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Homeland Security Cuts Causing Extreme Delays And Missed Flights (chicagotribune.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Chicago Tribune reports on "a growing backlash over extremely long airport security lines," which the Transportation Security Administration is blaming on a loss of 4,622 screeners. "In the past three years, the TSA and Congress cut the number of front-line screeners by 4,622 -- or about 10% -- on expectations that an expedited screening program called PreCheck would speed up the lines. However, not enough people enrolled for TSA to realize the anticipated efficiencies."
Passengers in security lines waited one hour and 45 minutes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, with other airports reporting wait times of 90 minutes, and crowded lines "snaking up and down escalators, or through food courts, and into terminal lobbies." Some flights have even delayed their take-offs just to wait for more of their passengers to clear security. (One Dallas-Fort Worth flight waited 13 minutes, resulting in 23 more passengers who made it onboard -- while another 29 passengers still had to be rescheduled for later flights.) "We encourage people to have the appropriate expectations when they arrive at airports,â said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday, saying the screenings were necessary to ensure passenger safety. "Contemplate increased wait times as you travel."
Johnson also said the TSA would increase the use of overtime, hire 768 new officers as soon as mid-June, and use more threat-sniffing dogs. Meanwhile, a TSA computer glitch caused 3,000 pieces of luggage to miss their flight in Phoenix, prompting city officials to investigate replacing the TSA with a private security contractor.
Passengers in security lines waited one hour and 45 minutes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, with other airports reporting wait times of 90 minutes, and crowded lines "snaking up and down escalators, or through food courts, and into terminal lobbies." Some flights have even delayed their take-offs just to wait for more of their passengers to clear security. (One Dallas-Fort Worth flight waited 13 minutes, resulting in 23 more passengers who made it onboard -- while another 29 passengers still had to be rescheduled for later flights.) "We encourage people to have the appropriate expectations when they arrive at airports,â said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday, saying the screenings were necessary to ensure passenger safety. "Contemplate increased wait times as you travel."
Johnson also said the TSA would increase the use of overtime, hire 768 new officers as soon as mid-June, and use more threat-sniffing dogs. Meanwhile, a TSA computer glitch caused 3,000 pieces of luggage to miss their flight in Phoenix, prompting city officials to investigate replacing the TSA with a private security contractor.
It's as if the police union are on strike and the city is gridlocked because there are no cops to guide people through intersections. No one feels comfortable reminiscing the days when mere traffic lights (common sense small delay procedures like airport metal detectors) managed the intersections, And things moved along. It's time to roll this shit back. The problem is that no one has the courage to do it. We've been led on by stages.
1. Everybody 'needs' insurance to operate. So the shots are called by the most spineless of individuals, the decision-makers at insurance companies who, far from public view or accountability, indicate that they'd prefer to make some change that would seriously impact quality of life. When life sucks just a little more each time, they shrug. Life is not sucking for them.
2. In an atmosphere of politics driven by fear, only the most twistedly paranoid persons run the show. Paranoid security freaks have comitted us to one Faustian bargain after another. No one has ever admitted that any 'safety' measure was excessive and uncalled-for. No one,in history. Sound strange? It should. You have bought into something that embodies the worst aspects of a religion without even the clear goal of one. When fear grips the nation and life sucks a little more --- yet --- no attacks occur, they just shrug and say, that's proof that it's working. Life is not sucking for them.
3. Once upon a time, smart people created something called a 'Sunset Provision', to keep bad legislation from turning everything to shit. No one cared, no one acted courageously and the shit is now locked in, maybe for good. Obama recently extended the Patriot Act provisions --- not from any clear evidence that it has a positive effect, but because he is the latest spineless machine in a series of spineless legislative machines.
Instead of Congress repealing bad legislation, they add pages to it. And here we go again 1-2-3, 1-2-3. It's a Waltz of Doom.
It's a simple little ratchet device, that is making life suck more every day.
FYI There's a little lever on the ratchet that unlocks it.
Too bad no one has the courage to operate the lever.
Or it's someone else's job.
If you think that these days are so much better than the 60s, the 80s, the 90s, you have a great excuse not to touch the lever.
>CLICK<
There, now life sucks a little more. But just a little.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>