Nearly got run down by Cheney's motorcade today

[Recursion]

Unless there's some other fat bald guy who gets three identical limos (and two fat bald body doubles) and a police and secret service escort that plowed around DuPont Circle this afternoon.

Living in DC there are some things you get used to, and that's one of them. Whether it's stumbling away from the Irish ambassador's limo on St. Patrick's day as he goes to the White House for a toast (this was back in Big Dog's day) or whether it's coming back to where you parked your car an hour before to find it had been hastily towed to another street (God knows where) because they cleared the road for a Presidential motorcade. It's just one of the prices of living here (and well worth it).

There were two neat reactions in the people around me. First, a couple of guys flipped him the bird (though we usually do that to all motorcades as a matter of principle). Second, there were two Army NCOs in uniform standing near me, and one of him turned his back as the motorcade approached. I heard him say to his friend "I hate saluting that fuck". It was a lovely moment.

[bluerum]

1. Hey - it's ok for them to kill you. You're just one of the working class.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hav]

3. .

Good story. I bet Cheney asks himself why people just don't like him.

[sharp_stick]

4. I flip off almost all motorcades

I love the NCO comment. One question though, if it was crashcart where was his 24 hour ambulance escort? I mean we have millions of kids without healthcare in this country and that french fry swallowing prick has a 24 hr doctor, shouldn't he also rate a 24 hour ambulance escort.

[Recursion]

7. Oddly enough, there was an ambulance shortly after it

But I think it was unrelated. The motorcade was an assload of motorcycle cops, 2 police sedans, the three limos with a telcom SUV (I've never seen so many antennae), 2 black SUVs, 2 more cruisers, and then another assload of motorcycle cops. The general motorcade template is that just without the telcom SUV. You know it's a high-value when they have the communications van.

[WoodrowFan]

11. probably him

I work near there and I've been told that the biggest motorcades are the Prez and the Veep. Cabinet Secretaries don't get as big an escort.

It's funny how many people flip off a motorcade when it goes past..

[WI_DEM]

12. apparently there is always an ambulance close by to Cheney

It's in case he has a heart attack or shoots somebody again.

[Ian David]

16. I don't think Cheney let his ambulance take care of Wittendon. n/t

[WI_DEM]

5. Why doesn't the Secret Service investigate Cheney trying to run down

pedestrians and shooting old guys in the face?

[reichstag911]

6. Unitary executive,...

...and the OP is clearly an enemy pedestrian who hates our freedoms.

[TahitiNut]

8. The Vice President does not merit a salute.

He's neither in the chain of command nor a military officer.

[Recursion]

10. I was taught to salute from cabinet secretary up

Not just SecDef but any cabinet secretary, along with POTUS, VPOTUS, Senators, and SCOTUS.

Come to think of it, when I learned my chain of command in boot camp, Gore was in it.

[TahitiNut]

15. It's only appropriate in a ceremonial context.

The Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (PL 99-433) is the current authority of who's in the chain of command. The Vice President ain't there. SecDef reports to the President. The Vice President has no Constitutional authority for the military. He's no more in the chain of command than Karl Rove - civilian staff. For other purposes (seniority in meetings, accommodations, etc.), every civilian member of the Executive Branch has a 'protocol seniority' stated in terms of military rank, but that's to define political pecking order, not military authority.

Lot's of us were taught "if it moves, salute it; if it doesn't, paint it!" That doesn't make it right.

Remember, we were also taught that we were "saluting the uniform, not the person."

[bullwinkle428]

9. Body doubles? Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President of the

United States of Ameriraq! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

[OzarkDem]

13. Great story

especially about the military guy's response.

Tell me, what are the motorcades that are made up of city buses that look empty (maybe 1 or 2 people inside, sometimes none) zooming around town with police escorts, sirens wailing? I saw those a couple of years ago, coincidentally when the AIPAC convention was in town.

[PlanetBev]

14. In March 2004, I got into a car accident because of Crash Cart

Unbeknownst to me, his motorcade was heading south on the 101 freeway toward Thousand Oaks. I was heading north at the same time. All of a sudden, the car in front of me came to a dead stop, and I stopped in the nick of time. Then I heard a car screech behind me, hit me hard in the left bumper, and when I went to get over into the breakdown lane, the old beater car that hit me took off like a bat out of hell. No insurance, obviously. That cop that helped me told me that everyone stopped short to have a look at Cheney's car.

I was on company time, so the boss paid for the damage so my insurance wouldn't go up, but I still hate the thought that I got into a accident because of that fat fuck Cheney.

[Ian David]

17. I'd be careful about flipping-off motorcades. What if it's an ambasador?

You could be charged with "intimidating or disrupting foreign official."

See:

We Aren't in America Any More
Reported by Janie - April 21, 2006
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/04/21/we_arent_in_america_any_more.php