DC in lockdown...?

[Sapper6]

what are your "non-partisan" views on this? is this really necessary, or just absurd paranoia...? you decide :idunno:

Massive inaugural preparations snarl the Washington area
By David Johnston and Michael Janofsky The New York Times
Wednesday, January 19, 2005


WASHINGTON Even as plans to celebrate President George W. Bush's inauguration were taking final shape, the capital on Tuesday appeared more like a city under siege.

Hour by hour, the city of grand buildings and marble statues seemed to disappear behind curtains of steel security fences and concrete barriers.

Piece by piece, the massive security plan that officials promised would be the tightest ever in post-9/11 America began taking final shape despite the absence of any specific threat and seemingly without regard to the temporary inconveniences to local residents and visitors.

Utility crews with acetylene torches snarled traffic as they welded shut manhole covers along the route of the inaugural parade.

Fighter jets screamed across the skies, practicing for the pre-inaugural fly-by on Wednesday. Drivers found no-parking signs, temporary street closures and public warnings that 100 blocks of city streets near inaugural events would be restricted.

Pedestrians had it no better. Officials tightened the broad perimeter surrounding the Capitol, the parade route and the presidential reviewing stand near the White House as construction teams added more security fencing that put more of the city's public spaces off limits.

Elsewhere, security teams swept dozens of hotels and office buildings overlooking the parade route. Uniformed officers in cruisers from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies seemed to be everywhere at once.

Standing outside a security fence surrounding Lafayette Park, near the White House, Bonnie McKinney, an advocate for veterans benefits, was clearly annoyed. "We obviously have had a security issue in our country, but this is a bit ridiculous," she said. "As a veteran and the daughter of a veteran who died in service, I don't appreciate being disenfranchised from what I always considered my rights and freedoms."

She was hardly alone among residents asked to alter their routines to accommodate security plans and a long schedule of inaugural events, which began Tuesday afternoon with a program to honor American military forces.

Some tourists ignored the forbidding preparations around them. David Chater, a visitor from London, seemed unfazed. "The physical presence is noticeable," he said, "but it's not unexpected."

Government workers, who already had the day off Thursday, were being encouraged to work from home on Wednesday, a day before the inauguration. Local law enforcement officials warned motorists that many streets in the downtown area would be off-limits to vehicular traffic. Local officials said some bus routes would change and some subway stations would be closed.

"Given the hassle factor and the uncertainties, I'm going to work from home on Thursday," said Mit Spears, a lawyer and Republican whose office is on the fringe of areas restricted to traffic. "Driving in is just not worth it."

Federal aviation authorities prepared to impose a no-fly zone that will be in force for private aircraft from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday. Commercial flights will operate as usual, but the authorities are widening the no-fly zone for smaller planes, banning many flights from a radius of about 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, around the region's three airports: Reagan National, Dulles and Baltimore Washington International.

Thousands of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel from around the country poured into Washington all day Tuesday, reporting to command posts responsible for coordinated security, the authorities said.

And as final plans proceeded, meteorologists had bad news. At noon, when Bush raises his hand to take the oath of office, forecasters said, the temperature would be 34 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1 degree Celsius, and snow may be falling.

i've always supported the Bush administration but geez, while expecting our nation's citizens to remain calm in a time of crisis and potential terrorist threat, is this really needed? just these actions alone has me wondering of an iminent attack already :idunno:

 

[Zepp]

It is paranoia, and gross misuse of tax money.

Having all this security leading up to and during the inauguration might prevent a few attempted attacks by lone, mentally disturbed individuals, but those could be prevented just as easily with more reasonable precautions. It's naive to think that anyone associated with the Al-Quaeda network is going to attempt something on a day when attacks are expected.

Of course, "security" in this case also serves as a euphemism for keeping protesters out of sight of the media during the inaugural ceremonies. So maybe it is a necessary precaution from the point of view of many Bush supporters.

 

[rmcrobertson]

Yup. Very little to do with "security," ("those who will trade their Liberty for a little Security...") everything to do with concealing opposition and protest.

Or as an old friend once said--Jimmy and Rosalind Carter walked down Pennsylvania Avbe, hand in hand, to his Inauguration--Reagan was driven. In a tank.

 

[Ping898]

What I think is just as bad is that the Pres told DC to pick up like 11 mil of the tab for all this "security" from their homeland security fund. So this means they loose the means to possible protect people for weeks or months or start new project cause the Pres requires 4 days of events and requires this "protection" during the time....I am sure that makes sense somehow...get him a little
pope-mobile and be done with it.

 

[Feisty Mouse]

1) Protesters will be blocked from view. Considering that some still want the Ohio recount, and believe that this is the SECOND stolen election, there will be a number of protesters there, along with the folks who are tired of the lying about Iraq.

2) Same old same old with the "War on Terror" - get Americans terrified that something may happen, at any moment, and we must pour all of our money into defense (now including the Inauguration). (Oh, and more "get out of taxes free" cards to the wealthy._

3) W is moving more and more towards a monarchy, and this is just another example. Question him in the Administration - you're gone, banished. Adding more trappings of authority onto himself. If a scepter were an option that would not make almost the entire nation irate (aside from the fundamentalist ultra-right-wing Christians who want to see Church and State united, which would work in a monarchy), I'm sure he'd order one for himself.

 

[raedyn]

It's pretty extreme, but I don't think anybody should be surprised. These measures have been escalating for years now. Every public event becomes controlled. Not only for 'security' but also as a way of stifling dissent. There is a designated area for protesters at this inaugeration (sp?). Not to give them a voice, but to prevent them from being able to be anywhere else, anywhere that the President and his buddies might have to see them and might have to consider hearing their opinions. I wouldn't say the current American regime is totalitarian, but these measures start to make it look a little more like it....

 

[Bester]

Didn't Saddam need equally high security? In fact, isn't there anyone willing to do a little research and compare the security precautions of 'free nation' leaders and 'dictatorships'?

Wonder what they'd find out....

Of course, Hitler drove to his ceremony in an open top car. Bush on the other hand...
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/03/11/images/Bush_armourcar_Hitler.jpg

 

[AC_Pilot]

America has been sliding towards empire since the turn of 1900 AD. GB is simply the latest in a long line of increasingly powerful "Pro-Consuls" created by real or manufactured "threats" to public safety. This is exactly what created the Emperors in old Rome, and dictators such as Hitler.


Bush is a member of Skull and Bones, an elite occult club within the Illuminati, as was Kerry, and both are part of this hidden kabal, a plan for world domination: http://www.secretsofthetomb.com/ Not only is the author a cutie, she's from my Scottish clan and we have the same last name. What a babe

If you really want the scary truth about why all this is happening, try this site: www.savethemales.ca I don't agree with everything Makow says but he's right about the conspiracy for world government, and what's behind it. My father and I had studied this issue for 15 years, including an antique Masonic handbook complete with all the occult teachings,
before I read Makow's stuff, and we have come to the same conclusions.

My dad passed away recently but at least he died understanding what was about to happen. I'll have to live it, being 44.

Here is the entire Masonic handbook on line if you want proof of it's occult contents:
http://www.illuminati-news.com/e-books/morals-dogma/apike.htm
More about the Satanist Albert Pike and his plan:
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Freemasonry.htm
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1086


Only the son of G-d, the warlord of G-d, Yashua (Jesus) will be able to, and will, stop this before the earth is destroyed. So says the bible. (Matthew 24, Revelations 19) I'm happy to private message about this with anyone who is sincerely interested in knowing more.

 

[rmcrobertson]

Thanks for the turn-on to a truly loonbox site--Henry Makow, Ph.D. (in English! makes ya wonder, don't it?), the first to expose the secret conspiracy of the Illuminati, Freemasons, Jews, feminists, communists, Alan Greenspan and George Bush...apparently, they're all in it together.

A pity; they haven't even been sending the New World Order Newsletter.

 

[PeachMonkey]

Tut-tut, Robert -- you forgot to wear your tin-foil hat again.

 

[AC_Pilot]

Since I am sure you have not read any of the above links (and they are extensive with tons of proof) your opinion, my friend, carries little weight in learned circles.
It's always easy to ad hominym attack something. Very difficult and time consuming to learn the truth when one has had a blindfold on since birth, as have most of us. Take the blindfold off and open your mind and read the linked sites completely if you want knowledge. or you could tune in Lush Rimbaugh for his "Excellence in brainwashing" radio show

Of course most people want "world history and knowledge" in a soundbite, along with the cheetos and a beer.

 

[dearnis.com]

Funny, I hadn't noticed that it was all that bad. But then what do I know, I only spend, on average, 3 out of 4 weekends a month in DC.

 

[Cryozombie]

Personally,

If I had a nation of people screaming, crying, and threatening to flee the nation, Id be a tad concerned about my security too.

It only takes 1 extreme nutjob out of all those "thousands" who feel I cheated them to do me in...