Obama’s ‘Fundamental Transformation’ of the White House?

“What the BLANK is this? Is that going to be an underground “tunnel”, asks an emailer about the West Wing gaping hole in front of the White House. It’s a mystery that drew both the New York Times and Britain’s Daily Mail with graphic photos the last few days. “Workmen have torn up an enormous section of the lawn in front of the White House for a mysterious, top secret project,” states the Daily Mail.

“The hole by the West Wing is roughly 100ft by 100ft in size and has for the first time in living memory left the ground and pipes beneath the Oval Office exposed to the elements.”

Yesterday’s emailer asks “As the “PEOPLE”, shouldn’t we know about this before the UK? Funny how all the foreign countries know what’s taking place in our country before we do, huh?” There are no media releases on the White House homepage announcing any construction plans to update White House plumbing. The current administration is one that promised transparency but delivers mysteries.

The mysterious West Wing hole is the butt of as many jokes as are going the rounds about the Ipad, laptop and cell phone-equipped “poor folk” demonstrating in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests. It’s been more than a year now since already rattled White House staff and press have had to deal with the rat-a-tat drilling din of construction workers doing whatever it is they are paid to do at the West Wing construction site. “Some believe it’s an expansion of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, while others guess the construction is to add underground access from the White House to the Old Executive Office Building, or to the treasury building,” reports TheBlaze. Only in ObamaLand could it be that every day for the past 17 months workmen have been coming and going with nobody revealing what the project is. “In April, officials told AP that completion of the White House’s “Big Dig” was still years away. Part of the construction includes an underground tunnel which officials say will only be used as a pathway for replacement of the new utilities infrastructure at the proper depth and location. Spokeswoman Sahar Wali said in April that the construction is not putting in place longstanding plans for underground office space and will not involve the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, the hardened bunker under the East Wing that’s a shelter for nuclear attack. “However, a New York Times article published Tuesday says the final phase of construction will take place near the emergency center and involve security.” (the Blaze). Reportedly the funds may have been allocated after 9/11 but may have been returned to whatever fund it was taken from. Speculation about why there’s a gaping hole on the White House lawn may be missing the real point by a wide margin. Why did a project that remained fallow for eight years after 9/11 suddenly go into construction stage 17 months ago? In other words, why did Obama, who spends so much of his time out of country or out on the golf links, tear up the White House lawn? Most know by now that Obama dedicates his time to the end of America as it presently exists. Is the eyesore on the White House lawn the symbolic front for his loathing of America? Or is it even worse?: The shelf life of the big hole project is estimated to take it over the next four years. It’s almost as if Obama knows it’s a fait accompli that he will be re-elected in November, 2012. What is it that Obama knows that the rest of us don’t?

Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.