Yo, fellow frogs..... beginning to feel that water heat yet?

I recall some 2008/9 comments coming from our illustrious Administration regarding the need for a second, 'para-military' force to exercise control on the citizenry of this country if needed. These would not be true military - nor true law enforcement officers; they would be more like home town peace corps with the emphasis on 'peace'.

Many of us big gob'mint fearing citizens immediately had thoughts of such personally controlled federal forces in world history, tan shirts, black pants, shiny Sam Brown Belts. We'd seen them before - in Germany, Italy and other countries in the 20th Century. 'Not to worry', we were told, 'These are emergency time helpers', we were told.

Well, shucks - I'm glad to see that I ain't the only paranoid dude on the porch! Some of our congress people are starting to feel the pot boil as well. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, has observed a new phenomena on the streets and highways of her State of Tennessee with officially uniformed, untrained, poseurs called Transportation Security Officers, hired and paid by Big Sis's Homeland Security Department. Instead of sitting idly by as they over-run her state, she has introduced legislation in the House to stifle such growth and undertakings; H.R. 3608. You folks might want to drop an e-mail to your rep's and ask them to sign on, or if not - why not?

Apparently those 'airport security screeners' of just a few years ago have now morphed into TSO's. Note the word OFFICER in that title. They are not in fact, trained and sworn federal police officers ........ but I reckon they hope nobody will notice. They are still recruited off of pizza boxes and have minimal training, like how to tie shoes, how to dial #911 and how to sound official.

Here is a picture of how their uniforms have morphed from the simple white shirt and black trousers to today's official looking costume.

A close up of the TSO's shoulder as it would look outside your car window is added for impact's sake.

"In October Tennessee became the first state to conduct a statewide Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) team operation which randomly inspected Tennessee truck drivers and cars.

VIPR teams which count TSOs among their ranks, conduct searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and every other mass transit location around the country. In fact, as the Los Angeles Times has detailed, VIPR teams conducted 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year alone. The very thought of federal employees with zero law enforcement training roaming across our nation’s transportation infrastructure with the hope of randomly thwarting a domestic terrorist attack makes about as much sense as"............ you fill in the blank!

Please take a minute and read this full report in Forbes Magazine.... paraphrasing our founding fathers..... "We shall all work together to put out the flames --- or surely we shall all boil separately!"

Elsewise - you may see this feller reaching in your vehicle window !!!!!!!!