So what exactly is the legal status of the nearly 20,000 people who forgot or simply didn’t want to present ID in order to fly?

The TSA began storing the information in late June, tracking many people who said they had forgotten their driver’s license or passport at home. The database has 16,500 records of such people and is open to law enforcement agencies, according to the TSA.

Asked about the program, TSA chief Kip Hawley told USA TODAY in an interview Tuesday that the information helps track potential terrorists who may be “probing the system” by trying to get though checkpoints at various airports.

Do officials and authorities consider these people to be troublemakers? Terrorists? Future felons? After all, according to Mr. Hawley, it is likely many of these people were “probing the system.” The usual response is that government bureaucrats will “probe their systems.”

Later Tuesday, Hawley called the newspaper to say the agency is changing its policy effective today and will stop keeping records of people who don’t have ID if a screener can determine their identity. Hawley said he had been considering the change for a month. The names of people who did not have identification will soon be expunged, he said.

Civil liberties advocates have been fearful that the database includes passengers who have done nothing wrong yet may face extra scrutiny at airports or questioning by authorities investigating possible terrorism. “This information comes back to haunt people,” said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Frankly, there is no security oriented reason to present ID in order to fly. If you’ve been physically screened then you present very little security threat once you have boarded the plane. Knowing who you are serves no security purpose. Should you decide to cause trouble on the flight, it is very easy to land the plane and find out who you are for the purpose of putting you into the “bad people” databases that have sprung up in the last 30 years almost as fast as tax rates have increased.

I think it is great that the TSA has the common sense to realize that lack of ID doesn’t automatically represent a threat to airport or in-flight security. Now when in the hell will they develop a screening program so I no longer have to wait in the retarded lines and go through the idiotic boarding process? It’s been seven years since the towers went down. How long does it take to identify the 99.89% of passengers who represent a zero risk of terrorism? Is Homeland Security just a big jobs creation program or is it a massive exercise in permanent stupidity?

Author’s Note: I’m a member of Gun Owners of America (someone tell them to modernize their web site). I’m also a non-commissioned officer in the Georgia National Guard, sworn to defend the Constitution. I trust my fellow law abiding citizens, whether they have ever worn the uniform or not. The current “dialogue” about whether or not CCW holders and private citizens should be able to pass through airports conducting their daily business while carrying guns is puerile. The TSA is an inherently bureaucratic organization that will naturally protect the bureaucrat class and hoard power to that class. Banning private weapons in public airports is unconstitutional. Since I’m sworn to defend the document, and have a great deal of respect for the ideas that spawned the document, I sent this letter to the President.

Dear Mr. President:

Law abiding civic minded individuals like me are under increasing assault by bureaucrats in this country and it is high time that someone stood up for us in government. I am a citizen soldier with years of firearms training yet with each passing year I find more and more hurdles put in place by bureaucrats designed to discourage and intimidate me when it comes to the responsible use of firearms in my daily life.

The August 7 issue of USA Today reports that the TSA is considering letting airports across the country ban firearms in areas that currently allow for self-defense. What’s at stake here is not the ability to take guns past surveillance points. What’s at stake is the right of self-defense outside of these areas — especially where drivers are either dropping off or picking up passengers. In other words, drivers who have permits are the ones who would be affected the most because they would now have to leave their guns at home — thus contradicting the very reason they got a concealed carry permit in the first place… the fact that they wanted to carry their guns outside of the house. I hope that you will rein in the rogue TSA and prevent them from making such a foolish decision — if not for the Second Amendment, then for the sake of your own administration and party.

You must understand how harmful it would be to impose a brand new gun ban in an election year, when the campaigns of people like Al Gore and John Kerry have amply demonstrated that the gun rights issue can cost a party dearly.

If the TSA is allowed to arbitrarily ban firearms in the manner it is considering doing so, then law abiding citizens will have two choices - break the law when traveling through airports, or face the choice of being disarmed by a bureaucrat who is highly unlikely to appear when a firearm might be needed in self-defense.

Sincerely, SGT Trevor L Snyder, Georgia National Guard

The bottom line in regards to weapons carry in an airport is the mentality of the people carrying the weapons. I am much less likely to go crazy in an airport with a gun than most people because I have what I believe is a correct mentality about when it is appropriate to use firearms (in self-defense). As a combat veteran and a regular shooter, if I did decide to engage in a massacre at an airport, the laws and rules surrounding the facility would be completely irrelevant because of the change in mentality. Mentality cannot be legislated or otherwise regulated by a bureaucrat.

This video is an unfortunately accurate parody. Foul language ahead, but not as foul as what the TSA is doing to indoctrinate Americans into unthinking stupidity and blind subservience. Sure, they aren’t really dancing around and calling you “bitch” at the airport. Try questioning their authority though. Look at one of the petty bureaucrats in a defiant manner. Argue with them. See what happens.

The sad truth of the matter is that our love affair with authoritarianism and unthinking obedience is going to get worse before it gets better.

The Transportation Security Administration is having image problems. Instead of dealing with core issues they have decided they need new uniforms and badges.

Polls find that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is one of the least popular agencies in government, ranking down in the depths of hell with the IRS. Passengers complain about rude treatment, inflexible rules, long lines and seemingly illogical and inconsistent policies. One thing they don’t tend to take issue with, however, is the uniforms. They don’t say things like, “Please make the screeners look more like real police.”

The TSA is comprised of lazy slobs who serve no purpose other than to make every person passing through an airport feel as subservient to bureaucratic whims as is possible. In a place where artibitraty rules are more important than common sense of course there is an atmosphere of barely repressed discontent. I’ve thought more than once about punching a TSA agent right in the mouth and I know I’m not alone.

The new uniforms and badges will only make the situation worse. Until TSA learns that the vast majority of people passing through their queues should be treated like honored guests and friends instead of suspects, the hatred of the organization and its stupidity will continue.

To be fair, I’m sure that many of the employees of the TSA are nice people once you get them out of those dumb uniforms. But many of them are just fat jackasses who enjoy lording it over “regular” people trying to get from point A to point B. The TSA know as much about real security as I know about building a particle accelerator. If the United States had efficient trains like Europe, no one would fly. It just isn’t worth the hassle.

The new uniforms and badges will just waste money, like the TSA in general.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/bqOLjEli6yY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

No self-respecting firearms instructor stores a weapon with any type of system remotely resembling the idiotic one the TSA has devised. Only from the minds of bureaucrats who don’t know shit about weapons.

When you allow strangers to be completely entrusted with your safety you set yourself up for disaster. That’s why I’ve always felt somewhat uncomfortable with public transportation. Sure, the pilots have a vested interest in a smooth, uneventful flight. The TSA idiots on the ground, however, don’t really suffer if the plane crashes or is hijacked, etc. They just make up some new rules for all the rest of the flying lemmings to follow. Sometimes, the stupidity of these rules gets people killed.

If the TSA was a practical, efficient organization several things would happen based on this video. First, senior administrators at TSA would find out the individual or board responsible for the disgustingly stupid locking mechanism policy currently in place. They would dismiss those persons. Then they would change the policy. Pilots should be allowed to carry the weapons from point to point. In the air, on the ground and everywhere. The weapon should be a part of their daily routine. That is the best way to ensure responsible handling.