TSA roots out dangerous threat to national security…a Ron Paul supporter.

posted at 11:01 am on April 14, 2009 by MadisonConservative
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Probably most of you here heard about the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s little pamphlet, but didn’t pay it much heed due to the fact that the people making the most noise seemed to be on Alex Jones’ little network of nut sites. It’s understandable to have the same reaction, until it happens again. Michelle and Ed already gave details about this, but it’s nothing to worry about, though. You don’t actually see the authorities following through on the targeting of people who support people like Ron P-oh, darn it. Almost managed to finish that sentence:

Mr. Bierfeldt was carrying Campaign for Liberty bumper stickers and other campaign literature, and was interrogated by TSA screeners and airport police at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport for nearly a half-hour before being allowed on his flight to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The money he was carrying, more than $4,700, was in the form of cash and checks received from ticket sales, bumper stickers, books and other conference-related items.

Mr. Bierfeldt recorded the event on his iPhone, and provided a copy to The Washington Times for review. (Click here to listen to the audio)

On the tape, Mr. Bierfeldt is asked repeatedly where he works, where he obtained the money and why he was in St. Louis.

In each instance, Mr. Bierfeldt asked whether he was required by law to answer the questions.

“You want to play smartass, and I’m not going to play your f–ing game,” the TSA official said.

Many here, including myself, have made more than their share of cracks about the blimp. However, this isn’t about what you think of Paul’s foreign policy stances. This is harassment. True, there are all kinds of horror stories of the TSA in recent years interrogating people over tiny things. Somehow, I’ve been missing the tales of IWW members being detained. How often does Bill Ayers fly, hmmm?

There’s a decent chance that what happened here was nothing but trumped-up security guards taking out their frustrations on the nearest guy. However, with additional directives being discovered that seem to want to turn the clock back to the tumultuous early 90′s, further incidents like this will not only put a fair deal of conservatives on the defensive, but resurrect a lot of that latent discontent that brought about people like Tim McVeigh. It’s self-fulfilling.

Update: The Washington Times is apparently having more problems than Hot Air today, so here’s a link to another source for the story, along with a YouTube video that plays a segment of the tape of the situation. Skip ahead to a minute in:

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