Obama Continues to Have Confidence in TSA That Failed to Detect Most Explosives
Why not? It’s not as if most government agencies do any better:
President Obama has confidence in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) despite the ease with which undercover agents were able to smuggle explosives into airports, the White House said Tuesday.
“The president does continue to have confidence that the officers of the TSA do very important work that continues to protect the American people,” press secretary Josh Earnest said.
A report released Monday found TSA employees failed to find fake explosives, weapons and other prohibited items in 95 percent of internal tests. The undercover agents successfully evaded security in 67 of 70 tests at major airports.
You watch: within a week the refrain will be that they need more money. The public understands that private businesses that do a bad job should get less money — but for some reason, we are always told that government entities that do a bad job should get more.
The thing is, the TSA has failed these undercover smuggling experiments every time I have ever heard about them. This has been going on for years. The linked article says that the acting director of the TSA has been removed, which is kabuki theater almost as convincing as the whole airport security process to begin with. The bottom line is that the TSA has never been a reliable bulwark against terrorists who want to blow up planes.
But hey: your President has confidence in the TSA. Isn’t that enough for you, comrade?
Ding.
Patterico (3cc0c1) — 6/3/2015 @ 7:40 ami blame Rand Paul
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/3/2015 @ 7:47 amThe simple act of standing instead of sitting may help you burn 20 to 50 more calories per hour, depending on your size.
this is a thing the googles showed me on the internet
which means it is true
so what we have learned is it’s better to stand on the train if you can
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:17 amoh. wrong thread
I blame Rand Paul
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:18 amThere have been very few incidents on airplanes in the last ten years. I can think of four reasons for this:
Hassan (a852f7) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:26 am1. the testing of the TSA was flawed, and they are actually much better
2. the bad results are a deliberate ploy to bait terrorists into trying something
3. the TSA stinks but is able to intimidate terrorists nevertheless
4. there are no terrorists, this big fuss is designed to fool the public
I am sure there are other possibilities that I have overlooked.
A family friend works for the DHS in some capacity and was once an air marshal. I once asked him, half in jest and half seriously about a few conspiracy-like items. One thing he did say in seriousness was that “of course” that incident on a plane a number of years ago out of Minneapolis where a bunch of Moslem men in traditional garb who got up and acted strangely was a “dry run” (even though the air line I think had to eventually pay a fine). He said there were things like that happening “all of the time”.
We already know that we can’t trust the govt. and media anymore with things that should be easy to get right, so its not surprising that we don’t know what may be truth and what may be disinformation, no matter how odd it would seem.
I would be totally fine with misdirection and disinformation on some national security issues,
IF,
things that we should know about were handled honestly by (at least apparently) honest officials and media folk,
but we all know that “IF” is in about a 2 bazillion font size.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:49 amAnother core principle of the Obama Administration is to punish success and reward failure.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:55 am“The president does continue to have confidence that the officers of the TSA do very important work that continues to
protectimpact the American people,” There, fixed that.The only government agency we can rely on to get things done
Jim (a9b7c7) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:56 amiswas the military. There, fixed that, too. But, obama is working on fning that up too.More calls for money to fix a really, abysmally stupid idea: treat every flier as a devil so as not to offend their cohort.
“Curse God and die” Amerikkka.
DNF (208255) — 6/3/2015 @ 9:27 amDon’t you mean….“The president does continue to have confidence that the officers …er, the union members of the TSA.”
Patricia (5fc097) — 6/3/2015 @ 10:15 amAnother example of bureaucratic failure: The CBO estimated 15 million people signed up for ObamaCare in 2025 but now it turns out only 9 million signed up. Is it time to talk about the death spiral yet?
DRJ (e80d46) — 6/3/2015 @ 10:23 am2015, not 2025.
DRJ (e80d46) — 6/3/2015 @ 10:23 amWe never needed the TSA. We just needed the airlines to pay more than minimum wage for security. A $20/hr minimum wage for airline security would have fixed the problem of 9/11 and had everyone in the system motivated to keep their jobs and contracts. Now we have government employees for whom mere incompetence is no barrier to lifetime employment.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/3/2015 @ 10:51 amAre we sure the president even knows about the TSA’s failures? He may not have watched the news yet.
Edoc118 (ffe670) — 6/3/2015 @ 11:21 amKeep in mind, this is the exact same criteria President has as the selling point for the nuke deal with Iran.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/politics/iran-nuclear-deal-obama-legacy/index.html
It’s got his name on it. He has confidence in it. And, boy, won’t he be embarrassed if it harms his legacy.
Steve57 (f41960) — 6/3/2015 @ 12:02 pmKevin M @13, we just needed to let the public fly armed. A public raised on James Bond movies wouldn’t needlessly get into mid-air fire fights.
“Now, Poossy, you know a lot more about planes than guns. That’s a Smith and Wesson 45, and if you fire at me at this close range, the bullet will pass through me and the fuselage like a blowtorch through butter…”
Steve57 (f41960) — 6/3/2015 @ 12:10 pmGood enough for Government work.
jakee308 (49ccc6) — 6/3/2015 @ 2:11 pmActually, 9-11 would’ve been prevented if the Airlines had sprung for the cost
of secure cockpit doors and had a policy of not surrendering to hijackers and of
profiling passengers as El Al did and does. (Strangely enough, El Al has never
had the problems of hijacking that other airlines do. Which is especially notable
since we can assume they are a high value target for “certain” groups.
9-11 was allowed to occur due to the greed of the Airlines overcoming their sense
jakee308 (49ccc6) — 6/3/2015 @ 2:15 pmof self preservation.
The TSA is a government Jobs program. I don’t think they expect it to do much more than employ a lot of people on the government dole.
Dejectedhead (4bfcf6) — 6/3/2015 @ 3:52 pmHey, it’s hard to pick up the news feed out there on the 14th fairway; give JugEars a break…
champ (56cd04) — 6/3/2015 @ 4:47 pmfeeds not feed…..
champ (56cd04) — 6/3/2015 @ 4:48 pmthings to consider:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/06/03/was-usaama-rahim-actually-jihadist-abu-sufyaan-on-facebook/
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/3/2015 @ 5:28 pmKevin M @13, we just needed to let the public fly armed.
A hard rubber mallet in each seat back would work just fine. Not everyone can punch, but put a mallet at the end of
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/3/2015 @ 5:29 pma200 3-foot moment arms and you have a terrifying amount of force.#18,
But they profile! A Jewish businessman going to meet with the IDF is going to get better treatment than a Saudi religious student. That’s just not fair!
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/3/2015 @ 5:32 pmhf
what size bollocks burn 50 calories again? Or did mis something?
On to Obama and the TSA, of course he has confidence in their competency… theirs far exceeds his own. He probably remembers TSA fondly to back in the days when his friends paid for him to fly first class and wonders aloud about how such a well oiled machine they seem to be, stringing f*** up after f***up without missing a beat.
steveg (fed1c9) — 6/3/2015 @ 5:37 pmObama can’t even f***up without f***ing that up. Then he takes credit for how f***ed up something is that he just f***ed up irretreivably
Like when he yapped about how “respected” the US is now that he has been f***ing it up. Like the respect you give to the kid who continues to give up his lunch money day after day after day
I agree with Obama that the TSA does very important work but that isn’t the issue. The issue is they do this very important work very very badly. And have since their creation.
Worc1 (922435) — 6/3/2015 @ 8:05 pmThe TSA would like to point out that the test was not fair, as an insufficient percentage of the fake weapons and explosives were strapped to hot blondes.
NickM (22278f) — 6/3/2015 @ 10:12 pm