Thursday, February 23, 2006

Planespotting....

In the Guantanamo Express post I mentioned that I always double check Bennie's tips. This is not because I doubt what he says......but because I know his story is always only the tip of the iceberg.......

One of Bennie's Buddies is a venture capital guy from the Bay Area. He flew into the SFO jetport in his Gulfstream last week, back from a tough week of venturing. It was a gorgeous day in the City, and as Buddy got off his jet on the apron, he looked around, he saw all the other Gulfstreams lined up on the apron, with their tails ever so.....against the beautiful blue sky. He took out his camera to record the moment......

A siren went off, and the next thing he knew....a big Suburban roared up. Two Homeland Security guys jumped out, and yelled at him: "Put down that camera!!" Now, Buddy is a Billionaire......and he just got off his OWN Gulfstream.....this is not some geek with a backpack. "It is against the Patriot Act to photograph tail numbers on this apron!" They took his camera, and erased the image.

Another act of terroism averted.....

This means: 1) it may or may not be illegal to photgraph airplanes at a public jetport; 2) they have cameras on the runways of the jetport; 3) there are dudes watching the playback from the cameras; 4) the dudes watching the cameras are in radio communication with guys in Suburbans who are guarding the jetport against camera-toting billionaires; 5) those planespotting geeks really have the big boys' tits in a wringer; 6) how many Guantanamo Express jets are there......or why else would they not want the tail numbers photographed?

I can't wait till we do the party for Robert Redford at OUR local jetport next month. I hope the cameras get aload of my bumperstickers. We always feed the cops on jobs.....I wonder if the Homeland Security guys will come over for scotch and foie gras like the regular cops.......

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