There's an old sketch from MTV's brilliant The State, where a kid reprimands his obnoxious classmates, saying, "You can't even joke about it! You just can't say 'Gee, wouldn't it be great if we shot the President,'" which results in a swarm of Secret Service agents flooding the classroom and carrying him away. Well, that isn't much of an exaggeration.
That same, basic scenario befell Vito LaPinta, a 13-year-old from Tacoma, who was interrogated by a Secret Service agent after he posted an observation on Facebook that (and I'm quoting Vito, let's just be clear here) President Obama should be "careful because there could be suicide bombers" seeking vengeance for Osama bin Laden.
A week after writing that, Vito recalled for the local Fox affiliate, he was pulled out of class and brought to the principal's office:
"A man walked in with a suit and glasses and he said he was part of the Secret Service. He told me it was because of a post I made that indicated I was a threat toward the President. I was very scared."
After a half-hour of questioning, Vito was deemed not a threat, and was released. His mom is pissed, because all of this went down without her present. But I'm actually kind of impressed? I guess all those Obama/Zuckerberg summits are really paying information-exchange dividends![/p]
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