Saw this one on Daily Kos (someone's eyewitness account of strange happenings on the White House lawn). It seems that a terrorist was stopped on the White House Lawn. Here is a file photo of the culprit:

It is amazing how paranoid and strange the Presidency has become during Bush's tenure. I can't help but think that it would have been handled a little less dramatically by earlier administrations. This is nothing if not surreal:

I'm looking out my window next door to the White House. The police have shut down several square blocks around the White House from car and pedestrian traffic. There's a bomb squad parked out front. The issue appears to be a few suspicious objects that have been thrown over the fence at the Old Executive Office building.

These objects include a grocery bag, a stuffed dog, and what appears to be either Elmo or a red Teletubby. So I'm not too worried (now, if it was a purple Teletubby, that would be a different story).

I'll update the diary if anything actually happens.

UPDATE: The cool robot is gone and has left awesome treadmarks all over the Old Executive Office building lawn. 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue have been reopened to traffic. Elmo has apparently been determined to be grating and annoying, but not technically a terrorist threat.

For the record, my son loves his talking Elmo...anything that helps keep a baby happy is a wonderful thing to tired parents.

And confirmation from a newspaper:

Streets around the White House were closed Tuesday morning after a woman threw a package into the courtyard of the adjacent Old Executive Office Building.

The woman was taken into custody without incident and was being questioned by the Secret Service, said Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the service. The package was being investigated but no immediate details were available.

The president was in the White House at the time of the incident.

Our President is panicked by toys. Kind of explains a lot, no? Perhaps Elmo was corrupted by one of his old friends, long ago linked to al-Qaeda: