On Monday, New York City area residents, including many folks here in New Jersey, were treated, without any advance public warning whatsoever, to a low-level "fly-over" by Air Force One and two F-16 fighter jets in and around the area of Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan, understandably causing many area residents to begin to panic.
And Barack Obama has let it be known -- through his spokesman, Robert Gibbs -- that he is "furious."
Wow! Mr. Cool has lost it? Makes you wonder what the reason or reasons are that he is "furious." It turns out, we'll ultimately be treated to the results of a fully-varnished "internal probe" conducted by the White House political deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina on the subject.
So really finding out why the President is "furious" will be anyone's guess. And every public official in sight is now risibly denying that they had any advance notice of the flight, including the President, New York Mayor Bloomberg, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs and New Jersey Governor Corzine. And Bloomberg, like Obama, says he is "furious."
Therefore, the following are our suggestions . . . i.e., the top ten reasons President Barack Obama is now furious about the FAA and the White House Military Office. In advance of the flight, they imposed a cloak of secrecy on, among others, the New York Police Department and the Mayor's Office, prior to Monday's low-level "photo op" flight over the Statue of Liberty, even though, according to an FAA document obtained by CBS, the FAA knew the flight would likely cause some to panic!
New York City officials were even threatened in advance with undefined "sanctions" if the story got out. The low-level flight of the large jetliner, immediately tailed by first two, then one jet fighter, was plainly visible from the lower end of New York City, as well as across the Hudson in Jersey City, and other New Jersey communities.
The claimed purpose for the fly-over, involving an Air Force One "back-up," accompanied into the area by those two F-16 fighter jets, was to obtain file-footage of the Statute of Liberty from Air Force One, and also footage of the Presidential plane flying past the New Jersey-based harbor landmark.
Now, the riparian rights to all submerged lands surrounding the Statute of Liberty are in New Jersey, located as they are just off of Jersey City. And nearby Ellis Island was declared to be located in the State of New Jersey by the United States Supreme Court back in 1998.
So, how much notice did anyone in our state get? The Star-Ledger reports that according to New Jersey Governor Corzine,
"he and other New Jersey officials were not informed ahead of time about the low-flying planes past the New York skyline that set off a panic on both sides of New York Harbor on Monday."However, the story goes on to say that the FAA insists that the New Jersey State Police, for example, were informed in advance. From the story:
Governor Corzine said he has yet to find a New Jersey official informed in advance about the flight, which he called out of sync with "understandable anxiety that people in the metropolitan area have on both sides of the river."
But an FAA spokesman has said the flyover "was approved and coordinated with everyone," with notifications made to the New York City Police Department, the mayor's office, the New Jersey State Police, and other agencies.
Hmmmmm . . . ? New Jersey has a "Homeland Security Office." Were they one of the "other agencies" that was informed in advance?
White House Military Office
According to the Wall Street Journal, the current head of the White House Military Office, Lou Cadera, is an Obama political appointee, --which represented a change from the Bush Administration when that post was held by active duty military personnel.
There has been no credible public explanation yet for why, or for whom such footage was considered desirable, other than the remote suggestion that it may have been for documentary footage -- at a cost to the taxpayers of an estimated $328,835.00! The unscheduled and unexpected low-flying incident obviously conjured up memories of 9/11, scaring some New York and Jersey City office workers out of their wits, rattling windows, and even prompting some of them to panic and run, or to evacuate buildings.
According to the stories, Obama was so furious about the secrecy, that he has ordered a secret internal investigation -- as opposed to a public hearing -- as the right way to get to the bottom of the incident. And, he has further vowed "it will not happen again."
Gee, one would certainly hope so!
But clearly, someone has to poke a little fun at these curiously uninformed, yet furious politicians.
So here, then, are the "Top Ten Reasons" we believe the President is now furious.
10. The AF-1 "fly-under" of the Manhattan Bridge to show that Obama is a "regular guy" will now have to be cancelled, or at least postponed until some time in the second term. Update: Oops! The cancellation was apparently cancelled! (ht. Free Republic)
9. The prospect of allowing Congressman Anthony Weiner to out-demagogue everyone by calling every federal and city department and agency in sight a "bunch of boneheads," proved too much for Barry, and the normally cool POTUS simply freaked.
8. He really wanted that cool "fly-by" footage for use in texting with his new super-secure Blackberry.
7. When Lou Caldera poked his head in the Oval Office door earlier that AM and said, "Hey Chief, were takin' eagle II & a couple of fly-boys to go buzz ground zero for your pics," Obama knew he should have done more that just laugh and fire back, "Hey . . . just don't get Bloomberg's knickers in a knot!"
6. Obama knew he could not keep a straight face and concede that they just didn't figure out that it would unintentionally remind people of a certain "'man-caused' disaster"
5. This time, no one in the Administration was willing to go out and blame the snafu on Bush, our veterans, right-to-lifers, or the Canadians.
4. Obama only apologizes when overseas. But here in America? "Fit to be tied!"
3. Jonathan Martin was unavailable for a new staring contest.
2. Initially blaming an anonymous city employee, and an anonymous police department employee for scaring of "a couple of million people" just wasn't working, for some stupid reason.
And the number one reason Barack Obama is furious over the "buzzing" of ground zero for a lousy photo-op, using Air Force One and two F-16s:
1. "100 Days, 100 101 Mistakes!"
Labels: Barack Obama, FAA, fly-over, redistributhon, top ten