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I know the current administration likes Muslims about as much as they like the Eebil Coloreds, but c'mon, guys:

The UK's first Muslim Minister has chalked up his second detention at the hands of the US Department of Homeland Security - with exquisite irony, at Dulles Airport in Washington DC on his way back from talks with, er, the DHS on tackling terrorism.

Shahid Malik, who was also recently identified as Britain's most expensive MP, was detained by DHS officials, and he and his hand luggage were searched. He reports that he and two others, both black Muslims, were taken aside for further questioning.

OK, so they're Eebil Coloreds and they're Muslims, they must be bad, right? Even if they're holding diplomatic passports from H.M. Goverment. But it gets better:

Malik was previously held by staff at JFK in New York, last year while returning from an event where he'd been a keynote speaker on defeating extremism. Then, he claims, he was subjected to an "abusive attitude" from DHS staff.

Let it not be said that our government isn't thorough--it wasn't enough that we pissed this guy off last year, we had to do it again! And he's not the only British government official that DHS has pulled this stunt on:

The DHS' terrorist detection systems do seem to have an unfortunate knack when it comes to impressing relevant British Parliamentarians. Three years ago it contrived to demonstrate the efficacy of no-fly lists, in a negative sort of way, to a delegation from the UK's Transport Committee, headed by chair Gwyneth Dunwoody. As the impressed Dunwoody commented on the regime at the time, "it's a sort of general level of arrogant incompetence." Malik is no doubt similarly onside in the war on terror.

What's interesting is that the Right Honorable Ms. Dunwoody appears to be neither Muslim nor Colored:

"arrogant incompetence?"

nah...

"fucking morons"

(h/t El Reg)

In an excellent DailyKos diary published yesterday, Blue Patriot Woman outlined the extreme violations of civil liberties that will happen if TSA is allowed to implement their "Secure Flight Plan." I concluded my comment to that diary by saying, "One of the first things that the next president needs to do is rein in TSA in a huge way." I though I'd expound on that a bit more today.

First, some background: I do computer consulting and training for a living. I teach classes for companies like Hitachi Data Systems and EMC. I've traveled literally all over the world to do this. The classes usually run from Monday-Friday, so that means I've spent a lot of Sunday and Friday nights in airports. Delta is my preferred airline, and I'm a "Platinum" frequent flyer, a level one reaches when one has earned over 75,000 frequent flyer miles.

I started teaching at this level in 1998, doing classes in Tru64 UNIX for Compaq Corporation. At that time, going to the airport to see dad off on a Sunday afternoon was a family event. My wife and two sons would come with me, we'd all hang out in Delta's Crown Room club at Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY). September 11th changed all that, of course, because airlines restricted access to the gates to ticketed passengers only.

When the TSA was first created, it was over a great deal of Republican opposition. Security companies like Wackenhut held the passenger screening contracts for large airports, and those companies are huge Republican donors. Security screeners were often minimum-wage employees with little to no training in terms of what to look for when doing their jobs. After 9/11, I wish I had a dime for every time an untrained screener would look at the cables, adapters, etc., in my computer backpack and simply yell "bag check" rather than do their job. TSA was supposed to change that, but it's been done Bush-style, employing political hacks and idiots. Sometimes I look at the obnoxious people TSA hires and wonder if the agancy's management is deliberately trying to tank it, in the hopes that people will wish for the return of the private security companies.

So, yes, the next President needs to get TSA and the FAA back on track. Here's some ways they can make progress quickly:

1. Change the "Homeland Security Advisory Level" to Cookie Monster. The DHS color system has become a complete joke in the hands of Bush's gang. Rather than abolish it, we should use it properly. Currently we are at:

Let's make this "heightened awareness" level a baseline, or a "normal" point, and set it as "blue." I wouldn't advocate going all the way down to Oscar, but let's stay at blue:

If a "normal" day is Cookie Monster, and the advisory scale reflects that, should a future incarnation of TSA decide to raise the level to Bert, or even Ernie, people might take it seriously.

2. Stop screening aircrews. Face it, a pilot doesn't need a box cutter to kill everyone on the plane. It's a waste of time and resources.

3. Stop this whole liquids ban process. While TSA martinets strut around telling us that we can't bring our shampoo, holy water from Lourdes, Central Grocery olive salad, or that bottle of Aquafina you just bought at the gift shop on the plane, there's a guy two rows back who just bought a couple of liters of kick-ass rum at one of the many duty-free shops at the airport in Mexico City. Now, that rum's more than a bit flammable. They're up above you, in his carry-on bag. Guess what's in-between you and two liters of flammable liquid? The plane's emergency oxygen system. All he's got to do is light them up with the lighter he had in his pocket when he went through security (not permitted, but it's all plastic, so it's undetected).

The catch here is that, if TSA inconveniences passengers by making you put your Herbel Essence in a ziploc bag, there's not much they can do about it. They'll get held up at the gate and won't be allowed to board the plane if you complain, like the "sippy cup terrorist." The owners of duty-free shops, on the other hand, are a different class of citizens.

4. Question passengers, don't merely screen them. Train TSA officers to spot irregular behavior patterns in passengers. Have them actually talk to the passengers while going through the metal detectors and putting their stuff through the x-ray. Airport security people across Europe do this daily. They're trained to spot potential terrorists, and they do a pretty fair job of it.

5. Stop making everyone go barefoot. The shoe bomber notwithstanding, the whole screen-your-shoes thing is silly. See #3 on liquids, the guy with the booze can blow up the plane. Richard Reed could have stashed the explosives in his pants just as easily as his shoes.

6. Make better use of video surveillance. While I'm usually reticent to use the British as example, given their atrocious track record on civil liberties and terrorism, they do use technology better than we do. Hire a bunch of people who handle video surveillance in a Vegas casino, and have them work with the Brits to identify terrorists as opposed to card cheats.

7. Fire the ball-busters and perverts. Clean out TSA of all these crackpots who think it's fun to harass passengers. The Bush administration wants TSA to fail, so they can go back to private contractors. That's why these people are allowed to touch women inappropriately, single out passengers for no reason for additional searches, etc.

I know that there are more pressing issues we all want to quiz the Democratic candidates on--the war, healthcare, etc. I'd much rather see details from Obama on how he's going to withdraw the army from Iraq than what he's going to do with ATL or ORD. What I would like to see all the candidates do, however, is to acknowledge that TSA is broken and that they will work on making it into the agency it was intended to be in the fall of 2001.

...and everything to do with airport commerce:

WASHINGTON - Passengers will be able to carry lotions and gels onto airliners again after a six-week ban — but only in tiny containers of 3 ounces or less and only if they're in clear zip-top plastic bags.

Starting Tuesday, air travelers also will be able to buy drinks or other liquids or gels at shops inside airport security checkpoints and carry them on board under partially relaxed anti-terror rules.

can you say "duty free shops?" sure, I knew you could. Booze and perfume are most certainly liquid. And let's not forget all those "The Body Shop" stores that were all but put out of business when we went to terror level Ernie.

Do I feel any safer today than I did when liquids were banned? No. If someone can buy a bottle of rum in duty-free, they can burn it in the overhead bin. That'll ruin someone's day, to be sure.

TSA is a re-active agency, not a pro-active one. Combine that with bosses who gain a significant advantage politically when they cultivate fear and it's an ugly situation.