I just keep wondering what the hell our Congress was thinking when they authorized TSA. "Oh, they won't care about the loss of their pesky Fourth Amendment rights."

This is great for dismantling rights. Our rights will not disappear suddenly to the sound of gunfire, they will be removed one at a time for our safety. I hope Die Hard 5 involes McClane kicking the shit out of these ass-clowns, Fox might actually greenlight that sort've thing... btw, here is a great cartoon of a Marine being hassled by TSA: http://terminallance.com/2010/12/17/terminal-lance-89-tsa-keeping-america-safe/

Where do people unqualified to work in the private sector go?
To work in the public sector.

Anyone shocked by the result?

Hey, I've got an idea on how to cut the budget.

Dismantle the TSA and lay off all their employees.

Let the airlines, their insurance companies, and their passengers figure out the appropriate level of security.

If this TSA agent's brain were placed on the edge of a razor blade, it would look like a pea rolling down a 4-lane highway.

I hope Jean Weber contacted her Congressman and looked into suing the bastards.

These TSA stories always remind me of harrowing sci-fi about life after the apocalypse.

mpetrie, I'm going to have to remember that one...

My thought at the time that the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security were created is that they (W and that Congress) had just created a Constitutional limbo, as well as new agencies whose functions entirely overlapped that of existing agencies. That, I think, is the real root of the problem here. No, I don't think the frat-party TSA we have now is what that Congress intended, but I also think that they should have realized at the time that they were creating a Constitutional problem and that the TSA's eventual spinning out of control was inevitable.

Existing departments and agencies should have been adequate. If the threat being defended against is foreign, then it properly falls to the military and the CIA. If the threat is domestic in origin, then it falls to the FBI and related agencies (e.g., the U.S. Marshals, which I believe still supplies the fly-along agents). Yes, some kind of coordination group probably went have been needed, but the Director of National Intelligence office (created at the same time as the TSA) could have handled that.

Over the past half century, the federal government has created a ridiculous number of law enforcement agencies, and agencies with law enforcement powers. I think what you're seeing now is a huge war over turf and budget. There simply isn't that much law enforcement that needs to be done at the federal level. There is a lot of bloat that needs to be cut. We could start by eliminating the TSA, the DHS, and the BATF.

utterly despicable. I would most definitely be alerting my representatives about this.

It is just appalling that we pretend that there's something other than blind allegiance to bureaucracy behind this search and most searches.

It's not blind allegiance to bureaucracy. It's getting people used to knowing their place and respecting their betters- "Sit down, shut up and do as you're told. It's for your own good."

brian: "Hey, I've got an idea on how to cut the budget.

Dismantle the TSA and lay off all their employees."

It's actually absurd when you think about: It's apparently so important that we humiliate and bully our 95-year old leukemia sufferers, that we need to borrow money from the Chinese to pay for doing so.

Oh, and BATFE should be a convenience store, not a government bureau.

It's insane. None of the tactics they currently use would stop somebody from bringing on board enough Sarin to wipe out a plane, so what's the point? If Aum Shinrikyo could make the stuff, so could Al Qaeda.

I just keep wondering what the hell our Congress was thinking when they authorized TSA.

Like lots of things Congress does, TSA seemed like a good idea at the time.

If you really want to get Congress's attention: allow TSA to conduct the security screenings in Congress, and do not allow the members to bypass the check point.

Guaranteed to get the TSA changed after a couple of days. If that long.

BATFE should be a convenience store, not a government bureau.

They are, if you're trying to export guns to Mexico. Very convenient, in fact.

Most TSA agents are perverts. Looking into the diaper of a 95 year old cancer victim is something only a degenerate would want to do.

"I am deeply deeply troubled over what I see happening to our Beloved Libya and our Brother Leader Muammar Gadhafi."

Maybe they should be checking out

this guy instead!

New evidence. Wait a few years and watch the cancer clusters grow. The stupidity and barbarity of this nation will come back to haunt it.

http://epic.org/2011/06/epic-v-dhs-lawsuit----foiad-do.html