Hey, there are signs of intelligent discussion...

I believe that the root of the problem is that politicians are in charge of the details of security rather than simply setting policy. Exhibit A would be the congressionally mandated lighter ban. In the end, security is about politics and economics (read Schneier) but is much more effective if the politicians restrict themselves to a and b above and leave c and the operational details to the security experts. Unfortunately, as BNA_flyer points out, there are a lot of votes at stake and meddling has proved irresistible to the politicians and political appointees who run the show. Getting them out of operations and restricting them to high level policy would improve the situation greatly. Not bloody likely though.

Michael