TSA mission creep turning into mission leap

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration was formed to protect our nation’s airlines from terrorist attacks. But now the blue-gloved thugs of the TSA are showing up at train stations and on highways to hassle citizens under the guise of national security.
The agency’s mission creep – some say “mission leap” – is alarming from a number of angles.
As a fiscal conservative, I’m disturbed at how much we’re paying just for the TSA to perform its “security theater” at the nation’s airports, especially in these times of huge budget deficits.
A congressional report out this week says the U.S. government has spent nearly $57 billion over 10 years on TSA airport security described as wasteful and ineffective. (See earlier Tech-media-tainment post as well as new articles by Reason, Forbes, the New American and the Daily.)
And the TSA’s expenses are growing as it adds more questionable technology and seeks to expand its purview.
The agency acts like the U.S. government has bottomless pockets and citizens and their elected representatives will always pay more just to feel safer.
Some legislators are calling for the dismantling of the TSA, but that may be wishful thinking. Once created, government agencies are hard to kill. They take on a life of their own. And politicians like to play it safe, with none of them wanting to appear soft on domestic security. In Washington, it’s easier to say yes to more spending than it is to say no.
The TSA has a budget this year of $8.1 billion, compared with $1.3 billion in 2002. Its employment ranks have swelled to over 65,000 workers from 16,500 its first year.
I’m also concerned about what the TSA is doing to the civil liberties of Americans. The agency has trampled on citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures with its invasive full-body pat-downs and confiscating of benign items like perfume, shaving cream, beverages and grooming scissors.
TSA agents routinely tell people that they can’t be photographed or videoed doing their jobs, even though it’s entirely lawful.
In addition, the TSA has a disturbing record of lying to the public about its intentions. For instance, it continued to pat down children under 12 after it said it would stop the controversial practice. It also lied about privacy and health issues concerning its full-body scanners.
The TSA is notoriously secretive. It has refused to release its security record, the document embodying its enhanced screening procedures and other information.
Finally, the TSA is expanding its reach beyond airports into other modes of transportation.
In October, TSA agents harassed truckers on highways and travelers in bus stations in Tennessee. It was part of the TSA’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program, which has conducted operations in other states as well, according to the Washington Times, the Sacramento Bee and Infowars.
In addition to airports, highways and bus terminals, the TSA is reaching its tentacles into train stations, subways, ferries, ports and tourist attractions. In a sign of how ridiculous things have gotten, the TSA even checked out a 296-foot-long funicular railway in Dubuque, Iowa, for security threats, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) said the TSA’s expansion wasn’t mission creep, but “mission leap,” in a column in the Daily Caller.
The TSA is taking on the appearance of a secret police force like the Stasi or KGB. On the path it’s headed, it won’t be too long before TSA agents can walk up to anyone on the street and demand to see their “papers.”

Art: Parody poster showing actor Don Knotts, best known as bumbling deputy sheriff Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show,” in an airport security uniform inspired by the German Gestapo. Photo from Free Republic, Angry White Dude and other websites.

10-year anniversary of TSA no time to celebrate

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration was created 10 years ago this week. But it’s not an occasion worth celebrating.
The TSA was founded in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. You can’t fault legislators for trying to stop future plane hijackings like the three orchestrated by Al-Qaeda. But they’ve created an ineffective, costly bureaucracy with an alarming mission creep and a penchant for trampling constitutional rights.
A congressional report issued Wednesday gave a scathing indictment of the agency.
Here are some highlights of the media coverage about the report and the TSA’s 10-year anniversary:

Congressional report calls TSA ‘bloated’ (USA Today; Nov. 16, 2011)

According to the report, “A Decade Later: A Call for TSA Reform,” TSA is:

•A bloated bureaucracy with 65,000 workers, including nearly 4,000 at headquarters and 9,656 administrators in the field.

•An ineffective agency, with 25,000 security breaches in the last decade.

•A sponsor of inadequate technology, including 500 advanced-imaging technology machines costing $122 million that are “easily thwarted” and $39 million wasted on explosive-detection “puffer” machines that were unreliable.

GOP report: TSA hasn’t improved aviation security (Washington Post; Nov. 16, 2011)

After a $56 billion federal investment in airline security, flying is no safer than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the bare hands of passengers might be the best defense once a terrorist gets on board, two members of Congress said Wednesday.
Deriding the Transportation Security Administration as a bloated bureaucracy that recruits security personnel with ads on gas pumps and pizza boxes, the two House Republicans said it needed to undergo almost a dozen reforms.

GOP to TSA: Happy 10th Birthday, Now Get Your Act Together (Transportation Nation; Nov. 16, 2011)

The TSA turns 10 today. In the past decade it has given the perennially maligned IRS a run for the money for most complained-about government agency.

House report slams 10-year-old TSA (Government Executive; Nov. 16, 2011)

“TSA needs a vision and purpose that goes beyond throwing expensive equipment and invasive searches at passengers who do not pose a security threat,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which signed off on the report along with the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Airline Travelers Say TSA Screening Still A Hassle 10 Years After 9/11 (Huffington Post; Nov. 15, 2011)

“It’s a sign of how low the bar is set that we celebrate when 5-year-olds can keep their shoes on” at an airport checkpoint, says Geoff Freeman, vice president of the U.S. Travel Association
…
Of the five most cited frustrations of flying, four involved airport security, according to a passenger survey. Those complaints included the wait time at checkpoints; the need to take off belts, jackets and shoes; and the attitudes of TSA employees.

TSA Watch: 10 things the TSA should do on its 10th anniversary (Elliot; Nov. 6, 2011)

No one was surprised by this week’s report that the Transportation Security Administration glossed over the health risks of its airport X-ray scanners.
The investigation found that anywhere from six to 100 U.S. airline passengers each year could get cancer from the machines — a hazard critics have warned about ever since the devices were quietly deployed in many airports almost two years ago.

Photo: Logo from humorous fake TSA Twitter account Agent Smith.

Return of the pocket watch

Many people today don’t wear wristwatches. When they want to know the time, they just check their cell phones.
Without realizing it, they’ve brought back the pocket watch.
I’m one of those people who don’t wear a watch. I did up until three months ago when my watch broke. I just haven’t gotten around to getting a new one.
In the meantime, I’ve gotten used to my modern-day pocket watch, an Apple iPhone 4.
Everything old is new again.

Photos: Time and date displayed on my iPhone 4 (top); a pocket watch from Orient Japan as featured on aBlogtoRead.com.

NBC announces midseason schedule, but ‘Awake’ missing

NBC announced its midseason schedule today, but one show I was looking forward to seeing is nowhere to be found.
“Awake,” starring Jason Isaacs (who played Lucius Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” series), was slated as a midseason replacement series. But NBC either couldn’t find a slot for the show or lost confidence in it, like it did last season’s “Day One.” The network’s website lists the show’s premiere as “TBA.”
The Hollywood Reporter on Oct. 26 said the show shut down production for a month after filming its sixth episode to give writers time to hammer out scripts for new episodes.
“Awake” is a drama about a police detective who finds himself living reality-bending double life. Here’s the official synopsis:

When Detective Michael Britten (Isaacs) regains consciousness following his family’s car accident, he is told that his wife Hannah (Laura Allen, “Terriers”) perished but that his teen son, Rex (Dylan Minnette, “Saving Grace”), has survived. As he tries to put the pieces of his life back together, he awakens again in a parallel reality in which his wife is very much alive – but his son Rex died in the accident. In order to keep both of his loved ones alive at one time, he begins living two dueling realities in parallel worlds, which churns up confusion – in one moment, Michael and his wife debate about having another child to replace their son, while in the other reality, he is attracted to his son’s tennis coach, Tara (Michaela McManus, “The Vampire Diaries”), to fill the void from the loss of his wife. Trying to regain some normalcy, Michael returns to police work and solves crimes in both worlds with the help of two different partners – Detective Isaiah “Bird” Freeman (Steve Harris, “The Practice”) and Detective Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama, “That ’70s Show”). Also starring are Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones (“24”) and BD Wong (NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) as therapists in each respective world.
The series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Kyle Killen (“Lone Star”) and Howard Gordon (“24”) are executive producers. David Slade (“Twilight: Eclipse,” “30 Days of Night”) also serves as executive producer and directed the pilot written by Killen.

Hopefully NBC will find a place for this show. It sounds intriguing.

Photo: Jason Isaacs as Det. Michael Britten in a scene from NBC’s “Awake.”

Photographer scores LFL wardrobe malfunction photos

Photographer Eric Lynch of Bingme Photography took a terrific series of photos at the Nov. 4 Lingerie Football League game featuring the Seattle Mist vs. the Las Vegas Sin.
Lynch did a great job capturing the on-field action, including a couple of obligatory wardrobe malfunctions.
Shooting LFL games is difficult because of the indoor lighting and fast motion, but Lynch was up to the task. Check out his Flickr set. Also, check out a recap of the game.

Update: For uncensored LFL photos, check out the LFL Wardrobe Malfunctions blog.

Photos:

Top: Seattle Mist wide receiver Jessica Hopkins eludes a Las Vegas Sin tackler for a touchdown.

Bottom: Las Vegas Sin running back Tracee Thomas has her pasty-covered breast exposed by Seattle Mist linebacker Natalie Sutey.

2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show raps, then wraps up; Will air on CBS Nov. 29

As a member of the press, I had the priviledge of attending the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York City. It was taped tonight at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. The video will be edited for a one-hour prime-time special to air Nov. 29 on CBS.
It was another great production for Victoria's Secret, a unit of Limited Brands. This year's show was highlighted by musical performances by Maroon 5, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj. Rapper Jay-Z made a surprise appearance to perform a number with West. Cee Lo Green was on the bill to perform but backed out and was replaced by Minaj.
The show boasted a bevy of beauties modeling Victoria's Secret's sexy garments. They included supermodels Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Miranda Kerr and Chanel Iman.
I'll have more to say about the show later.

Photo: Ticket to the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Facebook needs a new search function pronto

As people store more things online, having a way to sort and search through those things is critical.
Google and Yahoo figured that out early with their e-mail services. People don’t want to have to sift through hundreds of e-mails looking for a particular message when they can just do a keyword search.
Social media is the next frontier for search.
Millions of people are actively using Facebook and Twitter and building up thousands of posts in their message streams. But they can’t search their postings easily on either of those sites.
I recently wanted to show my son some funny videos based on the Angry Birds video game. I had shared links to those videos on my Facebook wall, which I’m using now in place of Digg and separate bookmarking services to save weblinks to interesting sites or articles.
Long story short, I couldn’t find those videos quickly because Facebook lacks a search tool specifically for users’ postings. Same goes with Twitter.
Those services need such a search tool pronto. Its need is going to be more important over time.
I eventually found those Angry Birds-themed videos, but not before sifting through months worth of my posts. Not great. You can see a compilation of those videos at One Stop Video.

Photo: Photoshopped image of a National Geographic cover featuring a red bird from Angry Birds. (See Laughing Squid.)