THE SECRET SERVICE TRIES A LOCAL

I got up a little before 11 AM and went to open the inside front door to let the cats look out and provide a little ventilation. At just that moment, a local police officer had come for a talk and intially I agreed to talk but after a few seconds I told him that I would have to have a lawyer present.

Unlike the secret service agents, he did mention the reason for his visit, e-mails, and I decided to talk to him. He seemed to be a decent guy and we did chat for about 12-15 minutes. I also noticed that there was a black unmarked SUV parked on Jacinto Street, about 75 feet away, and I assume there were Secret Service agents inside.

I gave him my e-mail address and explained to him that I used the Ann Coulter remark to bait the wingnut trolls. He asked what they were and I said it would take a bit to explain. He asked for the Reader's Digest version and then I said Sean Hannity is a wingnut troll. (The example he thought of was the War on Christmas/Bill O'Reilly fuss and I said O'Reilly was also a wingnut). He also asked about another post I made that riffed on John Gibson's "five in the noggin" remark and I explained that to him.

He then asked straight out if I would harm the President and I said no, that would be a terrible thing to do. He also asked what I thought of the President and I said he's a fuckup. (I may have the order of the questions reversed here. I am kind of suprised how sketchy my memory is for an event that happened less than an hour ago as I type this and wasn't at all complicated.)

The cop asked if I would talk to the agents and I said I wouldn't do that without a lawyer present. He said he'd like to save me that expense and I said I had contacted the ACLU. I mentioned that today, one can get busted for wearing a t-shirt that says "Protect the 1st Amendment" and he brought a request he had made to the FBI for information about some people who were involved in some sort of local incident and the report that came back (6 out of a total of 117 pages) was all newspaper clippings and even then parts were blacked out!

We also talked about some local issues, such as the meth epidemic and the proposed 20 year transit plan and he asked if I was upset with the local politicians. I said no. We also talked a bit about extremists such as the Aryan Nation and we both agreed that their problem is they think they are the only ones who have the Truth. (I did mention that I was a Yankee fan and he got a chuckle out of that).

At the end, I think he asked if he could do anything for me and I said tell the secret service agents to go away. He laughed and said they just have a job to do. I also made a dig about the agents, telling the local cop they didn't do much digging about me, otherwise they would've known what I was about.

At the end, he said he'd send me an e-mail. Overall, this was a pleasant exchange.