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Secret Service Critics Pounce After White House Breach
HughPickens.com writes On Friday evening, a man jumped the White House fence, sprinted across the North Lawn toward the residence, and was eventually tackled by agents, but not before he managed to actually enter the building. Now CBS reports that the security breach at the White House is prompting a new round of criticism for the Secret Service, with lawmakers and outside voices saying the incident highlights glaring deficiencies in the agency's protection of the president and the first family. "Because of corner-cutting and an ingrained cultural attitude by management of 'we make do with less,' the Secret Service is not protecting the White House with adequate agents and uniformed officers and is not keeping up to date with the latest devices for detecting intruders and weapons of mass destruction," says Ronald Kessler. "The fact that the Secret Service does not even provide a lock for the front door of the White House demonstrates its arrogance." But the Secret Service must also consider the consequences of overreaction says White House correspondent Major Garrett. "If you have a jumper and he is unarmed and has no bags or backpacks or briefcase, do you unleash a dog and risk having cell phone video shot from Pennsylvania Avenue of an unarmed, mentally ill person being bitten or menaced by an attack dog?" But Kessler says Julia Pierson, the first woman to head the Secret Service, has some explaining to do. "If the intruder were carrying chemical, biological or radiological weapons and President Obama and his family had been in, we would have had a dead president as well as a dead first family."
These guys are answerable to no body.
Guy walks on White House lawn, agents take him down. Nobody was hurt, never was the president or his family in danger. The Secret Service did his job. End of story. The rest is just the usual sensational media hysteria.
id say things went well. he was stopped fairly quickly, no one was hurt. not sure why all the hate on it? its a fine line between protection and being a fortress, i dont think we want the white house on military lock down do we?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
So in the worst case scenario all you had to do really is to bring in the vice president or hold a new election. Yeah that sounds like the end of the world.
That'll keep em away once and for all.
If you have a jumper and he is unarmed and has no bags or backpacks or briefcase, do you unleash a dog and risk having cell phone video shot from Pennsylvania Avenue of an unarmed, mentally ill person being bitten or menaced by an attack dog?
So the problem is footage of the guy getting bitten, not the fact that he's bitten? What the...
Not that the President works with Congress. But since they are on leave for a month or so I am sure the President and his family are either on another vacation, playing more golf, or campaigning for when he tries to run for office for a 3rd term.
Besides since when do we know where the 'safe zone' is inside the Whitehouse gates.
how about if he *was* the bioweapon?
Sure, set your dogs on him. Shoot him. Spray arterial blood tainted with the worst of the worst most virulent weaponised strain of ebola this planet has ever seen all over the lawn. POTUS and FLOTUS and the rest of the Acronym Family deserve to die in their opulence, and may they take with them as much glitter as they can swallow.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Anything to paint the President in a bad light.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the breach was "totally unacceptable," according to The Associated Press, and he accused the Secret Service of "failing to do their job "These are good men and women, but the Secret Service leadership has a lot of questions to answer," he said.
Mr. Obama appointed Julia Pierson as the new head of the agency in March 2013, making her the first woman to hold that job.
Republicans are fucking scumbags.
So, they don't guard it as strictly when the POTUS and family aren't home? I'm pretty OK with that.
If you want to defend the president 24x7 against absolutely any threat that includes non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction, then you'll need to forget about putting the white house in the middle of a city, and never have the president step outside of an armored and sealed environment. If you want to protect against a threat that includes nuclear weapons, now you need maybe a 10 mile buffer zone between anywhere the president goes and the rest of civilization.
On the other hand, half of the other national leaders can bike to work if they want to. Granted, terrorists aren't gunning for the leader of Norway the way they would be for the US president.
In the end, security is a balance. Sure, we could have sentries that shoot anything that moves and a minefield in the white house lawn, but as was pointed out that results in lots of dead crazy people on the news. There is no question that the style of secret service the US has is going to lead to a few dead presidents each century, which is basically what the trend has been. I just don't see a way to fix things without making other things much worse. The problem is that there are a lot of nutjobs who think that killing one person will somehow solve the world's problems, and that the last election was just a one-time delusion that could never happen again.
This is just puffery because it is trendy to beat up on every government agency now, and the SS in particular after the Columbia prostitute scandal.
They have everything they need to protect the president but they are smart and respond to each threat based on the *actual* threat it poses. The snipers that hang out on the White House roof could have dropped the man before he made it ten feet, but had they done so everyone would be screaming about how they killed an unarmed man when the president and his family weren't even on the grounds.
I'm willing to bet that if there was a more strong-arm takedown of the guy, the White House would be accused of wasting taxpayer dollars on overkill security. The media these days...
I am sick of this. Every. Fucking. Thing. that happens is an excuse to pump money into the militarization of the US of A with the accompanying security theater. I've been in Europe for about 15 years. I am not going to talk about whether Europe is better or not, I've been around enough to know that it's apples to oranges. But I can compare between the America I grew up in and love and what I see today.
When Obama came to visit Brussels last year, myself and several thousand other people were locked in our offices for three hours because the only exit was on the street that his motorcade was scheduled to come down, only he was two hours late. When he passed, he rolled by in his motorcade with military escort; the last vehicle was an SUV with the back hatch open and a couple of dudes with machine guns in it. While I was having a smoke afterwords, one of the older ladies in the building told me about Clinton's visit in the 90's... she saw him out jogging in the foret de soignes park.
Every time I go home to visit my family, it makes me cry a little bit. Crime rates are their lowest since well before I was born, yet all I hear is about how important it is to take measures to keep myself safe. Last year I was jet lagged and went out for a walk at 2am for some air... a cop actually stopped me to ask me what I was doing! A middle aged man, clean-shaven and wearing light-colored clothes while walking on the sidewalk is now a cause for suspicion in suburbia. When I was growing up, I used to go out at that time on a weekly basis and actually do bad stuff. Never even saw a cop then.
It is time for us to wake up as a country. It is popular to say that 9/11 changed everything, but in fact it only changed us. We need to stop being so pussy-shit and do a little cost-benefit ratio analysis on the stupid security stuff we do. What is more likely to extend the average lifespan of your community's inhabitants, putting a dozen patrolmen on the streets or building a gym? I bet I know the answer to that one.
Oh, and the president is just a man. His family is just a family. He is an important man serving the country and deserves to be protected by said country, but if he bites the dust he'll be replaced and it ain't worth many millions of dollars on technical gadgetry when we could use that money to pay down the deficit.
Also, they complain about the "doing more with less" attitude, but who is the one trying to cut spending on every single facet of the government budget (except congressional salaries)?
From the summary: "risk having cell phone video"
Sounds like the decision making is largely driven by 1) Will we get caught doing X on video? and 2) What will the press say?
Fucktards. So all that worries you dipshits is the "optics". Pathetic.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
I'd just recommend that when you compare, it's done intelligently and fairly. I mean, there's a huge difference between the insanely distorted America depicted in clever headlines and media soundbites and the many and varied communities across the United States. The US is not CNN, it is not the E Channel, it is not Hollywood. Really. I've lived and traveled extensively in Europe and Asia across the decades. I've found there to be at least as much variation in good and bad neighborhoods, rich and poor, genteel and tough, both Europe and Asia. There are streets, stradas, rues, calles, etc., on either continent that I avoid at night or alone.
There was a time that a citizen could walk right up to the white house. What has changed with our society that our president needs to live in a castle with a moat and defense force?
Presidents are politicians. They must keep in contact with the voters to get re-elected, and the accessibility of the current president has been welcome. It helps defuse concerns about his level of education separating him from ordinary citizens, or forgetting what it's like to be black.
Assessing the strange "what if he'd been carrying a weapon of mass destruction" concerns:
1) The simplest pony yield atom bombs have to weigh at least 40 pounds for the nuclear material alone, based on rough guidelines for U-235 critical mass published in various magazines during my career. Jumping the fence and sprinting across the White House lawn, carrying something that heavy is difficult and _will_ give the Secret Service personnel more time. Such a device would be more effective _outside_ the White House during a semi-public event where the President is outdoors, such as an inauguration.
2) Chemical attacks have similar problems. An aerosol or chemical poison would have to basically flood the air of the White House, which has quite good climate control inside. That means getting past the ventilation system, which would be a _very_ good place to put the sensors and stop the air flow if there were such an attack.
3) Bacteriological weapons would, again, have to get from the attacker's entry to the President. Such a biological agent would be more effectively spread by leaking it during a White House tour, not by a run across the White House lawn.
The Secret Service reacted well, with measured restraint. Better staffed guard posts might be useful, but they are _expensive_. If you estimate the presence of 20 more patrolling guards, 24x7, at roughly $100,000/guard/shift covered, that's roughly $6,000,000/year. Which federal budget shall we strip for that funding?
"If you have a jumper and he is unarmed and has no bags or backpacks or briefcase, do you unleash a dog and risk having cell phone video shot from Pennsylvania Avenue of an unarmed, mentally ill person being bitten or menaced by an attack dog?"
A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
Oh, and the president is just a man. His family is just a family. He is an important man serving the country and deserves to be protected by said country, but if he bites the dust he'll be replaced...
... by Joe Biden. That's as compelling a reason as any to keep President Obama healthy.
Get the right breed of dog and give it the right kind of training. There are dogs that were bred specifically for catching people while causing minimal harm - back then this was desired so the people caught could be publicly hanged, but I guess the dog won't really care that today it's more about avoiding negative publicity.
The fact that the Secret Service does not even provide a lock for the front door of the White House demonstrates its arrogance.
On what is arguably the most heavily guarded building on the planet some idiot thinks a little lock on the front door is going to keep the bad guys out? Exactly what would be the point of this little door lock? What would it protect against?
Talk about someone with no clue when it comes to security.
Well if people don't like the idea of Biden as President, then maybe they should have voted for McCain and is VP choice back in 2008.
How many snipers had this guy in their sights thinking "please don't make me shoot you." The Secret Service agent at the door did their job as did the rest of the unit.
Yup, if the the President or family had been at the White House instead of on vacation (again) the snipers would probably have taken him out, and the door would have been locked anyway, and there would have been more agents around.
The problem is that people are only offered a choice between bad and worse.
First it was hookers, now it's this. So they look like frat boys and incompetents. They might be the most competent fucking protective agency on Earth, but they don't look it and how you "look" is how 99% of the population makes their judgements. It's why men with long hair are "fags" and women with short hair are "dikes." It's why African-Americans are "niggers" and people on welfare are "freeloaders." Reality has nothing to do with any of it.
There was a time that a citizen could walk right up to the white house.
Back when rather few people actually traveled any significant distance. Also back in those days the federal government mattered rather less than it does today. It's only since the Civil War that the federal government has started to play more of a role than state government in the every day lives of people.
What has changed with our society that our president needs to live in a castle with a moat and defense force?
A lot has changed. Maybe the fact that every president since Johnson has been the target of known assassination attempts or plots. Four presidents have been assassinated (Kennedy, Lincoln, McKinley and Garfield) and two were wounded by would-be assassins (Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt). When you are the leader of a nation there are some crazy people out there who will kill you if they have the chance.
Losing your nation's leader is a BIG deal. It causes very serious problems no matter what country you are talking about.
Anything to paint the President in a bad light.
No need. Obama is a "hands on" president, he takes care of that himself.
Republicans are fucking scumbags.
And yet they are still a major improvement on Democrats!
In a steely cool professional manner.
a week ago. There were lots of police officers around at 4 PM. Did all the officers outside at the checkpoints and near the fence go home for the evening? Miss Julia Pierson has some explaining to do.
It's one of them fancy sentence spicer-uppers!
Twinstiq, game news
Teach the president to protect himself. I guess that he would have to pull his head out of his ass first.
GP here, although I've got no proof of that. You clearly did not read what I wrote. I am saying that it is perfectly safe pretty much everywhere in the US, but we've managed to convince ourselves that it is getting worse every year.
For what it's worth, I am from Centennial, Colorado and my neighborhood was solid middle class 40 years ago and remains so today.
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Cover the grounds with sniper teams 24/7 and kill, without warning, anyone attempting a breach.
Not rocket science and could be done with any bolt-action rifle made in the last century. No camers, no sensors, just the Mark 1 eyeball.
We can not have Dead Kennedys anymore...
"Paying down the deficit" doesn't mean what you think it means. A budget deficit = spending more revenue than you take in during the year. Its the equivalent of adding another $200 billion to your $17.6 trillion credit card balance every year. Of course, unlike the average consumer, the government has the power to raise their own credit limit and print money to pay the monthly interest payment.
The problem is that the Secret Service was made part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service has a legitimate security function. The Department of Homeland Security is about manufacturing fear and maintaining insecurity for political purposes.
So no wonder the Secret Service is confused about its objectives.
Buried lede?
Man jumps White House fence, enters building DRESSED AS PIKACHU!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Really? Go take a walk into downtown Camden or Newark, NJ if you believe that.. pretty much any time of day, but especially at night. Just pay up your life insurance first.
put down the remote, back away from the TV, kessler, you sound just like the dumb bulb you no doubt are.
god bless america.
nobody else will.
Oh, and the president is just a man. His family is just a family. He is an important man serving the country and deserves to be protected by said country, but if he bites the dust he'll be replaced...
... by Joe Biden. That's as compelling a reason as any to keep President Obama healthy.
So it's a choice between incompetent malice and malicious incompetence?
it's not lack of money.
You can't kill the President. The Constitution outlines a succession order which has been refined over time. If Obama dies then Biden is the President. If Biden dies then John Boener is President. The office of the President is a hydra, you kill one and another instantly takes over.
The succession line is quite long and the odds of managing to kill all the named successors is quite small for the most part.
and they picked worse.
The Deficit has not been as low as $200B since 1985. It hasn't been as low as $500B since 2008.
And isn't expected to be as low as $500B again....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Absolutely there's no such thing as perfect security. I say that as a security professional. My wife, a childcare professional, will tell you that locking the front door is a good idea, if the house is a target. They spend a billion and half dollars every year on the secret service, who doesn't bother to lock the door. That's how government does things.
Protocol is to allow them to enter the front door... Which leads to a room that is designed with suicide bombers/chemical weapons in mind.
It was a Friday evening. The President had left for Camp David earlier, and his main protective detail went with him. Most staffers had gone home. The guy got just inside the outer doors, where there is a security checkpoint, before he was tackled.
The Secret Service made the right choice not shooting the intruder dead on the lawn. They certainly had the capability to kill him. They would have been heavily criticized, with pictures of the dead body on national TV.
On September 12, a man wearing a Pokemon hat and carrying a stuffed animal jumped the White House fence. He was tackled and arrested. Should he have been killed?
However, using state-of-the-art Channel 5 computer technology, we'll show you how disastrous it could have been. Here's how it would have looked if the plane had crashed into a school. Now here's how it would've looked if the plane had crashed into a school for bunnies. Now here's how it would've looked if the plane had crashed into a school for bunnies but one passenger had survived, gone home, and mercilessly beat his wife. -- Family Guy
Isolated event, and the guy was brought down. There'll always be a risk as long as their are fanatics or loonies who don't give any though to their own personal safety, but there comes a point of diminishing returns.
Suppose they hired 10 times as many Secret Service agents? That just increases the odds of one of them going bad and offing the President himself. (Not a likely event, but having 10x as many agents also means more chances of confusion in a crisis, etc, etc.)
Security is never perfect (wasn't there an incident some years back where an intruder wandered into the Queen's living quarters at Buckingham Palace?) That's one reason we have a line of succession -- it's not like the government collapses in the case of an untimely death.
Mind, given the choices of VP over the past few presidencies, that line of succession might actually be helping lower the odds of someone trying to assassinate the Prez.
-- Alastair
More like the Black House. Or, to use African American Vernacular English, the "Nigger House".
That's how African Americans would say it.
And they would be swinging from the chandeliers while eating premium GMO bananas.
"If the intruder were carrying chemical, biological or radiological weapons and President Obama and his family had been in, we would have had a dead president as well as a dead first family."
And Joe Biden as President.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Crime rates are their lowest since well before I was born, yet all I hear is about how important it is to take measures to keep myself safe. Last year I was jet lagged and went out for a walk at 2am for some air... a cop actually stopped me to ask me what I was doing!
Let me flip your two sentences there.
Last year I was jet lagged and went out for a walk at 2am for some air... a cop actually stopped me to ask me what I was doing! Crime rates are their lowest since well before I was born, yet all I hear is about how important it is to take measures to keep myself safe.
There you go, in that order you can see what is referred to as "cause and effect".
Better known as 318230.
More hype to increase the budget, and I am starting to get sick of it.
I think its been said before in this thread, but it bears repeating, that the SS(Secret Service) as enough fucking money.
No. No. No.
the point of law enforcement including those guarding the President is to render suspects for trial, not meet out punishment.
And think about it this way. What would have happened on the world stage if someone wearing a cute hat from a childrens show carrying a stuffed animal of the same, otherwise unarmed is mercilessly gunned down on the seat of power, in full view of lots and lots and lots of tourists, passersby, etc...
Also, if a man legitimately has plans to attack the president, Chances are near zero, and taking the attacker alive(preventing him from almost doubtly taking his own life as well), and questioning him would most certainly help the go after the planners.
Actually, the lowered crime rates are most closely tied to less environmental lead, not increase police presence.
Even in those cases, I'd rather take my chances in Camden or Newark today than thirty years ago.
The crux of the problem is very simple: Americans whine ... not do. There has not been a significant political movement since the Civil Rights movement of Martin Luther and others.
Americans whine about security and get it. At the end of George Orwell 1984 Winston says: "I love Big Brother" and Americans do as it is a figure to whom they can whine too and cheer simultaneously.\
If Americans stopped whining about places they never go, like their own inner cities, foreign countries, and the overflowing Psych wards triaged by imminent self-harm, these problems and dangers would not exist in the first place.
A real solution is education and health care, but oddly their children is the one thing they never whine about, until they are in a foreign country coming back with PTSD from picking up body parts from the shots they fired.
Mental health and poverty are completely managable, and they are the source of almost all the actual events that occur inside this country they fear to walk in. Stop buying guns and volunteer at a hospital stressed beyond it's maximum.
In seattle there is a large homeless population. Almost all are mentally ill. They get a bottle and a refill, and a at-a-glance diagnosis with cash-strapped on-going care. Maybe that is something to whine about when you smear them across the hood when they wander the streets at random, shootup schools, and sprint the white-house front lawn.
Terrorism ? you must be joking. Flight 97: stop whining on your phone and tackle some underfed psycho with nothing more than a F**ing box cutter. 200+ people can't handle a few guys ? that's what ace bandages are for retards.
Less guns more meds. Maybe the rest of the world would breath a sigh of releif too for once.
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Here in the US, there is really very little relevance to whether or not anything DOES happen to the president. We have a rather robust chain of command going down how many elected positions? I'd personally rather lose 20 presidents than spend a dollar more on presidential security. It's not like loss of a president would lose us that much face with the global community, except perhaps in those regimes where their 'elected leader' is slightly less elected and slightly more concerned with staying in power and not being dead.
I mean hell we are replacing the guy every 4-8 years, likely with another corporate shill, so does it really matter that much to us if something happens to our figurehead? I mean hell, most Dems/Reps wouldn't mind it as long as it was the OTHER party's guy, right? All those bad decisions allegedly made by him can be stopped! Well, until the next automaton replaces him as part of the emergency chain of command, and you finally come to the realization it is puppets all the way down.
Will be billions in lost tax revenue due to an economic downturn such an event would cause. The global markets will not react very well to the assassination of the leader of the United States, the world's largest economic power. The uncertainly alone would trigger an economic recession. The many millions of dollars spent assuring the president's security is a bargain compared to what a dead president would cost the world economy.
You do realize that paragraphs can have more than two lines of text in them?
They should have a fake breakin attempt every 3 months or so to keep everyone alert. Complacency can settle in if nothing ever happens.
Table-ized A.I.
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A terrorist walks into the White House bar. The bartender asks, "So what will you be having?"
"72 virgins"
"Sorry, we don't serve that here. How about a Bloody Marry instead? Almost the same."
Table-ized A.I.
Government doesn't want to extend the lifespan of citizens, nor should it. That means lengthening the unproductive part of one's life. The government wants to increase one's healthiness, that increases productivity. Also young sick person turns into an old sick person which costs more money.
It's not nice to reduce people to dollars and cents but someone has to do it. Ideally, cigarettes and recreational drugs would be compulsory once one reached 55 years: A self-inflicted version of 'Logan's run' which also maintains tax revenue. The current fascination with prolonging old-age costs a lot of money with no increase in productivity and little quality of life benefit.
Since the American citizens who are Secret Service Agents have failed so miserably I propose that all the American citizens in the Secret Service be fired and be replaced by Secret Service Agents holding H-1B visa !
And yes, we can add the clause in their H-1B visa to make them wearing Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck outfits when working too
I'm gay. I live in Belgium. Our Prime Minister is gay. I saw him in the club Friday night. It doesn't _have_ to be like it is in the US.
That's why we have redundancy for the job of President. It's about the office, not the person holding it.
Oilcan completely see how a security agent can open the lock by merely passing their forearm near the card reader as they approach the door. Wear the security card on the forearm, hip, or other appropriate place and even a relatively inexpensive reader such as many office buildings use will allow instant access by authorized personnel, while keeping unauthorized people out.
I apologize for having carelessly left an impression that I disagreed. I actually identified with your points, and I was going off on a tangental rant. This being /., I'm so used to reading America haters on both sides of the Atlantic painting uninformed pictures of violent crime ridden America; and for the same reasons, the distortions inherent of ubiquitous press and entertainment media only capable of creating highly cartoonish caricatures of reality. The serious shame is what it's doing to our children, and thus future generations. When I was a kid, we could leave the house in the summer every morning, and not return until dinner, or even by dark, unless we got hungry and diverted home, or to a friend's home, for chow, sometime noonish. Now kids are prisoners of "play-dates" and hovering parents who are scared shitless by the sick perception that if they divert theirs eyes for a second, Johnny's going to be butt raped and murdered, no question. Why? Because in the statistically few tragic occasions when something, anything, sensational does happen anywhere in any small corner of the country or the world, it's splashed all over CNN, MSNBC or Fox every 15 minutes all day. Did shit happen in the 50's and 60's when I was growing up? Sure. But when it happened in Tallahassee, we didn't get to hear about it all day long in San Diego on 24 hour news networks for 5 freaking days running, with constant streams of "experts" reminding us constantly how we need to imprison our little darlings for their own protection. Life will suck for our grandkids.
By the way, what does "GP" mean?
The bigger problem is that debate anymore devolves immediately to "choice" between false dichotomies, vacuous positions screamed between raving caricatures on the left to insane caricatures on the right.
Really? Go take a walk into downtown Camden or Newark, NJ if you believe that.. pretty much any time of day, but especially at night. Just pay up your life insurance first.
BS. Even in Camden, you only have 2.5% chance of being a victim of a violent crime in the course of a year. And there were 62 murders in 2012 (giving a murder rate of 0.08%, assuming all victims were residents). Which is high for the nation, but by no means assured assault and murder that people make it out to be.
"If the intruder were carrying chemical, biological or radiological weapons and President Obama and his family had been in, we would have had a dead president as well as a dead first family."
And then Joe Biden would be president! WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN!
You are required to identify yourself to a police officer who asks (per Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada). You are not required to show them identification documents. There is no good reason to do so. Do not do this. Tell them your (real) name. Certain states (not California, mind you) may have state laws requiring you to give the police such information as your address and date of birth; the Supreme Court has not ruled on the legality of these laws. I would probably not comply, but that one is up to you. Do not talk to the police. Do not assist them with any investigation -- you are not required to, and providing false information is an easy crime to get booked for. Do not answer their questions. Do not allow them to search you. There are nice cops who are just doing their job, but the potential downsides are not worth it. "Am I being charged with a crime? Am I free to go?" Those are the only things you should say to the police.
And if you get arrested, remember that, per the reprehensible miscarriage of justice in Berghuis v. Thompkins, you must explicitly invoke your right to silence in order for the police to stop questioning you. Police interrogations are so effective that perfectly innocent people have been known to sign confessions after extended interrogation sessions. Tell them you are using your right to silence, and that you will not answer questions without an attorney present, and do not say anything more until that attorney shows up.
Know your rights, and insist upon them. Do not cooperate with the police beyond strict necessity.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
On slashdot, GP usually means "Grand-Parent (post)", as in:
Grand-Parent post
.. Parent post
.. .. This post.
When Clinton left office, we had a surplus, not a deficit. Source: http://www.factcheck.org/2008/...
Hi Sarah, you sexy GILF, you.
Who the fvck cares, it's not like he actually has any power anyway, just "vote" another puppet in.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
I think that is why the most recent Bush chose Cheney as VP. Think of it as the ultimate dead-man switch.
Time to offend someone
This is just theoretical but were anything to happen to President Obama, VP Biden would step in. I wouldn't mind a President who drops and F bomb now and then to be honest.
Protecting officials is important, especially in an era of bitter political discourse that has inspired many more threats against the President and others. The Secret Service should focus on protection as its only mission. The Secret Service mission of investigating certain financial crimes like counterfeiting should be transferred to other federal agencies which could do it as well as the Secret Service. Yes, it would mean letting go of part of the Secret Service's history, but that's what focus is, letting go of the nonessential.
As Boston.com reported in 2009, the nonpartisan, respected Congressional Research Service suggested considering this change:
And his old man picked Quayle. I think the last time we had a VP who wasn't too scary to let in the big chair was Johnson.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
The cynic in me wants to point out how costly elections are these days in the US, so on the face of it, protecting the current president is a cost saving measure as it would be a lot cheaper over the term of his service than electing someone new....
That said, that is what the vice president is for anyway, and if not, what is the point of the office?
http://www.thestar.com/news/ca...
While not our Prime Minister, he might be our next one...
The President and First Family was not there! The agents on duty would know this. If they had shot this man on the front lawn the headline would have been "Mentally ill Person KILLED needlessly by the Secret Service". Since he wasn't carrying anything, and weapon would have to be small, at most a bomb strapped to him, and the Prez no even there they made the right call. If you want to play what-if the Prez was home, I suspect there would be more agents on duty and they would react more aggressively.
And if somebody does get in through another means, do you really want to have to take the time to unlock the door to go in after him?
But isn't that what about half the US population actually want? and isn't America a democracy?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"