There’s some stuff being bandied about on Cynthia McKinney, but I don’t really care about people crying about race-baiting. I have some legitimate concerns about security. Here’s the low-down to keep you up to date: AMERICAblog on McKinney: “McKinney waltzes into the Congress the other day, bypasses the security checkpoint (which members of Congress are permitted to do), but she doesn’t identify herself as a member of Congress and isn’t wearing her ID pin that ALL members of Congress are required to wear when at work (for the very reason that there are 535 of them, and it’s not always clear who’s a member). It’s that pin that tells the cops at the metal detector that she’s a member of Congress and not a walking human bomb.”

I wonder how that ID pin works. Is it just a piece of plastic?

Bruce Schneier elaborates on the problem of forged credentials. In this situation, how easy would it be for someone to forge a pin and sneak right into Congress? (And God knows what he or she will do.)

Furthermore, there’s probably no need to even forge an ID pin. Just walk past the security gate like McKinney did and then get a running start over the security officer.

I’m no security expert, but maybe it’s better if we search members of Congress instead of giving them a free pass. It solves the false identification problem and solves the Cynthia McKinney problem. It doesn’t leave this wide gap in their security that’s easy to get around. However, the only problem it creates is the “inconveniences Congress” problem. I think that’s a sacrifice they should be willing to make.