200 federal agencies and the highest turnover, with attrition rates over 10 times higher than other agencies. A shocking 30 percent of the workforce reported suffering from illnesses and injuries, a rate six times higher than other federal agency employees.

In Denver International Airport, over 20 former TSA screeners reported widespread sexual harassment and bullying. TSA worker Ingrid Cartinelle, targeted for harassment by management, found a dead rat in her employee locker, causing her to faint and vomit due to her phobia of rodents. Later, someone smashed her car windshield and spiked her tires, and shortly after that, she was attacked outside her workplace, pepper-sprayed, and dragged up a stairwell by the neck before fellow employees ran to her aid. Local police, and later Homeland Security investigated, but came up empty handed --  she filed suit against the TSA. “They were just allowed and permitted to do whatever they wanted to. To bully you, harass you, everything you could think of, they did," Cartinelle told journalists. 

In 2004, four top TSA managers at Seattle-Tacoma International were fired following an investigation into complaints of mismanagement and harsh working conditions. That same year, in Spokane International Airport, three top TSA managers were removed following a petition that TSA employees sent to Sen. Patty Murray, complaining that TSA "leaders intimidated workers and engaged in personal and unprofessional relationships with others." At Pittsburgh International Airport in 2005, the top three TSA officials were forced to resign after being investigated for sexual harassment, fraud, and intimidation. One screener told PBS Newshour in 2003, “When you have a supervisor go in front of 200 employees and tell them he's looking for blonde-hair leads and supervisors, I have problems. I don't have blonde hair. I have graduated from college. There are no promotions for people of color.”

In Bush’s final year in office, the TSA inspector general issued an alarming report saying that employee morale was so rock-bottom that it was negatively impacting airport security.  

A week before the 2008 presidential elections, Barack Obama sent a letter to AFGE union leaders pledging to support their drive to unionize the TSA if elected president. But as with so many issues, President Obama’s support turned out to be far more tepid than candidate Obama’s, while in the Republican camp, opposition hardened under the leadership of two Tea Party heroes, Jim DeMint and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah.  

Rep. Chaffetz's first piece of legislation, which he introduced in April 2009, was a bill to limit the use of TSA body-imaging scanners on the grounds that it they were an “invasion of privacy.” Chaffetz’s bill attracted the support of the ACLU and Democrats from across the aisle. As soon as he was done crusading against the TSA’s civil liberties violations, Chaffetz hopped on a plane to Guantanamo Bay on a fact-finding mission, and reported that civil liberties were thriving like never before in the extra-legal internment camp: “Guantanamo Bay has been inaccurately portrayed as a site of  ongoing detainee torture and mistreatment – nothing could be further  from the truth,” Chaffetz wrote in an open letter to President Obama. “[C]ontrary to popular belief, waterboarding never happened at Guantanamo Bay.” As proof, Chaffetz’s letter cheerfully noted that Guantanamo inmates “have access to hundreds of movies such as Oceans 13, Liar Liar, and Finding Nemo.” Inmates were so pampered that even their hunger strikes tasted delicious: “We go to great lengths to see that their nutritional needs are met, even offering a variety of flavored liquid nutrients to detainees participating in hunger strikes.”  

In September 2009, shortly after Chaffetz voted to prohibit TSA employees from unionizing, he made headlines in a bizarre airport incident in which he claimed he had been targeted for retaliatory harassment by Salt Lake City Airport screeners. But Chaffetz’s story started to fall apart after local news reported that Chaffetz himself acted aggressively and “escalated the situation” by cursing a TSA screener, throwing his card at one, and grabbing a TSA employee’s badge. But that did not stop Chaffetz: Last November, in the peak of the anti-TSA hysteria, the Congressman seized on a completely false story pushed by ultra-rightwing Hollywood clown Andrew Breitbart and the Drudge Report alleging that the TSA had forcibly strip-searched a young boy. Despite the fact that the boy’s father confirmed that it was not true, Chaffetz wouldn’t let it die, going as far as calling for a Congressional investigation.

Meanwhile in the Senate, Tea Party “king” Jim DeMint single-handedly staved off the threat of unionization by filibustering Obama’s nominees to head the TSA, ensuring that the agency created to prevent another 9/11 remained headless for nearly 1-1/2 years. Obama’s first nominee, Errol Southers, was held up by DeMint throughout all of 2009 because Southers refused to come out against collective bargaining.

It was only when the “underwear bomber” tried blowing up a passenger jet over Detroit that the TSA, and its lack of a leader, suddenly became an issue. But in astrange twist of logic, DeMint used the occasion to prove his point, telling reporters that the underwear bomber was “a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA.” Rather than apologizing for keeping the TSA leaderless that year, he scolded Obama to “put the interests of American travelers ahead of organized labor.”

Like Reason’s Robert Poole, FreedomWorks’ Dick Armey, and numerous other right-wing Republicans and libertarians, DeMint played the “national security threat” card to justify his opposition to collective bargaining rights for TSA screeners, claiming it would "significantly undermine TSA's ability to respond to threats and protect the nation."

It’s a false line of reasoning: Other law enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection guards, are unionized, as are police department employees across the nation. The real threat to security, of course, comes from the savage workplace conditions that TSA screeners endure. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), who brought this issue before Congress in 2009, said, "If you have someone stabbing you in the back, if you have sex harassment charges against you, your mind is not going to be on the job. And this is a job where you have to be alert. All the time." 

The only people who saw unions as a threat to their existence were, of course, the Republicans. As if to illustrate this, one of Tom Ridge’s earliest acts in officeat the newly-created Homeland Security Department in 2002 was to denounce a Longshore workers’ strike in Oakland as a threat to national security, and demand they call off the strike immediately.

But DeMint, to whom David Koch personally awarded a “George Washington Prize” for leading the fight to kill Obama's health insurance reform plan, laid out the stakes in his 2009 book Saving Freedom: “Labor unions are one of the most powerful forces in Washington, and they support Democrats almost exclusively,” he wrote. Cheerfully noting that private sector unions have long since declined to the point of near-irrelevancy, DeMint ominously observes, “more than 35 percent of government workers are members of a union.” That means union dues for Democratic candidates, and in return, “The Democratic Party reciprocates by shamelessly promoting the union agenda in Congress.”

Just as Bush and the rest of the GOP prioritized politics over security concerns in 2001, DeMint chose to hold up and eventually defeat Obama’s first two nominees, both African-Americans, to head the TSA. It wasn’t until Obama nominated someone with solid conservative credentials -- the FBI’s number two, John Pistole -- that DeMint finally relented. Pistole was a crapshoot. Neither labor nor the anti-labor right was pleased, yet neither side knew exactly where he would come down on unionization.

And then last November, everything suddenly came to a head. First, the Republicans swept Congressional elections, and they wasted little time in setting the new agenda. Then, on November 12, after years of setbacks and disappointments, the Federal Labor Relations Board issued a surprise ruling (even to labor organizers) finally giving TSA employees the green light to unionize.

But Labor barely had time to celebrate: the very next day, November 13, Matt Drudge posted and promoted the famous “Don’t Touch My Junk” video, which quickly turned into the media sensation of the season, hogging headlines for nearly two straight weeks. Almost no one found it strange that the cause of civil liberties was suddenly taken up, in almost perfect unison, by the whole range of right-wing waterboarding-cheerleaders like Glenn Beck, George Will and his colleague Charles Krauthammer, who declared:

“Don’t touch my junk is the anthem of the modern man,  the Tea Party patriot, the late-life libertarian, the midterm election voter...This time you have gone too far, Big Bro'. The sleeping giant awakes. Take my shoes, remove my belt, waste my time and try my patience. But don't touch my junk.”  

Indeed.

In hindsight, now that we understand the Republican playbook and their political goals, what happened last November makes a lot more sense. It all starts with a political goal: prevent the TSA screeners from unionizing. The strategy: 1) concoct and magnify fake government oppression at the hands of the TSA;  2) Demonize and blame the crisis on your political target, TSA screeners, so that the public turns against them; 3) Push and PR the message, focusing on valid but largely trivial aspects of the problem; and 4) Now you can appear, not as cruel union-buster, but as a hero defending the public.

The reason why last November’s anti-TSA AstroTurf campaign was so successful was because it  was based on valid criticisms of TSA policies and tapped into real anger, while deviously redirecting that anger against an innocent target. The con succeeded in duping many progressives, who allowed themselves to be caught up in the euphoria of what seemed like a genuine mass-conversion among right-wingers to the cause of civil libertarianism. But over on the Republican side, there was never a doubt about what the anti-TSA campaign was about -- even if they couldn't get their numbers straight -- as this blog post in Erik Erickson’s website RedState, headlined “TSA Unionization: A $30 Million Annual Gift to Union Bosses” shows:

In a significant victory for federal employee unions, the Federal Labor Relations Authority decided Friday that Transportation Security Administration staffers will be allowed to vote on union representation. The decision clears the way for a campaign by the government’s two largest labor organizations, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, to represent some 50,000 transportation security officers.

Here’s some informal statistics for you:

Number of TSA employees eligible for unionization: 50,000

·         TSA budget for FY 2010: $7.8 billion

·         Estimated Union Dues TSA unionization will provide union bosses at $50 per month:$2,500,000 per month or $30,000,000 per year.

·         Number of Americans whose Fourth Amendment rights have allegedly been violated:Thousands and still counting.

·         NUMBER OF TERRORISTS CAUGHT BY THE TSA: 0

Unfortunately for the union-busters and their hired DC operatives working the media, the “grassroots” outrage against the TSA’s screeners, which was supposed to take shape in a much-hyped  Thanksgiving Holiday “Opt-Out” campaign of mass civil disobedience in airports across the nation—a kind of libertarian “Days of Rage”—never materialized as promised, leaving countless journalists looking foolish and puzzled. The media regurgitated a well-oiled PR message promising mass spontaneous people’s action against the “police state.” Instead, not a single airport experienced anything remotely newsworthy or unusual; it was as though the entire campaign was a hoax. A hoax that the media showed absolutely no curiosity in recognizing or solving: For two weeks, every major television and media outlet talked up this alleged grassroots anti-government rage sweeping the country, a tidal wave of liberty about to crash into America’s security checkpoints. But nothing happened; and no one asked themost obvious question: “Was the outrage even real, or did the media get played?”

Now we know: the media, and the country, got played.

Fortunately for TSA employees, this story ends on a marginally less depressing note. John Pistole, Obama’s TSA chief, finally granted the TSA workforce the right to unionize. However, Pistole’s order, like so many Obama Administration policies, barely qualifies as an improvement: the TSA’s union will only be allowed to negotiate peripheral issues such as shift bids, awards, transfers, and uniform allowances. Unlike other federal employees, the TSA union will still be prohibited from negotiating more important matters like disciplinary standards and job qualifications. As has been the pattern for decades, the Democrats are granting labor the bare minimum promised.

Employees voted overwhelmingly to unionize this April -- 84% said “yes,” despite the restrictions. There will be a second round of voting beginning in May and closing June 23 to decide between the two unions vying to represent TSA employees -- the AFGE and the smaller National Treasury Employees’ Union.

*“To those of you who feel duped, I apologize”—so writes John Tyner in a contrite blog post headlined “The ‘Whole’ Truth”  dated November 30, 2010. A week earlier, he was the biggest media sensation in America, freeing us from state tyranny; by the time he apologized to America, America had already lost interest and moved on.