The "terrorist" in my neighborhood

The BBQ Pit
1

Today I took my granddaughter and her friend out for lunch and a movie as a treat for 8th grade graduation. The neighborhoods that we drove through are nice and familiar and I’ve always felt safe – until today.

After we turned onto one stretch of road heading back home, we began to notice police cars. One pulled out in front of us with the lights on, but going the opposite direction. At the next intersection, my granddaughter noticed another police car. Then she began to look for them.

On every side street on each side, there was a police car or wagon. This went on for about three miles. It began to creep me out. We were riding with the top down on the car and I felt a little vulnerable. (The girls found it exciting, of course.) I told myself that nothing could happen to us while we were surrounded by so many police. But I kept thinking about the terrorist warnings.

I turned onto a main artery. At the intersection there were two police cars and two motorcycle police officers. We kept going for a mile. It was eerily quiet.

My granddaughter lived on a side street. I put the girls out, and put the top up and headed home. It was a little after six p.m. but there was no traffic on this main artery. Finally, one car passed me and kept me from feeling like I was in the twilight zone.

I turned back onto the street where I had originally seen so many police officers, but this time I was going in the opposite direction. I saw only the officers, cars and motorcycles at the intersection and no additional police cars.

When I arrived home, I found out that I had been virtually travelling in “no man’s land.” The President was in the neighborhood at a private fund-raiser where he brought in $1,000,000. The roads that I had been travelling were closely guarded and some of them near by granddaughter’s house had been closed. I do not know why there were no barriers where I was and why I wasn’t stopped – but apparently other cars were.

What I want to know is this:

Since this was a private fund-raiser, why do the powers-that-be have the right to close public roads and use up a good portion of Nashville’s police force? That pisses me off!

Meanwhile, a flight from Dallas to Boston had to make an emergency landing in Nashville because there was a note found that a bomb was in cargo. It landed about 3:30 but was not allowed full access to the airport until Air Force One left hours later after the President had finished his fund raising! A suspicious package was found in cargo and no one is saying much about it.

Another question: **Was it wise to take the President to an airport when there was a plane nearby that might have a bomb on it?

2

Maybe Cristophe was giving Bill Clinton a haircut? Or maybe Al Gore was giving a speech? (I’ve personally been held up in the Twin Cities over that one for 4 hours on I-494)

3

Oy. Why don’t you try reading the thread? It’s not so long, I think you could manage it.

4

If it makes you feel any better, Jimmy, odds are very good that everything was paid for by our tax dollars, and not from Bush’s campaign coffers. After all, he did give a speech earlier in the day praising Vanderbilt University’s computerized patient records, so the whole thing gets to be written off as “duties and functions of the office” (paid by us) instead of “campaigning” (paid by Bush-Cheney 2004).

5

Sorry, didn;t realize the OP was only one sentence. I guess I hallucinated more than that. My apologies Jimmy, I’ll forever wait for you to explain any and all OP’s to me in the future. :wally

6

Standard Operating Procedure for presidents visiting, at least as far as I can tell. Roads are closed, people inconvenienced, etc, etc. They close off whole sections of NYC roads when presidents visit, imagine the chaos THAT creates!

Presumably, they didn’t park the “bomb plane” near Air Force One, so it would have to be one huge ass bomb to place the Prez at risk.

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You think that’s bad, I spoke to a cop who was working the protection detail when Clinton was in town years ago. Assuming he wasn’t putting me on, the procedures that they use should anything bad start to happen…Lay down a field of suppressive fire and get those mortars humming! Can’t the Prez just teleconference?

8

Oh boo hoo - a couple side streets are closed.

We’ve got the Democratic National Convention coming up here in Boston soon.

They’re shutting down the interstate that runs through the city, one of the major (major) commuter train hubs, side streets, etc DURING F***ING RUSH HOUR!!!

For a whole week.

Which really makes me question whether the Dems are going to be any better than the Pubbies? I mean, talk about out of touch with reality - “Oh, it’s OK to shut down an entire city for a week so we can our stupid nearly pointless slap-on-the-back-slash-point-the-finger-fest.”

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Who are the terrorists in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neigh-bor-hood, oh -
Who are the terrorists in your neighborhood?
They’re the people that you meet
Keeping traffic off the street
Just to have their meet & greet
To-day!

10

Dems and Pubs, it makes no difference. Gummit hot shots have a tendency to fuck up traffic and spend our money.

11

Well, I live in NYC, I am a Dem, and am wavering between volunteering to show the Pubbies around–they’re so cute with their polyester and their fanny packs and eyes wide with wonder!–and getting the hell out of Dodge.

I think it was a very nice gesture for the Repubs to choose our city for the convention–it will pump a lot of bucks into a still-faltering economy and is a vote of confidence for the safety of the city. But I’m also sure it’s going to be massively disruptive and the security will be a nightmare. However, I’m also one of those silly people who blame first and foremost the terrorists who have shown themselves capable and willing to blow up trains and streets full of people to make a point.

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Zoe, I never realized you live in Nashville.

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Me neither! :cool:

<crackle> We have her. Move in. <buzz crackle>

This isn’t new. I saw Bush I land his helicopter at one of the NY Harbor pads once, and there were two identical helos, Marines on the pier, the FDR Drive blocked off, and frogmen in the water.

I saw all this because we were on an excursion boat two piers over having my cousin’s wedding. :slight_smile: We waited until the choppers went away and had a great time.

14

Maybe you should stop spreading political disinformation on a board devoted to fighting ignorance? Scroll down to the 4/28/04 entry for the text of a Newsday article debunking this particular lie.

And to answer your obvious objection, yes, the blog is a left-leaning one. That changes not at all the veracity of the news report contained within it.

15

Mortars? That cop was yanking your chain - there’s no way they’d just start lobbing mortars around downtown Chicago at the first sign of trouble, especially considering that mortars wouldn’t be very useful against their probable targets.

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On the scale of the conventions this summer, this is very small in terms of inconvenience, but President Reagan used to love to hold meetings and conferences at the University of Virginia, I suppose because he found the campus so beautiful.

The whole campus would come under protection and covered with that yellow ‘do not cross’ tape (which really enhanced the natural beauty of the architecture…) and there would be guards and police and Secret Service everywhere – you could scuttle from place to place if you were a student, but for an hour or two, all of campus would shut down, and students and faculty couldn’t leave the buildings. This was invariably during final examination week; I knew a couple of people who were unable to get to classrooms to give or take exams because they got caught out when the shut down occurred. (Yes, they were told in advance, and yes people always complained that the administration didn’t say, ‘But, Ron, sure the place looks great, but it’s a working university!’)

On the other hand…a tip for Secret Service who go ‘undercover’ on uni campuses and try to blend in with the coeds – you don’t. You stand out a mile away. For one thing, don’t dress as you did when you were at uni – dress like the current kids do. At least then it will be good for a giggle.

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I certainly hope he was. Now that I think about it a bit more, he may have said it was tear gas and not your standard explosive ordinance, but I can’t recall. Still.

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Bosda, are you in the Boro? Maybe I offered chicken soup when you weren’t feeling well once before. (I came to Peabody/Vanderbilt 40 years ago. Found an apartment near HIllsboro Village and the time just slipped away. :smack: )

Mehitabel, I am willing to negotiate!

As for the inconvenience and security when a President or Vice President is on official visit, I can understand that. And Beelzebubba, you’ll notice that I wasn’t personally inconvenienced by the street closings.

But I don’t think that the taxpayers should foot the bill for security for fund-raisers. (If the President needs to fly to Nashville to take a look at our bedside patient information computers, I am a little suspect.) It would be interesting to know exactly how much this trip cost the taxpayers.

And it is just as rotten when a Democrat does it. Do I have to wait until a Democratic President fund raises in Nashville before I complain?

As for the conventions, I cannot imagine the hell that they are going to mean for commuters. I’ve read that some of the people who work in restaurants near the convention in Boston are not even going to be able to get to their jobs. That could be interesting.

Who decides these things? What are public servants anyway?

19

Zoe,

If you knew in detail half of what the Secret Service, and State, County and Local authorities are asked to do, when a high value ‘package’ visits, you’d have a brain hemmorhage.

Says Zoe…

**As well it should. Still that’s why they’re the powers-that-be, gives em that ability. You don’t need to tell me how outrageous these fundraisers are, Clinton came into my old base, and rather than going home after my regularly scheduled 8 hour shift, I was planted at the nose of a running AF1 for FIVE HOURS in the February cold, whilst Slick Willie went to a $1k a plate dinner for Dickie Durbin. **

** Do you know if the folks were stuck on the bomb-plane? Or did they get 'em off on the tarmac so the EOD guys could come and take a peek? **

Odds are that AF1 was already on the ground, and there was a convergence of events that took place that forced both planes to be in the same space at the same time. What’s more, the plane landing with the emergency, probably had to get SS clearance to land while AF1 was on the tarmac.

It happens no matter who’s in the big chair. Believe me Zoe, that kind of thing is pittance compared to the waste that goes on at the Federal level. It’s a job perk, being the most powerful office in the free world, to be able to hold up the worker bees, while you do whatever it is you need to do for your party.

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Clinton came into my old base, and rather than going home after my regularly scheduled 8 hour shift, I was planted at the nose of a running AF1 for FIVE HOURS in the February cold, whilst Slick Willie went to a $1k a plate dinner for Dickie Durbin.

That really sucks. My conscience would bother me too much to be President.

I do know something about federal waste. I’m pretty old and I’ve watched it for a long time. Known a few politicians. Mostly guys in white hats who still took advantage of the perks.

The people were allowed to disembark from the plane after it landed. They were taken to the terminal in buses. It would be interesting to know exactly how long they had to wait to land and to disembark.