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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Friday, April 16, 2004 As I"ve said, I'm out of the loop at the moment, so I don't know how much of my perception is true and how much is wishful thinking. But I'm beginning to hear, every time I do manage to listen to the radio or watch the television news, a thread of doubt in the newscasters' voices. Questions where there never used to be questions. Awkward pauses when they quote a statement by Bush or one of his people, as though it was beginning to be embarrassing to repeat their words. Subtle things like this can kill a candidate, can create doubt in the listeners' minds, can shade meaning. I'd be happier with completely neutral reporting; the talking heads can destroy one candidate as quickly as another. But at the moment it's refreshing to hear people actually begin to question what they're being told. Many of the questions have to do with 9/11, of course. The commission seems to be focused on what led up to it. I wish someone would publicly ask more questions about what happened immediately after the attacks. Why didn't the Air Force respond more promptly, for example? Why did President Bush take the news so calmly and, in fact, appear to be completely unsurprised? I'm not one of those people trumpeting conspiracy charges, but his lack of reaction has always seemed completely inexplicable to me. How could anyone have received such news without even a change of expression? The Memory Hole, that treasure trove of otherwise unavailable citations and no-longer-available websites, has posted a series of frames from the 5 minute period after Bush was notified of the second attack on the World Trade Center, the point at which it was obvious this was not an accident. The quasi-ofiicial version of this sequence (released not by the government but by the elementary school in which it took place) is only 2 minutes 10 seconds long, and the White House has said that Bush didn't want to upset the children by leaving suddenly. It turns out that Bush didn't leave for several minutes after his session with the children was over, using the additional time for a photo-op session. Here is a portion of the Memory Hole's commentary:At 9:03 AM on 11 September 2001, the second airplane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. President Bush was in Florida, at the Emma T. Booker Elementary School, listening to children read. Chief of Staff Andrew Card came over and whispered in Bush's ear, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." What did the Commander in Chief do? Nothing. He sat there. He sat for well over 5 minutes, doing nothing while 3,000 people were dying and the attacks were still in progress. Not only did the leader of the free world sit as his country was attacked, the Secret Service also did nothing. Bush was appearing in public at a previously announced photo-op. He was a sitting duck. The attacks were ongoing at that point (planes had yet to hit the Pentagon or the field in Pennsylvania), and nobody knew how much more destruction was going to happen. Were there two, three, four, eight more planes hijacked and on their way to crash into prominent buildings? Was one headed for the school, where anyone who checked the President's public itinerary would know he was located? Were other terrorists planning to detonate dirty nukes? Were they going to release anthrax or smallpox or sarin? Was an assassination squad going to burst into the school and get Bush? Was a suicide bomber going to ram a truck full of explosives into that classroom? During the midst of the attacks, any of these things could've happened. Yet there sits Bush, seemingly unconcerned. His Chief of Staff likewise doesn't think that America in flames warrants the President's immediate attention. And the Secret Service utterly fails to do its job by grabbing the President of the United States and getting him to safety. It's truly inexplicable. And it's something the administration isn't too eager to trumpet. They haven't released footage of the President's (non)actions during this historic moment of American history. Until now, the only available footage had been a little film put together by Booker Elementary. [See it here.] The problem is, there's a jump edit in the footage: From the time Card whispers to Bush until the end of the scene in the classroom, only 2 minutes and 10 seconds elapse. But this new, fuller footage shows Bush sitting for a full five minutes after he'd been told that "America is under attack."Many of President Bush's actions, taken in isolation, can be explained away, even if the explanations do sometimes stretch one's powers of imagination. Taken together, over a span of more than three years, they begin to add up to an immense lie. I don't have much hope that the American public will ever know most of the truth—the sad fact is that the American public as a whole doesn't want to know the truth. It's easier to tell ourselves that President Bush is a Christian who listens to God and reads the Bible and goes to church every Sunday, and must therefore be on the right track even if our jobs continue to go overseas and our young men and women continue to die in Iraq, and our gas prices continue to rise. I am repeatedly astonished at the otherwise intelligent people who brush away facts with wishful thinking. But perhaps the tide is going out at last. Not only does the news reporting have a different feel to it, but some people whom I had personally given up on are beginning to look uncomfortable with politics as usual. It's about time. posted by Liz @ 6:36 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
As I"ve said, I'm out of the loop at the moment, so I don't know how much of my perception is true and how much is wishful thinking. But I'm beginning to hear, every time I do manage to listen to the radio or watch the television news, a thread of doubt in the newscasters' voices. Questions where there never used to be questions. Awkward pauses when they quote a statement by Bush or one of his people, as though it was beginning to be embarrassing to repeat their words. Subtle things like this can kill a candidate, can create doubt in the listeners' minds, can shade meaning. I'd be happier with completely neutral reporting; the talking heads can destroy one candidate as quickly as another. But at the moment it's refreshing to hear people actually begin to question what they're being told. Many of the questions have to do with 9/11, of course. The commission seems to be focused on what led up to it. I wish someone would publicly ask more questions about what happened immediately after the attacks. Why didn't the Air Force respond more promptly, for example? Why did President Bush take the news so calmly and, in fact, appear to be completely unsurprised? I'm not one of those people trumpeting conspiracy charges, but his lack of reaction has always seemed completely inexplicable to me. How could anyone have received such news without even a change of expression? The Memory Hole, that treasure trove of otherwise unavailable citations and no-longer-available websites, has posted a series of frames from the 5 minute period after Bush was notified of the second attack on the World Trade Center, the point at which it was obvious this was not an accident. The quasi-ofiicial version of this sequence (released not by the government but by the elementary school in which it took place) is only 2 minutes 10 seconds long, and the White House has said that Bush didn't want to upset the children by leaving suddenly. It turns out that Bush didn't leave for several minutes after his session with the children was over, using the additional time for a photo-op session. Here is a portion of the Memory Hole's commentary:At 9:03 AM on 11 September 2001, the second airplane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. President Bush was in Florida, at the Emma T. Booker Elementary School, listening to children read. Chief of Staff Andrew Card came over and whispered in Bush's ear, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." What did the Commander in Chief do? Nothing. He sat there. He sat for well over 5 minutes, doing nothing while 3,000 people were dying and the attacks were still in progress. Not only did the leader of the free world sit as his country was attacked, the Secret Service also did nothing. Bush was appearing in public at a previously announced photo-op. He was a sitting duck. The attacks were ongoing at that point (planes had yet to hit the Pentagon or the field in Pennsylvania), and nobody knew how much more destruction was going to happen. Were there two, three, four, eight more planes hijacked and on their way to crash into prominent buildings? Was one headed for the school, where anyone who checked the President's public itinerary would know he was located? Were other terrorists planning to detonate dirty nukes? Were they going to release anthrax or smallpox or sarin? Was an assassination squad going to burst into the school and get Bush? Was a suicide bomber going to ram a truck full of explosives into that classroom? During the midst of the attacks, any of these things could've happened. Yet there sits Bush, seemingly unconcerned. His Chief of Staff likewise doesn't think that America in flames warrants the President's immediate attention. And the Secret Service utterly fails to do its job by grabbing the President of the United States and getting him to safety. It's truly inexplicable. And it's something the administration isn't too eager to trumpet. They haven't released footage of the President's (non)actions during this historic moment of American history. Until now, the only available footage had been a little film put together by Booker Elementary. [See it here.] The problem is, there's a jump edit in the footage: From the time Card whispers to Bush until the end of the scene in the classroom, only 2 minutes and 10 seconds elapse. But this new, fuller footage shows Bush sitting for a full five minutes after he'd been told that "America is under attack."Many of President Bush's actions, taken in isolation, can be explained away, even if the explanations do sometimes stretch one's powers of imagination. Taken together, over a span of more than three years, they begin to add up to an immense lie. I don't have much hope that the American public will ever know most of the truth—the sad fact is that the American public as a whole doesn't want to know the truth. It's easier to tell ourselves that President Bush is a Christian who listens to God and reads the Bible and goes to church every Sunday, and must therefore be on the right track even if our jobs continue to go overseas and our young men and women continue to die in Iraq, and our gas prices continue to rise. I am repeatedly astonished at the otherwise intelligent people who brush away facts with wishful thinking. But perhaps the tide is going out at last. Not only does the news reporting have a different feel to it, but some people whom I had personally given up on are beginning to look uncomfortable with politics as usual. It's about time.
At 9:03 AM on 11 September 2001, the second airplane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. President Bush was in Florida, at the Emma T. Booker Elementary School, listening to children read. Chief of Staff Andrew Card came over and whispered in Bush's ear, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." What did the Commander in Chief do? Nothing. He sat there. He sat for well over 5 minutes, doing nothing while 3,000 people were dying and the attacks were still in progress. Not only did the leader of the free world sit as his country was attacked, the Secret Service also did nothing. Bush was appearing in public at a previously announced photo-op. He was a sitting duck. The attacks were ongoing at that point (planes had yet to hit the Pentagon or the field in Pennsylvania), and nobody knew how much more destruction was going to happen. Were there two, three, four, eight more planes hijacked and on their way to crash into prominent buildings? Was one headed for the school, where anyone who checked the President's public itinerary would know he was located? Were other terrorists planning to detonate dirty nukes? Were they going to release anthrax or smallpox or sarin? Was an assassination squad going to burst into the school and get Bush? Was a suicide bomber going to ram a truck full of explosives into that classroom? During the midst of the attacks, any of these things could've happened. Yet there sits Bush, seemingly unconcerned. His Chief of Staff likewise doesn't think that America in flames warrants the President's immediate attention. And the Secret Service utterly fails to do its job by grabbing the President of the United States and getting him to safety. It's truly inexplicable. And it's something the administration isn't too eager to trumpet. They haven't released footage of the President's (non)actions during this historic moment of American history. Until now, the only available footage had been a little film put together by Booker Elementary. [See it here.] The problem is, there's a jump edit in the footage: From the time Card whispers to Bush until the end of the scene in the classroom, only 2 minutes and 10 seconds elapse. But this new, fuller footage shows Bush sitting for a full five minutes after he'd been told that "America is under attack."
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
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PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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