More DWB commentary
Showing posts with label Air Force One. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Air Force One. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Kicking and Screaming: Reporter Dragged From Near Air Force One
Not much in the Maimed Stream Media about this. Oh, that's right, Obama's President now. Just imagine for one moment that a reporter who is black and also a woman, was removed like this while Bush was President. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the ACLU, the NAACP, you name it, they would all be on the news right now screaming their heads off. The silence is deafening.
Rees
from NBCLosAngeles.com
By Christina Hoag
May 28, 2009
A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday.
The incident occurred about 10 minutes before Obama arrived at the airport by helicopter to board Air Force One. He had been in Los Angeles to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.
Rees
from NBCLosAngeles.com
By Christina Hoag
May 28, 2009
A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday.
The incident occurred about 10 minutes before Obama arrived at the airport by helicopter to board Air Force One. He had been in Los Angeles to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
White House Photo Op by F-22 Raptor
Just a harmless photoshop op.Hey Barry, the reason no alarms went off to warn you that an aircraft had penetrated the restricted airspace over the White House was because the F-22 is "STEALTH."
It works quite well, doesn't it.
Rees
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
New White House Photo of Air Force One landing in Wahsington, D.C.
Previously unreleased White House photo
This photo op was priceless
You Can't Read This Post - It's Classified Information
The following information is from the blogs Don Surber, A Blog For All and Ace of Spades HQ (language warning for ACE). You'll enjoy the news and the sarcasm.Rees
from A Blog For All
Posted by lawhawk
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Scare Force One Photos Wont Be Made Public
After claiming last week that the flyby of the VC-25 aircraft that is designated Air Force One when the President is on board was meant to upgrade the file photos of the airplane over national landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the US Air Force now says that they won't make the photos public.
Are you kidding me? After spending $328,835 [ed: corrected the figure] to make the effort and causing quite the scare and stir in the NY metro area because of the low flying aircraft that no one except a chosen few in the FAA and a few people that the FAA informed, the Air Force and White House owe it to the taxpayers and the New York metro area residents to see what they got for the trouble.
The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday.
"We have no plans to release them," an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further.
The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city.
"The photos . . . are classified -- that's ridiculous," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said.
New Yorkers said they could not understand how a president who shares intimate snapshots from the White House could justify classifying these.
"So we're not gonna see the fruits of this cruel joke?" said Frank Antonelli, 39, one of the Wall Street traders spooked by last week's flyover.
Also, after claiming he was angry that the photo op caused such a stir, the President must make the photos available.
This only adds an unnecessary diversion to the White House (which could be precisely why they're going this route?).
UPDATE:Don Surber links. Thanks! Don also notes that the White House is hell-bent on releasing hundreds of photos showing alleged abuse of detainees. So, it's real easy to find reason to criticize the US (and particularly the prior administration), but if you find reason to criticize the current occupant of the White House, those photos remain classified (although not for long as Michelle Malkin has filed FOIA requests to release the photos and other information stemming from the overflights).
UPDATE:This is top quality snark, courtesy of Ace of Spades reader C.Jordan:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click to read the article and the comments
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
100 Days, 100 Mistakes - The Official List...accept no substitutes
from Don Surber.com
April 29, 2009
The Official List
Accept no substitutes.
It is legendary, inspiring Chris Muir (see above) and cited by Jules Crittenden, Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin.
It has even been imitated by the New York Post.
This is the official list of The Won’s 100 mistakes in 100 days. Please let me know of any omissions. Again, these are in no particular order and are not weighted for the seriousness of their error.
1. $787 billion for a 6.1% shrinkage of the U.S. economy. Hope. Change. Panic.
2. Not fighting the release of CIA photos. Al-Qaida smiles.
3. The Bow
4. Saying it is not a bow.
5. Saying he looked forward to working with “president” Jacques Chirac – 2 years after Chirac left office. The White House said, oh, that was in reference to Chirac being head of a foundation…6. Saying there’s no pork in the stimulus. Yes there is.
7. Appointing tax cheat Tim Geithner.
8. Appointing under investigation Bill Richardson.
9. Appointing tax cheat Tom Daschle.
10. Appointing Marc Rich and terrorist pardoning Eric “Nation of Cowards” Holder.
11. Appointing Janet “Man Caused Disasters” Napolitano.
12. Appointing Hilda Solis (OK, her husband has the tax liens).
13. Appointing anti-Semitic Charles Freeman Jr.
14. Appointing tax cheat Ron Kirk.
15. Appointing fund-raising cheat Gary Locke.
16. Appointing under investigation Adolfo Carrion.
17. Who is that sneaking out the back door?
18. Putting Larry Summers to sleep. More TOTUS and cowbell.
19. Making the SEALs hold their fire initially — costing them 2 days.
20. The $100 million budget cut.
21. Pretending to be unaware of the Tea Parties.
22. Politicizing the Census. An attempt that failed. I think.
23. Armenian genocide? Never heard of it.
24. Taking crap from Danny Ortega.
25. Apologizing to Muslims, whom the US helped.
26. Apologizing to France — what, for saving her twice?
27. Apologizing for liberating Iraq.
28. A handshake instead of a kiss from Carla Bruni.
29. Shaking hands with the anti-American Hugo Chavez.
30. Accepting an anti-American tome from Chavez.
31. Buzzing New York City for a photo op. Nice panic.
32. Burning 9,000 gallons of fuel for an Earth Day photo op.
33. Flying his green pizza chef 850 miles from St. Louis to the White House. More carbon big-footing to promote green.
34. Believing that pizzas harm the environment.
35. Most expensive inauguration. Ever.
36. Embracing what he dismissed in the campaign as the largest middle-class tax ever.
37. Fighting coal– which provides half the nation’s electricity.
38. Appointing Dr. Sunjay Gupta as surgeon general, only to kick him to the curb once lefties complained.
39. Having no surgeon general to advise on the swine flu.
40. Annette Nazareth appointed but resigned because of… tax reasons.
41. Laughing at problems so much that Steve Kroft asked, “Are you punch drunk?”
42. Lifting travel restrictions on Cuba with nothing in return.
43. The Holy See turned down 3 candidates for ambassador, including Caroline Kennedy. Are there any pro-life Democrats left?
44. Having Georgetown cover Christ’s name when The Won used that Catholic university as a backdrop for a speech.
45. That’s up, Mr. President.
46. Bumping his head on the Marine One helicopter.
47. Banning offshore oil again.4
48. Funding abortions overseas.
49. Using the word “crisis” 25 times in a speech, then later complaining that people are too negative about the economy.
50. Letting Nancy Pelosi write the $787 billion “stimulus’ plan.
51. Relying on Tim Geithner to explain it.
52. Putting Joe Biden in charge of making sure the stimulus money is not — wink, wink, nudge, nudge — misspent.
53. Setting the Oval Office thermostat at 80.
54. Going to a press conference without a TelePrompTer. I… Uhh… Umm… Could you repeat the question?
55. Using a TelePrompTer at a press conference. Big boys don’t need training wheels.
56. Opening a press conference with: “Good evening, everybody. Please be seated. Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly.” 1,228 words later he took his first question.
57. Ethics waivers.
58. Going after Rush Limbaugh.
59. Going after Rick Santelli.
60. Going after Jim Cramer.
61. Trying to run the Census out of the White House.
62. Adopting the motto: “Never waste a good crisis.”
63. Writing a love letter to Vlad and Dmitry.
64. Throwing Poland under the bus.
65. Throwing Tibet under the bus.
66. Throwing Israel under the bus.
67. Taking Cuba out from under the bus.
68. Ticking off Switzerland by having his tax cheat go after the tax cheats in Switzerland. Cognitive dissonance.
69. Saying: “Karzai has a bunker mentality.”
70. Reaching out to the Taliban.
71. Iran has plans to Marine One helicopters.
72. Explaining his refusal to work with Republicans with the words: “I won.”
73. Having a BlackBerry that can easily be hacked by the Chinese.
74. Saying to the people of Peoria: “If Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.” CEO: No. There will be more layoffs.
75. He gave a gift to the “wrong region” to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
76. Making the president of Brazil change his meeting so O’Bama could celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
77. Telling the American people: “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.” Vegas convention bookings nosedive.
78. Serving $100-a-pound wagyu — on the taxpayers’ dime.
79. Sending a “reset” button to Russia, presumably to diss the last 70 years of America standing up to communism.
80. Having the “reset” button say “overcharged.”
81. Taking a 4-day holiday weekend before signing “emergency” legislation.
82. Stiffing Chicago for nearly $2 million for that Election Night party.
83. Telling Caroline Kennedy she would, you know, make, um a good, you know, senator.
84. Bombing Pakistan.
85. Sending the bust of Sir Winston Churchill back to the British.
86. Telling reporters privately: “President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history.”
87. Walking into a White House window thinking it was a door.
88. Signing an order that doctors must perform abortions, in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
89. Signing earmarks while denouncing them.
90. Adding signing statements while denouncing them.
91. Quadrupling the deficits, while denouncing them.
92. Considering having the VA charge veterans for service-related injuries.
93. Thanking himself in a Teleprompter malfunction.
94. Heckuva job, Tim.
95. Trade war with Mexico over 97 trucks.
96. Saying his bowling is “like the Special Olympics.”
97. Saying he didn’t know the AIG bonuses were included in the bailout package he signed.
98. Banning the press from covering his acceptance of a press association award.
99. Skipping the Gridiron Club dinner.
100. Picking a special economics board to help him in the “emergency” that did not meet.
Click to read the rest of the article and the comments
April 29, 2009
The Official List
Accept no substitutes.
It is legendary, inspiring Chris Muir (see above) and cited by Jules Crittenden, Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin.
It has even been imitated by the New York Post.
This is the official list of The Won’s 100 mistakes in 100 days. Please let me know of any omissions. Again, these are in no particular order and are not weighted for the seriousness of their error.
1. $787 billion for a 6.1% shrinkage of the U.S. economy. Hope. Change. Panic.
2. Not fighting the release of CIA photos. Al-Qaida smiles.
3. The Bow
4. Saying it is not a bow.
5. Saying he looked forward to working with “president” Jacques Chirac – 2 years after Chirac left office. The White House said, oh, that was in reference to Chirac being head of a foundation…6. Saying there’s no pork in the stimulus. Yes there is.
7. Appointing tax cheat Tim Geithner.
8. Appointing under investigation Bill Richardson.
9. Appointing tax cheat Tom Daschle.
10. Appointing Marc Rich and terrorist pardoning Eric “Nation of Cowards” Holder.
11. Appointing Janet “Man Caused Disasters” Napolitano.
12. Appointing Hilda Solis (OK, her husband has the tax liens).
13. Appointing anti-Semitic Charles Freeman Jr.
14. Appointing tax cheat Ron Kirk.
15. Appointing fund-raising cheat Gary Locke.
16. Appointing under investigation Adolfo Carrion.
17. Who is that sneaking out the back door?
18. Putting Larry Summers to sleep. More TOTUS and cowbell.
19. Making the SEALs hold their fire initially — costing them 2 days.
20. The $100 million budget cut.
21. Pretending to be unaware of the Tea Parties.
22. Politicizing the Census. An attempt that failed. I think.
23. Armenian genocide? Never heard of it.
24. Taking crap from Danny Ortega.
25. Apologizing to Muslims, whom the US helped.
26. Apologizing to France — what, for saving her twice?
27. Apologizing for liberating Iraq.
28. A handshake instead of a kiss from Carla Bruni.
29. Shaking hands with the anti-American Hugo Chavez.
30. Accepting an anti-American tome from Chavez.
31. Buzzing New York City for a photo op. Nice panic.
32. Burning 9,000 gallons of fuel for an Earth Day photo op.
33. Flying his green pizza chef 850 miles from St. Louis to the White House. More carbon big-footing to promote green.
34. Believing that pizzas harm the environment.
35. Most expensive inauguration. Ever.
36. Embracing what he dismissed in the campaign as the largest middle-class tax ever.
37. Fighting coal– which provides half the nation’s electricity.
38. Appointing Dr. Sunjay Gupta as surgeon general, only to kick him to the curb once lefties complained.
39. Having no surgeon general to advise on the swine flu.
40. Annette Nazareth appointed but resigned because of… tax reasons.
41. Laughing at problems so much that Steve Kroft asked, “Are you punch drunk?”
42. Lifting travel restrictions on Cuba with nothing in return.
43. The Holy See turned down 3 candidates for ambassador, including Caroline Kennedy. Are there any pro-life Democrats left?
44. Having Georgetown cover Christ’s name when The Won used that Catholic university as a backdrop for a speech.
45. That’s up, Mr. President.
46. Bumping his head on the Marine One helicopter.
47. Banning offshore oil again.4
48. Funding abortions overseas.
49. Using the word “crisis” 25 times in a speech, then later complaining that people are too negative about the economy.
50. Letting Nancy Pelosi write the $787 billion “stimulus’ plan.
51. Relying on Tim Geithner to explain it.
52. Putting Joe Biden in charge of making sure the stimulus money is not — wink, wink, nudge, nudge — misspent.
53. Setting the Oval Office thermostat at 80.
54. Going to a press conference without a TelePrompTer. I… Uhh… Umm… Could you repeat the question?
55. Using a TelePrompTer at a press conference. Big boys don’t need training wheels.
56. Opening a press conference with: “Good evening, everybody. Please be seated. Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly.” 1,228 words later he took his first question.
57. Ethics waivers.
58. Going after Rush Limbaugh.
59. Going after Rick Santelli.
60. Going after Jim Cramer.
61. Trying to run the Census out of the White House.
62. Adopting the motto: “Never waste a good crisis.”
63. Writing a love letter to Vlad and Dmitry.
64. Throwing Poland under the bus.
65. Throwing Tibet under the bus.
66. Throwing Israel under the bus.
67. Taking Cuba out from under the bus.
68. Ticking off Switzerland by having his tax cheat go after the tax cheats in Switzerland. Cognitive dissonance.
69. Saying: “Karzai has a bunker mentality.”
70. Reaching out to the Taliban.
71. Iran has plans to Marine One helicopters.
72. Explaining his refusal to work with Republicans with the words: “I won.”
73. Having a BlackBerry that can easily be hacked by the Chinese.
74. Saying to the people of Peoria: “If Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.” CEO: No. There will be more layoffs.
75. He gave a gift to the “wrong region” to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
76. Making the president of Brazil change his meeting so O’Bama could celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
77. Telling the American people: “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.” Vegas convention bookings nosedive.
78. Serving $100-a-pound wagyu — on the taxpayers’ dime.
79. Sending a “reset” button to Russia, presumably to diss the last 70 years of America standing up to communism.
80. Having the “reset” button say “overcharged.”
81. Taking a 4-day holiday weekend before signing “emergency” legislation.
82. Stiffing Chicago for nearly $2 million for that Election Night party.
83. Telling Caroline Kennedy she would, you know, make, um a good, you know, senator.
84. Bombing Pakistan.
85. Sending the bust of Sir Winston Churchill back to the British.
86. Telling reporters privately: “President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history.”
87. Walking into a White House window thinking it was a door.
88. Signing an order that doctors must perform abortions, in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
89. Signing earmarks while denouncing them.
90. Adding signing statements while denouncing them.
91. Quadrupling the deficits, while denouncing them.
92. Considering having the VA charge veterans for service-related injuries.
93. Thanking himself in a Teleprompter malfunction.
94. Heckuva job, Tim.
95. Trade war with Mexico over 97 trucks.
96. Saying his bowling is “like the Special Olympics.”
97. Saying he didn’t know the AIG bonuses were included in the bailout package he signed.
98. Banning the press from covering his acceptance of a press association award.
99. Skipping the Gridiron Club dinner.
100. Picking a special economics board to help him in the “emergency” that did not meet.
Click to read the rest of the article and the comments
100 Days of the Poser Presidency - bleh!
(Photoshop credit: Nice Deb)
My syndicated column commemorates Barack Obama’s 100 days with the Scare Force One story as a take-off point. Imagine if this fiasco had happened under George Bush’s watch. It would have made the Left’s incessant carping over the “fake plastic turkey,” Mission Accomplished banner, and My Pet Goat incidents look like nothing.
We now know thanks to WCBS in NY that the feds knew the “mission” would cause panic and that they went ahead with the secret plans, anyway. There are still a lot more unanswered questions about what happened in the skies above New York City. I have filed two FOIA requests with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Staff FOIA Requester Service Center seeking more info, including the flight manifests; communications that would shed light on the origin of the “mission,” and copies of any and all photos taken on the taxpayer-subsidized journey. Let’s have some of that vaunted transparency Barack Obama is always talking about.
100 days of reckless photo-op hubris
by Michelle Malkin
Creators SyndicateCopyright 2009
Come on, who’s surprised? The White House-engineered photo-op of low-flying Air Force aircraft that caused terror in New York City this week epitomizes the Age of Obama. What better way to mark 100 days in office than with an appalling exercise in pointless, taxpayer-funded stagecraft.
The superficiality, the unseriousness, the hubris, the obliviousness to post-9/11 realities: They were trademarks of the Obama campaign and they are the tattoos on his governance.
He never leaves home without his teleprompter. All the Obama world’s a stage. Or a world ready to be staged.
So, is it any wonder he would staff his White House Military Office with a clueless paper-pusher who saw nothing wrong with spending inordinate government resources – and recreating 9/11 havoc — to update Air Force One publicity shots? And who planned, believe it or not, to do the same in Washington, D.C., next month, where 53 passengers and 6 crew members on board American Airlines Flight 77, and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the Pentagon were murdered by the 9/11 jihadists?
All for some damned publicity shots.
100 Days of Me - All Me, All the time -
from American Thinker
by Rick Moran
April 29, 2009
Obama's 'Managerial Brilliance'
Well yeah, if you listen to David Brooks whose glowing ecomiums to the president's "tremendously effective, efficient managerial administration" on a recent Charlie Rose show just rose up and bit him in the arse when the crazy-stupid prank of flying an Air Force One mockup so low that it panicked half of New York revealed his hero's incompetence.
Andy McCarthy writing at the Corner marking Obama's 100 days in office:
"...cabinet tax woes, "who hid the Geithner plan?", the apology tours, our national cowardice on race, the DHS secretary who is bird-dogging conservatives in search of the next man-caused disaster (when she isn't slandering Canada over 9/11), Iran and North Korea on the nuclear march, the State Department that can't translate "reset" into Russian, the redistribution by day and wagyu steak by night, the disclosure of interrogation tactics to our terrorist enemies (and coming soon, prisoner-abuse photos that even Democrats concede will increase the danger to our troops and our country), the 48-hour flip-floperoo on criminal investigations of Bush officials, etc., etc."
"Now the Obama administration frightens the living daylights out of lower Manhattan - causing building evacuations by people who though a second 9/11 was underway - just so they can have an Air Force One photo op (imagine the carbon footprint!) and it's like Obama had nothing to do with it. If you read the news accounts, it's all Louis Caldera, who was summoned to the woodshed "to hear the President's displeasure" (as the WSJ put it) from Rahm Emanuel. Why do I think that if this had happened during the last administration, no one would know the name of the guy running the "White House Military Office"?"
Do you think any of his worshipping flock of media sycophants will mention this at tonight's press conference? Or the fact that he has been so busy planning for this "100 days of Me" celebration that he hasn't bothered to fill vital posts at Treasury or HHS with a bank crisis and Swine Flu crisis looming? Probably get some questions about his wife, his dog, and how things are going to be swell once all those trillions of dollars he's spent are redistrbuted to the "right people."
Click to read the rest of the article and the comments
by Rick Moran
April 29, 2009
Obama's 'Managerial Brilliance'
Well yeah, if you listen to David Brooks whose glowing ecomiums to the president's "tremendously effective, efficient managerial administration" on a recent Charlie Rose show just rose up and bit him in the arse when the crazy-stupid prank of flying an Air Force One mockup so low that it panicked half of New York revealed his hero's incompetence.
Andy McCarthy writing at the Corner marking Obama's 100 days in office:
"...cabinet tax woes, "who hid the Geithner plan?", the apology tours, our national cowardice on race, the DHS secretary who is bird-dogging conservatives in search of the next man-caused disaster (when she isn't slandering Canada over 9/11), Iran and North Korea on the nuclear march, the State Department that can't translate "reset" into Russian, the redistribution by day and wagyu steak by night, the disclosure of interrogation tactics to our terrorist enemies (and coming soon, prisoner-abuse photos that even Democrats concede will increase the danger to our troops and our country), the 48-hour flip-floperoo on criminal investigations of Bush officials, etc., etc."
"Now the Obama administration frightens the living daylights out of lower Manhattan - causing building evacuations by people who though a second 9/11 was underway - just so they can have an Air Force One photo op (imagine the carbon footprint!) and it's like Obama had nothing to do with it. If you read the news accounts, it's all Louis Caldera, who was summoned to the woodshed "to hear the President's displeasure" (as the WSJ put it) from Rahm Emanuel. Why do I think that if this had happened during the last administration, no one would know the name of the guy running the "White House Military Office"?"
Do you think any of his worshipping flock of media sycophants will mention this at tonight's press conference? Or the fact that he has been so busy planning for this "100 days of Me" celebration that he hasn't bothered to fill vital posts at Treasury or HHS with a bank crisis and Swine Flu crisis looming? Probably get some questions about his wife, his dog, and how things are going to be swell once all those trillions of dollars he's spent are redistrbuted to the "right people."
Click to read the rest of the article and the comments
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
FAA memo: Feds knew Scare Force One would cause panic
image by Reesfrom Hot Air.com
by Allahpundit
April 28, 2009
Via JWF, I’m almost comforted by the revelation. The possibility that they’d be so stupid as not to know that buzzing lower Manhattan with a jumbo jet might freak people out is too terrible to contemplate.
Now all we have to do is figure out why a “photo op” would be such a terrifically big secret that not even the mayor of New York was in on it. Does that make any sense at all? “We need a new stock shot of Air Force One near the Statue of Liberty. Don’t tell a soul.”
Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD, the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out…The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.
The cost of this debacle, by the way? Just shy of $329,000. Think of it as a stimulus: The amount of booze, smokes, and anti-anxiety meds alone that New Yorkers must have consumed in the aftermath of this mass panic attack was probably worth $10-20 mil to the city.I just got this info sent to me about the photo op / flyover yesterday with Air Force One ….the one that sent people running in NYC…yes, scared them to death! They now say it was a training mission…hhm….they needed training? and the cost? see (by the way, how much flu vaccination can you get for $325,000+? )
Follow the link for a breakdown of the cost. Question for Air Force vets: Is “training mission” military jargon for “photo op”? What were they “training” to do here precisely, besides killing people on the ground from fright?Click to read the article and comments
Dear President Obama: Someone, most likely you, needs to be fired for the NYC fly-over idiocy of yours.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Mr. President, it's bad enough that you're such a rank hypocrite on the environment, having wasted 9,000 gallons of fuel and hundreds of thousands of our tax payer dollars so you could make one of your many hypocritical speeches telling us how to live while you ignore those same rules, some moron working for you REALLY thought it was necessary for one of the Air Force One fleet to ACTUALLY fly low over the WTC site for a photo op with the Statue of Liberty.
Besides the idiocy of actually spending ADDITIONAL hundreds of thousands taxpayer dollars for ANOTHER photo op, you failed to let all of the appropriate New York authorities on to the gag, so you managed to scare the crap out of a few million people... more then you do merely by being our incompetent president, I mean.
Tell us, please, Mr. President... we're dying to know: is there some PARTICULAR reason one of those criminals... one of those incompetent morons working for you couldn't have accomplished the same thing by PHOTO SHOPPING THIS LITTLE DRAMA?
YOU tell US not to waste energy... and then YOU, not unlike that simpleton short-busser AlGore, waste more energy in a DAY then most families go through in a year.
EVERY DAY YOU'RE PRESIDENT TERRIFIES ME.
What scares me even more is that apparently, you've surrounded yourself with a bunch of "yes" men and women, people who lack the guts or intelligence to tell you when you're bound and determined to do something stupid... again.
When you engage in these monumentally stupid and unforced errors; stupid, unforced errors that the media would have crucified any Republican over, you embolden our enemies and weaken our country. Who is your fall guy for this idiocy, Mr. President? Who gets fired? That non-military idiot you hired to run the Military Affairs Office, Louis Caldera in your shop? He seems like a likely foil. At only $50,000 per hour to fly your plane, ($328,835 total costs... for a fricking PICTURE) you'd think he'd give a rat's patooty about our money and making you like more like a fool than you do all by yourself.
Simple, basic, competency, Mr. President. You're screwing up in ways that would get a 5th grade class president suspended from school. And you're doing it over... and over... and over... again.
Caldera needs to go, and you need to put a one star BACK IN THERE. If you had actually kept this a military billet... then none of this additional idiocy would have happened.
Stop it. While the Iranians, NorKs, Russians and Chinese are amused by your idiocy, and are becoming increasingly sure that if they take a shot at us, they'll be able to accomplish that which no one else has been able to do... and that is, succeed.... those of us actually paying attention are becoming less so.
Click to read the article and comments
Mr. President, it's bad enough that you're such a rank hypocrite on the environment, having wasted 9,000 gallons of fuel and hundreds of thousands of our tax payer dollars so you could make one of your many hypocritical speeches telling us how to live while you ignore those same rules, some moron working for you REALLY thought it was necessary for one of the Air Force One fleet to ACTUALLY fly low over the WTC site for a photo op with the Statue of Liberty.
Besides the idiocy of actually spending ADDITIONAL hundreds of thousands taxpayer dollars for ANOTHER photo op, you failed to let all of the appropriate New York authorities on to the gag, so you managed to scare the crap out of a few million people... more then you do merely by being our incompetent president, I mean.
Tell us, please, Mr. President... we're dying to know: is there some PARTICULAR reason one of those criminals... one of those incompetent morons working for you couldn't have accomplished the same thing by PHOTO SHOPPING THIS LITTLE DRAMA?
YOU tell US not to waste energy... and then YOU, not unlike that simpleton short-busser AlGore, waste more energy in a DAY then most families go through in a year.
EVERY DAY YOU'RE PRESIDENT TERRIFIES ME.
What scares me even more is that apparently, you've surrounded yourself with a bunch of "yes" men and women, people who lack the guts or intelligence to tell you when you're bound and determined to do something stupid... again.
When you engage in these monumentally stupid and unforced errors; stupid, unforced errors that the media would have crucified any Republican over, you embolden our enemies and weaken our country. Who is your fall guy for this idiocy, Mr. President? Who gets fired? That non-military idiot you hired to run the Military Affairs Office, Louis Caldera in your shop? He seems like a likely foil. At only $50,000 per hour to fly your plane, ($328,835 total costs... for a fricking PICTURE) you'd think he'd give a rat's patooty about our money and making you like more like a fool than you do all by yourself.
Simple, basic, competency, Mr. President. You're screwing up in ways that would get a 5th grade class president suspended from school. And you're doing it over... and over... and over... again.
Caldera needs to go, and you need to put a one star BACK IN THERE. If you had actually kept this a military billet... then none of this additional idiocy would have happened.
Stop it. While the Iranians, NorKs, Russians and Chinese are amused by your idiocy, and are becoming increasingly sure that if they take a shot at us, they'll be able to accomplish that which no one else has been able to do... and that is, succeed.... those of us actually paying attention are becoming less so.
Click to read the article and comments
AIR HEADS IN WHITE HOUSE TERRORIZE NEW YORK CITY
Scare Force One - The Doh!meister is at it again!IDIOTIC FLIGHT SPURS '9/11' EVAC
By MURRAY WEISS, DAVID SEIFMAN and JEREMY OLSHAN
from The New York Post
April 28, 2009
"Air Farce One" played out over lower Manhattan yesterday -- in a terrifyingly bizarre military photo op that sent office workers fleeing from their buildings fearing a new 9/11-type attack.
But it turned out that the backup Air Force One jet and the fighter that appeared to be pursuing it only 1,000 feet above Ground Zero were staging the spectacle to get publicity shots of the presidential plane with a New York backdrop.
"We all ran to the window, and I thought, that's it, we're all dead," said Chris Biancamano, 36, who works at a brokerage in Jersey City. "It brought back all the memories of 9/11. I said, 'I have to get out of here now!' "
The planes flew over the Verrazano Bridge, buzzed Lady Liberty's left ear, continued up the Hudson past Jersey City and then circled back toward Staten Island, federal officials said. The jets then completed two more loops as photographers aboard the F-16 took the world's most expensive snapshots.
Although the Air Force had permission for the 10 a.m. flyover, no one bothered to warn the people on the ground, and as the two jets hurtled toward lower Manhattan, many mistook Obama's plane for Osama's.
President Obama himself was not in the plane at the time, but the 747 flew so low that New Yorkers had no trouble reading the aircraft's insignia.
Dominick Caglioti, who works at the Mercantile Exchange in lower Manhattan, thought the planes were headed straight for his window. After learning it was all a photo op, he fumed.
"It's so stupid because they tell you about every fire drill, but they didn't tell us about this," he said.
Jillian Pizzarello, who also works at the Mercantile Exchange, said, "You don't do this to people down here after all we have been through."
Thousands of people were evacuated from buildings on both sides of the Hudson during the half-hour episode.
Federal aviation officials had notified Mayor Bloomberg's office -- but not the mayor himself -- and the NYPD last week. But officials were given clear instructions not to share the classified mission with the public, sources said.
NYPD brass told 911 operators in advance to explain to callers that the planes -- which came within 500 feet of the Statue of Liberty's torch -- were conducting an "authorized" military operation.
The only relatively high-ranking person in the Bloomberg administration told of the plan was Marc Mugnos, the director of operations in the Office of Citywide Event Coordination -- a man normally charged with approving street fairs, sources said.
Bloomberg said he never received word of the plans, and he was "furious."
"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe de fies imagination," he said. "Poor judgment would be a nice way to phrase it. Had I known about it I would have called them right away and asked them not to." Mugnos was reprimanded for failing to notify the mayor, a source said.
It's unclear how much the stunt cost taxpayers, but officials said earlier this year that flying Air Force One comes with a $40,000-per-hour price tag.
At first, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed complaints and said he had no knowledge of the flyover.
"I was working on other things. You might be surprised to know I don't know every movement of Air Force One or what happens to it," he said.
But Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, later said he approved the mission.
"I take responsibility for that decision. While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption," he said. "I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused."
Obama did not know of the elaborate plans for the photos.
"When he found out, he was absolutely furious," a White House aide told The Post.
The new photo of the plane with the Statue of Liberty was to replace the current publicity shot of Air Force One above Mount Rushmore.
Additional reporting by Kirsten Fleming and David Hastie
murray.weiss@ny post.com
Click to read the article and comments
Monday, April 27, 2009
Source: White House was updating AF One file photo
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFENAssociated Press Writer
Mon Apr 27, 6:28 pm ET
WASHINGTON – An administration official says a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet flew low near ground zero in New York City Monday because the White House Military Office wanted to update its file photo of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty.
This official said the White House Military Office told the Federal Aviation Administration that it periodically updates file photos of Air Force One near national landmarks, like the statute in New York harbor and the Grand Canyon.
The official requested anonymity to give more details than the official White House announcement that took the blame.
The incident on Monday caused a brief panic among workers, who weren't warned. They recalled the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Click to read the article
White House freaks out New York with low altitude fly-by - Who was the Idiot that authorized it?
Smart power: White House freaks out New York with low altitude fly-by; Video: Panicked NYers run in the streets; Update: Obama “furious”
posted at 5:00 pm on April 27, 2009
from Hot Air.com
by Allahpundit
I didn’t hear it this morning but I used to work in lower Manhattan and can assure you that workers these days are highly attuned to unusual air traffic in the area. Not a day has passed in seven-plus years, I think, that an airplane has flown low enough overhead that I could hear it, even just barely, and I didn’t look up. Just watching the video, I could feel the blood drain from my face.
An Air Force One lookalike and two F-16s buzzed the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor this morning, halting work on nearby construction sites, causing resident and office workers to flee their high-rises and giving thousands of people in downtown Manhattan and New Jersey a major fright. At least two people were treated for minor injuries at Jersey City Medical Center after falling during the rush to exit their high-rises.
"Everybody panicked,” said Daisy Cooper, a Merrill Lynch worker in Jersey City, who lost a nephew on 9/11. “Everybody was screaming and we all ran downstairs. I’m devastated…Everybody was running, we didn’t know why we were running. We just knew it was a plane, there we go, 9/11 again.”…
A Pentagon official confirmed that while the Presidential Airlift Group, which is based out of Andrews Air Force Base, did inform the FAA and New York City officials about this morning’s aerial photo op. But they also told both agencies not to inform the public about it. The NYPD confirmed this.
Not sure how or why The One would be responsible for this, but since the left’s being extra-jerky with its fingerpointing today, feel free to put forth your theory in the comments of What This Tells Us About How Obama Views the World. Evidence of his pre-9/11 mentality? Proof of a narcissism so profound as to blind him to American fears? Suggestive of a military that’s out of control under his weak command? Go crazy!
Update: Looks like this did come from the White House after all.
White House Military Office director Louis Caldera issued a brief statement.
“Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,” he said. “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, its clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”…
An administration official said the Federal Aviation Administration was informed this would be taking places, and notified Mr. Bloomberg’s office on April 22.
The problem was the FAA was told the information was classified and did not alert the press to warn the public.
Follow the link for obligatory outrage from Bloomberg and Schumer, who’s blaming the FAA in order to cover Obama’s ass.
Update: Changed the headline to emphasize that it was Team Barry, not the Pentagon, that blew this. He’s not happy about it, either:
When President Obama was told about the incident, he was “furious,” a White House official says.
Caldera was called into a meeting with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina.
“It didn’t sound like a fun meeting,” the White House official says.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
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