The TSA and a Dead White Lady

[blufish]

So, given the responses on the "Don't tase me bro" incident, I would imagine adding a death to the mix would rachet it up a notch. However, it isn't getting the same hype.

Having been in handcuffs myself, it is awful tough to strangle yourself with them. Which seems to be the company line of the TSA.

As someone who works for an aviation contractor who is around the CBP and TSA daily, I can tell you that those guys think highly of their authority.

[TomCollins]

[ QUOTE ]
So, given the responses on the "Don't tase me bro" incident, I would imagine adding a death to the mix would rachet it up a notch. However, it isn't getting the same hype.

Having been in handcuffs myself, it is awful tough to strangle yourself with them. Which seems to be the company line of the TSA.

As someone who works for an aviation contractor who is around the CBP and TSA daily, I can tell you that those guys think highly of their authority.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like tacos.

[Insp. Clue!So?]

You could dump on the TSA all day and still be slacking on the job:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071001/..._toy_screening


What's the first thing you do when starting any business? Of course, you gather data on what the market is like. So you'd think the TSA would do lots of data sampling on what their screeners are actually finding in their bag-shuffling endeavors, for a million reasons of course. Apparently this simple concept has eluded them (along with the obvious idea that small radio-controlled devices might be used to detonate things).

[Metric]

[ QUOTE ]
So, given the responses on the "Don't tase me bro" incident, I would imagine adding a death to the mix would rachet it up a notch. However, it isn't getting the same hype.

Having been in handcuffs myself, it is awful tough to strangle yourself with them. Which seems to be the company line of the TSA.

As someone who works for an aviation contractor who is around the CBP and TSA daily, I can tell you that those guys think highly of their authority.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't get me started. Being killed by the TSA for a temper tantrum strikes me about the same as being "Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA." The whole airport experience generally pisses me off to no end.

[John Kilduff]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So, given the responses on the "Don't tase me bro" incident, I would imagine adding a death to the mix would rachet it up a notch. However, it isn't getting the same hype.

Having been in handcuffs myself, it is awful tough to strangle yourself with them. Which seems to be the company line of the TSA.

As someone who works for an aviation contractor who is around the CBP and TSA daily, I can tell you that those guys think highly of their authority.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't get me started. Being killed by the TSA for a temper tantrum strikes me about the same as being "Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA." The whole airport experience generally pisses me off to no end.

[/ QUOTE ]

The 19 hijackers didn't have to be let in on visas had our laws been different and less liberal. Instead of subjecting everyone to searches and mistreatment, if we simply didn't let in many people of questionable or suspicious background, we wouldn't have had that problem on 9/11, and average Americans today wouldn't be subjected to ridiculously time-consuming and irritating waits and procedures. But the liberal tenet of non-discrimination is so engrained in the American psyche, that the notion of profiled refusals for visas stands as so repugnant that it won't even be contemplated by those in positions of authority to make policy. Better everyone should suffer than risk violating the liberal mantra of absolute non-discrimination no matter what.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So, given the responses on the "Don't tase me bro" incident, I would imagine adding a death to the mix would rachet it up a notch. However, it isn't getting the same hype.

Having been in handcuffs myself, it is awful tough to strangle yourself with them. Which seems to be the company line of the TSA.

As someone who works for an aviation contractor who is around the CBP and TSA daily, I can tell you that those guys think highly of their authority.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't get me started. Being killed by the TSA for a temper tantrum strikes me about the same as being "Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA." The whole airport experience generally pisses me off to no end.

[/ QUOTE ]

The 19 hijackers didn't have to be let in on visas had our laws been different and less liberal. Instead of subjecting everyone to searches and mistreatment, if we simply didn't let in many people of questionable or suspicious background, we wouldn't have had that problem on 9/11, and average Americans today wouldn't be subjected to ridiculously time-consuming and irritating waits and procedures. But the liberal tenet of non-discrimination is so engrained in the American psyche, that the notion of profiled refusals for visas stands as so repugnant that it won't even be contemplated by those in positions of authority to make policy. Better everyone should suffer than risk violating the liberal mantra of absolute non-discrimination no matter what.

[/ QUOTE ]

"profiling" certain makes sense, but is too politically incorrect. However, I fly almost every week and the security checks are not that time consuming or irritating. The worst I face regularly is about 15 minutes at the height of traffic at SFO...and thats without access to elite/first class lines.

[Low Key]

[ QUOTE ]
"profiling" certain makes sense, but is too politically incorrect. However, I fly almost every week and the security checks are not that time consuming or irritating. The worst I face regularly is about 15 minutes at the height of traffic at SFO...and thats without access to elite/first class lines.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really have to stop agreeing with you, it's getting scary.. I was at SFO on a Saturday afternoon flying home once. I had strep throat, a fever higher than my hippie brother's non-existant thermometer could read, and I'd been held up at the ticket counter for a good 1 1/2 hours and I still managed to walk onto my flight a couple seconds before it took off. (The line would have gone a little faster if a few people in line had been paying attention to the lady shouting every few minutes about how containers with liquid weren't allowed on the plane. Or had those same people watched the idiot in front of them argue about wanting to take their container of water on and being denied.)

Seriously though, can we privatize the security check points at airports though? I assume they could safely profile then without fear of.. angry voters or something. I mean, I know we're dealing with saving lives, but we'd hate to offend people by looking for the bad guys based on what we know they look like.. Sigh.

Or maybe the screeners could watch the videos from 9/11 before each shift (the guys walking thru security, not the planes hitting buildings) to know what kind of behaviour to be looking for..? Just.. something so it's not completely random.

Oh.. and just for [censored] and giggles..

<font color="red"> SSSSSSS </font>

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"profiling" certain makes sense, but is too politically incorrect. However, I fly almost every week and the security checks are not that time consuming or irritating. The worst I face regularly is about 15 minutes at the height of traffic at SFO...and thats without access to elite/first class lines.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really have to stop agreeing with you, it's getting scary.. I was at SFO on a Saturday afternoon flying home once. I had strep throat, a fever higher than my hippie brother's non-existant thermometer could read, and I'd been held up at the ticket counter for a good 1 1/2 hours and I still managed to walk onto my flight a couple seconds before it took off. (The line would have gone a little faster if a few people in line had been paying attention to the lady shouting every few minutes about how containers with liquid weren't allowed on the plane. Or had those same people watched the idiot in front of them argue about wanting to take their container of water on and being denied.)

Seriously though, can we privatize the security check points at airports though? I assume they could safely profile then without fear of.. angry voters or something. I mean, I know we're dealing with saving lives, but we'd hate to offend people by looking for the bad guys based on what we know they look like.. Sigh.

Or maybe the screeners could watch the videos from 9/11 before each shift (the guys walking thru security, not the planes hitting buildings) to know what kind of behaviour to be looking for..? Just.. something so it's not completely random.

Oh.. and just for [censored] and giggles..

<font color="red"> SSSSSSS </font>

[/ QUOTE ]

I dont think privatizing would help, and would probably hurt. A private TSA that profiles would get so bound up in law suits like the 6 imams, that they would spend their time defending themselves and not the country. Also, as a government agency, they have somewhat better access to DoD technology that might not be released to a private company.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The 19 hijackers didn't have to be let in on visas

This is a misunderstanding of the issue. The problem is that the US never checked Visas or passports in detail on exit. Nor did we have a system to flag individuals who overstayed their Visa time limits. Those kind of checks might well have prevented 9/11.

I don't think there was anything "questionable" enough about the backgrounds of these 19 that would have triggered anything that would have kept them out. At least not under the funding and staffing levels of the intelligence community for the 5 years preceding the event.

People always want to point fingers and say "here's where the blame goes." That may be human nature, but its wrong. In a free society there is always risk.

[bluef0x]

[ QUOTE ]

The 19 hijackers didn't have to be let in on visas had our laws been different and less liberal. Instead of subjecting everyone to searches and mistreatment, if we simply didn't let in many people of questionable or suspicious background, we wouldn't have had that problem on 9/11, and average Americans today wouldn't be subjected to ridiculously time-consuming and irritating waits and procedures. But the liberal tenet of non-discrimination is so engrained in the American psyche, that the notion of profiled refusals for visas stands as so repugnant that it won't even be contemplated by those in positions of authority to make policy. Better everyone should suffer than risk violating the liberal mantra of absolute non-discrimination no matter what.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've flown 8 times since 9/11... I haven't found any of them to be time-consuming or irritating. SAC, LAX, Vegas, Tucson, and some small airports... all of them took less than 30 minutes. But yeah, every white man should bet allowed to show up 5 minutes late for a flight while everyone else is subjected to cavity searches.