I hope that this won't be the case for my flights out of BWI next week. Removing all the cables from my bags would be a HUGE hassle.

If it wasn't for the fact that you can't trust checking anything valuable since if it disappears the TSA will blame the baggage handlers who will blame the TSA and it is really a toss up since either group might help themselves to the contents of a bag.

I think people are missing something important: a government shouldn't be relying on fines for non-compliance with laws as a expected revenue source.

In Baltimore there is currently a parking ticket controversy with agents writing tickets in order to meet their expected target of ticket [although they deny there is a quota]. The reason this is happening came out in one newspaper article where a parking official said since the elimination of meters in favor of parking machines you can use credit cards in, people are complying and paying for parking since it is easier to comply. The city of course still was expecting the revenue from parking violations so they created a situation where fraudulent ticks were encouraged and accepted.