Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Threats to the president's life are up a whopping 400% over previous presidents and that is putting serious pressure on the Secret Service to keep up with its task of investigating and protecting against those threats.
The Boston Globe reports that a new internal Congressional Research Service report and government sources say there are an unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama -- and that the Secret Service is insufficiently funded and staffed to deal with them.According to The Globe, a report issued by the Congressional Research Service shows that the Secret Service is investigating more threats against government officials than ever before, and questions whether the 144-year old agency should continue probing financial crimes, as was its original mandate.
The numbers are astonishing:
In total, the Secret Service regularly protects 32 people and arranges security for high-profile events. But the election of Barack Obama has increased threats against the president's life by 400 percent from his predecessor, according to "In the President's Secret Service," Ronald Kessler's account of presidential security. The Secret Service has looked into a number of race-based threats since Obama took office, and a Facebook poll that asked "Should Obama be killed?" President Obama also had a Secret Service detail 18 months before the election, the earliest of any Presidential candidate...The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report back in August that found that the number of white supremacist militia groups has spiked by 35% since 2000. The Secret Service has, in turn, increased its employees from 6,700 two years ago to a projected 7,055 in the coming fiscal year, almost entirely devoted to protecting national leaders. But that's a staff increase of just 5.3 percent -- nowhere near the 400 percent increase in threats to the president's life.
But nah, there's no problem with right wing extremists in this country. And anyone who says there is just wants to insult mainstream conservatives. What a stupid argument that is.
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Well, there isn't a problem with right wing extremists from the right wing point of view, right? I mean, they're trying to kill your antichrist communist nazi president just like God told them to, right?
Posted by: Nils Ross | October 25, 2009 9:42 AM
Not only do they protect the president and the integrity of our cash, as their website shows, they have a lot than that to do:
Since 1984, the Secret Service's investigative responsibilities have expanded to include crimes that involve financial institution fraud, computer and telecommunications fraud, false identification documents, access device fraud, advance fee fraud, electronic funds transfers and money laundering as it relates to the agency's core violations. "
(http://www.secretservice.gov/investigations.shtml)
Posted by: History Punk | October 25, 2009 9:47 AM
I know correlation does not always mean causation. But with the increased number of ludicrous, paranoid claims by the right-wing media stating that the President is not American, and he is going to try to euthanize our elderly population, is the increase in threats any surprise?
I think our society needs to challenge that idea of media figures not being responsible when individuals act based on their words. If someone on TV is trying to convince you that the President is going to kill you, leading you to justify (in your own head) assassination by claiming self-defense, how can someone say the TV personality has no responsibility?
Posted by: Jordan G | October 25, 2009 9:50 AM
The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 wrote (RSV):
Another take on the same passage is that this is the infallible word of God channeling through Paul. Either way . . .
What I find troublesome is that while Christianists enable and some even promote the type of hate speech that increases the threat to the President, they'll be the first to claim any attacker(s) is "no true Scotsman" based on this verse or others like it; therefore failing to acknowledge the role they played in creating and fostering an environment that results in the increase of threats already happening. We found this predictable behavior displayed in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.
I've already had to sit through public prayers where the prayer-giver prayed for the safety of the President and then during the meal the followed, spewed the typical garbage that defines the President as an enemy to the state and the American people rather than being our duly elected President defending and working on behalf of the country's interests: e.g. 'he's a Muslim', 'he's on the side of the terrorists', 'he's the Anti-Christ or his predecessor' (including the claim his mother was a jackal), 'he really does want the state to kill old people, 'he hates America', 'he wants to abort babies', 'he thinks having baby is a mistake', etc. Some of these types of claims also make it into our local newspapers, the last two just yesterday.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 25, 2009 9:51 AM
This puts the lie to the claim that "extreme right-wingers are no worse than extreme left-wingers".
Posted by: Deen | October 25, 2009 10:47 AM
I guess the Secret Service will have to take more people out of anti-counterfeiting operations and put them into investigating threats against the president. Then again it probably makes more sense to take people off the anti-terrorism team and put them into the team protecting the president. That monkey Palin has a big hand in this nonsense since she was pushing that "Obama's not a whitey, he's not American" nonsense. McCain should have put her over his knee and given her a big public spanking for pulling that shit, but he opted to do nothing useful - as usual.
Posted by: MadScientist | October 25, 2009 5:14 PM
So fund 'em, for crissake.
Posted by: Diane G. | October 25, 2009 5:24 PM
Posted by: llewelly | October 25, 2009 5:37 PM
llewelly:
I'd argue there's a ton of political capital that could be transferred from the GOP and conservatives to the Democrats and liberals by having a stand-alone debate about the need to increase spending and resources in this area.
One of several benefits I envision would be that grass roots movement conservatives and their AM radio hosts would probably react to an increase in the Secret Services by claiming it's an effort to create the prototype supra-American (read U.N.) black helicopter army they've all been warning us about.
Of course the most obvious benefit is to merely distinguish the difference between how the political ideologies in this country deal with being a minority party, putting the GOP's elected leaders in a no-win rock and a hard place. If I were a Democratic leader, I'd milk this for weeks in the Congress; at least until the media tired of the story. Hold hearings, distinguish the ideologies of the threats, note where they get their news, where they hang-out online, their beliefs, the viral emails they spread, the whole ball of wax. I argue this because I'd bet money the wackos making the threats are getting their information in the very media favored by the current base of the Republican party.
This is a go for the jugular moment and opportunity. I have full confidence the Democrats don't have the balls to do it while also knowing the GOP would do it in a New York minute if presented with this same opportunity.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 25, 2009 5:57 PM
As I've mentioned elsewhere, though it's an extreme example, there's already a precedent for this general principle in international law.
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 25, 2009 6:53 PM
Funding isn't the only issue. Staffing new Secret Service agents is a pain in the ass, what with the security clearances and the background checks and such. They should probably divert as many resources as they can to the president and his family now, then work on personnel, since it doesn't seem like any other protected people are getting threats.
Posted by: Brandon | October 25, 2009 7:48 PM
But did you know that Obama supports cannibalism?
"Inspiring Obama's Team: Genocide, Barbarism, Cultural Annihilation, Cannibalism , Hope, Change"
http://tinyurl.com/yfrp3mr
Posted by: Dr X | October 25, 2009 7:53 PM
PS: In Soviet Russia, Secret Service stretches YOU!
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 25, 2009 7:54 PM
While I agree some of this may be cowardice, some of it is also legitimate concern that by ratcheting up the rhetoric on the right (such a result is guaranteed) they could actually cause the violence that they are hoping to avoid to take place. Some of these right-wing organizations are a hillbilly's heartbeat away from opening fire on any number of government agencies, representatives, etc.
Posted by: dogmeatib | October 26, 2009 6:02 PM
You know, if some of these right-wing militia types ended up in Guantanamo I can't say it would keep me up at night.
(Yes yes, I'm a terrible person with no principles, I know. But I bet can't say that the delicious, delicious irony wouldn't you make you smile. If even just for a second.)
Posted by: Leni | October 26, 2009 7:22 PM