Aside from being too little too late, consider what this situation says about TSA’s John Pistole’s relationship with the citizens who employ him. Regardless of his “risk based” assessment that he had to keep secrets from the terrorists, don’t Americans have the right to know what will happen to them at the airport?

House Republicans are divided about the crucial debt limit vote, which they will face early in the next Congress. Some of the remaining establishment Republicans, including the incoming Speaker John Boehner, want the US to follow through on its obligations. The incoming Tea Party Republicans, however, have no problem bathing the country in fire.

The idea of an Opt-Out day has been picking up steam, and many airline passengers will be refusing to submit to the TSA’s whole body imaging scanners on Wednesday, November 24. But in the wake of conflicting messages coming out of the TSA, travelers are going to be confused about what to expect at TSA security checkpoints. So FDL has put together a handy flier about the scanners and the “enhanced” patdown procedures, which explains your risks and rights in the airport:

Download: Know Your Passenger Rights (PDF)

Since the national debt is the worst thing evah, shouldn’t the Quitter really hate Ronald Reagan, since he was by far the worst of the big spenders and tripled the debt, thus forcing poor Tripp into servitude? Nah.

Given that the economy overwhelmingly ranks as the top issue with most voters, there is little doubt that the level of unemployment in 2012 will have huge political implications for the president and his party.

Poor little Ross Douthat, this analysis gig of his is so hard, especially while the fantasy world of conservatism continues crashing all around him when his primary job is to keep that fantasy alive, at great cost to the real world. Today we find little Ross taking on the crash of the Irish economy. In flailing about for an explanation of what has happened to this former poster-child of Chicago economics run wild, Douthat briefly flirts with an accurate explanation of what went wrong, but then pays proper homage to his overlords by discarding the painfully obvious truth in favor of yet another conservative talking point that is easily demonstrated to be false.

I’m guessing that the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to hold hearings on the survey on November 30 rather than December 1, as part of their timeline for getting the defense authorization bill to the floor. I think it’s positive that Gates is accommodating them. The Senate won’t be back in session until Monday, December 29, so the Pentagon could have technically released the survey two days early, though the timing of the hearing was probably the major factor here.

Next thing you know, the FBI will stage a sting involving Disney World so it can justify strip-searching children before they see Mickey.

• The security theater must go on.
• Run, Quitter, run!
• Krugman: there will be blood.
• But…but…taxes stifle job creation.
• Mullen to Bush: no, it’s not NATO’s fault.
• 47 years after Dallas.

Yet another comparative nightmare of the TSA.