Tuesday, December 23, 2003

If I were a Democrat running for president, I'd just read this article out loud anywhere I saw a crowd or a microphone:

Logan International Airport is hundreds of screeners short during the busiest Christmas travel season since the 9/11 attacks -- just as the nation raises the terror alert to orange, its second-highest level.

The Transportation Security Administration yesterday acknowledged that efforts to replace full-time baggage and passenger screeners at Logan with part timers have largely failed, prompting the TSA to lift its freeze on hiring full-time workers.

"In the last month, it's come to the attention of headquarters that we're having a hard time finding part timers nationally and that we need to look to hire full-time screeners," said George Naccara, the agency's federal security director in Boston.

Some lines at Logan were long during the afternoon travel rush yesterday, but many passengers said their waits to be screened took less than 10 minutes.

The TSA stopped hiring full-time workers after it laid off 6,000 screeners nationally in May to cut costs and alleviate overstaffing....


--Boston Globe

This is Logan Airport -- y'know, where the planes that went into the Towers flew from? And there aren't enough screeners there now? And it's because the TSA had a hiring freeze for full-time workers? Now?

The mind reels.

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