Eliminate the TSA

Townhall.com ^ | October 22, 2012 | Katie Kieffer

[Kaslin]

I’m reading the Constitution and I do not see a “Grope or Scan” clause. The TSA is unconstitutional. Let’s eliminate the TSA.

If you read my columns regularly, you know that I consider the TSA to be a carcinogenic petting zoo. I nearly always opt out. I object to the scanners on principle of their unconstitutionality. And I am concerned about the possibility of a scanner malfunction (thousands of service calls have been made to the backscatter X-ray machines)—which medical experts warn can result in extremely high radiation exposure.

Last week, I was traveling to New Jersey to speak at Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit. I nearly missed my flight. And it was not because I overslept.

I arrived early to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport and already had my boarding pass. I’m thinking, “I’m golden. I have some extra time to grab breakfast and then relax before my flight.” No such luck.

After placing my luggage on the conveyer belt, I informed the TSA agent (a female) that I would be opting out. She said: “OK, well, you’re going to have to wait a while. Step over there and wait.”

I waited approximately 10 minutes and she never called for an agent. I reminded her that I needed to opt out. Her supervisor came over to her and said: “We are short on female staffers. I need you to do the pat-down and I’ll have another agent take your place up here.” She responded: “No. I don’t want to. I want to stay up here. Can’t you get another female agent to do it?”

He did not reprimand her for refusing to do her job. (This is not the private sector.) Instead, he made me wait until a different female staffer became available, further delaying me.

After my pat-down, the agent’s gloves set off the alarm. So, she did a second, more invasive pat-down in a back room. Her gloves still set off the alarm, so she said they needed to take apart my luggage and individually re-send everything through the X-ray machine.

Two TSA agents and four supervisors (it takes a village) unfolded all my clothes and even tore through my undergarments. They slowly sent small piles of my things through the X-ray machine, using about 15 bins, even though I only had a carry-on suitcase, a purse and a laptop. This process took about 45 minutes and I kept looking up at the clock, thinking: “I’m going to miss my flight!” I asked a TSA agent: “So what happens if I miss my flight?” He said, “You’ll have to work that out with your airline.”

I asked a TSA supervisor to call my airline and let them know I was on my way and see if they could hold the plane a few minutes for me. He said, “They are a separate company and we don’t know their phone number and cannot call them.” I said: “So you’re in the same building and you don’t know their number? And you can’t find their number on Google?” His eyes bulged, like a child caught lying.

I literally had only five minutes to catch my flight when the TSA agents finished scanning my luggage. I threw everything into my suitcase, wrinkling my suit. Then I tossed my laptop and cell phone cables into my purse and started running full speed for my gate.

Clothes were peaking out of my half-zipped suitcase and cables were flying out of my purse. Everyone was staring at me. I don’t blame them; I’m sure I looked like a riot.

The only reason I made my flight was because I spotted a courtesy transport (they look like golf carts) and begged the driver for a lift to my gate. He saved my day.

I now know that “opting out” is only an “option” if you arrive insanely early to the airport or you enjoy tossing cash into the gutter.

If you are a businessperson rushing to make a meeting; a bride and groom heading to a destination ceremony; a parent with unruly young children or a caretaker traveling with an Alzheimer's patient, you cannot endure the hassle and delay of opting out.

And the TSA apparently does not take responsibility for re-booking flights missed due to its security delays. So, opting out could mean paying $500-plus out-of-pocket to rebook if the TSA delays you.

My story is just one among many. I’m sharing my experience in hopes that doing so encourages more Americans to publicly voice their own incidents. The squeaky wheel gets the grease; we all need to express our outrage at the unconstitutional and unhealthy treatment we endure from the TSA.

[Rummyfan]

I agree - it’s kabuki theater security and just an immense hassle, carried out by largely minimum-wage cretins and costs billions. But obama will never shut it down - yet another reason to vote Romney.

[driftdiver]

They also take extra time for people who speak up about how bad they are.

[Delhi Rebels]

I now know that “opting out” is only an “option” if you arrive insanely early to the airport or you enjoy tossing cash into the gutter.

See? It was a good learning experience.

[Delhi Rebels]

But obama will never shut it down - yet another reason to vote Romney.

Obama didn't start it, Bush did. You really think that Romney will do away with it?

[driftdiver]

and they STILL haven’t caught a single terrorist

[Little Ray]

Eliminate the TSA, DEA, BATFE, EPA, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Dept. of Labor, National Labor Relations Board, National Endowment for the Arts, NPR...

Purge the State Department.

Then everything remaining get its budget cut by 40%!

[econjack]

There's an influential book title An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution (Charles Beard, 1913) that outlines those duties and responsibilities that belong to the Federal gov't. In a nutshell, the Federal gov't is responsible for the policing of property rights (i.e., a legal system and a standing military) and the provision of social overhead capital (i.e., those things the private market won't provide, like a national highway system). Otherwise, the Feds should "butt out". There is no way they should be competing with private enterprise (student loans, SBA, bailouts, etc.). All of these additional area of interference are simply power grabs done to keep those setting policy in power.

[silverleaf]

Bush started the TSA but not THIS TSA

For example when TSA was started it was agreed they NOT be unionized

Nor were they ever deployed to train stations sports stadiums political rallies and schools (next, shopping malls?) Imagine the massive growth in hiring that allowed this expansion. This is pure obama

Janet Napolitano started the TSA on its “leave no child’s behind” grope routine, when her butch advisors cooked up the scenario that angry white fundamentalist Americans who resist government authority are the real threat to America

Those radiation machines (now being quietly moved to small aiports) - cost is estimated to be 100 dead flyers per years, from cancers caused by the scanners.

Not Optimal if it is your family member or you, otherwise an acceptable level of collateral damage to Janet Napolitano and Barry obama who never ever will be subject to an invasive body search

[Delhi Rebels]

and they STILL haven’t caught a single terrorist

So we do away with the security screenings at airports?

[Little Ray]

During the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Japanese government prevented upkeep on bridges and didn’t allow large boats to be built. The intended purpose was PREVENT travel and reduce threats of uprisings etc.

IMHO, the TSA serves much the same purpose.

[econjack]

Given the circumstances at the time, everyone was clamoring for the Feds to do something to protect them. The TSA is likely NOT what the public had in mind. Anyone who thinks the TSA has made them safer in the real sense of the word is kidding themselves. The TSA is an expensive, ineffective, attempt to protect air travelers. Yet, a simply knock on the head, grab that employee’s strip card, use it to walk through the employee gate and a terrorist has full access to the tarmac and everything on it. In terms of opportunity costs, the TSA is one of the most expensive, worthless, agencies the Federal gov’t ever foisted on the public.

[CitizenUSA]

I’m waiting for the sheeples:

“She would have reached her plane in plenty of time by striking a pose.”

“Certainly the TSA would never try and make life uncomfortable for those who opt out. The TSA is just doing its job.”

“Manual searches take a lot more time, waste TSA resources, and hold other travelers up.”

“This is about everyone’s safety, not just her. If she doesn’t like it, then don’t fly.”

[silverleaf]

false dilemma

[Delhi Rebels]

In terms of opportunity costs, the TSA is one of the most expensive, worthless, agencies the Federal gov’t ever foisted on the public.

Which is why neither Romney nor Obama will ever do away with it.

Seriously, if Romney tried to do away with the TSA he'd be overwhelmed by charges that he's leaving the traveling public open to terrorist attacks. He doesn't have the spine to do that.

[Delhi Rebels]

false dilemma

How so?

[driftdiver]

So the only choices are give up all our rights or no security. yep thats rational

[econjack]

...if Romney tried to do away with the TSA he'd be overwhelmed by charges that he's leaving the traveling public open to terrorist attacks. He doesn't have the spine to do that.

Your statement is more of an indictment of the voting public's stupidity than Romney's spine.

[Delhi Rebels]

So the only choices are give up all our rights or no security. yep thats rational.

So what's your solution?

[joe fonebone]

Yes...

do things the common sense and the israeli way..

profile, use dogs, make common sense decisions..

this would involve de-unionizing them so that the bad attitude would be removed...