An expose on the TSA confirms what we already knew instinctively: we are not safe. When the supervisors are most concerned about whether or not their screeners are chewing gum (a big no no apparently) you know we’ve got issues. Not only that but felons are getting jobs at the TSA. Brilliant.
More on this story at TheBlaze.
Transcript of the segment from radio is below:
GLENN: All right. Let me go to the story up on TheBlaze. A former Newark TSA agent tells us the obvious: We're not safe. If you've ever flown in or out of Newark, New Jersey, you know that. This is not going to come as a shock to you. But if you've never been to Newark, hey, congratulations on that. That's a very good thing. But if you've never been to Newark, I swear to you I have been where the person, they check your driver's license and this even they don't even look up to match your face on the license. They don't do it. They never look up.
PAT: You'll put the bag through the machine and nobody even looks at the monitor. Nobody's even looking at it.
GLENN: Okay, so ‑‑
PAT: They are talking to each other.
GLENN: This is an expose, the employees, this is from a former TSA employee. There are those employees who could never keep a job in the private sector who are working at the TSA in Newark. I wouldn't trust them to walk my dog, and these are the people that Janet Napolitano says ‑‑ she constantly says these are the first class, first line of defense in the war on terror. If that's true, you're dead if you fly out of Newark, New Jersey. I mean, I almost ‑‑ but I just wanted to get through. I almost had a ‑‑ I almost had a scene because I'm standing at this, you know, check‑in line and I had flown in and out of Newark over and over again and where they check your ID, right behind them is a plate glass window and it looks to the skyline of New York where the World Trade Centers would have been. And so you're ‑‑ and this woman didn't even look at my face. And I about snapped. I about snapped. And the guy standing next to me said, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Because he could feel it coming. And what I wanted to say was, "Turn around for me. Don't even look at my face. Just turn around and see that place right in the skyline where the buildings should have been? Could you at least look at someone's face as they're going through? What is the point of looking at their driver's license if you're not matching it with the person who just handed it to you?" But they're $15 an hour employees. And in Newark, New Jersey, who's living on $15 an hour?
PAT: Guy tells the story about one screener who didn't come to work for four weeks. Just didn't show up for four weeks. When he finally reappeared, he asked for another week off. The answer was no, you just took four weeks off. So what did he do? He took another week off and still didn't get fire.
GLENN: Well, they can't replace them.
PAT: They can't replace them.
GLENN: Who's going to work there? Do you know how low your self‑esteem would be if you had any ‑‑ you know what one of the big things with the TSA guys, according to this, according with the supervisors, according to a former TSA employee in Newark, one of the big things that drives the employers nuts is gum‑chewing. And so they go and they check the employee: Are you chewing gum? And they had one guy ‑‑ this TSA employee said, "I witnessed the boss coming over and saying, "Open up your mouth. Open it up." It's a mint, jack. It's a mint. "Open it up. I want to see it." And made him open up and show him that it was a mint and not gum. I mean, that's what you are worried about: Gum‑chewing? It's a pretty nasty, pretty nasty look at the bottom of the barrel.
STU: Yeah, Marsha Blackburn, the congresswoman, released a TSA report of the 50 most dangerous officers. I mean, there's ‑‑ we're talking offenses like rape, you know ‑‑
GLENN: Oh, this is the one from last week where they were ‑‑
STU: I think this is.
GLENN: Yeah, last week where they're talking about how they are employing now former criminals.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Felons. Felons. Not misdemeanors. Felons are getting a job at the TSA. That's exactly what I want to do. I want to put felons, I want to give them a badge and have them ‑‑ I mean, because they can ‑‑ they are beyond reproach. There's no way, there's no way, you know, a bunch of ex‑felons are going to, you know, take money making $15 an hour, take money and let somebody on the plane with something nefarious. No way.
STU: And this is the problem. There's a lot of good TSA employees and they do a lot of good things but you have people ‑‑ when you have the government or union running these things, you get people who are convicted of child pornography and keep their jobs. Private businesses don't allow that.
GLENN: Yep.
STU: They get rid of you when you do crap like that. When you steal from passengers, they get rid of you. When you're through the government, it's such a process to do that, it becomes completely inefficient and you have lists like the 50 most dangerous officers.
GLENN: Well, you know what? The cities that don't have ‑‑ do we have a list, Jeffy? Can you stop looking at your cancer screening? Do you have breast cancer?
STU: No.
GLENN: Seriously maybe you have breast cancer.
JEFFY: No, I felt for lumps this morning. I'm good.
GLENN: Did you? Good. Could you look, could you look at the cities that have said we don't want TSA?
STU: San Francisco's one of them.
GLENN: San Francisco is one of them.
STU: You know, you'd think of all places San Francisco would love the government intervention but even they have opted out of it. You can opt out.
GLENN: No, no, people who like government intervention are generally those, those people that want government intervention elsewhere but not for them.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: They will accept everybody else, but we're smart enough to live on our own. Did you hear, if you are ‑‑ if you're a federal worker or if you have any kind of, you know, retirement plan, if you're a teacher or a cop or anything else, what's the one city you want to live in? Because they're giving I think double the amount to the, actually putting it into the kitty. Everybody else, nobody's getting ‑‑ they are not putting anything into your kitty now anymore. You're not getting your healthcare. You're not getting your retirement benefits, gang. I got news for ya. It doesn't work. The system doesn't work. It won't happen. Because there are too many people on retirement and not enough people coming up. They need like 12‑to‑1 and we're already down to, like, 8‑to‑1 and another five years it will be down to 4‑to‑1. You just can't afford all the retirement. And so what they've been trying to do is, "Hey, put all this money in for investment because then it will grow." But nobody's putting the money in for investment anymore except for one city. And it makes sense: Washington, D.C. If you work in Washington D.C., you have the best chance of getting your retirement. Now, why is that? Well, you want the people in Washington D.C., you want the Feds to be fat and happy. That's why they make more money, almost double. When you include the benefits, almost double the amount of money that you make is made by a federal worker. Almost double. And it is ‑‑ it's shockingly horrifying that these are our public servants. But if you're trying to get somebody who is loyal to the money and will work through anything and will fight the hardest to make sure there's no cuts, you want the federal workers to be the ones. Keep growing that base fatter and fatter and fatter and make sure the ones who impose all the laws, the ones who really are the ones who enforce it, make sure it's enforced, make sure they have their retirement covered. Everybody else, you're on your own.