The latest application of the Geithner Paradigm: TSA head candidate Errol Southers

.
With the advent of the Crotchbomber and Obama's miserable failure to prevent his effort to kill a few hundred of us, more focus is coming to the issue of the new head of the security scam put into place by President Bush, the TSA.

That said, the guy that Obama has nominated to run the TSA, one Errol Southers, has some issues. He has some issues with his background, and it seems he's got some issues with telling the truth.

NW Republican

This is where Republicans in the Pacific NW can come to share ideas, news and of course read those of our distinguished stable of contributors

Monday, January 04, 2010

Obama TSA Nominee Misled Congress

In another great big "Uh-Oh" it is now coming out that Obama's choice to head the TSA (Errol Southers), 1) abused his position as an FBI agent by illegally accessing someone's personal information 2) passed that personal information on to a third party and 3) lied to Congress about his actions.

Mr. Southers is the man who the Democrats used as a club to beat Republicans over the head with immediately following the panty-bomber terrorist attack on Christmas Day. If you remember the Democrats tried to blame the Republicans for the attack because Republican Sen. Jim DeMint was holding up Southers' confirmation. Although what the Democratics are not telling you is that the only thing that DeMint is holding up is "unanimous consent" confirmation. DeMint cannot hold up a floor vote on the nominee.

Now questions arise as to whether or not you want someone like this gaining access to mountains of personal information available to the TSA chief.

From the Washington Post:

Southers's admission that he was involved in a questionable use of law enforcement background data has been a source of concern among civil libertarians, who believe the TSA performs a delicate balancing act in tapping into passenger information to find terrorists while also protecting citizens' privacy.

Much more here.

Thus, the application, yet again, of the Geithner Paradigm.

Now that Timothy Giethner has gotten away with ripping off the agency he runs by only paying 2 of the 4 years worth of taxes, penalties and fees that you or I would be on the hook for (jail time, a high-cost extra) how will the impact of his deliberate violation of the law effect the rest of us generally, and other government officials violating the law specifically?

How far should the “honest mistake” defense take us? Looks like it’s good for hiring illegal aliens and stiffing your employer by pocketing the cash given to you for that specific purpose.

So now, our prospective head of the TSA has a criminal past that he admits:

Southers first described the episode in his October affidavit, telling the Senate panel that two decades ago he asked a San Diego Police Department employee to access confidential criminal records about the (his wife's) boyfriend. Southers said he had been censured by superiors at the FBI.

The committee approved his nomination Nov. 19. One day later, Southers wrote to Lieberman and Collins saying his first account was incorrect. After reviewing documents, he wrote, he recalled that he had twice conducted the database searches himself, downloaded confidential law enforcement records about his wife's boyfriend and passed information on to the police department employee, the letter said.

It is a violation of the federal Privacy Act to access such information without proper cause. The law says that "any person who knowingly and willfully requests or obtains any record concerning an individual from an agency under false pretenses shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000."...

So, he knowingly broke the law to invade some one's privacy and then lied about it.

Some leftist senators are giving him a complete pass.

But he should no more run the TSA then he should have any job in government: in short, none.
.