On the night after Thanksgiving, this diary about the reality show contestants turned State Dinner crashers was posted (titled, "They came THIS close, WTF?"), and made the Recommended Diaries list shortly afterward. In it, the diarist makes the case that Michaele and Tareq Salahi's ability to party crash and rub elbows with the POTUS and others is an issue of grave concern that demands our rapt attention. In particular, Ms. Salahi's chance to shake hands with the President hold the president with both her hands was the potentially deadly coup de grace.
Yep, she had the whole Obama in her hands, she had the whole thing in her hands...
They were not invited, they easilly passed screening, and here she holds the president with both her hands. Just looking at this picture makes me shiver.
*emphasis mine
Look, I'm aware that this President has been the target of an inordinate number of whackos for the past eighteen months or so. There are the ones who brought firearms to his appearances, or who wore t-shirts with cryptic Bible verses, or posted inappropriate Facebook polls, or who probably became a clergyman with a coupon from the back pages of Rolling Stone and openly prayed for the President's death, or who expressed their generalized anger in a manner that can be construed as a direct or indirect threat on the man's life. Yes, all of this is a cause for concern. But I would only expect this kind of heaving commentary and rampant fearmongering from the likes of the paid provocateurs on Fox or CNN, or from the GOP hotheads who yearn for a reason to raise the threat level in this country to DefCon One and return us to the Bush-era of post-9/11 anxiety and hysterics. Oooh, even our government can't protect the President, how can they protect us? Especially from the deadly threat of a hot blonde in a red dress who can hold humans captive with both of her bonecrushing paws?
Why the hell is this kind of overreaction coming from a freakin' Kossack, for chrissakes??? Aren't we past the same kind of knee-jerk paranoia that we put up with for the past eight years?
Let's reassess this incident for just one moment. The only real breach at play here is that a couple seeking to thrive via the same fifteen minutes granted to OctoMom, Levi Johnston and the Balloon Boy family got past the official invite list. And THAT'S WHERE THE BREACH ENDS. All of the State Dinner guests were in the presence of armed officers and all went through the same high-level security screenings and magnetometers as everyone else. So what harm could have been done here? Well, if you're Rep. Peter King (R), a ranking Republican congressman on the Homeland Security Committee, one of them could have used anthrax or maybe even could have "grabbed a knife from the dining room table." Or how about a lipstick disguised as a blowgun armed with hollow-point bullets? Or a Microtech Halo reconfigured to look like a ballpoint pen used to get an autograph? After seven years of watching Jack Bauer (or more appropriately, Cody Banks), the harebrained schemes that our racing minds conjure up can be staggering. She wore a satin wrap and held a small clutch, not a fucking suitcase nuke. Apparently, we're no longer in twenty-first century America and it's the Ford Theatre circa 1865 all over again.
Even better, Mr. King and some other Beltway bedwetters want Congress to investigate this breach. If that's the case, I guess that several million Americans including myself should be investigated, since I was one of many who shook hands with candidate Obama last year during campaign appearances. I, along with everyone else, went through a more rigorous screening than what it would take to catch an airline flight or get into Giants Stadium. You realize that all this incessant foaming at the mouth is over a couple who want to get some news soundbites, sell a story, get on Larry King and go on a book tour. Yet we're treating it as if Taliban assassins in a tux and a formal gown faked their way in with WMD's encased in platinum cufflinks and a diamond bracelet.
The smart solution? Let the Secret Service and the White House do their own investigations, roll some heads if needed and move on. Or if you're a concerned citizen, send a letter to the Director of Homeland Security asking for more Secret Service funding. Enough with all the Holy Shit! and WTF! diaries, the half-hour feature stories on CNN and the front-page headlines in bold size 85 font. Just. Enough already. The perpetuated acknowledgment of the reckless acts of our society's shysters and grifters just means that more media outlets will nosedive at the chance for another useless ratings grab.
And all this time I thought that sanity aforethought often prevailed with our lot. Guess I was wrong.
UPDATE: Corrected the spelling of "pabulum" in the diary title.