Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

People are complicated. Love is not.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Let there be snark.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Bark louder, little dog.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are here: Home / I Know I Should Stop Watching

I Know I Should Stop Watching

by | 260 Comments

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But I have CNN on in the background and I am still seeing breathless commentary about the party crashers at the White House.

People are aware that the only thing that happened in the breach is that they were not officially invited, right? You all are aware out there that they went through intense screening on-site, went through metal detectors and everything else, and there was no chance they had a weapon on them. You are aware that if one of them had, as Peter King suggested, “grabbed a knife off a table” and lunged for POTUS, they would have been tackled by any one of the thousands of security personnel there. You are aware that they were through far more security screening than it takes to get on an airplane, and tons more than any of the hundreds of thousands of people who shook hands with Obama the last year on rope lines?

In short, you are aware that the only thing that was missing was their name on an official invite list, and it is looking like they were helped out by an Indian dignitary.

Stop acting like Osama bin Laden crashed the damned dinner with a MOAB under his trenchcoat. If this gets the Secret Service more money and resources, great, but no one was in danger and this is really just silly.

Reader Interactions

260Comments

  2. 2.

    cleek

    nope, don’t care. don’t know the #s of any of the cable news channels. will never watch them. hate having to look at them in the airport.

  3. 3.

    donovong

    But, but, former FBI profiler extraordinaire Clint Van Zant told me on MSNBC this morning that they could have attacked with silverware, or had poison on their clothes or some equally stupid something that I am supposed to be deathly afraid of!!!

    OMFG!1!!

  4. 4.

    Violet

    I heard somewhere that they’re going to be on Larry King. That really bothers me. Why give this two-bit famewhores any more attention than they’ve already got? They should be shunned, not interviewed on TV.

  5. 5.

    valdivia

    I find it funny that with all the crazy scenarios people are not bringing up the west Wing episode that details the number of air sensors in the WH that detect any kind of minuscule biological threat in the air. Given the spectacular scenarios people are bringing up you would think someone would point this out!

  6. 6.

    MBSS

    for me that most salient aspect of this story is:

    magnometers. they sound fancy.

    is that a magnet in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

  8. 8.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    John: Thanks for putting this in perspective. I’d taken a far different approach looking at this as a massive screw up that wouldn’t have happened under the Cheney Administration. Instead, we have a *very* embarrasing breach of security (maybe not a threatening one but still, this looks bad) happen to the first BLACK president. Yeah, the Secret Service apologized. Fat lot of good that will do the next time something worse happens.

    At the very least, somebody should get a Sternly Worded Letter. Next up, a fucking tongue-lashing by the President, after that? Exile to Somalia.

    But by reading your take on this, I’m breathing a bit easier now.

  11. 11.

    MBSS

    john cole. just do like me. put on a video game and listen to the background music. skate 2 has a good soundtrack.

  13. 13.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Violet:

    This is what reality teevee is doing. These two pieces of work are angling to be on the (un)Real Housewives program, those of DC.

    They’re no different than the asshat balloon boy parents except they owe a shitload more money to a variety of Northern VA entities.

  14. 14.

    donovong

    @dmsilev: Seriously. This asshole claimed, on what is supposed to be a respectable newschannel, that they could have had poison on their clothing, and other assorted implausible bullshit. I keed u not.

  15. 15.

    fourmorewars

    Saw at LG&M the NYT’s latest coverage of this.

    Would it be possible to do a side-by-side comparison of the NYT’s, or CNN’s, or everybody’s coverage of this story with their coverage of a goddamn plane that flew across the country during the last administration loaded with nuclear bombs, and then might we demand that ANYbody caught devoting more prominence to this story than that one give up immediately the practice of news coverage?

    Even if it’s the NY Times? ESPECIALLY if it’s the NY Times?

  16. 16.

    Anoniminous

    You somehow have gotten the impression a news cast is intended to convey news.

    Fail.

    A news cast is what happens between the ads.

    People turn-in to news when their emotions are aroused by a natural disaster, war, or some kind of threat. If there is no actual natural disaster, war, or threat they manufacture one to keep their numbers up.

  18. 18.

    licensed to kill time

    But but but…they coulda been terrists! and they have a suspicious sounding furrin type name!!!

  20. 20.

    PeakVT

    I think cable news has destroyed the average American’s sense of perspective. Giving crap like the GateCrasherGate and Balloon Boy more coverage than major policy issues has rendered people unable to focus on what’s important.

  21. 21.

    Ann

    I’m going to stick with my initial perspective. Yes, the Salahi’s are clowns. Yes, there was no threat to Obama et al that night. But I don’t think that’s the point. The point is that unauthorized entry to The White House can still be made, and made fairly easily at that. As much as I hate the ugly defenses that now surround The White House (I’m a DC resident and think Pennsylvania Avenue should be opened again) I certainly don’t want to lose Obama — or any President — in this way. The specifics are a joke; the underlying concern is not, IMHO.

  24. 24.

    Fulcanelli

    And the MSM race to the bottom continues on this obviously slow news day… And to think I spend good money every month to pipe this idiocy into my house. In digital hi-def, no less. I don’t belong in this country anymore, I wish I didn’t love it so much.

  26. 26.

    Thomas

    Anything to avoid talking about policy. The cable talking heads don’t want to do it and Congress sure as hell does not want to. That’s why we’ve heard so much about “terra” in general these last 8+ years, as it was framed as us v. the evildoers there was no need to engage in nuanced analysis of any sort. It is all pathetic really.

  29. 29.

    fraught

    It’s just that that Salahi woman is such an obnoxious climber and that now it will be hard to distinguish the real assassins from the reality show contestants and these are two categories of folks which do not make a good mix. Even though they are worlds apart in their goals, they are very similar in their methodologies. Now taxpayers have to pay to have the secret service sort them out.

  30. 30.

    MBSS

    who cares about politics, john cole. start a video games and sports blog. maybe obama can brush up on his hoops and ps3 skills, and get some face time in your new blog.

  34. 34.

    licensed to kill time

    Actually, what really fries me is that they sucked up all the oxygen in the room re:the first State dinner and now the coverage is all about these asshats.

  36. 36.

    JD Rhoades

    I’m telling you folks, it’s all about the Babe Factor. A friend of mine who’s a very talented writer also happens to be extraordinarily beautiful as well as completely charming. You would be amazed at some of the stuff she gets into without even trying. If she chose to use her powers for evil instead of good, she could be be through White House security in a half-second.

    Good thing most jihadists aren’t gorgeous blondes.

  42. 42.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @licensed to kill time:

    Actually, what really fries me is that they sucked up all the oxygen in the room re:the first State dinner and now the coverage is all about these asshats.

    Unlike Obama’s trip to East Asia, where there were no reality-TV whoring asshats in sight, and the press coverage was serious and substantial. Just ask James Fallows.

    Let’s face it folks. It’s time we dealt with the cruel fact that there isn’t any oxygen in the room to suck.

  43. 43.

    MBSS

    @JD Rhoades:

    i remember working an event in hawaii which was a banquet in honor of the local life guards. there was a gorgeous blonde who was underage, but using all of her feminine wiles to try to extract some alcoholic drinks from a very straight friend of mine. i can never forget the smug look of supreme satisfaction that wore as he steadfastly refused her.

    i think i ended up serving her.

  45. 45.

    pcbedamned

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    Too late. (a la Hot Air)

    Luckily no knives were on the dinner tables which could have been used as an impromptu weapon to stab Obama through the eye and into his rather non-functional brain.

    Oh, wait… they do use real knives at the dinners in the White House.

    Maybe this could have been dangerous after all?

    So, does the Secret Service hate Barry, or what?

    profitsbeard on November 28, 2009 at 2:42 AM

  46. 46.

    pcbedamned

    Grrrr. The whole quote should have been blocked. Sorry.
    Someday I will surly get the hang of this even if I have to get my 12 year old to do it for me :)

  47. 47.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @licensed to kill time:

    Quick, grab the Fallows mask and start breathing!

    Tug on the tube of your Fallows mask to start the flow of oyxgen. Remember to put on your own Fallows mask before turning to assist the child or disabled person in the seat next to you. Your seat cushion may be used as a floatation device. Thank you for flying USA airlines, we appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in th-WHHHAAMMMSMASHBLANGGRRRRRR

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    One cannot be too careful. There’s the very real danger of John Malkovich, master of disguise, crashing the party with his lucky rabbit’s foot. Just sayin.’

  49. 49.

    r€nato

    Sorry, John, I disagree.

    They should not have been on White House grounds at all. Nobody – NOBODY – should be able to talk their way past security at the White House of all places.

  50. 50.

    Demo Woman

    The Thanksgiving company left late this morning so the TV watching has been limited. Early this morning though I had the TV on in the kitchen and my brother mentioned that the wackos will of course blame this on the President. I laughed and said even the wackos could not connect the dots on this one. Well sure enough, the Today show had on the author of a book about protecting the President.
    It’s Obama’s fault because during the campaign he set the agenda by not tightening up on security at rallies like the former president.

  54. 54.

    gbear

    It’s just that that Salahi woman is such an obnoxious climber and that now it will be hard to distinguish the real assassins from the reality show contestants and these are two categories of folks which do not make a good mix.

    I’d pay for cable if some network would produce a reality show where teams compete to be the first to deliver a dope slap to Tim Pawlenty.

  59. 59.

    Berto

    People are calling for investigations. Just like they didn’t when Gannon/ Guckert gained access to the White House.

  61. 61.

    e.c.

    as much as it pains me to say this, omarosa actually made a good point (i said it would be painful) on the today show the other morning. the secret service are not some sort of high-class bouncers deciding who gets to cross the velvet rope. someone from the white house social office had to approve their entrance if they weren’t on the list. it will probably turn out to be some staffers screw-up.

  62. 62.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    It that idiot Tareq Salahi stopped being a gatecrashing famewhore and put all his energy into Oasis, the family vineyard, the world would be a better place. They made some damn fine champagne.

  63. 63.

    Anya

    @Violet: Somehow, I doubt that they were looking for this type of the attention. I think they were hoping to be seen as well connected that they got the hottest tick in town. Even Sally Quinn didn’t manage to get that invite. Now they are seen by everyone, including their friends, as hanger on, pretenders. If they have a half decent lawyer, they will cancel the Larry King appearance since the SS is talking about laying charges.

  64. 64.

    tess

    It’s a Saturday on a holiday weekend. Turn OFF the cable news. As if daily cable broadcasts weren’t toxic enough on the brain’s logic center.

    Mississippi State is leading Ole Miss (and has the ball) with about 12 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Or check ESPN for UNC v. NC State–about 6 minutes left and State is up by 1.

    There are better options, kinder options, for your brain today.

  65. 65.

    Demo Woman

    @e.c.: What I heard this morning after the connect the dots, it’s Obama’s fault was that a uniformed agent let them pass assuming they would be bounced at the next check post if they were not invited. WTF?
    Today show then discussed that they were underpaid guards who work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. It sounds as though they were Walmart greeters.

  67. 67.

    malraux

    I really don’t want to watch the news to find out, but is crashing a party actually a crime? Sure, if you sneak in the back door when no one is looking, that’s criminal, but if you enter through the main door, are met by security and they let you through, did you commit a crime?

    If they were reasonably well screened getting into the WH, their ability to hurt the president/the government is fairly limited. The SS is trained to watch crowds of unscreened people for dangerous behavior. Such actions are going to be even easier to spot in less crowded areas.

  69. 69.

    Malron

    @Ann: I agree with Ann. A lackadaisical attitude toward security protocol made this possible. And yes, too much of the speculation is way over the top but blowing it off is about as smart as blowing off the weapon toting teabaggers at Obama speeches. Whether or not something horrible actually happened is beside the point. You’re not going to discourage this type of behavior unless you make a big stink about it like many are doing.

  70. 70.

    southpaw

    I don’t know. The security of the president, and especially this president, seems like a pretty serious matter to me. It’s not like the Salahis glamored their way into an east wing tour without proper clearance; these people came face to face with the president in a circumstance where his security was not right on top of them. I don’t really know how much airtime on CNN it deserves, but I’d certainly expect somebody to be fired and the Salahis to go to jail. Sorry if that displeases you, John.

  71. 71.

    Anoniminous

    @r€nato:

    Guess what? People make mistakes. Systems occasionally go ker-flullie. Sometimes these mistakes cancel each other out and sometimes they accumulate and you get people wandering in when they shouldn’t be.

    The only thing that can be done is identify what went wrong and fix the bug. Even as we speak the Secret Service Presidential Detail is meeting and the Head of the SSPD is screaming at people and working-out what went wrong and how to fix it.

  72. 72.

    licensed to kill time

    Well, now another asshat opines re:condolences over Russian train tragedy:

    Andrew Malcolm, the LA Times’ political blogger and former Laura Bush press secretary, has decided that he disapproves of the White House’s condolences.Malcolm added that the White House’s statement extending condolences was “not presidential.”

    There seems to nothing Obama can do right.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Valdivia: Actually, I (dusts chest modestly) alluded to this on Wednesday night, shortly after the story broke. I’ll try to find the thread and sppecific post, but yeah, that occurred to me early on.

  77. 77.

    Maude

    @JenJen: Bless your heart.

    This is another Fallows moment. Until the next one. Oh, they’ll be crawling like ants all over the Afghan speech. The chairborn are having their seats re-covered and the keyboarders are getting their fingers limber.

  78. 78.

    Jon H

    To be fair, they might have had butt bombs, like the guy who tried to kill some Saudi bigwig.

    Apparently having the explosives in his butt made it act a bit like a shaped charge. Blew him to pieces, and made a huge hole in the floor, but the target survived.

  80. 80.

    Violet

    @mcd410x:
    LOL. Applies to either, I guess.

    @Anya: Sally Quinn didn’t get an invite? That’s hilarious. Woman scorned, and all.

    @licensed to kill time:

    There seems to nothing Obama can do right.

    Well, duh. The rightwing nutters are doing anything and everything they can to undermine him and his presidency. They will look at even the most mundane comments and whine, whine, whine. Obama isn’t presidential enough. It’s too much/too little/too forceful/too weak. They seem unable to do anything but complain.

  82. 82.

    ondioline

    In short, you are aware that the only thing that was missing was their name on an official invite list, and it is looking like they were helped out by an Indian dignitary.

    I’m starting to feel like a troll now, but I’ve read accounts of what happened, and John is asserting this. He doesn’t know it.

    Knowing what happened is the point of an investigation. And if part of that investigation is the Secret Service getting more money at this point of peak wingnuttia, then I’m for it, and you should be too.

    That John dislikes the story doesn’t mean that he should be asserting non-facts as facts.

  84. 84.

    licensed to kill time

    @Violet: I posted that in a kinda well, duh, here we go again! moment.

    @valdivia: Ayup. From Day One. Actually, from before day one, from the time they thought it was impossible that this imposter could actually make it to the WH so they had to preempt his candidacy to OMFG the President’s a Ni…..!

  85. 85.

    Leelee for Obama

    I am disgusted that these fame hungry assholes got that close to Obama; I am more disgusted that cable news is making it the flavor du jour. If the SS agent who kicked this particular can down to the next checkpoint isn’t fired, I despair for accountability anywhere. This is totally unacceptable-and since when does any dignitary, including one of ours get to help gate-crashers? Sorry, heads should at least get thumped.

    That being said, someone up thread said this is the effect of reality TV on our society. I agree. When watching other people beat the system or do something stupid-like drink blood or eat worms or perform dangerous stunts, or something illegal, like Balloon Boy’s family, we have become nothing but eager voyeurs and not particularly bright ones.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Valdivia: Sorry, untip the hat. I *was* thinking of that WW episode, but a different aspect of it. I had wonderedd whether the Secret Service actually set this up as a systems test, to identify weak spots aalong the security chain. (The way they did when Bartlet, Charlie and Debbie were all subjected to nasal swabs and hazmat showers) — I *think* that was the same episode, yes?

  94. 94.

    eemom

    Steve Benen gets it:

    “I can appreciate the fact that threats against the president and his family are up considerably this year, as right-wing radicals contemplate violence. Obviously, security for the First Family has to be taken seriously, and after an incident like this one, it stands to reason that the Secret Service would take steps to prevent the error from happening again.

    But if there’s a good reason for this intense media interest about an inconsequential stunt, someone’s going to have to explain it to me.”

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_11/021194.php

    Some of y’all seem to be missing the point here, which is NOT that the security lapse that occurred wasn’t serious. The point is that this incident, like everything else that “intensely interests” the bullshit media machine these days, is a really, really pathetic choice of topic for such media to be so intensely interested in.

    And just btw, how come no one flipped out like this when the Iraqi journalist — may Allah bless him — threw his shoes at Bush? How’d HE get through security?? He could have had dog shit on those shoes!

  97. 97.

    Shell

    You’re surprised CNN is wasting hours/days on a non-story? Two words-Balloon Boy.
    I can still remember the day of John Kennedy Jrs. funeral, or rather the ceremony to sprinkle his ashes out at sea. It was a private ceremony, closed to the media. Not to be thwarted, CNN had long range cameras pointed at the boat out in the Atlantic. The image was grainy, faint and wavery in the summer heat. You couldn’t actually see anything going on. It had no news-value whatsoever. But CNN kept that damn thing on screen for 6-8 hours, while various talking heads tried to fill the air time. It was dreadful.
    *****************************

    oing to be on Larry King. That really bothers m

    Hey, it’s Larry King. It’s where the famewhores go! When’s Carrie Prejean gonna be on again?

  98. 98.

    Yutsano

    @Svensker: This is the meme they want to take and run with over and over until it becomes truth. Very few say it out loud, but there are many many people out there who have a vested interest in seeing Obama fail. Mostly because somewhere he is doing something that costs them money. And nothing else matters to them than the accumulation of their wealth however they can get it.

  100. 100.

    valdivia

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    yes same episode, for me it was the aspect of making obvious the fancy systems they have for catching any biological agent in the air within seconds.

  101. 101.

    ondioline

    Now, in addition to the actual potential risk to Obama being perceptually diminished by the two harmless fools actually involved in this particular situation, there seems to be a minimization of the importance of the incident because cable news is taking a predictable, maniacal tabloidy interest in the thing.

    Just because cable news is covering something stupidly doesn’t mean it’s not important.

    The issue is whether the Secret Service can keep up with what’s happening, or if there are slippages. Eye on the ball.

  103. 103.

    Comrade Jake

    I guess I don’t understand how this incident reflects poorly on Obama. It’s not as though he told the SS to relax or something.

  104. 104.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @licensed to kill time: I sure would love to know what happened to Andrew Malcolm. Years ago he was Toronto Bureau Chief for the NY Times (baback when the NYT actually maintained a bureau in Toronto) and as I recall he did a fine job.

  105. 105.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    There is an unintended* consequence to some of the more outrageous concern trollery over this security breach. None of us, not even the POTUS, can live in a 100 percent guaranteed safe environment. There are risks, and nothing the Secret Service or anybody else can do will ever make them entirely go away. So there needs to be some sort of balance between risks and costs associated with maintaining WH security.

    The risks are for the most part pretty obvious. What aren’t as obvious are the costs. As head of state the POTUS sits in the middle of a web of interpersonal relationships which if handled correctly are to the benefit of all of us as Americans, especially in dealing with foreign leaders. And like it or not, decisions of state rest as much on the personalities, the likes and dislikes, the foibles and vanities of the statesmen and stateswomen involved, as much as they do cold calculation. Do you think any of the folks whose attendance and social interaction with the POTUS are the whole freaking point of a ‘State Dinner’ enjoy or appreciate being treated the way the rest of us are treated at the airport by TSA, or worse? Does that help create an atmosphere conducive to diplomatic understandings?

    We are very fortunate right now to have serving as President a person of great personal charisma and charm. It would serve us well to be able to deploy that asset as effectively as possible. I submit that while it might produce a small additional increment in greater WH security having the guests at a State Dinner submit to body cavity searches and retinal scans before being allowed on the premises, doing so isn’t going to help improve the human warmth of the occasion. Which is sort of the main point. Otherwise, why not just cancel the event and not bother at all?

    Now that is an extreme example, well short of what I imagine the Secret Service is going to do in the way of greater checks on events like this in reaction to this kerfuffle. But we should keep in mind that the pursuit of total WH security purely for its own sake and completely removed from contact with any other goals, is probably not a good idea.

    *I’m being charitable here. In my darker moments, I suspect that these consequences are all too intended, and that Obama’s smarter and more sophisticated political enemies would like nothing better than to see him sealed up in an bubble and deprived of contact with ordinary people except under the most aggravating and draconian of circumstances, so as to undercut his personal charm and deprive him of its use in pursuit of political objectives which they are fighting tooth and nail against. Creating a zone of exaggerated fear and security theater around him is in their interests, not his or ours.

  106. 106.

    Yutsano

    @JenJen: I admit I looked at that picture when I first saw it for my own reasons. There’s a whole platoon of Marines stationed in DC that are there for the express purpose of attending events and standing guard at the White House, Congress etc. I was looking for a friend (not MY Dawg, he only gets called in for stuff like that) who wasn’t in the picture but I’d bet money he was there.

  108. 108.

    The Sheriff Is A Ni-

    @ondioline:

    The issue is whether the Secret Service can keep up with what’s happening, or if there are slippages. Eye on the ball.

    Since when did the Secret Service arrange the invitations? They did their job, Attention Whore #1 and #2 only slipped in and not John Wilkes Booth Jr or Achmed the Not Yet Dead Terrorist.

  109. 109.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Comrade Jake: Absolutely everything reflects badly on Obama in media asshat world. If it doesn’t, then it’s obviously good news for Repubs, Conservs, or Sarah/McCain. At the very least, it will make Candy Crowley cranky…

  110. 110.

    licensed to kill time

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    former Laura Bush press secretary

    We probably have to get the BAU team from Criminal Minds on it to look for a “trigger” event.

  114. 114.

    Yutsano

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    In my darker moments, I suspect that these consequences are all too intended, and that Obama’s smarter and more sophisticated political enemies would like nothing better than to see him sealed up in an bubble and deprived of contact with ordinary people except under the most aggravating and draconian of circumstances, so as to undercut his personal charm and deprive him of its use in pursuit of political objectives which they are fighting tooth and nail against.

    Again, they can’t beat him honestly, so they have to take the underhanded route. When 52% of REPUBLICANS like Obama personally that’s a huge issue for your party. He’s almost impossible to out-charisma, so he has to be shown to be vulnerable or incompetent somehow. They are trying desperately but they haven’t managed to make him look really bad yet. Most of those problems he’s done in spite of them.

  115. 115.

    Corner Stone

    @Matt Mangels:

    CNN isn’t even good enough as background noise for intercourse anymore.

    I’ve been thinking alot about this. And I don’t know if it’s more disturbing to consider CNN ever being good enough, or that you somehow have an opinion on it at all…or some other third thing.
    May I suggest you add a little Crowbar into your routine?

  116. 116.

    Mako

    I understand Kate and Jon will be divorced soon.
    I really have no idea who are Kate and Jon, but they seem to be all over the magazines in the grocery store checkout.
    Hopefully this new couple will… do they still have that show where people eat bugs?

  117. 117.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @licensed to kill yime

    *former Laura Bush press secretary*

    I guess I’m wondering whether that job was cause or effect of his turning into such an asstool. Good thought to search for a “trigger event.”

  118. 118.

    The Dangerman

    I hope the Secret Service or FBI show up on Larry King to arrest the fuckers on live TV (and, if they resist in any way, to drop the fuckers to the ground violently). This is no different from Balloon Boy, must get famous no matter what, and won’t stop until people shut down this bullshit in a dramatic way. The resources wasted on these fucking idiots can be put to use doing some good, perhaps.

  119. 119.

    valdivia

    @Comrade Jake:

    huh? I refuse to read it but last I heard at least half the country loves the man, and there are some O-Bots, like me, who really really love him. What is she using as data for this assertion?

    ps and we know the Swedes love him, they just gave him a nobel!

  120. 120.

    licensed to kill time

    @Comrade Jake: I am so sorry I read that.

    The Obama bowing pictures are becoming iconic not for those reasons, however, but because they express a growing political perception, and that is that there is something amateurish about this presidency, something too ad hoc and highly personalized about it, something . . . incompetent, at least in its first year.

    Just shoot me now. No, just shoot Noonan now.

  121. 121.

    Yutsano

    @licensed to kill time: Weren’t they saying the exact same things about Clinton his first year? About how the attitude in the White House was amateurish and run like a frat house? I seem to recall those criticisms.

  123. 123.

    licensed to kill time

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    I’m licensed to kill time, not yime. Although according to Urban Dict, a “yime” is:

    a weirdo stalker with greasy sunglasses.

    so I’d prolly kill that, too. ;-O

  124. 124.

    John Cole

    I’m starting to feel like a troll now, but I’ve read accounts of what happened, and John is asserting this. He doesn’t know it.

    Knowing what happened is the point of an investigation. And if part of that investigation is the Secret Service getting more money at this point of peak wingnuttia, then I’m for it, and you should be too.

    That John dislikes the story doesn’t mean that he should be asserting non-facts as facts.

    If you’re feeling trollish, perhaps you could fact check yourself and find out I’m not just asserting shit, but telling the damned truth as reported repeatedly in multiple sources. Let’s try the NY Times:

    That disclosure coincided with a statement from the director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, saying that his agency was “deeply concerned and embarrassed” by the events. Secret Service officials said the agency wanted to interview everyone connected with the episode, including the Salahis, and had not ruled out criminal charges.

    “The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list,” Mr. Sullivan said.

    “Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely,” Mr. Sullivan said. “That failing is ours.”

    Not good enough? How about the Washington Post:

    A statement by Director Mark Sullivan said the agency was “deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the State Dinner” and added that “the preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list.”

    Sullivan suggested that the couple had been screened for weapons, but should not have gained entry. “That failing is ours,” he said.

    They didn’t get sneaked in under a food cart or in the trunk of a car or take a parachute to the White House roof before making their stealthy entrance. They were screened and inspected, the only thing that was a failure was that they were not on the official list. I’m not just blindly asserting shit because I don’t like a story, I actually have a grip on reality. If they had managed to get into the WH without going through any screening whatsoever, it would have been a big deal. But that isn’t what happened.

  125. 125.

    licensed to kill time

    @Yutsano: Yes, they were, and remember the Bushies were going to be “the grownups” back in charge at last. How’d that work out for us?

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Comrade Jake: Well, Nooners didn’t consult me before she wrote that pile of diaper-fill. I unabashedly love the Obamas, don’t care who knows it, and for the record had no problem with The Bow.

  129. 129.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne: As someone with an Asian Studies degree with Japan as my concentration, let me just say that a gaijin who knows how to bow properly is VERY highly regarded by the Japanese. And Obama did it right. I think their real issue is that Obama did this for the Japanese, not for them. He stopped focusing on what they wanted him to focus on and took time to regard the Japanese as equal partners in the world. They can’t stand that, therefore the bow was a failure and the entire trip was.

  131. 131.

    licensed to kill time

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I remember that too well. This is the scariest bit from that article:

    Asked whether he had seen the television film of his collapse at the dinner, the President said: “I’m not sure I want to.” Quayle Is Notified.
    While saying he was confident that he “is ready” to become President if necessary, Mr. Quayle said “that didn’t even cross my mind” this morning when he was informed of Mr. Bush’s illness.

    Boy, we sure dodged a bullet there.

  132. 132.

    JenJen

    @Comrade Jake: What drives me up a tree about this kind of Villager nonsense is the assertion of something that is unprovable:

    There is the growing perception of incompetence, of the inability to run the machine of government.

    How do you argue the point? Noonan knows exactly what she’s doing when she employs words like “growing perception,” and it’s such a neat trick because, as we all know, the Chuck Todds of the world will now echo this so-called “growing perception,” which in the end, grows the perception, you know?

  133. 133.

    kay

    It bothers me for a different reason. I sound like a curmudgeon, and maybe I am, but I’m tired of this.
    The dinner was to honor someone else. A real person.
    I read that our guest was sort of interesting. An economist, who is serious and (gasp!) humble. I read that by following a link someone posted here, not to a major US source.
    I am sick to death of “them”, media and their stars, turning everything into a complete joke.
    I feel as if this is all of a piece with the lousy, stinking Asian trip coverage. We’re obsessed with ourselves, in this disgusting self-referential, egotistical way. Media could not report straight out of the Asia trip. They had to make it about themselves. The Asia trip became about the media. People are honestly arguing that we cannot hold a TRIAL in this country because it will be turned into a “circus”.
    We cannot now hold a state dinner without it being about us.
    Our reality stars. Our President. Peggy Noonan’s impressions of our President. Not one fucking word about the guest.
    It’s sick and it’s narrow and it’s stupid and ungracious and I don’t want to be associated with it.

  135. 135.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @licensed to kill rhyme:

    Did you see what I did there?

    Seriously, sorry about that — it’s one of the problems of Juicing While BlackBerrying, the little curvy arrow thingy doesn’t work from a handheld.

  137. 137.

    Anya

    @valdivia: I think she is one of those people who believe that if you repeat a lie enough, people will start to believe it. She is throwing the ball, knowing that the Villagers will run with it.

  138. 138.

    Mako

    @Yutsano:
    As a guy who lived in Japan for the last decade and a half, I’d say your “VERY” is hyperbole.
    But I agree, that bow is the awesome. Too bad the Japanese can’t vote in US elections, eh?

  139. 139.

    Mike in NC

    The subject of the WH dinner crashers will probably dominate all of the Sunday TV bobblehead shows, which would otherwise have been an extended orgasm over the Palinpalooza book tour and traveling freakshow. Chalk that up as a plus.

  141. 141.

    Corner Stone

    @Yutsano:

    As someone with an Asian Studies degree with Japan as my concentration, let me just say that a gaijin who knows how to bow properly is VERY highly regarded by the Japanese. And Obama did it right.

    Well, I don’t have all your fancy-schmancy skoolin on this subject, but Sean Connery’s character in Rising Sun told me to bow, but not too deeply. Only as far as the other person goes when dealing with a peer.
    Based on that unflappable imprimatur, I have to say Obama’s Doin’ It All Wrong!

  142. 142.

    Yutsano

    @Mako: Heck I’m still loving the fact that when I was in LA there was a group of Japanese tourists in Little Tokyo while I was there with a friend. There was an elderly Japanese couple coming into a shop just as we were leaving, and the elder gentleman was somewhat blocking the door. I excused myself in polite Japanese and he responded in kind. After we got out the door my friend raved that I should have seen the woman’s face she was so shocked to see a gaijin use Japanese and use it properly. I was proud of myself for the rest of the day. So maybe it’s personal experience that got me hyperbolic. Either way Obama showed great respect.

  143. 143.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano: Thanks for the verification on the way Obama bowed. After the first wave of “OMG he bowed to a foreign leader proving we are weak” the conversation abruply changed to “OMG he bowed all wrong proving he doesn’t know what he is doing and was just showing off.”. So I’m glad to know from you, backed by your expertise, that the bow was both well-received and well-executed.

  144. 144.

    gwangung

    @Mako: Are they STILL using this as a point? Don’t they have the slightest bit of consciousness of what it takes to do business in Asia? If it’s required for business, it’s also required for diplomacy.

  145. 145.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @licensed to kill time:

    Boy, we sure dodged a bullet there.

    So it seemed at the time. On the other hand Quayle looks pretty good compared with present company on the right wing political landscape, so I’d say we dodged a potatoe.

  147. 147.

    kay

    @JenJen:

    Yeah, well, they were all dead wrong about the Asia trip. And the Russia approach.
    Dead wrong. Obama’s gotten more concessions in one year than Bush got in eight. It wasn’t a hard act to follow, admittedly. Bush got, um, zero. But people like Peggy Noonan were all puffed up with pride and shock and awe, so the actual WORK didn’t matter.
    Might be time to walk it back and pen a mea culpa, Peggy.
    Not that she will. That would take a measure of humility and honesty.

  149. 149.

    licensed to kill time

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    So it seemed at the time. On the other hand Quayle looks pretty good compared with present company on the right wing political landscape, so I’d say we dodged a potatoe.

    I can imagine some (ahem) younger folks wondering what the heck ? right here…

  150. 150.

    eemom

    @kay:

    excellent points these.

    And nary a whisper of one to be heard amongst the deafening roar of babbling bobblebots.

  151. 151.

    valdivia

    @Anya:

    Yeah I know it makes me very angry. The thing is that they have been trying to make him look incompetent for a while now. First the vaccine thing was katrina-like, that did not work. Now they are saying HCR will be like Iraq (check out the Sullivan post quoting Reihan Salam saying this). So now they will use the ‘look of incompetence’ thing in general ways since the concrete examples did not work. I want to see how they say that once HCR passes. So incompetent he achieved a goal that has escaped Presidents for 100 years.

  152. 152.

    Corner Stone

    @MBSS: I relied on Michelle Pfeiffer for how to communicate with blacks.
    Alot of sitting in wooden chairs turned backwards involved. Seemed oddly effective.

  153. 153.

    Yutsano

    @eemom: It really is a perfect set-up. I mean, how many times are we STILL hearing Obama hasn’t done anything? Well duh the MSM is taking that meme and running with it. They know they need to stop him, and despite their best efforts he just keeps on chugging.

  158. 158.

    kay

    @eemom:

    “As Russia and China joined 25 nations voting at the International Atomic Energy Agency today to issue a resolution censuring Iran for its failure to disclose a nuclear enrichment facility, the Obama White House savored vindication.

    Having faced recent chatter that it had little to show for Obama’s recent Asia trip, following previous skepticism that its decision to cancel missile defense installations in Eastern Europe would win anything but contempt from Russia, the White House was able to show some of the first concrete results in today’s 25-3 vote at the IAEA today censuring Iran over failing to disclose its Qom enrichment until this past September.”

    They’re such cowards, media.

    The parts I bolded are the themes they made up out of whole cloth, and pushed relentlessly, based on nothing but their own opinions. Christ. Who were “chattering”, pray tell? I don’t recall regular Americans “chattering”.
    The same morons at Politico who wrote today’s walk-back, that’s who. They don’t even have the decency to admit the mistake.

  159. 159.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @eemom:

    And nary a whisper of one to be heard amongst the deafening roar of babbling bobblebots

    You know, before I started paying closer attention to US politics and the role of the media in it, I always loved the sound of the phrase ‘a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing’, but I never really fully understood what it meant.

  160. 160.

    eemom

    and I think poor old Peggy Noobrain has a case of the projections. She’s the one nobody loves, the old she-hack has-been.

  161. 161.

    Mako

    @Yutsano:
    I’ve been back in the US for 6 months now and I’m still bowing like a fool. People here want to shake hands, and they don’t take their shoes off inside and toilets are in the same room as their toothbrushes, its all just too horrible.

    @gwangung:
    Sorry, have no idea what you are meaning. Nasubi videos?

  163. 163.

    Yutsano

    @Mako: Do you feel a bit shorter too? I’d love to take my 6’3″ Japanese-speaking brother to Japan once just for the sheer reaction to him.

  164. 164.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    After the first wave of “OMG he bowed to a foreign leader proving we are weak”

    Yeah, I’m soooo sure the Japanese are going to forget about those 2 smoking, radioactive craters because of a bow.

  166. 166.

    MBSS

    when are americans going to catch up and get vending machines that sell beer, noodles, and used schoolgirl panties?

  168. 168.

    kay

    @eemom:

    This is how we treat other people? We turn the honored guest into a sideshow, and make these two idiots the main focus?

    I mean, would you treat someone you invited to your house like this?

    Ya know, I have to laugh at how Obama is the amateur. Our media haven’t even mastered basic 4th grade birthday party skills. They made international obnoxious asses of themselves on the Asia trip, turning that into a big joke, and they’re doing it again.

    I don’t see how we compete internationally with these clowns choosing the focus. They don’t represent me.

  169. 169.

    JenJen

    @kay: Well, right, but Peggy doesn’t care. It’s all about the perception, don’t you see? That’s something only they have the power to shape, and Peggy relishes her role.

    I’m not trying to go all digby here and start worrying about the harm this kind of “narrative” causes eventually and politically, but at the same time, we should be as quick to call the storytelling and shaping what it is as we are to wield factual information. Smiting Noonan Beasts is only going to get harder now that they smell real blood.

  171. 171.

    still liberal

    Just wait until casting starts for the “Real Housewives of Afgan/Pakistani Caves.” Then some serious shit at the White House will come down.

  172. 172.

    Corner Stone

    @Mako: Crichton *was* a douche. Total genius at entertaining our feeble and malleable brains, but an equal douche when dealing with reality.
    Died last year and I hope Elizabeth Hurley’s Devil character is teaching him the finer points of global warming reality in Hell.

  173. 173.

    Violet

    @JenJen:

    How do you argue the point? Noonan knows exactly what she’s doing when she employs words like “growing perception,” and it’s such a neat trick because, as we all know, the Chuck Todds of the world will now echo this so-called “growing perception,” which in the end, grows the perception, you know?

    No kidding. It’s as bad as “some say.” It’s also lazy and weak. I just hope the facts are good enough to prove these bozos wrong in the short and long term. Not that anyone cares to check what people thought or wrote five or ten years ago. If they did, all the pundits who wholeheartedly supported the invasion of Iraq would be out of work. Obviously that hasn’t happened.

  174. 174.

    Maude

    At least the bow didn’t happen in the 1980’s when the dopes were smashing Japanese cars.
    These jerks would call Mac Arthur names.
    We’re in a bad way when honoring someone is considered weakness.

    Kay, you are so right.

  175. 175.

    kay

    @JenJen:

    I completely agree. I suck at political narrative, but I am completely convinced that the douchbags create it and sell it. I’m not creative, and all of the compelling political narratives in my lifetime have been bullshit, that failed in practice.

    Including Noonan’s fantasy of Ronald Reagan. Maybe especially that. That particular fantasy may have been the trigger that forced me to grapple with reality. I keep hoping we’ll eventually stop looking for a fairy story, and easy solution.

    But, I surrender to the reality of the importance of narrative. You’re right. They’ll tell a story and sell it and what actually happens won’t matter a bit.

    I’m to the point where I’m fatalistic. If Obama can make real progress, I’ll settle for them killing his chances with a narrative. But he has to keep going.

  176. 176.

    Corner Stone

    @Mako: And actually, I’d have to say Ryan Reynolds carried Trinity. Snipes was a badass bit player.
    And I would wax rhapsodic on Jessica Biel but that way lies madness.

  177. 177.

    Suzan

    Exactly.

    Like people dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the financial world going down the drain.

    Thanks, John!

    S

    What do you expect them to report on? There’s nothing else going on in the world.

  179. 179.

    JD Rhoades

    @Notorious P.A.T.:

    What really pissed me off were the wingnuts bitching that Obama was ‘bowing to tyrants.” Excuse me? Since when is the Emperor of Japan a “tyrant?” The worst thing the occupant of that office has been able to do since the 15th century was write bad poetry.

  180. 180.

    Corner Stone

    @Notorious P.A.T.: Hell no. They forgave that shit long ago. What’s a little pre-emptive fire bombing tween friends?
    Rising Sun taught me the Japanese tried to buy us out in the ’80s but fell short. Surely that’s the mark of friendship?

  181. 181.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I went to the White House once with a class, and I can attest that there is heavy security to get into the building, even if you are on an invite list. Meh. More breathless filling up of the 24/7 pie hole.

    (back home from the holidays)

  184. 184.

    gwangung

    @Mako: No, no, I’m just aghast how this meme got ANY traction, given what they pound into any international businessman’s head these days.

  185. 185.

    Mako

    Corner Stone:
    Elizabeth Hurley…devil suit… sigh… (What was that movie?)
    Missed the whole Crichton passing, thanks for the headsup. Bet a lot of airport bookstores mourned.
    @MBSS:
    Increasingly difficult to find a beer vending machine in Japan anymore, sadly.
    @Yutsano:
    Early on I had an expat friend who was 6’5 and weighed well over 140k. It was amusing at first, but he became increasingly annoyed every time a little old lady stopped us and started bubbling on about his size.

  190. 190.

    eemom

    @kay:

    “This is how we treat other people? We turn the honored guest into a sideshow, and make these two idiots the main focus?”

    Again, that is such a good point you make about how the focus SHOULD have been on the Indian Prime Minister…..and such focus would have been right, respectful, dignified, and even INTERESTING to anyone with more than three brain cells in their cranium.

    And I must admit, it never occurred to me before you said it.

    OMG……the emmessemm is eating my BRAIN…….

  191. 191.

    MBSS

    just watch the sex scenes from rules of attraction, and make sure to cover up james van der beek’s when he hogs the screen with his leering meg. it ruins the romance.

  192. 192.

    kay

    @The Raven:

    I see this becoming ludicrous.
    One cable channel will create the news, and the rest of them will follow the news the first cable channel creates.
    Balloon Boy and now these two. FOX News and ACORN and the Tea Parties.
    An insane, never-ending loop of stupid. At some point, they can just leave reality out completely. Just cable stars interviewing other cable stars, some of whom are nominally non-professional, like the party crashers and the tea partiers, both interviewed by Larry King. We’re nearly there.
    It might work out okay. Obama and the reality community can work, and media can chase balloons, and draft narratives.

  193. 193.

    licensed to kill time

    @chrome agnomen: Correctamundo. Man, the number of bullets we’ve dodged over the years makes me feel like Neo in that scene where he stops them all with his hand and they fall to the floor with a Great Tinkling.

    Perhaps there is hope, after all, in this Matrix.

  194. 194.

    JenJen

    @kay: One thing to keep in mind, and that kept my spirits up throughout the ’08 Election, is that it’s been a lot harder for the Villager narrative to take hold ever since the advent of blogging, really. The narrative had a real effect on Clinton’s ability to govern, and also served as a boon to Bush during the 2000 and 2004 Elections, and throughout his presidency until Katrina, really. And with Katrina it was one of those things where it is all just laid so bare, that you really either believed them, or your lying eyes.

    But yeah, the narrative is a beast which never dies and must be repeatedly slain, but I do think things have changed, and I think it’s been weakened, but let’s keep our eye on those damned Noonan types while we continue to try to tidy up after them.

  195. 195.

    Mako

    @Corner Stone:
    Also, if you want to get technical, kris kristofferson carried the first two, but Snipes was good in that white men not jumping movie… of course Rosie Perez pretty much carried that one… okay Wesley Snipes is not that great.

  197. 197.

    MBSS

    does anyone else think it’s odd that snipes is half vampire? shouldn’t that be an all or nothing deal?

  198. 198.

    Shell

    You know what Obama’s problem is? Nobody loves him. I’m not kidding

    Flippity-Floppity. I thought the wingnut’s problem was that Obama was too popular. You know, Obamania, anybody? Mr. big Rockstar.

    As usual they’re trying to have it both ways.

  199. 199.

    Violet

    @JenJen: Dunno about that. It seems like sensible people blog about it, but none of the rational thinking hits the TV screens. Not sure why they just feel the need to get their talking points from the Villager Playbook, but TV pundits rarely seem to go outside their little circle, let alone actually think. That would be way too hard.

  200. 200.

    JenJen

    Awww shit, John. Don Lemon on CNN just showed the Obama and the Blonde photo and said, “This can only be summed up with one word: Embarassing. Probably two: Really embarrassing.”

    I should turn it off too, huh?

  201. 201.

    ally

    @Fulcanelli:

    Try canceling the cable for a few months. It’s great. We cut the cable a few years ago at our house after I found myself actually watching stories about Anna Nicole Smith.
    There were a few times during the campaign last year when we wanted to see TV (major debates, election nights, etc.) but we went to a friend’s house. Otherwise it’s very convenient to watch things online.

  203. 203.

    JenJen

    @Violet: During the 2008 Election, some rational thinking hit the TV screens, enough that it took me aback. Couric’s interview of Palin is the best example that comes to mind, but there are more.

    I like to think that the proof will be in the pudding, that this is going to be a long struggle, that the country was so f’d when the current Administration took delivery that they deserve our patience. I think they’ll deliver, but in the meantime this is going to be patience-testing.

    Punditry is always a sort-of wanking exercise, but what I’m addressing specifically is the amplification of the wankery, you know, where Peggy Noonan goes on Morning Joe and they talk about how smart she is and how much she’s seen and how important her voice is because she’s a very serious person, and then they wank some more, and then Pat Buchanan shows up for the climax.

    It is SO crazy to me, the hold these Nixon-Reagan apparatchiks continue to have over the punditocracy.

  205. 205.

    Mako

    @MBSS:
    Nevermind that, how long do you think I have to hide out when the inevitable zombieacolypse happens?
    Do you think 2 months is enough? Or maybe i should stock up for six months? I mean zombies die of malnutrition eventually, right?

  206. 206.

    kay

    @eemom:

    Are media doing this deliberately? Let’s show the world that every stupid stereotype about the US is completely justified.

    Ya know, Obama just returned from an overseas trip. All of Asia managed to focus on the guest of honor for more than twenty minutes.

    We can’t do that? Is that like…appeasement?

  207. 207.

    Violet

    @JenJen:
    I tend to think that things like the Couric interview of Palin are accidents. It’s all done in an attempt to increase ratings, and with Palin they knew they had a potential ratings goldmine – they just had to figure out how to get it. Katie managed to do it. But it wasn’t really hard-hitting journalism – “What papers do you read?” It was the kind of stuff almost anyone could have asked.

    It is SO crazy to me, the hold these Nixon-Reagan apparatchiks continue to have over the punditocracy.

    Me too. I don’t get it. Eventually things will change, but I can’t figure out how. Maybe it’s because the old media is run by such old people that they just have their friends on the shows over and over again?

  209. 209.

    MBSS

    mako

    my friend says this about the zombiegeddon:

    shelf stable food can last up to 10 years. you’re going to need a lot of food. where are you going to stay? in a bunker? are you going to try to go out and farm eventually? just the sheer amount of bullets and ammunition needed to protect yourself from zombies and even other survivors…i mean, you need thousands and thousands of rounds.

    from my friend pete as he simultaneously plays call of duty 2

    he also thinks no one is gonna come find him doesn’t he. and in this type of situation..tell him to look up all the prisons…they are opening all the doors…but, good luck…lol…you can tell him that your friend is a crazy ass fucker, and he says good luck.

    but, how cool would a zombie apocalypse be? i really wish i bought a shotgun would be my only thought.

  212. 212.

    ondioline

    @John Cole: I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a disagreement with anything you’ve written, John, but the articles you cite do not support this argument from your post:

    In short, you are aware that the only thing that was missing was their name on an official invite list, and it is looking like they were helped out by an Indian dignitary.

    As I wrote, that’s why an investigation would be helpful.

    But apparently, the whole thing is so irritating to you that we should poo-poo it, even if it might lead to an overworked and underfunded Secret Service getting more money at the apex of wingnuttia:

    “We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters,” a Secret Service agent told Kessler. “There’s a tremendous feeling within the Secret Service that they are risking an assassination,” Kessler told Canadian TV.

    Whatever, dude. Take a deep breath or something.

  213. 213.

    MBSS

    but then again, pete is a libertarian, so, i don’t know how seriously you should take anything he says.

  214. 214.

    JK

    @JenJen:

    There’s a growing perception

    that Peggy Noonan is a lying sack of shit. If and when the Salahis are convicted, they should be strapped into chairs, fitted with the device used on Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange, and forced to watch Peggy Noonan pontificate for 10 hours a day for a minimum of 6 months. What could be a stronger form of torture than watching this asshole speaking in her breathless voice filled with pregnant pauses pretending that she knows what she’s talking about?

  215. 215.

    eemom

    @Violet:

    Yeah, Couric totally got lucky. Landing an interview with the first Vice Presidential candidate in American history who was flummoxed by the word “read.”

  216. 216.

    Mako

    @MBSS:
    ahch your friend does not have his head right .
    Of course I’m going to stay in my bunker, where else? And who need bullets when you got a basement full of propane tanks and a flame thrower turret?

    @Violet:
    The “media” has always been thus. I’m too drunk to look it up right now but you can surely find how the press treated Jefferson or Jackson, or study up on Hearst or Chandler…
    We actually live in an amazing time where more news is readily available at our fingertips, you just gotta turn off the tv.

  218. 218.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @Jon H:

    It was a test run. They are planning to use one of these shaped charges on Obama. One of these times Obama is going to bow and the ‘shaped charge’ in front of him will do the same then rapidly pivot and go off in his face.

    Creative bastards, eh?

  220. 220.

    Corner Stone

    @JK:

    and forced to watch Peggy Noonan pontificate for 10 hours a day for a minimum of 6 months

    Good…Lord…

  222. 222.

    Corner Stone

    @Mako:

    I’m too drunk to look it up right now

    As one professional to another – how F’ng drunk does one have to be to not be able to effectively use teh Google?

  223. 223.

    Mako

    @MBSS:
    Libertarians will be the first to go. Look, you are a zombie, you are hungry for brains, some dude is standing out on the street in silly whiteboy dreadlocks ranting on about the illegality of the Fed and returning to the gold standard… okay wait, maybe they will survive…
    Hadn’t thought of that. Do zombies just eat matter in human skulls, or must it be actual brains?

  225. 225.

    Corner Stone

    @JenJen: I’m really not sure what’s worse – being forced to listen to Nooner’s really awful delivery, or Katrina vanden Huevel’s.
    The things Nooners says are always FSM awful, and I agree with KVH most of the time – but to actually listen to either is just sheer punishment.

  228. 228.

    Anya

    This is a good read:

    This conventional wisdom about Obama’s first year isn’t just premature—it’s sure to be flipped on its head by the anniversary of his inauguration on Jan. 20. If, as seems increasingly likely, Obama wins passage of a health care reform a bill by that date, he will deliver his first State of the Union address having accomplished more than any other postwar American president at a comparable point in his presidency. This isn’t an ideological point or one that depends on agreement with his policies. It’s a neutral assessment of his emerging record—how many big, transformational things Obama is likely to have made happen in his first 12 months in office.

  229. 229.

    Deschanel

    While I do think this whole thing is hugely overblown, an article on the kerfuff at the Daily Beast really makes me wonder about Desiree Rogers, the WH Social Secretary. She apparently decided to make herself a glamorous guest at this event, rather than the person whose job it it to be sweating every detail of the dinner- guest list, security, how the napkins were folded- everything. I recall reading about Jackie Kennedy’s formidable army of social secretaries, nothing was ever left to chance at WH events. Nothing, down to the smallest detail, such as what brand of cigarettes a guest smoked.

    Desiree Rogers should have been WORKing that night. Instead she swanned in, posed for pictures in a hideous avant Commes Des Garcons dress, as if she were an invited guest and not someone whose job it was to be on top of everything. Yes, including greeting and scanning guests arriving. Your average nightclub or movie premiere party has far more stringent protocols than the other night. Rogers should have been there with a clipboard and headset. She should be fired for embarrassing the Obamas, sorry to say.

    “In the past, White House social secretaries have worked, not partied, on the nights of major events, racing around to make sure everything is going according to plan. But Rogers has occupied a bigger spotlight than her predecessors, doing more interviews, making more public appearances, and generally cutting a more glamorous figure. Just a few weeks after President Obama swore the oath of office, Rogers turned up at New York Fashion Week, sitting in the front row of three shows and taking photographs with Anna Wintour. According to three former White House officials, Rogers made it clear from the beginning that her approach to running presidential social functions would be a sharp break from past custom.

    In February, 2009, in a longstanding tradition, all of the former White House social secretaries gathered for a private luncheon at the Four Seasons to welcome Rogers to the post and pass on their collective wisdom. Said one person in attendance: “She was very friendly, but her position was clear: They’re different. They got here differently. These are different times. The old rules are going out and the new rules are being made up.” Rogers told the Associated Press Thursday that no one from her office had been at the security checkpoints to assist Secret Service members in managing the flow of guests and verifying their place on the list. The former White House officials, all from previous administrations, said they considered this a jaw-dropping oversight.”

  231. 231.

    MBSS

    @Mako:

    i’m sure they require actual brains. alas, i’ve maxed out on libertarian jokes for the week and must jest no more. all the austrian vons’ are rolling over in their graves. for all i know they will be the zombies that attack me. they might be chanting:…ugh…efficient-market hypothesis…grrrrugh……self-regulatingarhchhhchoowowowgjg………splarf as they reach for my juicy brains.

  235. 235.

    Anya

    @Corner Stone: Noonan annoys the hell out of me. I thought it was generational until I found out my grandmother cannot stand her. Her obsession with Reagan is creepy. She is pretentious and coy and she does not have an authentic bone in her body.

  236. 236.

    LD50

    @Comrade Jake:

    A bit OT, but anyone catch Peggy Noonan’s latest gem? You know what Obama’s problem is? Nobody loves him. I’m not kidding.

    Obama’s genius is an ability to be anything people want. To wingnuts, not only is he a Nazi AND a Commie, he is also the leader of a cult of personality with millions of robotlike admirers AND no one likes him.

  237. 237.

    LD50

    @Anya:

    Noonan annoys the hell out of me. I thought it was generational until I found out my grandmother cannot stand her. Her obsession with Reagan is creepy

    She has serious daddy issues that are obviously going completely unaddressed, to America’s great misfortune.

  238. 238.

    Mako

    @JD Rhoades:
    Interesting, you have no cite. This is exactly the sort of shabby commenting I’ve come to expect from you.
    Let me ask you this, if, as you say, they are already dead, then how come can I kill them with a shotgun?
    And were is the main stream media on this important issue, they have actual zombies working for them, the best the can do is a Peggy Noonan article? It really is hopeless.

  239. 239.

    Corner Stone

    @JenJen: Well, not much of anything really. But the only time I see Nooners, and actually hear her say something is on This Week with GS. And frequently KVH is on the panel as well.
    So, tangential at best I guess. But she’s awful.

  241. 241.

    kay

    @Deschanel:

    Except it’s all sort of myth and bullshit that nothing is “ever left to chance” at Presidential events.

    One of the CNN anchors told a coupla stories of her experiences, before she got the Massive Security Breach! memo.

    They found a crasher ten years ago, at a White House event, wandering around, and Bush’s security detail was breached with a man who approached him at his inaugeration. The same person breached Clinton’s security. Same man. Twice.

    I think we like to tell ourselves these bedtime stories. That’s okay, but it has nothing to do with reality.

  243. 243.

    Mike in NC

    Hate to go there, but someone should fuck Peggy Noonan with Dick Cheney’s miniscule chickenhawk dick.

    + 4

  245. 245.

    Shalimar

    Why would CNN stop talking about this fascinating story? Are you insane? They have a new Bravo show to cross-promote, this shit is never going to stop.

  246. 246.

    gnomedad

    @John Cole:

    They were screened and inspected, the only thing that was a failure was that they were not on the official list.

    A valid point, but it’s disturbing that they failed at “only people on this list get in”. That seems like Security 101 to me.

  247. 247.

    Elizabelle

    Some say there’s a growing perception that Peggy Noonan has reached a new threshold of dipshititude.

  248. 248.

    Mari

    The SS deserves some slack here. Ever since Reagan, they’ve defined their successes by how many DFHs they can arrest for wearing the wrong t-shirts, how many people they can imprison in their own offices and apartments when the presidential convoy rolls by, how much air space they can shut down during official visits, and how long they can close major freeways during rush hour. Expecting these bozos to change their institutional goal from maximizing public harassment to providing real security is completely unreasonable.

  249. 249.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Mari:

    I had my own fun with the SS back in the early 80’s/ I worked for the feds in the Interior Dept. on the top floor of the Federal Bldg in Tulsa Ok. One night I got in late and was in the elevator with a surly looking dude in a suit. I was carrying a small open box with some testing equipment in it, when he started asking me what i was doing. I explained who I worked for and even had a uniform on, he demanded my ID and when I started to lay the box on the floor to get it he started shouting that I freeze, so i did, and he had opened his suit to show me his badge and gun, and asked If I knew who he was. Well I stammerd nope, and he explained he was SS and would be keeping an eye on me. I said okey doky, then the elevator stopped and he got got. I muttered to meself, crazy mudderfucker, followed by I got to get another job.

    98.7 percent true.

  250. 250.

    southpaw

    They were screened and inspected, the only thing that was a failure was that they were not on the official list.

    Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

  251. 251.

    Wile E. Quixote

    I think the fauxtrage is driven by two things.

    1) The villagers bitching about this are pissed because they weren’t invited to the soiree.

    2) The Republicans know that if John McCain had been elected that no one would want to sneak into a state dinner he was hosting.

  252. 252.

    BooHooHooMan

    @donovong: re : possible Poison on Clothing…

    The Old Trojan Clotheshorse. The security solution here is pretty obvious though, for maximum safety and comfort at White House . Have everybody wear Trojans, only Trojans, protect everybody. Transparent, form fitting, etc.
    What and WHO is not to love on future occasions?

    Just tryin to be helpful.

  253. 253.

    BooHooHooMan

    The Secret Service is getting a bad rap. Their “Duty” has devolved into protecting one money laundering, influence peddling President after another.

  255. 255.

    Karen

    If Malia gets a C it will mean Obama is a lousy father.
    If their dog gets fleas it’ll mean Obama doesn’t know how to take care of a pet.
    If the First Lady gets swine flu it will mean that Obama was careless.
    If any of their children gets an A or is on the honor roll it will mean that Obama pulled rank to force the teacher to do it.
    If Obama can’t quit smoking it means he has no willpower.
    If Obama respects the customs of other countries it means he hates the USA.
    If Obama tries to be bipartisan it means he’s not a true Democrat.
    If Obama thinks about what he does it means he’s weak.

    With all that, there is just no way he’ll ever win. The fact that he knows it and knew it would be that way and still ran for President means that he didn’t let it intimidate him. I may not agree with everything he does but I respect him for that.

  256. 256.

    bob h

    Given that the guy’s name was Tariq, expect Joe Lieberman to open a Homeland Security Committee investigation.

  258. 258.

    Jay

    There really are people who can kill you in a second. There are also weapons that can’t be detected by metal detectors. There are all sort of ways to kill someone you get next to – and shake hands with.

    Nothing happened but a huge breach in security around one of the most threatened individuals in the US if not the world.

    When they said threats against him were up 400% and that the SS wasn’t assigning enough people I was worried. Now I’m really worried. How many SS agents think he isn’t legit?

  259. 259.

    brantl

    I have to disagree with people that said this was no big deal. That’s only luck, that it was no big deal.

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