The Buck Stops Elsewhere

James Fallows is a smart guy but this is not a smart suggestion:

A Way Out of the Security Theater Impasse?

Nov 23 2010, 7:45 PM ET

I mentioned earlier today that I was fatalistically resigned to the security-theater "ratchet." Politicians or security agencies can keep loading on extra "security" features, but politically they can't afford to take them away.

...

From reader Don Friedman, a suggestion that might initially seem trivial but that appeals to me more as I think about it. It's a way to have the public share responsibility for setting the right balance in "security" measures, rather than complaining about measures the government introduces and then blaming politicians if anything goes wrong. He says (emphasis added): 

>>As you suggest, the controversy over the new security measures gives us the opportunity to think about what level of risk we are willing to bear, recognizing that risk can never be reduced to zero....

The outcry against the new search techniques creates an opportunity here for the Administration to start a process to educate the public about the risk equation. Were I the President, I would immediately arrange for polling of air travelers in order to get some data as to just how unpopular these measures are. If the polling shows that these measures are actually supported by the majority of travelers, then the Administration should announce that fact and state that, since air travelers want this additional level of security, we'll keep the measures in place. If, on the other hand, polling shows these to be unpopular, the President should make a speech to the country in which he announces the suspension of these security measures by popular demand and then discusses the risks of terrorism, talks about the fact that the country is not prepared to take every possible precaution (since to do so would turn the country into an environment akin to the old Soviet Union), and we need to balance the efficacy of security measures against the impact on quality of life and the rule of law.

This can, and should, be used by the President as a "teaching moment" which we badly need.

Please.  Leaders lead; pollsters poll.  The public is not interested in yet another teachable moment from the First Talker in which he shares his enlightenment with the Great Unwashed, and  anyway, a President who punted this problem to his pollsters would be laughed off the stage.

Bonus Tirade:  Did Obama do a lot of polling before deciding that what we really needed was a civilian trial in New York City for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?  Did he do a lot of polling before backing (and then backing away) from the Ground Zero Mosque?  Did his pollsters tell him that Americans would feel safer if we gave Miranda warnings to captured terrorists?

It might not be a bad idea for Obama to reflect a bit on public opinion and break away from his 'Obama Knows Best' mentality.  But he doesn't have the credibility for it.  So we get these ongoing productions of Diversity Security Theater.

Comments

[daddy]

If Obama couldn't take the time to read the Arizona Immigration Law, or to find out the facts at Harvard before denouncing the Police for acting stupidly, I can't see him taking the time to read the results of some poll. So I'm with you TM, not just a stupid idea, but one he wouldn't even bother looking at.

[hit and run]

While we're at it -- let's poll on ObamaCare too,repealing the law if the poll shows a majority in favor of doing so.

[Jack is Back!]

I agree with daddy. There is also the trust factor.

If someone in a leadership position is going to discuss with me and my fellow citizens the risks of air travel due to potential terrorist attacks, then I need to be able to trust his insight and analysis. At this time and place - he is not trustworthy as to his understanding of those risks and how we should appreciate his leadership.

I still believe we are in too much a reactive mode and not a pro-active, pre-emptory mode. If we really sit down and do a competent risk - threat assessment we need to consider all possible management and contingencies for those risks (i.e. behavorial profiling) and begin to train our security personnel to deploy that technique.

The argument that we are too big a country, too many aviation assets to protect, etc. is self-defeating. Also, when you consider the aviation terror risk you have to do as part of an overall comprehensive terror assessment and include border security, infrastructure security and economic security. Doing this in isolation is pretty much security with fingers crossed.

[Rick Ballard]

I believe that MarkO had it exactly right - this is just a test of docility. The TSA concentration camp guards are just following orders in an effort to determine how far the herd can be moved without using cattle prods.

I could not vote to convict anyone charged with refusal to comply with unreasonable TSA directives any more than I would vote to convict a tax cheat while Geithner heads Treasury and Rangel sits in the House.

[centralcal]

Amen, Rick.

[Jack is Back!]

In the previous thread there was a discussion on posting pictures/photos to the comment section.

Is anyone a Mac user and can they lead me on how you do that with a Mac? I have tried the photobucket method both HTML, URL and Image link. No worky! In fact, once I leave JOM to Photobucket to copy the image, when I come back and paste the image, the comment button "post" or "preview" are faded out and won't let me do any operation.

I quit Safari and come back in but same result.

Is this a Safari issue, Mac issue of am I misreading the directions in the other thread?

Any help appreciated.

[Extraneus]

Jack, to do an image, you have to post the following markup.

<img src="url of pic"/>

I learned last night that it's a lot easier than I thought to get the url, but I haven't tried it on a mac. Right click the image and see what the choices are. One of them will probably give you the actual url, and then you can create the markup above.

[DebinNC]

I don't understand the TSA's threat of $11,000 fines for some, not all, who don't complete the screening process. Who determines who gets fined and who doesn't? Are there specific criteria in place that apply to all customers, or is "walking away" and fine worthiness determined by individual TSA agents, putting customers at the mercy of how bad a day the gropers at that gate have had and/or their personality quirks and potential biases?

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Who determines who gets fined and who doesn't? Are there specific criteria in place that apply to all customers,

Nothing in America applies to all customers anymore. The specific criteria - even if they have them - are probably like our voting laws & regulation....sometimes applied, sometimes not.
The criteria will probably apply to you Deb.

[Jane]

I believe that MarkO had it exactly right - this is just a test of docility.

I can't help but think there is also a transfer of power to the unions in there too.

[Old Lurker]

Exempting our betters (congress, administrators, etc) from the TSA assaults is right up the You Too alley isn't it, Jane?

[tom]

I don't want to paint Fallows with the Carter brush. But it seems Carterian that he so loves the idea of having Obama poll then and lecture us about how dumb we are. And I love that it is leader-esque because he will "immediately" poll. That's a man of action!

Bonus: polling double-entendre?

[Jane]

Indeed OL. If only I could find someone who wanted to write about it. I'm busy harassing Clarice with my pix and posting updates which will go on for a while.

[err industry]

What do polls (of the now herded and captive air-travelling population relying on what they're told- that the body scanners are safe and private and that this level of screening is necessary to protect them) have to do with what is a right and proper function of government?

We need deliberation and a legislative and judicial roll-back of Federal overreach, not a manipulated, shallow poll of the moment to pressure an intransigent Administration that cares only about shaping its message to get us to accept its agenda. Obama and the Progressives are criminalizing America- our travel, business, prosperity, carbon, health choices, politics of liberty, exceptionalism, us.

Public opinion needs to get more set against Napolitan's T&A security regime to rouse Congress into meaningful pushback. We need some well-fought cases in sympathetic courts that also are listening to our saying Enough, you bastards!

[Yates]

And civil disobedience, err industry.

Obama-Napolitano-Pistole-Chertoff demand we be be irradiated or felt-up or fined thousands if we wish to fly (unless we be privileged governmental officials and not the rubes they know us to be.) Mission accomplished: TSA bureaucracy gets to bloat and those body scanners are big business.

But there's an even bigger win. While the real air threat is CARGO, it scarcely gets looked at, because it doesn't need to be coerced into compliance and beaten down into submission to become a good statist voter for the Party with a vision to control us for the good of a few elite who should be given power and privilege to better help us keep them in control for the betterment of voters to make the right decisions for the vision, etc.

[Thomas Collins]

On the Nokon thread, there has been a discussion of serious and non-serious POTUS candidates. See LUN for an article on running a serious airport and airplane security program and what it takes to run one (Hint: frisking grannies and kids is not the answer).

[Boatbuilder]

Who came up with $11,000 as the fine maximum? Is that supposed to be more extra super-scary to show us they mean business, since $10,000 just sounds ordinary? is this a Spinal tap thing?

[Boatbuilder]

While we're being creative, how about instituting a market-based poll. The TSA does ordinary, take-your shoes and coats off, no liquids checks as usual at the main gate. Those carriers who feel that they and/or their customers want and can afford that extra level of safety and security that comes from all passengers being x-rayed or groped can opt to have the TSA do so for all or certain of their flights. Not everybody wants a Volvo, but there's certainly a market. I suspect that the "safety at all costs" market for airline flights is considerably smaller than the govenment or the MSM would have us believe. (I for one would do a lot more flying than driving if it wasn't such a hassle--driving is far more dangerous).

[squaredance]

Fallows is just another Leftist propagandist and apologist". He is a charter member of the boomer wave of "public intellectual" wing of the Leftist Nomenklatura. His billet is to play the role of the left of center "moderate liberal", but he is anything but.

He was Carter's chief speech writer and worked for NPR, for heaven's sake. If he had been born a generation later he would be seen for the political hack that he is.

The respect he appears to command is itself an absurdity.

Repackaging Leftist cant and agi-prop to slide down the gullet of pseudo-intellectual, middle brow boomers may be the proof of a certain juvenile "cleverness', or perhaps the sign of the an opportunist or a "useful idiot", but these things hardly indicate "intelligence". "Smart guy" indeed.

[Clarice]

For what it's worth,we sailed thru dulls airport yesterday.usually there are fifty screeners standing around doing nothing as we wait in line Yesterday everyone was pleasant and working. Did I mention a news station camera man was filming it all?

No back scatter or pat down.

[Neo]

The solution is simple. Obama should farm this out to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, thus insulating himself form any actual or perceived decision.
I mean, the man has got to run for POTUS again in the next 23 months.
Besides, Newsweak has told us it's too much for one man (especially this man).

[Neo]

... and what's this about exempting Congress-ones and their staffs from these security measures ?

Given, the propensity for mischief on the Hill, I'd expect they would welcome the stimulation of these "laying upon of the hands."

[Neo]

... and damn, this was inevitable ...

TSAstroturf: The Washington Lobbyists and Koch-Funded Libertarians Behind the TSA Scandal

I'm sure Tom will be collecting his check from the Koch Brothers any day now. LOL

[DrJ]

For what it's worth,we sailed thru dull[e]s airport yesterday.

I count you as very lucky, Clarice. Every time I've flown from Dulles there is an incredible mob of people trying to get through TSA. I've flown enough that I can by-pass most of the line before the boarding pass/ID check, but thereafter there is a good half hour wait.

I've also found that the Dulles screeners find things that aren't found at other airports. Last time, for example, they found a cork screw in my briefcase that I had forgotten about. They were apologetic but would not let it pass. Of course it flew out with me.

United, FWIW.

[Jane (get off the couch - come save the country)]

Clarice,

I've been leaving you presents at You Too. Do not miss them. How is the wolverine?

[Clarice]

I have not been able to spend much time online,Jane.
The Wolverine is outstanding She wrote and illustrated a book for me in which the frog kisses the collagen lips of the princess, she turns into a princess frog , they marry and have lots of tadpoles

I am fiddling with an iPad It is kind of neat but a challenge.

[JM Hanes]

JiB

Posting photos from Photobucket with a Mac is not a problem, but you don't actually copy and paste the actual photo itself. Never fear, the following written instructions will only make it seem more complicated than it really is!

On your PB page, click on the photo you want to post, and you will get you a page with just that photo on it.

Over on the righthand side, you'll see a box headed "Share this photo." If the little arrow in front of it isn't pointing downwards, click it in order to see the your options.

The second option down is "HTML code" and beside it you'll see an insert with the beginnings of a URL which kind of peters out to the right.

Just clicking anywhere on that that URL does exactly the same thing as copying it in the usual way.

Come back here, paste the URL into your comment box, and you're good to go. It will be a loooong URL. You have to actually type something else too (even if it's just a period which you then delete!), before you can admire your work in the Preview window and then Post it.

Remember that one picture uses up two of the four regular links you're allowed to post. So be sure not to exceed your quota, or it will look like Typepad has posted your comment till you refresh the page and it disappears!

You can do the copying at PB without clicking over to the single photo page, by just letting your cursor hover over the photo you want on your main page. You may find it easier to get the hang of as above first.

[Pops]

Some people have missed a few basic points that are critical to these arguents.

NUMBER 1: The TSA is a government agency, a federal government agency, not a private company like they use to be. This makes a huge difference in violation of peoples rights.

If a private company set up security to use their facility and you had a choice to go to a different company, but with the feds doing it, you have no choice but to submit to government violating your privacy.

NUMBER 2: The extensive pat down program was CLEARLY implemented as punishment for those opting out of the scanners.

If it was required due to the underwear bomber, then it would have been instituted shortly after the incident, BUT is wasn't instituted until the scanners were instituted. Clearly this shows it was only put in place to punish those who wouldn't comply with the government taking pornographic pictures of them.

Given the Obama adminstraytion rationaly, body cavity searces would be the next logical step since a bomber blew up a bomb in his body cavity in Saudi Arabia.

How could you legally argue against body cavity seaches if you accept the current seaches based on the terrorists actions.

[Pops]

If the Republicans were smart, they would pass a law requiring the same TSA seaches at our Southern border as we get flying to Grandmas.

[bagehot and rothschild's weep at the ruin of their once distinguished publication]

She's already a publishing talent, Clarice, tomorrow the world

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Great points again Pops.