[lbo-talk] Security blimp tested in Washington skies

[Kendall Clark]

> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Here's a head-turner for a security-nervous city:
> A large white object was spotted in the skies above the nation's
> capital in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday.
> 
> Pentagon police said the Defense Department is testing a security
> blimp -- fully equipped with surveillance cameras. The white blimp
> was spotted early Wednesday morning hovering at various times over
> the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.
> 
> The 178-foot-long device, which is expected to remain in the skies
> until Thursday, is conducting a mission for the Defense Department.

Actually the damn thing hovered over my part off Northwest for most of
Thursday. It floated from about 13th and Mass (the old Shawn
neighborhood) to near Howard U. all day. Damn creepy. I'm not sure
what kind of testing is being done, and I'm not sure how hand-to-hands
look from the air anything like  "Fallujahn resistance". I  find the
official explanation inherently unbelievable.

It was made even more creepy  by the fact that most folks on the
street when I was out and about didnt' seem to notice it, and didn't
seem to be bothered by it when they did. Maybe we *don't* deserve to
be free from surveillance, since so many of us are comforted by it.

The whole day was particularly surreal since I had to walk from the
blimp's range over into Dupont twice, once in the morning and once in
the afternoon. On both walks a street was closed off for a high-level
convoy, replete with secret service outriders. Given the hostile mood
the blimp had put me in, I kept making eye contact with SS people,
mouthing either 'asshole' or 'fuck you'. I got some hard looks but
apparently it's not yet a security threat to curse the SS.

Gah, I wish I could find a gig in Philly or NYC -- many days DC just
ain't worth the pain!

Kendall Clark