I Am…Trying to Finish A Bike Ride
I Am…Trying to Finish A Bike Ride
Amid the panic surrounding the White House and Capitol Evacuation, a few startling issues have come to light. Instead of alerting the President immediately, White House officials chose to let him finish out a bike ride in Maryland first. Apparently members of the President’s security detail had decided he need not be informed because there was no danger to him. So the Secret Service agents did not consult with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. or other senior administration officials.
The decision has been justified by claiming “the protocols that were in place after September 11th were followed. The President was never considered to be in danger because he was at an off-site location. The President has a tremendous amount of trust in his Secret Service detail.” But one would think that in the event that F-16 fighter jets are deployed in our nation’s capital, our own president should know about it. There is no problem with the President taking a bike-ride after a long European trip, which unfortunately caused him to go to bed past 9:00 pm. There is no problem if the President wants to sneak off to read the racy Tom Wolfe novel I Am Charlotte Simmons. But there should be a system in place to contact him in the event of an emergency.
Fortunately, this incident did not end similarly to Sept 11, but had the threat been real, we now know that the man elected to make crucial decisions would not have been there to do so in a timely and responsive way.
– Jay Heidbrink
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Saw this related tid bit on HuffPost:
In a photo taken just after the ride, Bush is holding what appears to be a copy of “I Am Charlotte Simmons,” the Tom Wolfe novel about debauchery on a college campus. In early February, Bush told reporters he was reading that same book — which, if he is almost done, averages to about seven pages a day.
May 13th, 2005 at 1:25 pmWhat bothers me more is that he was riding through a protected wildlife refuge research center. That is an abuse of power and shows he really doesn’t care about the environment. He’s willing to compromise environmental study for his own pleasure.
May 13th, 2005 at 1:45 pmThere are two alternate explanations for why he wasn’t in formed. One that his first knee-jerk response would be, “hurry, shoot it down” (not waiting to find out it was a true threat). Two, that he would freeze as he did on 9/11 and Michael Moore would have material for a new movie.
May 13th, 2005 at 1:52 pmPerhaps those in control were worried about what type of knee-jerk commands Bush might have given.
May 13th, 2005 at 1:54 pmWhats the big deal, the real heads of government was aware and rushed to secure locations. Why disrupt boy pres activity.
May 13th, 2005 at 1:57 pmI assume the book has lots of pictures.
May 13th, 2005 at 2:12 pmYou go Georgy, finish you’re bike ride, who gives a damn about stupid planes flying into buildings. You watch your health; there are plenty of helpless countries left for you to invade and show the world how tough you are.
May 13th, 2005 at 4:27 pmGeorgy, Georgy…
“Perhaps those in control were worried about what type of knee-jerk commands Bush might have given.”
I think you might be right-on there nicholas…
May 13th, 2005 at 4:42 pmIt has long been clear that Bush is not in charge of the administration. I’m not sure who is, but Cheney is the likely real president. So, it would be the height of folly to tell Bush about anything at all until all of the relevant actions have been decided upon and taken, if critical. I don’t object to that. In fact it makes me feel much more secure.
May 13th, 2005 at 5:24 pmHe won the election for them. Now he can take the next four years off, and let the grown-ups run things.
He only won because most of the country thought they were voting for a deer in the headlights look-alike contest.
May 13th, 2005 at 5:25 pmPlease don’t encourage the media’s enablement of the White House’s attempt at non-stories such as this.
A single-engine, unarmed plane that can be tracked by radar LONG before it enters the no-fly zone and is easily detoured by shooting a couple flairs is NOT a threat to anyone. All the drama below was to get the reporters running around, freaking out and calling their editors to break the next 9-11 live.
According to the MSNBC story since 9/11 “hundreds of small planes have flown within the restricted airspace around the capital…. However, it’s rare for fighter jets to be scrambled.”
Let’s see…why scramble jets then…? It couldn’t have anything to do with Congressman Conyers sending a letter to Bush that day signed by 89 other members of Congress wondering about the damning memo that FINALLY made news here after its release in the UK almost two months ago and faithful fire-stoking on the part of bloggers. Hmmm…what was in it….? Only the minutes of a meeting at which the Prime Minister was present to hear the director of MI6 (Britain’s CIA) say that his meeting in Washington convinced him that Bush was fixing intelligence and facts to support the war which, despite the Presidents public statements to the contrary, he had decided, apparently, steadfastly to pursue at all costs. Naaaa. That’s not really news. Evidence which could warrant an impeachment (lying to Congress, etc) aren’t news unless they’re reported. And I watched the news all day and all I heard about was that Senators had to run for their lives because the authorities had told people to “there is an imminent aircraft threat”.
And then there was Tom Ridge’s admission that the administration dicks with the threat alerts for no good reason.
I bet Dick Nixon is turning over in his grave while Bush merrily bikes along without a care in the world about all the countless crimes for which he could be hanged (figuratively if not literally). Poor old Dick didn’t have the other three branches of government in his back pocket (if you include the fourth estate, which you must).
May 14th, 2005 at 6:43 amWhen I say that the memo made news, I should qualify that by saying that the link I provide wasn’t put on any landing page of any category on the CNN website. It was pulled out of the ether by another blogger who did a search for it. It received very little attention, if any from the MSM (not counting the blogosphere which was on fire with the story).
This is bigger than the Pentagon Papers, really. The memo reveals the whole war was based on intentional lies, not errors of intelligence. And the highest figures of the British government were present for the admission. And the Brits aren’t denying the memo’s existence or contents. So what am I missing here?
May 14th, 2005 at 6:52 amAs Bushit says its hard work, real hard work, were working real hard all the time, hard work.
May 14th, 2005 at 10:48 amGeorge: Condi, I need a book that makes me look smart. What are all of the elites at Stanford reading?
Condi: Here you go Mr. President. But after the photo op I need it back, and don’t lose my page.
George: Huh? Is this anything like Lynn’s book? I liked that one a lot!
Condi: I highlighted the racy parts for you.
George: Hot damn!
May 14th, 2005 at 3:30 pmWhy isn’t someone yelling “IMPEACH”?
May 15th, 2005 at 3:56 pmUh, George, me and my friends at Stanford are only reading it to see if our names are mentioned.
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=3599&repository=0001_article
May 16th, 2005 at 12:51 pm1819
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November 19th, 2005 at 7:20 pmDave…
Interesting topic… I’m working in this industry myself and I don’t agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future…
November 17th, 2006 at 4:41 pmristorante casoli ..
January 25th, 2007 at 7:42 pm