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As snowmageddon approaches, governor takes decisive action
By adamg on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 2:44pm
Deval Patrick headed for the official state Bunker in Framingham to guide us through the next troubled hours - after he slips into an official state cardigan with which to reassure us on the Emergency Broadcast Network:
The governor is in the (underground) house. Photo by MassDOT Secretary Jeff Mullan.
Fun bunker facts: The surface entrance has a giant steel door leading to a downward hallway built in a zig-zag pattern to repel alpha beta radiation, it sits on giant springs to withstand tremors from nearby nuclear blasts and it has a two-bay refrigerated morgue.
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Comments
No cardigan for Deval
He's clearly a Vest Man! Polar fleece, down, etc. Always with the vest!
Given what his recent polling numbers look like
That refrigerated morgue may come in handy for storing what's left of his political career.
If Patrick's in charge of blizzard response...
...does that mean we can expect a tornado, a plague of locusts, frogs raining down, etc.?
Science faaaaiiil
The surface entrance has a giant steel door leading to a downward hallway built in a zig-zag pattern to repel alpha rays
Alpha radiation is stopped by a piece of paper, no concrete required. Beta and gamma radiation are more of a problem.
I'm glad to see my tax dollars at work maintaining a useless bunker. I wonder if it ever occurs to these assholes that in a democracy, if leadership is wiped out, we ELECT NEW LEADERSHIP.
to be fair, it is being used...
...it's the home base of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (staffed 24/7), and they have some big training rooms they lend out to other agencies. i've been to a few events there, and i sort of like the bunker. it's a throwback to the cold war (when it was built) and reflects that. yet they've managed to find a suitable modern use for it.
You're right, my God, my mind is going!
It's beta radiation, not alpha radiation.
And the thing was built back in the bad old days ('50s? '60s?), so don't worry about teachers being laid off or something.
early sixties.
it was dedicated on November 16, 1963.
excellent logic.... "Hey
excellent logic.... "Hey kids, don't bother with looking both ways or buckling your seatbelt, we can always make more."
The facility was built during
The facility was built during the cold war when people thought the biggest threat was a nuke strike to Boston. Obviously that is less of a concern now but that explains the building of the facility so far from Boston. This facility is where all the connections are , it is where everyone knows to go, it had all the technology already. Should we rebuild it elsewhere or should we continue using the building we paid for 50 years ago? You never know what the next threat will be, if we already have a bunker keep it, I may not have built it in 2010 but why throw it out?
This is just a thought experiment I would not have brought up otherwise but you did say that it does not matter if our elected officials died because we would just replace them... Also in reference to just electing new leadership that is very short sited. While I feel the same way about our being a Democracy and nobody being expendable in the whole scheme of things and as much as I dislike the Governor it is important to have leaders in a time of crisis. Anything that would kill our elected leadership would most likely cause massive damage and kill many other people. In that situation I would like someone to be in charge INSTANTLY and be able to take command of the National Guard and communicate with the Federal Government. If the government leadership is killed who administers the election? Do we just wait for an election, after suffering through whatever killed the leadership, until we get new leadership? Who runs the show in the interim? Yes we live in a Democracy, we elected our leadership, when the shit hits the fan I want my elected leadership running the show and not just some thug who took over the government while it was headless.
Don't reply to the
Don't reply to the dittoheads. They're really not looking for an rational answer, it's time wasted.
blast Deval with Gamma....he needs it to get re-elected...
Gamma radiation is what Bruce Banner got and you know what happened to him - the HULK!!! Actually that would be good for the gov. though it does not seem he ever gets angry. But that would be a good ad...I can see it now.... the uninsured, waste and abuse of gov't money, extortion, special interests... then you see the gov's eyes go green and next thing you now.....Deval HULK....
You could also throw in a clip of him talking to Andrea Estes the intrepid reporter, saying, "Ms. Estes, don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I am angry."
Your MetroWest/Middlesex is showing
And how many times did you get sent to the bunker for a story? I always figured I'd rather take my chances outside!
That obvious, huh?
Yeah, I spent some time down in the bunker, although never during An Actual Emergency (rode out part of one hurricane at what used to be the Natick Hilton with some drunken out of town businessmen before dodging downed tree limbs and wires on Rte. 9 to get back to the newsroom). But I could never get an answer to one question: If the Russians launched the missiles (I started when, thanks to Reagan, the towns in the paper's circulation area had to develop plans for dealing with nuclear-war evacuees from Boston), and they locked the door, and they heard a knock (actually, a call on the phone up at the surface entrance), would they let the person in?
protocol dictates...
no, they would not. they would basically let that person perish, since the continuation of critical operations would be more useful. sucks for the dude outside, huh?
Probably depends who it was...
Citizen Brett attempts to show those at MEMA that even a piece of paper can stop those alpha rays from comming down there. (Then he tells them how stupid they all are.)
I liked the part where Brett
I liked the part where Brett insinuated we should just wipe out politicians and elect new ones.
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
In case you haven't been paying attention, it's not like one is much different from the next.
And I didn't say we should wipe out politicians and elect new ones. I said we shouldn't obsessively (and expensively) protect them. If the governor is killed, that's why we have a lieutenant governor. It's a personal tragedy someone was killed, but nothing more.
Let's look at it this way: in the 60 years since the government started all this bunker crap, has it ever come in handy? And how many trillions of dollars have been wasted that could have been spent on other things?
Also notice that the shelters for the public are not only no longer maintained, but most signs for the shelters have been removed? Basically, politicians aren't doing it for the public good. They're doing it for themselves.
It may come as a shock to many people from the US that politicians in other countries walk the streets, shop the grocery stores- without bodyguards, even! Remember the Swiss Foreign Minister who was stabbed while shopping a department store? No bodyguards present. Some politicians actually like to live free. Even really important ones. The country mourned, they caught the killer within a week or so.
Remember the Swiss Foreign
But at least no taxpayer
But at least no taxpayer dollars were wasted paying bodyguards!
Hmm. How much did it cost to catch the killer?
My god history fails you.
My god history fails you. Pick a book once in a while.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
thank me later
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaS11fW7nNc
I didn't think of Tin Foil, though. Why, we could just wrap our top government officials in tin foil!
(Before any smartypants comes in, yes, I know alpha radiation is almost exclusively dangerous when ingested/inhaled.)
So far it's noddegamwons
Is the opposite of something that thing spelled backwards? If not it should be (unless it's a palindrome which means the same in both directions. Not to be confused with a Palindrone which is a longwinded politician that reads notes from the palm of her hand).
If a new bunker was built
If a new bunker was built today, it would start filling up with water after about six months, and within a year someone would be killed by a falling section of the roof. It would come in 800% over budget, and no one would be arrested, much less charged with any crimes.
And of course...
The new bunker staff would then cash out unused sick and vacation time, averaging about $300K each. And then
retire on a full pension.
Meanwhile, Ms. Martha ...
Coakley would find some small waterproofing contractor from out of state to pummel for her usual grandstanding purposes, while ignoring blatant violations of contracting laws by her contributor friends who were in charge of the mess.
what do you think they are
what do you think they are saying in this picture... I bet he is sharing one of his cooking recipes...the gov just loves to cook at home.... God know he can't cook at work....