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Posted to alt.binaries.schematics.electronic
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Crippling the TSA for Christmas bombing season. Thanks, repubs!
flipper wrote:
On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:08:16 -0600, "Ouroboros Rex"
wrote:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/81356.html
Posted on Monday, December 28, 2009
Who's running the TSA? No one, thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint
Just what we need: a unionized TSA to make the organization truly
useless.
What's the problem? Don't they 'trust the government' to be fair and
mandate good working conditions? The very same government you claim is
just perfect for controlling the entire healthcare system of every
blinking soul in the country?
translation: drooool
WASHINGTON - An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from
Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the
administrator of the Transportation Security Administration - if
there were one.
The post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has held up
President Barack Obama's nominee in opposition to the prospect of TSA
workers joining a labor union.
As al Qaida claimed responsibility Monday for the thwarted attack and
President Barack Obama made a public statement about it, Democrats
urged DeMint to drop his objection and allow quick confirmation of
nominee Erroll Southers, a counterterrorism expert, when the Senate
reconvenes in three weeks.
Obama, speaking from Hawaii, where he and his family are
vacationing, told Americans, "We will not rest until we find all who
were involved and hold them accountable."
Obama warned anyone plotting against the U.S. from Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia or elsewhere that he doesn't intend to rest
at simply strengthening defense.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
announced a hearing to be set for next month to examine how Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian whose name was in a
terrorism database, boarded a plane with explosive material.
"Why aren't airline passengers flying into the U.S. checked against
the broadest terrorist database and why isn't whole body scanning
technology that can detect explosives in wider use?" said committee
chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent.
Meanwhile, Florida Republican Rep. John Mica said in a statement
that the TSA had grown lost and bloated in bureaucracy and called
for a review.
Mica also said Congress "must change the process by which TSA
administrators serve. There has been no TSA administrator for nearly
a year and the next one will be the fifth in eight years. Running a
security agency with a revolving door is a recipe for failure."
Janet Napolitano, the head of the Department of Homeland Security,
of which the TSA is part, made the rounds of morning television news
programs on Monday, backing away from her initial stance that the
system had worked in averting attack.
She told NBC that "our system did not work in this instance. No one
is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."
Southers, a former FBI special agent, is the Los Angeles World
Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and
intelligence. He also is the associate director of the University of
Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of
Terrorism Events, and he served as a deputy director of homeland
security for California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Two Senate committees have given Southers their bipartisan blessing.
An acting administrator is in place pending his confirmation.
Marshall McClain, the president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace
Officers Association, said that the Senate should have acted sooner
to confirm Southers.
"Friday's terrorist attack on U.S. aviation makes it all the more
imperative that there be no further delays in filling this crucial
position," he said.
DeMint said in a statement that the attempted attack "is a perfect
example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the
TSA." He wants Southers to clarify his stand on unionizing the TSA,
a shift that Democrats support.
Without collective bargaining, DeMint said, the TSA has "flexibility
to make real-time decisions that allowed it to quickly improve
security measures in response to this attempted attack."
If organized labor got involved, DeMint said, union bosses would
have the power "to veto or delay future security improvements at our
airports."
He urged Obama to "re-think" supporting unionizing the TSA "and put
the interests of American travelers ahead of organized labor."
DeMint also wants a Senate floor debate and roll call votes, not
confirmation by consent as the Democrats sought.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hadn't scheduled a floor
vote for Southers before the Senate left town on Christmas Eve.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Monday that the majority leader is
working with the White House to get Southers confirmed "as quickly
as possible" and charged that "Republican obstructionism has
prevented TSA from having the leadership in place that the
organization deserves."
DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton said that Obama didn't nominate
Southers until September, and he charged that Reid "has been too
busy trading earmarks for votes on health care" to deal with
DeMint's concerns.
DeMint's objection creates a procedural hurdle that could take three
days of debate and test votes to overcome, or could potentially be
limited if Democrats offered DeMint a compromise. No one was taking
conciliatory stance on Monday, however. Manley called DeMint's
opposition "disgraceful."
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