We'll Review Ourselves, Thank You

The Secret Service once again demonstrated their true lack of effectiveness for their primary responsibility, which is to protect the President:

WASHINGTON — Although the Secret Service put everyone who attended President George W. Bush's Baghdad news conference through several layers of security Sunday, the agency appeared to be caught off guard when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the president.

"We'll be our own harshest critic regarding this incident" Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said Monday, "and we'll make any appropriate changes to security."

Those two shoes could have easily been IED's, such as homemade hand grenades designed to avoid detection (plastic casings to defeat metal detectors, for example) and the SS would have had another Kennedy or Reagan to explain.

Remember this guy?


Fancy automatic weapon, really cool shades, tough macho demeanor, snazzy state-of-the-art communication headset, all manner of specialized training, not doubt authorized to kill... what help would he - and all his buds - have been? My guess would have been... none.

And yet, they have the cajones to say they will make any "appropriate changes" necessary. HUH? Could you repeat that?

What we need is an independent panel of security experts examine what the SS is doing wrong, what fatal flaws are in their operational mindsets, what management miscalculations and errors could be actually endangering a president, or if they can actually prevent a well-planned attack against a president.

They may be tasked with an impossible job, considering how hated the United States and it leaders are worldwide today. However, when push comes to shove, they have a crummy track record. Something is not right... We need to find out what.

Perhaps the only solution at this time is to cloister the president in bomb-proof rooms and prevent any public exposure. If that's what needs to be done, then the Secret Service may just be another huge waste of taxpayers money.

Or maybe they should just stop a stupid president from going to a country that is nothing more than a giant armed camp, a place where half the population hates his guts, and has repeatedly shown they will die to destroy their enemies.

Whatever... Looks like Bush's legacy will now be all about being able to duck a shoe or two... And how lucky he was that they weren't grenades.