Do you have a link to a story about this incident with in New York? It's the first I've heard of it. They flew Air Force One near Manhattan just to take a picture for a postcard, and then ended up just using photoshop instead?
Ummmm....
Do I even have to bother saying "imagine how people would've reacted if BUSH had done this"?
What really got me even more than this thing though is Obama bowing King Abdullah and shaking hands with Hugo Chavez. He has shown that he has no contempt for dictators. In fact he seems to either worship them or consider them his buddies. Honestly, the thought of what the hell this will do if/when we get attacked again scares the crap out of me.
They didn't end up using photoshop instead. That's just a comparison to what it would have cost had they done it that way. They did fly the planes over lower Manhattan and they scared the living daylights out of everybody. The feds notified some NY officials that the flyover would occur but specifically ordered tehm NOT to tell the public. Thus, people were absolutely terrified. Office buildings in the financial district and over in New Jersey evacuated, people were crying, people were screaming, people were sure they were going through it all over again.
And now it turns out that the authorities who ordered this KNEW it would frighten people, specifically discussed that in their memos, and ordered it to be kept secret anyway. True idiocy. I believe it shows a blind insensitivity to what happened on September 11 and what it meant -- a kind of denial that it was real, a dismissiveness. Oh that's all in the past, aren't you over it YET???
As for Dad's other comment, I have to say I really do hate having the f-word appear on our blog. Also the sh-word. The blog is part our family living room and part our family image to the world and I see no reason why that word should be part of either setting. Real words are more effective. Once there's a curse word in a sentence, especially that one, it's all you see or hear. It drowns out and degrades everything else in the sentence, and ends up diminishing the message and the messenger, rather than enhancing either. And as for the blog, I just don't like uglifying the place.
I am not just trying to get Dad to stop using it, though I do really wish he would, at least in public. I am also trying to stop using it myself. I don't use it often but wish I had never used it at all. It is not an asset to anybody's vocabulary. Why should anybody use it in anything but the most extreme situation that actually calls for ugly and explosive language?
Didn't mean to ignore your remark about fear for our future should an attack happen again, Luke. Got sidetracked on my anti-swearing campaign. I am worried about it, too.
One more. You asked for a link, Luke. This one has a video at the bottom of the flight itself. It's so like images of 9/11, it's sickening, even for somebody like me who was not there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they haven't been allowing planes to fly over Manhattan at all since 9/11, right? And that's why everyone though that it must be the real deal when they saw/heard a plane coming?
I think planes ARE allowed to fly over Manhattan, but not large aircraft flying that low. Helicopters and small aircraft do fly that low over the city -- that's how that athlete Cory Lytle managed to fly into a building a few years ago. Commercial aircraft do not, though, unless they are landing or taking off at an NYC airport. This jet was clearly not landing or taking off because it was circling around the general area of the Statute of Liberty. Plus, it was being tailed by a fighter jet. So yes, that's why people were so terrified. It is not something they would otherwise see except for something like an air show -- or an attack.
Yeah, okay, after reading the article the whole situation makes more sense to me.
I knew that they allowed helicopters and such to fly low around Manhattan, in my other comment I was just referring to large commercial aircraft and such. Actually, taking one of those tour helicopter flights around Manhattan is definitely on my bucket list (the one in my head). Must be an incredible view up there.
There is absolutely no conceivable reason why they SHOULDN'T have warned New Yorkers about this beforehand. Honestly, it's almost like they were trying to scare them on purpose or something.
Maybe I was just a bit unfair towards Obama and maybe he didn't actually know about this. But hey, I watch 24, I know how this stuff works. They've got to protect the President. In any case, it's Obama's people; the buck stops with him.
Bummer the Red Sox lost their winning streak on a fielding error last night though, isn't it?
While I don't really disagree with anything anyone's said, I think it's important to point out that Obama has denied knowledge of the flyover (before it happened, I mean), and he was supposedly "furious" when he heard about it. If you doubt his word on that (can't blame you, he's a politician), it's kind of logical too - the President is probably not notified, much less involved in the decision making process, when the back-up AF1 jet is used for a photo-op on its way to a maintenance stop, even if it requires a Manhattan flyover. It just doesn't make sense to me that he would be at all involved in what are usually the minutiae of government, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
That doesn't change the fact that it was phenomenally stupid (I think a former Bush aide said "criminally stupid," which I can't really disagree with), wasteful, and that it demonstrated a severe lack of awareness and thoughtfulness on the part of whoever's responsible. If I were in the WH, a head or two would roll for it. I guess I'll judge Obama by his response, not that it happened at all.
One thing I don't get...the flyover was scheduled "to allow Air Force officials to update the official promotional photo for the presidential plane."
Why do we need promotional photos for AF1? Is it for sale? Up for re-election in a few years? Who's the guy who went into the Air Force and is now responsible for making plane pamphlets, and does he hate his life?
You are always so fair-minded, Caleb, and I'm sure you're right that the President doesn't keep track of this kind of minutia (sp??). However, his employees should have been paying better attention. It's their failure to do so that enrages me -- I am not necessarily laying this at the President's door. As you say, we'll see how he responds.
It's too bad, though, that Caldera, the official who says he's responsible, will probably end up getting fired for it. His apology was a rare thing in Washington: immediate, direct, personal, and completely lacking in that false, mealy-mouthed usual political apology language ("if anybody was offended . . . ") It's so unusual to find a gov't official who is actually capable of taking personal responsibility for an error that I'd almost rather see him rewarded than fired . . .
I'm sick and tired of being lectured to by these handwringing tuongueclucking global warming greed-hating bastards. I can't use fossil fuels otr eat too much or drive an SUV or want to torture a terrorist, but Al and Obama and the Hollywood effers can live however they want as long as they take a fricking tote bag to the supermarket and don't use too much toilet paper.
I despise them.
This little airplane trick has really focused my anger.
12 comments:
Do you have a link to a story about this incident with in New York? It's the first I've heard of it. They flew Air Force One near Manhattan just to take a picture for a postcard, and then ended up just using photoshop instead?
Ummmm....
Do I even have to bother saying "imagine how people would've reacted if BUSH had done this"?
What really got me even more than this thing though is Obama bowing King Abdullah and shaking hands with Hugo Chavez. He has shown that he has no contempt for dictators. In fact he seems to either worship them or consider them his buddies. Honestly, the thought of what the hell this will do if/when we get attacked again scares the crap out of me.
They didn't end up using photoshop instead. That's just a comparison to what it would have cost had they done it that way. They did fly the planes over lower Manhattan and they scared the living daylights out of everybody. The feds notified some NY officials that the flyover would occur but specifically ordered tehm NOT to tell the public. Thus, people were absolutely terrified. Office buildings in the financial district and over in New Jersey evacuated, people were crying, people were screaming, people were sure they were going through it all over again.
And now it turns out that the authorities who ordered this KNEW it would frighten people, specifically discussed that in their memos, and ordered it to be kept secret anyway. True idiocy. I believe it shows a blind insensitivity to what happened on September 11 and what it meant -- a kind of denial that it was real, a dismissiveness. Oh that's all in the past, aren't you over it YET???
As for Dad's other comment, I have to say I really do hate having the f-word appear on our blog. Also the sh-word. The blog is part our family living room and part our family image to the world and I see no reason why that word should be part of either setting. Real words are more effective. Once there's a curse word in a sentence, especially that one, it's all you see or hear. It drowns out and degrades everything else in the sentence, and ends up diminishing the message and the messenger, rather than enhancing either. And as for the blog, I just don't like uglifying the place.
I am not just trying to get Dad to stop using it, though I do really wish he would, at least in public. I am also trying to stop using it myself. I don't use it often but wish I had never used it at all. It is not an asset to anybody's vocabulary. Why should anybody use it in anything but the most extreme situation that actually calls for ugly and explosive language?
Didn't mean to ignore your remark about fear for our future should an attack happen again, Luke. Got sidetracked on my anti-swearing campaign. I am worried about it, too.
One more. You asked for a link, Luke. This one has a video at the bottom of the flight itself. It's so like images of 9/11, it's sickening, even for somebody like me who was not there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they haven't been allowing planes to fly over Manhattan at all since 9/11, right? And that's why everyone though that it must be the real deal when they saw/heard a plane coming?
Jeesh.
I think Obama thinks he owns the country now.
I think planes ARE allowed to fly over Manhattan, but not large aircraft flying that low. Helicopters and small aircraft do fly that low over the city -- that's how that athlete Cory Lytle managed to fly into a building a few years ago. Commercial aircraft do not, though, unless they are landing or taking off at an NYC airport. This jet was clearly not landing or taking off because it was circling around the general area of the Statute of Liberty. Plus, it was being tailed by a fighter jet. So yes, that's why people were so terrified. It is not something they would otherwise see except for something like an air show -- or an attack.
Yeah, okay, after reading the article the whole situation makes more sense to me.
I knew that they allowed helicopters and such to fly low around Manhattan, in my other comment I was just referring to large commercial aircraft and such. Actually, taking one of those tour helicopter flights around Manhattan is definitely on my bucket list (the one in my head). Must be an incredible view up there.
There is absolutely no conceivable reason why they SHOULDN'T have warned New Yorkers about this beforehand. Honestly, it's almost like they were trying to scare them on purpose or something.
Maybe I was just a bit unfair towards Obama and maybe he didn't actually know about this. But hey, I watch 24, I know how this stuff works. They've got to protect the President. In any case, it's Obama's people; the buck stops with him.
Bummer the Red Sox lost their winning streak on a fielding error last night though, isn't it?
While I don't really disagree with anything anyone's said, I think it's important to point out that Obama has denied knowledge of the flyover (before it happened, I mean), and he was supposedly "furious" when he heard about it. If you doubt his word on that (can't blame you, he's a politician), it's kind of logical too - the President is probably not notified, much less involved in the decision making process, when the back-up AF1 jet is used for a photo-op on its way to a maintenance stop, even if it requires a Manhattan flyover. It just doesn't make sense to me that he would be at all involved in what are usually the minutiae of government, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
That doesn't change the fact that it was phenomenally stupid (I think a former Bush aide said "criminally stupid," which I can't really disagree with), wasteful, and that it demonstrated a severe lack of awareness and thoughtfulness on the part of whoever's responsible. If I were in the WH, a head or two would roll for it. I guess I'll judge Obama by his response, not that it happened at all.
One thing I don't get...the flyover was scheduled "to allow Air Force officials to update the official promotional photo for the presidential plane."
Why do we need promotional photos for AF1? Is it for sale? Up for re-election in a few years? Who's the guy who went into the Air Force and is now responsible for making plane pamphlets, and does he hate his life?
For this site, maybe? That "Air Force One flies over Mt. Rushmore" picture is pretty outdated, I guess.
You are always so fair-minded, Caleb, and I'm sure you're right that the President doesn't keep track of this kind of minutia (sp??). However, his employees should have been paying better attention. It's their failure to do so that enrages me -- I am not necessarily laying this at the President's door. As you say, we'll see how he responds.
It's too bad, though, that Caldera, the official who says he's responsible, will probably end up getting fired for it. His apology was a rare thing in Washington: immediate, direct, personal, and completely lacking in that false, mealy-mouthed usual political apology language ("if anybody was offended . . . ") It's so unusual to find a gov't official who is actually capable of taking personal responsibility for an error that I'd almost rather see him rewarded than fired . . .
I'm sick and tired of being lectured to by these handwringing tuongueclucking global warming greed-hating bastards. I can't use fossil fuels otr eat too much or drive an SUV or want to torture a terrorist, but Al and Obama and the Hollywood effers can live however they want as long as they take a fricking tote bag to the supermarket and don't use too much toilet paper.
I despise them.
This little airplane trick has really focused my anger.
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