"Dear TSA: I Am Not Your Customer"
Via Charlotte Allen, a right-on piece by Art Carden in the WashEx, in the wake of getting the sexual assault at the airport that now passes for security, and seeing a "customer service" comment card:
The TSA should not be streamlined. Administrators should not "review screening procedures." Screeners don't need additional training. The TSA doesn't need to be tweaked. It didn't "go too far" in these specific instances. Its very existence goes too far. The TSA never should have been created in the first place, and it should be abolished now. Immediately. Without hesitation.The TSA's existence is an assault on American liberty and simple human dignity, as anyone who has had his or her genitals touched during an "enhanced pat-down" can tell you. Some still say we should be willing to trade off a little bit of liberty in order to get security, but this is a false trade-off. The TSA does not provide security. It provides what security expert Bruce Schneier calls "security theater." The TSA only exists in order to give people the illusion of safety. Someone in an airport somewhere in the U.S. is being subjected to an unreasonable search by a gloved TSA screener right this minute. The cruel irony is that he or she is being stripped of liberty and dignity and is being made no safer for it.
As security experts John Mueller and Mark Stewart have estimated, the entire Homeland Security Department infrastructure fails on cost-benefit grounds. In order to justify the costs, Homeland Security would have to stop about four and a half attacks on the scale of the failed 2010 Times Square bombing every day.
...The TSA embodies a resource-wasting assault on liberty. The kicker is that it makes us no safer, so we aren't even getting the extra security that supposedly justifies the indignities the TSA inflicts upon us. No review of TSA procedures will make a meaningful difference, nor will firings. The TSA never should have existed in the first place. It's past time for it to be abolished.
For all you regular readers of the Goddess' blog you can skip past this post. I'm going to post my regular rant about not needing the TSA. For all you new readers, please read it carefully and refute any statement or misstatement. ;-)
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The TSA was not needed one hour and one minute after Tower II was hit!
The paradigm, the norm, the expected, what everyone was taught to do was to sit down, shut up and wait for the plane to land and the negotiations happen. That was the model from Entebbe onward.
The passengers on board did not really know what was about to happen on September 11, 2001 at 8:46:30 when Flight 11 struck Tower I.
Even the passengers on Flight 175 probably didn't realize what was about to happen when they struck Tower II at 9:03:02.
The Pentagon crash of Flight 77 at 9:37:46 may have been still a matter of ignorance.
At 10:03:11 on September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after the brave souls counter-attacked and caused the hijackers to crash the plane.
The time difference is 60 minutes and 9 seconds from Tower II being struck to the crash of Flight 93. The shoe bomber and panty bomber were taken down by fellow passengers as well. Recently, JetBlue's Flight 191 pilot was taken down by the passengers once he was out of the cockpit. Additionally how many times have you heard of passengers' concerns and diverted flights?
The TSA is and has always been a joke, no make that a total stupidity, that has wasted our country's fortune going down a rabbit hole.
If you don't believe me look at the 9/11 timeline.
There will never be another 9/11 style attack unless the attackers can arrange planes full of geriatrics, and even then it would be doubtful.
Jim P. at June 22, 2012 5:57 AM
The TSA is a police force, but it doesn't have the responsibilites of a police force. It's an intelligence agency, but it doesn't do intelligence. It's a military organization, but it's not subject to military discipline. The TSA has no customer, no boss, no management. It just is.
Cousin Dave at June 22, 2012 7:43 AM
I have to disagree with one point: "No review of TSA procedures will make a meaningful difference, nor will firings."
Firings can make a difference. Simple start at the top with Janet Napolitano, and work your way down the line until you get to the lowest trainee.
Fire _all_ of them.
David L. Burkhead at June 22, 2012 10:23 AM
Oh, and don't hire anyone in their place.
David L. Burkhead at June 22, 2012 10:23 AM
The TSA is nothing more than a Government jobs/welfare program. I despise it.
Libby at June 22, 2012 10:40 AM
It seems as if the outrage is growing and there are some rumblings in congress about "reform", but where do we go from here? Who "in the know" will publicize a roadmap for the lay person? Who to contact to make our voices heard, where to lodge complaints (that will be acted upon), attorneys, representatives, senators, DHS officials to bitch at, etc.
How do we rid ourselves of this behemoth? Is this going to be like stuffing the genie back into the bottle?
Savant Idiot at June 22, 2012 2:19 PM
> Firings can make a difference. Simple start at
> the top with Janet Napolitano, and work your way
> down the line until you get to the lowest trainee.
>
> Fire _all_ of them.
>
> Oh, and don't hire anyone in their place.
Dude! Yes!
Can I date your Mom?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at June 22, 2012 2:27 PM
Go to this website and find out who your congressional representatives are. Then copy my post above (with minor edits for your name and such) and e-mail it to them. If you get no response e-mail it again. If you want attention copy it out to a word document, print it out, sign it and send it snail mail. To show you are really serious, hand write it and send it snail mail. Send a copy to your friends locally and anywhere in the country. Have them repeat sending it to their representatives in Congress.
For that fact, modify the post/e-mail so that it has references about your state's statutes on sexual harassment, unlawful contact, etc. and send it to your state representatives.
All this will take about 30-45 minutes except add about 30-45 minutes to send it to the state representatives.
But even if just the blog readers times five do this it will at least register on the minds of congresspersons. If Lisa Simeone and the rest all do the same thing, it will get to the level that someone will try to put the TSA out of business.
Jim P. at June 22, 2012 8:05 PM
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