More "Forward into the Past"

Our fine friends at the TSA are once again protecting us from the last "attack", instead of doing anything to protect us from the next one. We're all aware, by now, that as a result of the foiled terra plot in the UK (and our British cousins are quite pissed at Dubya and his cronies for making various statements that will make it difficult for the British to secure convictions), TSA has now banned most liquids, gels, and so on.

"Yeah," you ask, "but what can be done to protect us from the next attack? We don't know what they're gonna do, or when or how! We have to be lucky 100% of the time, they only have to be lucky once!"

Well, that's true, to a certain extent.

Several well-known security experts (like Bruce Schneier, whom I've cited before) have suggested using psychological profiling techniques (not racial or ethnic, psychological) to weed out potential troublemakers. El Al, the Israeli national airline, has been doing this for years. Their security people look for behaviors that indicate nervousness, fear, etc. It has worked out extremely well for them - there hasn't been a highjacking involving an El Al flight in something like 30 years.

The problems with applying such techniques here are significant, but not insurmountable:

• First, we have to ensure that the Bushistas, with their emphasis on the "A-rab menace", don't allow the screening criteria to deteriorate into racial/ethnic profiling;
• Second, we have to ensure that training contracts are given to appropriate, qualified companies. This does NOT include Bechtel, Carlisle, Halliburton, and the rest of the usual war profiteers;
• Third, it will require significant retraining for the TSA screeners (many of whom don't need to be in their jobs in the first place, but don't get me started on TSA'a half-assed screening of their own damned screeners). I doubt the TSA (or DHS or FBI, for that matter) has the expertise, resources, or even interest to make it successful;
• Fourth, the 60%+ of us who don't trust the administration will have to resist the (natural) impulse to jump on the first glitches -- and there will be some, inevitably -- and start screaming that once again, the Bushies have fucked up. I'm sure they will, mind you; that's as certain as Dumbya mangling more of the English language before he returns to life-long exile in Crawdad.

Even if we don't want to try to retrain everyone to look for signs of trouble (other than possession of nail clippers and Evian), there are some steps we can take to make life a lot safer a lot quicker:

• Force the chemical and energy industries off their collective asses and start making some serious progress in securing their respective facilities. Same thing with ports: fewer than 6% of the shipping containers coming into the US are inspected in any fashion. Chemical plant security is a joke: recent articles in the NY Times, for instance, showed open, unmanned gates into freight yards handling hazardous loads (no link cause I just have an undated clipping from the physical paper). Energy plants -- with the exception of nuclear facilities -- fare little better: your average coal-fired plant's perimeter is as porous as SpongeBob's fanny. Nuke plants are a little more secure, but, again, their training is seemingly geared towards the last threat.
• Enable effective and reliable communications between all levels of Federal, state and local law enforcement. As a former cop, I can tell you communication with the Feds is always one-way: we give, they take. despite the much-ballyhooed "fusion centers", etc., it's still almost impossible to get any useful info from a Fed. Don't believe me? Ask an FBI agent for the time; he'll put you through a full-blown security background check before he tells you. Don't bother asking a TSA staffer for the time, they don't have the faintest idea how to read a watch (although they can recognize and steal a Rolex in a heartbeat).
• REMOVE FEMA FROM DHS AND RE-ESTABLISH IT AS A SEPARATE ENTITY. When FEMA was a Cabinet-level agency (under the Clemis), they really did do "a hell of a job." Under Brownie, Skeletor, and company, they couldn't manage a baby pissing in it's diaper. James Lee Witt, the former FEMA director, should be cajoled/bribed/begged to come back and re-create the original, "real" FEMA.

More a little later.

Fascist Physician Fails, Fraud Found

Oh, the poor baby…

Emphasis added, of course.

Frist Failed to Fulfill a State Requirement for Medical License

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (AP) — The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, did not meet all the requirements needed to keep his medical license active even though he gave paperwork to Tennessee officials indicating that he had, his office acknowledged Tuesday.

Tennessee requires its licensed physicians to complete 40 hours of continuing medical education every two years. Mr. Frist, a heart-lung surgeon, submitted a license renewal with the Tennessee Health Department stating he had fulfilled that requirement.

Responding Tuesday to repeated requests from The Associated Press, a Frist spokesman said the senator had contacted the Tennessee Board of Medical examiners and was working to clear up the problem.

“As a result of a change in Tennessee’s regulations several years after Dr. Frist came to the Senate, he may be required to complete additional continuing medical education hours,” the spokesman, Matt Lehigh, said in a statement. “A representative of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners has been contacted, and Dr. Frist will meet every requirement of the board.”

Mr. Frist, who is retiring from Congress at the end of the year to consider a presidential run in 2008, does not maintain a medical practice but routinely emphasizes his experience as a doctor.

Tennessee officials put the continuing education requirement in place in 2002. Starting with renewal applications filed in January 2005, the state required doctors to have completed 40 hours of continuing education in the two years that preceded their filing.

A renewal application that Mr. Frist filed with the medical examiners board this February specifically mentioned the continuing education requirement and was signed on his behalf by his accountant.

Mr. Lehigh said the senator might have been unaware of the change.

Tennessee law states that doctors who fail to do their continuing medical education “will be subject to disciplinary action.”

Let’s see if we have this straight: Herr Doktor Frist, one of Twig’s party of moral arbiters, not only failed to maintain his medical license in accordance with the laws of the State of Tennessee (and remember, the Rethuglicans stand for “law’n’order above all else”), but he also lied and said he had? And then his spokesdrone said Frist “might have been unaware of the change”?!? Since when is ignorance of the law an excuse... especially for Rethuglicans?

Excuse me, aren’t these the same clowns who keep claiming all their activities are 100% legal? Like the outing of Valerie Plame, and the NSA wiretapping, and the war on terra, and swearing in Rethuglican candidates before their elections have been certified by state authorities?

God, these people are truly disgusting.

Of course, given the fact that Tennessee needs Frist, they'll probably accept his "kitten vivisection" projects as continuing medical edjamacation.

Just To PROVE I'm Back...

An admittedly much-belated cat-n-dog post...

A few days ago, the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 and I got back from a trip, and found the neighbor's cats on our doorstep, hanging around, looking for food (of course).

Except one cat wasn't the neighbor's. She was a stray who happened upon the scene.

Needless to say, we now have a new-to-us, certified pre-owned cat, Tia.



You might notice a certain similarity between Tia and her predecessor, Jenna:


This could be the start of a pattern... except there's me:
(And I wonder why I can never get into Dumbya's appearances...)

Of course, Emily thought she was all done with "those creatures". She saw Tia and gave me one of "those" looks:


"Aww, Dad, why's ya hafta go and do that?!?"

THIS Time, I'm Back!

Well, okay, maybe this time I’m back.

First, a few housekeeping chores:

• Check out this new blog, Conservatard. He’s extremely well-spoken, a gifted writer, and – unlike me – he can generally keep a civil tongue in his head when he’s discussing those Bible-thumpin’, hooker-humpin’, rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnuts, those slack-jawed drooling idiots who keep so many bloggers in Cheetohs and Mountain Dew.

• The blogger formerly known as Angry Chowder seems to have sorta more-or-less permanently hung up his spurs. On t’other hand, he has a guest post up at Conservatard (our blogroll has been updated accordingly).

And now for some further info on the brand-spankin’ new 618Rants World Headquarters. You might recall from my last post (immediately below) that the lovely yet talented Mrs.618 and I moved to luxurious new digs:



You may not, however, be aware of all that goes on behind the scenes at this amazing blog. Our newsroom, a state-of-the-art facility, is staffed 24-7, by a highly-trained cadre of dedicated reporters:



Once the items for our posts are gathered, edited, and vetted for accuracy, they are sent to our main control facility, where they are prepared for posting:



When everything is set to go, posts are uploaded to Blogger, using more state-of-the-art technology:



From there, it is delivered directly to you, as hot and fresh as a Domino's pizz--- err, bad analogy…. Hot and fresh, we’ll leave it at that.

I'm Baaaaaack!

First of all, an apology: I haven't posted since late April, but there are some feeble excuses I can offer.

• First, both the lovely-yet-talented Mrs 618 and I needed some time to recover from having to have the cat euthanized.
• Second, I've been working many, many hours... and insane hours to boot (insane in the sense of an average of two first aid classes per week, on top of my regular duties).
• Third, I spent three days becoming an instructor for Community Emergency Response Teams (or CERTs) -- a program where neighbors are trained to help neighbors after an emergency.
• Fourth, we moved to new digs, and you all know how much fun that is.
• Fifth, the lavish new 618Rants World Headquarters is far enough out of town that we cannot get DSL... or even cable TV. As a result, I've been stuck with dial-up, and our neighborhood has such old phone lines, the best speed I've gotten was 14.4K... usually I was lucky to get 9600. I've been trying to figure how to get the lovely-yet-talented one to let me get satellite Internets ($399 for the dish, $199 installation and $60 a month). And -- of course -- Blogger doesn't play well with dial-up.

The NEW 618Rants World Headquarters Building*

Anyway, what all this boils down to is that I just plain haven't had time to eat or sleep, never mind the little luxuries like having a life or even blogging.

Onto More Pressing Matters:

The multi-faceted, multi-talented Dark Wraith, in a comment (12th in the list) to this post at BlondeSense, suggests turning the Rovian campaign tactics on Joe Lieberman. BlondeSense contributor Jersey Cynic suggested drafting DW as a political strategist; at first, I agreed.

But now, I have an even better idea. I mean, even for me, this is friggin' brilliant.

Draft the Dark Wraith as our candidate for President.

The Wraith describes himself thusly:

...a college teacher and writer who specializes in economics, finance, mathematics, business administration, computer hardware and software skills, and English grammar and composition.

Obviously, these skills are not evident in the current administration. As I pointed out in a subsequent comment, "[a]fter all, those fields are scientific and reality-based, whereas we are dealing with the administration that takes pride in the fact that they make their own 'reality'".

Wouldn't it be nice to replace Dubya, Cheney, Dumsfeld, et al., with someone with actual intelligence?

* Not shown: the revolving time-and-temperature water tower.

In Memoriam: Jenna, 1992-2006

It’s not been a good day today around the Rants household. Our 14-year-old cat Jenna crossed the rainbow bridge this afternoon, to the place where she could be free of the pain that has been afflicting her.

My lovely yet talented wife (and I was using the phrase long before Tbogg) got Jenna when she was just a kitten. A friend called the missus (who was not yet a missus, of course) and said two stray kittens had followed him home, and he didn’t know what to do. Jason couldn’t keep them because he already had two cats. The future missus suggested that he call another friend, who promptly adopted both kittens. The missus went to visit this friend a couple of days later… and came home with Jenna.

Despite my being a dog person, even I could tell Jenna was a sweet cat, even though I met her late in life when she was already well past her prime.

I don’t think Jenna ever really forgave mommy for bringing home “that stray human” back in 2003 (when we got married), and I know she never forgave me for bringing home Emily (the Labrador). Every once in a while, though, Jenna would deign to sit in my lap (usually when I was trying to work on the computer or read), and would allow me to administer a “bilateral four-knuckle neck rub.”

Those of us who are lucky enough to share a life with a non-human-American should take a little extra time and give our companions a little extra love. Remember that pets love their humans unconditionally (well, at least dogs do; cats are a different matter). We owe it to them to make their lives as comfortable as possible.

If any of my 3-4 readers would like to share memories of their pets, please feel free to do so.

Surveillance Convergence

Scott Baltic, the editor of Homeland Protection Professional magazine, has an editorial in the current issue [no link, paid subscription required] that discusses the convergence of public and private surveillance efforts. Baltic cites the following example of what happens when the two sectors work together in, perhaps, unanticipated ways:

Say you just put some gas into the minivan you rented, but suddenly your credit card doesn’t work. Turns out that the rental company (which was monitoring your driving) fined you three times for speeding and instantly put the fines ($450 worth) on your card, which is now over its limit.

Yes, that really happened, and according to the fine print on the rental contract (you know, that stuff none of us ever reads), it was legal.

[snip]

The system that has already grown up, [Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr] said, is “very secret and hard to hold to account,” largely because it’s being driven by the information and marketing industries, which tend to be little regulated.

[snip]

[O’Harrow] also noted there’s no evidence that any terrorists have been caught through increased domestic surveillance.

Baltic echoes O’Harrow’s comments about the lack of public debate on these issues.

Not that there’s been a lack of debate about surveillance: writers across the political spectrum have been going on and on about various surveillance issues (especially the brouhaha over preznit’s use of the NSA to spy on all of us). I think Baltic’s point (and O’Harrow’s, for that matter) might be that some of the more esoteric dangers may be getting lost in the bigger picture.

Baltic cites one information source that many people don’t think about – tollway passes like EZ-Pass. When I was a teenager in Connecticut in the 70’s, we had paper toll tickets we could use (at a hefty discount) on the Conn. Turnpike. Although the tickets were numbered, nobody ever tracked the purchasers, so one could pretty much travel anonymously. The state then instituted a system of toll plates for use on the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways. These plates were purchased (again at a hefty discount) from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and allowed the operator to pass through the toll plazas without stopping, but all the driver’s information was on file with DMV; however, the individual toll plazas did not record each passage of a specific vehicle.

EZ-Pass, however, being computer-driven, creates a permanent record of when and where every EZ-Pass comes within range of a reader. We’ve probably all seen various episodes of “Law and Order” where detectives pull a suspect’s EZ-Pass records to prove he/she was in the area of the murder. EZ-Pass is accepted in 11 states (basically everything north and east of Virginia, plus Illinois); that means – if you have EZ-Pass – that your vehicle can be pinpointed as to date, time, and location, any time you are on a toll road in any of those states.

If this information is coupled with, say, credit or debit card records, or customer-loyalty cards from your supermarket, the resulting aggregation of data is astounding. Throw the records from your GPS or OnStar service into the mix, and give up any thoughts you might have about privacy when you travel.

Couple this with the recent disclosures about the NSA, and previous issues with the so-called “PATRIOT Act”, and it becomes obvious that not only is Big Brother here, he’s here to stay. And when you consider that Big Brother is personified by Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, et al., you should be afraid. You should be very afraid.

All these various surveillance techniques and programs are being pitched as efforts to “fight terrorism”, yet as O’Harrow points out, no terrorists have been caught as a result.

Security expert Bruce Schneier, whom I’ve quoted before, has additional commentary on surveillance issues in his Crypto-Gram newsletter.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

DOJ and NSA Strike (Out) Yet Again......

"I'm article the eighth I am, article the eighth I am, I am..."

Associated Press is reporting that NSA may have monitored otherwise-privileged calls between patients and doctors or lawyers and clients, according to the Department of Injustice. Not only that, the government is claiming there appears to be no legal barrier against using this evidence in criminal cases. This is based, of course, on the administration's claim that the warrantless spying "does not violate the Fourth Amendment".

"Although the program does not specifically target the communications of attorneys or physicians, calls involving such persons would not be categorically excluded from interception," the department said.

The government goes on the "explain" that the same "general criteria" would apply to doctors' and lawyers' calls as to all other calls monitored under the program: there must be "reason to believe" one party is linked to al Qaeda. Trouble is the administration has been monitoring calls "related to terrorism", not just those involving al Qaeda. And since the administration has been claiming for quite a while now that anyone who doesn't support preznit supports terrorists, there's nothing to keep them from spying on "terrorists" whose only "offense" is not worshipping at the altar of preznit.

Michigan Rep. John Conyers also complains about Justice's evasiveness in answering questions from his committee. "All but two of 45 answers to the House Judiciary Democrats were vague and unresponsive."

"We assure you, however, that the department keeps the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court fully informed regarding information that is relevant to the FISA process..."

This is not all that reassuring, in that the administration has made it abundantly clear that whatever spying the NSA is doing doesn't fall under the purview of the FISA court. They haven't told the FISA judges squat about the program.

The department also avoided questions on whether the administration believes it is legal to wiretap purely domestic calls without a warrant, when al-Qaida activity is suspected. The department wouldn't say specifically that it hasn't been done.

"Interception of the content of domestic communications would present a different legal question," the department said.

Great.

Another question the bastards are ducking.

ITMFA

DOE Strikes (Out)

Part Seven... this is getting to be as long as the list of preznit's vocal blunders...

The Department of Energy has managed to misplace at least 18 pieces of computer equipment. That's bad enough, except these pieces came from their "Office of Intelligance" (nah, I'm not going to say it... some comments don't have to be written), and may have contained classified information. Like security procedures for nuke plants, f'rinstance.

Additionally, more than 200 pieces of "sensitive" property had not been entered into DOE's inventory, and DOE had not reported missing sensitive property to their own security department.

Can anybody in the Bush administration do anything right?!?

I didn't think so.

The NRC Strikes (Out)

Yeah, Part SIX...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is investigating a leak of tritium that occurred at the Indian Point nuke plant in New York. Officials believe the leak originated in the spent-fuel pools.

The nuclear power industry, of course, would prefer that the investigation go away. Safety costs money, after all... and that money could be better spent in executive bonuses.

Or should that be bonii?

Want some info on tritium? Read Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears.

Here’s our Deal. Are you listening Democratic Congress People?

Pissed Off Patricia posted this open letter this morning. It's reprinted here with her kind permission.

As usual, she has hit the nail on the head.

_____

Dear every Democratic congress person who doesn’t support Senator Feingold’s call for censure.

Why the hell not? Why are you afraid to step up?

Are you afraid it will make you look weak on defense? Forget that, because there is so much more at stake here than appearances. We’re talking about the future of our country. We’re talking about the rights that the Constitution promises the citizens of the United States. See? We don’t give a damn about how you look, we do give a damn about what soldiers have fought and died for in previous wars. They died so that we could be free and live in a democracy. Those were brave people who were willing to give their lives. Aren’t you brave enough to step up now for the same cause?

For god’s sake stand up, admit you trusted the word of the President of the United States when you voted to support the war but now you see that you were misled. Damn, how hard is that? Others have done it, why can’t you?

We aren’t buying your mantra of having to look into whether the wiretaps were legal. You know they weren’t. We know they weren’t. The president hid the program because he knew they weren’t. Are you willing to give this president who fooled you into supporting this disastrous war any and every authority he wants? Even after he has made you look foolish, you still support what he’s doing? Have you lost your mind? Don’t you see the danger here? Don’t you understand what the hell this will do for his authority?

To borrow a line from this president, when you step up, we’ll stand down. We mean it. When you step up and support Senator Feingold’s call for censure, we’ll shut up. But for now we aren’t going away. Well, if you don’t step up, we will go away from you at the voting booth. But, for now we’re going to keep on bugging you. And I don’t mean in an NSA sort of way. We adhere to the laws of our country. We respect your privacy so we’re going to talk to you in public and we’ll talk loud.

Karl Rove has his little word out now that you guys are “angry”. Rove has no idea how angry we are because you guys aren’t angrier. For heavens sake, you have every reason to be mad as hell. In fact I can give you over 2300 flagged draped coffin reasons. We are at war because someone cooked the intelligence, sexed it up, and it was force fed to you. That doesn’t make you angry?

What’s more important, your reelection or the future of our country? We know, do you? One day you will be gone from the political arena but you have a chance today to do something that will change the outlook for future generations. You can do something that will take our country back from lawlessness to a country of laws that apply to all its citizens. Don’t you owe your kids and their kids that much? Isn’t it time to be statesmen and women instead of just politicians?

So here’s our deal. You support Sen. Feingold and on election day and we’ll support you. If you don’t support him, then you might as well change your party affiliation. What you’re telling us is that you are more concerned about protecting yourself than you are about protecting the Constitution. That sure says a lot.

_____

Many of her commenters have said they're going to print this out and mail it to their Congresscritters.

Sounds good to me!

The Times, They Are A-Changin'...

I saw on Yahoo tonight that one Florida county has dropped additional charges against former teacher Debra Lafave (charges from an earlier trial in another county resulted in a well-publicized conviction).

This is Debra Lafave:



This is how I remember my teachers:




As the Great American Philosopher Rodney Dangerfield once said, "It ain't easy bein' me."

A Public Service Announcement...

Since it’s a well-known fact that all the senior executives of all of the “Fortune 500” companies are regular readers of this blog [koff-koff-bullshit-koff], it is worthwhile pointing out the fact that due to improvements in workplace security postures, executives’ private residences are becoming more tempting targets for the bad guys.

Hence, these suggestions:

• Get an unlisted phone number


• Use a P.O. box (or a private mailbox service) to receive personal mail


• Vary your routes to and from work on a daily basis


• Install an alarm system and motion-sensor lights


• Keep doors and windows locked at all times


• Report suspicious persons and encourage your neighbors to do the same


• Never admit solicitors or strangers into your home


• Make sure your home’s floor plan is not on the Web (builder’s website, or real estate agency)


• Develop and practice a security plan and emergency procedures with all members of the household

These steps are equally valid for single women.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Internets.

TSA Strikes (Out) Yet Again!

Part Five of the never-ending saga of those being “driven into shrill unholy madness by the incompetence, mendacity, and sheer disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration”… [™ Shrillblog]

James Bennett, president and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, said “the current system of screening checked baggage at our two airports, which is solely and exclusively the responsibility of the federal government, is not capable of meeting the current demand, is operationally inefficient, consumes an inordinate amount of Transportation Security Administration resources and is incapable of meeting the projected demand for our airports.” [emphasis added]

Way to go, guys. Do what you gotta do to keep TSA, and by extension, DHS, the most inefficient, ineffectual agencies in the whole goddamned government, while still managing to waste billions of taxpayer dollars.

These are the people who grab grandmothers with toenail clippers in the bottom of a 40-pound carry-on, but can’t manage to locate bomb-making materials in checked baggage, because they’re too busy ripping off the traveling public.

TSA Stikes (Out) Again

Part four… this is getting to be like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe*…

I’ve written – disparagingly – about the TSA in the past. The Transportation Security Administration was formed after the 9-11 terrorist attacks to centralize airline passenger screening under Federal auspices, instead of the then-current system of having each airline contract out its screening operations.

At first, I was in favor of the concept. Having been in the security profession for 25 years, I was well-aware of the realities of airline security. With the much-publicized financial woes of many of the airlines, it was inevitable that “loss-centers” like security would be shorted in favor of federally-mandated programs like maintenance or “profit centers” like maintaining flight frequencies. For most airlines, the purchasing department, not security experts, were in charge of selecting a security contractor to provide screening services. Since the purchasing people usually had little or no knowledge of security (other than having to wear their ID badges at work), it wasn’t surprising that most bids were awarded solely on the basis of cost. The problem is that security services should not be purchased on the basis of the lowest bid: you get what you pay for. If an airline receives bids from two security contractors, one at $15.00 per man-hour and the other at $20.00, the airline would usually go for the $15-an-hour company. Usually, one-half of the per-man-hour cost is the salary for the employee, while the other half is corporate overhead (recruiting, uniforms, background checks, benefits administration, etc.) and profit. This means the winning company pays its employees about $7.50 per hour, while the losing company pays $10.00. Do you think maybe you might get a higher-caliber person for $10 than you would for $7.50?

One of the biggest problems with the contract security industry is that in order to maintain “reasonable” profits, the companies have to minimize expenses… and the expenses that tend to be minimized are salaries for the line officers, training, equipment, and benefits (corporate bigwigs, of course, get excellent salaries and bennies). This, in turn, leads to high employee turn-over. Industry figures I’ve seen indicate a 400% annual turnover in rank-and-file staff. Yes, 400% annually… that means a completely new work force every three months. Of course, it’s not quite that bad – some people leave company A to work for company B, move onto C and so on, but this constant turn-over increases the employer’s costs, which results in even less money available for salaries for the troops. The artificially-low pay scales resulted in two types of employees: part-timers (whose main loyalty, obviously, was to their full-time job, which was usually not security-related) and those who could not get better jobs (like flipping burgers at McDonalds). Either way, the public suffered, even if they didn’t realize it.

Additionally, the lack of standardized training requirements – hell, the lack of any training requirements in many states – led to tremendously unqualified people performing critical functions. Often, screeners would have – at most – an hour or two of training, with just the most basic rudiments of what they were seeing on the screen. The screeners – because of their insufficient training – often could not distinguish between objects that pose a legitimate threat and those that don’t.

That’s why I was so hopeful about TSA in the early days. A Federal takeover of screening would have relieved the airlines of one significant expense (thereby hopefully allowing them to devote that money to maintenance), while at the same time providing screeners with a living wage (originally, the annual wage for entry-level screeners was to be about $40k), and allowing realistic system-wide training standards.

Of course, as is always the case with BushCo initiatives, the idea didn’t quite work out that way. First, the feds cut the pay scales back, almost to the pittance the private-sector screeners were making (about $17K, and try living on that!). Then, the feds removed many employment safeguards, like Civil Service protections, the right to engage in collective bargaining, and so on.

As a result, we have seen several hundred TSA screeners arrested and charged with stealing from airline passengers, both in the security screening lines, and from checked baggage. We’ve seen complaints of other illegal behaviors, including alcohol and drug use at work, harassment, racial profiling, and so on. We’ve seen arrogance coupled with incompetence, and stupidity coupled with authority.

Now, the GAO – Government Accountability Office – has compiled a classified report showing that federal investigators were able to carry bomb-making materials past screeners at 21 airports. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening precautions, no one discovered the materials.

Recipes for homemade bombs are readily available on the Internet, and the ingredients are all available over the counter, so it’s not like this is some far-fetched scenario.

With the advent of hardened cockpit doors, and (admittedly) half-assed screening at check-in, experts say that explosives are now the biggest threat from terrorists targeting airliners.

But the screeners can’t spot the materials, even in extra-scrutiny situations. Yet these are the same people who can find a pair of toenail clippers in a woman’s carry-on suitcase.

Security expert Bruce Schneier, whom I’ve quoted before, points out that TSA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, spend most of their time “preparing for the last attack”: after 9-11, all emphasis was on aircraft security; after the Madrid and London bombings, emphasis shifted to commuter transit.

For some bizarre reason, TSA and DHS seem to be unable to think outside the box; they’ve expressed little interest in securing segments of the critical infrastructure that have not yet been attacked, but that have obvious and well-publicized security short-comings, like chemical and power plants. Nor has there been a concerted effort to prepare for a possible (or, some say, inevitable) bird flu outbreak, other than the Department of Health and Human Services advising Americans to stockpile canned tuna and powdered milk (the “duct tape and plastic sheeting” school of emergency preparedness). And of course we all know how well another DHS component, FEMA, fared in responding to Hurricane Katrina.

Part of the problem with DHS is the tendency to concentrate on the “sexier” parts of their mandate, like terrorism, and neglect the more mundane aspects like disaster preparedness. It is this misplaced emphasis that eliminated FEMA as a separate Cabinet-level agency, that gutted the training and preparedness activities, and directly resulted in such fiascos as Katrina.

The same misplaced emphasis has resulted in allegedly professional screeners who needlessly risk our lives and who can’t successfully perform their job functions.

___

* For those who aren't familiar with the series, it is a five-volume comedic/science fiction trilogy by the late Douglas Adams.

From the "Big Brother Is Watching" Dept.

A company in Ohio, CityWatcher.com, a provider of security cameras and Internet digital video storage, has reportedly taken RFID – radio frequency identification, those little tags on CD’s and DVD’s that make us so crazy at WallyWorld – to the next level by implanting a couple of employees with the chips for the purpose of access control.

I don’t really mind micro-chipping our Labrador so we can get her back if she strays, but y’all AIN’T gonna microchip me. Especially not for work purposes. Those things are too easy to trace.

Plus, of course, I remember Michael Crichton’s novel, The Terminal Man.

HHS Strikes (Out)

Okay, here we go with Part Three. My God, will it never end?

The Department of Health and Human Services, taking a page from the DHS playbook, is advising citizens to stockpile canned tuna and powdered milk, in case of (what some experts say is an inevitable) outbreak of bird flu.

Granted, HHS has a valid point (surprising, ain’t it?) that families should be prepared for emergencies, by stockpiling at least one week’s worth of food, water, and medical, emergency and sanitary supplies. [The Red Cross has a list of recommended emergency kit contents], but still, wouldn’t it make more sense for the government to try to do something to prevent or at least mitigate the impact of an outbreak?

Course, nothing like that’s going to happen till Halliburton gets a license to manufacture TamiFlu.

Ministry of Homeland Insecurity Strikes (Out) Again

In Part Two of what seems to be becoming a seemingly endless series…

The WaPo reports that “Heckuvajob” Brownie “purposely and admittedly” avoided communicating with his boss, DHS Secretary Michael “Skeletor” Chertoff after Katrina hit NOLA. He also purposely ignored the National Response Plan – the “master plan” for disaster response.

The report of the House panel investigating the fiasco also said that Brown’s actions cost the United States “an opportunity to determine whether the NRP worked.” Of course, given the fact that the NRP was developed under preznit’s watch, it’s pretty much a given that it would have failed miserably anyway.

The report also criticized Brownie for not advising Skeletor of the steps he should take under the NRP. As a former (state) government employee, however, I can tell you that part of the report is unfair to Brown. We’ve already seen countless examples of what happens when people try to tell preznit’s butt-boys how to do their jobs. I don’t blame Brownie for keeping his mouth shut on that one.

As I said in my previous post, picking the worst agency is a real crap-shoot… but I guess DHS wins, hands down.

Dept of Injustice Strikes (Out) Again

Last week, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that the Department of Injustice cannot call a handful of witnesses in the death-penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, because the gummint flat-out ignored her orders that the witnesses not be coached, as well as two other “major instances of misbehavior” by the prosecution.

The officials were to provide a pillar of the Injustice Department’s argument as to why Moussaoui deserved to die: that had he told investigators when he was arrested on immigration violations three weeks before the 9-11 attacks about al Qaeda’s plans to fly planes into buildings, the Federal Aviation Administration would have put in place security measures that could have prevented the attacks.

These would, presumably, be the same security measures preznit declined to put in place after the August PDB, and also the same measures that the FBI failed to take after being told of Arab flight students who didn’t want to learn landings and take-offs, only in-flight procedures.  As one novelist put it, “The first rule of aviation is to keep the number of take-offs equal to the number of landings.”  It shouldn’t take a Mensa member to maybe smell a rat when a “pilot” didn’t want to learn to land.

The surprising thing is that Judge Brinkema did not completely rule out the death penalty for Moussaoui, as some commentators thought she would.  Three major violations should have been enough to show a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct, but the judge seems to be willing to let the case continue, albeit without the “critical” FAA witnesses.  She did say, however, that the government’s case was “too riddled with errors” to proceed without some sanction against the government.

It’s getting harder and harder to decide which part of preznit’s assministration is the most corrupt and/or incompetent, but the Department of Injustice ranks right up, due in large part to Asscroft and Abu Al Gonzales.

A "Yerpan" View of Preznit

Today’s edition of the International Herald Tribune has an op-ed piece by William Pfaff that is well worth the read. It’s called “If Bush ruled the world” and has these salient comments on preznit [emphasis added]:

• “Intellectual poverty is the most striking quality of the Bush administration’s new National Security Strategy statement…”


• “The statement's only visible purpose is to address a further threat to Iran, as its predecessor, in 2002, threatened Iraq. The only actual "strategy" that can be deduced from it is that the Bush administration wishes to rule the world. The document is nonsensical in content, insulting to other nations and unachievable in declared intention.”


• The document's foreign readers will have two reactions. The first will be that it can't be serious. The second will be that it has to be taken seriously since these people have spent three ruinous years in a futile effort to control Iraq; they must be assumed capable of doing the same thing again to Iran.


• “… the effort in Iraq has been worth it because now "tyrants know that they pursue weapons of mass destruction at their own peril." (One has also learned that those who pursue nonexistent weapons of mass destruction also do so at their peril.)”

All in all, the piece is a pretty damning indictment of preznit’s so-called “foreign policy”, especially coming from a newspaper that is widely regarded in “Yerp” as an authentic voice of America.

Full disclosure statement: I have a warm spot for the Trib, as my father worked there before the “domestic” edition folded in the newspaper strike in the 60’s. The IHT had been a joint effort of the NY Times and the Washington Post, before the Times bought out the whole thing.