poor joke.

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People have been shot dead for much less. Idiot.

forgot picture

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Wow, I was expecting it to be some stupid kid, not a grown man who should've known better. He's lucky he didn't get shot.

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I have to wonder if he is a few bricks short of a full load.

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He probably shat a few when the secret service came running.

Once upon a time this would have been considered legitimate political dissent.

The more "threats" we feel our elected leaders need protection from, the less real protection our own liberty has.

I'm again in the minority. I consider Secret Service action here absurd. Do we really think a string of firecrackers tossed a few feet over the fence is a bona fide threat to our revered leader. How far is the building from this fence? Last I knew the danger from firecrackers had a range measured in, what, feet?

Oh, I suppose that it could be seen as a possible "distraction" move for some sort of massive assault from another direction. And you're telling me that with all the secret service protection set up, they can't distinguish such an amateurish action from the first part of a concerted multipart action.

Seems to me that Marine guard in the hall of the Oval Office knows something about division of attention and not immediately going to attack stations (or whatever the real name is) everytime a bunch of firecrackers goes off within a couple hundred yards of his position.

Are the secret service that friggin' amateur?

Bah.

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I think something like the firecrackers would have gotten you in trouble even pre-911, even 50 or 100 years ago. They're pretty sensitive about things that go boom even if it's obviously not gunfire. I assume most of the guards stayed at their posts instead of getting diverted. The prospect of a diversion from something more serious is reason alone to detain the guy.

I don't have any respect for Obama (surprise surprise hahaha), but strict security around the White House or anywhere the president is seems proper to me. After all, the guy might have been a self-proclaimed anarchist or something. 😆

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The local chief of police came to my neighbors door a few years ago for popping off firecrackers. It is illegal in IL. They generally turn a blind eye around the 4th (this was on the 5th). He didn't haul him off but he was a bit grumpy telling my neighbor he should know better and not to do it again.

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How easily we assent to statism.

Firecrackers are illegal lots of places. A pretty early and widespread example of nanny laws, but everyone's okay with that sort of thing now, so never mind.

A firecracker going off is not like an "explosion". Now there are fireworks that have that character. But I thought the original story say "firecrackers", not fireworks. If the guy is shooting commercial-level firework rockets over the fence, that's a big difference. But firecrackers, even a big lit string of them, doesn't "explode". I suppose some might sound like a machine gun -- none I have ever seen come close, but I don't pretend to be an aficionado of fireworks. But I find it hard to think of them as indicating a clear and present danger to the President.

What is it, 99.99 percent of firecracker injuries are suffered by the people playing with them?

Has no one ever seen a Chinese New Year parade? They involve *lots* of firecrackers.

Like I said, no one ever seems to have much problem with any additional security measures to protect our elected officials. It's the President after all. It's the White House. Blah blah blah.

Put it this way. Suppose I take a bag of rotten tomatoes to an Obama speech. What's the chance that I'm going to (a) be able to get within throwing distance of him or (b) be able to throw one at him without being subject to use of force by the guys with earsets and interrogation a la Leroy Jethro Gibbs?

Maybe if presidents and congresspeople knew they had to deal with rotten tomatos, they'd do a little better job.

We'll never know, of course. Their tailored suits are too damn valuable to the national interest to allow such "lack of respect" to take place.

Bleh.

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