Why Can’t They Stop Sniping and FIX It?

One really good thing about this winter holiday week is that I don’t have to travel anywhere.  I’m not stuck in airports waiting for weather-delayed flights, or now wondering what changes TSA will make to airport security to try and catch things that weren’t caught when they should have been in the first place.  It seems we are always behind the curve.

I see on the news that Republicans are slamming Obama and his administration for not preventing the Denver flight terrorist from boarding the plane, and reminding us that a Republican is holding up confirmation of a new TSA director.  And I’m remembering how the Democrats, including me, jumped down Bush’s throat for not doing the same on his watch.

What needs to happen, and won’t because real life isn’t like The West Wing where bipartisanship actually occasionally worked, is for everyone to work TOGETHER to resolve the security issues.  I’m not sitting here with a tally sheet to say, one point for a Dem, two points for the GOP, you win, you lose.

I want them to FIX IT.  To pay attention to the 9/11 Commission Report, to coordinate technology so different agencies actually take action in a rapid, responsive way. To stop playing political games and tackle national security issues, things that will keep us safer without trying to one-up each other or shoving data under the rug because it doesn’t seem important.

It has been EIGHT YEARS since the 9/11 attacks.  I accept that things are different for us, that we have those silly color-coded measures of our safety (and honestly, have they ever been below orange?  I think not).  I don’t know that making people sit without anything in their laps or using iPods for the last hour of a flight is going to help, and I resent that we are being asked to take arbitrary, inconsistent steps for increased security when the GOVERNMENT isn’t doing their part on the intelligence end where it would make more sense.

Will it be better in 2010?  I hope so but I am not optimistic.