Developing: Pakistani Plane Escorted by UK Fighter Jets — 2 Men Arrested

Doc Thompson’s 24-hour radio marathon, ‘#24forok,’ continues until 9 am ET — Listen Live!

Business

So … About Those ‘Airport Delays’ Supposedly Caused by Sequestration

Mar. 4, 2013 9:00pm Becket Adams

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano during last week’s sequester scare-fest warned that automatic government spending cuts would lead to massive delays in customs waiting lines at airports nationwide.

And she repeated the claim on Monday, saying that the cuts have already caused delays at major U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX) and O’Hare International in Chicago.

“We’re already seeing the effects at some of the ports of entry, the big airports, for example. Some of them had very long lines this weekend,” she said Monday at a POLITICO-sponsored event.

“I don’t mean to scare, I mean to inform,” she added.

But are her claims accurate?

“We haven’t had any slowdowns at all,” Marshall Lowe, a spokesman for LAX, told The Daily Telegraph, adding that he had “received no reports of unusual security delays” over the weekend.

“There have been no abnormally long lines at the security checkpoint nor unusual aircraft delays at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as a result of sequestration,” DeAllous Smith, a spokesman for Hartfield-Jackson, added.

“We’re not seeing any impact at the moment,” Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, told The Daily Telegraph. “Our biggest problem this week is going to be weather rather than the sequester.”

Hmmm, why don’t we consult with the Federal Aviation Administration’s flight delay map [as of 8:05 p.m. ET]:

As the above clearly illustrates, the Federal Aviation Administration reported Monday that there were no significant flight delays in either Los Angeles or Chicago (or anywhere, for that matter).

So … nothing over the weekend (according to airport officials) and nothing on Monday. We’re not entirely sure what Secretary Napolitano is talking about.

For what it’s worth, the TSA did say in a statement last Friday that travelers “will likely not see immediate impacts at airport security checkpoints” but warned that delays would become worse over time.

“Napolitano said she expects a cascading effect during the week, with wait times expected to double in worst cases,” the Associated Press notes.

Maybe that’s what she meant.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

The AP contributed to this report. Featured image courtesy Getty Images.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (85)

Living In NYC
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:56pm
Oh the sky is falling, the sky is falling… OMG we are all going to die!

Oh, just kidding….just following orders from the Boy King! Can’t let a fake crisis go to waste!!!

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Bullitt2008
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 11:30pm
  Okay, so my wife and I got our coffee at (gun friendly) Starbucks this morning and guess what. There were no cops on the streets, the fire stations were empty, and all the kids were milling about on the street in front of the school. We’re doomed now. WWSD?
  
  Report this comment
- AUsername
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 11:49pm
  this is bs, they can hire plenty of rapists from prison to replace the leaving tsa agents.
  
  Report this comment
- gb123
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 11:57pm
  Where’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz? She should be here talking it up!
  
  Report this comment
- Maji
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:15am
  We need to de-fund this “American Gestopo” branch oh the gov. anyway!
  The FBI and CIA can manage just fine!
  
  Report this comment
- Bullitt2008
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:18am
  Wrong, AUSERNAME, the rapists from prison are getting hired by the school districts. At least here in So Cal.
  
  Report this comment
- PATTY HENRY
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:31am
  Every one of them …every one….one more evil than the next. Sebelius (the ice cold Abortion Maven) who would rather die than disappoint her lord and master Obama and this CHICK…this sell-out freak
  of nature..this Napolitano liar-freak… the one who wants us to believe that the borders are just peachy keen while her department buys up ONE BILLION BULLETS including 450 M (as in MILLION) hollow point Rounds + Tons of TANKS …both of these women could care less if half of America got killed as long as their sicko freak ideology get places. GUESS WHAT GIRLS? It is not going to get “placed”…not even close… You anti-GOD, anti-AMERICAN, anti-CONSTITUTION, anti-PATRIOTS…
  ALL of you are the worst I have ever seen in America, you and that JARRETT freak. SHAME ON YOU.
  YOU hate life, you only have your miserable careers to cling to. YOU are the worst. YOU have done one thing, however, you have shown the rest of us just how far that sicko freak in the WH (both of them) would go to gain control…GOD is the control… got that?? I’m just an observer watching the freak show now.
  
  Report this comment
- PATTY HENRY
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:47am
  I also blame Dick Morris and his screwed up predictions that too many WANTED to believe (but those who didn’t vote are just as guilty) and Karl Rove screwed up too, but since he has mega $$$ behind him, he got Morris’s chair at FOX. NOW JEBBIE BUSH, another progressive freak who loves the SAUDIS ! I will never forgive the BUSHES for these reasons: Papa Bush didn’t get Saddam when he could have, hence thousands of Young American Soldiers are now dead, thousands of families torn apart; Tens of thousands are wounded and their families too. Everyone knows you don’t kick a poisonous snake to the side of the road, you Kill it, lest it comes and bites you and damnit, this one bit us. To say nothing of the Billions of dollars
  we spent. YES, I believe that Bturd had WMD and those are the WMD’S in SYRIA right now, but GW didn’t go into Iraq to deal with the WMD’S…he went to slap the guy who dared to threaten his buddies the SAUDIS and his Daddy. WHY ISN’T ANYONE asking why GW didn’t start our own drilling? I recognize that fracking is a relatively NEW technique but not THAT new. THERE is only one reason USA has not been going for Energy Independence: Allegiance to those freako Muslim Brotherhood thugs who do NOT worship the GOD of ABRAHAM, ISAAC and JACOB. KARL ROVE is right in there with them. I want a REAL AMERICAN SPIRIT in that WH next time and a ton of REAL PATRIOTS in 2014. Let them keep hanging themselves…2014 is coming.
  
  Report this comment
- tonypro
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 3:13pm
  @gb123
  I’m sure d. wasaman schitz will get her 1/2 cent in before it’s over.
  
  Report this comment
zoro51
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:44pm
throw this INEPT COW out of office she ONLY got in because of a FAVOR form the SOCIALIST obama,. shes STUPID HAS NO CLUE n clearly it shows..

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
thegreatcarnac
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:19pm
These fools are absolutely insufferable. The obama/democrat gang will repeat talking points whether they are true or not and whether you KNOW they are lying. They will report aliens from out of space landed on the white-house lawn while people all over the lawn are saying…’nope..no aliens here’. They don’t care if they lie. They think they are all powerful. Your opinion means nothing. They are not talking to us anyway. They are talking to their low IQ voters who were stupid enough to vote for them in the first place.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- dmerwin
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:27pm
  Exactly, just follow “meteors”.
  
  Report this comment
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:29pm
  Sadly you are correct.
  Communication & undoing the voter fraud machine is the only way to save this nation.
  I fear we are now in the position where we will have to fight our way out of Afghanistan, hope it doesn’t come to that here. But some of us are surely going to have to fight to get this nation back. Living in one of those infamous voting rights states we have no power over the voter fraud because the Feds tie us up & DO injustice holdup sues us if we try to stop the fraud. Sure worked in 2012. Gotta find a way to undo the bad of that before 2014.
  
  Report this comment
- dmerwin
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:33pm
  End of the day the sequester is 85 B, only 44B this year and we spend 38B on “foreign aide” to include 20 F-16 s and 400 tanks to Egypt, really? We couldn’t have cut that BEFORE our military? Assclowns are in charge of our government.
  
  Report this comment
- AxelPhantom
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:33pm
  not only does our opinion mean nothing, the truth means even less. Truth is just an inconvenience to be overcome by manipulating public perception.
  
  Report this comment
dmerwin
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:14pm
What EXACTLY does this woman do for a living?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:22pm
  She carries water!
  
  Report this comment
- Al J Zira
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:24pm
  Like the rest of the administration, all this guy does is lie!
  
  Report this comment
- seeker9
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:28pm
  She gave her employees specific orders to “slow” things down. The government way: do the worst job possilbe, management will solve the problem by throwing money in your direction. Geeze, most all government employees have figured out how to game the system. It don’t take an idiot to profit off government largesse.
  
  Report this comment
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:32pm
  She lies. In DC that is the number one job skill.
  
  Report this comment
- AxelPhantom
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:35pm
  She sits at her computer and makes sure she scoops up every piece of ammunition.
  
  Report this comment
- ladyjk
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 11:16am
  What does this woman do? She lies, spends our tax money on ammo, will throw monkey wrenches into airport security check points, releases thousands of detainees back into the population as a threat to the American people that they need to raise revenue in the form of more taxes. All she does it looks like is to hurt the U.S. citizen rather than provide homeland security. She does exactly the opposite of her title, and she does it all to carry out Obama’s agenda. I would think that she would be humiliated by being used as she is. But of course some people have no shame.
  
  Report this comment
Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:02pm
Kerry promised Syria $60 million.
Wonder how many Raw Milk farms will be raided by the FBI? How many more ‘Green’ Companies will get money and go bankrupt in exchange for campaign contributions?
Looks like our “Not a Dictator” is behaving…Well…Like a Dictator.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:19pm
  It was $85 million. I know that’s worse than you thought. But that is coming out of military budget so what’s even worse is that they will probably cut veterans’s benefits to pay for it all.
  Welcome to what real redistribution feels like. That guy takes from his “enemies” in the military & gives military budget to fast & furious Egypt & all the other undeserving “friends” of his.
  
  Report this comment
Stoic one
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:56pm
A 2.2% reduction in the projected spending of 3,800 billion; which was a 5% + increase over the year before… So it is only a 2.76% increase . . . YEAH!

(sarc off)

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Advection
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:50pm
Obama has acted like a hostage-taker in this situation, like a terrorist. He issues demands, makes threats, then lets the bombs go off when his demands aren’t met.

Obama hypes the possible pain any cuts might cause, while refusing to give orders to ameliorate the pain. In fact, he’s the only person with the authority to lessen the pain and so is undeniably the only person responsible for this.

When will the sycophantic media understand that Obama is a psychopath?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:03pm
  Obama IS a dictator.
  
  Report this comment
- Shasta.Red.Banks
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 11:00am
  I think Obama has acted like a spoiled little child.
  
  Report this comment
OlefromMN
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:49pm
What’s even funnier is that MSP (the nation’s leader in snow management) did not miss a beat today and will be just as ready for tomorrow. Don’t blame an airline for a lazy TSA worker if you are late. I can foresee a few TSA regions trying to make political points and performing work slowdowns. Capture them on video if you are traveling.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
FIREANDBRIMSTONE
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:47pm
yawn…no one cares

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:04pm
  Excuse me? I FREAKING CARE!
  
  YOU ARE LAZY!
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:34pm
  Hi LakeHartwellSailor,
  
  That’s trollmonger. Trolls never care about others.
  
  Report this comment
- henryKnox
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:38pm
  The problem seems to be that we are so used to the administration lies by now that we don’t pay attention. I know they it is a lie when I see their lips moving. We know they will try to make the pain as much as possible so they can use it for political gain. That is just who the are.
  
  Report this comment
civilwarcometh
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:47pm
Man Tries To Rob Bank With Toy Gun… Promptly Shot In The Face With A Real Gun… http://fox4kc.com/2013/03/04/man-charged-in-attempted-trimble-bank-robbery-chase/

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
CascoBay
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:46pm
Janet Napolitano: Sequester Jester.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ALL4FREEDOM
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:44pm
The government can’t do anything quickly. In order to create the problems they insist will happen, ther’re going to have to expend more time, effort, and money than they would have used to simply solve all the problems to begin with. Note that NONE of the projected problems, delays, layoffs, impacts, and losses actually take place within the hallowed halls of the Washington bureaucracy itself. Of course not.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
HOOT_OWL
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:38pm
You know, people should just start now taking the train or bus.
It will be good practice for when the interment camps get up and running.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- HOOT_OWL
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:45pm
  Or “Internment” – camps .
  
  Report this comment
- ALL4FREEDOM
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:21am
  Frighteningly, you may have had it right the first time.
  
  Report this comment
kalayaan
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:34pm
Janet Napolitano is a chronic liar…she is one of the useful idiots of the Obama machinery…this lady has no credibility….

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:23pm
  A tool in the communist synth. Wait till she figures out she is the horse in the “animal book” scenario.
  
  Report this comment
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:31pm
  Sorry I meant “animal farm”
  
  Report this comment
truthnstuff
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:33pm
Big Stupid out there indoctrinating the “useful idiots”. I just hope these criminals finally get locked up in a real prison when this is all over. The fuehrer will be punked out within 10 minutes. Too bad he will enjoy it.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Rayblue
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:27pm
Sequester can sitquester on it.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- 1947
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:32pm
  What a “BLANK” mind…..BUT that’s what Obama wants……..
  
  Report this comment
- Rayblue
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:53pm
  Suckquester this.
  
  Report this comment
shorelineliz
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:27pm
Did they fire all those TSA perverts who want to feel me up and down and take my lotion yet? I hope. I hope.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- electroencephalographic
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:35pm
  You got lotion from the basket?
  
  Report this comment
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:37pm
  I got lotion. It’s a really tiny lotion but I can cover an elbow with it.
  
  Report this comment
Xanderson
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:24pm
Well sure, the flight delay map LOOKS good but what is doesn’t account for are all the commercial flights that are systematically falling from the skies due to the sequester. Which, sadly, is all of them :(

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:31pm
  Flights have to fall out of the sky….if they want to land.
  
  Report this comment
barber2
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:22pm
Guess if releasing criminal illegals ( which you have protected for votes anyway ) doesn’t do ” the trick,” you can cause division and alarm by threatening airport delays ! So typically Obama Alinsky radical : create a crisis / panic ! Problem for Obama is that most Americans are getting quite familiar and quite incensed with the Alinsky tactics : his community organizing / agitating / endlessly mentioning the ” middle class” -blah, blah – that Obama parrots 24 / 7….We like capitalism , Obama. Sure wish you and your Far Left radical Chicago cronies did also .

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Dodsfall
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:44pm
  I would not be surprised to hear that orders to “go slow” will be passed down to the TSA in a few days.
  
  Report this comment
- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:40pm
  If the crisis doesn’t happen on queue I’m sure it will be helped along by those in charge.
  
  Report this comment
sacwoodpusher
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:22pm
Yes indeed…..deliberately withhold services from the people, so that they vote the way the President wants us to. How are all you sheepies doing out their? How’s your daddy Obama taking care of you?

They did the same thing in California during the so-called budget crisis……The first thing they did was tell is that the parks had to close soon, but they would be closing the bathrooms immediately to save money. Later they found a slush fund used to pay for early retirements, in secret…….so the lie was put to it all.

Wanna save money? Pick a Federal department, and audit it, and make the results of the audit public to anyone. The fur will fly when that happens.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
conservatype
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:22pm
The next time that the Obama administration is honest with the American people will be the FIRST time the Obama administration is honest with the American people………

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- CascoBay
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:44pm
  Then I guess there will NEVER be a next time…sad to say…
  
  Report this comment
LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:22pm
I went through the Atlanta airport TSA last night around 8 pm (after I checked my weapon with TSA by the way)….the lines were much longer and slower than the week before, and the week before that, and the week before that.

You know what I think? I think the TSA deliberately slowed down the process just to “prove” a point.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- electroencephalographic
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:29pm
  How the hell are you not at gitmo you low life piece of poop?
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:34pm
  Ele….
  
  Would you care to expand upon your thought? How am I a piece of “poop” for checking my weapon? Or, are you referring to something else?
  
  Please complete your thoughts for the benefit of others.
  
  Report this comment
- electroencephalographic
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:45pm
  Sorry Lake, just letting sarcasm loose. I’m a very sarcasticat. (sp?)
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:52pm
  Gotcha man….
  
  sar·casm
  [sahr-kaz-uhm] Show IPA
  
  noun
  1.
  harsh or bitter derision or irony.
  
  2.
  a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark: a review full of sarcasms.
  
  ——————————————————————————–
  
  Origin:
  1570–80; < Late Latin sarcasmus < Greek sarkasmós, derivative of sarkázein to rend (flesh), sneer; see sarco-
  
  Related forms
  su·per·sar·casm, noun
  
  Synonyms
  1. sardonicism, bitterness, ridicule. See irony1 . 2. jeer.
  
  Actually, I expect an IRS audit before I'm shipped to Gitmo…..
  
  Report this comment
- electroencephalographic
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:16pm
  Well played.
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:27pm
  I don’t know if its “well played”….between my posts, and all the e-mails I send to whitehouse.gov (especially the one when I called Biden an idiot for advocating shooting shotguns indiscrimately into the air and through doors); I do expect the jackboots to show up at my door. But, hey….THAT’S what having many weapons and 6000 rounds of ammo are for!
  
  Keep the faith, and remember…..
  
  BUY A SHOT GUN! Buy a shotgun.
  
  Report this comment
- electroencephalographic
  Posted on March 4, 2013 at 10:37pm
  Lighten up Francis. I’m on your side.
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:01am
  My name is “Killer”….you ever call me Francis again, I’ll have to kill ya..
  
  From the movie, “Stripes”…..
  
  ARMY TRAINING, SIR!
  
  Report this comment
electroencephalographic
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:14pm
Holy ****! WTF?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
crusaderx9
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:12pm
Janet from another Planet is trying to stir up images of Union work stoppages, Blue Flu, French worker strikes…

All for what? A reduction in the rate of spending; not a cut! They are getting more money than last year to do their jobs as public servants, if they can’t then they need to be fired.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ABRAXUS
Posted on March 4, 2013 at 9:09pm
how are these terrorists’ still employed ?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.