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A Further Perspective
Bunnies, Jobs, and Better Security
A solution to the Secret Service scandal.
It would be funny if we weren’t paying for it.
Now they want us to buy chaperones for our live wire Secret Service guys.
Per year, we already spend $1.7 billion on the Secret Service, double what we spent annually before Mohamed Atta and his crew of inflamed sycophants sought to win perpetual ecstasy with some 72 heavenly hotties per martyr by turning jetliners and themselves into missiles.
The $1.7 billion price is what’s on the books, but it’s a good bet that plenty of additional tax dollars are clandestinely flowing through various cloak-and-dagger accounts that we can’t be told about — for “security reasons.”
In any case, with all this security money being tossed around, you’d think we would have some semblance of sanity in the operations.
Instead, we got poor Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, assuring members of Congress that there is no evidence of past behavior similar to the Secret Service’s prostitution scandal in Colombia. If Columbia was not an isolated case, she said, “that would be a surprise to me.”
Well, surprise.
Just hours after Napolitano’s testimony, the Secret Service reported it was investigating whether its agents had hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of President Obama’s visit to El Salvador last year.
“The latest, by Seattle television station KIRO,” reported the Christian Science Monitor, “quoted anonymous sources as saying that Secret Service employees received sexual favors from strippers at a club in San Salvador and took prostitutes to their hotel rooms ahead of Obama’s visit to the city in March 2011.”
The Washington Post, similarly, reported that “confidants” of the Secret Service officers being charged in the Colombia episode said that senior managers had tolerated similar behavior during official trips in the past, citing as an example the 2009 trip to Buenos Aires by President Clinton.
So now we have a quick fix for all this in the form of new Secret Service rules, four directives designed to end the all-nighters and improve the vigilance of agents the next morning when Air Force One touches down and the bulletproof limos arrive.
First, there is to be no excessive boozing, anytime, and zero alcohol consumption within 10 hours of the start of a work shift.
Second, off-limits to agents are all “non-reputable” establishments, which aren’t defined. But there’s a loophole here, with no rule about non-reputable people in reputable establishments, or out on the street corners.
Third, the personal behavior of agents will be monitored by official chaperones, with America’s taxpayers picking up the tab.
Fourth, and this might be the most important, given the indigenous visitors to the hotel rooms in Columbia, there are to be no foreigners in the hotel rooms — except maids, non-amorous room service providers, and foreign cops.
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (32) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 5.9.12 @ 6:34AM
And take away their Viagra and Cialis! Judging by the advertising on sports programs, the global pandemic of droopy wee-wees is growing worse with every passing day.
TLP| 5.9.12 @ 3:12PM
Better yet, take away The Fish, that continues to Rot, from the Head, down.
If you know what I mean.
Doctor_X| 5.9.12 @ 7:03AM
At least the agents did it in a foreign country and not in the oval office of the White House.
Why should we be surprised when people act like this when this type of behavior is encouraged and shown as being part of the “business” process on shows like The Client List and Mad-Men? The Secret Service is taking its cue from the political leaders. Jimmy Carter may have “lusted in his heart”, but Clinton lusted on a blue dress. If you want to change the culture of an organization you need to start at the top. Until we have moral leaders we should not expect those who protect them to act moral.
Alej| 5.9.12 @ 9:12AM
"Said Clinton to Monica Lewinski,
Don't get caught like Unibomber Kazhinski,
You look like a mess,
Please use part of your dress,
And wipe that stuff off your chinsky !"
Vern Crisler| 5.9.12 @ 12:44PM
I could care less what Secret Service agents do on their own time and dime. But when they go to a foreign country, they are doing so on our dime. We pay for their hotel expenses, per diem food allowances, gas money, washing services, etc. If they want to go to a foreign country on their own dime and spend their money on whores, fine. Then, they only have God to answer to. When the taxpayer is footing their bills, however, and when they are at great risk of being compromised and blackmailed, they need to put a sock on it.
Rich Fisher| 5.9.12 @ 4:03PM
" I could care less what Secret Service agents do on their own time..." and therein lies the problem. Until we get people willing to take a moral stand and call immorality wrong at any time we will have this problem. What ever happened to "character". I'll tell you what happened to it. People like Vern have made it okay to do whatever, whenever if it feels good. This is what you get when we are no longer capable of calling sin what it is, SIN. In the name of political correctness we are watching our great country go down the tubes due to no standards of any type being expected of anybody. You, Vern, and those like you are the real problem.
Yankee First| 5.10.12 @ 2:41AM
Thank you, Rick. Well stated.
Nobody seems to get it. Even the lowest USSS guy is in many senses a hotshot. He's got special training, special schooling, a classification pretty high for all national security matters, top notch weapons training, and a pretty good pension -- much better than 90% of the rest of modern America. That security classification alone is worth about an extra $55,000 - $90,000 per year depending on what kind of job he might take when leaving the USSS.
He's also entered that massive world called law enforcement. You know, the guys who never give a "brother in arms" a hard time, will look the other way, ignore a speeding ticket or serious traffic violation. Yes, you can be sure of it. Former USSS guys will be flashing their USSS credentials in various ways for the rest of their lives -- to get privileges here and there where necessary, you see.
These USSS guys are really pretty privileged.
And Mister Junior USSS or mid level USSS is a very real risk if he decides to hit bars, drink, chat up questionable women, try to hit on women, carouse, have guests back to the room (even if all they do is watch TV or play footsy). Every dork in El Salvador, Hondouras, Rio, Buenos Aires, Cartagena, etc. knows exactly who Mister USSS is even when "off duty" and "out of uniform" as if there were such a thing as "off duty." Think Mister USSS might not be exploited in a "honey trap?" Extorted? Or brag about what "just he knows!" to get a little more ass? Or just a little too loose lipped once a few drinks has loosened him up?
Thank you for slapping down Crisler, Rick. He and others who think this is a triviality are grown fools.
Kick the USSS Guys in the teeth. This is much bigger than just Colombia, Argentina, Rio, and Hondouras.
They cannot even police themselves up to be rigidly professional.
Col Bat Guano| 5.9.12 @ 5:36PM
Not only that but consider what type of "ambassadors" these adolescents are being in these countries that have come to expect this kind of immoral idiocy from Americans.
Pecos Pete| 5.9.12 @ 7:03AM
Seems to me a quick and easy fix for Secret Service dalliances would be to change their leadership from the rip-off artist now residing at the White House. Ethics flows downward from leaders. The many vacations and "official" campaign trips by King O and the Queen, their extravagance in the face of huge numbers of unemployed citizens, King O's constant lies and his obvious approval of lawbreaking can only lead those closest to him to mimic his behavior.
Appleby| 5.9.12 @ 7:22AM
I tried to explain to a college freshman working at our company yesterday that the way to handle these things is to punish consequences, not actions, and punish them severely enough so the actors will think seriously about committing the actions. If you know that your taking advantage of an opportunity to score hookers world wide is going to bust you down to Security Guard at the local strip mall, not to mention get your name and photo posted, perhaps you'd keep it zipped.
POST American| 5.9.12 @ 7:35AM
----Bah ----Bah ----Bah ---Better
'----SICK--CURE--'IT'--HE----!'
"Understand, since the days of
Play-dough in Ancient Greece,
---WE are the 'ITs'."
-Informed Radio online
Meanwhile, laying aside yesterday's
report that the ONLY man to have witnessed
Breitbart's death ---has NOW 'disappeared'
---just days after Breitbart's coroner is
found DEAD from poisoning.
Japanese papers now reporting,
should GE reactor # 4 collapse,
the US and Canda will be facing
with radiation blowback the
equivalent of --84-- Chernobyls.
-----Folks! --these days if you
want to keep up to snuff as it unfolds
------you have to stay up --ON-- the snuff!
-----Afterall, everything ---but EVERYTHING
---is NEW--Remberg AGAIN! and coming
OUR way!
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.9.12 @ 8:12AM
A traditional liberal response to situations where grown men act like bad boys has been to attempt to geld the men. This is frequently done by placing more women into the positions once held almost exclusively by males, to dilute somewhat the testosterone charged environments. For some reason, I haven’t heard the left calling for this as a reaction to the prostitution scandal in the presidential protection advance detail.
I find it curious that the left appears less inclined to engage in social experimentation where it involves the security of their favorite POTUS.
hardcard| 5.9.12 @ 8:41AM
now the Secret Service will have chaperones (political officers) to oversee them, just like the good old USSR, and big sis will be in charge. I feel better already.
Anthony| 5.9.12 @ 11:02AM
If the chaperones all look like Napolitano, taking a bullet for the president doesn't seem all that bad.
Louis Jenkins| 5.9.12 @ 8:52AM
Chaperones? Let's be honest here, if the chaperones begin to dally around who will chaperone them? The government's answer is to, wait for it, spend more money. Why are we not suprised? There's no problem that can't be solved that way. It's the government way. Throw money at it.
Mike Hawk| 5.9.12 @ 10:33AM
Secret Service is supposed to be the POTUS's chaparones. SO lets get this straight, now Obozo's people want chaparones for the chaparones.
JimH| 5.9.12 @ 1:03PM
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This article does give new meaning to the term Bunny Inspectors.
tdiinva| 5.9.12 @ 9:13AM
A friend of mine from another agency who has supported VIP trips told me long ago about the Secret Service team's unprofessional behavior. While he did not go into details it was pretty obvious what he was talking about.
Like the Navy's Tailhook scandal of twenty years ago it was only a matter of time before this bad behavior became public.
Anthony| 5.9.12 @ 10:47AM
Hell, if Secret Service guys have to take a bullet for the president, esecially this POS, why not have some fun with a hot babe?
For decades they had to watch their Democrat protectees, from JFK to Slick Willie, treat the W.H. like a frat house. Well at least that was better than having to stand outside the bathroom as LBJ planned Cambodia bombing runs while sitting on the can.
If screwing the curvaceous Monroe and hot mob girl friends in the W.H sauna doesn't get a S.S. guy hot under the collar, what will?
Watching Slick Willie do a Grocho Marx imitation with a cigar and Monica has got to make a guy's knees go wobbly.
Besides, perhaps our guys had to stand up for American manhood, knowing that their current charge is a little light in the loafers.
ninainMA| 5.9.12 @ 5:57PM
Now that's a twist. But it never would have come to light if the slug who hired the hooker paid her what he said he would! Seems like working girls get screwed all the way around...but you are right. And are you sure they'd be willing to take a bullet for this guy? I'm having my doubts....
Ground Control| 5.9.12 @ 11:05AM
Where did anyone find Janet Incompetano anyway? Sheesh! I could do that job myself, and far better than she has done. Why are we governed by jokes? I wouldn't hire Napolitano to run a church bake sale.
Anthony| 5.9.12 @ 11:26AM
Be careful, bake sales have been outlawed by the Democrats and Obozo. And under Obozocare, if you don't eat algae and do 5 days of exercise, no EKGs for you!!!
Occam's Tool| 5.9.12 @ 11:50AM
Maybe we should have grownups as Secret Service guys.
Yankee First| 5.10.12 @ 2:18AM
Agreed.
So, post Colombia, the new heavy, heavy rules state: No boozing now? So that means.....boozing was permitted before.
Great. Usually those who "booze" are alcoholics. Their body, their minds need it. Just as if you have to look at your watch and say, well, in ten minutes it is only 10 hours before being on duty....."Last call!" or "Bottoms up!"
Doesn't sound like much self-denial, rigid, rigor to me. Doesn't sound like the job requires that much self-restraint or self-discipline.
Odd that our USSS would have those with debilitating addictions in the ranks.
RK| 5.9.12 @ 1:02PM
Sounds a Lot like the USSR Political Officers
Dmitry Aleksandrovich| 5.9.12 @ 6:03PM
The whole scandal is telling of how degenerate and low class American culture has become as a whole. It's a moral cesspool and people in all corners of American society are rather open with their degeneracy. Unfortunately the moral cesspool has flowed over the borders into countries around the world and especially into the former Soviet Union. In fact even though I am an Orthodox Christian I am starting to have a very profound respect and admiration for the way Muslims hold onto their culture and traditions and how their women are very modest and honorable.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.9.12 @ 11:40PM
"I am starting to have a very profound respect and admiration for the way Muslims hold onto their culture and traditions and how their women are very modest and honorable."
What is most profound is how it is all voluntary. There are no oppresively brutal morality police in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or previously in the Taliban's Afghanistan. The honor killings in tribal Pakistan are profoundly respectable.
You may be correct that there is immorality in the former Soviet Union and the US. We didn't export it there, though, it was home grown, and once the Politburo and the Party lost control of the borders and the communication, the old USSR became net exporter.
cicero| 5.9.12 @ 8:26PM
This whole oversized security thing is getting out of hand. It all started growing like a spring mushroom after 9/11. We had to protect everyone and everything from the Muslim terrorists, while not making the Muslim terrorists feel bad. Perhaps if we had rounded up the first pack of live Muslim Terrorists, or the remaining parts of the dead ones, wrapped them in bacon strips and pig skins, and buried them in coffins filled with lard, there would not have been any returns of the deeds. But no, we arrest them, house them better than they have ever been housed, give them prayer rugs, gourmet food, and a worldwide stage, and we wonder why they won't stop blowing themselves and innocent bystanders up. We don't need the Dept of Homeland Security, and we could get away with a fraction of the Secret Service agents we presently have. We need common sense.
Ground Control| 5.10.12 @ 12:07AM
You left out the free dental work they get. This is no joke.
Ritzitelli| 5.10.12 @ 2:23AM
How about that $1 million (at least $780,000) brand new soccer field for them at Club Gitmo.
Dang. I bet that the military members and their families there don't have that good of a recreation field for general use.
Cicero, you made a good post. Grazie.
POST American| 5.9.12 @ 11:41PM
-------------------BOTTOM LINE-----------------------
"Since the days of 'Play--Dough' in
Ancient Greece, WE are the 'ITs'."
SISTER--MISTERS
----at the SIR--vice of capstone
-------------'SICK---CURE'
---------------------------'IT' ---HE!
"DO YOU KNOW
just HOW DARK IT IS???
----------------HOW LATE IT IS???"
-Alex Jones
Well, ---DO YOU?