Good idea to use this thread. I've certainly been overwhelmed the last week or so (easy to do after 50). Just a couple of comments from my inside-the-Beltway perspective:

1. September will be the earliest that there will be any revisions to the present policy of any substance for one practical reason -- most of Washington takes their vacations in August. It will be virtually impossible to coordinate anything around town because a lot of the key people who must sign off on packages will be in Ocean City or the Outer Banks.

2. The all-shoes-off policy will become permanent just because it's easier for the TSA, and the incidents of last week provided the excuse.

3. Most of the new restrictions will have little impact because there is a solution already existing that, with blinders on now, has zero impact to passengers -- "all" you have to do is to check your luggage. The cosmetics issues will go away because nobody will be able to make the argument that you will drop dead on your flight without lip gloss.

4. It will take a few key Members of Congress to get ticked off at an airport for anything to be done. Guess what -- They are on recess for the most part, so they will have to wait until after Labor Day to get ticked off.

5. After Labor Day, Congress will be so tied up with spending bills and continuing resolutions that airport security won't even be on their radar screens. They will push these out the door by October 1st and then all go home to get re-elected, and won't be back until January -- earlier if there is some pressing need. Congress will be paralyzed after Election Day if one or both Houses changes majority party, because everyone will be jockeying for position and the Democrats will try to block everything that the Republicans will try to push through before reverting to minority status.

6. Chertoff can avoid this issue entirely by just ignoring criticism and by sending out his talking heads to do little more than irritate us even more. Starting in September, he and his senior staff will be busy worrying about how to operate under a continuing resolution (most likely) and figuring out how to submit a supplemental to cover this added bill. Chertoff can also simply run out the clock and stonewall, knowing full-well that most of America are sheople and will simply comply after an initial period of being upset. The "do nothing" option works out just fine for the DHS and TSA.

7. Face it -- this is a niche issue affecting a relatively small minority of Americans who fly, regularly or not. Most Americans on the sidelines on this issue think it's a great idea.

Common sense says that there are one or two common denominators to these kinds of explosives. (I'm not a chemist, so this is just a hunch). If the DHS were sufficiently motivated (and, as I said earlier, there is no compelling reason for them to be motivated), they would establish a tiger team of explosives and security experts and come up with the one or two things you would have to ban that would make in-flight manufacture of these explosives impossible. Then, you would have a ban on a couple of things, not on everything, and everything that looks like everything. But, the easy way out is just to ban everything and compel people to check their bags if they ever want to see their Gatorade again.

A final complication will be that American entrepreneurs, God bless them, will soon market all sorts of things to work around these new conveniences that we will run out and buy in droves. I'm sure we will very soon see pre-packaged cosmetics you can buy at any airport shop -- outside the sterila area, orf course! Some previous examples if you've forgotten: TSA locks, cable ties, those ID holders people wear around their necks with their DL's at the ready for any TSA inspection/verification, and rollaboards with easy-to- remove laptop compartments. On this count, we're our own worst enemy.

If I'm wrong on any of my points, I'll be pleasantly surprised.