Some days I’ve about had it with this country. The absurd over-reaction to the WH dinner crashers was way too much the last few days, but I just saw a ten minute piece on CNN that treated this like it was an enormous deal, and I can’t take much more of this kind of idiocy.
In a sane society, the reaction to this sort of thing would be for people to say to themselves “Wow, the cheeky bastards” and move on with life while the Secret Service quietly performed an internal investigation. But we are not a sane society, and instead have national leaders like this gaping jackhole:
Some lawmakers are calling for a Congressional investigation. Although the couple did go through a magnometer, “They could have had anthrax on them,” said Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. “They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table.”
Or they could have had a suitcase nuke made out to look like a great ass in a red dress. Or they could have been carrying vials of cyanide and poured it into the drink of every ranking government official. Or they could have kidnapped the Obama kids and held the President ransom to release everyone at Gitmo.
But they didn’t now, did they? They sneaked in, got away with some free eats and a few drinks, and went on their merry way. So grow up. Grabbed a knife from the dinner table- that is too stupid for even an Austin Powers movie. Christ.
And it bears repeating- that is ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee leading the pantswetting brigade. The next time you have to take your shoes off at the airport or throw out your 6 ounce container of hand creme, you can thank jackasses like him.
Wile E. Quixote
I think we need to start going after wimps like Peter King and tell them to grow a pair. In fact I’d like to slap the shit out of Peter King and while he’s crying and pissing himself about the state dinner party crashers telling him to man up and grow a pair. Why is it that Republicans are such incredible fucking weakings? A political party of chickenshit cowards.
jeffreyw
Anything to keep from having to talk about policy, ’cause that’s hard.
LD50
Ah, but unishing people for what they *could* do/have done is a cornerstone of modern conservative ‘thought’.
Chuck Butcher
Since Dragon Age Collectors Edition Xbox 360 just arrived I’m going to ignore the party crashers hoopla and learn how to do this.
I finished Assassin’s Creed II the other day, other than one Tomb and Feathers. I’ve had enough of the Tomb for awhile.
Napoleon
How long do you think it will be before King is out in his back yard shooting pumpkins in an effort to prove Bill Ayers assisted Obama sneak those two into the state dinner as part of his investigation?
LD50
@LD50: sorry, ‘punishing’. Argh.
Yutsano
I just want to know when they started giving a flying flip about protecting Obama in the first place. Isn’t he after a an Islamofasctct durned furriner? Wouldn’t taking him out and installing a correct race to the Presidency even if that’s Biden still make it all right?
jeffreyw
Watchin “Goodfellas” on Bravo for the umpteenth time-Maury is about to get whacked, again.
Sentient Puddle
As always, it bears repeating that these pants-wetters are supposedly the big manly party of those brave souls who have the big brass balls to take on the terrorists. I don’t know how they reconcile it with their fear over someone who wants to be on the Real Housewives of DC, but there ya go.
Sentient Puddle
Y’know, maybe I should reread posts before making comments, or else I say the EXACT SAME THING said in the final paragraph. Bah.
Yutsano
@Sentient Puddle: Heh. These are the same guys who idolize the armed forces for their bravery even though very few of then actually had the huevos to serve. They really get a hard-on for Marines, and that dinner was crawling with them. The simple fact is if they found themselves on the wrong end of a Marine’s gun they’d wet their pants so fast it’d flood the floor.
JK
@jeffreyw:
Late last night Bravo was airing Goodfellas while AMC was airing The Godfather Part II. Talk about nirvana.
Snarla
Hey, Peter King knows terrorists. He was good friends with them for the longest time, so he is aware of their wiley ways.
eemom
looking on the bright side, at least the crashers shoved Sarah Palin the hell out of my face for a coupla days, God bless ’em.
JK
Peter King is the go to guy for comic relief in the House of Representaives whenever Michele Bachmann is unavailable for comment.
Josh
I stopped watching cable news when I was still in high school.
Best decision I ever made, apart from turning down my invitation to join the National Honor Society and deciding not to attend Yale.
It doesn’t really bother you if you don’t pay attention to it, even though I still turn into a rabid, frothing dog when I see anything about Glenn Beck. It isn’t so much Glenn himself so much as it is what he represents.
General Winfield Stuck
We have a rather large majority of crazy fuckers who want power and the only way left for them to get, having had it and screwed the pooch, is to create clouds of shit smoke until the public goes zombie and surrenders.
And CNN is a poltergeist of a news org that wanders the halls of dead journalism with confused irrelevance from no side left to take, which is what our society is devolving to every minute of every day. Two realities, two sets of facts, and two camps of citizens drifting further apart as a unified country into tribal rituals of their own design.
No, that’s not right, one tribe mounting the will to go galt on common sense and calling an apple and apple and an orange and orange. The truth is what they say it is and matches exactly with whatever they think they need to believe to win, or to cause the other side to lose, at least.
And if you ask them what that win, is they scream soshulist and Drill Baby Drill, and cannot describe the up side of either, when asked.
General Winfield Stuck
We have a rather large majority
Should be “Minority”
jeffreyw
@JK: What with the Food Network, Netflix, and my dvr machine, I find that I am no longer watching any cable news aside from the odd clip I see online.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Time to turn off the TV and go read some history books. Specifically, regarding the 18th Cen. American obsession with ‘Popish plots’, as if the country was crawling with masked and hooded Catholic terrorists and the Vatican didn’t have anything bigger on its agenda at the time than plotting to take over the Delaware Water Gap.
Pants-wetting paranoid stupidity is a hallowed American tradition. CNN just has better graphics.
Just Some Fuckhead
We should be relieved those hijackers didn’t fly the whole damn dinner into the Pentagon.
MikeJ
That’s a sane response to that situation. The party crashers are not the party crasher killer from that Michael J. Fox / James Wood movie though.
I really wonder if the republican lawmakers are the cowards they pretend to be or if they’re just desperate for attention.
Strandedvandal
How much taxpayer money has been spent because of these two jackasses? While Peter King and every other bedwetting Republican can KMA, these two publicity whores need to pay back every damn dollar that they have stolen from us and than they need to spend some quality time in one of the wonderful security suites that are run by Virginia.
Brick Oven Bill
The Republicans and Teagaggers can be happy to know that there is a chink in the President’s armor.
Gosh I’ll never figure those douchebags out.
D-Chance.
WWJBD
MikeJ
If they don’t have the money isn’t the TV show they did it for produced by NBC? They’ve got deep pockets and would seem to be the responsible party here.
JK
@jeffreyw:
I don’t think you’re missing anything. Cable news is growing dumber by the second and has devolved into an endless stream of excrement. I’m sticking with C-SPAN, the NewsHour, World Focus, BBC, NPR, Democracy Now, Grit TV, and Free Speech Radio.
donovong
Jeebus. Let’s just get it over with and send the fuckers to Gitmo, waterboard the dumb asses and make an example of these insane “reality teevee” schmucks. THAT will make some “must see teevee”!
Yutsano
@jeffreyw: The Food Network is my voice of sanity in the cacophony that is Charter Cable. If it weren’t my Internet connection (my other choice is Verizon DSL, yuck) was tied to that I’d dump it like yesterday.
lamh31
I don’t really think the “crashers” meant any harm to the Prez. They were just your normal reality whores.
But let’s be clear, they didn’t just “sneaked in, got away with some free eats and a few drinks, and went on their merry way.” they actually in my view got a little to close for comfort. The White House actually released a photo confirming that the couple did actually meet the Prez in the receiving line: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/27/state.dinner.couple/index.html
If anything, it’s the Secret Service who has egg on their faces in this whole debacle
slag
Break out the military tribunals. We certainly can’t try these two in a court of law. Imagine what it would do to our national security!
mcd
@lamh31:
After seeing that photo, I’m starting to agree with you.
And, what? No Backyard Brawl thread? Also.
Gravenstone
I’m surprised Petey was dumb enough to mention anthrax. After all, it might just remind folks about that little bit of terrorism that happened on Bush Jr.s watch (even though Dana Perrino, et alia swear up and down it didn’t).
Yeah, so much noise, so little import.
Mia Malkan
I don’t agree with you John…it is not as simple as treating them like Vince and Owens in Wedding Crashers…& here is why…
http://thedailypingpong.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/yes-it-is-a-big-deal-jobs-must-roll/
ondioline
I disagree. With armed teabagger fools talking about the blood of tyrants, militia activity at a level greater than during Clinton, and Palin, Beck, and Bachmann ascendant, I want the Secret Service to do their fucking job and protect Obama.
They didn’t. It’s a big deal, and I actually respect King for saying so.
MattF
So, the Member of Congress actually said “They could have had anthrax on them”… Well, the whole security arrangement at the White House needs to be fixed. At the next state dinner, the guests will have to go through a disinfectant shower and a cavity search. Voluntary, of course. Or, they can go home. It’s a dangerous world and you just never know.
tavella
While I agree the coverage is over the top, I’m less than thrilled that the Secret Service was so vulnerable to people social-engineering their way in. Someone (or several someones) fucked up bad and whatever vulnerability was there needs to be fixed.
ondioline
How can you simultaneously hold the views that a) wingnuttia is at its apparent recent apex, which includes veiled and not-so-veiled threats against the President, and b) an obvious, publicized Secret Service security failure isn’t a big deal?
That’s just fucking stupid.
We don’t even know about non-publicized Secret Service failures, for example.
nalbar
It’s not just the Republicans or CNN. Talking Points Memo has EIGHT stories about it on their front page.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
EIGHT.
Geeze, we are so screwed in this country.
nalbar
ADM
Hey! Anthrax is back in the news! This doesn’t mean republicans are about to invade some terrorist-appeasin’ blue state, does it?
demkat620
How in the hell does somebody like Peter King get to be in congress? Seriously, the democrat was worse? Really?
Look at this pic, he’s even scared of the photgrapher.
slag
@ondioline: A congressional investigation? Honestly. This is a Secret Service matter. A congressional investigation would muck up any real security improvements the Secret Service could make after this. Unless you’re implying that the entire Secret Service is in cahoots with the reality teevee set to overthrow the US government. At which time, I would agree that a congressional investigation would be warranted.
Mike G
And yet, when a male hooker infiltrated the WH Press Corpse for two years using a fake name and had dozens of overnight stays in the WH, the press didn’t give a shit.
demkat620
@Mike G: This.
ondioline
It’s as if the obvious stupidity and harmlessness of the two reality fools involved has blinded everyone to the massiveness of the Secret Service error.
My concern is that the error is likely not itself unique, but representative of slipshod protection generally. I think that’s probably what King’s concern is also, though he may not be able to express himself properly.
Martin
@nalbar:
A distinction needs to be made in how all of this is being reported. Reporting on the incident and how the SS will affect change as a result is a good thing. Reporting on the couple and turning into another TMZ story – not a good thing, because who the fuck cares? No harm done, thankfully, so clearly these people were not a threat, so who gives a shit who they are.
I’m disappointed that Josh is in the latter camp right now. If he had 8 stories about the SS response, I’d be okay with that.
Yutsano
@ondioline:
I don’t think anyone here is saying that the SS didn’t totally fuck up here. They did, and there will (or should) be fallout. But taking what is ultimately little more than a publicity stunt and trying to score political points off of it makes King look like a tool. The faux concern is really what gets me more than anything. If King were really that concerned about Obama’s safety he’d make a statement about birtherism and distance himself from the militia movement. The fact that he’d rather have hearings over a single benign incident shows more about King than the SS. You’ve been played.
General Winfield Stuck
@nalbar:
I have noticed lately that TPM is striving for some more non partisan noodling at least in their front page stories.
Seems Like Josh Marshall is trying become more of an on line newspaper that he has in the past. Though I could be reading that completely wrong. As I haven’t been a regular reader until fairly recent.
ondioline
@slag: That’s just moronic. Congress’ role is to oversee the administration, and the Secret Service is part of Treasury.
The idea that Congress can’t investigate a security lapse, secretly if necessary, is part-and-parcel of the view that Congress can’t do anything correctly, and that’s just not true.
The Secret Service needs a kick in the ass, and only Congress can provide it properly. Who else can do it?
demkat620
On a side note, here’s where I feel for the Secret Service, when you are as overwhelmed as they have to be chasing down the bullshit threats ginned up everyday this shit will happen.
Having said that, if the GOP wants to flay the Secret Service over this, go ahead. Somebody will get fired and maybe, we will see them willing to throw some more money at the security of the president cause i betcha, they have had a pretty rough 10 years.
Also, if they decide to pick up this ball, I would think the teabaggers won’t like it a bit.
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
As I understand it, they told the show’s producers that they had an invitation, and the cameras were not with them at the White House. If they did lie to the producers, it’ll be bye-bye reality show, hello breach of contract lawsuit.
ondioline
@Yutsano: Again, I disagree. Even if I don’t share King’s motives, I can’t imagine anything more helpful than the Secret Service getting reamed by Congress (again, in closed session if necessary).
So King gets to grandstand. Big fuckin’ deal.
General Winfield Stuck
@Martin:
I saw a lady this morn on MSNBC, who was Bush’s last social director, or whatever they are called, and she said there was only two ways it could have happened. Either at the guard desk or some insider made special arrangements for them to get in. They were not formally invited.
JenJen
Hell, they could’ve dosed high-ranking officials with LSD, just like Grace Slick, et al, wanted to do to Nixon!
I’ve been watching CNN too. They seem to think are in the midst of a National Nightmare of Great Import.
khead
Maury shouldn’t have been such a ball buster about the money.
Who else sees dead bodies when they hear Layla?
Yutsano
@ondioline:
You are aware of the fact that threats against the President have increased 400% since Bush left office and that every single one of those threats have to be investigated? You are also aware that the agency responsible for those investigations is doing so with no corresponding increase in funding or staffing? You take an overburdened understaffed agency and then expect them to perform their jobs perfectly. Then sell that secret to every business in America. You’ll make a fortune.
Just Some Fuckhead
Presdient Obama needs to get rid of the Secret Service and use Nation of Islam for security.
neff
The Secret Service does things like having everybody’s cars secretly towed away within several city blocks of where the president is speaking, or imprisoning everyone inside a hotel if the president is eating there, but can’t keep these two bozos out?
CalD
Republicans are such pussies.
General Winfield Stuck
@JenJen:
Well what else to they have to talk about. Maybe Obama getting the Chinese to work on emissions? Can’t have that. Wouldn’t be good bipartisan journalism. And they already gave the thumbs up to Michelles gown, gotta balance that with some Obama fail, to keep the nutters from switching back to Fox for some real news.
neff
The president needs to stop going anywhere because I’m fricking sick and tired of the Secret Service inconveniencing everyone because of mister oh so special president needs to be at some fancy restaurant or some garbage like that
neff
Oh yeah Secret Service why don’t you shut down an entire interstate highway for half an hour during rush hour so Bill Clinton’s motorcade can go somewhere and meanwhile I’m stuck there hoping to god I don’t suddenly have to pee really bad or something
Hate. The. Secret. Service.
ondioline
@Yutsano: The result of a Congressional investigation may well be a recommendation for an immediate increase in Secret Service funding, which sounds like a pretty fucking good idea at this point.
Bill H
Well, I have to admit I did go beyond, “Wow, the cheeky bastards.” I went all the way to, “I’ll be the Secret Service is embarrassed as hell.”
Yutsano
@neff: Anyone else besides me gonna tell this guy to get the fuck over himself?
Shell
That’s why I’ve purposedly avoided any commentary on this story. To steer clear of any “what if she’d had rabid wolverines concealed in her sari!!” to FreeRepublic-like “once again, the Obama White House embarrasses the nation!” wailings. Jesus Christ, it almost makes me thankful for all the idiotic Black Friday coverage.
Violet
I think it’s a case of Secret Service Fail. Although the coverage on CNN, etc. has been ridiculously over the top, we are lucky the two uninvitees were reality show hopefuls and not people trying to hurt the President or someone else. The Secret Service is underfunded and attacks have increased on Obama significantly. Maybe this idiocy is a blessing in disguise so the SS can get what they need to do their job properly.
Yutsano
@ondioline: On increasing the funding absolutely. On King getting to push his ugly mug in the press over this incident pretending to be soooo concerned about the President just gourds me.
JenJen
@General Winfield Stuck: Pretty much!
Also, to your point in #53… what if it turns out that they were invited, in some kind of roundabout way? A nod here, a wink there. Shit, I won’t pretend to know the first thing about the ins and outs of protocol in the distant land of SallyQuinn-Broderia, but it’s possible that people are jumping rather wildly to conclusions. I dunno. It is sort of troubling that, according to accounts, it was the press corps, not any security apparatus, that wondered who the hell that couple was.
I can’t help but giggle at the photo of the blonde with Joe Biden… he’s like the guy at the party with a lampshade on his head.
Shell
Meant to add. Sanity from CNN. Remember how they covered the Balloon Boy?
JenJen
@Just Some Fuckhead: Who did Dave Chappelle use when he was Black Bush? I’d hire those guys.
Yutsano
@JenJen: There’s actually a really good picture of the blonde with three Marines standing around having fun. Trust me, those guys may be on pretty boy duty (Dawg has done it a couple of times, he hates it) but they are full-trained USMC fighters and will take out anyone they can if there’s a threat to the President or the partygoers. In fact part of the criteria for being chosen for that duty is your ability to be guards should the need arrive. The SS is damn good usually, but at that party they weren’t the only security.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Since s/he seems to be under the impression that previous presidents rode to their appointments on horseback, I don’t see the point.
Though I will say that, living in Los Angeles, I have been able to have my commute completely blocked by two different presidents and a vice president. Ha ha, I rule.
Just Some Fuckhead
All I’m saying is white dudes ain’t gonna protect a black leader. Ever wonder why all the great scrambling quarterbacks are black?
JK
@Shell:
CNN is morphing into TMZ
JHF
That would be the thread I’d be interested in. It’s just that there isn’t any place to go. I moved us to northern NM because it was as far away from America as I could get and still be in the United States. This worked just fine, BTW, and is an excellent way to blow up your life. Now I think someplace with water, actual soil, and more than two seasons might be smarter, but whatcha gonna do. Besides, there are Indians here.
Maybe there’s a clue, John. Someplace with Indians, and I don’t mean Hindus. Not that there’d be anything wrong with that.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Lemme guess. This proves we need to turn the Secret Service’s duties over to Xe (the thugs formerly known as Blackwater).
DougJ
Amen. Great post.
Church Lady
I think that John is making too light of this matter. While you can admire the chutzpa of these two publicity whores and be grateful that they didn’t have any sort of evil intent, the breach of security is rather alarming. It boggles the mind that these two not only made it through the White House gates, when their names were not on the invite list for the State Dinner, but they actually came face to face with the President, even shaking his hand.
It has been noted that they did have to go through a metal detector but that certainly wouldn’t do any good for a myriad of other ways to cause the President harm. Heck, remember what happened to that Russian guy that was poisoned?
TaosJohn/JHF
The point about Indians is real: their land is sovereign territory, not really the U.S.A. When you visit the Pueblo, laws change. You have to RESPECT legal and belief systems other than your own. This puts our own system in an entirely different light as just one of the many, certainly nothing with any right to lord it over anybody else.
So being around Indians is cool for reminding yourself that you’re part of an ongoing military and cultural invasion, not some fucking cornpone Jesus-loves-us Christian nation.
And so on.
Mike in NC
Pete King: Concern Troll (R-NY). The guy looks like a shitfaced version of Dan Ackroyd.
FlipYrWhig
Being worried that these idiots could have been going to kill the president is a very strange reaction. The pretty much parallel Jeff Gannon story was treated as an amusing embarrassment. No one said, oh noes, the male prostitute could have killed Bush if he had somehow rigged a pencil to shoot poisoned blowdarts at him. They said, huh, that’s weird, I wonder who was responsible for letting that guy in. Can we figure that out first and not turn it into some bizarre terrorist hoopla?
General Winfield Stuck
@Church Lady:
Christ CL. It’s the media and wingnuts that are making this a big matter, not Cole. He is just pointing that out.
Anya
I don’t know John, but this seems serious to me. Look at it this way, this could be a sign that Obama White House is incompetent or amateurish at best. At worst the so called gate crashers could have had a sinister motive and the whole US Government line of succession could have been wiped out, except for Robert Byrd. I think that is highly unlikely and they were just two fame hungry idiots. It pains me to say, but anyway you look at it, it does not bode well for the Obama White House.
Anya
@FlipYrWhig: I think the difference in Jeff Gannon’s case is that he was invited and a press credential was issued to him. You could argue that the media should pressed hard on why was he issued those credentials on the first place. In this case the White House is claiming that they did not invite these two clowns.
r€nato
I am sure the Republicans will demagogue this for all it’s worth (it sure makes them look a lot more sane than birther/death panel nonsense, for instance), but I happen to think it’s a serious fucking issue if two people can scam their way into a White House function.
I really don’t care if they didn’t do any harm and never intended to do any harm. They didn’t crash some DC cocktail party, it’s the White House.
Throw the book at them, and make sure nobody can talk their way past a security checkpoint ever again. Christ. I’ve talked my way into parties and other events before – if you’re dressed right and have the right attitude, it’s stunningly easy – but this is the fucking White House in case I haven’t made that clear. One should not be able to talk one’s way into the White House, period.
chrome agnomen
‘…pantswetting brigade…’
haw.
depends division
Jonathan Holbert
@Yutsano:
They were wishing for harm to the president before they were against it.
whetstone
@nalbar:
Yeah, TPM’s been… sorta increasingly tabloidish. I dunno if there’s a culture change, or whether they’re just trying to pay for their new hires w/ HuffPoish stuff (TIGERWOODS IN ACCIDENT).
I’m interested in the couple, so therefore I’m interested in the actual reporting about them, just because they’re a kind of interesting American hustler pair. (Only slightly ashamed of that.)
To put this in perspective, though, my local paper, the Chicago Tribune, had FIVE REPORTERS covering stores for Black Friday.
Comrade Darkness
@Anya: You sound very concerned.
General Winfield Stuck
@Comrade Darkness:
And so heart felt. The terminator concern trolls are getting harder to spot.
Will
@Josh:
I hear you. Best decision I ever made? Having those unnecessary extra inches lopped of my dick. I mean, what exactly did I have to prove, anyway?
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Fix’t. Their motto: We make others fight them over there so we won’t have to keep changing our diapers over here.
Fix’t.
Squirrel, nut? Hey, it happens. ;)
@Yutsano:
Same here though Charter has been pretty poor on the speed lately though. I have a 10mb line and average 4 to 6mb lately. I am about to raise hell with them over it again. They usually cut some change off my bill but that is about it. Another annoying problem with Charter digital is the random channel change to one of their radio bands for 15 seconds every single night. That and it is usually blaring at a higher volume than the channel it was on. Same with the 3-5 second digital ‘fade-outs’ that happen twice nightly. I am about to go back to the basic tier (no box) just to stop that annoying shit.
I gave up on TPM as a regular haunt after the election as their coverage of stuff was really getting bad. I drop by every once in a while but not daily as I used to.
GregB
She could have been wearing the James Bond strap-on that converts into a sniper rifle.
What will that Q think of next?
-G
Anne Laurie
@ondioline:
Give it 48 hours; I’ll bet a store-bought cookie it will turn out somebody in the Permanent Republican Party, one of the Villagers, arranged the whole setup in advance. So fun! And also, darn those DFH Democrat people with their silly ‘party tents’ and ‘vegetarian menus’ who don’t understand that any change in the time-honored rubber-chicken traditions of Old Washington are an insult to the late St. Ronnie!
The only question in my mind is whether Peter King was in on the “joke” in advance, or if he’s just being his natural pants-pissing camera-whore self.
Anya
@General Winfield Stuck: I might not post here as often as you but I am not a concern troll and I do not appreciate being accused of being one. I am simply stating an opinion. You can agree or disagree with it but you have no right to accuse me.
I fully support the President and it does not give me any satisfaction that this is in the headlines. For a president who is facing unprecedented hate and high level threats it is not unusual for some of us to be concerned. It is alarming that two fame seekers were able to have access to him this easily, in the White House no less.
Anne Laurie
@General Winfield Stuck:
Aaaaand our semi-official NSA minder is…. concerned!
Yup, it’s a scam. The authoritarian trolls want to stage a coup and defenestrate the actual protective services, the people who are doing their jobs without fanfare, in favor of more Security Theater(tm), hand-chosen by Peter King and Erick Prince. Screw that noise.
Although I would not mind having the reality-show wannabes waterboarded, subjected to ‘extreme interrogation not amounting to permanent organ damage’, and then sent to Supermax. Just on principle, because famewhores are the cultural equivalent of herpes, or heartworm.
dan robinson
I try not to be cynical and I don’t think I am. What passes for politics in this country is only political theater intended to entertain. The cable clowns provide plot points in a narrative and hope that there is a payoff where a plotline finds either redemption or tragedy for the character under study.
Our system is broken and needs to be changed. But good luck with that.
General Winfield Stuck
@Anya:
I am sorry Anya, but when you say things like this, with no real knowledge about what you are talking about, I will call you either a concern troll, or an idiot.
These people were not invited, and the WH does not tell the SS how to do their jobs, and is not responsible for when they fuck up. Now the only way this could be pinned on the Obama Admin,. is if someone on the WH staff superceded the SS to let these people thru. And as yet there is no indication that this is what happened.
General Winfield Stuck
@Anya:
And I don’t want to sound mean, but all I am saying is choose your words carefully and think before you post. We all say dumb stuff now and then, and part of the culture here is directness that may sound unfair and a little cruel. It is not a place for thin skinned folks, though most of us were that when we started, to varying degrees, and learned by some hard knocks that words matter, and how you say them to get your point across. No hard feelings I hope:)
Yutsano
@General Winfield Stuck: Actually, wouldn’t this fuck-up be a great pretense to fire Geithner? This IS his division after all.
General Winfield Stuck
@Yutsano:
Obama’s biggest mistake to date was nominating the smarmy weasel, I was for firing him before he was hired.
Yutsano
@General Winfield Stuck: It wouldn’t bother me if in the middle of the financial regulation overhaul Obama tells Geithner to either play ball, resign, or get canned. I’m thinking Obama lets Geithner resign before it gets too bad.
maus
If nothing else, hopefully the overacting response will prevent them from having a successful reality TV career.
Boney Baloney
The SS owns all your bases because they have access to every bit of tapped and bugged data the USA can reach, which is a lot. A dozen Black Berets could invoke the 25th Amendment any time they wanted, if they had no illusions of escaping alive. Ask any ham; it’s not hard to figure out exactly which grid square NCA is currently lighting up with his charisma.
The SS is made of humans. Amusing stories about the SLC Olympics abound, and after all, Treasury can’t exactly execute fired or retired officers. The best the SS can do is hope that yet another lone nut with a snub-nosed revolver shows up at 64 Acres or a public appearance, and that he or she is already on the List, and is wearing a neon green T-shirt or something.
Imagine that W was visiting a campaign contributor halfway up one of the two towers when the shit hit the fan. What exactly is the defense against that? Parasails? Autogyros?
Corner Stone
@Yutsano:
Play ball? What do you mean?
Yutsano
@Boney Baloney: Was that an attempt to out word salad BoB?
tomvox1
Sorry but an a-hole like P. King (not so) secretly wishes these bozos did grab a knife from the kitchen. If there is a bigger Obama hater in Congress than this douche bag, I’ve yet to hear of him/her.
P.S. The Secret Service’s mandate should be strictly limited to presidential security. Counterfeiting et al should be split off and assigned to a different branch. Mission confusion cannot be any more of a plus in the 21st century than it was in 1963.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I am really thinking that we need a near or total collapse of our systems (financial/industrial/infrastructure/social) before we stand a serious chance of fixing things. Even then, the insane would try and hijack everything and rebuild it to their Mad Max/Rapture Ready perfect system. Things have to go to total, Depression X 2 mode to wake people up to reality. Once people can’t afford cable or internet and get their daily dose of bullshit, reality will start to creep in.
Really, our ‘news’ is a joke, nobody really pays attention to what is going on so they can’t tell that the MSM is deliberately misleading them for their reasons; ad sales, agenda or whatever. What is sad that people know more about a particular sport than they do about their government. I don’t see this changing as long as the public doesn’t mind being misinformed (or not informed at all). Fallow will be ignored, as will anyone not playing the ‘news game’. Complainers like Fallow (and the bloggers!) are obviously in the stands, not down on the field delivering ‘the goods’ like burly newsmen Wolf “We’ll Have To Leave It There” Blitzer, David “Stretch” Gregory, Chris “Tweety” Matthews and Chuck “Let’s Talk About Reality Off Camera” Todd. They don’t know how hard it is to deliver news!
Carving “Killed by a story arc” on the tombstone of our nation will be fitting, bring on the Brawndo indeed.
rikyrah
I disagree with you….this isn’t a joke to me.
The more benign conspiracy theory is that someone wants to make the Obama White House look incompetent. And, that someone inside the White House, who wants the same, helped them.
It’s obvious that someone INSIDE HELPED THEM.
Now, you have the more sinister conspiracy theory of that this is a ‘dry run’ for something altogether more heinous, and there is a leak in the Secret Service.
You can choose either one, but both are disturbing.
Who was at the State Dinner, and why was this breach a threat to national security?
Here is the Presidential Line of Succession
1 Vice President — Joe Biden
2 Speaker of the House of Representatives– Nancy Pelosi
3 President pro tempore of the Senate – Robert Byrd
4 Secretary of State – Hillary Clinton
5 Secretary of the Treasury– Timothy Geithner
6 Secretary of Defense – Robert Gates
7 Attorney General – Eric Holder
Outside of Senator Byrd, everyone else was at the State Dinner.
There were two of them, and if they had more sinister motives, they could have divvied up the list, and set about causing instability in the United States Executive Branch.
I just don’t see it as harmless as you do.
As much as I loathed Dubya, I never understood why Shoe Man wasn’t pumped full of bullets after he threw that first shoe. To me, that was a lapse in security.
Yutsano
@rikyrah: If it makes you feel any better, these two people are about to have their lives turn upside down. You can bet they will be hunting for any internal assistance and that assistance will be terminated and/or charged. The fact that this happened in what is supposed to be the most secure area for the President and his family will not go away lightly. We joke because we know it was little more than a prank. We also recognize the more serious issue. But don’t make a mountain out of what is right now little more than a molehill.
Church Lady
General Winfield Stuck, are your reading comprehension skills slightly lacking? Hitting the bottle a little heavy this evening?? You just might want to re-read my comment.
I didn’t say JC was making a too big a deal of this. Rather, I felt he was making too light of it. A security breach like this at the White House is a serious matter. It’s not Obama’s fault, nor does it reflect on him in any way. It was the Secret Service that fell down on the job, and someone will probably lose theirs over this. It’s not concern trolling either. Anyone getting past the White House gates, uninvited, is a dangerous proposition, and for them to actually be able to come fact to face with the President is somewhat alarming.
Boney Baloney
@Yutsano: Which word did you not understand? I’ll help if I can.
Brick Oven Bob is the guy who bitches and moans but sometimes comes up with a valid point, am I right? Which is shined on as typical bitching and moaning, because it’s the kind of thing Brick Oven Bob would say?
Thank you in advance for telling me what confused you about my post.
General Winfield Stuck
@Church Lady:
You are arguing semantics that I didn’t understand your point. From about anyone else that comments here, I would likely just consider it an honest opinion. But you have history, and it is always to be concerned one way or another about this or that, whether Cole is the target, or Obama, or the tooth fairy. When you start commenting positively at least as much as negatively on the topic at hand, maybe I will take you serious of something other than concern trolling.
And I don’t drink, and while it may have been a degree serious, it is not to the point of wall to wall wanking from CNN or wingnuts to turn into the crime of the century. I think that was Cole’s point, and anyone other than an idiot troll would see the same. Not even a close call, especially from morans like Peter King. And the White House is protected with very sensitive sensors that can detect minute amounts of poisons or radioactive material getting anywhere near the WH.
Anne Laurie
@Church Lady:
Alternately, two fameballs were allowed to Breach the POTUS Bubble, presumably so that concern trolls would shriek that the Secret Service needs to be punished. And whole will replace those naughty, incompetent SSers? Look, over there — a jackalope!
As the old business-school parable about the little bird in the pile of horseshite goes: Not everybody who gets you into the shite is your enemy; not everybody who gets you out of the shite is your friend; and when you’re up to your neck in shite, keep your mouth shut. Fameballs being fameballs, those jagoffs are constitutionally incapable of shutting up, and I’m waiting to hear who suggested this stunt & who “helped” them achieve their hearts desire. Watch for the puppeteers, or at least the puppet-strings; don’t overestimate the puppets.
General Winfield Stuck
@General Winfield Stuck:
and I would add, that anytime Obama leaves the WH he is far greater danger than two dumbasses with a Bravo camera crew trailing along.
Yutsano
@General Winfield Stuck: I need to refer back to my earlier post here. Obama was surrounded by guards. SURROUNDED. He wasn’t the only endangered guest at this gathering and the SS can only protect so much. The Marines aren’t there just because their uniforms are teh hawtness, my own personal biases notwithstanding.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Yutsano:
Yeah and those Marines can use their swords to go ninja on anyone who gets out of line!
What a party! ;)
Snarla
Why is this a big deal to the right? Because unlike any other presidential gatecrashers and/or gay prostitutes masquerading as reporters, these ones have an Arab name, and they all know what that means: jihad, terrorism, honor killing, reverse Crusades, takeover of the world, etc.
Tareq Salahi is obviously a slavering killer looking to add heads to his collection (his scimitar was probably down his pants leg), and his hostage-wife looks vaguely like Valerie Plame, who they know is somehow an enemy of the state, but they can’t remember why.
Anya
@Snarla: TPM is helping the winguts in this case. They’ve already “reported” about Mr. Salahi’s connections to the Palestinian Authority – he is in some task-force that nobody ever heard of before this.
@General Winfield Stuck: You are right, I should have chosen my words more carefully. What I meant to say was “this makes the WH seem….”. I won’t argue this point because it is not important but Brian Williams, who vouched for the high level of screening at the event, said that the fame seekers, were turned away first. This could mean that someone gave the SS the green light to let them in.
Elizabelle
Showing courage of my convictions, by posting this on Washington Monthly first.
I’ve not seen any cable TV news coverage, and assume it’s stupefying. But this was a serious and very terrible breach, whether they were photogenic reality show wannabes or what.
They should not have gotten in. Period. Heads should roll, Secret Service funding should increase, and they should make an example of whomever in the Indian diplomatic community might have assisted with the couple’s sneaking in.
Here’s the WaMo comment:
Have not watched a second of cable TV news in weeks, thank goodness, but I still think this incident was very disturbing.
Yes, the crashers were well dressed suburbanites who used to own a winery this time. They did not seem threatening.
But this was too damn close, they made it right up to President Obama.
Ginormous fail.
Can imagine this is this week’s Boy in a Balloon cableganza and people are tiring of the coverage. That doesn’t mean the implications of this one aren’t chilling.
JD Rhoades
@Jonathan Holbert:
FTW.
JD Rhoades
This whole thing just goes to prove one of the undeniable truths of life: a pretty blond can get in anywhere. It’s like having an all-access pass to the entire planet.
CalD
If you didn’t watch CNN, you wouldn’t have these problems.
Cosmic Navel Lint
Presidential and White House security breaches aside, weren’t this pair just another couple of wannabe-‘Reality TV’ cast-offs?
Could have been worse: the last time something like this made the news in the US, they found the kid in his parents’ attic and not in the balloon…
D-Chance.
We are all now Republicans… even if you’re a black liberal from New York.
HyperIon
@General Winfield Stuck wrote: As I haven’t been a regular reader until fairly recent.
I hardly bother with TPM anymore.
The site is very busy with lots of different ways to access content of questionable value. And no comments on the main page. It just gets busier and busier but not with stuff I feel I need to know. A shame since that was my first stop in the blogosphere for a long time. Now his blogroll is BS, too.
I heard something on public access recently with a media consultant asking how many were familiar with the TPM site. He then said that every jpurnalist in DC reads it daily. I wonder if this is true. If so, there’s a lot of time being wasted.
AlanDownunder
Perhaps a prank like this would warrant the knotted knickers.
What Yutsano said.