Have the frogs noticed the boiling water?

[nadinbrzezinski]

And chiefly, will this be on time?

I suspect the ahem groping and other ahem "security checks" have crossed an important point in the US... that might be that line in the sand.

I also expect them to be rolled back... quietly and without fanfare, if there is an actual effect in the pocket books of the airlines... if not, all this bluster will be for naught.

But I am hopeful that we have reached that line...

[GoneOffShore]

1. So am I and the joke agency that is the TSA will be dissolved.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. No, they will not be disolved

I just hope they actually start doing security and not just theater.

Terrorism is real... but there are ways and there are ways... let's just say being reacting and high reliance on technology is not exactly an efficient way to go about the business. Instead TSA should ask their counterparts at Ben Gurion Airport... problem is that while Ben Gurion uses some technology, it is old. They rely far more on far less lucrative, but far more personnel intensive interviews and things like that.

Oh and I forgot K-9 teams...

[GoneOffShore]

7. The Israeli model won't work here

Takes too long.

The biggest advance in airplane security since 9/11 has been reinforced cockpit doors and passenger awareness.

The security director at Amsterdam said the other week that the scanners wouldn't have caught the 'underwear bomber'.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. After 9.11 Mexico City brought advisers from El Al

to look at their security...

Some of the theater is required by us... but most of it is a modified Ben Gurion Airport system. It works... and Mexico City is proof that it could be done. That airport handles as much traffic as JFK.

We could, but they won't. You see, those useless scanners cost money... while a well trained interviewer runs a lot less, and does not go into the hands of the security industry.

Yes it takes a little longer to board a plane in Mexico City, and I am sure a few here would scream as well. They physically check every piece of personal luggage, (which has gone through an X-Ray machine anyway)

Yes I am aware that this search also runs into the Fourth Amendment, alas that one works better than the theater we are doing here.

[jberryhill]

17. There has to be a randomized component

The Constitution allows searching individuals who are suspected based on probable cause.

Other than that "security checkpoints", like sobriety checkpoints, are lawful on an all-or-nothing, or randomized basis.

Take a sobriety checkpoint... You can pull over:

1. Every Nth car

2. N% of cars on a random basis

And

3. Any car with a violation, such as a tail light missing

By the way, it is no different in Mexico. I flew into and out of Mexico City last year. When you go through the customs checkpoint at MEX, there is a machine with a big red button. You push the button. If the light goes on, you get searched. Otherwise you pass. It's a random incidence generator.

[Posteritatis]

10. It won't work there because people want the appearance of security, not the real thing

If people switched to that faster, far more effective, far less demeaning method of airport security most of the population of North America would wet itself in terrified rage, considering it a way of making things easier for The Terrorists because nobody's getting threatened for not having to essentially strip for the cameras.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Yep because the theater would be gone

well most of it. It is far more proactive and actually it works.

[Brickbat]

2. May I offer you a cough drop, Delores?

[tblue37]

4. I just saw a poll that says 4 of 5 responders (to the poll) were okay with the scanners! nt.

[Mz Pip]

5. That's the problem

Frogs don't notice that the water is reaching the boiling point.

People will put up with a lot and history shows us that they wake up past the point of being able to do much about it.

we've put up with illegal wire taps because we could rationalize that we didn't have anything to hide so it wasn't a concern. We put up with Gitmo, with Iraq, with Abu-Ghraib because we could rationalize it all away.

But getting our asses grabbed in an airport security line. Now that is just crossing the line.

The line was crossed ages ago. The idea that we are just now starting to notice is somewhat amusing to me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Well there is that

and if anything Americans are quite ahistorical... and proud of that, which doesn't help either.

[Motown_Johnny]

8. airlines should offer domestic flights with less screening and see how popular

they are

as a "Pilot Program" (get it, pilot)

and increase the air marshall presence on these flights to help insure they don't get flown into the Sears Tower

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Actually an airport should adopt the Ben Gurion

system, and scrap the rest... to prove that yes it can be done.

[jberryhill]

18. Yeah, first build a big wall and security checkpoints to keep Palestinians miles away

...and then run a secure airport in the zone established miles away from the REAL checkpoints.

[unkachuck]

13. hey, how do I...

....get a job working for the TSA? I want to 'grope and feel' people too....

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. You can start by going to their site and filling out

the Federal Application... and you can expect a pretty intensive background check.

[rhett o rick]

15. From Reagan until 2000 the Repukes slowly turned up the temp and Americans (frogs) didnt notice

The Bush/Cheeney turned the temp up to full blast and Americans still didnt notice. The frog is doomed.

[rhett o rick]

16. And then Pres Obama turned the temp down a little and many Americans asked why. nm

[donheld]

19. Obama said he'd turn the temp down but,

then in order to play nice with the republicans and be "Bipartisan" the temp may have dipped a degree or two, but then started up again.