For months now we have been hearing about the absurd and intrusive screening processes of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  First we had to all remove our shoes and belts, and then we had to be subjected to random pat downs, x-ray scanners, and “enhanced” pat downs for anyone who protested.  The horror stories of the TSA just keep coming. The latest headline involves a 95-year-old cancer patient.  The elderly Florida woman was traveling with her daughter Jean Weber, through Northwest Florida Regional Airport.  When they reached the TSA security checkpoint Weber’s mother was wheeled off to a screening area walled off with glass partitions where an invasive pat down was conducted.  A TSA agent reported to Weber that “something suspicious” was felt on her mother’s leg.  At that point the 95-year-old was taken into a private, closed screening room.  When the TSA agent emerged from the private screening room they informed Weber that her mother’s incontinence undergarment was “wet and firm” and could therefore not be checked thoroughly.  Weber was asked to take her mother to a bathroom and remove the undergarment, forcing the elderly woman whose name was not released to go through the airport without any underwear. […]

Wednesday evening President Barack Obama appeared before the American people from the East Room of the White House to announce his plan to begin withdrawing United States armed forces from Afghanistan.  His remarks began shortly after 8pm EST and were approximately 15 minutes in length. The President began by invoking the memory of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and offering a brief recapitulation of the war in Afghanistan and the move into Iraq.  He continued by stating that the al Qaeda leaders had moved into Pakistan and that the terrorist forces had regrouped and began to move on the offensive. When Barack Obama was running for President, one of the primary stances of his campaign was that if he took office, he would seek to withdrawal our forces from the Middle East.  President Bush faced fierce criticism for refusing to reduce the number of US troops involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  So Barack Obama committed to voters to bring the troops home.  Instead, early on in his tenure as President he sent a surge of 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan.  He did not pull these troops from Iraq, and refocus them on the effort in Afghanistan.  […]