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Biden Reveals Location of Secret VP Bunker
Hugh Pickens writes "Fox News reports that 'Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.' According to the report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old US Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president. Although earlier reports had placed the Vice-Presidential hide-out in a highly secure complex of buildings inside Raven Rock Mountain near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, Fox News reports that the Naval Observatory bunker is believed to be the secure, undisclosed location former Vice President Dick Cheney remained under protection in secret after the 9/11 attacks. According to the report, Biden 'said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment.' According to Eleanor Clift, Newsweek magazine's Washington contributing editor 'the officer explained that when Cheney was in lock down, this was where his most trusted aides were stationed, an image that Biden conveyed in a way that suggested we shouldn't be surprised that the policies that emerged were off the wall.' In December 2002, neighbors complained of loud construction work being done at the Naval Observatory, which has been used as a residence by vice presidents since 1974. The upset neighbors were sent a letter by the observatory's superintendent, calling the work 'sensitive in nature' and 'classified' and that it was urgent it be completed on a highly accelerated schedule."
Doesn't change the fact that he shouldn't have discussed it at all.
I'm wondering when he'll give away something that actually matters.
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
Even if this is accurate -- which, given the source, I kinda doubt -- so freakin' what? Looks like /. is taking a page from the Fark playbook and posting flamebait worthy articles to drum up page clicks.
The old US Naval Observatory was located in Foggy Bottom, just across from where the Kennedy Center is now. If you are coming in from Virginia across the Roosevelt Bridge, you can see at one point the old dome for the 26 inch telescope, where Hall discovered the moons of Mars.
This site is now the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery for the Navy. I bet that the article is referring to a bunker at Observatory Circle.
You mean kind of like exposing the identity of an active duty undercover CIA agent? He's got a long way to go before he can top that one.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Ahh, the Dem. version of Dan Quayle.
Unfortunately, Biden is making Dan Quayle look like a Rhodes Scholar. Will someone please buy that man a muzzle.
I'm truly at a lose when I try to think of anything that man has brought to the ticket. He's been an embarrassment for Obama.
On the bright side, if we let him keep talking, perhaps we will all be told more about what happens at Area 51.
Somehow it's a major gaffe and security lapse to let on that there's a secure bunker under the official residence of the Vice President? I think if you'd asked me if there was one before reading this story, I'd just have assumed so.
Sorry, this is making a story out of basically nothing. I think Biden's kind of a putz sometimes, but this is just kinda bullshitty.
It should read, "Biden reveals location of Vice President's House". I lived in DC for a long time, and I'm pretty sure every one there knows where the Vice President lives.
This is the worst article I've seen on slashdot in a long time. Not only is the content nonsensical, most of the submission is copied directly from the foxnews "article", but it doesn't have quotes around the copied text.
I'm wondering when he'll give away something that actually matters.
You mean like Geraldo Rivera giving away operational plans of our forces when invading Iraq? You know, endangering our brave men and women as they occupy a foreign country for political purposes.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Just remember: any self-respecting king has to have a court jester. Obama's got Biden, Bush 41 had Quayle, and Cheney had Bush 43.
>>Ahh, the Dem. version of Dan Quayle.
Basically. While the sympathetic media reports them as "gaffes" if any Republican said half the stuff that he did, he'd have a lower reputation than Quayle.
Seriously, google "Biden Gaffes".
The report did come from Faux News, after all. They're not exactly known for their impartiality. When was the last time they reported anything positive about a Democrat? (Other than a story about a Democrat that disagrees with the majority of other Democrats.)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Perhaps it's a diversion. "Yeah, we're hiding in this bunker here. Bomb this one." while all the time they're somewhere else entirely.
I won't disagree he needs to control his mouth better. His flu remarks were just plain dumb.
On the other hand, this is no big deal. If somebody wants to target ICBMs to take out the US government's top echelon, they aren't going to skip the old naval observatory because "oh, the veep is in his secret bunker". In any case, the Bush administration pretty much spilled the beans when they had the veep's residence obscured in public imagery data sets.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Sounds like one of those open secrets like "When did the shuttle launch?"
...
All this noise because he revealed one of the many cubbyholes they can stuff the President/Vice-President in when there's threats to the chain of command for the United States?
Any strategist knows that there has to be several of them; it would be completely foolish to think there's only one.
"The truth points to itself." - Kosh, Babylon5
To be fair and balanced. We made fun of the Bush administration for being incompetent on secrets, so we have to make fun of the Obama administration for similar reasons.
It's sort of like when the press pretends like the opposition to rights for GLBT is based upon something other than pure bigotry or that there's a constitutional protection for interfering in other people's lives for bigoted reasons.
Seriously. Obama had the diversity thing down. That's good, however there are many voters who that sort of thing worries. They find comfort in "experience". in politics, that means an old white guy. You can argue they shouldn't care, but they do. Yes, even democrats. That's what Biden brought. He also brought connections to special interest groups, who are powerful in terms of elections. Obama himself didn't have many of those connections, since he is a young politician. Biden on the other hand is deep within Hollywood's pocket, among others.
Now I'm sure to you these aren't bonus points and I'm not saying they are for me either. Just saying that's what they brought to Obama. McCain had the experienced, old white guy thing down. That was one thing he could sell really strongly: "I know about politics and war. I've been there, and done that. You can trust me to make decisions from a position of experience." Biden was to help balance that.
Same deal with Palin on the other side. McCain brought her in for two reasons:
1) To solidify the fundy base. The fundies were none too happy with his nomination. They wanted another fundy president and deluded themselves in to thinking the nation would go with it. So there was a real risk of losing them. No, they wouldn't vote for Obama, but they might get disenfranchised and not vote. Palin cemented them in for McCain.
2) To get the diversity vote. A young, and rather attractive, female. Goes well to deal with Obama's diversity. This is doubly true since there were women's groups that were bitter about Clinton losing. Stupid, but they really did vote for McCain because he chose a female vice president.
Of course what McCain didn't count on was that she was as big a nit wit as she is, and that the press would give her so much play. Normally vice presidents are rather non-entities. They are picked for the reason I stated: To make the president look good in various ways with various groups. However the media really let Palin have it and gave her a chance to sit her foot firmly in her mouth. Gave plenty of people pause when they realized how crazy she was.
It's the job of the military to censor that sort of information.
It was a LIVE broadcast. You think the military had the equipment necessary to do a 3-second delay for EVERY news crew that was embedded with the troops?
Further, it's known to every reporter that under no circumstances do they divulge operational information without it first being cleared by the military censors. Why Geraldo was the ONLY reporter not to understand this dictum is left as an exercise for the reader.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The problem with revealing even a PAST CIA agent's identity is that every cover company they worked for and every other agent they had contact with is now exposed as well and some of THEM may be still active. It's seriously one of the few areas where 'but national security' is actually true, unlike stupid shit like taking a picture of a building which has been photographed millions of times before.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
"Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury."
I always wondered why it wasn't a crime to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent on active duty. If it IS a crime, why wasn't Libby or anyone else ever charged with that offense?
Bullshit flag on play! This is one of the most enduring urban legends within the military and intelligence communities. Sorry. Fail.
With a "dumb" electorate, you get "leaders" who have little or no training in economics, business, international relations or governance. Thus we get people who often have money or married it and smile enough in good looking cloths with cute one sentence sound bites to amuse people who get their news & "analysis" in one sentence sound bites and the electorate then ELECT those, hmm, 'political actors'. We should not be surprised at the empty heads in WDC. Rather to be expected.
Note that at the time she was exposed, she was still considered an undercover operative. And here's another source:
She was still active duty, she could have gone undercover when a new assignment came up, and Cheney and Co. leaked her name anyway to the press for political purposes. And yet somehow my comment above is getting flamebait and troll mods for pointing this out. The words "double standards" come to mind. When Republicans lie and cheat and steal, it's for our protection, when Democrats do it, it's because they're traitorous liberals who hate america. Hypocrisy.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
I have to think a similar dual effect happened with regards to Dan Quayle.
I don't think it did, primarily because the media wasn't as partisan then as it is now. There was no Fox News or MSNBC.
At the same time, none of Biden's gaffes have suggested that he can't spell.
Not that I'm interested in defending Quayle, but I always found the spelling bit a red herring. Lots of *very* smart people can't spell. The ability to memorize a large list of words (or the unwillingness to do so) doesn't convey intelligence one way or the other. I always find it strange that people want to equate knowing lots of little bits of information with intelligence.
The location and description of this bunker is in Bob Woodward's latest book, The War Within , published by Simon & Schuster on 8 September 2008.
Yes, Geraldo is also an idiot. What is your point?
You mean kind of like exposing the identity of an active duty undercover CIA agent? He's got a long way to go before he can top that one.
And who gave away the ID of that "undercover" agent? If you are implying that Cheney had anything to do with it, you are dead wrong. It was Richard Armitage. Although I understand how tempting it is to pin this on the big bad Dick and his staff, it's simply not true. It does make me wonder, however, of the bad stuff that gets falsely pinned to Dick, if the guy is really that bad at all. If people like you falsely accuse Cheney of this well after it has been proven to be false, how much other stuff out there is being pinned on the Bush administration that it had nothing to do with. I could list several more examples, like "Bush banned stem cell research" but don't want to get further off topic. I feel this is worth pointing out as a fine example of "if you repeat a lie over and over, it becomes true."
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Sorry, but that's when Dan should turn to the organizer and say, "This card has the wrong answer on it."
His failure to manually make the correction means he's just as wrong as the person who wrote the index card.
Again it shows that the smart thing to do (especially if you ARE innocent) is if the feds/cops come around asking questions. Shut up, and lawyer up.
You know...it has always bothered me that the cops can lie to you with impunity, yet you get in trouble if you lie to them?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Quayle's (ghostwritten) memoirs -- there's a unbiased source to be quoting.
should have shot him.
it would have been legal to do so.
-nB
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The words "double standards" come to mind. When Republicans lie and cheat and steal, it's for our protection, when Democrats do it, it's because they're traitorous liberals who hate america. Hypocrisy.
Both sides will lie, cheat, and steal anything they can to make their side look good and the other side look bad. Neither party has a monopoly on douchebaggery.
Yeah... because Armitage is some "made up guy". And he's in the pocket of the this vast evil conspiracy, right? And Novak has this huge documented history of lying, right? I'm sure it's just an oversight of yours to forget to include citations, right?
Not that I'm interested in defending Quayle, but I always found the spelling bit a red herring. Lots of *very* smart people can't spell. The ability to memorize a large list of words (or the unwillingness to do so) doesn't convey intelligence one way or the other. I always find it strange that people want to equate knowing lots of little bits of information with intelligence.
I might have an answer for that. Intelligence can be measured thru methods, those basically depend on communication skills of individuals. So it does not matter how fast/efficient/creative/clear/clever a person thinks, if s/he cannot tell people what is happening between his/her ears, then there is a problem. Surely the verbal communication is not the only form of communication. There is music, performing arts, mathematical expressions, programming etc. However a politician's main, if not only, mode off communication is with people thru written and spoken human basic languages. So if a person (Quayle or George the second) cannot use this method it doesn't matter how intelligent this person is (lets say in mathematics...) He does not have necessary skills to perform his chosen (probably, preferably by himself) profession. And if this person does not know his own limitations, then his intelligence in general can be questioned.
"He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name."
See, this is the part I don't get. I don't style myself an intellectual pundit with my finger on the pulse of Washington, but Good God! What kind of "difficulties" does Novak think known CIA operatives are subject to in other countries? Unable to get good wifi spots? Not able to attract the attention of waiters? I'm thinking...hmmm...it'll come to me... oh yeah. The people who hate us might try to kill her and every asset she ever ran. And I don't even get paid to put in the maybe ten microseconds of logic it took to get there.
If Sam Adams was alive, he would come in the dead of night for Mr. Novak - with the Sons of Liberty, some pitch, some feathers, and a rail.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Yeah, yeah, and Al Capone wasn't really a mobster, he merely failed to disclose certain things on his tax returns that may or may not have had anything to do with crime, we can't really say.
What part of "Libbie was convicted of perjury," as in convicted of lying to conceal the truth, makes you think the truth got out?
The enemies of Democracy are
Just remember: any self-respecting king has to have a court jester. Obama's got Biden, Bush 41 had Quayle, and Cheney had Bush 43.
Obama is a court jestor. You can watch his teleprompter ping pong, count the urrr's and ummm's, watch him completely lose the ability to talk when the teleprompters go out, etc.
No, that would be Bush. Obama is a professional orator (psst, that means he's dun got trainin' in how to speachify). The whole teleprompter thing is the Republicans attempting to attack people on their strengths. They've done this for decades now.
Obama's a phenomenal speaker, the Republicans have jack and crap for charisma this generation. So, attack him on that, make him look like he's "cheating" or really NOT a good speaker, and hope the public are willing to believe your talking points over their lying eyes.
Fortunately they're so far out in the wilderness now (they're even attacking Obama's little dog, too) that this kinda thing isn't working. People are tired of National Enquirer style politics.
>>Ahh, the Dem. version of Dan Quayle.
Basically. While the sympathetic media reports them as "gaffes" if any Republican said half the stuff that he did, he'd have a lower reputation than Quayle.
Seriously, google "Biden Gaffes".
I did. Most of the "Biden Gaffes" are either from Conservative wingnut blogs or from the media, but upon further examination, they're complete non-issues. Like telling people not to go into enclosed places if people are sick -- well, duh, that's common sense. But the Media has "BIDEN MAEK GAFFE" as a meme right now, so, doesn't matter what he says -- if there's a negative way to take it, zomg, GAFFE.
And I'll have you know that after 8 years of a free pass from Bush basically running this country into the ground by the "liberal" media the very idea that the media has any form of "liberal" bias is laughable. Sure, the reporters might be liberal, but the decision-makers are hardline conservatives. Suddenly the media might "wake up" (read: start actually doing their jobs instead of just copy/pasting press releases) to avoid giving Obama a free pass, but that's fine, because outside of some fabricated scandals, so far, smooth sailing.
In court? The truth that Libbie lied "got out". Since there was no proof that he knew who leaked Plame's name, it obviously didn't come out. It's not unreasonable that this "truth" didn't exist in the Libbie case.
However, in 2006, THAT truth DID come out. It was Armitage. He came forward. Novak confirmed.
Per Novak:
And this:
Why not jump on Armitage for wasting vast government resources by not coming forward?
You're ignoring the primary contests (mentioned above) between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both democrats. Given a choice between two (more or less) identical Democrats, black voters overwhelmingly chose the black candidate. Women voters sometimes preferred the woman candidate, but not consistently and not by the margins seen with race-based voting.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
There is no honor in hiding the truth, you submissive little soldier.
In court? The truth that Libbie lied "got out". Since there was no proof that he knew who leaked Plame's name, it obviously didn't come out.
I'm obviously talking about the truth that the lie was intended to cover. Yes there's no proof he knew who leaked, just as there's no proof Al Capon was a mobster. And indeed, maybe Al was truly just a tax cheat.
The point is -- when the only facts you have are the sworn statements of those involved, and those involved are known to be lying, believing that the version of "truth" these known liars converge upon is actually the truth is ridiculously naive.
[They] cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson.
Yeah, we just had high-level administration officials lying to investigators and the court to cover up the truth. What truth? We don't know. Therefore this group of powerful liars could not possibly have been engaged in conspiracy.
That's logic.
Why not jump on Armitage for wasting vast government resources by not coming forward?
Indeed, why not? For all we know the reason it took so long is because that's how long it took for them to get their story straight in a way that didn't leave anyone (but Libby) swinging in the wind.
The enemies of Democracy are
Given a choice between two (more or less) identical Democrats
Ah yes. And thus does our progress towards completely losing our ability to distinguish continue apace.
The enemies of Democracy are
Yes, she did in fact say it.
Stealing link from AC above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nokTjEdaUGg
No, she didn't. The GP falsely stated that Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Wasilla. Palin never said this. In your link, she never said that. She's never said that she could Russia from her house. She did say that you can see Russia from parts of Alaska, and it turns out that is true.
However, in your link, Palin did say that Alaska sits between Russia and Canada. Now, I don't know how well you know your geography, but if you wander over a globe, map or even launch Google Earth, you will see that Alaska really does sit between Canada and Russia.
It's sad when someone says something that is 100% true (and not classified), and gets ridiculed for it by the ignorant.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Yeah, I posted a mea culpa and you are right.
It's ridiculed, because what she said didn't make much sense. She was asked if she had foreign policy experience. Being in close proximity to a foreign country does not count. Maybe the reason Fey's statement is linked so much to the actual statement is because it was a good summation.
It doesn't particularly matter. Politicians say dumb things.
Your signature is oddly appropriate in this case.
However, I don't think Obama and Hillary were at all "more or less identical". Except to people who weren't interested in voting for either of them in the first place.
Democrats were fairly polarized over Hillary vs. Obama, and for once it wasn't because the candidates were overwhelmingly the same--it was because they were overwhelmingly different.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
All depends on what "rights" for GLBT you are talking about. If you refer to freedom of speech and others from the Bill of Rights, sure that would imply pure bigotry. On the other hand, opposing rights newly "discovered" that no judge from 50+ years ago, let alone the founding fathers or others writing the laws/amendments would have possibly construed as being there is not bigoted, it is respect for the rule of law. As far as I am aware (and there may be some small exception somewhere in time and space) until 50 years ago, nowhere in the world were things like gay marriage even considered. Thus claiming that to be some sort of universal right seems rather silly. I'm not saying that it should be denied if a state (like Vermont) enacts the proper legislation for it, but suing for the 'right' to gay marriage or trying to have the courts overturn an amendment barring it (California, I'm looking at you) is cynical manipulation of the legal system and just plain wrong.
How is this relevant, except in your mind that views everything as partisan attacks?
It's sort of like when the press pretends like the opposition to rights for GLBT is based upon something other than pure bigotry or that there's a constitutional protection for interfering in other people's lives for bigoted reasons.
Or sort of like when all people that don't agree with your opinion, lifestyle, morals, or ideas must be bigots, hate mongers and dolts?
When is Bill Clinton getting out of jail again for lying in a federal investigation?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
It still doesn't discount the fact he's a douche. Now... you might have others convinced he's a fragrant smelling douche, but he's still a douche.
Nice spin though. I'll give you props for trying at least.
Life is not for the lazy.