Forget FIFA, what about the TSA!?

So FIFA is in trouble cause they got caught scamming $150 million off idiots who want soccer in their country. Big deal who really cares?

The TSA on the other hand, is costing us 7.5 BILLION every year, and when put to the test gets a 10% on their report card. 67 out of 70 attempts to get past security were successful. And I will take that 10% away since they were found to be getting their jollies off by frisking passengers at the checkpoints.

So, as a citizen, where do you go to demand your money back for failure to deliver? Other than making flight travel 90 times more unpleasant, how do you fix this?

Are you seriously surprised about this.

Shut up and do what you're told.

Oh, you wanted the functional version? That was th 15b option...

And this is a surprise to who?

aircooled wrote: And this is a surprise to who?

Nobody I guess.

I used to laugh at all the conspiracy theories that claimed that Bush ordered the planes flown into the towers, but when you follow the money trail to where all the money is going, it makes a person wonder. The money trail never lies. Not only Halliburton and Carlyle but now we find out that as a direct response of the towers, 7.5 billion/year of the taxpayers money has been diverted to deliberately make air travel more difficult with no perceivable benefit.

Is there really no way to fix this E36 M3? The reality is that we could hire the Taliban to not hit us for less than it cost us to fight; win win situation. Anyone not read Catch 22 on this subject?

You can combine this with another current thread about crossing borders that pretty much declares the USB guards as Darth Vader Inc and then wonder what their success rate is in saving the county from imagined threats. Or what the real goals are for being such a pain.

Someone is driving this, and I don't think that it matters what flavour of puppet is ins the white house anymore.

In reply to NOHOME:

Nothing is going to change until state districts break the 90% reelection rate for congress critters. Politics inevitably attracts certain types of people and unfortunately the situation has only become worse with all the money being poured into the system now.

Hillary Clinton seems to be the inevitable nominee for the Democratic party and she plans to raise 2 billion dollars to campaign, double what President Obama raised, just on the off chance she might need that much.

As for the TSA. It's a gigantic self sustaining bureaucracy that feeds off citizens irrational fear that they might one day be the victim of a terrorist attack when in reality they're more likely to be hit by a car while fetching their mail. Not much is more dangerous to liberty than that.

if it only saves one life... think of the children... they can't point to any plots stopped by the TSA because the bad guys are so afraid of the TSA that they don't even try, if we get rid of them your children will die.

Security theater/ fear mongering / jobs program.

Conveniently, most people don't remember that the TSA actually forced Richmond VA to grant a security badge to a felon.

Nice...

Agreed about TSA. But that was the original intent of 9/11. Not to knock down buildings or kill people (big, expensive buildings and lots of people to be sure) but to sow fear and hurt our economy. And if you "follow the money" as was mentioned the cost to the U.S. economy during the aftermath of 9/11 was far greater than the piddling price tag of some Manhattan real estate.

Also food for though, TSA agents are citizens who are now employed so they aren't drawing a welfare check. At least we are getting some level of service from them. And 7.5 billion, while sounding like a lot, is pocket change to the federal gubmint.

Additionally, the money isn't evaporating, it goes to workers who buy goods and services on their local economies (better than migrant field workers who send their pay checks out of the country effectively taking those dollars out of circulation).

Of course my plan is cheaper and more effective: let (qualified) veterans fly for free provided we fly in uniform and conspicuously armed. A very visible deterrent to any ner-do-wells who might have ill intent in their heart.

Good article on this topic here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/05/opinions/schneier-tsa-security/

KyAllroad wrote: Agreed about TSA. But that was the original intent of 9/11. Not to knock down buildings or kill people (big, expensive buildings and lots of people to be sure) but to sow fear and hurt our economy. And if you "follow the money" as was mentioned the cost to the U.S. economy during the aftermath of 9/11 was far greater than the piddling price tag of some Manhattan real estate.

And why is it that with all the best minds in Washington, none of them has begun to figure this out?

Also food for though, TSA agents are citizens who are now employed so they aren't drawing a welfare check. At least we are getting some level of service from them. And 7.5 billion, while sounding like a lot, is pocket change to the federal gubmint. Additionally, the money isn't evaporating, it goes to workers who buy goods and services on their local economies (better than migrant field workers who send their pay checks out of the country effectively taking those dollars out of circulation). Of course my plan is cheaper and more effective: let (qualified) veterans fly for free provided we fly in uniform and conspicuously armed. A very visible deterrent to any ner-do-wells who might have ill intent in their heart.

Agreed on all points.

Where I have a difference of opinion in on people working for tax dollars. Paying these people is no different than giving them welfare, people who tell me gov funded jobs are good for the economy also believe that they can pull themselves off the ground by pulling up hard on their shoelaces. Making it worse, we give them money and they give us fear and abuse.

I am a retired TSA Supervisor. The screeners I supervised did a much better job. We were tested many times and had a very high success rate ( better than 95% ). Unfortunately, not all supervisors and screeners function as well. I periodically worked at BWI and it was a real challenge due to the quality of the screeners. There is no simple answer, but what is not being pointed out is that there are a great many weapons and dangerous objects that are detected and don't get on a plane.

In reply to Don49:

Glad to hear the your perspective from the inside Don!

In reply to NOHOME:

I've heard the money point made before from several different sources. Politicians are good at dumbing things down for the lowest common electorate so explaining complex geo-economic-political issues.

And as for the government funded jobs. Until we can bring back the 1930s style Public Works projects to rebuilt our crumbling infrastructure I'd rather see people doing something for their welfare.....errr TSA check.

In reply to NOHOME:

The solution depends on what you want.

If you want guaranteed prevention of any airline, train, or ship attacks then we need about 1Trillion $ to stand up a new Government organization that will absorb several other agencies. Contractors can never do this. This new agency will control and monitor anything that could endanger transportation. Anyone involved with transportation will give up some rights to privacy. The passengers will also give up the right to privacy, 100% searched baggage and personal items.

Or we stop pissing off the world and after a generation or two everyone will be friends and we won't have any security over and above basic criminal protection in airports.

Yeah both are insane ideas.

Or we can just say whatever and go the other way and want no security.

Advan046 wrote: In reply to NOHOME: The solution depends on what you want. If you want guaranteed prevention of any airline, train, or ship attacks then we need about 1Trillion $ to stand up a new Government organization that will absorb several other agencies. Contractors can never do this. This new agency will control and monitor anything that could endanger transportation. Anyone involved with transportation will give up some rights to privacy. The passengers will also give up the right to privacy, 100% searched baggage and personal items. Or we stop pissing off the world and after a generation or two everyone will be friends and we won't have any security over and above basic criminal protection in airports. Yeah both are insane ideas. Or we can just say whatever and go the other way and want no security.

All I want is for the feds to man up, admit that it is all one huge scam designed to line the pockets of select crony contractors and promise to stop doing it until they figure out a new, less obvious way of scamming us. I know they are going to screw us, could they at least stop insulting our mentality?

^They should do the same with the fake STEM worker shortage.