The Department of Homeland Security is going another step further in its efforts to condition travelers to accept more invasive screening techniques, but it is trying to soften the blow.

By retraining TSA agents to exude calmness, dressing them in cheerful colors, introducing soft blue lights and soft music, they are hoping to gain more cooperation — and success in catching terrorists, they say — from travelers.

The airlines are to take on even more of the responsibility of screening passengers by way of the carrot and stick method. The Washington Post reported:

Airlines, which check passenger names against the list, will now be allowed to accept dates of birth from passengers to more thoroughly check information against the watch lists, Chertoff said. Once passengers have proven that they are not suspected terrorists, they will be able to print boarding passes at kiosks or at home, rather than going through a check-in line, Chertoff said.

But of course, one will still have to run the gauntlet of the search and seizure lines. And in fact, more whole body imagers have been purchased enabling agents to analyze passengers in a virtual naked perspective.

Unfortunately, no one ever seems to ask whether or not the Fourth Amendment has anything to say about these types of policies.