"A man who says he operated a drone that crashed on the White House grounds early Monday is an employee of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, according to law enforcement officials. He told Secret Service investigators that he had been drinking at an apartment nearby before he lost control of the craft, the officials said."
The NYT reports.
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45 comments:
We don’t really have any kind of regulatory structure at all for it
This is not a problem. Except for people who are bureaucrats.
The Country is in the best of hands.
Come Congress we need a Drunk While Droning law.
Who will be the first to sponsor a biil.
"Hold my beer and watch this"
But they do have a regulatory structure. The FAA bans flights of any drone, model aircraft or even tethered balloon within fifteen nautical miles of Reagan National Airport. And there's a special no-fly zone above the White House as well. The problem is enforceability of such bans--and that will remain no matter how elaborate a regulatory structure they create.
This sounds like bullshit. Not buying it.
This was an Obama stunt to spur federal regulation of recreational drones.
Obama talks a lot of B.S.
He apparently really does not know that much about how his government works.
Come on. Drones are hard to fly when sober. Probation sounds right...or attempted Murder of a sitting President.
We just need to know whether he is a Tea Party type or a good person to get the charge right. God forbid his name is Petraus.
If he's a contractor at NGA, he just lost clearance and his job. If he's a Fed, he can't lose his job unless they convict him of something.
pretty much...
An apartment nearby
Suuuuuuuure......
Take a look at this href="https://www.walkscore.com/DC/Washington_D.C./Downtown">link. Notice that there really aren't any apartments near the WH. And the area near the WH is surrounded in every direction except the south by tall buildings, so the guy would have to very carefully navigate the drone down very busy streets to fly to the WH. One could barely do it sober.
I'm calling major BS on this tall-tale!
The Drone Has Been Drinking
The drone has been drinking
my necktie is asleep
and the race-baiter went back to New York
the encryption device has to take a leak
and the carpet needs a haircut
and the spotlight looks like a prison break
cause the telephone's out of cigarettes
and the White House is on the make
and the drone has been drinking
the drone has been drinking...
and the president's Daily Briefings are all freezing
and the Director's blind in one eye
and he can't see out of the other
and the NSA's got a hearing aid
and they showed up with their mother
and the drone has been drinking
the drone has been drinking
cause the Secret Service is a Sumo wrestler
cream puff casper milk toast
and the president is a mental midget
with the I.Q. of a fencepost
cause the drone has been drinking
the drone has been drinking...
and you can't find your senator
with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends
and you just can't get served
without her
and the IRS is drooling
and the emails are on fire
and the newspapers were fooling
and the ash-trays have retired
the drone has been drinking
the drone has been drinking
The drone has been drinking
not me, not me, not me, not me, not me
I'd worry about the paper airplane menace with the Washington Monument so close.
Maybe it was underinflated.
When I saw the name of the agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, I figured this must be an Onion parody. There can't REALLY be an agency with such a name.
Wrong again.
I am not a robot drone.
Presidents Against Drunk Droning, PADD
Boths kinds of droning, so it covers both impaired pilots and boors.
Drunk boors anyway. Clearly presidents are okay with sober droning.
The story does sound fishy. That little drone in the picture is unlikely to have a range much more than 200 meters. That puts you at Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House, not drunk in an apartment miles away.
The Godfather said...
When I saw the name of the agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, I figured this must be an Onion parody. There can't REALLY be an agency with such a name.
a merger back around 1900 (IIRC) of the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) (e.g. map makers) and the National Photo Interpretation Center (NPIC) (a CIA aritifact, guy's with stereo glasses counting tanks and missiles)
They became the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), but had three letter agency envy. All the cool guys have three letters.
CIA
FBI
NSA
NRO
DIA
and now NGA = National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Springfield Virginia...
Thanks, Drill SGT, for the background. When Scott Walker becomes President, part of his American Revival will be to require this agency to revert to a 4-letter acronymn, PLUS a hyphen: NG-IA. In fact, maybe Geospatial ought to be hyphenated. NG-S-IA. But that'll be for the second term.
Still not a robot.
I can confirm what Drill SGT said.
From another thread on this subject, isn't the thingy dragged behind an airplane called a drogue not a drone?
yes tim,
also the short small chute that pre-deploys in cargo drops and space capsule descents.
to stabilize, rather than slow the payload
They became the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), but had three letter agency envy. All the cool guys have three letters.
That's why they're known as TLAs, for Three Letter Acronyms. You aren't cool if you don't have a TLA.
At sea, a drogue is a floating anchor dragged behind a ship to slow it down and stabilize it in bad weather.
" The problem is enforceability of such bans"
Shotguns.
DWI, MADD ....
I hope Obama doesn't use Amazon. Amazon plans to start delivering packages by drone. This could get ugly. But it might make a really funny movie.
a merger back around 1990
Good job, EDH. One of my favorites.
"National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency"?
For realz?
"Fishy"
White House is just settling on a scapegoat to protect Biden, who's getting bored.
Sure it wasn't VP Buffoon Biden's drone?
Top Men.
runners make it all the way over the fence, across the lawn, into the building, and down the hall before anybody figures out what to do. drones come flying at the building and are only noticed when they are tripped over on the lawn. what the heck kind of security force is in place at the whitehouse ?
I just don't think the White House is secure anymore. As soon as we get a conservative in there again, look for assassination attempts.
I just don't think the White House is secure anymore. As soon as we get a conservative in there again, look for assassination attempts."
Who could the Republicans get as their Joe Biden-life insurance for their next president?
Looks to me as though the Secret Service has been begging someone to take out their guy for a couple of years now.
All I need is this remote control!
And this lamp. And this paddle ball.
Bob Ellison said...
The story does sound fishy. That little drone in the picture is unlikely to have a range much more than 200 meters. That puts you at Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House, not drunk in an apartment miles away.
Maybe it was being controlled from inside the WH.
You know? Those agents sitting around going "I gotta take a bullet for that douche bag?"
" Fuck it. gimme another beer and that controller. Let's see what this thing can do."
The Drill SGT said...
a merger back around 1990
According to Wikipedia the merger was in 1996.
I worked for a company that did contract work for the DMA, and I presented some on-site training for them in ~1993.
"Who could the Republicans get as their Joe Biden-life insurance for their next president?"
Sarah Palin! Duh.
(Note: I think Palin would do just fine--heck if Biden can do it then Ivan the Gorilla could probably manage the office--I'm just saying that's the the left will think of her.)
Kirk Parker said...
"Who could the Republicans get as their Joe Biden-life insurance for their next president?"
Joe Biden.
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