Excellent post, studentfff. It's clear that the government's massive overreaction to a single catastrophic incident is making us ever more vulnerable to a TSA-induced transportation system shutdown.

On the issue of testing screeners, check out McHale's testimony to Congress here. It confirms the two methods I described above for testing screeners are being used. However, McHale offers zero actual data for effectiveness of screeners; he just says that they are being tested and trained.

Read through the rest of his testimony. McHale has grandiose visions of taking over not only air travel, but also train and highway transport. The PATRIOT act is being used to fingerprint and spy on 3.5 million non-suspect truck drivers. McHale wants active government surveillance at public transit and train stations. In a particularly chilling sentence, McHale speaks proudly of "spot identification checks" in a subsystem of rail transport. Your papers, please.