And We Thought LASP Was Bad...

ANN APRIL 1st "SPECIAL" EDITION: Further proving the notion that anything the Transportation Security Administration can do, it can also do even more ineptly... on Wednesday TSA announced it has dropped its planned Light Aircraft Security Program (LASP) in the face of strong opposition from pilots and Congress. In its place will be a new program called CLASP.

Rather than try to secure general aviation at the airports, the goal of CLASP is to secure the pilot community. This will be accomplished by fingerprinting the 590,000 pilots in the US and running an FBI background check on them.

The TSA estimates it can run the CLASP program by hiring 9,400 new inspectors, using funds contained in 2009 Stimulus Package... and from the $135 fee pilots would be charged.

Unlike LASP, there is no comment period; it's already here. "We now understand by reading through the 4,800 comments submitted to LASP exactly what the concerns of the pilot population are," said an agency spokesman. "Since we've designed this new program to meet those concerns, we didn't feel that there was a need to solicit any further comments on the new program."

When asked what the letters in "CLASP" stood for, the spokesman responded "Oh no, CLASP is not an acronym. It simply means that we need to lock down the pilot community to provide the ultimate in security for our country."

FMI: www.tsa.gov/claspdownonpilots