Salon: Hearst News Service links "bike ride" and "My Pet Goat" delays!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, hanging onto the phrase "protocols" like a life raft (as in 'proper protocols were followed') still insists, "The president was never considered to be in any danger, and protocols that were put in place after Sept. 11 were followed," he said.

That explanation drew some bi-partisan head scratches. Former Bush security official Richard Falkenrath, a one-time Homeland Security advisor, told the Post, "My expectation is... would have wanted to be told. It's a very big deal. This is very deep penetration of the airspace. If it was possible to tell him, I'd certainly think the system would want to tell him."

And Leon Panetta, chief of staff to president Clinton, said there is no reason to leave a president out of the loop, no matter how short-lived the situation. "I don't think there is a legitimate excuse for not telling the president of the United States about that kind of potential emergency," he said. "It was serious that it happened and it could have been even more serious…. That is something that just simply cannot happen again."

As for the inescapable feeling of deja vu this tale brings, the Hearst News Service politely notes, "The episode recalled a controversial delay Sept. 11, 2001, when Bush remained in a Florida elementary-school classroom for seven minutes after being told by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card that a second airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/nation/3179976

[dogday]

1. I linked the two episodes yesterday in another post....

[pbartch]

14. I recommended!!! We need to get this seen by LOTS of people

[doublethink]

2. Actually .....

I feel safer when the chimp is left out of the loop. I can't imagine him making any rational decisions concerning an emergency situation real or otherwise. Think the ones around him realize this too? Peace. :)

[smoogatz]

6. Good point.

Bush should not be (and apparently isn't) involved in making command decisions during emergencies. But how wonderfully humiliating for him that this is now common knowledge.

[smoogatz]

3. Not only is Bush not the real President

he's not even in the chain of command. You'd think this revelation would be a real source of embarrassment for ol' Swaggerin' Codpiece. You'd think he'd make a point of publicly raising holy hell about it. Seriously--a Sinatra-esque shitfit is entirely in order. But apparently he lacks the stones.

[IChing]

Scott McClellan was reading this

CURIOUS GEORGE RIDES A BIKE
(By H.A. Rey)
The man in the yellow hat gives Curious George a brand new bicycle. What adventures are ahead for this little monkey and his new bike?

in Curious George Rides a Bike,
he not only makes boats out of all the newspapers he was supposed to deliver,
he also ruins his new bike and creates havoc at the circus
when the ostrich swallows his bugle.
But, in the end, George untangles himself and saves the day:
He rescues the baby bear that has escaped from the circus and is applauded for his heroics.

[dchill]

4. Hear me now ...

And believe me later:

Leaving Bush "out of the loop" IS the protocol!

[DearAbby]

7. It was shown clearly that Bush is NOT IN COMMAND....WHO IS?

[shoelace414]

5. add this to the link

they were close to shooting down the cessna..

who made that decision?

[smoogatz]

8. Cheney gave the order to shoot down flight 93

on 9/11--so it was probably him.

[Virginian]

9. Or maybe he wasn't really riding a bicycle... she ponders...

Maybe he had a man-date with Jeff. You know the radar is up and people would be talking if Jeff came to the White House, now that he is no longer a "reporter". So maybe Bush wasn't disturbed while he was alone with Jeff. Wouldn't that be the height of hypocrisy.

I just can't imagine why the Secret Service riding in front or behind him or beside him wouldn't have told him of a Red alert or of Laura being in potential danger. Something doesn't add up.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. Yeah, Laura is the best part.

If you told ME that MY wife had been "evacuated" during a POTENTIAL attack, and that you neglected to tell me until long after the "all clear" had been sounded, I'd be FURIOUS.

I wonder if she grilled him on this...in between doses of Xanax, of course.

[liberalla]

16. I'm with you...

He can't take these "meetings" at the WH anymore since the SS access records are being closely monitored. So sad. Can't play "Boot Camp" like they used to...

Ha! ...of course they didn't want to interrupt his "ride"!




** however, if they haven't found him a new playmate I would be very surprised. It would be pure lunacy to keep jimmyjeff around, IMO. Then again--they do crazy things and think they are above the law.

[aden_nak]

11. Bush doesn't like talking on his way back from his Horse Milking Getaways.

[sam sarrha]

12. here is the 'Protocal'......"DON'T LET THE DUFUS GET INVOLVED"

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ian David]

15. Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Nero Nero fiddled while Rome burned. President George W Bush sat in a classroom of children in Florida reading My Pet Goat while the Twin Towers collapsed.

For seven minutes he remained there, seemingly uncertain what to do after being told that a plane had crashed into the second tower on September 11.

Documentary film-maker Michael Moore recalls the moment in this undisguised, unrelenting attack on Bush and his administration. He makes no bones that he’s out to get the President with a mixture of investigative journalism and sheer ridicule.

Bush does a pretty good job of making himself look silly – witness him ranting against terrorists at an impromptu press conference on the golf course – and does half of Moore’s work for him.

More:
http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/the_north_east/film/reviews/fahrenheit.html


Also:

Bush: While Nero Fiddled…
by Mina Hamilton
www.dissidentvoice.org
April 13, 2004

Meltdown in Iraq.

In the Falluja uprising and elsewhere in Iraq the bloody toil is appalling. In a week, 60 US soldiers die. It's one of the bloodiest periods for American forces since the war began. The toll for Iraqis is, as usual, not known. Some estimate 600 Iraqis dead in Falluja, with 1200 injured, mostly women and children.

Kut and Kufa are taken over by the national resistance, the militia army of Moktada al-Sadr, or "thugs" depending upon who's talking. Najaf falls.

Meanwhile, President Bush is silent.

He's tucked away in his Crawford ranch hideaway, driving around in his pickup truck. He tours his ranch with, among others, Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief executive of the National Rifle Association. (1) He gives an interview to the Ladies Home Journal and makes jokes at South Arkansas Community College about Barbara Bush's hair. He says to a surprised stranger, "You and my mother go to the same hair-dye person." (2)

More:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/April2004/Hamilton0413.htm