Is there nothing that Obama can’t do?
Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from the border bullies. . . . When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect that can be expected from our border bullies.
So much for hope. But change! That’s another matter.
Obviously, they’re taking the threat of those right-wing extremists seriously.
I’ve been treated worse in airports than anywhere else on earth. And that was before 9/11. I can only imagine how much fun this will turn out to be. The worst part is, you can’t just call time, say screw this, I’m not playing and just go home. No sirree. You’re here? You’re ours! We all need to refuse to fly.
On the other hand, is Tillman getting a pass on sexual assualt charges alright with everyone?
You just knew this would happen when they eyed the stamps in his passport.
What else should one expect when f*ckwits are running the country. Meanwhile, full body scanners are to be installed at several Canadian airports. (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax) After all, my Grandma is soooo dangerous. What will the gov do when the Muslims howl?
The plot is to stop people from traveling freely.
Read the plot, it’s been published more than 150 years ago and every line has either been implemented or is being as I am typing this.
As much as I like Michael Yon…..just answer the bloody question, its not like they have your tax return in front of you. And they will wonder where all the money for his travel comes from. Oh and they wont have any idea that he is a “famous blogger”
Just like the stupid Harvard professor should have just listened to the officer and not gotten snippy, Michael should just have answered the question….as someone said, given all of his passport stamps and world travel and non obvious means of support I am not surprised the question was asked, and he shouldnt have been either.
This was obviously done on Stephen Harper’s orders to help in the IED coverup.
I think that “we” will “owooooooo” before the muslims do and chase them out of the airport with torches,pitchforks,hot oil and feathers.
Target the ones causing mayhem Mr & Mrs Government, that IS your job. Leave my mother out of it you perverts.
I bet they never ask Mexicans that one.
Stephen, everything you say can be used against you. How much money are you making? Do you have extra-marital relationships? Did you ever had sex with children? With animals? How many guns do you have? Why so many? Did you ever have thoughts about killing anyone? What books did you read?
Kathy,
Its hard to hear the question when your underneath the floorboards of van.
Aaron,
Those questions do start to get out of the realm of relevance. What is your income is directly related to the amount of travel Yon does.
While it is his right to refuse to answer the question he shouldnt be surprised by the questions and attention it brings. I dont see this incident as being out of whack.
Looks like he meets the criteria for questioning…unfortunately
US border security has always been awful, and unable or unwilling to distinguish the good from the bad.
Went to Maui a few years back and they were utterly disrespectful and rude to my two kids, who are well-raised polite youngsters.
I wanted to slug the idiot in the head.
Hey folks,the one is smarter than you think he is.Release the prisoners to Yeman,then kill them with air strikes.That way its the military that does the dastardly deed and Obama is squeeky clean and has done what he said that he would.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is going to happen to that border agent.
You get a bad one coming home to Canada, same thing.
Immigration doesn’t have to arrest you. They can detain you for (I can’t remember how long) a period of time without a phone call, or anything. Until you are “through” the other side, you have no rights.
(Any CBS agents out there please help me out here.)
I’ve done a LOT of international traveling, Europe Africa and Asia, and I would maybe take a chance being lippy to a cop, but NEVER to an Immigration officer.
I have a lot of respect for Yon for what he’s done, but stupid is what stupid does. He could have reported it after the fact by just telling the agent what he wanted.
Sorry Stephen, I disagree. I have been treated like dirt by US immigration, and I’m just an ordinary white engineering-type guy who occasionally travels to the US on business, or sometimes with family for holiday. Got nothing to hide, no unusual traveling to weird places, zip. And my wife is American no less!
I think they are mostly uncivilized, uneducated assholes at the US border to be perfectly frank.
A few weeks back in one of his emails he made the bizarre claim that Canada had been “militarily defeated” by the Taliban and was the reason we were leaving Afghanistan.
This Seattle event is obviously bad kharma stemming from his incredibly stupid comment.
Even good guys like Yon have their Stuck on Stupid moments.
Hey Kate – HotAir has the whole sad tale. Yes, Obama can do anything he wants to do. He has George Soros, the head of SEIU, a dozen Czars and Michele to protect him from the nation, the military and even Congress. They are magic. Read Pravda this week, yet another article there on how Obama is taking the country Socialist/Marxist.
With all the craziness going on like the CIA monitoring the polar ice cap, I have been moved to write a post titled: “Will Medicare Pay for Airport Scanners”? Stranger things have happened.
Have never ever been treated badly by an American agent. Occasionally, slightly so by a Canadian one.
The term bullies is the perfect description for a large portion of border guards. If our police or god forbid our soldiers acted anywhere near as bad as the majority of these border guards they’d be out of the job and possibly in jail. But for some reason these nasties get tenure and our safety and freedom decrease daily.
Look elsewhere, ‘these people are all rehabilitated’.
from link ‘a snip for us to be content with’
‘The Saudi Government had boasted previously of a zero reoffence rate for Guantánamo detainees who were put through its widely praised rehabilitation programme for al-Qaeda members.
Robert Lacey, who writes about Saudi Arabia, made numerous visits to the Prince Mohammad bin Naif rehabilitation facility north of Riyadh.
“I know a number of young men from Guantánamo who were successfully reintegrated,” he told The Times. “The programme involves the whole family with a mixture of religious re-education, patriotism, guilt and co-opting in terms of being given a car, job and a nice wife.”
What happens to Saudis after release from Guantanemo?
“I know a number of young men from Guantánamo who were successfully reintegrated,” he told The Times. “The programme involves the whole family with a mixture of religious re-education, patriotism, guilt and co-opting in terms of being given a car, job and a nice wife.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6975971.ece
Mr. Yon has LLC after his name. Google yields Limited Liability Corp. It makes sense to me for them to ask if his LLC covers his costs and where any extra comes from. The handcuffs an attempt at the intimidation of a guy that has been shot at. Bad move.
“The US Government issued figures in May showing that 74 of the 530 detainees in Guantánamo were suspected or known to have returned to terrorist activity since their release.”
That’s only a 13.96% recidivism rate,Corrections Canada would be celebrating!
On the bright side, the “returnees”,for want of a better term, can advise rookie terrorists in how to act when they’re taken prisoner.
This should expedite the entire process, and some day, maybe our boys can just give them a ticket when they’re captured,with a “promise to appear” in Court at a later date.
How much you make has nothing to do with crossing a border. The only thing that is relevant is “Are you bringing in/out more than $10,000?” Also of relevance would be “Do you have a return ticket or the funds to return to your home country?” Which is what the Aussies ask to ensure you don’t become a refugee and thus a burden on their country.
Besides, who has exactly what they make memorized? Is that before or after taxes? If a guess is off and the IRS gets wind of it then what?
Like TJ, I too have been treated with contempt coming back to the US when I worked (legally) there. I was fortunate in one case where the supervisor’s supervisor actually got involved and got it straightened out and the wife and I on our connecting flight.
I see two issues in this discussion. First, if one wants to make a point…pay the price!
Second, Until Western nations accept that Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all Terrorists are Muslim. ( at least in the last few years), we are going to be hassled.
The best that can be done is to catch some of the bad guys, some of the time.
To treat everyone with the same level of scrutiny is silly and it does help terrorists.
There is everything right and nothing wrong with profiling. Why in the hell should people have to die to make this very simple point?
I work for an airline as aircrew and because I don’t like long-haul flying,I’m crossing the border sometimes several times a day.Out of all the border guards I’ve dealt with the U.S. guards are the rudest,however it does seem to be dependent on location.Here in good old YVR I can only surmise that most guards hate their job.I actually take note when I have a pleasant encounter with one,the situation being so rare.All the other airports are usually a hit and miss,with Calgary’s staff the friendliest.I was in Toronto once when there was no crew line,so we were required to head to the front of the line apologizing the whole way.Once I arrived in front of the border guard after the usual questions this guy then asked me if I had asked the passengers if I could butt in line.I got lippy and asked him if he was checking if I was bringing manners into the states,BIG mistake.Secondary search,missed flight,docked pay and a lecture from management was my lesson.
G,
We have a right to return to Canada. Period.
I can be as arrogant to a border guard as I want and I tested that theory. If you are too coward, be polite, but as soon as I detect an abusive CBSA, I become cocky and rude (however never crossing into illegal). Otherwise we all will be treated as animals – think of me as doing community service.
Some of these wankers act like mall cops on an ego trip. Gets to the point that when you get a good one you start looking over your shoulder expecting something else to happen… don’t taze me bro…
btw, there are good border agents out there.
Texas Canuck,
A definitely relevant question….its as much to see if you answer in a manner that appears honest and explanable.
I got asked by a British Border guard when I was over on business if i was there to do a takeover. Caught me totally off guard, which was the whole point.
Border guards can ask you what your favourite colour is, answer however you want, but they are as much interested in how you answer these questions as what you answer. h. ryan @2:52 is a good example
Answer their questions and you’ll be moved through.
Gosh, you would think all the outrage here is only because Obama is President or something. Where were you all when the Harvard professor got lippy, and rightfully hancuffed.
Go Aaron GO!
Get in their face! Because God only knows that only YOU are capable of doing a community service on behalf of the rest of us that depend on them picking out the asshole trying to get in here with forged documentation. Never mind the ones with ill intent towards this country and its citizens.
“I can be as arrogant to a border guard as I want and I tested that theory”
Not often enough buddy, Not by a long shot.
You want customer service, go the Bay and pull that crap. Yeah, You got rights!
Two points.
Remember the big kerfuffle a month or two ago with raging Maxist Amy Goodman was entering Canada to speak at the Vancouver Public Library? Canadian border authorities asked her some stupid questions about the Olympics. I now suspect they were doing the same thing, ie. trying to rattle her to see how she would react. Couldn’t have happened to a better person, if you ask me.
Second is a question. What exactly are these body scanners? Are they like X-rays? If so, are we going to see a whole slew of deformed babies being born a few months from now? Seems to me there are some serious consequences to ones health from frequently repeated exposure to x-rays. Will the same thing be happening to frequent cross border travellers?
Opps. Pushed the wrong button. I was going to ask if anybody even knows what might result from too frequent exposure to body scanners, even if they aren’t the equivalent of x-rays. I’d be asking a lot of questions and demanding that we get rid of this ridiculous political correctness. Target those who need to be targeted – profiling, my dear friends, profiling. Enough, already, with this crazy PC culture. The revolution is coming.
Power corrupts….
I always translate the demand “citizenship” as a declaration….”I have a little authority and I am about to abuse all of it!”
Aaron is correct.
My tactic is to be FIRM not rude.
US DHS tend to be power trippers but there is an antidote (classified). It involves my military serial #(retired). Then I get “sir” a lot.
Stephen I recall once…right out of the blue a Canadian guard asked me if I had a dog…..LOL..
When I was going trough my truck-driving phase, I found that these minions were generally more sociable when I had the dog riding shotgun….funny that….
stephen – income is not related to travel, since those who fly frequently do not normally pay for their travel on their own.
Therefore, asking a question about personal income is not relevant. Asking a question of ‘what’s your profession’ would have been relevant, for presumably, Yon would have replied that he’s an international journalist, working for blah blah. End of story.
I guess I’ve been lucky or whatever but I’ve never had any problems with US customs/border who have always been courteous; the most sullen and grumpy in my experience have been the Canadian customs.
Let me see if I understand this: a spoiled wealthy brat can board a plane without identification or luggage and attempt to blow up said plane but he is merely “alleged” or a victim of circumstance. A reporter can actually be pulled aside and detained.
Tell me- who runs the asylum?
Louise @ 4:03…
See http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1751
I’m hearing the Canadian mantra. Go along to get along. Yes, you have rights but don’t be so uncivilized and American as to demand any of them.
You go to the US Border, they OWN YOUR @SS until you get out the other side. You have no rights, period. You answer all questions, you say yes sir and no sir, you make no jokes, you speak when spoken to. Do all these things and you may still make your flight. That is the way it is.
Having dealt with these US Border cretins fairly often, let me describe to you whom you are giving literally the power to ruin your life too. Somebody up above said mall cop. Its so much worse than that.
Take the lowest IQ security guard you have ever seen at the front door of a hospital. Give IQ Boy a gun and a badge, and the power to toss any person in jail -at his sole discretion-.
IQ Boy does not need a reason to detain you. Boredom, a hangover or sheer bloody mindedness is good enough for him to jack you around for three days if he really feels like it. God help you if your papers are not in perfect order, then you can be “detained” for pretty much however the hell long they feel like. Days, weeks, months, its all good.
I used to be on a US immigration lawyer’s mailing list. He’d send out updates on people who were IN JAIL because they filled out a form improperly or failed to understand the implications of some obscure regulation nobody ever told them about. For real jail. Federal prison. No charges, no convictions, just in jail awaiting INS hearings. For months.
My favorites were the people who got deported back to Canada (or wherever) without having time to sell the house and move the furniture, not because they made a mistake, but because the INS didn’t process their paperwork in a timely fashion. It doesn’t matter that it isn’t your fault, y’all are still getting detained, stuck on a plane and sent the hell home with what you are wearing. Today, right now. No recourse, no appeal. Generally happens to white middle class people with jobs and houses, not welfare riding drug addicts. Funny, eh?
People regularly lose their ability to work due to INS failure to process forms. Linus Torvalds was in the USA on an H1B visa working for Transmeta at the same time I was in Arizona, he had this happen to him. That’s the guy who owns the Linux operating system. The INS f-ed him for months of wages because his forms were sitting on some drone’s desk gathering dust while the drone held up the water cooler. This is a very common occurrence for foreign born doctors, engineers, CEOs of big companies, etc. working on visas in the USA. Common. Occurrence.
In my case I had the INS ignore several letters from the US Senator for Minnesota, attempting to intercede for me. Not just one such letter, but like more than three. He was a Democrat too. They ignored him like he was a street bum. It was at that time I saw the handwriting on the wall and returned to Canada.
That’s who you’re facing crossing the US Border. Low-to-no IQ security guards who make $8-$10 an hour, but have ultimate power and answer to no one.
At a Canadian airport you do have some recourse, since you are on Canadian soil you can tell ’em to pound salt and stroll out of there with head held high. Unless you ever need to cross the US border some day, because they keep records.
Coming back into Canada you do have some possibility of recourse against really flagrant abuse, but only if you’re rich enough to be able to sue the federal government and connected enough to phone the Minister of Justice and have him take your call.
Again, when crossing the border in either direction, answer all questions no matter how intrusive or objectionable. Obey all instructions no matter how oppressive. Say nothing that is not the truthful answer to a question. Pleasantly.
And keep voting for smaller government, or we are going to be facing this stuff on street corners, not just the US Border. Or be in a civil war, not sure which would be worse.
But Aaron, you go for it dude. Be rude to the border guard. Great freakin’ idea, man. Good luck with that. Do your family a favor, don’t take them along.
ET,
We dont know what the full conversation was or what the questions were prior to him being asked so we are all speculating. However, if he was asked something like did he pay for his ticket?, which they already have on record, then they could might ask him what he does, a question that is always asked….given his answer would be freelance journaist or something like that, a reasonable follow up question is how much do you earn in a year doing that. All with the point of trying to figure out if he paid for the ticket, if he has the means to support his travel which might warrant further questions and investigation.
Nothing in that scenario is outside of reasonableness. But even if it was the first question, you have been asked a question by the border guard….you can choose to answer or not, and by not answering you get to a different, more arduous entry procedure.
really, whats the problem here. Yon is a favoured son here, I quite like him and he most certainly isnt who they are looking for. But unless you have a TSA agent who reads his blog I wouldnt expect them to act any differently. He refused to answer a question, regardless of whether or not he deems it relevant or not. It is for the border guard to judge, I am sure they have guidelines, speculation again, and I would find it hard to imagine that asking someone what their income was was outside the guidelines.
They have no access to IRS data, so once again the question was more about how he answers the question not what his actual answer was.
The border guys can be difficult, and I agree the Canadian ones are pretty officious, but rather that than the border being like the Cheers bar when Norm walks in.
Well, if Mr. Yon happens to be a black academic, and those 2 border bullies happen to be white, who knows, a week or two from now they might all be guzzling a beer with ‘bama and the press guys will wet their panties again.
In the meantime, PC has run amok in the land the Magna Carta, no less.
As much as I like Michael Yon…..just answer the bloody question, its not like they have your tax return in front of you.
~Stephen
Income is a private affair and the only government agency that is entitled to an answer to the question, “How much money do you make, is the tax agency (IRS).”
If the part about “It’s not like they have your tax return in front of you,” implies he should have given an erroneous answer, ie. lied, it is a crime to lie to a custom agent.
Refusing to answer that question was the principled way to handle it.
The border guys can be difficult, and I agree the Canadian ones are pretty officious, but rather that than the border being like the Cheers bar when Norm walks in.
~Stephen
The border IS like the Cheers bar where Norm walks in, just not the miniscule part of the border at airports and other official crossings.
Canada and the U.S.A. have a deluge of illegal immigrants and both governments don’t seem to care beyond striking a pose of inconvenience in front of the good people who do cross legally.
Phantom more or less nailed it.
That is why I think during this century small inexpensive jets will become very popular.
I think most of us are just sick and tired of traveling by air the regular way, and the latest round of over-the-top security will only heighten our resolve to find alternative means of transport.
I’m had it with being treated like a criminal by low-IQ idiots simply because governments are too caught up in political correctness to directly target the real scum.
If I had the bucks I would fly on a private jet in a second – it represents freedom.
But right now jets are too expensive, and hence are the toys of rich liberals, global warming preachers and one-world types like Bono and Gore. There are a few conservatives in jets too I suspect.
The first decent jet that’s available for under $50k and I’ll buy it.
Have found about half the U.S. border guards I deal with have obviously skipped the “professional behavior” portion of their training. Others were fine and even helpful.
The Canadians tend to the sullen/semi-concsious side.
US State Dept.? Is that not Hildabeast’s bureau?
If O doesn’t stop this, Hill will make enemies outta them Muslims. Tsktsk
> “State Department revokes attempted bomber’s visa”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2421714/posts
Meanwhile, O says:
“President Obama: No more ‘finger-pointing'”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2421649/posts
Driving truck I’ve run into some real professionals and some real doozies.
The best one was the “Ape that played “bumpy chest” over a no longer used term on paperwork.
I didn’t bother to mention that I knew the Supervisor…
I’ve been meaning to ask the “ape” how he enjoyed doing “outbound checks” in the cold rain.
There should be signs at Ports of Entry about “professional conduct by DHS agents” and the ability to grieve “apes”.
To ‘Stephen’ – Yon’s yearly income is not the business of some tenth generation inbred crap-for-brains airport flunky; and one reason that such cretins have as much ‘power’ as they do, is people rolling over at their command.
BTW
Any forms I have filled out at the US Border?
There is one that requires the declaration of $10 000US or greater in cash, etc. on your person or importing (I forget the specific wording)
This is gonna be interesting.
well I read the responses to this post and none of you got to the crux of the matter.
it’s the old double standard. do you think these uneducated morons treat big shots the same way? duh.
brian mulruiny pocketed 300,000 in bribes. has he ever been hassled or detained by border guards? see what I mean?