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It's Called "Bobos" In Spanish

May 9th, 2012 12:29 am
"Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group ofvigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don’t seem to see this."
- Doris Lessing, Zimbabwean-British novelist
 
 
 
         May 9, 2012
 
 
         By: Linda Case Gibbons
 
 
          When I think about the Secret Service, I think about the granite-jawed, flinty-eyed Clint Eastwood spending his days agonizing about President Kennedy’s death on his watch and vowing never to let that happen again.
          He couldn’t save Kennedy in the movie "In the Line of Fire,” but reassigned, he was determined not to let an assassin take out this president. His only goal from then on was to protect the president.
          That’s what a Secret Service agent is supposed to do. Millions of little kids who want to be "G men” know that.
          But when the Secret Service detail assigned to President Obama was given their assignment to accompany the president to Colombia, apparently the president was the last thing on their minds. Their first thought was "Party!”
          My question is what part of "the fifth most dangerous country in the world,” doesn’t the Secret Service and the president understand? In terms of violent deaths per capita, Colombia is eclipsed only by El Salvador, Iraq, Jamaica and Honduras.
          As a branch of Homeland Security, you would think this highly trained elite force would peg Colombia as a place to be on your best behavior.
          In giving it some serious thought, I came up with a solution.
          I think it couldn’t hurt if President Obama and his band of merry men took a trip to the movies, then they would know what to do: What’s good and what is bad, bad, bad.
          Doing your job – good.
          Colombia – bad.
          Making jokes about national security – bad.
          As an example, when British Secret Service Agent 007 takes to the silver screen again, everybody knows there are three questions everybody asks: Who’s playing James Bond? Who’s singing the theme song? And who’s the Bond girl?
          And everyone knows the Bond girl will be fabulously beautiful and will either work side by side with 007, shaking not stirring his martini or she is going to deceive and ultimately try to bring him down.
          And Moneypenny will not be able to do a thing about it.
          Pillow talk. Ian Fleming knew about it when he wrote his first James Bond novel in 1953.
          In Eastwood’s movie, he does protect the president and redeems himself by discovering that John Malkovich as the would-be assassin has invented a plastic gun to evade detection when passing through scanners so he can get to the president.
          Plastic. This movie was released in 1993. And our government in 2012 is using reverse engineering on the surprising "plastic” terrorist bomb that was just found.
          Movies. They could be the solution.
          It’s a given that the Secret Service is a valued and prestigious elite guard. Everybody knows that, too. The vision of these men and women running beside the presidential limousine, sun-glassed, scanning the crowds, heads moving left to right, is nothing short of heroic. No need to defend the service. This is not the issue.
          The tragedy in all of this is that the scandal happened at all. But more disheartening is the "politically correct” response to what happened.
          There is more at stake than a handful of guys who don’t take their job seriously and who perhaps have shown their lack of respect for both the president and the office of the president.
          I can’t say if President Obama’s detail respected him or not. It probably doesn’t matter either way.
          But by placing themselves in a "untenable position,” to say the least, at any time during the prep days preceding the president’s arrival and during his stay, none of his Secret Service team were in a position to take a bullet for anyone.
          This incident is not something that the twelve "knuckleheads” who lost their Secret Service gigs did like "Girls Gone Wild” on spring break. It was and is an incident that compromises the safety of our country, and that means all of us, friends.
          That is the issue.
          And yet many highly placed U.S. leaders are loathe to say as much.        
          To be fair, as soon as the Secret Service debacle broke, President Obama took the bull by the horns and said that he would decide whether he was angry after the accusations that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes were proven by an investigation.
          And when he did learn the facts, he rushed to discuss a breach of national security, where else? On the Jimmy Fallon show accompanied by the usual, politically correct talking points.
          "The Secret Service, these guys are incredible. They protect me, they protect our girls.”
          Sure the Secret Service Colombian prostitution scandal was a "little distracting,” the president admitted, but a "couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from what they do.”
          Done and done.
          Don’t rest easy, people. Our country is not safe. Our president and his administration do not have your back. Why? Because their response is conditioned like Pavlov’s dog, to minimize, politicize and whitewash in politically correct words the big, bad things that can happen on their watch.
          Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who cannot bring herself to utter "Muslim” and "terrorist” in the same sentence, claimed to the Senate Judiciary Committee that an investigation launched a scant week after the incident occurred has already revealed that President’s Obama’s safety was not compromised in any way when members of his Secret Service and military advance detail partied with prostitutes in Colombia.
          (Isn’t that an oxymoron?)
          She said part of the investigation would focus on "what if anything needs to be tightened up.” You think?
          But Dania Londono, a prostitute in the thick of the scandal had a very different opinion. In an interview on Colombia Radio W, Ms. Londono said the agents were "idiots” ("bobos” in Spanish) for letting it happen and declared if she were a spy and sensitive information was available, she could easily have obtained it.
          "The man slept all night,” said the woman. "If I had wanted to, I could have gone through all his documents, his wallet, his suitcase.”
          Once again, led by Obama and his administration, falling on the sword of political correctness is the response. After all, someone in Colombia might want to vote for him in November.
          As a result, our national security has been relegated to a mere footnote in this discussion, an incident to be dismissed quickly by Homeland Security, discussed lightheartedly by the president on a TV late night talk show or tossed off as a joke at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
          At that dinner, he had to leave early, our leader said, because "I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.”
          But even funnier than that was his line about Hill.
          "Four years ago I was locked in a brutal primary battle with Hillary Clinton. Now she won’t stop drunk-texting me from Cartagena.”
          The heck with wondering what the Secret Service is being briefed about in order to defend our nation. What the heck training do they give when a Cabinet member travels abroad, the third highest official of the executive branch, the fourth in line to succeed the president, the Secretary of State?
          Hold the line, America.
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