It looks like your average airline passenger isn’t the only one who is balking at the idea of an intense fondling by TSA agents. Everyone’s favorite airplane pilot, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, is majorly pissed off at the blatant invasion of privacy.

Liveblogging of the Senate Banking Committee hearing on foreclosure fraud continues. Senator Richard Shelby was actually pretty good, but then Sens. Mike Johanns and Bob Bennett went to some length to try to pretend the banksters weren’t doing what they were doing.

The lame duck session of Congress is shaping up to be dominated by the issue of what to do with the “Bush tax cuts” set to expire at the end of the year. Democrats want to extend the Bush tax cuts only for everyone making less than $250,000, but the Republicans are insisting that they extend the Bush tax cuts across the board. What seems to be completely missing from the discussion are any so-called “Obama tax cuts.”

This hearing is the latest example of national policymakers getting involved in the foreclosure fraud issue. The Congressional Oversight Panel warning of the enormous risk from the failures of servicers was the first report of its kind at the federal level to take full measure of the situation, and this is the first Congressional hearing. Senators on the Democratic side like Jeff Merkley and Sherrod Brown are sure to press the bank representatives aggressively on why foreclosure mitigation programs have failed, and why they used false documents to evict people from their homes. The ranking member on the Republican side, Richard Shelby, wants to investigate failures at the major loan servicers.

The last thing the TSA needs is a pile of crappy technology that isn’t even effective, that people refuse to use, right?

The “groping” technique was developed as a way to punish people into using the scanners — because there are $148 million more on the way. And just so nobody gets the idea to follow Tyner’s lead, the TSA is using threats and intimidation to guarantee the market for the porno scanners. Whether Tyner is prosecuted or not, people will hear about what happened to him and think twice before refusing to become fodder for their new machines.

This is a full-on outrage.

It’s time to investigate the TSA, not Tyner. Sign the petition demanding Congress investigate the TSA’s porno scanners, aggressive groping, and abuses of power.

Yep, the rubes got rolled again.

You’ve probably heard of the “Don’t Touch My Junk” guy who chose to miss his flight rather than have TSA touch his genitals in its brand new “aggressive pat-downs” strategy. As if the experience wasn’t humiliating enough – and expensive, for missing his flight – the TSA has decided to make an example of John “Don’t Touch My Junk” Tyner. The TSA announced yesterday it would investigate, and may prosecute, Tyner for declining the porno scanners and groping.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, the TARP watchdog program formerly chaired by Elizabeth Warren and now helmed by former Senator Ted Kaufman, has released a report detailing the failures in the mortgage servicing industry, and the threats to the overall housing market, financial sector and greater economy. The report is chilling.

Joe Lieberman’s Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing today at 3:15pm EST to discuss “Closing the Gaps In Air Cargo Security” with TSA Director John Pistole. Lieberman got a head start on the issue, of course. He was on MSNBC yesterday in an interview with Andrea Mitchell, who brought up conversing about full body scanners and security “pat downs.” When asked whether or not he believed that the procedures are invasive, he responded, “I come down on the side of pat downs.”

It’s not that Maryland’s incoming freshman representative Andy Harris doesn’t like government-based health care, it’s that he doesn’t like the U.S. health care system. Neither do I. Maybe a Democrat is a Republican who had to wait a month for open enrollment.