Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
There was a discussion on a mailing list I'm on a while. A list member had a friend with a Live Journal account. She had put up a satirical website poking fun at George W. Bush, and mentioned it in her LJ. Someone reading her Live Journal made an anonymous complaint to the Secret Service that she was threatening the President, and she got a visit from a couple of Secret Service agents. The agents were very professional and polite, had tea, looked at the site, agreed she was not illegal and no threat, and left.
She was a teenage girl, living at home with her family, about to graduate high school and go to college. Everyone was very freaked out about the visit.
I wondered what anyone expected. One of the jobs of the Secret Service is to protect the President. They are required to follow up on allegations like that, and to document the followup. They are paid to be paranoid and leave their sense of humor at home when they go to work. I felt constrained to point this out, and to make clear that it had nothing to do with the current administration. They would do the same on behalf of any seated President, because it was their job.
I didn't share the concern that the Secret Service visit was now on her record and would influence things like whether she got into the college of her choice. What record? Kept by whom? And looked at under what circumstances?
And I mourned the declining quality of education in the US. I knew the function of the Secret Service from Civics classes in Jr. High School, and could predict what would happen when a complaint was received. I was amazed at the folks who were surprised, and reserved my scorn for the idiot who made the complaint against her.
I have no use for the current administration, will cheer when they leave office, and will cross fingers the next one will do a better job (hard to imagine them doing a worse one), but I keep a sense of perspective about it all. People have, are, and will do all manner of things to get and hold power, but we aren't just this side of a police state yet.
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Dennis
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Heck ... I dated a Secret Service agent for about two years. It used to crack me up no end to see him standing behind Bush or Cheney ... looking so very official. And then he'd have to come home to me telling him that I thought the both of them were the spawn of the devil and that I fondly hoped they would go out hunting together and shoot each other in the face.
And no ... we didn't break up over that ... and yes, we are still good friends.
I also dated one of the top agents over at NCIS for a few years. Also used to see him guarding the evil twins when they would be in San Diego. Pretty much the same drill. Still good friends with him.
Although ... really, both of them were simply impressed that Laura Bush treated them really nicely, and Hillary Clinton not so much. I don't think they gave a hoot as to whether it was a Republican or a Democrat in the chair. They'd still take a bullet for the man ... or really for the man in the office.
Frankly, what really shocks me isn't that people from other countries do not have a clue about US Constitutional rights or laws ... why should they, after all .... but that so many people in the US have no idea about any of it. You would swear that most of them slept through high school civics. If you mention Nancy Pelosi, they go all vague on you, or ask you if she has a new album out ... and wasn't she on "Star Search" or "American Idol" a few years ago?? They're sure they heard the name.
Ouch ... ouch ... and again ... OUCH!!