It’s becoming increasingly clear that the TSA is little other than a boondoogle of wasted tax-payer money, providing nothing much in the way of actual security for airline passengers, but much in the way of lucrative contracts for makers of porno scanners and other expensive toys for boys. Oh, and apparently a job with the TSA is also the hot, hot ticket if you like fondling little boys, women — or, heck, anyone, with impunity.
The guy running this ridiculous high tech peep-show is John Pistole, Obama’s 3rd pick for the job of running NAMBLA the TSA, and a bit of a dodgy character if things like sanity and common sense are high on your wish list. Notably, he had this to say five years ago when he was appointed grand-poobah within the FBI (the Federal Bureau of Incompetence):
I’m at peace about what I am doing, that I’m in God’s will and that I’m doing what he wants me to do. But if today I had a strong sense that God was calling me to do something else, that’s what I’d do.
(h/t donbacon @ FDL). Great. So, when he’s not busy leaving no little kid untouched, he’s communicating with the great cloud being and generally thinks it’s all HIS doing… well, that’s comforting. Nothing like superstition in place of rational thinking.
And what has he done with the TSA? Well, after maxing out as the single biggest departmental recipient of stimulus funding, Mr. Pistole blew it all on hookers and coke. No, actually he blew it all on ping machines, while creating a single solitary job. Not so very stimulating, that. Oh, and evidently, he’s hiring the rejects form Wal-Mart’s rigorous greeter program to run the scanners and the pat-downs and generally abuse the hell out of random travellers. It’s bad enough if you happen to be a good looking girl or a cute blond 3-year-old boy, but I can’t even imagine the horror that awaits you if you name happens to be Mustafa…
Of course, none of this grotesque and absurdly expensive kabuki makes us any safer in the sky. John Pistole continues to fail or refuse to provide Congress with the requested proof of efficiency for all his sexy new toys, all the while lying about how awesome they are. And, really, think about it: given the immense complexity of airline travel, don’t you think the bad boys could find an “in” if they wanted it badly enough? Or, for that matter, that they would simply elect to hit some other, softer target instead? As long as we insist that Pistole’s way is the only way for us to be safer, we won’t be.
Oh, and for a real kicker, someone noticed that the CEO of one of the two companies that build these obscene porno scanners who, presumably, is laughing all the way to the bank as the rest of us develop cancers and throw away a fortune in water bottles every time we travel), was on Obama’s recent junket to India… what a coinkydink, huh?
Also. Awesome.
