TSA Strikes Again

While catching myself up on news yet again I learned some more awesome facts about how much of a shit job the TSA does. That and I also can’t sleep. So here is a second dose of my thoughts.

73 TSA employees who have been given a badge and some level of federal clearance have been identified with links to terrorist groups. If that doesn’t grab your attention maybe the scores of incomplete employee records they have would send up a warning flag. How about the fact that some employees may have criminal back grounds or their US citizen status cannot be verified.

All of this stupidity horrifies me but does not shock me because lets face its a government controlled entity. Uncle Sam couldn’t be bothered to upgrade the IRS’s antiquated record keeping system (software with minimal upgrades with origins in the mid 1990’s) so why should I expect better from the TSA.

If I fuck up as much as the TSA does scores of people would be dead and myself and many of my co-workers would be fired, fined, and jailed.  Someone explain this shit to me. Millions of dollars have been wasted and I am sure millions more will be wasted to “fix” the problems and I use fix very loosely.

TSA

So while catching up on the news I just learned that the TSA was tested on 70 separate occasions to see if banned items would make it through the security check process. Of those 70 checks TSA failed 67 times and allowed the contraband to pass through. If you are genuinely surprised you might want to get out from that rock you are living under. The TSA at best is a joke. They either don’t give a damn enough to do their job correctly or abuse the power given to them. The half billion dollars invested in improvements over the last few years has yielded almost no discernable improvements.

Let me illustrate my point further. Most times when I pass through a TSA check point I get the special swabbing. Every time they do it I come up positive for GSR (gun shot residue). One of my recreational activities is shooting firearms so of course I will most likely have some reminisce of powder on me, especially since one of my long rifles is a muzzle loader. Normally production of my carry permit is enough to get things moving along, but I have also come across the one go getter who had to get their supervisor to come down from on high just have them tell me to have a nice day.

On a separate occasion I forgot that I had two 23 fl. oz. ice tea cans tucked into the mesh side compartments of my back pack. TSA rules state that liquids can only be carried in a no larger than 4 ounce bottle that is clear for easy inspection. (Up to 3 bottles as well.) So having had to put the back pack on the x  ray machine for inspection and was given a visual inspection as well was not caught. I was enlightened to the  fact that I still had them when I retrieved the backpack from the over head bin and was bonked on the head by one of the teas when it fell out.