As Bruce from No Looking Backwards said:
I just can’t wait until the same government that twice failed to block a terrorist from getting a visa, allowing him to board an airplane with a bomb in his pants, takes control of my family’s healthcare.
What could possibly got wrong?
I held the "status" with United as a "Premier Exec" for quite a number of years in a row (first traveling for Digital Equipment and for my current employer). What that translates to is that for flying about 85K miles / year with them, they’d allow me to board sooner than most (that coveted overhead bin space!) and more easily upgrade to Biz or 1st class (which allowed me to do more billable work….or take a reasonably comfortable snooze).
Thus, I’ve spent my fair share of time in the security lines. Given that my computer bag is the size of many overnight luggage cases and chuck full of stuff with wires, metal, small boxes and lots of "little bits", I had the chance to win the "TSA lottery" on multiple occasions (the wand, the pat down, the bag going through X-Ray a few times then manually picked over, and the notorious "sniffer" in case all that stuff could go BOOM!). I put up with it – it was part of the job for years: trading the veneer of security for the loss of freedom incrementally. I remember getting on the plane the first time after Sept 11 – EVERYONE was looking around to see who sat where, nervous as all get out, and most of the eyes looking back at me said "go ahead, make a move, and you’re toast".
And mine did as well.
For all of the additional "layers" of security, the time and treasure spent on our behalf to keep us safe from those that would make us dead in a heartbeat for the sole reason of being "kuffir" (or infidel – subhuman unbelievers), we get the above chucklehead, Janet Napolitano as head of our security. As an "open boarders" type Governor, I expected this FAIL soon after her coronation – for the same reasons that we who are a wee bit more "experienced" howled at Barney Fife. The difference between the Barneys is that one was lovable and the other, well, not much at all.
The rather stupid rules, for which I lay at her feet, put into place after the attempted Al Qaeda bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, on NWA 253 were just plain stupid – not able to use electronics or any other personal property that has already been checked the last hour of flight? The inability to go to the phone booth sized toilets during that time as well? How stupid do they think Al Qaeda related bombers – they wear watches too, right? I can see the gears turning in the plotters minds: "Let’s see, the flight is 3 hours and 15 minutes long…..can’t use the last hour -> I’m OK with that!"
I know that I’m not in the best of shape, but that millimeter X-Ray machine is sounding better and better (you know, the one that can "go beyond" your clothes so well that they have to put ‘artificial’ underwear on you?) – I’ll trade that minute long search and NOT have to do the shoes, belt, change, keys, watch, et al and NOT have to sit for that last hour like a grade school kid.
But I need to know that we have competent people at the helm – and when Napolitano says on Sunday that "the system" worked" (only because a Dutch filmaker flew over 4 other passengers to stop the Islamic radical), I cringed. Her outburst was all about taking credit for what really a stroke of luck as if it had been planed and he had been on the payroll.
Spinning is what politicians do, and she certainly is that. However, taken to the illogical end, it turned into a lie and it has deserved all the scorn that has been heaped upon her (forcing her to admit yesterday "er, not so much".
It also is a further reflection on the Obama Administration. For all of the flack that Bush took for "Heckova job there, Brownie", the same should be poured upon Obama for the same level of appointed incompetence. Layers of layers of security that have been built up since 2001 basically turned out to be as good as a turd on the floor.
Let’s throw this in too – it was two Gitmo alumni that found their way to Yemen that planned this – and Obama still wants to release more Yemenis from Gitmo? Hey, Barry – are we really getting to know why you won’t release that recividism report?
Time to banish Barney to Gitmo herself – maybe then, she can see how good security can be. After all, how much worse can it get when even his DAD ratted him out to the US Embassy in Nigeria?
