But you still can't bring a bottle of shampoo on board

Last summer Mr. Brilliant and I went to Jamaica. Thanks to Harmon stores, which greet you upon entry with the world's largest assortment of teeny-tiny containers of everything you might need, we each had our little one-quart bag full of such teeny-tiny bottles, ready for inspection. It wasn't until after we'd gone through the checkpoint that I realized that one of the bottles I'd put in my one-quart plastic bag was a four-ounce bottle of Oil of Olay lotion. And I'd gotten through security.

So much for these ridiculous procedures we're going through at airports. Do they even really look at these things?

While they're pulling aside old ladies and asking them if they know Osama Bin Laden, it's still easy to smuggle bomb-making parts aboard planes:

Undercover investigators carried all the bomb components needed to cause "severe damage" to airliners and passengers through U.S. airport screening checkpoints several times this year, despite security measures adopted in August 2006 to stop such explosive devices, according to a new government report.

Agents were able to smuggle aboard a detonator, liquid explosives and liquid incendiary components costing less than $150, even though screening officers in most cases appeared to follow proper procedures and use appropriate screening technology, according to an unclassified version of a report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm.

The report concludes that the Transportation Security Administration needs to adopt even more stringent security measures, despite "a significant challenge in balancing security concerns with efficient passenger movement."

The report provoked sharp criticism of the TSA from members of Congress just days before the start of an expected record Thanksgiving holiday travel week. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which requested the investigation, plans a hearing on the subject this morning.

"These findings are mind-boggling," said the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). "In spite of billions of dollars and the six years TSA has had to deploy new technology and procedures, our airlines remain vulnerable. This is unacceptable. The American public deserves better."

Two years ago, TSA officials said they needed more time, more resources and better technology to provide adequate security, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the panel's ranking Republican and former chairman, said in a written statement. "Unfortunately . . . TSA still cannot consistently detect or prevent prohibited items from being carried onto aircraft."

Six years after the 9/11 attacks, we are $1.5 trillion poorer, we are embroiled in war without end in the Middle East, Osama Bin Laden is still out there, you can still smuggle deadly items on board aircraft, and Tom Tancredo is out there saying that if you don't vote for him, you'll die in a terrorist attack, presumably enacted by Mexicans of Mass Destruction.

And we're supposed to believe that Republicans are the people who'll keep Americans safe?