http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/06/transportation-security-adminstration.html
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/november-2012-political-class-insanity.html
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/wasteful-government-spending-week-tsa.html
These are just a small subset of TSA screw ups from the past few years. You can use the search feature in the upper left corner of this blog to search other mishaps and affronts to the American traveling public.
Today’s blog will be devoted to a review of the latest shenanigans from the TSA, the organization that keeps on giving when it comes to incompetence:
1) We have already covered this first bit of recent TSA news but wanted to do it again. In the light of shutting down White House tours because of the budget sequester, an annual cost of under $1 million, the TSA announced that it was spending $50 million to retrofit the uniforms that TSA officers wear while on the job.
Call me silly but it seems that the current uniforms did the job quite well and that the $50 million unnecessarily spent on new uniforms would have been much better spent keeping the White House tours function going for the next fifty years. And to add insult to injury, news reports are now reporting that the new uniforms will be purchased from a company in Mexico and thus, the $50 million will not even be used to help the U.S. economy, the wealth will be sent to Mexico.
2) The New York Post recently ran an article that reported on a major TSA screw up involving an undercover TSA agent that was able to smuggle a fake bomb onto an airliner despite going through two TSA security checks. Unbelievably, one of the security checks included an actual pat down from TSA employees who failed to detect the fake bomb.
This failure comes on the heels of a recent announcement that TSA agents will no longer worry about passengers bringing small knives onto airplanes, another bit of insanity in itself. The justification for allowing small knives to be carried onto airplanes is that it will allow TSA screeners to concentrate on more dangerous materials like say, bombs!
So now, taking these two news stories together, TSA will allow sharp objects onto planes AND not be able to detect bombs even given their increased focus. No thanks, I’ll drive to my destination. I remember that the 9-11 hijackers/terrorists were able to carry out their death and destruction without bombs but with small sharp instruments. Has the TSA forgotten that reality?
3) A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s office had some more bad news on TSA incompetence. According to the Inspector General’s research, TSA allowed airports to issue security badges to employees without conducting Federally required background checks between April 20 and June 1 of 2012 because the TSA had a heavy backlog of security checks work yet to be done.
As a result of their incompetence, the airports issued security badges to at least 11 individuals with criminal backgrounds that allowed these past criminals easy access to secure areas of U.S. airports, i.e. allowed unescorted access to secured areas of airports. The investigation concluded that there still may be individuals with criminal records who are working in secured areas of airports.
Let’s review: members of the Federal government, including some in Congress, want all law abiding citizens to go through extensive background checks before they can use their Second Amendment rights to purchase a gun. But other parts of the Federal government, i.e. TSA, have no problem allowing criminals to access secure areas of airports where the potential for death and destruction is very high. Talk about incompetence and hypocrisy.
4) This last item shows how out of touch Washington politicians are with the reality of common Americans. Senator Claire McCaskill was recently subjected to a patdown while traveling through airport security. You know, the kind of affront and groping experience that millions of Americans have had to endure since 9-11 and she did not like the experience, tweeting out the following message: “Today in my airport screening, test on my hands was positive. Got private, more aggressive pat down. OMG. #veryuncomfortable”
That is what America has been telling Washington for the past ten years, it is very uncomfortable to have your body groped or to see your kid’s body groped by a government employee. Uncomfortable? Is she just finding this out now? More importantly, what is she going to do about it?
It is fun, though, when a politician gets hit in the face with the reality of everyday Americans.
All of this gets us to two important points:
- The United States is one of the few countries in the world where the government operates every aspect of airport security. Most countries do it far better than us by using outside experts and companies that are professionals, not government employees. And we have previously discussed the fact that when some domestic airports have used private, professional security firms, the results have been much more efficient, save, and less expensive, as proven by the private/Federal Screening Partnership Program:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/06/transportation-security-adminstration.html
- TSA continues to be a great example of why Step 34 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” is so desperately needed. Step 34 would remove all Congressional committee members from committees that do not adequately do their job. In this case, we have known for a long time what Senator McCaskill has just found out: TSA is a bloated, ineffective, and fourth amendment rights destroying government bureaucracy.
Those Washington politicians sitting on the Congressional committees responsible for oversight of the TSA should be replaced with other members of Congress that might actually provide some effective and efficient oversight of the TSA mess. Those politicians that have been on those committees over time have certainly bungled their jobs.
That is enough TSA horror stories for today. Tomorrow we will dedicate the entire post to the actual experiences of a former TSA employee and how bad the situation really is, as told by a former insider. After tomorrow, you may never fly again.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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