Friday, June 18, 2010

A picket line of parasites.

If you're flying out of town today you might see protestors at the airport.

They started picketing Thursday in several spots around Indianapolis International Airport, handing out pamphlets.

They're at airports across the country as well.

The union American Federation of Government Employees represents 40,000 airport employees of the TSA nationwide.
Wait, what? TSA employees are picketing? That's like being picketed by your own body lice. If we just refuse their demands will they go on strike forever? Please?

I've seen some of these people: There's nothing but a pair of blue nitrile gloves between them and a lifetime of permanent frycookery and mop jockeying. They should be thankful that the government has dreamed up a bogus makework program for them that pays them far better for probulating their fellow citizens than they'd ever make puzzling out the pictograms on the french fry machine in the service of which they were otherwise destined to spend their days.

And they have the unmitigated gall to ask for more? Look, I don't want them here in the first place. They need to just shut up and get back to "work".

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can ATFE please go on a sympathy strike?

Maybe IRS and Indiana Department of Revenue too?

Shootin' Buddy

Joel said...

Oh! Oh! And the drones at the DMV, with the highway patrol providing security for their picket lines!

Please?

(The Fail pic is the cherry on top, Tam.)

Don M said...

I like to recall what happened to the Air Traffic Controller's Union when they went on strike.

Anonymous said...

"I like to recall what happened to the Air Traffic Controller's Union when they went on strike."

I served with Ronald Reagan, I knew Ronal Reagan, and Ronald Reagan was a friend of mine. But, Barry Obama, you're no Ronald Reagan.

Shootin' Buddy

Brian Dunbar said...

They need to just shut up and get back to "work".

We pay farmers not to grow food. We should pay these guys not to go to work, eliminate TSA, reset airport security to it's August, 2001 state.

Pay them their existing wages and benefits. Program in raises and cost of living adjustments. They can even double-dip, if they are so inclined.

Without TSA 'helping' us I suspect we'll more than make up for the monies paid out with economic growth. Eventually these folks will reach their notional retirement age and the money will stop dripping out.

Plus if this works with a new organization like TSA we can start applyin it to other, longer established bodies like IRS, DMV, Congress ...

Bram said...

"That's like being picketed by your own body lice."

I genuflect in your direction.

Maybe they want us to eat more spinach and fish.

Newbius said...

Sometime in the next regime, I would like to outlaw the unionization of municipal, state, and federal employees.

Failing that, let them all strike and just ignore them for all time. I am sure that the governments affected could then hire some of those out-of-work college graduates to fill some small fraction of the positions to keep things going...

mdrewrankin said...

I've seen some of these people: There's nothing but a pair of blue nitrile gloves between them and a lifetime of permanent frycookery and mop jockeying.

Hey now ... let's leave the overgeneralizations to the leftists.

At least one blue-shirter that I ran into on my flights earlier this month was polite. I was pleasantly surprised.

Doesn't change the fact that the TSA should be cast on the ash heap of history.

I did see some passengers choosing to go through a full body scanner instead of a metal detector and possible frisk. I felt like hurling.

Crotalus (Don't Tread on Me) said...

If they're like body lice, perhaps we should go there well-armed, and start committing *ahem* "insecticide". /sarcasm off, now.

Hunsdon said...

Brian Dunbar:

Sir, I think you're overlooking the fact that, after the TSA folks reach notional retirement age, they'll probably be drawing notional pensions. What was it you said again about ending the drip-drip-drip?

Stranger said...

Sadly, the vastly underqualified members of TSA not only make far too much, they will retire early, and draw full pay.

Lucky them. Unlucky us.

Stranger

rickn8or said...

Just another reason not to fly.

You think they'll strike come the 4th of July weekend??

Bubblehead Les. said...

If I recall, weren't most of the TSA grunts rent-a-cops hired by the local airport authority, and the TSA bosses political hacks that suddenly found themselves Federales?

bdickens said...

So many of those mouth breathers at TSA just serve to prove that you can take the trash out of the trailer park but you can't take the trailer park out of the trash.

Sarah said...

bdickens, I take offense to the trailer-park remark. I happen to get some of the best live entertainment courtesy of the one behind my property. ;)

Brian Dunbar said...

Lewis

Sir, I think you're overlooking the fact that, after the TSA folks reach notional retirement age, they'll probably be drawing notional pensions. What was it you said again about ending the drip-drip-drip?

I did overlook it. But it's not a problem.

People who retire will die, someday. People who sit at home will and do nothing will die sooner than their peers who work and are busy doing things.

I maintain that a government employee being paid to do nothing - even with pay raises and a pension - will be less of a burden on the economy than a government employee being paid raises and given a pension who does his job.

Tam said...

Sarah,

Living in a trailer park can be fun and educational. Everybody should do it at least once, if they can. I never have, myself, preferring urban apartment complexes for more or less the same type of experience, but I've had friends who did the modular housing thing for a while.

(Actually, some of the nicer ones, which tend to be geared towards retirees and transient families, aren't much different from your average subdivision, with the advantage that, if you really loathe your neighbors, you can always pick up your whole house and leave.)

Montie said...

TSA workers seem to take great delight in hassling the "real police". Every time I fly, I do so with my gun, badge and other associated gear in my checked baggage (declared of course). Inevitably, I get singled out for more intensive scrutiny which is both time consuming and highly annoying.

The last time, I got a little ticked off and told the guy who pulled me out of line "Hey man,
what's up with this bullshit, you guys know from my wallet contents that I'm a cop. Are you guys just jealous becuase I can pack heat and actually arrest people without having to call the real popo and you can't, or what?"

He got a little torqued and held me so long I nearly missed my flight, the jerk. I only got loose by requesting his supervisor.

Anonymous said...

Montie,

Your reply reminds me of a friend that told the tax auditor that she was to stupid to be anything but a state employee.

He was audited in NJ 10 years in a row after that.

Drang said...

reset airport security to it's August, 2001 state.
At the risk of seeming to defend the TSA, let me point out that most airport security pre-9/11 really did pay minimum wage, and often employed non-English speaking non-citizens who could pass the non-background check. Leading directly to "Let the nice hadji have his box cutter".

Frank W. James said...

Montie: I'm NOT a cop, but I've got a badge and a department ID and the same crap happens to me all the time as well.

Definitely a penis-envy thing in my opinion...

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Anonymous said...

Reaganize 'em, ala the ATC union...fire 'em all, no severance, no benefits, sure as hell no pension. Replace 'em with this:

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother

Targeted professional security; near 100% success, near 0% inconvenience? Crazy talk!

AT

Will said...

Montie,
just checking handguns through luggage seems to activate that bullshit, in my experience. I get past the lines due to special checkout procedures needed, and then spend "quality" time with those idiots 'til close to boarding time. Even had them change shifts, and do it all over again, which really kills time. Trying to get some food for the flight gets to be a crap shoot due to this. Bags of peanuts/almonds on the plane doesn't cut it for me.

Michael said...

I've seen some of these people: There's nothing but a pair of blue nitrile gloves between them and a lifetime of permanent frycookery and mop jockeying.

At least a frycook has to be smart enough not to get burnt. TSA employees have nothing in their job environment that could possibly hurt them like a deep fryer.

markm said...

Nothing that could hurt them unless they catch a real terrorist... Nah, that never happens.

Ian Argent said...

Unfortunatly, the Israeli system doesn't scale. The entirety of Israel has a fraction of the sorties of, say, Dulles or Dallas, much less, O'Hare, Newark, or Hartsfield; and they have what amount to conscripts working the interviews (Israel has mandatory military service - and their screeners are military intelligence types).

Make sure that no unaccompanied bags get on the plane, reinforce and seal the cockpit doors in flight, train the flight attendants up to recognize and handle situations (which is dual-use when the drunks get feisty anyway) and do the same level of passenger scanning that the cruise ship I was just on did - namely x-ray the bags and run the passengers through the metal detector and wand the ones who triggered. Essentially 9/10 security with the addition of secure cockpits. Amusingly, passengers boarding at Cape Liberty, AKA the old Military Sealift Terminal Bayonne, were screened by TSA outbound and they asked me to open my bag to show that I had a package of batteries, not a bandolier of wadcutters or something. Inbound we weren't screened at all other than a fairly perfunctory passport check and "anything to declare".

No-fly list is a joke and should be abolished.

perlhaqr said...

"It's the finest teleporter money can buy."

"The money does not wish to buy it."