Gee. Whodathunk that Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter et al could've created such a perfect storm of stupidity, paranoia and fear that your common idiot might take up a gun and start shooting any and every evil librul they can lay lead on, eh?The threats against President Obama and other U.S. leaders are putting a strain on the Secret Service that's overwhelming the agency.
The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency's overall mission.
The Secret Service is tracking a far broader range of possible threats to the nation's leaders, the officials said, even as it also investigates financial crimes such as counterfeiting as part of its original mandate.
The new demands are leading some officials, both inside and outside the agency, to raise the possibility of the service curtailing or dropping its role in fighting financial crime to focus more on protecting leaders and their families from assassination attempts and thwarting terrorist plots aimed at high-profile events.
Even as the size of the Secret Service's staff and budget grow, the agency is struggling to keep up with demands on its time. On the one hand, the Secret Service is still in the business of investigating financial crimes, searching for missing and exploited children, and possibly even expanding its role in probing mortgage fraud. On the other, domestic threats against U.S. leaders, most notably the president, have escalated considerably.
Threatening language has also found its way into talk radio broadcasts and social networking websites, raising fears that individuals not normally considered threats to the president could be incited to violence.
It's pretty fucking sad we as a country have come to this. It really is.
There are a number of things, according that Boston Globe article, that are contributing to the increase in SS work. Part of it is racism, which has something to do with the increased diversity of the country, but I think mostly has to do with this. The economic pie is shrinking for most of us. In times where that is true, racism gets worse, because ethnicity is one of the things that can separate folks into the haves and have nots.
ReplyDeleteOther causes notwithstanding, that's a big one that won't be cured easily without a better and fairer economy.