A Rebuttal to Kent's Commentary . . .

A rebuttal to Kent Ballard’s Commentary:

From: Barry Shipley [mailto:pctuner@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 11:25 AM
To: thepaper@cox.net
Subject: RE: USA Police State - Air Travel

I can't entirely agree with Mr Ballard.

I agree things are getting out of hand, but if you want to do it right then follow everything Israel does and arrive very early.

On the day of the attacks in NY I turned to my Love Ones and said 'I hope they don't use this as an excuse to control us'.

Mr Ballard is on somewhat of a 'rant'. I was a Screening supervisor for 3 years so I should know. Passengers act like Jerks because they are running late. The traveler who does proper planning is prepared and early as recommended. The early traveler is friendly and never in a bad mood! I always recommend to friends and family that they go to TSA's web site to read the latest travel advisory in order to prepare for a better trip.

Not all Screeners are former warehouse workers! It just so happens to be that ever since the cut backs in defense spending by Bush and Clinton in the late 80 to 90's MOST of the humans unemployed in the U.S.A. were and still are Unemployed Aerospace Workers. We are still in and out of the work force. I meet them in every company I get hired at. And I have many jobs since I was laid-off in 1993 after12 years with Hughes Aircraft Company. Hughes cut 60,000 jobs (50 percent of the work force) over a 5 year period. TRW, Northrop,, Boeing, MacAir, General Dynamics and on and on also made similar cuts. In the New England

States 50,000 small businesses which were sub-contractors went out of business! And the hate filled, brainless Libs want to attack Carly Fiorina.

Several million American workers were laid- off due to cut-backs in defense spending. Mostly under the miss-guided control of Democrats! In CA 61 percent of the unemployed in the 90s were laid-off Aerospace Workers! Many Electrical Engineers and I. T. related jobs. That percentage is still high today. Wen I was in TSA I worked with many formerly laid-off Aerospace Workers like myself. Oh and by the way; as a young man I was a warehouse worker and supervisor for 7 years!

It's true i worked with a lot of rift-raft! at TSA. No doubt about it there were sum low life rejects working for TSA but:

I also worked with a retired man that once owned 3 McDonalds. a man who is a Command Master SGT in the Army Reserves, a retired man who's wife is the Fire Chief at the Airport, a man that was a SGT on a Police Dept. A woman who is a full time Officer in the Coast Guard! Many young high school and college graduates looking for a good career. We had many younger Reservists who were in the Navy, Marine and Army Reserves whom were called to active duty to go to war in Afghanistan. We had many laid-off Engineers and Computer Programmers! TSA has many great people working hard and re-training each and every day in order to feel proud of their performance and protect U.S. Any bad moral comes from the top.

Screeners are expected NEVER to make any deviation in the exacting procedures and screening practices. They receive daily training and re-training. Any simple deviation and they may be reprimanded!

I agree we need to adopt Israel's methods. However one thing missing from the story is this:

ALL automobiles and passengers (cars, buses, trucks, etc) are stopped way before the Ben Gurion International Airport Entrance. I forget exactly but I think it is 1.5 miles prior!. I saw the film. They do a 100 percentile complete (over, under and in) search of all automobiles and contents freight, luggage and passengers prior to approaching the Airport! And can you believe our Airport Employees complain they must park 'off airport' (some airport's employee parking is a few miles away') and take a shuttle to work. This goes for all employees including Airline staff and Pilots!

As Kent Ballard pointed out the only Screening done at the airport is Profiling'. Well, this is due to he fact that the 'thorough' screening already took place a mile and a half ago! If we did this here those angry and selfish passengers running late would have conniption fits. Talk about delays and needing to arrive early! The heart attack rate would rise dramatically and the ACLU and the Liberal Mafia would have a field day suing the TSA.

The only time we get close to this is when the 'Alert Level' goes higher. Then the public traffic is prohibited (other than the Airport Shuttles) from entering the airport. When ever this happens the public goes nuts. The complaints flow in like a tidal wave! And forget ever adopting 'profiling' - I wish!

Barry Shipley