Defibrillator

Vice President Dick Cheney was in town yesterday. He happened to stay at a hotel near my work, and so traffic was kind of messed up. My coworker friend and I walked up to the barricades and chatted with the police officers as they stood by waiting for the motorcade to move. We saw about a dozen or so motorcycle cops, from 3 or 4 different local, county, and state jurisdictions. The officers were nice and chatty, but couldn't give us any detailed information. Next thing we knew, the motorcycles started up and several took off, paving the way by stopping traffic, etc. A couple of generic Washington State Patrol vehicles appeared from the side alleyway, followed by 3 black armored limos, 2 black Suburbans (the 2nd SUV was bristling with antennae, a couple of which looked like 6 foot long, very thick global satellite -type antennas). After the SUVs, the funniest thing: a pair of MedicOne trucks followed. Two of them? One truck had to be the decoy in case something happened?

Less than a minute after the motorcade left, the remaining officers began taking down all the barriers and putting them aside. It boggles the mind to think about how much of our tax dollars get burned with each and every one of these events.