Fly-by? Bye-bye!
OK, so who's the bozo who authorized a low altitude flyover of New York?
One person has come forward as being the bozo. But the president, no less, has ordered an internal review to determine who really is the bozo.
Bozo, by the way, once outed, should have his (or her) big red nose and orange hair and big floppy shoes removed, forever.
Be sure to blast him (or her) in the eye with a squirting daisy and deliver a jolt from a joy buzzer while you're at it.
You've probably heard: military planes, including one sometimes used to transport President Obama, circled the Statue of Liberty and zoomed near the World Trade Center site on Monday.
Jittery New Yorkers -- and can you blame them? -- panicked as nearby office buildings were evacuated.
Why, you couldn't have picked a more foolish -- and worse, insensitive -- thing to do, unless you baked cookies in the shapes of Jewish concentration campers in an oven.
Obama, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, was "furious" when he was told of the flyover.
If I was Bozo, and I just learned that the Leader of the Free World was furious about my decision and was ordering an internal review, I think I'd be washing off my makeup and voluntarily turning in my red waist sash.
Sayonara, pal.
The person who claimed responsibility, at least initially, for the mother of all faux pas was Louis Caldera, whose title of "director of the White House military office" is likely to have the word "former" placed in front of it soon.
The mission was to snap photos of Obama's plane in front of various famous landmarks, to update the White House's picture archives.
Seems innocent enough, until you start buzzing Manhattan without notifying even the city's mayor.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was beside himself.
"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe defies the imagination," Bloomberg 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."
According to the Associated Press:
The FAA notified the New York Police Department of the flyover, telling them photos of the Air Force One jet would be taken about 1,500 feet above the Statue of Liberty around 10 a.m. Monday. It had a classified footnote that said "information in this document shall not be released to the public or the media."
Umm, why the hell NOT??
In this day and age of communications, with e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, cell phones, BlackBerries, etc., you mean to tell me that it wouldn't have been more prudent to blast the news of the flyover to New Yorkers for a day or two?
Ah, but you'd be, in turn, also notifying the nut jobs out there. So it could be argued.
Yes, but not with enough time for them to really do anything about it. What would they do, anyway?
But, on the other hand, tens of thousands (maybe more) of New Yorkers would have known about it, and may even have gathered in front of windows to gaze at the sight, which, when you're expecting it, is probably pretty cool to witness.
Not so cool when you think it's 9/11--The Sequel. And running down the street like your hair's on fire, or soon will be.
Not cool at all.
Whether it was Caldera or someone else, yet to be rooted out, who played the part of Bozo, that should be a terminable offense. Sacrificial lamb? Not really. The decision, by all accounts, to do the flyover appears not to have been made under duress or with undo pressure. Cooler--and smarter-- heads had a chance to prevail. And they didn't.
A low altitude flyover in New York? Jets buzzing the Statue of Liberty?
All for a photo op?
Bozo blew it, big time. Banish the clown from appearing under the big top ever again.
One person has come forward as being the bozo. But the president, no less, has ordered an internal review to determine who really is the bozo.
Bozo, by the way, once outed, should have his (or her) big red nose and orange hair and big floppy shoes removed, forever.
Be sure to blast him (or her) in the eye with a squirting daisy and deliver a jolt from a joy buzzer while you're at it.
You've probably heard: military planes, including one sometimes used to transport President Obama, circled the Statue of Liberty and zoomed near the World Trade Center site on Monday.
Jittery New Yorkers -- and can you blame them? -- panicked as nearby office buildings were evacuated.
Why, you couldn't have picked a more foolish -- and worse, insensitive -- thing to do, unless you baked cookies in the shapes of Jewish concentration campers in an oven.
Obama, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, was "furious" when he was told of the flyover.
If I was Bozo, and I just learned that the Leader of the Free World was furious about my decision and was ordering an internal review, I think I'd be washing off my makeup and voluntarily turning in my red waist sash.
Sayonara, pal.
The person who claimed responsibility, at least initially, for the mother of all faux pas was Louis Caldera, whose title of "director of the White House military office" is likely to have the word "former" placed in front of it soon.
The mission was to snap photos of Obama's plane in front of various famous landmarks, to update the White House's picture archives.
Seems innocent enough, until you start buzzing Manhattan without notifying even the city's mayor.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was beside himself.
"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe defies the imagination," Bloomberg 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."
According to the Associated Press:
The FAA notified the New York Police Department of the flyover, telling them photos of the Air Force One jet would be taken about 1,500 feet above the Statue of Liberty around 10 a.m. Monday. It had a classified footnote that said "information in this document shall not be released to the public or the media."
Umm, why the hell NOT??
In this day and age of communications, with e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, cell phones, BlackBerries, etc., you mean to tell me that it wouldn't have been more prudent to blast the news of the flyover to New Yorkers for a day or two?
Ah, but you'd be, in turn, also notifying the nut jobs out there. So it could be argued.
Yes, but not with enough time for them to really do anything about it. What would they do, anyway?
But, on the other hand, tens of thousands (maybe more) of New Yorkers would have known about it, and may even have gathered in front of windows to gaze at the sight, which, when you're expecting it, is probably pretty cool to witness.
Not so cool when you think it's 9/11--The Sequel. And running down the street like your hair's on fire, or soon will be.
Not cool at all.
Whether it was Caldera or someone else, yet to be rooted out, who played the part of Bozo, that should be a terminable offense. Sacrificial lamb? Not really. The decision, by all accounts, to do the flyover appears not to have been made under duress or with undo pressure. Cooler--and smarter-- heads had a chance to prevail. And they didn't.
A low altitude flyover in New York? Jets buzzing the Statue of Liberty?
All for a photo op?
Bozo blew it, big time. Banish the clown from appearing under the big top ever again.
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