Nice going, Secret Service and Cheney

dclary · Oct 5, 2006

robeiae said:
Had it been Blackheart, would you have done it yourself?

No. I always carry a hypodermic needle filled with a back-bacon/crown royal cocktail that's rated A+ for tranquilizing a rampaging canuck.

Sheryl Nantus · Oct 5, 2006

dclary said:
No. I always carry a hypodermic needle filled with a back-bacon/crown royal cocktail that's rated A+ for tranquilizing a rampaging canuck.

did I ever date you???

dclary · Oct 5, 2006

Sheryl Nantus said:
did I ever date you???

Do you suffer crush damage from having been wedged under a 300-pound Republican?

If so...

blacbird · Oct 5, 2006

Shadow_Ferret said:
I guess so. I believe there's a time and place for everything and that includes voicing your opinion. Doing so in a mall situation isn't one of them. That's called being rude. He's there to glad hand, not debate issues.

In the case of Dick Cheney, he makes damsure there aren't any occasions to debate issues. Remember the famous still-secret Energy Taskforce Meeting from 2001? Nobody yet knows who attended that one.

Plus I'm not convinced Cheney has a glad hand, or a glad much of anything, for that matter.

caw.

brianm · Oct 5, 2006

Let's say this man came up to your wife in a mall. He walks up to her and calls her a whore. He may or may not have rubbed up against her or taken her by the arm. Then he walks off to take his child to a piano lesson. He returns 10 minutes later with another child and again walks up to your wife. She's scared so she calls out to two mall security guards who are standing nearby. She tells them what happened, and they take the man away to their interrogation room in the basement of the mall and drill him to find out why he was assaulting your wife.

The man then files a lawsuit against you and your wife because of loss of enjoyment of life and his right to freedom of speech.

Now change wife to VP and Mall security to Secret Service.

What he did has nothing to do with freedom of speech or the right to protest. He was, in the opinion of the Secret service, a danger to the VP and they took the steps to eliminate that danger.

Unless, of course you believe the man who assualted your wife in the mall had the right to do that and that he was just exercising his right to freedom of speech and that you would agree he had the right to sue you. Then I guess you would think the Secret Service acted badly, too.

whistlelock · Oct 6, 2006

Honestly, that father should be arrested!

I mean, bringing two innocent, young children near Cheney like that?

They could have caught something.

dclary · Oct 6, 2006

whistlelock said:
Honestly, that father should be arrested!

I mean, bringing two innocent, young children near Cheney like that?

They could have caught something.

He's lucky Cheney didn't shoot them.

SC Harrison · Oct 6, 2006

brianm said:
Let's say this man came up to your wife in a mall. He walks up to her and calls her a whore.

Well, down here in the South we don't cotton to that stuff. We have laws that actually state "Cussing A Female" is a crime. I'm not exactly sure what the punisment is, but I think it involves running errands or sitting with a sewing group on Friday night.

SpookyWriter · Oct 6, 2006

dclary said:
He's lucky Cheney didn't shoot them.

Don't you think Cheney has shot enough people lately? Now if Cheney offered to sit down and discuss politics with the man then I could see where that would be punishment enough.

dclary · Oct 6, 2006

SpookyWriter said:
Don't you think Cheney has shot enough people lately?

As a future VPOTUS, I require Cheney to shoot as many people as he can, to help set precedent.

Papa'sLiver · Oct 6, 2006

brianm said:
Let's say this man came up to your wife in a mall. He walks up to her and calls her a whore. He may or may not have rubbed up against her or taken her by the arm. Then he walks off to take his child to a piano lesson. He returns 10 minutes later with another child and again walks up to your wife. She's scared so she calls out to two mall security guards who are standing nearby. She tells them what happened, and they take the man away to their interrogation room in the basement of the mall and drill him to find out why he was assaulting your wife.

The man then files a lawsuit against you and your wife because of loss of enjoyment of life and his right to freedom of speech.

Now change wife to VP and Mall security to Secret Service.

What he did has nothing to do with freedom of speech or the right to protest. He was, in the opinion of the Secret service, a danger to the VP and they took the steps to eliminate that danger.

Unless, of course you believe the man who assualted your wife in the mall had the right to do that and that he was just exercising his right to freedom of speech and that you would agree he had the right to sue you. Then I guess you would think the Secret Service acted badly, too.

Um, your wife is not a public figure, voted into her wifeyness by the public, is she? Was she at the mall to gladhand? Not even in the same ballpark.

Shadow_Ferret · Oct 6, 2006

So it's acceptable to harrass a public figure in this post-9/11 era of heightened security around our government officials?

Papa'sLiver · Oct 6, 2006

Shadow_Ferret said:
So it's acceptable to harrass a public figure in this post-9/11 era of heightened security around our government officials?

I'm not saying that, however, if you're going to volunteer for public life, then buck up and take the heat along with the cool, regardless of 9/11 fears (which really just feeds into the terrorists winning, doesn't it? If he's too afraid to come out and bee seen in public?) And don't give me that "heightened security" stuff, either, for if he and his handlers were really worried about it, he wouldn't have crawled out from under his "undisclosed location".

And really, the guy wasn't harrassing him. Calling him names, calling his mother names, calling him the son of a thousand fathers is harrassing.

Calling him on his horrible war is not harrassing. it's calling a spade a spade.

brianm · Oct 6, 2006

Papa'sLiver said:
I'm not saying that, however, if you're going to volunteer for public life, then buck up and take the heat along with the cool, regardless of 9/11 fears (which really just feeds into the terrorists winning, doesn't it? If he's too afraid to come out and bee seen in public?) And don't give me that "heightened security" stuff, either, for if he and his handlers were really worried about it, he wouldn't have crawled out from under his "undisclosed location".

And really, the guy wasn't harrassing him. Calling him names, calling his mother names, calling him the son of a thousand fathers is harrassing.

Calling him on his horrible war is not harrassing. it's calling a spade a spade.

You're right, the comparison was wrong. The housewife doesn't have daily threats on her life. Whereas, this public figure, the second most powerful man in the western world and vice-president of the USA, does have daily threats on his life.

If you want to stand at a safe distance and yell whatever makes you feel good at the vice-president, then go for it! Have at it! Bust a lung! But, approach him a second time after being inches away the first time and you will get arrested. You look like you are up to no good and the Secret Service cannot take a chance that you are just exercising your freedom of speech.

Yelling at a public figure accomplishes nothing. And my guess is this guy is one of millions who are all yack and no action. They yell and yack their heads off about how bad everthing is... However, they have never volunteered or become involved in making changes and alot of them don't even go vote.

The beauty of our system is that we the people elect another president and VP every four years. Instead of teaching your children to make a display of themselves in public, teach them about how they can make a change by voting... quietly... in a curtained booth.

English Dave · Oct 6, 2006

brianm said:
Yelling at a public figure accomplishes nothing. And my guess is this guy is one of millions who are all yack and no action. They yell and yack their heads off about how bad everthing is... However, they have never volunteered or become involved in making changes and alot of them don't even go vote.

Yet I now know about him? Who the hell are you?

brianm · Oct 7, 2006

English Dave said:
Yet I now know about him? Who the hell are you?

Someone who mutes the president, vice-president, and rump roast anytime they come on the television because I don't believe a thing that comes out of their mouths. Also, someone who knows that long before 9/11 the Secret Service has had their hands full of crazies who would like to cause harm to their charges.

I have listened to enough people from all walks of life vehemently complain about the current administration. However, they won't volunteer, they won't get involved and many of them say they don't vote anymore because the elections are fixed or their vote doesn't count. This guy reminds me of them and that's why I said in a previous post "my guess" is this guy is one of these types of people.

He's certainly irresponsible, because no responsible father would put his young children in a situation like that.

Inkdaub · Oct 11, 2006

Shadow_Ferret said:
So it's acceptable to harrass a public figure in this post-9/11 era of heightened security around our government officials?

If by harrass you mean heckle then yes it is acceptable.

Inkdaub · Oct 11, 2006

brianm said:
You're right, the comparison was wrong. The housewife doesn't have daily threats on her life. Whereas, this public figure, the second most powerful man in the western world and vice-president of the USA, does have daily threats on his life.

If you want to stand at a safe distance and yell whatever makes you feel good at the vice-president, then go for it! Have at it! Bust a lung! But, approach him a second time after being inches away the first time and you will get arrested. You look like you are up to no good and the Secret Service cannot take a chance that you are just exercising your freedom of speech.

Yelling at a public figure accomplishes nothing. And my guess is this guy is one of millions who are all yack and no action. They yell and yack their heads off about how bad everthing is... However, they have never volunteered or become involved in making changes and alot of them don't even go vote.

The beauty of our system is that we the people elect another president and VP every four years. Instead of teaching your children to make a display of themselves in public, teach them about how they can make a change by voting... quietly... in a curtained booth.

That's fine...unless the guy is at the mall. Does he expect to walk the mall and not be close to other people? That's his problem and not the people who happen to see him at the mall and decide to voice their opinion of his policies or his character. He pursued the power and it's his problem if that makes it inconvenient to stroll around the mall.

Liam Jackson · Oct 11, 2006

English Dave said:
Yet I now know about him? Who the hell are you?

He's another writer expressing his opinion in an open forum.

robeiae · Oct 11, 2006

Inkdaub said:
He pursued the power and it's his problem if that makes it inconvenient to stroll around the mall.

Kinda snuffs out the idea of a 'public servant' once and for all, no?

And we wonder why our best and brightest are no longer willing to go into government, unless it's in a nameless and faceless role.

Really, the idea that any government official is fair game for heckling whenever they are in public is one of the most noxious aspects of our current society. I'm ashamed and embarrased that so many of my fellow countrymen (and women) have adopted this point of view. And I'm disgusted by the ways they try to justify it through vehicles like "Freedom of Speech."

I despise Ted Kennedy, but I would never voice my feelings towards him when he was engaged in the everyday activities of a private citizen, no matter if he was in a mall or on a golf course. It's the height of bad manners and boorish behavior. But maybe that's just me...

There are plenty of times when it is entirely appropriate to voice displeasure with public officials, and there are plenty of ways to voice that displeasure. Accosting someone in public is not one of them.

SC Harrison · Oct 11, 2006

robeiae said:
Kinda snuffs out the idea of a 'public servant' once and for all, no?

And we wonder why our best and brightest are no longer willing to go into government, unless it's in a nameless and faceless role.

Really, the idea that any government official is fair game for heckling whenever they are in public is one of the most noxious aspects of our current society. I'm ashamed and embarrased that so many of my fellow countrymen (and women) have adopted this point of view. And I'm disgusted by the ways they try to justify it through vehicles like "Freedom of Speech."

I despise Ted Kennedy, but I would never voice my feelings towards him when he was engaged in the everyday activities of a private citizen, no matter if he was in a mall or on a golf course. It's the height of bad manners and boorish behavior. But maybe that's just me...

There are plenty of times when it is entirely appropriate to voice displeasure with public officials, and there are plenty of ways to voice that displeasure. Accosting someone in public is not one of them.

I must have bumped my head Rob, but it appears you're blaming our lack of decent public servants on previous hecklers' behavior, causing a "fear of heckling" or some other phobia. You know...that would make a great article for the Onion...

Anyway, I am also not one to make a public scene, and will go out of my way to keep from embarassing or offending others, regardless of whether I like them or not. If I was able to get close enough to Cheney to shake his hand, I doubt if I would have the guts to mention anything untoward.

But...that doesn't mean I want all heckling to stop. I'd really like to see more creativity, though. You know, body paint, funny clothes, etc. Bring back "mooning" or something. Don't waste your fifteen seconds of fame by saying, "If you don't mind, I have a few concerns I'd like to bring up..."

Sheryl Nantus · Oct 11, 2006

people have generally lost the concept of respect.

respect for the elderly, the infirm... we run right over them while humming the latest rap crap about beating our women and then wonder why other countries might find us offensive.

no respect for anyone - and especially if they're stupid enough to take office!

seriously, I wonder why anyone runs for office anymore... it's not worth it when you can make more money in the private enterprise...

robeiae · Oct 11, 2006

SC Harrison said:
I must have bumped my head Rob, but it appears you're blaming our lack of decent public servants on previous hecklers' behavior, causing a "fear of heckling" or some other phobia.

Nah...just one of many contributing factors. And my mentioning of it should be read with some sense of the satirical.

Still, ridiculing people in public is common behavior, in both senses of the word...

Andre_Laurent · Oct 11, 2006

Haggis said:
It sounds to me like somebody is looking for his 15 minutes of fame.

He went looking for trouble and found it. My heart bleeds purple piss for him.

blacbird · Oct 11, 2006

robeiae said:
And we wonder why our best and brightest are no longer willing to go into government, unless it's in a nameless and faceless role.

The endless right-wing rhetoric about "all government is bad, all government workers are lazy and dishonest, etc.," that wouldn't have anything to do with it, would it?

caw.

Nice going, Secret Service and Cheney

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