lurid.org

Drudge is leading with the Secret Service / Obama story I commented on yesterday. Other news outlets have picked it up as well.

Let me make sure I have this straight, k? The TSA won’t allow people to carry bottled water, pool cues, or snow globes (huh?) through an airport security checkpoint. But yet, the Secret Service orders police to not screen people for weapons at an event held by the presumptive Democratic nominee for president?

All together now.

Wtf?

How can this possibly happen in this day and age in America? The government has spent the last 6 years telling us that terrorists are going get us unless we surrender our civil liberties for greater security. And by and large, we have stood by passively and watched as they took them from us, one by one. But when it comes to protecting a very high profile member of the opposition party, they are suddenly lax and carefree with security?

This evokes memories of the Bhutto assassination. How could it not? She was a popular member of the opposition party, who was assassinated because of lax security due to meddling by the ruling party.

Consider this story, which details how police abandoned their posts and did not screen everyone for weapons and implicates the ISI, Pakastan’s version of the Secret Service.

Perhaps more shockingly, an attendee at the rally where Bhutto was killed says police charged with protecting her “abandoned their posts,” leaving just a handful of Bhutto’s own bodyguards protecting her.

“Police officers had frisked the 3,000 to 4,000 people attending Thursday’s rally when they entered the park, but as the speakers from Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party droned on, the police abandoned many of their posts,” wrote Saeed Shah in an essay published by McClatchy News Service. “As she drove out through the gate, her main protection appeared to be her own bodyguards, who wore their usual white T-shirts inscribed: ‘Willing to die for Benazir.’”

While some intelligence officials, especially within the US, were quick to finger al Qaeda militants as responsible for Bhutto’s death, it remains unclear precisely who was responsible and some speculation has centered on Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, its military or even forces loyal to the current president Pervez Musharraf.

Sound familiar?

According to this UPI article, the Secret Service told Dallas police to stop screening people for weapons at an Obama rally because the crowd “seemed friendly.”

A huge WTF is in order here.

I’m sure republican leaders have seen the polls that show Obama beats McCain by over 5 points in a general election. I’m sure the republican establishment knows that they are getting outdrawn in the primaries by 7 million voters. Some simple math shows 13.4 million total voters in all republican primaries vs. 20.4 million voters in all democratic primaries. I’m sure the Bush administration knows that polls show McCain easily beats Clinton in a general election.

Maybe the Secret Service was honestly convinced there was no threat. Maybe it was just poor judgment and there was no sinister intent.

Sorta reminds me of the Eddie Murphy routine about the first black president. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwITXrXkdG8 and fast forward to 3:50. NSFW.

Legislatures May Act on Columbia — Silver Warns of Impact on State Aid

In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia’s insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.

In other words, these republican assholes are upset because the president of Columbia university didn’t bow to public pressure and prevent the speech. So now they’re going to attempt to withhold funds in retaliation.

What a bunch of fucking idiots.

Noam Chomsky had this observation about controlling public opinion by limiting the scope of debate:

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively debate within that spectrum– even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limited put on the range of debate.

With that in mind, check out this recent headline regarding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent speech at Columbia University.

Michelle Malkin: Ahmadinejad Shouldn’t Even Be Allowed on US Soil

Granted, it is from the Bush administration’s right-wing propaganda machine Fox News, so take it with a grain of salt.

But this one does come as a shock. Republican congressman Duncan Hunter from California has threatened to introduce legislation to cut off federal funding to Columbia for allowing the speech to go forward. WTF?