You missed out on last summer’s viral social exhibitionism craze and never got around to scheduling an Ice Bucket Challenge, but you have no intention of making that mistake twice. So you’ve already started planning a Let’s Draw Mohammed contest. No need for ice this time, but there is the question of what organization will handle screening the attendees?
Should you contact TSA or your local police department? If you picked TSA there is no need to include me on the guest list.
The acting TSA head, Melvin Carraway, was demoted this week after the Inspector General found his crack crew of coffee drinkers failed to spot weapons and explosives in 95 percent of the unannounced tests conducted by a security team.
For your Draw Mohammed Contest this means TSA will be confiscating pencils while the C–4 wrapped in a turban sails through unmolested.
The 2015 budget for TSA (Ta–Ta Squeezing Animals) is approximately $7.3 billion. As he was showing Carraway the door, DHS Sec. Jeh Johnson told The Washington Times “I continue to have confidence in the TSA workforce. Last fiscal year TSA screened a record number of passengers at airports in the United States, and, at the same time, seized a record number of prohibited items."
This is the equivalent of a toll road operator taking credit for encouraging tourism.
What’s more, most of us aren’t worried about teenagers trying to sneak a 6 oz. bottle of shampoo on the aircraft. We’re worried about the weapons the screeners can’t seem to find while they jockey for position in front of the monitor when attractive women go through the “full body” scanner.
Among the shampoo bottles, toenail clippers, and containers of breast milk confiscated by TSA in 2014 there were also some 2,000 guns. This is supposed to be a big victory for government–provided security.
Michael R. Shannon (The Whole Shebang (mostly)) is a Virginia-based public relations and media consultant with MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations who has worked in over 75 elections on three continents and a handful of islands.