What Has Happened to Common Sense in America?

I'm not sure what it is, but there's got to be a better way than what we're experiencing with the TSA security issues right now.  It's got everyone on edge from the travelers to the TSA workers themselves.

Even the TSA hates it:

'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,' one told the BoardingArea blog. '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!'  Another said he had a huge problem dealing with a 'large number of passengers... daily that have a problem understanding what personal hygiene is.'

One TSA agent said in the same article that a passenger accused him of "liking" the groping or else he would work for the TSA.

 

Of course the TSA doesn't like what they're being required to do.  

Marc Thiessen wrote a common sense piece yesterday:

In the coming days, millions of Americans will travel to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. May I pose a novel idea? As we go through the airport screening line, let’s stop and say “thanks” to the men and women of the TSA who give up time with their families during the holidays to keep us safe from terror.

In the past few weeks, these patriots have been compared with Big Brother and accused of sexual assault. They’ve suffered the same kinds of public indignities the Left has heaped on the men and women of the CIA — being accused of engaging un-American and unlawful behavior for doing the difficult and unpleasant work of protecting the country. They deserve better.

It all brings us back to the issue of profiling which actually goes further than just looking at a person and saying, "Hmmmm, that person looks like a terrorist."  Profiling also includes, as Bobby Jindal said Sunday, using the information we have.  Look for the patterns.  But, as Thiessen points out, that's not the only way to go:

Some say we should use profiling instead. Profiling should absolutely be a key part of our layered defenses against terrorist attack. But profiling alone is insufficient, and is not as easy as it may seem. Just as the terrorists adapt their tactics to get around our screening procedures, they will adapt to get around profiling. We know this because Khalid Shiekh Mohammed told us so. 

Our approach to airport security needs to employ some common sense, not just from the TSA, but from travelers, too.  At the very least, it helps nothing to heap abuse on the TSA any more than it helps to heap abuse on a police officer on the street who is just doing his job.

Just remember 9/11 and how indignant and furious you were that day when we were attacked.  Remember last Christmas when you were furious that a terrorist walked onto a plane with a bomb in his underwear.  Complacency will surely lead to another attack.

I don't know a whole lot about El Air, but it seems they do a pretty good job.  We've got to find a better, more common sense approach than degrading Americans OR vilifying the TSA. 

(H/T:  Memeorandum)

Bobby Jindal Sounds Off on TSA Groping

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal spoke out against the TSA screenings in an interview on Meet the Press yesterday:

I think that the American people are worried when they see an administration worried about reading Miranda rights to the underwear bomber. They worry when they see an administration committed to civilian trials. They wonder, "You're so worried about the rights of the terrorists , what about the rights of the innocent American traveler ?" So, absolutely, I'm concerned that out of political correctness , they're screening people they don't really believe to be dangerous.

Jindal makes a valid point with regard to political correctness; we've gone far amok there.  Jindal does not suggest we go to profiling but does suggest we use "the information we know," the intel we already have such as travel patterns, how the ticket was purchased, is it a one way ticket, etc.


Jindal makes the case that this administration needs to accept the fact that the war on terror is culture clash against an enemy who simply hates our way of life; they are not misunderstood, disadvantaged individuals who are seeking us out, but well financed, educated extremists who hate us and are willing to sacrifice their lives to kill us.

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Additonally, Jindal insists he is not running in 2012 but does leave the door open for a VP invitation. 


In Louisiana, not everyone believes this.  Jarvis DeBerry writes:

If Jindal really has the job he wants, it's fair to ask why he hasn't exhibited more passion for solving Louisiana's problems. Could it be that solving this state's problems in a sensible way would make him less attractive as a Republican presidential nominee?

Jindal has been under fire here at home for his cuts to higher education and his extensive travels across the country as he attends fundraisers for GOP candidates and now promotes his new book.


C. B. Forgotston, a Louisiana blogger, attorney, political pundit and former Chief Counsel for the Appropriations Committee of the Louisiana House of Representatives, has long been nipping at Jindal's heels. Forgotston has been one of Jindal's most vocal critics on the issue of transparency in government, or lack of it.

Jindal is now under fire for his questionable appointments to fill three offices in Creola, a village in central Louisiana who recently recalled three of its elected officials.

All this to say, of course, that while some on the national scene see Jindal as one of the rising stars of the Republican party, there are plenty in Louisiana who see him differently.  That said, Jindal is correct in his assessment of the TSA screenings and the Obami approach to the war on terror.

One of the points George W. Bush makes in his memoir, Decision Points, is that on 9/11 as he was insisting on returning to the White House, he did not want the terrorists to have that small victory of seeing him scurrying to new locations whenever a new threat arose.  He didn't want to be manipulated. 

With these new TSA screenings, the terrorists have certainly achieved another victory as American citizens are being groped and humiliated in airports across the country.  It's incumbent on us to utilize better methods available to us than invasive searches or full body scanners.  The bomb sensing scanners were a flop but the technology exists and could be adapted.

I think in the end that Jindal is correct on one point.  We need to use common sense along with the intel we have.  Luck isn't a strategy and we need to get over the excessive political correctness.

(More at Memeorandum)