Good news
Amid airport anger, GOP takes aim at screening
Did you know that the nation’s airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.
Mica, one of the authors of the original TSA bill, has recently written to the heads of more than 150 airports nationwide suggesting they opt out of TSA screening. “When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees,” Mica writes. “As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law.”
Look, Sparky, you mean well. But becoming a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy is what government programs do.
November 16th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
“A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there.” George Santayana
How did George know this having never experienced the TSA?
November 16th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
You really can’t blame the GOP for this one, the Democrats insisted on the TSA in exchange for the GOP getting the Department of Homeland Security.
I think we can all agree we’re a lot safer with another large cabinet level government bureaucracy looking out after us. I mean, TSA sucks, but where would we be without the visionary leadership of people like Tom Ridge and Janet Napolitano to help protect the homeland?
November 16th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Ooops… WordPress ate my tags around that whole thing 🙂
November 16th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
<sarcasm> </sarcasm> There we go. I cans use Al Gore’s Internets!
November 16th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
We’ll have to work up some standards for Hypothetical Snark Up Language to make this a bit easier for everyone. 😉
November 16th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Seriously what airport is going to get rid of the fed screeners? If you are an airport admin and a plane goes down, who do you want people looking at, the Feds or you?
Reminds me of the old adage that no one ever got fired for going with IBM.
November 16th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
They warned me that if I voted for McCain, this PATRIOT Act, TSA, police state nonsense would only get worse and worse. And they were right!
November 16th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
The problem is that even if they get rid of the tsa the ‘private’ screeners are still paid by the federal government. Call it tsa lite….
November 16th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
We need behavioral profiling, and concealed carry on American flights no matter where they go. And we need to make sure everyone knows that is happening.
November 16th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
We need straight up every-kind of profiling, and the PC babysitters can french kiss our asses. “Why yes, it is racist, now that you mention it, but I don’t care if you’re offended as long as you’re not blowing up an airplane.”
November 17th, 2010 at 4:30 am
Well, Mr. Evil, let us not be *too* racist, and let us distinguish between different kinds of Semites. A Jew might best you in a business deal in a shady way, or do some kind of sexual transgression, but he is really very unlikely to kidnap you and cut your head off with a dull knife, as some of the more obnoxious other kinds of Semites, adherents to what Mohammed supposedly said, have been known to do.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Islam is not a race. Profiling based on religion is something different than racism.