I will now climb onto my soapbox. Here we go again with the "gate rape" nonsense and personal attacks on people you don't even know (e.g. "both of whom looked as if they didn't miss many meals"). As if that has anything to do with who they are or what they are doing. You want us to understand your point of view or accept your words as credible, yet you post this type of fodder.

Now for the great staffing debate. CG says: "They only cry "understaffing" because they, like ALL government operations, cannot perform even the [simplest (corrected for spelling)] of tasks w/o 3 employees" yet the private counterparts at the other five test airports staff their model exactly the same way as TSA staffs their lanes, so that ascertain does not hold water. Screening is what screening is. Walk through metal detector, x-ray operator, hand wanding screener, bag check screener. Four components, four employees. Five if you want someone moving all your precious belongings along so the line keeps moving. But hey, it's not me standing in line, so if you want a lane with three or fewer employees in it, by all means jump up and down, write your representatives and demand fewer employees. I'd love to see the wait times when that goes down! TSA.....don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, some airports will opt for private screeners. Those airports will charge you, the end user for that service. And guess what....as taxpaying citizens of this great nation, you will still be paying for TSA services. Wow! The best of both worlds. You get your precious private screeners operating under the EXACT same rules. You get to pay extra in your ticket prices for those highly advantaged private screeners (see GAO report: private screeners no better than Federal), and you still continue to pay taxes for the TSA budget. Now getting off my soapbox.