Expanding Role for TSA

I am in Massachusetts today for an article interview and photo shoot. As I was driving to the airport yesterday, I was listening to the radio and couldn't believe what I heard. A news story mentioned that some TSA agents would be transferred to cover other duties. Can you guess what they will be doing? A. Working alongside Wal-Mart greeters to help tag merchandise that customers are returning. B. Harassing mechanics and other airport personnel as they are trying to do their jobs. C. Working alongside the Secret Service to guard presidential candidates. If you guessed A or B, good guesses, but you are wrong. Believe it or not, the correct answer is C. It seems that the U.S. Secret Service is so thinly stretched with all of the presidential candidates running for office, that it plans to borrow 2,000 immigration officers and airport screeners, as well as shift 250 of its own employees from investigations to security details, to help guard the huge field of candidates. OK, I can understand using immigration officers. But airport screeners? Give me a break! What are they going to do? Shine their mag light in someone's face and say, "Excuse me sir, but you will have to hand over that bottle of water. It's over 3 ounces." It's bad enough that a TSA screener makes more than an A&P (plus all the perks of working for the government). Now they are going to assign them to protect presidential candidates? Well, I know who I am hoping they will be "protecting." :-) If you want to read a story the Washington Post did on this subject, click here. Thanks for reading!