I'm a retired federal investigator. I did security clearance investigations - so, for the most part, I was investigating nice people who knew they were being investigated. As is usually the case in government investigations, we did our best to protect the privacy of the people were investigating, and we tried hard not to violate their legal and constitutional rights. For 25 years, I did my work in workplaces all over California, and in many places in the U.S. I had a good chance to observe work conditions and work ethics in a wide variety of workplaces. There's no rule that governs it all - some workplaces are crappy, some are in the middle, and some are excellent. I saw some federal workplaces where the attitude of employees was horrible, and some where federal employees did work of amazing quality with a wonderful attitude. I take it personally when Tea Party people and others make broad statements about the incompetence and poor attitude of federal employees. In general, I've found that federal employees are a pretty good lot, and most work pretty hard to serve the public. I worked hard to serve the public for 25 years, and I took great pride in the quality of my work.

I was screwed privatized out of my federal job by the Clinton-Core administration. The Reagan administration tried to privatize us, but failed. I thought privatization was something conservatives did, and I was dismayed to find it was Democrats who ultimately did us in. Believe me, Bill Clinton and Al Gore were not Friends of Labor.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is a new federal agency established under the Bush administration, to replace companies that had done security inspection on contract. The Bush administration said that the job could be done better by federal employees with stable employment and benefits and a living wage, than it could be done by contract employees paid the minimum age. This turnabout gave me wicked pleasure. And I think the Bush Administration was right in this instance - in general, TSA has done a pretty good job on a near-impossible task. For the most part, the TSA inspectors have a good attitude, and they treat the public with respect and often a nice touch of humor.

I fly a lot, which means I go through the TSA checkpoints quite often. My worst experience with airport security was in May, 2002, when I was flying home with my daughter after she was released from the hospital after a terrible accident. She was in a wheelchair, and she had a metal supporting brace screwed into her forearm, and all sorts of metal reinforcement hardware within her shattered body. On top of that, she was in a lot of pain - but because of all her metal hardware, she had to have a very thorough scan. Seems to me there should have been exceptions for medical situations. Maybe there are now - this was right after 9/11, and TSA was a brand-new agency that had been operating for only weeks.

But ever since, my experience with TSA has been quite good. The lines move quickly, and the inspectors are friendly and respectful. Some are downright entertaining, and seem to go out of their way to make the TSA line a pleasant experience. I'm sure the conspiracy theorists and Tea Party ideologues can bring up all sorts of anecdotal information to "prove" how horrible and invasive the TSA inspectors are. I'm sure many of those anecdotes are true - but such incidents are rare. For the most part, it seems to me that TSA does a pretty good job.

Many of the TSA inspectors are minorities or come from poor economic backgrounds. I wonder if there isn't a bit of bigotry and elitism on the part of those who are so critical of TSA inspectors.

-Joe-