Boondoggle
 

I work in a building not too far from the White House, and on nice days I go for walks around that area. Today, I was noticing all the new security they have in light of the recent new Orange threat level. A new temporary interlocking fence now surrounds the entire place, and several additional cop cars parked here and there were only some of the visible changes.

There's an ongoing construction project in front of the White House to convert the former Pennsylvania Avenue into a sort of park. Lots of construction equipment in there behind the secure fence.

As I walked past one checkpoint entering the construction zone, I saw a security guy checking out a truck trying to enter. I noticed that the poor security guy was dressed like a SWAT officer in all black (not so comfortable in DC in August) with a big vest reading "POLICE Secret Service."

This guy was standing on top of the truck, very quickly opening hatches on the truck with his hands, peering in to each open hatch, and then stomping them closed with his foot. On the side of the truck were numerous signs, like the ones you see on fuel trucks, saying "Highly Flammable", "Gasoline", "No Smoking", etc. The truck has several different tanks, each apparently carrying a different type of fuel, for refueling the various pieces of equipment working in the construction site.

He waved the refueling truck, carrying several tons of various highly flammable and explosive liquids, through to the White House, but I can't take a nail file onto an airplane.

We live in interesting times.

how closely do you think they've checked out the construction workers and drivers that have access to the machines in that area?

Beats me. I imagine they have done some checking.

Why bother inspecting a truck carrying gasoline? Was he sniffing in the hatches to see if he noticed a "chemical smell?"

at least he didn't say "hey it's to dark to see" and whip out his Zippo

but seriously - if he is checking for unusual smells, he would be looking for trace scents of fertilizer.

The fertilizer was on the landscape truck in front of the gasoline truck. ;)

oh. :(

Oh, hell...there's hundreds of thousands of tons of fertilizer emanating from the Oval Office every day during election year.

Wouldn't be the first time ... Wasn't there a fire at Brown's Ferry Nuclear Power Station that was started by a maintance worker using a candle to check for air leaks in some kind of compressed air line?

GAH HA HA HA :D