Talk about bloat and incompetence - their idea of security is pure Kabuki theater.
From those happy mutants at BoingBoing:
Congress: TSA is worst place to work in USG, nearly half of employees cited for misconduct; it's getting worse
The House Homeland Security Committee Majority Staff Report has just published its investigation on aviation security, and the title really tells you everything you need to know: MISCONDUCT AT TSA THREATENS THE SECURITY OF THE FLYING PUBLIC.
The headline finding: nearly half of all TSA employees have been cited for misconduct, and misconduct has been on the rise since 2013. A lot of that misconduct is just not showing up for work (predictably, the TSA has terrible morale, the worst of any federal agency and is ranked among the worst places to work in the US government), with an equally large tranche relating to "insubordination, ignoring policies or security procedures, and disrespectful behavior" (being a dick).
In more than 80% of cases, "non-disciplinary action" was taken against the TSA employees -- in many cases, managers violated TSA policy by taking these non-disciplinary actions.
The report also finds that the TSA doesn't keep adequate records of misconduct and response, and lacks mechanisms to address what misconduct it does track. Sometimes, the TSA ends up employing people whom other agencies have warned them against -- for example, Customs and Border Protection warned TSA that a prospective hire had admitted to "selling and using drugs, accepting bribes, engaging in prostitution, and being involved in a credit card scheme" (the TSA hired this person); in another case, the US Postal Service warned TSA that one of their employees had "admitted to participating in the production, possession, and distribution of child pornography; abuse of an animal; and shoplifting."
One reason why I no longer fly anywhere - the continental USA and Canada have enough to keep me occupied. I would love to go over to Iceland for a couple months again but got too much stuff going on here.
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