It sucks being at level orange at work....

[TriMetFan]

You see I'm a Transit Driver here in Portland OR. And now because of what happen yesterday we are to check out buses and make sure everything is fine and if we think any one is acting weired we are to call in. Like Mike Malloy says: "Have I Told You How Much I Hate These Neo-Cons Lately!"

[SeveneightyWhoa]

1. Anyone acting weird?

When I used to take the bus, half of the people on it were acting "weird".

[anarch]

9. ya ever think it might not have been an act? n/t

[TriMetFan]

10. Ha Ha Ha

Your right about that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Problem is that in the new age of terra

keeping your eyes open shoudl be done all the time, not only when our color coordinated alerts go up.

But I do feel for ya, as a former emergency worker I hated tac alerts...

[TriMetFan]

28. I understand what you mean. I'm always on the look out

for anything that might be trouble. But you are right about hating being on alerts. To me its just one thing I got to worry about with all the other stuff that goes on. I will say some of my co-workers are stressed out.

[swag]

3. Hey, what route are you on?

I love the Number 8, my bad self.

[TriMetFan]

11. #4

[swag]

21. Oh, Mock Crest? UP type of thing?

My SO was an engineer on the S/N Lightrail, but she split and left for ODOT shortly after the project got deep-sixed.

[TriMetFan]

29. Mock Crest is the #40. I drive the

#4 ST. Johns. to Gresham.

[LisaM]

4. YOU have to personally do it?

Why don't they get all the new police they hired for Homeland Security....oh that's right. We took the money and gave it to Halliburton.

Seriously, this is something that trained security detectives should be doing. Maybe the National Guard....oh, that's right. The National Guard is over in Iraq.

Wow, guess you're on your own.

[TriMetFan]

8. What Homeland Security?

The Portland Police is working with us on this which is good.

[Parche]

5. Trimet

Hey Trimet driver, I take MAX everymorning, and sometimes
bus transfer to downtown.
I agree with you, I know there should be security for everything,
you never know if someone could be carrying a gun or something
like that....but this is going way tooo overboard
they already have cameras on the buses, the fare inspectors
are on almost every MAX train, did we do this after the
bombing in Madrid or Indonesia? NO we didnt, what makes
the London bombs different?

signed
Trimet Rider!!!!

[TriMetFan]

12. oh we were at level orange after the Madrid bombing.

But this seams different.

[ET Awful]

6. Be happy you don't drive a bus in LA or New York . . . there if you

had to report anyone acting weird, you'd never get off the phone :). The ones you have to look out for are the people that act normal :)

[MuseRider]

7. Same thing going on here

and I am quite amazed by it all. Kansas? Topeka, Kansas. The news today was all about interviewing bus riders and to a person they talked about being scared to ride the bus after yesterday. I guess that is one more reason this state has become so deeply red. I mean really, I can understand Portland but Topeka? Give me a break.

Sorry about your work situation. It really must make things more difficult.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. One observatuion made on another thread

the farther you are from the obvioous targets, aka midle america, the more afraid they will be attacked

Residents in obvious targets (San Diego for me, just as Portland a second tier city, not finantial centers but still ports) we are like ok, if it happens, it happens, shit, but I need to live my life.

But the peopple in the middle of nowhere are going, terrarists are coming, hide under the bed.

[MuseRider]

22. It is really odd.

I don't understand it. There is constant ramping up of the fear here. They are going after our farms with crop dusters, anthrax to our cattle. The university has studies, Be Very Afraid! The only "large" city nearby is Kansas City and I just can't see anything beneficial there for the "terrorists" other that just proving they can get inside and if they were going to do that they would prove more in Chicago or St. Louis. It is the little farm folks who are most afraid. Topeka? 120,000 and we (not me) are terrified into checking all our trash cans frequently through out the day. I am frankly stunned by this behavior.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. no it is not odd, it is human psycology

the fathest you are from the disaster the more magnified it is...

just an observation

[TriMetFan]

31. Yes Portland is a Port. and we are know by the name Bush Sr.

gave us. aka Little Beirut. Also ya'll got to remember we had the The Portland 7 here too.

[TriMetFan]

13. Well I'm off to work. See ya'll later.

[dogday]

14. TERRA

we got terra, right here in Portland city, thats a capital T that rhymes with P and that stand for Poop!

[Tux]

16. It suck being unemployed at level orange

Employers in my town tend to review people more thoroughly and bitch about minor shit.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

17. #72'er here....

Just 2 weeks ago someone left their backpack on the bus, and a couple of riders were getting nervous because the driver had to call for a supervisor? to come out and check it. Wasn't allowed to touch it himself. Jeez. Very dangerous schoolbooks were inside!

I myself can't fathom living everyday with that kind of fear. I refuse to. What are the odds? And what are the odds of getting hit by a truck while crossing the street? Maybe we shouldn't cross streets anymore - it's far more dangerous.

:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Those very dangerous books could be a nice brick

of C-4....

Funny story from Hawaii, having been married to the Navy and gotten some training myself I woudl have told the driver to call the bomb squad, SOP by the way.

I was at the mall a week after 9.11 and somebody forgot their laptop

I told security who went so?

I called 9.11

They responded including bomb squad,

They were not surprised taht I called them, due to training and who I was married to... I raected the way you should in the age of sacred terra, this is not going away even after we drive bush out... too much gas has been poured into that fire. It will take at least a generation of changed policies for terra to go down.

We can blame the bushies for the terra, but there are things Americans are going to have to do, even if they sound stupid to you. Europeans have done this for over 30 years and yes they live normal lives, and are mostly not afraid of terra, but an abadoned backpack deserves the response they got and more (bomb squad)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

24. In the 15 years I have been riding the bus.....

I have seen at least 10-12 packages or backpacks forgotten, but no bombs (yet) ;)

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. yep in Europe even at the height of the troubles

nine times out of ten it was books, it was that tenth time... that should have made you go.. shit.

[TriMetFan]

32. How do you know we have not found some type of bomb

or something like that? I will tell you I found about half a brick of coke in a backpack. One driver found $30,000 in cash in bag. You just never know. I'm more worry about the stupid copy cats out there then anything else.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

34. If you had found a bomb, does that mean we wouldn't have heard about it?

Now, THAT scares me!

[TriMetFan]

35. It all depends on what is going on.

Just right after 911 they found a pipe bomb on one of our light rail trains. If you can believe this, my stupid co-worker pick up the back pack and put it in a cement trashcan at one of our transit stations. He then called for help. No transit in the U.S. is going to let the public know if and when we do find stuff like this all the time. But like I said before I'm glad that Portland Police is working with us on this until we go back to a more normal everyday life. We have cops at all major transit station right now and the media is letting the public know that we are at a high alert and how they can also help.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Just remember don't use your radio

or a cell to call teh cops...

And you are right, about that... boy are you right... boy, boy, boy... and that is all I wil say about it... if you want the skinny PM me.

[TriMetFan]

37. oh yeah No Cell Phone or Radio.

I also was making a big stink yesterday to one of my sups. about places on the bus that had not been fixed. I said that I had brought this up at one of our Terror/Security classes.

[swag]

20. Do you work out on Swan Island or something?

On edit - my house is up around Alberta Street.

You've probably seen me waiting on the 8.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

23. yea!

I don't have to ride very far though, just from Interstate. :)

4 min. to work, and I don't even have to drive - love it!

[swag]

27. Super cool. Good location.

I'll probably be through your neighborhood at some point this weekend on my way to eat at www.portlandwings.com

I'll wave out the window when I roll through.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

33. Sweet Potato Fries!!

I haven't had those for years! I had no idea this place had opened.

Thanks!

[iverglas]

18. I can only imagine

I felt sorry for the parking attendant in Washington DC who was having to verify the ID of everybody in vehicles entering when we visited as tourists.

It was April 2003, and we were visiting a friend, and she was going to take us on a stroll around the White House area of the capital. She decided to park in the public parking garage of the Ronald Reagan building. I'd left my purse at her home, since we were going to be walking around and I only ever haul it if I'm driving myself, for ID. And I guess my partner had left his wallet there too.

When the parking attendant asked us for ID, we were nonplussed. I just said "uh, we're Canadians ... we didn't know we'd need ID to park ..."

Fortunately, my friend was on a work placement at the CIA, and had her work ID with her. ;) We got in. But that's an awful lot of discretion for a parking attendant to be asked to exercise. Basically, he admitted two unidentified foreigners to a major public building.

Then we got chided for taking video of the impressive interior atrium. That happened to me once in Havana, too -- except there, I was inadvertently snapping pictures of the military compound I hadn't noticed in the foreground of the skyline I was photographing. Chided and released.

Mass transit in major Cdn cities went on alert yesterday too:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1120751961677_19/?hub=TopStories

In the wake of the attacks, which shut down London's massive subway and bus system, Toronto Transit Commission officials issued their own rush-hour "vigilance notice," asking both employees and passengers to be on the lookout for anything unusual. More police were also been assigned to patrol the system.

Police surveillance was also stepped up across the subway, bus and train networks that service the Montreal area, though officials cautioned there has been no specific threat.

... Canada's public safety minister, Anne McLellan, says Canada developed provisions for tighter security on transit networks after the terrorist bombings on Madrid trains last year.

She says that new system kicked in right after the London bombings. She added that the country's major rail operators have also been alerted, and have been advised to increase vigilance.

Many of us here don't really see what the point is. Really; if someone wants to walk into a subway with a bomb in a backpack, who the hell's gonna notice? -- as was asked in a Canada Forum thread on the matter:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=190x6672
My take on it:

One reason not to attack Canada: who the fuck would care?

Bush wouldn't bother making a statement for a few days until some diplomat shoved an umbrella in his ribs and prodded him into it, and then it would amount to "too bad, but I told you so" -- and O'Reilly and Coulter would say it's about damned time; the rest of the world would say "where's that exactly?"

Oh yeah, and we'd say "excuse me" for getting in the way of the bomb. ;)

Not much satisfaction in that for anybody looking to rile folks up and get a bunch of air time on Fox.

[amazona]

30. yeah, it sounds like a hassle

Be safe.

If they called in every weirdo on the New Orleans busses, they wouldn't be able to get anything else done all day.