Posted on 10/09/2014 8:31:40 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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The TSA has an annual budget of $7.9 billion and employs 62,000 people. Its principal function is to operate the passenger screening function at more than 450 commercial airports. Keeping dangerous people off airplanes is unquestionably important, but is it wise to entrust this to a federal bureaucracy? There is solid evidence that the TSA is not very good at this job, but spends a lot of money uselessly.
Exhibit A is the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT, naturally) program. The idea behind SPOT is that government observers in airports can detect individuals who are intent on terrorism merely by looking at them and discerning behavioral clues. SPOT was begun in 2007 and employs some 2,800 TSA personnel.
Does it do any good? According to a report issued last November by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), it does not. “The subjectivity of the SPOT behavioral indicators and variation in BDO (Behavior Detection Officer) referral rates raise questions about the continued use of behavior indicators for detecting passengers who might pose a risk to aviation security,” the study concluded.
The GAO concluded that the TSA’s study purporting to validate this approach was badly flawed and recommended defunding SPOT.
So did Judicial Watch, whose president, Tom Fitton was quoted in this Washington Post article as saying, “The TSA continues to treat all fliers as a potential threat. They’re just looking at behavior and not looking into other things, like travel patterns. They’re not focused on what they ought to be focused on.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
THAT is why the TSA doesn’t allow pictures at security.
‘... but is it wise to entrust this to a federal bureaucracy? ‘
LOL, Im guessing the question is rhetorical, right??
Pat her down good! She sure looks suspicious to me. Forget about the lady in the burka, though.
TSA folks simply find it easier to stomp on people who are and were never a threat than to deal with actual terrorists.
TSA tried SPOT and BDA because that is how the Israelis conduct security. Unfortunately very few TSA were trained and they deployed full body scanners about the same time. That agency was broken before its inception.
George Bush was the spineless idiot who let the Democrats take over this agency as a “jobs program.” Just another indentured constituency.
RANT WARNING:
Just me talking, but if I can’t avoid flying, I plan to get to the airport early, like 3-hrs before the flight. . .that way if TSA dolts are UNUSUALLY slow (they are ‘slow’ anyway), I will be there in time for the flight. Sipping an expensive awful-tasting coffee at the airport sure beats stressing while waiting for the mouth-breather TSA goon to clear that grandma with the 600lb carry-on with gallons of shampoo and perfume. . .
TSA is kabuki theater that is ineffective and run by dolts and morons. . .and TSA has stopped not one bomber or terrorist. And let’s not forget TSA have no authority and no serious traveler takes them seriously because TSA goons have ego issues and are completely ineffective.
We regular travelers KNOW they are nothing but a clown show to convince the average traveler that “something” is being done.
Experience at ORD: Getting a pat-down because I do not do the naked screen thing (TSA perverts, you know), and as the TSA goon was on his knees in front of me and groping, I asked him: “So, when you are in a bar chatting up some cute little blonde and she asks what you do for a living, do you answer truthfully and tell her you grope old people and molest children or lie and tell her you do something more honorable, like hand out towels at a San Francisco gay bathhouse.
TSA and the mouth-breathers. . .TSA has a history of hiring criminals and pedophiles and sex criminals: (official report from Rep Blackburn) http://blackburn.house.gov/uploadedfiles/blackburn_tso_report.pdf
TSA failures by the Numbers: (congressional testimony and facts): http://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/statement_of_naap_to_asac_21may2012.pdf
This is a VERY interesting read. Astounding: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sHL4Pfx9mOrAncAS_Zw_zIQvsJuFanZPVPLE3sSUKQk/pub
http://tsanewsblog.com/9162/news/man-harassed-detained-by-tsa-at-boston-logan/
Why are they not wearing white shirts anymore? Because they feel a darker blue shirt implies authority, makes them look more official. They can’t use physical force or arrest people, they must call REAL cops. Badge? What badge? Oh that thing they pin on their shirt. . no longer an embroidered patch because they wanted a badge to make them feel like they are somebody.
Carry a 4oz bottle of shampoo and you are treated like a full-blown terrorist. However, carry several 3oz bottles of shampoo and you are good to go. Heck, do that and bring an empty 16oz bottle with you and you are good to go. .get on-board and mix it all together. . .nah. . .no one would think of that. Oh, and if these more-than-3oz bottles are dangerous, then why do they confiscate them and then throw them ALL TOGETHER into a single bag?
Can’t carry a knife on-board BUT when they serve me dinner in First Class, they ISSUE me a steel knife and steel fork. Or, have a steak at the airport TGIF, drop a knife and get another and then carry the dropped knife onto the jet. . .nah. . .no one would ever think of that ???
Clean the TSA metal screening portal floor? No way. Fungus central and have ONE traveler with anthrax spores or Ebola on his feet and he takes off his shoes and walks through the detector, leaving a trail of disease and disaster behind him to be picked up by other travelers. . .TSA always looking out for you.
Hand sanitizer? Small clear bottle, no label, in my pocket all the time. . .never “seen” by TSA or its machines. Whew. . .so effective. . .
Service personnel, wounded vets, people with the highest-level of security clearances have to suffer TSA fools that can barely pass a 7-11 background check. . .let alone read and use common-sense.
No record kept regarding the naked scanners? Laughable!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/feds-admit-stored-body-scanner-images-tsa-claim-images-saved-article-1.200279 ;
Perverts in TSA? Certainly: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912.html#.VCWQFfldX_w
At DCA, I watched a supposedly off-duty out-of-uniform Holder’s-people TSA person waltz to the head of the line, yack howdy to the TSA dolts, telling them she was on vacation (they knew her), she walked right past the screening and went on her way — but wait, how do we KNOW she wasn’t carrying a bomb? Wasn’t just fired and had no TSA ‘clearances?” Incompetence...
TSA’s professionalism at work, and these are just a minuscule amount of TSA abuses and idiocy (hundreds of thousands of abuse and incompetence reports are logged):
Joe Foss, the MoH winner, in 2002 TSA dolts tried to take away his Medal of Honor because they thought it could be used as a weapon. Seriously.
In 2003 a wounded soldier with his jaws wired shut had his medically issued wire-clippers taken away from him by TSA dolts. He had wire-clippers because he might need a way to open his mouth in case he vomited. . .but noooo. . .TSA dolts took the clippers away.
Pilots have to go through screening. . .even though they are FLYING the jet and have an AXE in the cock—pit.
So caring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjDcVSbTciU Good gawd. . .
Very interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdAtb95h1Cc
And of course, this one is hilarious, though one wonders if this wasn’t intentional on the part of TSA to “satisfy’ their “urges.’ http://gawker.com/5926470/tsa-mistakes-worlds-largest-penis-for-pistol-happy-to-see-it-isnt-one
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tsa-admits-errors-in-searching-2-elderly-women/
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/insulin-pump-lax-airport-security.html
Master list of abuses: http://abombazine.blogspot.com/p/master-list-of-tsa-crimes-and-abuses.html ;
I can go on and on and on. . .don’t get me started. . .
Great rant...gotta book mark it for future reference.
Bush is the idiot who signed in the TSA and DHS (thanks to the GOP).....It wasn’t just Dems who sold us up the river, as par for the course.
Can pilots carry firearms yet?
Easy solution to the ‘terrorist threat’, low $$ (if even needed) and a HELL of a lost more effective: everyone wishing so can be armed with a gun loaded with a single frangible round (to be given back, like the 3D glasses @ the theater).
They have been able to for quite a few years if trained and approved. They aren't allowed to tell anyone if they do carry. I know a few that probably do, but I never ask a question that won't be answered.
Good to know. Course, the points made still pertain (now, if they DO carry, and go psycho/terrorist...they have a full mag or two as well as the axe/flight controls/etc.)
Amen to that sentiment.
The really easy sentiment would be for CCW holders with a demonstrable military record to sign up for training by which they would be deputized in return for a cheaper airline ticket.
Thank you. I feel better, at least.
IIRC, Ophonybama stopped that program early on.
I like your idea, but, you lost me with the CCW (permission) requirement and need for military service. Open it to all willing Citizens; one group is not any better than another (OK, in a ‘stress related incident’ I can see military personal having the upper hand, but, have more arms than those trying to do harm...I’ll take all I can get)
I understand the principle, but I think it misapplied. In fact, if I could get enough volunteers I would restrict it to those with combat experience only. The decision where to draw the line would be on how many I could get. A cohort of two to five per flight depending upon the size of the plane should do. It would be good if before boarding they knew whom the others were. Etc.
My point is that Americans should fight and win the WOT, not the damned government. There should be bounties on terrorists and their sympathizers within our borders too.
Understand where you’re coming from, but *I* am not willing to leave my self-defense in the hands of others, if *I* am not included. Hell, otherwise, we might as well just hire a few air-marshals to ride along with the flight crew and go about our blissfully unawares life.
Have not We the People been the ones, since the TSA was put into place, that has thwarted every chance the weird-beards have had??
IMHO, one cannot fight a war against the intangible (IE: Poverty)...it can NEVER be won. Of course, if gov’t was to do its job, it already would have opened the season on illegals, welfare/medical fraud, etc.
We are seeing now how the Republic is dead. States are mute on having illegals dispersed, or clamping down on these infected flyers; while the Fed will happily allow the deaths of its own Citizens (children on up) for its political goals.
In this last instance, just where ARE We the People? Clamoring for closed borders, grounded flights, etc. Yet, nothing much else is happening outside of talk...
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