fuck the secret service. bring in the marines.

[mopinko]

fire every fucking one of them that we involved in the umpteen fuck ups that rachel just rattled off.

[GP6971]

1. Got home late and didn't see Rachael tonight

Must have been priceless.

[CaptainTruth]

2. That's exactly what I said!

Put a couple Marines on every entrance & see who gets into the White House.

Pro Tip: If you guessed "NOBODY," you are correct.

Seriously, why not have an elite group of Marines tasked with guarding the WH? I would trust them far more than the SS.

[enlightenment]

3. Are you sure that's enough?

Might be better to add some automated lasers to cut down any toddlers that might sneak past those Marines.

[Aerows]

47. I agree. n/t

[LawDeeDah]

4. This is so horrible, now the President and Michelle will not feel safe ever again!

With all the terrible and record breaking threats he has had since he stepped into office, somehow I felt that things were being taken care of, that he was well looked after. And I think he and his family thought so too.

But they weren't.

I would go further than firing the lot, I would have deep investigations on each and every one of those rotten slack assed fucks.

[mopinko]

5. frogmarch.

i wanna see a frogmarch.

[derby378]

13. I thought the White House was supposed to be as secure as Area 51

At this rate, I should be able to slip into the Nevada desert and come back home with a Soviet-era MiG as a souvenir.

[LawDeeDah]

15. Deathman Cheney probably has better security than the President and his fam did.

I have to wonder who is behind this, because leaving it to some doofus' overlooking their jobs is getting harder to believe by the day.

[KurtNYC]

33. maybe that's why Obama carries that hot cup of coffee

it's the only defense he has

(kidding..sort of)

[mopinko]

36. geez do i wish that was funny.

oh man. that and michelle is about it

[Politicalboi]

6. This nut could have planted a bomb

He had so much time where nobody saw him. I wonder if these knuckleheads SS looked for one.

[mopinko]

7. just imagine.

yeah, how about a gas attack?
or how about a balloon full of anthrax.

the mind just boggles.
boggles.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. You just know there are Al Queda types kicking themselves right now saying...

.... "Seriously? We coulda just waltzed in with a bomb? Why didn't WE think of it first? Whodathunkit?"

[mopinko]

11. yup

lotta "generals' prolly gettin a bullet in the head for not seeing an opportunity like this.
nice to know that none of them has THAT much brass, i guess.

[yesiwasacop]

8. I'm thinking the Marines

prob dislike Pres Obama even more than the Secret Service does.

But they prob would do better- so long as none of us gets upset at there being more killing going on I'm all for it.

[mopinko]

10. nice you have 24/7 access now.

no more library computers, huh?

[Kingofalldems]

24. How would you know what the Marines think?

[yesiwasacop]

30. Well lets see

I spent 20 yrs as a cop and I prob have about at least 45-50 (not gonna go counting)FB friends who were in the USMC and other branches before they were cops. The comments are pretty bad.

They have said worse things about him reference other topics, but they cant stand him. I have not seen one of them defend it except for a couple saying it was probably not intentional, but they did agree he has no use for the military. When I worked there, they were pretty open about saying how much they didnt like him at all. Much of that was directed at the Beer summit thing right after he was elected. They felt he hated cops too. Some of these guys have served active duty when Obama was elected and they mentioned there was pretty much open comments being made all the time about socialism, anti-military, handcuffing them in the field (silly rules of engagement they say).

Additionally, I retired from the reserves recently and many members there weree pretty open about not having any respect for Pres Obama at all other than they will follow orders because he is the CinC. I was a reservist during the Clinton admin too and it was the same thing then. I have not heard any bashing over race as the military is very much better integrated than the civilian sector so if someone had some racial animosity, I never heard it. Im pretty sure it is there, but no one has walked around spouting it off. It is not very taboo in certain miitary circles to bash the pres- happens all the time. Heard it about Bush all the time- mostly because people were sick of going to Iraq over and over again.



Thats just my observation.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. How Convenient

50 buffoons on Facebook, who may or may not actually be ex-Marines, doing internet bravado to one guy now on DU, and that it the basis for Marines AND the secret service not likiing the President.

A completely unbased set of statements and conclusions, and then, oh so conveniently, they're ...just my observation".

Silly

[yesiwasacop]

39. I know they are ex marines or military

I have known some of them for up to 20 years

[ProfessorGAC]

56. Says You

And, we just take your word for it. How convenient.

[Kingofalldems]

34. I get the feeling you might agree with your friends.

Now why would you socialize with Obama haters and then join a pro Obama proDemocratic or what your friend would call 'socialist' website? Doesn't add up to me.

BTW, do your friends complain about all that Socialist military health care they get?

[yesiwasacop]

44. If you have ever been in the military or a cop

you would know you do not get to pick your co-workers. In fact, I have never worked anywhere (including private sector where I am now) where I was able to do that. Ever. Well I guess I could quit.

When police officers are hired, they are generally in their early 20s and pretty much dont care about politics. That being said, political conversations rarely happen until they get much older- early to mid 30s or more. By that time, one has pretty much developed their political belief system and are generally not afraid to talk about it- even if others will mock them.

This is the time when discussions in briefings get political or your lunch with a couple other cops gets political. Sometimes you are surprised at some people's views and other times you are not. One of these lunch discussions was where a female officer friend of mine told me and another guy she was a lesbian. This was about 15 yrs ago, where gays/lesbians didn't advertise that kind of thing. She asked us how we thought it would go over with others and we both came to the conclusion that no one would care. Fast fwd to the present, our department has dozens who march in the annual pride parade in uniform. Not all are LGBT, some are just supporting their friend's rights.

Anyhow- lots of things get discussed and you learn a lot about other people. The other thing you learn is that despite all of us having a wide variety of opinions we could all agree that we can still be friends even if we disagree with each other. Imagine hearing your friend tell you that next time you need help and call for it on the radio, that he is gonna stop for coffee and let you get beat to death because he doesn't like your views???

Slow-rolling to back up another cop(taking your time) is something we don't do. There are a couple cops who I very strongly disagreed with how they handle business (they were not doing anything illegal, just being assholes) and I told them so, but we always responded to each other when we needed help. We definitely cannot rely on 95% of the public to help other than to record it and eat popcorn so all we have is each other- even if we disagree politically. I had one a couple years ago after a heated argument over 4th Amendment tell me-" hey I think your opinion on this is totally fucked up, but I'll still back you even if you are a dick... "

Once you have developed that kind of reliance, loyalty and dependancy on each other when fighting crime it is real hard to just one day after knowing someone for ten years who says something bad about Obama or that he/she is against abortion (or name it) to all of a sudden say - go fuck yourself and go die in a fire. You still have to work with them and your life depends on them at times. This isnt an episode of "The Office."

Being a cop is like being in a family. Funny how we get upset here on this forum when a family disowns a kid because he comes out of the closet, but if a cop doesn't disown (or not socialize with) a loyal partner who will risk his life for him somehow the cop is bad or doesnt pass a purity test of sorts.

I'm not talking about being loyal despite some other cop committing crimes, murder, rape, robbery etc, I'm just talking political differences.

Now that I am retired, it is still fun to connect and catch-up with others. There is a FB page where if you want to stay connected with anyone from the PD, it is easiest to do it there. Yea I'm friends with a few people who dont agree with me politically, but we are friends because we have worked with each other for years and saved each other's lives a few times. We have gays, lesbians, blacks, mexicans, whites, mormons, catholics, atheists, asians, abortion supporters, pro-lifers etc on our site. We all get along-dont agree many times, but we can get along with each other. If I am a bad person because I still communicate with some of them, well I guess I am a bad person. Thats fine, I have spent 20 years getting an earful of you "you guys" are all the same comments.

Too bad our gov't on both sides of the aisle cannot get along like this. We have our disagreements, but in the end we respect each other for what we believe and will protect each others lives.

Ok- moving on to the socialist military healthcare comment.

If you do not retire from a 20 year active duty career, you are not eligible for tricare (Socialist) insurance. Vast majority of the guys I worked with did 2,3,4 years in active duty and then out. They dont get the "Socialist" insurance . I think two of them did a whole 20 yrs. I guess those two have their socialist healthcare.

I did 20 yrs+ mostly in reserves. I am eligible for Tricare reserve insurance at the rate of $965 a month. I passed on that.

Heres that plan_ http://www.tricare.mil/Costs/HealthPlanCosts/TRR.aspx

I use my current employers insurance which costs me abut $525 per month...plus co-pays etc.

[Kingofalldems]

46. They got that Socialist health care when they were

on active duty. Did they complain about Socialism then?

[yesiwasacop]

50. How would I know, I wasnt there with them wherever they served?

Healthcare in the military sucks unless you are wounded on the battleground. In that case, the level of trauma care is phenomenal. Other than that, if it aint bleeding, they dont even want to know about it.

"Take two motrin and dont come back"

This is military healthcare in its finest hour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed_Army_Medical_Center_neglect_scandal

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

41. don't count on that.

The Marines are called "the President's Own' and would most likely do an EXCELLENT job securing the White House.

Semper Fi- 1968-72

[yesiwasacop]

42. Dont count on what?

[MH1]

43. Maybe YOUR ex-Marine friends don't like President Obama.

That doesn't mean that all Marines dislike him. I know of a few who are fine with him. (And some who would have been, if they were still alive.)

(Yeah I know "there is no such thing as an ex-Marine". But if they don't support the President they are ex to me. And anyway I'm personally an Army vet so whatever. )

[yesiwasacop]

45. Yea they dont like him, but

I did say the Marines would probably do a better job, so long as we are comfortable with more killing. I also didn't say all of them dislike him. I said they probably dislike him more than the SS does... To clarify, I meant that as a collective group.

Sometimes I wonder if people think that just because someone (military) doesn't like the President that they would somehow not do their duty.

It is all about respect for the rank and authority even if you do not respect the person. Shit half the Officers I was under I didn't respect, but would follow their orders like a good Soldier does.

I didn't agree with the Iraq war (Part 2) under Bush, but I went and did my job. Many of my Soldiers were not happy about being there either, but we all did our job.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

49. That the Marines dislike the President

even if they did, they will still carry out their duties.

[MineralMan]

12. Maybe they should have machine gun emplacements

every 10 feet around the White House. Heck, they could automate them so they fired at every movement. That'd work.

[LawDeeDah]

14. The outrage is justified.

[MineralMan]

17. Is it? I think it's overstated, frankly.

The Secret Service has a very difficult job. They do it very well almost all the time. This time, the President was not at any risk. He wasn't there. They've already changed security procedures following this intrusion.

Now, I'm certain that you could do a much better job of running the Secret Service. You might want to send an email or something and apply for the job.

[mopinko]

19. did you watch rachel last night?

it isnt "this time", there have been a whole bunch of breaches. from the first state dinner of his presidency to an elevator ride with a clown with a GUN ON HIM.
think that through. someone with a gun rode an elevator w the president and the ss DID NOT KNOW.

NOT ONE TIME.
they apparently dont do it very well for this president. things that make you go hmmm.

[MineralMan]

22. Given the level of threats aimed at President Obama,

it seems they've done pretty well, overall. That's not to say that presidential security doesn't need review and updates. Those have occurred frequently as well. A perfect system is not possible, quite frankly.

[tularetom]

51. In this game you have to bat 1.000

One slip up and it's over. Doing an excellent job most of the time is not sufficient.

SS agents (really an unfortunate abbreviation) are supposed to be trained to take a bullet for the President. If he doesn't feel confident that they would do that then they need to go.

[LawDeeDah]

20. I'm happy for you for your 'move along, nothing to see here' attitude.

But there is something to see here and everyone who is disgusted with the whole scene has every right to be.
You belittling those who are very concerned doesn't go over well, particularly at this raw point in time. but you go ahead and relax, everything is okay!

[MineralMan]

23. Yah, well, the thing is that they've responded to this

current intrusion with changes to WH security. Every time something happens, changes are made to improve security. I didn't say there was nothing to see here. I said the President was not at the WH at the time. Security is different at the WH when he's not present than it is when he is there.

My sarcasm was to the point. You're making criticisms of the Secret Service's performance, but I'm not seeing any suggestions for improving it. I can assure you that they have made changes to prevent a similar intrusion, and security when the President is not on-site has been upgraded.

Security for any President and for Obama in particular is far from a simple matter. I don't know exactly what the SS does to protect the President. That's all Top Secret information. I do know that there have been numerous improvements in it over time.

[mopinko]

53. there were many incidents with the traveling teams.

and they could lock the fucking front door. and keep the damn alarm on it armed.

and they didnt change procedures when incidents happened. they didnt even file reports on half of them. they admitted none. they failed to follow regs to notify the president of breaches. they let a felon wit a loaded gun on a elevator with him, ferchrisakes.

no, sorry. not one to jump on the nontroversy of the day, but i am completely, thoroughly, utterly outraged.

i listened to rachel, and thought, if one of these clowns succeeded the rift from the jfk assassination will look like an episode of seinfeld.

[derby378]

16. My Marine nephew might enjoy guarding the front door

But he's a sniper, so I imagine they'll stick him up on the roof.

[Orsino]

18. Fuck the sequester. Unfuck the Secret Service. n/t

[mopinko]

21. got nothing to do with the sequester.

there have been lapses since the first state dinner of his presidency.

it isnt money. its the culture.

[The Magistrate]

25. I Had The Same Thought, Ma'am

At least for the White House --- give it over to a company of Marines drawn from the Embassy guards, and have it done right.

[mopinko]

35. perfect sir.

the embassy guards it is.

[Cleita]

26. I agree. The agency needs to be remodeled from the bottom to

the top and then from the top to the bottom again. It needs to be modernized and brought into the 21st Century with the real dangers present today that weren't around a hundred years ago.

[closeupready]

27. There needs to be a fundamental change, I agree.

Increasingly, based upon all these recent scandals, it seems like the secret service is being staffed as if it's an agency providing make-work jobs for slacker rich kids who want to party/ho 24/7. I want to be wrong, but it seems like every six months, another story emerges affirming the failure of the Treasury Department to hire even minimally competent professionals.

If I'm out of line or way incorrect in my assessment, please tell me.

[LibertyLover]

37. If I understand it correctly,

the Secret Service was taken away from Treasury and lumped in with Homeland Security (gods, how I hate typing those words) shortly after September 11, 2001. It was after that move that people began seeing problems with the agency. We used to live a block or so from an SS agent. He was the father of one of my daughter's friends. He didn't say too much of course, but once in a while something would come out. He was less than thrilled about the move from Treasury. We got the impression that he felt some of the younger agents weren't as qualified as they should be.

[closeupready]

38. Ah okay, I didn't know that, but it's an interesting anecdote

you've shared. Thanks.

[Peacetrain]

28. Something has to change

[bluestateguy]

29. I don't favor militarization of law enforcement work

That goes for Ferguson, Missouri just as much as it goes for the White House and the president's security detail.

[woodsprite]

31. Since he's their Commander-In-Chief, I don't think militarization would be as bad

if it were done for the President compared to our local police forces.

What would worry me is the faction that seems to not care for him, don't think he's the legitimate President, etc. The faction that would rather he be replaced with Bachman, Palin, Cruz or Paul. I have a former FB friend whom I wouldn't trust with the job. He's been to Iraq through several tours, Afghanistan 1x, etc. He's said that even though he doesn't like this President, he'd always follow orders, he doesn't believe this administration is following the Constitution and he himself has sworn to uphold the Constitution. He also volunteered to ride shotgun for George Zimmerman's protection squad.

[Hekate]

40. I agree, mopinko. The Marines are charged with guarding US embassies overseas ...

Last edited Fri Oct 3, 2014, 05:06 PM - Edit history (1)

... (or were, unless Bush-Cheney privatized that function too). Why not the WH?

I've been thinking along the same lines as you, mopinko. The SS is a paramilitary organization, just like regular cops. They are not rent-a-cops at a mall. If they feel bored (which seems to be one of the problems with the WH guards, go figure) that boredom can be relieved by regular and vigorous offsite drills as part of their paid duties. They need to be at full strength, and instead are short-staffed and insufficiently trained.

I do not understand how the woman who led them for a year and a half and was just fired could possibly have been the right person for the job. She worked for the dept for 30 years -- but as what? a pencil-pusher? a desk jockey? a complete bureaucrat? a GOP loyalist? had she ever worked in the field? had she ever developed or overseen training programs?

Until the problems with the SS are solved (just pension the lot of them off, please), the task should be turned over to an organization that knows how to do the job, and for Gods' sake not a private firm. The Marines would be just fine. THEY know discipline. THEY get regular and vigorous drills and training. THEY know their sworn duty.

And by the way,whether the new poster's opinions have any credence or not, each Marine on that duty would have to be rigorously screened anyway.

And WE, as in Uncle Sam, have just displayed to the entire world how shoddily our President and his family are protected in their own home and elsewhere.

Christ on a Trailer Hitch.

[mopinko]

52. i'm not one to conflate correlation w causation, but

but, a historically racist org failing to guard the first black president.....

[name not needed]

48. If you're trying to avoid another Cartagena incident, the Marines might be the wrong guys to go to.

[NCarolinawoman]

54. Secretary of State John Kerry has Marines.

They are with him at all times.

[mopinko]

55. yeah, there is a plenty big talent pool out there.

firing every one of the bastards really wont create any kind of crisis.
find out who was leaking to the post, and make that person the boss.