If Barack Obama loses popularity, it is going to be because of self-inflicted PR injuries, not because of policy flaws. Today we get the story of the White House approving a plane buzz of the New York skyline for an FAA "photo shoot."
Unfortunately, a lot of New Yorkers had no idea. New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted to the flight by the federal agency "with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it."
Democrat Chuck Schumer pegged it when he said, the FAA's decision to not announce the fly-by "really borders on being either cruel or very, very stupid."
The CNN story doesn't disclose the purpose of the photo shoot, which prompted several building evacuations and probably a boatload of anxiety attacks. Nice job, FAA!
(The story is unclear on what the photo shoot was for, but I will update as I learn more).
15 comments:
This is a mixed party administration by design. I think that someone of the Republican affliction decided to undercut Obama's image by planning this travesty behind his back. They should be fired and charged with a crime.
If Caldera wants a picture of Air Force One over the World Trade Center, he should just use Photoshop or some other graphics software. What he did is a crime -- assault against thousands of people -- and he should be prosecuted for it.
No, it wasn't. Read my new post.
Are we Americans so easy to scare? Oooooh look a big plane flying low, run! run! run! we're under attack!!. Jeez, how dumb can people be. You think if there really are terrists plotting to attact they'd use the same method they did on 9/11? Lord people, get a grip. I'm not saying we shouldn't be alert but if people are that shaken up that they'll panic at the slightest odd occurence, then the terrorists probably did get their agenda accomplished.
Photo shoot my arse. That is the best they could come up with? Somebody is up to something and I can't imagine it has anything to do with stupid photos.
Anonymous@ 12:23am obviously grew up in a hayfield as far removed as one can be from the terror and strife suffered by New Yorkers on Sept 11th 2001. Flaming people thudding into the ground at your feet just because a group of murderous bastards drove a couple of airplanes into your workplace? Get over it you pansies. And while your at it, quit your whining when planes crash land into your rivers. Who cares if it was only a few months ago. Get over it already!.......Yah right! Go back to kissing cows and sleeping with your sister!!!!
After all the chiding and chastising Obama and company doled out on the auto manufacturers about flying to congress on private planes, I'd like to know just how much it has cost the US Tax Payers solely to take a picture of "his" airplane with a scenic backdrop. Bush did many stupid stupid things while in office, but nothing ever this arrogantly idiotic!
Yes I'm sure the event scared many New York people but I've got another major concern. As an American taxpayer I'd like to know what this silly stunt cost! 747's and Fighters aren't cheap to fly and in these economic times any avoidable costs should be avoided. Yet in this case our government flew this expensive mission just to take some pictures? Certainly sounds like a waste of money to me.
Anon 12:23:
Your insensitivity is a bit stunning. I suspect if you were actually IN New York, you'd have a different attitude. I'm sure next you'll be mocking the kids at Columbine for getting shaken when someone thros firecrackers near them.
throws...
IPOPA @ 11.39am
I think yours and many others lack of common sense to be just as stunning.
That escorted plane would've gotten blown out of the sky by the f16s before the second pass. Unless you believe the f16s were hijacked too.
And please, we ALL felt the tragedy on 9/11, not just New Yorkers. I have family that live there, been there many times. Visited the world trade center several times. Yes 9/11 was traumatic, it was sad, but this was really a non issue. Think about what other people (like those in Israel) have to go through on a daily basis. Yet they go on with their lives.
I live in a major city too, and if I have to think about every possible way a terrorist could attack, I'd never leave the house.
Is is a stretch to think this was a tactical wargame to double-check our radar and response capabilities? where was the pictures being taken from anyway? The atmosphere qualities were not condusive for a nice photo...
Anon 12:23:
Your responses are so non-sensical, I almost don't know what to say.
First, were there some suicides in New York that I missed because of this incident? No? So I guess the people DID go on living, didn't they?
But did many of them (who probably still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder) get a scare they shouldn't have received on a completely wasteful government expenditure? Absolutely.
You are using long-after-the-fact logic to say a hijacked airliner would have been destroyed before the second pass. But what about the first pass? You see a huge airliner being trailed by jets, and that wouldn't have scared the (expletive) out of you?
Also, respectfully, you justify this idiotic decision by basically saying, "Look at the daily terror under which Israel lives." Right. That's the model we should aspire to in America....to make all our citizens feel like at any moment we can be blown up?
Anon 12:59: I think we could have done a "tactical wargame" without having Air Force One, don't you? After all, if it was a wargame, they were already pretending. How hard would it have been to "pretend" the plane was Air Force One? No, they wanted the photo.
Anon April 28, 2009 8:40 PM...
All of America "felt" 9/11. New Yorkers EXPERIENCED September 11th 2001! (Note the difference). You're probably to young, but let me give you another example:
All of America "felt" Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers EXPERIENCED it!
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't recall there ever being any documented cases of Vietnam related post-traumatic stress disorder in people who were NOT
actually in Vietnam.
Most people who "felt" these two events have gone on with their happy lives chalking up both events as "something to remember and to build a memorial for so we don't forget".
Each person who EXPERIENCED these events tries every day to wash the horrors of it from their sleep, their work lives, their every waking moment,hoping that they will NEVER have to EXPERIENCE them again.
Let me paint you a picture, I'll try to keep the words small so you can follow along:
You EXPERIENCED September 11th 2001. You watched in complete disbelieve as living human beings jumped out the tallest buildings in the city, buildings in flames because two passenger airlines have just slammed into them, buildings two short blocks away from your workplace. The people are jumping because they have 30 seconds to make the excruciating decision on how they are going to die, the choice to live having been completely and utterly removed.
Fast forward seven and a half years:
A passenger airplane has just screamed by 1000 ft over your head (that's 500 ft of building height considered in the math) closely followed by a military fighter jet. Your office windows start to rattle and your desk starts to vibrate from the roar of the two planes engines. I'm not talking an earthquake here, but definitely way out of the norm. If you doubt the effects of having an airplane fly that close, then you've obviously never been that close to an airline or jet fighter in flight. Sorry, riding IN a passenger airliner doesn't count.
As you rush to look outside you a massive 747 banking with a jet fighter on right its heals. As it completes is turn, the 747 is now headed straight back at you. Those horrific images that you've spent countless hours trying to forget flood back in an instant. The nightmarish sounds of hundreds of sirens, the acrid smell of burning human flesh mixed with the choking dust of a pulverized building, and the blinding sense of hopelessness and panic that consumed that day on September 11th 2001 coming rushing back with them.
If my simple "picture" does not cause you to sweat with dread even just a little, then you can take your "feelings" and marginalizing of "9/11" and stuff them. Your couch potato emotions are a petty substitute for the suffering EXPERIENCED by New Yorkers on the morning of September 11th 2001 and little excuse for your ignorance and insensitivity.
As I said before, go back to your hayfield...
non-sensical? are you so arrogant that you eliminate possibilities so easily. the fact that it was AF1 means little. It was a 747 with a cool paint job. not telling anyone ahead of time could help create a real simulation for our defenses response. Why would you take photos on a crappy day tell me this. Maybe they wanted crappy photos but personally I would have waited for a bluebird day. Or better yet, use photoshop alltogether.
iPOPA
"Your responses are so non-sensical, I almost don't know what to say."
Yes to someone who lacks common sense, my responses may seem non-sensical so I'm not surprised you reached that conclusion.
"First, were there some suicides in New York that I missed because of this incident? No? So I guess the people DID go on living, didn't they? "
Actually if they had truly gone one with their lives a big plane flying lower than normal overhead would NOT have put them into a panic. That's not moving on. If the 'traumatic' feelings felt during 9/11 surfaced so easily, then that proved they haven't healed.
"But did many of them (who probably still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder) get a scare they shouldn't have received on a completely wasteful government expenditure? Absolutely."
First off, we don't know the exact reason for the flyover. We're told it was a photo op. Even if that was the case, without knowing all the facts/reasons, it's hard to say it was truly wasteful. Secondly I saw the video several times and still didn't see anything to panic over. Also all it takes are a few dumbasses to mention anything remotely close to terrorist and the panic spreads, plane or no plane. So I'm sure quite a bit of that 'stampede' was just in response to the action of others.
"You are using long-after-the-fact logic to say a hijacked airliner would have been destroyed before the second pass. But what about the first pass? You see a huge airliner being trailed by jets, and that wouldn't have scared the (expletive) out of you?"
Unless it's coming straight for me or is obviously on a collision course with the ground or a building, no it wouldn't. I'm smarter than that.
"Also, respectfully, you justify this idiotic decision by basically saying, "Look at the daily terror under which Israel lives." Right. That's the model we should aspire to in America....to make all our citizens feel like at any moment we can be blown up?"
That statement truly brought out the pessimist in you. No sir, I didn't mean we should aspire to be a population of paranoid individuals. No, I meant we should aspire to be STRONG-minded individuals, NOT WILLING TO LET THE THREAT OF TERRORISM INSTILL FEAR TO THE POINT OF RUNNING SCARED AT THE SIGHT OF ANYTHING A LITTLE UNUSUAL. Also the people in places like Israel live with the threat EVERYDAY, 9/11 happened only ONCE. A little perspective never hurts.
Post a Comment