Flying The Idiotic Skies
By Wyatt Earp | December 9, 2009
Have you ever waited in line at the airport because some Transportation Security Administration automaton was strip-searching a 91-year old woman? Oh sure, we all have to make sacrifices because some pork-eating jihadis flew airliners into buildings eight years ago, but can’t we deal with these sacrifices more quickly?
I mean, screening the elderly and children for firearms? That’s insane. Well, it’s almost as insane as releasing your screening procedures over the Internet.
Proof from Say Anything has the duct tape-inducing story:
The government some want to give complete control over your health care (and medical records) has made a minor faux pas:
In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers.
The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operating Procedures manual were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.
TSA…isn’t security their middle name???
So, show of hands. Who feels more safe now than they did five minutes ago?
Topics: WTF? | 12 Comments »
December 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Automatons? I thought these folks were highly trained federal law enforcement professionals. As I recall, they were hired to replace the dunderheads that manned the security checkpoints back when the job was contracted out. Of course these new highly trained security professionals bear a striking resemblance to their predecessors. Same dunderheads, different uniforms. But with a (much) higher paycheck. And it sounds like the folks in command there at TSA (the head dunderheads?) are no better.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
John D – American exceptionalism at its finest. /snark
December 9th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
::slaps hand to forehead::
Oh for God’s sake…come on, school hall monitors would do a better job at security.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
That’s why we should trust them on the environment, the economy, health care, Afghanistan…
This administration makes Bush look like King Solomon.
December 9th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Makes me glad I don’t fly.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I haven’t flown in 20 years and I don’t plan on starting anytime soon.
Besides, when I drive I can do so completely naked. Which reminds me, I need to buy some fabreeze.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
It is unbelievable in one way yet totally believable in another way. The believable part is they publish their own security measures so everyone knows how to avoid them, after all that is big government at it’s most consistent. The unbelievable part is the voters keep electing the same idiots who pursue the same top down approach.
Wait till they pass “cap and tax”, then we will really see incompetency at a new level. Although that may be overtaken by the EPA as they regulate how we breathe so not to increase levels of CO2. One irony here is the plants love it, green people worship plants, but we are not going to be allowed to generate it. If I see a plant coughing, I will make sure it gets some CO2 even if “big brother” is watching.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:05 am
And here, I thought I stopped reading this blog because the posting were filled with fabricated material and lies (i.e the Furs posts).
Is this the same blogsphere that will blast Homeland Security when a bomb is detonated by some elderly plant.
Currently, speaking next to a building testing explosives in various forms (just waiting for a mistake to make my office a crater). We also have a shoe bomg exhibit that would change evertone’s tune right quick.
Maybe I can arrange a tour. . . . .
P.S. Transportation Security is no Transportation Safety.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am
DL474 – They certainly wouldn’t post who roamed the halls without a pass online.
Captain – What, Obama isn’t concerned about the security of the little people? Pshaw!
Easily Lost – Next time, take the train.
Kaveman – Fabreeze. That stuff will hide anything.
Ralph – It’s like the congressional hearings on the CIA’s interrogation procedures. Why would anyone want to publish that for our enemies to see?
Deathlok – Yep, it’s all fabricated material and lies. What are you, Grimjack now? I stayed up late making this post out of thin air with no references. Say Anything’s post cited a post from ABC News, and the TSA website has a statement about the released procedures. CNN posted about it – hardly a right-wing arm of the blogosphere. NPR posted about it. The WaPo posted about it. Should I go on?
Whomever released the safety manual – outdated or not – make a huge mistake. I, and many other people, called them on it. If you read this blog anymore, you would know that when the PPD fraks up – which is often – I call them on it, too.
BTW, if you don’t read this blog full of fabrications and lies, how did you see this post in the first place?
December 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Ok, this has been bugging me for a long time. Back a few years ago when I was married my wife and I used to play a game when we travelled called “where’s Osama” (after where’s Waldo). It went like this. I would stand in the jetway reading Gun’s & Ammo and counting the number of middle eastern males between the ages of 17 and 35 who were allowed to board unchallenged while the helpful TSA professional went through my wifes slippers to make sure she wasn’t packing heat. Now I understand why they wouldn’t want to appear to be profiling but damn…. just damn. I honestly think they select people not by who looks dangerous, or even randomly, but who seems the least likely to raise a stink.
P.S. I found you from the Rott about a year ago and while I read you almost daily I don’t think I’ve ever posted. So while I’m here I’d like to say I love the blog, it just needs a few more scantly clad hockey babes.
December 11th, 2009 at 1:17 am
This post is funny and sad. We flew home from the east coast yesterday and my wife got picked for supplemental screening 3 times. Once at the baggage x-ray machine and then at the gate and then again at the gate during a connecting flight in Chicago. Apparently TSA now has enough people to go check your ID and bags again at the gate even though you just went through the deal to get to the gate and they told you to put away your ID at that time. I figure by giving the short red haired woman a hard time they can now screen a lot of middle eastern men and not look like they are profiling.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am
All these Mickey Mouse procedures are designed to fool the public into believing the stupid people who designed them know what they are doing.