Julia Pierson... The Washington Post... Jeh Johnson... and Obama

This is very interesting, folks... it's a hit piece by our "friends" at the Washington Post against newly resigned Secret Service Director Julia Pierson - who I myself have termed an incompetent... and worse.

Thing is... where was the WP last month... three months ago... six months ago...?

(*SNORT*)

Where were the hit pieces against Pierson then...???

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Let's go through this hit piece together, folks. And be prepared... I'm actually gonna defend Pierson at points!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson and the launch of a top-to-bottom review of the agency Wednesday are an acknowledgment by President Obama of what he has long denied: that the force charged with protecting him is in deep turmoil and struggling to fulfill its sacred mission.

* SACRED MISSION...??? "SACRED...???" (LAYING IT ON A BIT HEAVY, AREN'T WE...?)

The 6,700-member agency...

* TOO... F--KING... BIG...!!!

...long an elite class of skilled professionals who prized their jobs, now suffers from diminished luster and historically high turnover rates.

Officers in charge of protecting the White House say they have grown resentful at being belittled by their bosses and routinely forced to work on off-days.

Some agents who have sworn to take a bullet for the president and his family have little faith in the wisdom or direction of their senior-most leaders.

* FOLKS... THIS CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD STARTS AND ENDS WITH OBAMA. HE'S THE "SENIOR-MOST" OFFICIAL. BELOW HIM... AS FAR AS THE SECRET SERVICE IS CONCERNED IT'S OBAMA'S CHIEF OF STAFF WHO EXERCISES ULTIMATE OPERATIONAL CONTROL ABSENT DIRECT CONTRAVENING PRESIDENTIAL ORDER.

* TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, THE SECRET SERVICE IS AN ARM OF HOMELAND SECURITY. THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY WORKS FOR... THE PRESIDENT.

(*SMIRK*)

Those chronic woes have been amplified in recent days by revelations of a string of humiliating security lapses that have raised concerns about the president’s safety and prompted the agency’s biggest crisis since President Ronald Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton three decades ago.

Joseph Clancy, a retired agent who served as the head of Obama’s protective detail briefly after the president was first elected, was named to take over on a temporary basis. He will serve as a caretaker while a full review is conducted and until a permanent replacement can be found.

“Replacing the director is a good start in the right direction,” said Dan Emmett, a former counter-assault team leader and Secret Service agent. But, he added, “replacing the director will not be effective unless the entire upper management is replaced. Otherwise it will just be business as usual.”

* MAKES SENSE...

Pierson was elevated to the top spot 18 months ago to put an end to business as usual, after a dozen agents were implicated in a night of carousing with prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, on the eve of an official visit by Obama. But while the administration dubbed Pierson a fresh start and a new direction for the agency, she was a deeply entrenched part of its culture. A 30-year veteran of the agency, Pierson had served as director Mark Sullivan’s chief of staff and then assistant director before taking over.

Under her watch, the agency continued to suffer from systemic problems that went well beyond the embarrassment of the prostitution scandal. For instance, staffing shortages have grown so severe that the agency has had to fly in field agents from across the country for two-week temporary details, paying their travel, hotel and per diem costs.

* NOW HERE'S WHERE ANALYSIS... THOUGHT... CONTEMPLATION... IS REQUIRED TO AUGMENT BASIC READING COMPREHENSION. COULD IT BE THAT RATHER THAN BEING "SHORT-STAFFED," THE SECRET SERVICE IS "OVER-MISSIONED?"

* IN OTHER WORDS, ARE THEY SIMPLY USING TOO MANY AGENTS? IF STAFFING FOLLOWS FUNDING AND FUNDING KEEPS GOING UP...

(*SHRUG*)

* CUTTING THE MILITARY... BUT INCREASING THE SIZE OF THE PRAETORIAN GUARD...

* WITHDRAWING "SURGE" BORDER CONTROL PERSONNEL... BUT INCREASING THE SIZE OF THE PRAETORIAN GUARD...

(*SHRUG*)

* THINK ABOUT IT, FOLKS.

Pierson also rejected an internal study’s recommendations that the White House have a total of about 100 counter-surveillance officers to patrol the perimeter of the complex. She suggested cutting the recommended number by a third.

* GOOD!

* FOLKS... THE WHITE HOUSE ISN'T ALL THAT LARGE - GROUNDS INCLUDED! IF 33 ELITE, SKILLED PROFESSIONALS - BACKED UP BY THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY... MOTION SENSORS... CAMERAS - CAN'T HANDLE THE ACTION PERHAPS THEY'RE NOT ALL THAT "SKILLED" AFTER ALL! (AND, FOLKS... THAT 33... THAT SIMPLY ACCOUNTS FOR PERIMETER PATROL! GOD ONLY KNOWS HOW MANY ENTRY/EXIT GUARDS THERE ARE... PLUS PERSONAL PROTECTION DETAIL MEMBERS!)

And Pierson had agreed to shrink key units in the agency, including the number of officers from the uniformed division who guard the White House complex.

* AGAIN... GOOD! (IN THE REAL WORLD THERE ARE FINITE RESOURCES!)

In her 18 months in charge, Pierson also became the subject of derision among some lower-level agents for accommodating the White House staff’s wishes for less cumbersome security over the warnings of her tactical teams.

* FOLKS... OUR PRESIDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES - AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE - DESERVE LESS CUMBERSOME SECURITY!

* RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU CAN IDENTIFY "THE MAGINOT LINE?" HOW'BOUT MACARTHUR'S "ISLAND HOPPING STRATEGY?"

(*SHRUG*)

In the spring, Pierson was irate at what she considered the excessive security measures her team had planned for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, which Obama hosted this [past] summer, demanding that it dismantle extra layers of fencing and reopen closed streets, according to two agency supervisors.

* GOOD...!!!

Supervisors who had mapped out the security plan said they were taken aback when Pierson, who worked during high school at Walt Disney World as a costumed character and park attendant, said: “We need to be more like Disney World. We need to be more friendly, inviting.”

* CHEAP SHOT. (ESPECIALLY SINCE DISNEY HAS A WORLDWIDE REPUTATION AS ONE OF THE SAFEST PLACES ON EARTH.)

“I respect Pierson’s service, but she hasn’t been on a protective mission in two decades,” said one supervisor who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “She doesn’t know anything about security planning in a post-9/11 world.”

* I KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT IT: THERE'S TOO MUCH OF IT!

* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... IF YOU WANT TO COMPARE AND CONTRAST... RESEARCH THE SECURITY BRITAIN'S ROYAL FAMILY (INCLUDING THE QUEEN) CONSIDER ADEQUATE. (AND WHICH HAS INDEED WELL SERVED THEM.)

* HMM... PERHAPS A MORE THOUGHT-PROVOKING COMPARISON WOULD BE COMPARING OBAMA'S SECURITY TO PUTIN'S...

(*PURSED LIPS*)

On a presidential trip this past spring to the Netherlands, Pierson told several counter-assault team members stationed at posts in the president’s hotel to move to more remote locations and put their weapons in bags, causing the sharpshooters to worry that their reaction time would be hampered in an emergency.

* THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH...

And this week, Pierson personally ordered that a downtown Washington street be left open near a hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was staying. Secret Service teams have insisted on the closure for years because Netanyahu is considered one of the most sought-after international targets. But the director agreed to changes because of D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s concern that the street’s closure during an earlier visit caused severe gridlock, said a spokesman for Gray.

* GOOD FOR GRAY! GOOD FOR PIERSON!

Pierson was called to a Capitol Hill hearing this week to explain how a man carrying a knife was able to jump the White House fence and then run inside the executive mansion and through much of the main floor before being tackled by an off-duty agent.

* GENERAL INCOMPETENCE.

Lawmakers also grilled Pierson about a botched investigation of a 2011 shooting at the White House, details of which were first reported by The Washington Post on Sunday. Pierson irritated lawmakers when she said she knew little about the incident, despite having been the agency’s chief of staff at the time, and learned some of the details from The Post’s account.

(*SNORT*)

* ON THE OTHER HAND... THIS HAPPENED IN 2011... THE WASHINGTON POST "UNCOVERED" IT AND FIRST PUBLISHED A STORY... THIS PAST SUNDAY...? (TALK ABOUT INCOMPETENCE!)

Some lawmakers on Tuesday read aloud portions of The Post’s story to underscore larger concerns about what they said was a broken culture within the agency. They pointed to a young officer on duty the night of the shooting who heard shots fired and debris falling but was afraid to contradict supervisors who had incorrectly concluded that no shots had been aimed at the White House.

* NAMES...?

* NAMES...?!?!

* WHICH SUPERVISORS MISTAKENLY CONCLUDED THAT NO SHOTS HAD BEEN FIRED?

Several Members said they had been hearing from agents and officers who do not feel they can make their concerns known internally.

Lawmakers were also annoyed by the administration’s budget request for this year for an agency that has claimed to be chronically underfunded.

Homeland Security requested $1.49 billion in operating funds for the Secret Service, a $60 million dip from last fiscal year.

* THAT'S GOOD! GOOD FOR PIERSON!

But even spending-conscious Republicans said that was too much.

* RINOs.

So Congress instead agreed to a rare increase over the administration’s request, giving the agency $1.53 billion.

* GEEZUS CHRIST... THERE'S NO HOPE FOR THIS FRIGGIN' COUNTRY...

Shortly after the contentious hearing with lawmakers came another revelation: On a recent trip to Atlanta, a contract security guard with a gun and a criminal record was allowed in an elevator with Obama.

* "ELITE PROFESSIONALS..." (MY ASS!)

(*SIGH*)

Making matters worse, neither the president nor Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was told about it. A senior U.S. official said Johnson was “deeply disappointed” when he learned about the incident.

* AGAIN... FOLKS... THE SECRET SERVICE REPORTS TO HOMELAND SECURITY...

* OBVIOUSLY JEH JOHNSON IS A TOTAL INCOMPETENT!

White House officials said they first learned about the breakdown minutes before The Post published the story online.

Clancy, who spent much of his career at the Secret Service as a senior agent on the protective detail for President George W. Bush, is not expected to clean house or reform the agency, according to officials briefed on his appointment.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

“He’s one of the most genteel guys. It would be very hard to find someone to say something bad about Joe,” said one longtime agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. But, the agent added: “He doesn’t like conflict. They need to clean house. He’s not the guy to do it.”