After intelligence gathered at Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan revealed al-Qaida thought about attacking trains in the United States, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that like we do for airplanes, the name of anyone who rides a train should be checked against a "no-ride" list.
Of course, if you look at the ridership numbers, it would appear that the vast majorities of Americans are already on some sort of "no ride" list.
And looking at the numbers and the sure-fire money loser that Amtrak has become, if we simply get rid of Amtrak, we save tax-payer dollars and eliminate a terrorist threat. It's a win-win, people!
We've taken Amtrak twice - both times up to Orange County from down here in San Diego and aside from the bar car, there was no inherent advantage that we saw to taking the train.
You may be familiar with our preferred mode of transportation...
We're tight with the director of operations as well as the chief security officer, so matters such as departure/arrival times and any such "no ride" lists have never been an issue.
Poltico.com completely whiffs by missing the point and misreading the mood of the country in their daily poll today.
Are you worried about air travel security this holiday season?
- Yes. I'm not sure all is being done to keep me safe.
- No. I feel our security measures in place are effective.
- I'm not sure.
- I'm not traveling via air this week.
What should've been in there instead of the last question is:
- I have doubts that the current TSA screening techniques are effective in deterring terror plots.
and/or
- The new and improved TSA security measures are unnecessarily invasive and violate my 4th amendment rights.
"I'm not traveling this week" is completely irrelevant. It precludes one from having an opinion merely because one is not flying.
And with respect to the first answer, that box could be checked by both those who have no problems with/favor the crotch grab as well as those totally opposed to it reasoning that we are not employing effective behavioral profiling to sniff out the terrorists as the reasonable alternative.
A round up of news items, columns and blog posts that caught our attention this past week.
Once again, the Taiwanese, of all people, provide a summation of the American cultural zeitgeist:
Charles Krauthammer on the new TSA screening procedures? Not a big fan:
Don't touch my junk is the anthem of the modern man, the Tea Party patriot, the late-life libertarian, the midterm election voter. Don't touch my junk, Obamacare - get out of my doctor's examining room, I'm wearing a paper-thin gown slit down the back. Don't touch my junk, Google - Street View is cool, but get off my street. Don't touch my junk, you airport security goon - my package belongs to no one but me, and do you really think I'm a Nigerian nut job preparing for my 72-virgin orgy by blowing my johnson to kingdom come?
Oh, good, the Obama administration has another imaginary victory for taxpayers to celebrate.
As you've probably heard, there's quite a bit of hubbub surrounding the news that the administration's car company is going public.
President Barack Obama tells us that General Motors' IPO is proof that one of the toughest tales of recession "took another step to becoming a success story." Not "survival," but success. Taxpayers are going to make a profit, even!
Now, admittedly, success is a malleable concept. If by success we mean that General Motors still owes the government $43 billion — not including that piddling $15 billion it borrowed to fund its financial arm — with many analysts uncertain that it can ever flourish, we're home free.
Success will mean temporarily setting aside the fact that the Treasury actually lost billions on the IPO as it "bought" GM stock at inflated prices. To break even on the freshly printed money taxpayers are "getting back" will probably mean GM needs to double in value over the next year to make us whole.
So, Team O strong-arms secured creditors and bond holders, shoving them behind the unions at the bankruptcy buffet, they lie about how they are paying off the TARP loan, lose billions on the IPO and their "star" attraction is an expensive, yet heavily-subsidized lemon that no one wants. Yep, highly successful all around.
Iowahawk pens some new lyrics to a classic standard:
And you know who else hates the new TSA rules? TSA screeners, naturally.
"It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh. Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!"
Not doing much for morale.
"Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country."
We've said it before but without exception, TSA screeners have been the epitome of professionalism and efficiency in our travels around the country since 9-11. Homeland Security leadership would do well to rethink the current screening policies as they are accomplishing nothing but pissing off the public and providing a disincentive to any effective screening that is performed.
Is Chris Christie a "true conservative"? Shane Atwell does yeoman's work in breaking down an otherwise assertion made by Conservative New Jersey, here.
Thin slicing: Him cheezing off the right people should count for something, right?
And finally, B-Daddy on the Republicans' unity with respect to earmarks:
Now this is in fact a small, but symbolic victory. I have always felt that earmarks were "the gateway drug" to Congressional wasteful spending. This is only a rule that governs Senate Republicans, but it gives them a moral advantage over the Democrats in the Senate. Further, it shows that the Republican establishment can be made to listen. Until Monday, McConnell had been opposed to ending earmarks, but he realized that in these times, it was important to listen to the voters.
Just checking-in. Our flight out of San Diego was cancelled due to mechanical problems but the good folks at United had us on another flight just an hour later. Good news-bad news. Didn't really matter though, as our two-hour layover in Chicago turned into 5 as weather delayed all flights going into Logan. 10 people were injured, 4 critically, by lightning strikes on Sunday afternoon in what the locals are saying has been the most intense thunder and lightning storms here in quite some time.
And we want to take this opportunity to say a few words about some of the more maligned people in the nation's service industry. Its become commonplace to squawk about the airlines and the Transportation Security Administration and what we see as the unreasonable search parameters under which TSA operates. Fair enough. Traveling these days does seem to be quite the pain in the rear but we also want to recognize that the "boots-on-the-ground" for both United and particularly the TSA, Sunday, were top-notch. The rules under which they are forced to operate aside, with one, brief, fleeting exception, the TSA personnel at every airport we've been to have been exceedingly polite, helpful and courteous... pretty much the antithesis of expected behavior for a bureaucracy that is in no way incentivized to attract business as the customers are forced to give them their business.
There. We feel so much better now. We'll be checking-in later with some interesting information from our course and with an unexpected twist at our hotel from a long-standing hotel tradition.
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