I've said it before... the "feeding your family" argument doesn't carry much weight with me when it's a despicable job that requires infringing on the rights of your fellow citizens. And in that regard, I have a lot more respect for a janitor or a garbage man than I do a TSO. For the most part, this is why TSO's tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes: they are more comfortable following orders - any orders - for a paycheck, don't seem to question the effectiveness of what they do, and don't seem to grasp or care about the principles involved.

And on the last paragraph, I think your interpretation is a bit off. An unfortunate condition of our country today is that what is properly *federal* in nature has now become *national*, meaning that local LEO's are rightfully worried about the consequences of crossing an all-powerful federal agency with unlimited resources to get its own way. By design, the local LEO should have jurisdiction in the airport, but he would just as soon stay out of the situation rather than bring trouble on himself. I don't think fear of a "hissy fit" is the main problem, it's much bigger consequences that could come down on him and his local department if he crosses the federal agency.

Again, blame the problem on oversized big government that is too big to be responsible to anyone but itself.