On the Secretly Serviced and Pubic (no typo) Diplomacy

POTUS Visits and Public Diplomacy: Doing Nothing While Waiting for Nothing to Do - John Brown, Huffington Post, November 13, 2010;  image from

See also the just-appeared article by Ambassador Brian Carlson, "Public Diplomacy and POTUS Visits," Public Diplomacy Council (Wednesday, April 18th 2012), with below image:

Term "Secretly Serviced" is from the The Daily News phrase at.

BTW, Why do SS officers flaunt

goofy spy-vs.spy shades? Surely not to blindfold bloodshot eyes ... but perhaps to assure that the movement of their alert irises, not always focused on presidential protection 24/7, are nevertheless not deciphered by an ever-vigilant enemy (or, dare I say, the president himself?). Image from

On SS salaries, see  secretservicesalary.net which notes: "If you are applying for a Secret Service job that pays on a salary basis, there are a few things you need to know about how it works. The biggest difference between salary and hourly pay is that your salary does not correllate with how many hours you work. Whether you work 40 hours in a week or 80, you will still receive the same amount on your paycheck. Employers have the right to schedule salary employees as they deem necessary. Typically, salaried employees generally don't have sick/personal time, so you won’t have to be concerned about your pay being docked if you need to take time off. Most employees on salary are considered exempt employees and are not entitled to overtime pay. Some qualify as non-exempt employees and are eligible for

overtime pay [JB emphasis; were those in Colombia on overtime pay?]. Because most salaried employees do not get paid overtime, make sure you know how many hours your employer will expect you to work. Some Secret Service salaries are considered base salaries, with the addition of bonuses for your exemplary performance. A bonus

can be a way to reward you for those long hours, even though you don't get paid overtime." Above Image from; below from

See also Anthony Mercado, "Secret Service Expense Accounts," yahoo.com: "In the case of 21 Secret Service agents and soldiers assigned to protect the President of the United States, we're discovering, your hand gets slapped for hiring Colombian call girls while figuring out how to protect the leader of the free world in a foreign country. After an internal investigation by Congress,

you might get fired. According to tripadvisor.ca one room at the Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Columbia, where the 21 presidential protectors had the alleged trysts, runs $178 per night or roughly $3,738 per day for 21 rooms. Now, the Secret Service has sent more agents (we don't know how many) to Columbia to investigate the alleged misconduct. Maybe the Hotel El Caribe has given the new resident agents a 10 percent discount

for the embarrassment." Above uncaptioned image from; below image from

Additional image from, under the headline: "Hillary's Partying [in Colombia]: Bigger Embarrassment than Secret Service Scandal?"