DC has become a bunker

[MissWaverly]

Just got back from visiting my family, they took me to Union Station to get the train. Our
capital, the gem of our nation has become a fortified bunker, its beauty marred by an endless
parade of chain length fence, concrete barriers and iron posts barring traffic, some of the streets have been closed off to traffic permanently. There was a parade that was not mentioned in the Washington Post but even with the parade, there were other areas mysteriously blocked off that were not near the parade route. A simple 30 minute drive mushroomed into a 120 minute drive. You can not see the beauty of many of our landmarks due to man made fences of wood. I think that this goes beyond Where's Osama, it is the definition of a government ruling elite
that is isolated from the American people.

[NanceGreggs]

1. That is REALLY tragic to hear.

I haven't been to D.C. in many, many years. My two nieces moved there recently, and I said to my sister, "What a GREAT place for them to be - it's so BEAUTIFUL."

I guess I'm remembering the D.C. of my youth -- which is now gone, along with the America of my youth.

[MissWaverly]

3. we have to bring it back

we cannot have a ruling elite in this country that resembles a monarchy, we have to get our
democracy back.

[madrchsod]

2. the capital of our country is no longer ours

it belongs to the people who rule us. at least i can remember how the capital used to look..

[MissWaverly]

7. we can't not give up our country

to the oil kings, we have to continue to get the government back under the rule of law and
the constitution again.

[survivor999]

4. Yup, noticed that too....

And if you go around at night, when there aren't many regular cars around.... You'll notice only police and military vehicles and personnel around...

[Rex]

5. You have to understand, they allowed the Pentagon to be hit!!!

Our military fortress! Now they must build bunkers to protect themselves from US the people. How many people have seen the video-footage of eggs hitting Bush's limo as he road to be sworn in? Not many I'd wager. The PNAC/GOPers are lost on a sea of power. They hate the working class and look at US in units of capital. We are the enemy and you better believe that all this domestic spying, new kinds of national 'task forces' and the use of the National Guard by the Feds is to make sure We stay in line. I'm surprised they even let anyone near 1600 Penn Ave. At least any working class person.

[MissWaverly]

9. the Pentagon should be able to repel attack

w/o the assistance of the DC Police, there were 19 hijackers, Roosevelt did not to this to
America after Pearl Harbor; and he was fighting the Axis powers.

[hootinholler]

27. Sure he didn't do that, but,

I seem to remember hearing there were a lot of temporary offices for the war effort while the pentagon was being built.

After looking on wikipedia I guess he didn't do it.

Prior to the construction of the Pentagon, the War Department (now the Department of Defense) was housed in a series of "temporary" buildings erected during World War I which nearly covered the National Mall. Ground was broken for the Pentagon on September 11, 1941, with construction completed in approximately sixteen months at a cost of $83 million.

Interesting date for the groundbreaking.

-Hoot

[MissWaverly]

29. Hoot, - that is very interesting date!

Thanks for catching that!

[Dudley_DUright]

6. I recently stayed at a hotel 2 blocks from Union Station

(right near the Faux News studios, yuck) and noticed the same thing. Actually, I was there two years ago and it was even worse, they had the capital grounds completely fenced off. Now at least you can walk on the grounds again.

[MissWaverly]

8. Yes, but you can't walk on the capital steps

if you wish to visit both the senate and the house, you would have to completely exit the grounds walk on the street 4 blocks, make a u turn and walk back (a 30 minute tour).

[Dudley_DUright]

11. Very true

I know they are building that hideous underground visitors center, whose only purpose seems to be to keep the people from actually visiting the people's house.

[MissWaverly]

13. Yes, there is the "construction" as well

[MissWaverly]

14. It makes NY look calm and collected

the damage to NY was much greater than Washington, DC

[Stinky The Clown]

35. That's just not true

The Visitor Center has been in planning for well over 20 years.

[MissWaverly]

37. Look, that is probably true but they are using it as an excuse

Do you remember driving past the Capital to view the National Christmas tree, well that street
is now blocked off to traffic, (whether this is temporary or not), I don't know, I am telling
you that you have to actually go down there and see how difficult it is to get around, not
only are streets blocked off but sidewalks as well in some places, many places just don't have
access, I guess that those who work there just go to the nearest metro stop and access their
work place from the metro. It is no longer a place where you would want to casually walk down
the street.

[Stinky The Clown]

45. I don't disagree. I have posted often about this

I work in the area and am in DC very frequently. It is disgraceful what has become of it.

I posted not long ago about the black Chevy Suburbans with blacked out windows driven by young men in sunglasses with earbuds in place. I posted earlier about the roadblocks and checkpints and concrete barriers. I posted earlier about the rooftop snipers and military air sniffers parked and chained to telephone poles. I posted earlier about the missle batteries on trailers hidden in the landscaping, if one only looks for them.

There is a great deal of our national treasure that is no longer accessible to the public. The native American murals inside the Dept of the Interior Building. The murals inside the GSA Building and the Commerce Dept building. All the buildings constructed during the FDR era had wonderful artwork incorporated into them. Before that, the incredibly beautiful 'Cash Room' in the Treasury building, where once upon a time Joe Citizen could do real personal banking.

All this and so much more is now effectively closed to the public in the name of 'National Security'. It is all still there, but now behind a curtain of metal dtectors, armed guards, metal detectors, increasingly permanent barricades, and calls of "May I see your ID, please" by people in unforms who have had to surrender their sense of humor to get their jobs.

This same overt paranoia has spread to private buildings, too. One can enter very few office buildings without the need to show a form of picture ID, state your business, and often be body scanned.

It is despicable.

A note about the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House ..... you may or may not recall, but that happened in the Clinton era. The Secret Service wanted it, Clinton publically opposed it, but the Secret Service, in the end, prevailed. Originally sold as a temporary measure, that few blocks of the street have been transformed to a pedestrian mall with guards at either end and access limited to those who 'clear security'.

I am completely disgusted when I see or read the word 'security'.

[MissWaverly]

48. Thanks, I was not attacking you, the problem is there is

always just a small valid reason which logically followed up would be okey, but using the
excuse of 19 hijackers to do all this doesn't hold water for me. It's like the outcry over
child porn on the web, that is not a valid reason to monitor every single e-mail in the
United States w/o a warrant. You cannot pursue criminals by treating all Americans as
criminals. What has been done in DC is a shame and the more people speak out about it,
the better.

[Stinky The Clown]

51. I agree completely

They have taken things waaaaaaay too far. Not some minor overzealousness.

I want my country back.

[MissWaverly]

53. thinking about this logically

It's like the permission to go into Iraq and the Congress okayed military action and Bush
took it to mean warrantless wiretaps, and a blank check to do whatever he wanted to "fight
the war on terror."

[BlueManDude]

17. also they want you to go to the "visitors center" rather than the

actual house and senate.

this came about after the (non terrorists related) shooting a few years back.

[MissWaverly]

19. the visitors center does not pass our laws

next they will have the "virtual DC tour" and you will be encouraged just to stay at home and
watch it.

[cliss]

10. What's going on in Washington?

Are the Fear Mongers caught by their own tactics?

On another thread, someone mentioned the same thing. This was the post about how the entire capital went into lock-down mode....over some noises heard in a building. Apparently, it was a jack-hammer, or something that made a noise like a gun.

Apparently, the whole city was shut down. The poster wrote that the city is one trembling, paranoid adrenaline-churning mess.

[MissWaverly]

12. it's like a war zone

there are police carrying guns on the street that look like mini cannons, there are barriers
everywhere, the entire capital was locked down on Friday, because a GOP'er heard some pipes
rattling in the garage from an elevator maintenance crew, who were driving through the garage.
Of course, he expected the worst, since Bush is LOVED throughout the globe. It was slightly
better today but imagine police squad cards blocking a myriad of streets, wooden saw horses
blocking others, & chain length fences, wooden barricades, buildings with all the windows
blocked off. There is an era of menace everywhere.

[Laughing Mirror]

15. one trembling, paranoid adrenaline-churning mess, prone to hallucinations

When I was a little boy in DC we couldn't vote for the president, but we could walk into the White House off the street during opening hours to visit, always with the expectation that Kennedy or Johnson might come down the steps from their private quarters to greet us and chat for awhile. Apparently, this did happen from time to time.

You could not only walk in off the street into the White House, but the Avenue in front was bustling withtraffic, streetcars, smoky old green DC Transit buses making transfers, gay cruising in Lafayette Park right outside the president's window should he decided to come down and join them. All that is gone.

You could walk in anywhere at any time. The only building on the Mall that was off limits was the American Pharmaceutical Association headquarters at the end of the Mall, near State Dept and Lincoln Memorial. So far as I know, it is the only private edifice on the Mall, off limits to the public.

Wonder why ...

[MissWaverly]

20. that's the way it should be with open access to public areas

people should feel that this is their city, the home of their democracy not Fort Dix. Why
can't we have virtual surveillance and still allow public access.

[Clark2008]

22. To be fair, it was the Clinton Administration who put up the

barriers on Pennsylvania Avenue - shortly after a small plane flew in and crash-landed on the White House lawn.

Of course, how barriers in the front are supposed to prevent planes is beyond me, but that's when it happened. I was up there visiting my grandfather just after they went up and it was during the Clinton Administration.

[MissWaverly]

23. maybe so, but they did not have police carrying cannons

& all the fencing and blocked off streets back then, I will concede the blocking off of
Pennsylvania but the Capital is now almost impossible to approach easily.

[rusty_parts2001]

16. These prima donnas in Washington are a piece of work ....

They think their lives are so valuable that must be protection 24/7 from the noisy rabble. "Let them eat cake", said Marie Antoinette. W says "Let them pay for my security." Congress is no better, letting the paranoia about "terrorism" be used for political advantage. They have always been insulated from reality, the added layer of security is just the icing on the cake.

[MissWaverly]

18. You can see why they want the guest worker program

once Washington has become an ammo dump, who is going to want to work there.

[flordehinojos]

21. i think it also fits the definition of

a paranoid piece of shit who is afraid even of his own shadow and has unleashed unto the land the specter of paranoia.:nuke:

[MissWaverly]

24. Yes, I agree with that observation

too bad, he just doesn't declare that his White House will be "Crawford" - much more easier to
defend and do teleconference and virtual links to the Congress.

[flordehinojos]

25. can we get a petition going to that effect?

[MissWaverly]

26. Not yet, let's wait for November

I imagine if there's a dem majority in both the house and senate, we may be able to get some traction.

:-)

[flordehinojos]

28. broward county voting machines under brenda snipes, the jeb installed

shill as county supervisor of elections is already printing voting cards with the wrong information inside of them. only one t.v. station has reported on it. i've not seen anything on the local newspaper...and while there is a major petition drive to the broward county commissioners for verified voting paper ballots...unless someone pries those machines off of brenda snipes' and jeb bush's hands ...i think we are headed down the same road as bush 2000 and bush 2004.

[MissWaverly]

30. if Katherine Harris wins, we will have to hire a PI

seriously though, isn't Jeb, a lame duck at this point.

[flordehinojos]

42. yes, he is. but do you think that his not being in office is the end of

his need for power and control? think again. he tends to think of himself as king of the republicans (for the time being here in florida and he has plans to keep control over the party, what they do, and what they think, even after he leaves). you know, something to do with the bush family evil empire. i can't remember the article now, but the orlando and the sun sentinels published something about how he was scheeeeeeeeming to still have control after he no longer is governor of florida.

i tell you, these bushes are really scum. all of them.

[MissWaverly]

49. Yes, but the rank and file power brokers will not follow

it's like the song-there's a new kid in town, they will not want the baggage of the Bush
family any longer, they will flock to the next deal maker.

[flordehinojos]

61. let's hope and pray

even when the bushes know how to break legs...not their own, those of others, though.

[MissWaverly]

62. remember Tom DeLay

after he announced he would not run in November, lobbyists wanted their money refunded, they
are strictly here and now, and no one was more powerful and owed more favors in the House
than he.

[novalib]

31. I Live There!

And I agree with you 1000000000000%!!

It's TERRIBLE living here now!

Jersey barriers everywhere!

"Security" Checkpoints at various spots!

Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House looks like a fortified security site -- rather than one of America's proudest Avenues!

It's awful!

The area around the Capitol Building is just TERRIBLE!

It breaks my heart to see what that damned * and his illegitimate cabal regime have done to this once beautifully majeestic city!

[MissWaverly]

36. Thank you for confirming

It is sad, this paranoia of the war on terror is warping our country, our cities were not like
this even during World War II when the chance of invasion was more plausible. I think we have
to examine what is the purpose of all this, is it to protect our country or is it to isolate
our policy makers from the American people that they serve.

[hootinholler]

41. I avoid downtown as much as possible these days...

Primarily because I'm afraid of arrest for assualt if I spot a PNAC member.

10 years ago I took my sister and nephews to tour the capital and after a minor metal detector delay we walked up to the peanut gallery to observe democracy in action. I have no idea how close you could get today.

-Hoot

[MissWaverly]

52. well it is not the same

You would have to at least go through a weapons scanner, have ID, etc, but the hardest thing
is getting there and getting around.

[matcom]

32. Secret Service closes roads every day

they pose as construction workers and close down streets depending on where various dignitaries are traveling. this is not new. i lived there until 1990.

i don't doubt the barriers though

[leftchick]

33. Have there always been snipers on top of the White House?

That just creeped me out when I was in DC. My son asked me "what is that man doing up there Mommy?"

:(

[ProfessorGAC]

34. I Thought The Same Thing Last Year When I Was There

I had meetings in Baltimore and went to D.C. one evening. It looked like a fortress, not a city. (Until of course, you got to where the "poor people who don't matter" live.)

What a bunch or chickenhearted embarassments to the "land of the free and home of the brave."
The Professor

[MissWaverly]

38. Glad, you could confirm what I saw

It is very important that many of us say this, because we are now in the land of spin, and
there will be 5 naysayers who will come on and say that is not so, it is so.

[novalib]

39. If ANYONE Says It Is NOT So, THEY ARE LYING!!!!!

It is worse than words can possibly describe!

On both Independence and Constitution Avenues, "pop-up" barricades have been installed to keep the "terrorists" at bay!

Policemen armed with automatic machine guns carefully eye tourists on the west side of the Capitol!

It is TRULY awful -- and it has to be worse that Berlin was in the 1930's and 1940's!

[MissWaverly]

40. Thanks

I didn't know what the police are carrying near the Capital but it did creep me out, I called
them mini-cannons, so they're automatic machine guns.

[ProfessorGAC]

43. All That Being Said, However. . .

. . . i found the police folks to be extremely friendly and accommodating. So, i want to just put a word of defense in for the folks who are just doing their jobs, even though it seems (as you said) more East Berlin, than Washington, D.C.
The Professor

[MissWaverly]

46. Here's a picture of police guarding capital

Okay, it's from the 2005 inauguration not this weekend so the policeman is wearing a ski mask
for the cold; but I would not approach anyone and ask for directions if they had one of these,
I have seen police carrying heavy duty weaponry this weekend.



Heavy security for D.C. -- weather also a threat / Protesters sue for more access, but judge refuses request Face wrapped against the cold, a police officer stands guard at the West Front of the Capitol. Austin American-Statesman photo by Jay Janner

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/01/20/MNGOJAT77O1.DTL&o=0

[ProfessorGAC]

47. Yep. A Creepy Photo

But we talked to at least 4 officers (maybe more) and every single on of them was pleasant, accommodating, and professional. Of course, i still agree that the security is in Hyper, Super-Duper, Overkill Mode. But, at least the security is not acting like a bunch of thugs.
The Professor

[MissWaverly]

50. But, that can change

It's hard to negotiate with those in charge of the guns, if they get a directive to go after
protestors, then there you go. Remember, Kent State.

[treestar]

44. Most of the "security" measures are to protect the government

and its employees, NOT to "protect" the people from terrorists.

Now you have to show ID to get into any federal building. (yeah, like THAT's going to stop a terrorist) and to deliver documents to the US attorney you put the document into a box and the receptionist takes them from the box. They won't touch anything directly from your dirty hands.

[MissWaverly]

54. well at least you are not a prisoner of their fear

they are, this is very sad.

[elehhhhna]

55. Washington DC--the Other Green Zone.

[MissWaverly]

56. I was thinking the same thing last night

Another thing, by making DC police the ones who secure the capital, Bush is pushing
the tab on the "locals" once again.

[charlie]

57. I live close enough

that I could visit DC on a weekend, but I won't for this very reason. When I was a kid I tooled around DC unrestrained. Got into a Senate elevator with John Glenn and ran into an ailing Hubert Humphrey in the Capitol subway. Got Senate gallery passes just by walking into John Tower's office (and my pals were welcomed as "guests of the Great State of Texas" by the gum-cracking receptionist, since their Senator's offices gave us raggedy long-haired kids the brush off). I couldn't bear going back to occupied bomb-barriered DC. Better to just enjoy the memories I have.

[MissWaverly]

58. it reminds me of the song about the last time I saw Paris

it's streets were bright and gay

[anarch]

59. all those damn cops, and still

this: http://www.nbc4.com/news/9289001/detail.html

[MissWaverly]

60. it's all for show to intimidate people not security

otherwise, they would ask other countries how they maintain security and install cameras
and have alert teams respond quickly with small ammunitions, we are not fighting the battle
of the bulge on the mall.