Bad IP. Bad IP.
I work near the White House. Normally this is not such a big deal, but around noon it became one.
In case you haven't heard, the White House and Capitol Building were evacuated today. Fighter jets were scrambled while Uncle Dick was spirited off to a not-so-remote and presumably not-very-secret location. (Considering his motorcade returned to the WH after about 20 minutes, he couldn't have gone all that far.) Of course, my colleagues and I were scrambling to find out just what was going on, but all we found was "White House on alert; staff evacuated." Not the most comforting headlines in any event, but especially disconcerting when you're sitting about 500m from 1600 Penn with F-16s overhead.
After about fifteen minutes of dithering and wondering whether we were going to die before lunch, we heard the all clear sound. A few hours later we found out that it was a student pilot and his apparently inept instructor pilot in a Cessna 150 on their way to an air show in North Carolina. They're based at an airport just outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You'd think that it would be fairly common knowledge in the pilot community not to fly all that close to the White House. Apparently the IP missed that briefing.
The other part that I found a bit disconcerting about the whole incident is that the President wasn't even working at the time (around 12:30 EDT). He was "taking a bike ride with a security detail near Waldorf, Maryland," according to CNN.com. We know his day usually consists of getting up pretty early and hitting the gym before he has his newspapers read to him, so why the mid-day bike ride? Could it be because his workload really isn't all that much these days, considering that the whole Iraq thing is pretty much "lather, rinse, repeat" for him? Maybe he was trying to recover from the trip to Europe to honor the veterans and fallen of WWII. I'd like to think that given his adventures in Texas and (maybe) Alabama in the early 1970s, he felt somewhat ashamed and abashed in the face of all of those who had actually served and sacrificed for their country. But he probably didn't.
In case you haven't heard, the White House and Capitol Building were evacuated today. Fighter jets were scrambled while Uncle Dick was spirited off to a not-so-remote and presumably not-very-secret location. (Considering his motorcade returned to the WH after about 20 minutes, he couldn't have gone all that far.) Of course, my colleagues and I were scrambling to find out just what was going on, but all we found was "White House on alert; staff evacuated." Not the most comforting headlines in any event, but especially disconcerting when you're sitting about 500m from 1600 Penn with F-16s overhead.
After about fifteen minutes of dithering and wondering whether we were going to die before lunch, we heard the all clear sound. A few hours later we found out that it was a student pilot and his apparently inept instructor pilot in a Cessna 150 on their way to an air show in North Carolina. They're based at an airport just outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You'd think that it would be fairly common knowledge in the pilot community not to fly all that close to the White House. Apparently the IP missed that briefing.
The other part that I found a bit disconcerting about the whole incident is that the President wasn't even working at the time (around 12:30 EDT). He was "taking a bike ride with a security detail near Waldorf, Maryland," according to CNN.com. We know his day usually consists of getting up pretty early and hitting the gym before he has his newspapers read to him, so why the mid-day bike ride? Could it be because his workload really isn't all that much these days, considering that the whole Iraq thing is pretty much "lather, rinse, repeat" for him? Maybe he was trying to recover from the trip to Europe to honor the veterans and fallen of WWII. I'd like to think that given his adventures in Texas and (maybe) Alabama in the early 1970s, he felt somewhat ashamed and abashed in the face of all of those who had actually served and sacrificed for their country. But he probably didn't.
posted by Sasquatch at
11:32 PM
2 Comments:
"He was 'taking a bike ride with a security detail near Waldorf, Maryland,' according to CNN.com..."
Sometimes, the Secret Service need to take him for a ride out of town, just so he can hang his head out the window, loll his tongue, and snap at the breeze - but they keep in the back seat with the childproof windows, so he can't jump out.
By
Merujo, at 5/12/2005 4:42 PM
What with this incident and the "live grenade" in Georgia fun, it does seem that George W. is "unusually" fortunate in his timing.
I am apolitical, but just as a casual observer, I have wondered at the distinct possibility of this President getting himself assasinated. I think the main thing that has kept it from happening is that - to the enemy, whoever that would be - having Cheney as President is ultimately scarier. Cheney is no Dan Quayle*, there is just nothing funny about Cheney.
But that is just my opinion.
SJL
Fun With Quayle
By
Anonymous, at 5/19/2005 1:19 PM
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