Think Of The Cost Of The TSA To American Business
Three hours of my time are incredibly valuable, and I would think those of you who aren't interns folding shirts in the wardrobe room at some magazine would say the same about yours.
But that's the amount of time the TSA thugs are taking to put all the passengers through their useless pretend security, reports Jad Mouawad in The New York Times.
And do note -- that's three hours of your time to stand in a Soviet-style line at the airport, not three hours of flying time or three hours of doing anything the slightest bit productive.
At Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, about 600 passengers missed their flights on March 25 because an inadequate number of screeners led to waits exceeding three hours, airport officials said. Brent D. Cagle, the airport's interim director of aviation, complained to the T.S.A., calling the episode a "fiasco.""This situation could have been avoided, had the T.S.A. had the proper staffing (or overtime budget necessary) to meet customer demand," Mr. Cagle wrote in a letter to the security agency. (T.S.A. officials denied that the wait had ever been that long, telling local reporters that it had been 75 minutes for a short time.)
This is so often what the TSA does -- just deny there was ever a problem.
T.S.A. officials say the main reason for the longer lines is an increase in the number of travelers this year."Where it starts is actually a volume issue," said Mr. Rasicot, who was previously a senior official with the United States Coast Guard, as was the T.S.A.'s administrator, Peter V. Neffenger. "It's really a good-news story. The economy is doing well, Americans are traveling more, and this equates with record numbers at our checkpoints."
Get this -- it's not like somebody woke up on Wednesday and there was news it was raining dollar bills in Cleveland, and all of American decided to board a plane.
What business recognizes that there will be a summer rush and thinks, "Well, we'll do absolutely fuck all to meet that?"
What's stunning is how much our country is starting -- slowly but surely -- to resemble the USSR, in how papers are demanded sans probable cause and in the contempt by bureaucrats for the rest of us.
Maybe it's just me, but the line at the airport (to get groped by "security" personal who'd otherwise be working in a mall food court) is starting to remind me of a Moscow grocery store from USSR days.
And check out the photo, revealing TSA genius: Pack 'em in for screening and make 'em sitting ducks -- like in Belgium.
A commenter in the know writes at the NYT:
InNJ NJ
Let's get rid of the TSA and go back to screening the way it was on 9/10/01.TSA claims they have only 42,000 screeners; their union claims TSA is authorized to have 48,000 but won't hire them.
Neffenger wants to send all new hires, 192 a week, to his "training academy" in Georgia for two weeks; then he wants to send all current screeners there for "retraining." How much are we paying for this most recent boondoggle?
100+ screeners leave the TSA each week. TSA claims it is hiring hundreds of new screeners. However, a quick perusal of USAJobs shows only 98 positions open, most of them at out-of-the way airports. None at any of the airports that experiencing horrible delays.
People are being suckered into PreCheck and finding they are not getting what they paid for. (BTW, @AskTSA claims that PreCheck enrollment "strengthen(s) aviation security.")
This whole mess is being orchestrated by TSA that wants more money out of Congress.
Our chain is being pulled yet again by the TSA, dear readers.
This guy also gets it:
ScottW, Chapel Hill, NC
This is all political theater. I have never been arrested, but even though the airlines knows my name and checks my ID, I have to be screened because I might be a potential terrorist? No probable cause to suspect I have done anything criminal, not even a reasonable suspicion, or even an inkling. I don't even own a gun. I am searched because I am human.The solution--when you buy a ticket you are allowed to bypass any screening unless there is a reasonable suspicion you are involved in criminal activity. With all of the billions spent on endless surveillance this should not be a problem--unless the surveillance system is all a hoax.
For those comforted by security lines and screening. TSA has a bad track record of finding contraband. Relying on them as a last line of defense in stopping criminal activity is foolhardy.
Focus airport screening on legitimate criminal targets and leave the rest of us alone!
Another:
Woof, NY
If you fly on your own private jet , you are excempt from the TSA altogether. Period.If the sprit should move you so, you could take off in a fueled up 757 and fly it straight into the new World Trade Center - with no checks No TSA .
How's that about a security hole?
One more:
AK Seattle
Maybe, just maybe, we could revisit this insane "security." Surely I can't be the only one who would be quite happy to go back to flying circa 2000?9/11 won't happen again - you can't take over a plane with box cutters anymore - people are thankfully smart enough to be willing to risk a little injury to prevent a hijacking. Let's go back to when a metal detector was sufficient. If someone wants to smuggle something onto a plane, they will succeed - the only purpose the tsa stupidity serves is to raise the bar so that only the dedicated will succeed.
Who here thinks we're the least bit safer from terrorist attacks?
Any person who has the chops to stay afloat in this comments section is smart enough to outsmart what passes for airport "security."
Luckily, the fact that you're commenting here suggests that you are unlikely to be a candidate for terrorism.
And this nugget happened recently. Seems the TSA enjoys overreaching their authority, then just saying "my bad" whenever called out on it.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/olympic-gold-medalist-apology-tsa-humiliating-airport-screening/story?id=38837263
gooseegg at May 3, 2016 6:25 AM
This lawsuit is interesting, in that the invasive nature of TSA's searches are pushing more people to travel by car, increasing the number of dead on the highways:
https://cei.org/blog/cei-sues-over-tsas-body-scanners
I R A Darth Aggie at May 3, 2016 7:29 AM
gooseegg, why should an Olympic medalist be treated differently than a Medal of Honor recipient?
Conan the Grammarian at May 3, 2016 7:45 AM
As I understand it, the airlines are complicit. I've often thought of walking right past the TSA and into the concourse, on the correct pretext that my Constitution protects me from unreasonable search. Problem is, no TSA stamp, no plane boarding. I can't remember the last time I flew, but I'm planning to in a few weeks, and I think I'll research the airlines to see which ones actually use this policy.
There's can't be a federal "law" requiring airlines to board only passengers who have had their groping, can there?
Fun fact: forget your drivers license, they move you to the front of the line. I was so delighted when this happened I didn't consider the larger picture.
DaveG at May 3, 2016 9:18 AM
Just like our government to deliver the exact outcome the terrorists desired: the degradation of our culture.
Systemic Dunning-Kruger effect on our part.
DaveG at May 3, 2016 9:24 AM
I flew out of Chicago last week — on a slow day, at a slow time — and the TSA line was twice as long as it usually is. (That was Midway — can't imagine what the lines are like at O'Hare.)
Kevin at May 3, 2016 9:46 AM
If you add up all the person-hours spent going through TSA screening, and divide by the average number of hours in a person's lifespan, how many lives have been lost? I'll bet it's way more than were lost on 9/11.
If you consider those lives, plus all the other collateral damage stemming from 9/11 (such as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars), that attack might have been the most destructive since the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima.
Rex Little at May 3, 2016 11:54 AM
Dropping the atomic bombs acctually cause LESS damage in lives and property than the conventional bombing campaign
lujlp at May 3, 2016 9:35 PM
Bush created it.
Obama expanded it.
Tell me again how the parties are "different"?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 4, 2016 9:39 AM
I just can't understand how this fiasco could have happened. Where is the leadership and why do they still have jobs? This is just like the Katrina fiasco. Incompetent Feds. Don't we ever learn? Heads need to roll
charles dill at May 17, 2016 6:53 AM
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