Milwaukee, WI: Airport Security Detains Traveller for Free Speech!

Many of you know that slashdot is a widely popular website.  They accumulate millions of hits each day, and there are all kinds of discussions that take place there.  My husband is an avid reader, and he just sent me this link via email.

Basically, it tells about someone who put a message on their luggage calling the head of the TSA an idiot, and was detained as a result.  He's a frequent flyer that has grown impatient with the new airport security policies.  While attempting to go through airport security in Milwaukee, he had a 25 minute delay.  The slashdot post is below the fold:  

scifience writes "A traveler frustrated with recent changes to airport security procedures found himself detained in Milwaukee after writing a message critical of the TSA's leader on a plastic bag presented for screening. The message, which read "Kip Hawley is an Idiot," resulted in a confrontation with law enforcement, the traveler being told that his right to freedom of speech applied only "out there (pointing past the id checkers) not while in here [the checkpoint]." The story, which is detailed in a rapidly-growing thread on a discussion forum catering to frequent flyers, has attracted the interest of the ACLU, an AP reporter, and many others. The incident raises a number of interesting questions and concerns regarding just where our rights end."

I went to the "forum catering to frequent flyers".  It's called flyertalk, and the person who was detained tells the story in his own words.  I encourage you to check it out.  It's obvious that he was oppressed, harrassed, and discriminated against basically because he wrote something critical of the TSA on his luggage.  

This is an outrage, and it's happening more and more to those of us who still believe that we have a Bill Of Rights and actually choose to use them!  While it's not yet been "picked up" by the media, perhaps we can influence, say, Keith Olbermann and even some local news folks in Milwaukee to pay attention to this.