Tue
Dec 29 2009
07:15 am
Does Rep. Duncan still think Federal Air Marshals are a waste of money?
By: R. Neal

Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-TN2) said earlier this year that the Federal Air Marshal Service is "the most needless, useless agency in the entire federal government" and that it is a "total waste" of federal funding "for people to sit on airplanes and simply fly back and forth, back and forth. What a cushy, easy job."

Flight 253 from Amsterdam did not have an air marshal aboard. Fortunately, Jasper Schuringa was aboard.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Safety Administration does not have a permanent director.

P.S. Duncan also criticized misconduct among Federal Air Marshals. According to a USA Today report quoted by Duncan, 18 of approx. 4,000 Federal Air Marshals had been arrested for felonies. Since FAMS has existed, at least five Senators and Representatives have been arrested in high-profile felony cases. Score: FAMS 0.45%, U.S. Congress 0.9%. Conclusion: There are twice as many criminals in Congress.

UPDATE: Michael Silence thinks air marshals are a silly waste of money, too, and says if I think they're such a good idea I should pay for them. Best I can tell, the combined payroll for U.S. airlines is over $20 billion per year. The cost of the FAMS program is about 4.5% of that. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Topics:
bizgrrl's picture

Yes, it does appear the

Submitted by bizgrrl on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 7:30am.

Yes, it does appear the passengers and crew on flight 253 should be very thankful that Schuringa was aboard. Is it possible he acted just quick enough to prevent a full blown explosion?

Well heck, do international flights land anywhere in TN? Thus, no concern of Jimmy D. He would think it important to build a road to anywhere you want to go.

gonzone's picture

TSA Funding

Submitted by gonzone on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 10:44am.

It should be pointed out that the entire GOP voted against TSA funding this year.
It seems they love the terrorists more than their country. :-)

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"

bobbylife's picture

On the other hand,...

Submitted by bobbylife on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 4:47pm.

It seems they love the terrorists more than their country. :-)

...they might recognize TSA for the ineffectual pile of massed incompetence that it is.

ShannonSz's picture

good points, interesting

Submitted by ShannonSz on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 2:32pm.

good points, interesting stats....IMHO, this is our weak point and worth the cost. Perhaps certain flight attendants could be trained to rotate in this position.

Factchecker's picture

...they might recognize TSA

Submitted by Factchecker on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 5:13pm.

...they might recognize TSA for the ineffectual pile of massed incompetence that it is.

Especially as long as they (Republicans) make damn sure it stays that way by depriving TSA of leadership.

bobbylife's picture

You've got it backwards.

Submitted by bobbylife on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 6:15pm.

TSA's whole approach to airline security is flawed because it's focused on the wrong target. That wrong focus predates its current, literal headlessness, and is probably partly the result of its mass stupidity.

bobbylife's picture

Exactly.

Submitted by bobbylife on Wed, 2009/12/30 - 1:22am.

You're correct in accusing the TSA of playing Calvinball. That's precisely why they're doomed to being nothing more than a pathetic inconvenience to legitimate travelers.

And who's advocating bombing Yemen, fer chrissakes? We're already doing that, in case you hadn't noticed. This is about the TSA. Some of us would just like to see effective airline security rather than the jobs program for the old and the stupid that masquerades as such in the US.

bobbylife's picture

Toddlers raising toddlers.

Submitted by bobbylife on Wed, 2009/12/30 - 1:08pm.

As long as the TSA's focused primarily on finding objects that might be used as weapons, it's going to be a dumb organization and it'll continue to fail. Its organizational DNA guarantees that it's nine-steps-too-slow reactive, pathetically unimaginative, and enslaved by defunctive notions about political correctness.

You can mewl on about the GOP all you want, but that's bogus, too. The GOP's record on airline security ain't stellar, and the fact that Southers is being jammed up hasn't got a damn thing to do with TSA being a joke, along with the rest of Homeland Security, which has been a joke since it was created. When the GOP was running the show. Napolitano just takes the comedy soaring to fantastickal new party affiliation-transcending heights.

And in any event, democrats have the power to force the Southers issue if they want to. Democrats have the executive and legislative branches, and God knows you've got all the best ideas. So grow the f*ck up. Nobody's changed the rules on you. Make it work. And then let's watch TSA magically morph into a lean, mean, terrorist-thwarting machine.

Factchecker's picture

Calvinball aka...

Submitted by Factchecker on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 10:59pm.

The John Bolton approach.

reform4's picture

Almost $900M a year?

Submitted by reform4 on Tue, 2009/12/29 - 11:56pm.

I'm kind of inclined to agree with Duncan on this one. I think passengers are pretty well equipped to pound any belligerent into goo, and the likelihood that a FAM is going to be in the right position and respond quickly enough to do better than "I Wanna Get Home Alive Bubba" is statistically small enough to not warrant the $900M/year expenditure.

We could use that money to... oh, I dunno, maybe a better intelligence database that could put together multiple red flags (one way tickets, bought with cash, by a guy whose own father said he was unstable, and who connected from the airport with the worst security in the world).

Call me crazy.

bizgrrl's picture

Plus, thank the Dutchman.

Submitted by bizgrrl on Wed, 2009/12/30 - 9:48am.

Plus, thank the Dutchman.

reform4's picture

Yep, pretty much.

Submitted by reform4 on Wed, 2009/12/30 - 11:30pm.

9/11 showed us it does no good to hope that "maybe he'll be nice and let everyone go."

Scenarios:

1. Device works, suspect is willing to die to take control of plan and crash it into target. Leap up, pound him into goo, and device goes off. 200-300 people die, but end target, perhaps 1000s of people in Sugar Bowl are saved.

2. Device doesn't work, suspect pounded into goo. Everyone saved.

3. Device doesn't exist, whole thing is a bluff. Suspect pounded into goo. Whatever is left is arrested and charged. And we feel a helluva lot better.

Show me exactly where the downside of the "pound the fu**er into goo" strategy is?

Personally, if I had been sitting in row 20, Mr. Forouk would have left Flight 253 in a garbage bag and a thoroughly clogged vacuum HEPA filter. I'm just sayin'.

Mykhailo's picture

Michael Silence thinks air

Submitted by Mykhailo on Wed, 2009/12/30 - 10:15pm.

Michael Silence thinks air marshals are a silly waste of money

There are still bank robberies, so banks should stop having guards? Huh? That post makes zero sense.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

TN Progressive

TN Politics

Knox TN Today

Local TV News

News Sentinel

    State News

    Wire Reports

    Lost Medicaid Funding

    To date, the failure to expand Medicaid/TennCare has cost the State of Tennessee ? in lost federal funding. (Source)

    Search and Archives