Iraqi Prime Minister visits

The other night I was having dinner and drinks with a friend at one of the (very) few local restaurants that has seating outside. By very few I mean TWO. While sitting out and enjoying what could be one of our last days of real summer-like weather (read: hot), we heard all these sirens and noticed a police car blocking off one of the side streets to Michigan Avenue. There was a string of cars lined up on Michigan Avenue waiting to go through the light but the cop car was not only blocking the side street but the right lane of Michigan. All the cars were in the right lane as there were sirens behind them and they were actually following the law by getting over. Finally a motorcycle cop comes by and yells at them to get off the road. They were all forced to turn into the parking lot of the local Starbucks which is one of those parking lots that it's best to avoid because there is never enough parking for all the other stores/restaurants. Everybody on the patio by this time is watching and wondering what the hell was going on. I then remembered that the Prime Minister of Iraq was in town and sure enough along Michigan Avenue came the longest string of police motorcycles, black limousines and SUVs and then another string of motorcycle cops – all with sirens wailing.

He was on his way from the Airport to the Ritz-Carlton where he was going to give a speech. I'm just glad that there was so much security as an extremist group put a $100,000 bounty on his head shortly before he came here.

My brother who works over by the R-C said that he just left and there was just security all over the place. Major freeway shutdown, road shutdown, bomb sniffing dogs, snipers on rooftops, etc. Scary shit.