Airport Security Madness Alive and Well Today!

     Recently I tuned into a local radio show coverage of the highly controversial airport security laws being questioned by some of the local New Jersey elected officials (bravo). There seems to be opinions flying about that airport security measures have been taken to the unnecessary extremes sacrificing our American travelers right to privacy and or freedoms for the sake of terrorist threats abroad. The radio show host Keith Gerhart from 101.5 FM radio station (somewhat extreme right channel) seem to not accept the rights of individuals to privacy and that we must all sacrifice our civil liberties for the sake of safety while flying at whatever the cost (lots of fear). So we should ask ourselves whether or not the terrorists actions from the 911 incident (and others) have won and made us all a bit more scared to do anything then we should be and sacrifice our rights so quickly? The answer to that is pretty clear, they have won and the proof is in our collective actions and acceptance to sacrifice our American rights to travel. I have to wonder if we had gone in the wrong path when the threats were more related to the improper follow-up of these questionable individuals by the FBI and other government offices as we now know after various investigations of the 911 incidents. Plus the fact that in other countries where terrorist really do reside, we don't demand that they receive the same level or better of scrutiny. Why not have these dangerous and really unnecessary body scanning machines placed in those questionable countries that pose a real known threat and also lower the level of hassles involved with Americans traveling through the our countries airports. The costs to travel both in privacy and financially we can give our thanks to the terrorists abroad but our highly incompetent elected officials just brimming for the chance to spend our taxes just to hassle us unnecessarily while the terrorists abroad laugh at our actions and travel much more comfortably then Americans that did nothing. Now some may say that the risks are just to high but has anyone really looked at the facts of statistics involved that would justify our exaggerated airport security here in America, I don't think so. I know I do not personally relish the thought of traveling anywhere inside the USA or abroad by airplane because of the hassles involved, privacy breaches, radiation threat, and the airlines justified reasons to charge extra for just about anything from baggage to others services. Americans have easily given into the terrorist threats and made us a less American nation by sacrificing so much unjustly giving into fear (the terrorist primary weapon). Just as an added note, I remember when 911 first affected air travel and I was at an airport waiting to travel abroad. Our group refused to give into the terrorist trying to scare us into a corner and not travel. In fact our air travel was the most congested when others barely had travelers seemingly from the scare of recent events of 911. Let us all hope this will change and that more reasonable minds prevail in the future in our security issues with real facts, real statistics and just plane common sense.

Veterans Travel Pay Problem Revised!

After many days of going back and fourth and several communications with both the VA representative and the local senators office here in New Jersey, a temporary conclusion on the problem of travel pay deductions was reached. I was informed by the local VA representatives that the travel pay deduction exemption are not automatic and must be requested by the veteran despite there qualifying factors  and a means test submitted at the travel office every fiscal year (mostly at different times then the means test) after meeting with both income and percentage of benefits requirements. I was told that they are working on trying to implement an automatic system in the VA travel compensation pay process but currently it is not available at this time so all military veterans have to be aware of the issue and make an extra effort for this very important and often abused benefit against the veteran in question. If you are a veteran of the US armed forces within the VA system and have any questions about this topic or any others, you should talk to your local patient advocates office or contact your elected legislatures if ignored. I will try to keep you informed as I am able to on this blog. Current update is that a card has been issued for those qualified veterans plus a list held at the travel offices but it is unstable and not well defined standard practicing procedures as per the Veterans Handbook issued every year. This newer adaptation still does not resolve the problem of most military US veterans inside the VA system, falling through the cracks when it is really not necessary.  Neither does it properly cover in our federal VA handbook as standard practicing procedure for obtaining these types of benefits, not to mention the real lack of knowledge about this benefit from clerks that attend veterans when claiming travel pay and tend to deny vets their just benefit.

Credit Card Companies Outsourcing causing Security Breech!

Most people with a store or regular credit card do not think about what their respective companies are doing to protect your very important personal information. It has become common place to outsource customer services to questionable countries who many times barely speak enough proper English to keep both the customer and the rep from frustrating situations but it cost less for these companies to do so. In keeping their costs down they are sacrificing our privacy and personal information that could be taken and used by any disgruntled employee (or unknown thief within the system ) or for what ever reason there may be. It took from me a very irritating phone call today trying to report my mothers lost store credit card from Macy's. After a series of what I thought to be excessive personal questions, I had to question the real need to do so since with just a few these questions of customers identity could be verified since really they would only know the answers to not to mention caller id phone number on record. The representative could barely speak proper english and resisted any attempts to transfer the call (once my mother was grilled with questions) to a line supervisor on duty ending with a quick hang-up. Problem cured right, not really I had to follow up not only by calling back to their main number but speaking to a line supervisor only identified as Manny who really defended the other reps actions justifying the multitude of unnecessary personal questions. This is not unique in today's customer service out sourcing epidemic making it hard on both the rep on the other line and the customer when it could be easily be fixed by either truing them more on speaking english or hiring employees here in the USA that do speak proper english. Another option would be for the rep to transfer out to another individual that can understand better the spoken language but that seems to be impossible within corporate American companies lacking in concern for their customers today. The Federal US government has to be more concerned about just how much of a security risk to their citizens this represents (or at least I hope so) especially in current circumstances and with so many terrorists salivating at the thought of false ID's being obtained, this really does represent a real threat to all of us. This is not really acceptable or necessary with so many US employees out of work and the high risk of having our identities stolen after all will these countries go out of their way to protect American consumers from abuse or is it the job of our elected officials? Be careful who and how much information you give out to these companies while on the phone even if you know who they are and protest your concerns always directly to them either by phone, letter or otherwise.