Minutes of Silence That Should Live in Infamy: As Americans Leapt to Their Deaths from the Twin Towers, George W. Bush Sat Cluelessly in a Florida Classroom, Endangering the Lives of the Children Around Him, Until His Handlers Could Figure Out What to Do With Him
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
(If you don't want to read any further, here is the video of Bush sitting in a Florida elementary school classroom for several minutes after he was told of the second terrorist plane attack on the twin towers....)
Whatever we are as Americans, or what we used to think we were, we valued common sense.
But no longer, at least for the 40 some percent of Americans that plan on voting for Bush and Cheney.
Is it common sense to wallow in the unsubstantiated attack on a three-time medal recipient, wounded Vietnam Veteran, who volunteered to serve in combat, while a man sits in the White House who used family connections to avoid serving in Vietnam -- letting other young men die in his place while he supported the war, lost his flying privileges because he refused to take a drug test (thus leaving the tax payers with a useless bill for his pilot training) -- and then went inexplicably AWOL to boot? Is it common sense that the media allows a bunch of partisan hacks to, by implication, shred the reputation of ALL decorated Vietnam combat veterans because of their Republican bias while the Vice-President of the United States requested and received multiple deferments from serving in Vietnam (he never served at all), yet fully supported other young men dying there?
Is it common sense that the man with the title of the President -- who went AWOL and some would call a deserter (if his father hadn't been a Texas Congressman) from flying plants from Texas to Florida -- would not renounce ads attacking a valiant Vietnam Veteran who volunteered to go into harm's way, nor ask his surrogate Republican-financed rabid crew of prevaricators and financiers to stop their unseemly dog and elephant show?
No, there's no common sense to it all.
In fact, it's positively Un-American, which is what is most tragically -- and perilously -- ironic about the Bush Administration. It portrays itself as unwaveringly patriotic, while it undermines democracy and the American way at every curve.
Okay, let's try another common sense test. It's just one of many you could apply to the Bush Cartel on any given day.
Let's take the Cheney attack on Kerry for saying that he would be more sensitive about waging a war. It appears that the Bush Cartel has used the word "sensitive" in spades in regards to its various war efforts. In fact, the Washington Post reports that Cheney used the "s" word twice about Bush military policy in Iraq in an interview in which he denounced Kerry for using the same word. This is from a man who has continued to trumpet that Saddam Hussein was connected to Al Qaida despite all commission and investigative findings to the contrary. Does that defy common sense or is it just hypocrisy? Or is it just the Bush motto that if you repeat a lie five times, it becomes the truth -- or, in other words, pseudo-common sense?
Paul Krugman has talked with BuzzFlash.com about how the brazen mendaciousness of the Bush Administration is so flagrant that many Americans refuse to believe that their government could so fundamentally and openly betray them. In short, the Bush defiance of common sense becomes its own best vehicle for concealing its deceptiveness and dishonesty. It's day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute lying and contradictions are so audacious that the people with common sense don't believe that the President of the United States could actually countenance such behavior. So, they -- abetted by an enabling press that daily rescues Bush from his latest failure, faux pas, or deception -- believe that lies are truth.
But, since BuzzFlash is headquartered in Illinois, the land of Lincoln, and a neighboring state of Missouri (the "Show Me State"), we still do believe in common sense. We still do say, "Show me, don't tell me."
For that reason, we are offering, if you click here, a few minutes of George W. Bush sitting in the Booker School classroom on September 11th, 2001, after he was notified that both twin towers had been attacked. (Bush will be notified of the second terrorist attack about one minute into the video and then sit another five minutes before the tape ends.)
We say, "show me," and what does this video show us?
* That Bush is a pawn and unable to act decisively until his handlers tell him what to do and hand him a script.
* That he put at risk the children and adults at Booker School by staying in the classroom, even though he might, the White House claimed, have been a target of the terrorist attacks that day.
* That he calmly listened to a pet goat story and complimented the children on their reading skills as Americans and foreigners burned alive or jumped to their deaths from the twin towers.
* That he did not ask a question of Andrew Card or seek any further information on the terrorist attack on America until his handlers had decided FOR him what he should do.
* That he showed the chronic lack of leadership that has characterized his entire life, the scion of a family who are brand names that other forces use to advance an anti-American, Neo-Confederate, plutocratic, fundamentalist religious agenda. He cannot act on his own.
* That he chose to continue a photo-op with black children designed to give him the image of a "compassionate conservative" concerned about education for even black kids was more important than the national security of the United States.
Also note that Bush had been informed of the first attack even before he got into the classroom, so the several minutes (at least five before this tape ends) that he spent waiting to be told what to do just represents the time after the SECOND attack.
And when the reading lesson was over, according to a pro-Bush Washington Times Bush hagiographer, Bill Sammons, Bush lingered, telling the children to stay in school and pose for photos. When a reporter asked if he knew what was going on in New York, Bush simply dismissed the question: "I'll talk about it later." He spent some more time in the classroom "as if he didn't have a care in the world...in the most relaxed manner imaginable."
(Visit the "The Center for Cooperative Research" for an excellent timeline of Bush's actions and words on September 11th, including his infamous "holding room" appearance at the Booker School.)
Well, dear BuzzFlash readers, this defies common sense.
No one who cared about his or her company would hire Bush as a CEO after watching this video. Then why does he continue to sit in the White House?
He is a failed leader, a man who is led around from photo-op to photo-op -- and if something happens that is not scripted, he is rendered inoperable and incapable of personal decision making or action.
One of our BuzzFlash readers proposed this ad:
Dear BuzzFlash.com:
Political ads have annoyed me for many years, but Bush's attempt at smearing Kerry's Vietnam War record has taken it to lower levels. Tearing into Senator McCain in the 2000 Republican primary race, then Sen. Max Cleland's 2002 during his bid for re-election were equally despicable. Now the neo-cowards are attempting to play their Vietnam trump card again.
I have a suggestion for a TV ad that Kerry should use. He need only air this one single ad. It has no audio. It has no bottom-of-the-screen language trailer to read. It is longer then most ads, it runs for several minutes, but requires no production costs. It contains coinciding 9/11 events, each share half of a split screen. A real-time clock ticks off the seconds of each event as they occurred. On the right you see the aircraft striking the Twin Towers. On the left sits our Commander-In-Chief on a grade schooler's chair, holding a copy of My Pet Goat, while Andy Card approaches him and whispers into his ear. Both images on the screen are absolutely silent for the entire seven minutes.
That's all that needs to be done. It is not a "negative" ad. And, it is neither contrived, nor staged. (As was the Willie Horton ad that deep-sixed Dukakis). The events happened. They happened simultaneously. I can't imagine a more simple, thought-provoking ad for the viewer.
A Loyal BuzzFlash Reader
Excellent idea, but who needs an ad?
Here's the real thing.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
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A BuzzFlash Note: BuzzFlash.com has an interesting history with the Booker School tape of George W. Bush. Several months after 9/11, we were doing some research and went to the Booker School website. To our amazement, there was a link to a video of Bush's "historic" visit to the school on the school Internet homepage that included Andrew Card informing him of the second terrorist plane attack and his continued presence in the classroom.
We couldn't believe it. It was like finding gold in a Colorado stream. Our first thought was, "Why hasn't someone from the mainstream media posted this or written an article about it?" And then we realized, because the mainstream media doesn't any longer have any interest in independently analyzing Bush's behavior or comparing White House spin to actual, documented activity. I mean, wasn't this proof?
Here was the "Zapruder film" of Bush on 9/11 and BuzzFlash.com was the first media outlet to draw attention to it, only after we found it months after September 11th. So, we posted a link to the Booker School "historic visit" video and thousands and thousands of people viewed it. Not surprisingly, it mysteriously vanished from the Booker School site the next day, but we had taken the precaution of asking other sites to mirror the video, so copies remained caroming around the Internet.
We are offering a different version now, because the Booker School version was edited.
The source of our videos: Dr. Daniel A. Straus sponsored the professional rendering of these digital clips from the raw VHS feed obtained from the Education Channel of Sarasota, Florida. He dedicates this gift to regime change on November 2, 2004, his fiftieth birthday. Feel free to mirror this footage with credit to BuzzFlash.com
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
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