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Rep. Mica: TSA 'Out of Control'
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/J...4/16/id/393095
Sorry to "derail" any conversations by mentioning "politics," but since politicians caused our current Travel Safety/Security problem, they may be our best hope for a resolution. Frankly, this is good news: “The TSA is an agency that has spun out of control,” Mica declares. “It should be focused on a very narrow number of people who pose a threat. And then I think the agency has to start being a thinking agency, actually get out of the screening business and get into the security and intelligence business where they can be the most effective. “We’re shaking down little old ladies. We’re shaking down military, patting down children who don’t pose a risk, for goodness sakes. We should pick people out there who can make a better determination of who to go after, and we should have the information. It should be embedded in the ticket. “These systems have been around. I’ve seen them tested and actually operating in other countries. Instead they create a huge 63,000-person army with 3,700 administrators in Washington, D.C., making on average of $105,000 apiece. The system absolutely cries out for reform.” Mica said in December he tested the new technology for naked body scanners and in January tested new pat-down procedures “and I can tell you the results were dismal. Neither of these are effective. “They should be looking for a limited number or people who pose a threat. They should be subject to thorough examination. Also the behavior detection program is a complete failure. We need to be training people to be looking for bad guys, and we should have intelligence that helps us get those folks even before they get to the gate. “I was an advocate of using behavior [to screen passengers], not profiling by race or other ethnic measures. “TSA has hired 3,300 additional people at a quarter of a billion dollars cost. The results that have been disclosed show that has been a failure too.” Mica has stated that airports should be able to opt out of TSA screening and hire private screeners instead. “I wrote a law to allow private screening under federal supervision and had five demonstration airports,” he tells Newsmax. “Then we tested the all-federal [screeners] against the private screening with federal supervision. The model with private screening under federal supervision performed, the GAO said, significantly better. So why would you pay more to get less performance? “The only countries in the West that are left with all-government models of screening like the United States has are Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland.” But it is hard to change the TSA, he adds, because “it is a huge bureaucracy that is not very open to change. They’re protecting their turf. We have a system that cries out for reform.” |
Originally Posted by An American on another forum
A congressman whose subcommittee oversees national security issues said he was "personally outraged and disgusted" over the security pat-down. "This conduct is in clear violation of TSA's explicit policy not to conduct thorough pat-downs on children under the age of 13," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, said in a statement Wednesday. If Congress would do its job and bring about a legislative solution to the issue, the courts wouldn’t need to be involved. Your legislature created this mess, they need to clean it up. |
Originally Posted by VH-RMD
(Post 16231315)
very eloquently put...
Your legislature created this mess, they need to clean it up. According to a handful of twits, we're supposed to pretend our legislature didn't create an opening for citizens' Constitutional rights to be trampled, and our fascist executive branch didn't thoroughly exploit the legislature's error. We're supposed to pretend politics have nothing to do with the TSA's malfeasance. We can't pretend our Constitutional crisis away. We have to demand action. Our Executive branch should not have exploited our vulnerability, and our legislature should have fixed the problem. Pretending away the politicians' role in the TSA debacle won't solve anything. |
Well I would suggest to Congressman Mica that it's time to stop talking and time to start doing.
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Originally Posted by Boggie Dog
(Post 16231486)
Well I would suggest to Congressman Mica that it's time to stop talking and time to start doing.
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Originally Posted by jkhuggins
(Post 16231625)
Well ... first, he's got to get 217 representatives, 51 senators, and the President to agree with him. That might take a few minutes. :)
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The problem is the public who are apathetic, ignorant or paranoid such that they grant cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and thus get cover from the bulk of the elected, appointed and hired whose paycheck is issued by the government.
Responsibility for the TSA being "out of control" rests with the American electorate, and we've gotten the TSA we deserve. The likes of Mica being able to hold the TSA in check is constrained as long as the American electorate fosters the apathy, ignorance and paranoia that has granted cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and given us the TSA we deserve. |
Originally Posted by GUWonder
(Post 16232806)
The problem is the public who are apathetic, ignorant or paranoid such that they grant cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and thus get cover from the bulk of the elected, appointed and hired whose paycheck is issued by the government.
Responsibility for the TSA being "out of control" rests with the American electorate, and we've gotten the TSA we deserve. The likes of Mica being able to hold the TSA in check is constrained as long as the American electorate fosters the apathy, ignorance and paranoia that has granted cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and given us the TSA we deserve. |
Originally Posted by Global_Hi_Flyer
(Post 16233353)
The problem is that we have a portion of the political class and about 50% of the electorate that believe in big government, and believe that commercial enterprises are evil. Until that changes we will have no reform of TSA.
Again, this is not an ideological issue. It's a human one. |
Originally Posted by Global_Hi_Flyer
(Post 16233353)
The problem is that we have a portion of the political class and about 50% of the electorate that believe in big government, and believe that commercial enterprises are evil. Until that changes we will have no reform of TSA.
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