1 Rusty, the ad shows screeners turning their backs while jihadis slip past, and failing to detect a rocket launcher in an x-ray machine. In reality, everyone is screened, and most screeners can look at an x-ray image of a laptop and tell you what brand it is.

Absurdity is one thing, gratuitously insulting people is another.

2 SeeMonk, most of what I hear against screeners is unconfirmable anecdotal evidence such as yours.

Each "command center" at each airport interprets the policies in their own way. That's why you note inconsistencies. Under pressure from the airlines, TSA now allows small tools and blades. That's why your awl and tape weren't taken.

Did you know that the "genius" is subject to requalification if they miss a test object during their time on the x-ray? And that they can expect to get several such test objects during each half hour shift? How would you like that sort of scrutiny in your own job?

You're absolutely wrong in your assessment of the average screener.

3 BC, your comment shows an, unfortunately widespread, ignorance of security procedures and their purpose.

The gospel of airport security is that EVERY alarm must be resolved. Do you know for a fact that the old lady being searched kept her carryons in sight and that no one tampered with or added a little something extra to them? Of course not, and neither does the screener.

In my experience, the loudest complainers were almost always the condescending and arrogant business travelers who are too important to put up with the same inconveniences that little people do.

4 The Dread Pundit Bluto made his concerns known, but as I explained to him, we will just have to agree to disagree.

This television spot is not an indictment of TSA agents, for they do not set the policies that are in question. The ad is a comdedic spoof - it demonstrates absurdity by being a bit absurd itself.

As I explained to the good Dread Pundit Bluto:

Appreciate your feedback. But I think you've missed the point we are making in the ad. It is not the TSA screeners who set the policies that we are critical of.

Rather I would refer you - as just one of many examples, and I can provide others - of policies by the DOT and Homeland Security to avoid using criteria that is common sense:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Coulter also writes that a few months later, at Mr. Mineta's behest, the Department of Transportation (DOT) filed complaints against United Airlines and American Airlines (who, combined, had lost 8 pilots, 25 flight attendants and 213 passengers on 9/11 - not counting the 19 Arab hijackers). In November 2003, United Airlines settled their case with the DOT for $1.5 million. In March 2004, American Airlines settled their case with the DOT for $1.5 million. The DOT also charged Continental Airlines with discriminating against passengers who appeared to be Arab, Middle Eastern or Muslim. Continental Airlines settled their complaint with the DOT in April of 2004 for $.5 million.


http://www.womenswallstreet.com/columns/column.aspx?aid=578

*I'm very sorry we lost the confidence of Bluto, but I'm not sure what we can do to earn it back, given that we stand behind the spot we produce and we know the message we wish to convey. It is not consistent with how Bluto says he interprets it.

5 Isn't another way to look at this that the TSA is being hampered by politically correct regulations?  I didn't take the ad as anything but a criticisms of p.c. rules that don't allow ethnic/religious profiling.  Not of the TSA.

6 TSA screeners are doing as they are told. Nice. They are incossistant across the country. I was allowed to take my toothpaste through Atlanta, but not through White Plains despite the fact there was two additional days use on the tube before passing through WP.
 
I had an awl in my computer bag (not intentional) and a roll of packing tape with a serrated edge in the same pack as the toothpaste yet they did not have a problem with them. They confiscated my toothpaste. The awl they missed, the tape they held up and put back in my bag.
 
In fact short of carrying a gun, the only thing they have ever caught on me beside toothpaste was a lighter and that was two years ago.
 
Where as I am sure you were a great TSA rep Bluto and I believe the dead weight remained post 9-11, the genius operating the typical screening machine and those who frisk are not exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to common sense. That is what the ad is trying to say. My cammo colored back pack is more likely to be hand searched than a typical carry on.

7 Dammit - comment thing ate my first comment.
While I'm sure mabny TSAers are well-intentioned and dedicated, the org as a whole is a disaster.
We constantly hear of ridiculous searches of 80yrold ladies and infants, while penetration-test show that a determined badguy would have no problem getting through.
As a govt worker myself, I am stung by barbs that seem overbroad but am honest enough to ademit that the complaints are by-and-large justified.
While it might be nice if a spot showed a dedicated ramrod-straight TSA checker being grilled by a moron for not performing enough cavity searches on old white ladies, the spot as is is just fine.

8 Joe: you can gain my confidence back by doing the right thing and pulling this spot, and having the sense to pick your targets more carefully in the future.

9 Hi Beth: One thing to point out. As a 501c3 MAF *cannot* make ads expressing support for or against a particular candidate for office. Do note that the Clinton ad in question features Clinton and Bush - 2 people who are currently not candidates for public office. I hope this explains why the ad was produced the way it was and highlighted the individuals it highlighted.

10 Telling me that government workers on any job are dedicated and the cream of the crop is hard to swallow. They all must have changed overnite. Bluto took this  personal.  But the past has proven that to be his nature. Tremenous injury he got. Does it warrant a monthly check?

11 Bluto, you're being way too defensive about this.
Ignorant of security procedures?
Confiscating a GI-Joe doll's teensy plastic rifle, diosallowing military from flying with medals...
Give us all a break. Far too many anecdotal incidents to believe any valid security purpose is being served by this crud.
When my (thouroughly "anglo") boss's two-yr-old gets searched on a Texas to Nevada flight, something has gone severely out-of-whack.
I don't care where the orders/directives are coming from or who is tasked with executing them, the TSA is one of the biggest jokes in the country, and by defending it you harm your credibility.

12 Lightweight arguments of a person who has been offended.

Get over it Bluto, or better yet, go tell your mom.

I've seen thicker skin on pudding.

13 "...too many anecdotal incidents..." - BC, this is an admission that you don't have any real facts to back up your instincts. How many "anecdotal incidents" are there about US troops being rapists and murders? I don't put much store by them, do you?
 
dick: you're pretty mouthy for a poufter who posts gay porn on his site. Why don't you go ask your boyfriend what he thinks?

14

And BC, it was the screeners who complained enough to get the policy on military travelers changed. They were all being flagged by the airlines because of the way the government buys tickets. Screeners filed formal grievances with the TSA ombudsman over having to do secondary screening on them. The policy was changed.

15 You know how Move America Forward lost me?  dozens of e-mails each week asking for money.  I gave a couple of times and then I was harassed ungodly.  I like to give when I feel I can and I don't like to be harassed and believe me I was harassed.  I always add conservative places I like to donate to onto my links and when I can I send more, however one week I actually rec'd 24 e-mails.  I can honestly say when I donated to Rightroots I only got a thank you e-mail so I donated again and that is the way it should be.  I hope to never get another e-mail from Melanie Morgan.

16 DPB,
 
  I was in possession of an all access badge for the Atlanta airport. I worked there for almost six months. Perhaps things were different where you worked. The folks in Atlanta were taken right off of the unemployment line.
 
Additionally, there is as much more danger to most flights from FOD on the flightline as there is from terorists trying to get on to a plane with a weapon. I was shocked to see all of the trash and debris that was allowed to drift. Employees are always wandering about as well with tools and stuff that could be picked up by a passenger after they had passed through security.

17 Seemonk: You'd have to back up the claim about the unemployment line, but I do know that so many original hire screeners have left due to injury and burnout that they're trying to replace them with part-timers. That's what happens when your management culture is based on abusing your uniformed people.
 
Keep in mind that every federalized airport represents a three-way civil war between TSA suits, the "stakeholders" (airlines and vendors) and the FAA. A couple of the things that upset me the most were the easy availability of all-access passes for maintenance personnel and the fact that TSA management had no contingency plans in place for emergencies.

18 How does a screener get injured? Half of them at San Francisco Airport are little Phillipino women who barely speak English and go berserk if you tell a joke.

19 Maybe this will help, Greyrooster:
 

TSA screeners have the highest injury rate of all federal employees:

 

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4441227/

 

This article is from 2004, maybe things have improved since then, but I doubt it.

20 Farmers have the most dangerous job of almost any worker.  If the PTO don't get you the bushhog will.  Heard story of one guy cuaght in a baler that used it to chop off his arm rather than go inside.  Just last month a man's wife fell into a bushhog while her husband drove the tractor.  They had been doing this 30 years right up until.......

21 How do TSA screeners get injured? Other than falling down on the job, that is...

22 This message is in response to RightMom's email. I just sent this to her and am posting it here as well:

Saw your email complaining about emails from Move America Forward. So I am responding there but also emailing this to you to make sure you received a response from someone associated with Move America Forward.

Sorry you felt so put off about the volume of emails you received. To explain why they do what they do, it's simple. MAF has become the largest grassroots pro-troop organization in the country and accomplished an amazing list of successes. And the reason is that there is so very little fat in the organization. Melanie Morgan and Howard Kaloogian never received one cent in compensation.

There are no monthly payments to the PR firm (who I work for). There's a reason you are getting this email from me at 6:30 PM and not between 9:00AM - 5:00 PM and a reason my associates and I worked this weekend. And last weekend. And the weekend before. We believe in this cause, and we know to advance the ball we have to do the most we can with the resources we have.

There is 1 full time staffer and 2 part time staffers working for Move America Forward. I think between all three of them they are paid less than $55,000 per year.

But, the organization is also not a special interest group - there are no big donors or corporations who have a secret agenda and who use the group as a front (like so many other organizations). Instead the organization relies on the contributions of thousands upon thousands of small donors.

And here's just a few things they've done with it. If I were you, I would feel proud that you invested in something that helped to make all of this possible:

* Sent over 16 tons of coffee, cookie, gatorade, beef jerky to the troops.

* Organized and led the "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" tour at a time when the pro-troop movement was paralyzed about taking action to present an alternative voice to the wild-eyed rantings of Ms. Sheehan.

* Organized and led the "Voices of Soldiers" Truth Tour to Iraq where hundreds of our military men and women were able to go on talk radio programs across the nation and speak direct to the American people - unfiltered.

* Are about to embark on a 2nd trip to Iraq, this time bringing Gold Star Families, the mothers and fathers who lost a child in the war on terrorism.

* Conducted the 20-city "We Support Our Troops & Their Missions" bus tour across the nation from San Francisco, California to Washington, D.C.

* Rallied support around the nomination to serve as John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations - at a time when almost no one knew who he was, the anti-war Left was destroying his name, and many conservatives sat back and didn't do a whole lot.

* Led the 9/11 "Believe in Freedom" rememberances in several cities across the nation in 2004. Led the "9/11: We Remember" observation in California in 2006.

* Worked with Deborah Johns to arrange Operation Fuzzy Wuzzy which sent over 5,000 teddy bears to the children who survived the terrorist attacks at that school.

That's just a partial list. I am proud of the work Move America Forward does. If it wasn't valuable to the cause of freedom, then I don't believe enough people would contribute. Or the organization could ask for help less often, and just done less work - but that doesn't seem like a logical idea to me.

Hope this letter explains to you that you weren't being harrassed, there's a reason MAF does what it does. This is it.

Good Wishes to you,

Joe Wierzbicki

23  
Bluto: Doesn't help because you didn't answer the question of how do they get hurt on the job?    Could it be irate travelers in the Airport punching them in the nose? Could it be falling down the escalator on the way to a smoke brake? Could it be lifting the little change bucket in front of the X-ray machine? Could it be lifting the 20lb carry on baggage? Could it be eating over priced airport food? Please explain cause of these injuries.

24 I'd hazard to Guess that most of the injuries are in the cargo areas and related tot he fact that the whole damn industry runs late and people are in a hurry.  The rest are probably from prolonged hours on the feet.  You go tell your waitress down at the greasy spoon she is a puss, she doesn't lift more than 20 lbs at a time.  Good luck with that and hope  she doen't kick you. 

25 Gee: Tomorrow I have to disc up 10 acres and plant rye grass for this winter. I find staying on top of the tractor is the best place. I never have anyone but my Mexican helper on the ground changing equipment. The way I figure if he gets chopped up I can take my back hoe, dig a 10 deep hole and push him in. Since he's illegal no one will ever know.Another reason for hiring non tax paying illegals.

26 IM and Greyrooster: I gave you a link. It's up to you to read it. Let me know if any of the words are too big for you.

27 Uh  ..........  quite a farm you got there, greyrooster.....

28 Last gasp Larry: I said disc 10 acres tommorrow.  Enough for one day considering one must then change to a harrow and go over the same ten acres. Then change again to a seeder and spread lime. Then go over again and spread fertilizer. Then again and seed. Then again with harrow to cover seed. Then again with culdepacker. Then wait for two months before putting cows on it. Ten rye grass acres will feed 15 cows from Jan to May. If I get good weather I can do 10 acres per day until November the first. Then we start interseeding the main summer pastures. Care to pay my diesel fuel bill?

29 Howie: We must go to different restaurants. You talk like a liberal democrat. Same exact retoric.

30 How do you keep the bodies down when it rains real hard?

31

River gravel.

32

Oh. ...  I guess I'll pay the deisel tab then.

33 I was going to say its diesel. But then that would make me like Howie. Shutter.

34 You mean making an attempt at learning spelling?

35 Never.