Congress To Smack Down the TSA?
I would guess that somewhere around 99.9% of legislation passed by the United States Congress is detrimental to individual liberty. But today the Senate will have the rare opportunity to vote on a measure that actually increases our liberty, at least when it comes to travel. In what would surely be a blow to the TSA monopoly on airport "security" (security theater would be the more appropriate term), the measure would allow U.S. airports to replace TSA workers with screeners from private companies. And while this would not automatically remove the TSA from airports, it would certainly be a move in the right direction towards ridding ourselves of the TSA, an agency currently tied with the IRS in the battle for least popular federal agency. Which is sorta like ranking the least popular serial killers. My pick? John Wayne Gacy. Because it's a known fact that everyone is afraid of clowns.
From BusinessWeek.com:
The law that created the TSA put it in charge of security while requiring five airports to have private screeners under a two-year pilot program. The number later grew to 16. Pistole halted new participation in January 2011. Pistole had said he wouldn’t allow more airports to convert to private screeners unless there was a “clear and substantial advantage to the federal government,” said Greg Soule, a TSA spokesman.
Well that about sums it up! The only thing the TSA is concerned with is an advantage to the federal government, not the individual citizens that reside within it's boundaries. Federal government control of aviation security is about just that - federal government control. Not about what keeps us the most safe or the most logical and efficient methods of security, and certainly not about our 4th amendment rights that are violated every time someone is patted down or shuttled through a radiation-spewing "body scanner"."But won't private security be just as mean and testy as those surly TSA Agents?", you ask increduously. They might be! I have no idea. But I do know that when the privately owned airlines and privately owned security companies operate, they have to do so with customers in mind. If you are unhappy with your treatment, you have recourse. You can take your grievances to airports, airlines, security companies themselves, and even to court if you feel your rights are violated. However, when the government controls security there is no accountability whatsoever. You are not a customer, you are a suspect.Let us not forget the TSA has only been around for a little over a decade, created as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11. Let us also not forget that in that time the TSA has stopped exactly zero terrorists. They have been busy however. Whether it's constantly being caught stealing from passengers to disgusting abuse of children and old ladies to the absurd detention of a United States Senator, the TSA always seems to be stomping on the rights of citizens' in one way or another.Allowing private screeners to replace TSA workers surely doesn't solve all of the problems of the encroaching police state, especially as Congress has recently funded the vast expansion of TSA internal checkpoints via it's Gestapo-esque "VIPR" program. But it would certainly be a step in the right direction, and hopefully help everyone realize that the government, while we like to think it's "for the people", often acts in complete deference to the interests and rights of said people.
