Why We Shouldn't Have DMV Rejects Handling Airport Security

Ever since the TSA because such an intergral part of any air traveler's life, I've referred to them as "DMV rejects". It was simply clear from the outset that the vast majority of these people were highly unskilled. Remember the retired 86 year old General who was detained by the TSA because his Congressional Medal of Honor had a point to it (they were also planning on destroying the medal)? They seem to have more of an interest in harassing normal Americans than in actually catching terrorists. Remember the Newark Airport debacle where all of Terminal C had to be evacuated, including people on planes, because someone entered the terminal through the exit lane? This is actually a great example of the incompetence of the people who are supposedly trying to make us safe. First, it seems that the reason that person was able to get through was because the TSA employee guarding the exit was on the phone. Second, the camera that was supposed to be recording everything at that checkpoint was offline for an entire week. Third, the TSA had no idea how to contact Continental to see if they had any footage of the person entering through the exit lanes. Here is the news story related to the mishaps:

The security breakdown at Newark Liberty International Airport that caused Sunday's chaos was far worse than anyone realized at the time.

It turns out security cameras were off line, and had been for nearly a week.

Those cameras should have and would have captured the image of a man who bypassed security by illegally entering an exit-only hallway while a security employee was reportedly on the phone.

"You cannot afford a mistake here anymore than a surgeon in the operating room," he said. "This system was broken."

Senator Frank Lautenberg is furious about what happened and he's going to hold hearings to demand answers.

Sources say the failure of the cameras was only the beginning.

With thousands of passengers stuck, a mad scramble to find the man went anything but smoothly.

Sources gave CBS 2 the troubling time-line.

Soon after it was discovered that the cameras were off line, the Transportation Security Administration attempted to contact Continental Airlines for ITS surveillance video.

But the TSA didn't have the correct airline telephone number.

So the process of identifying the intruder was delayed several hours.

Instead of trying to destroy our healthcare system or regulate carbon dioxide, how about hiring people with law enforcement or military backgrounds to actually make us safe? You know, people who know who have actually have a history of profiling and apprehending bad guys.