Tuesday, February 19, 2008

So, do they have pictures of Senators in the break room?

Okay, so it's kinda funny that a British Minister (as in cabinet secretary, not religious post) got detained by the Department of Homeland[1] Security on his way back from a meeting on addressing terrorism. Apparently it wasn't the first time, but I'm sure that, if it helps Britain, Mr. Malik never refuses American hospitality[2].

The real question: we don't detain Senators, do we? I mean, it's granted that there's a no-fly list where you're guaranteed to get harassed, but is there a white list too? A list of people that it would be politically disadvantageous to mess with? Presumably, a pissed off Senator or even Congressperson might be able to ask some uncomfortable questions about DHS's romp through the search-and-seizure provisions of our Constitution.

Even if we assume that Congress is too impotent to warrant exemption, certainly there's a system in place to ensure that high-ranking DHS personnel themselves aren't exposed to the entirety of their creation, no? Or do they just take the train?

[1] Yeah, "homeland" sounds funny, but "fatherland" and "motherland" were already taken by the Germans and the Russians, respectively.
[2] apologies to Gandhi...

No comments: