Fear and loathing at the TSA

Cookie has a post up at The Cook Shack that anyone interested in our government's counter terrorism efforts after 9/11 needs to read. It concerns his experiences working for the TSA, Transportation Security Administration, as a baggage and passenger screener.

Here is a sample:

After a couple of months...it soon became apparent to many of us, including another retired Police Sergeant, that the TSA management at this Airport was extremely dysfunctional and abusive to its employee's. Screeners were treated by management with the greatest of disrespect....a small example being that we were often referred to as "shoe-sniffers" (a term coined by a manager because we had to have passengers remove their shoes).

Whenever we would advise a management person that some policy, procedure or management action was against whatever Labor Law or Regulation was being violated....the response was quite often..."We're the Federal Government...we'll do whatever the "F" we want to do...you got a problem with that?" Most lks...needing a job...backed off and took it...however...myself, the other retired Police Sergeant, and about twenty other folks eventually contacted the AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) out of Washington, DC and informed them of what was going on. It's at this point I and the other Police Sergeant became a Union Activist for the first time in our lives.

Go read the rest, then write your congressman.