June 12, 2002
Important Note: Because we can't always determine your intentions, we need to ask a favor of you when you send us email. If you DO NOT WANT YOUR EMAIL PUBLISHED in the Mailbag or in the Contributors section, please write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the Subject line or at the top of your email. That way we'll know it's just a comment to BuzzFlash. Additionally, if you submit a mailbag item and DO NOT WANT YOUR NAME associated with your submission, sign your email, "A BuzzFlash Reader." If you send email unsigned, we will post your name with your submission, or, if that's not available, your email name (not the full address, just what's on the left side of the email address). Thank you.
The BuzzFlash Mailbag is updated on an ongoing basis, with the newest material and comments on top. Again, we can only post a small percentage of what is sent to us. The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are the not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Thanks again for your email and your patience.
Dear BuzzFlash,
When I saw the news, of him after the second tower hit, I understood it to have been the first tower. I have only found out in the last months it was the second tower and he still sat there. That day I was home sick and I saw the first tower hit and the second hit and when they fell I was in disbelief. I new when the second one hit, this was planned.
His tears remind me of how I cry with happiness, when rewarded with something I can't believe I would get.
I guess he had to stay out of harm's way long enough for the CIPRO to get into his bloodstream. I waited a long time for it to download, but I used my time wisely by reading Greg Palast's book, Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
I am sickened that he walked in with a smile on his face and kidding, after the first plane hit and then sat there after the second one and all of a sudden he had a frown. I'm so disgusted, by this jerk and how he got there, and what he has done to this country.
My blood boils when I think of what he stands for. God help us here in Florida, we are doubly cursed.
Janet Alvarez
Dear BuzzFlash,
Regarding
Bush Warns of 'Catastrophic Power' in Terror War
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Citing a growing danger of terrorist groups acquiring weapons of mass destruction, President Bush ( news - web sites) warned on Monday they would use this "catastrophic power" to attack freedom-loving nations.
His prediction came on the same day that authorities captured an al Qaeda operative planning to attack the United States with a "dirty bomb," a conventional bomb packed with radioactive material that can kill people nearby as well as scatter toxic material, causing mass death and injury."
Pretty sloppy. These remarks came more than a month AFTER the suspect was captured. Nice work, Reuters.
Doug Bostrom
BuzzFlash,
History truly does repeat itself, we are in our pre-Tet Offensive period once again. Like the ever growing Credibility Gap that emerged after the Tet Offensive in '68, the Bushies are coming to their day of reckoning.
The very phrase, "the Credibility Gap," helped focus public opinion on the morass that was Vietnam. Do you think, as I do, that opinion makers, such as yourself, need to start speaking and writing about the "New Credibility Gap?"
Sincerely,
Andy
Rosenberg
La Verne, CA
Dear BuzzFlash,
I wasn't able to open the link you provided, but by going to http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/emma/9.11.01/9.11.01.index.html and then clicking on the link to the movie page, I was able to download.
A most interesting study of a man who can't be sincere and spontaneous even in one of the most raw moments of his public life. Honestly, I don't know how he does it. Hell for me would be having to spend five minutes in his head.
Dick Willis
Dear BuzzFlash,
Thank you for bringing this disturbing video of Bush to light. What is most striking to me is the lack of surprise or distress or shock on the part of Bush. He reacts like a man who had an idea this was coming.
Psychologists note that 93% of all communication is nonverbal. Tone of voice is 55% I believe and posture and gesture accounts for 38%; only 7% is in the words. The message Bush is sending nonverbally says, "I am not concerned about the attack or the deaths of people - what concerns me is putting on the right PR mask here. I am not shocked but merely alerted that the time has arrived that I expected." He finishes the lesson - such behavior is consistent with someone who was already prepared for the news of the attacks.
His concern is with striking the right pose, presenting the right image. Then at the brief formal statement, his tone of voice is highly revealing. Where is the emotion? There is no outrage, no sense of emotional opposition to what has occurred. Nonverbally he communicates that this is something expected, that this is something calculatedly allowed to occur. The emotion is only one of fear - for his own safety, particularly if he were to have gone back to Washington.
It would be interesting to have an analysis of Bush's nonverbal communication by objective psychologists.
S.R.
San Francisco
Dear BuzzFlash,
Thought you might like to see what I sent to Senator Durbin of Illinois. Don't know if you caught he and Senator Boxer this morning on CSPAN but they laid it all out and put the Energy connection to the environment, etc right out there. It was nice to see a couple of Democratic Senators be critical of the administration without apology. I did not get to see the entire thing but what I saw was what I would hope would be contagious to the rest of the Democratic Congress- both House and Senate members. They were knowledgeable, critical without being abrasive and were factual. It was nice to see those two act like the representatives of the people rather than the special interests. Glad to see that at least two members of the Senate have "a pair".
- Peggy in TX
Dear BuzzFlash,
I know that the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Page's "Best of the Web" http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110001829 doesn't pass for real journalism, but the depths of the whoredom they'll sink to is amazing.
Citing an article from CBSnews.com on "Ms. Reno And 'The President'" and their "kiss," the Opinion Journal spews....
"CBS News reports that Janet Reno, the former attorney general and now candidate for governor of Florida, kissed Martin Sheen, who plays "President Bartlet" on TV's "The West Wing," on the lips. Fortunately, this was a low-risk osculation, since both Reno and Sheen already have the cooties."
I thought 'cooties' was something we left behind in grade school. Then again, maybe that’s the mentality level they’re pandering to.
RJ Heaney
BuzzFlash:
That video of Bush that 9/11 morning was an eye opener. After Bush had the news whispered in his ear, he looked a little stunned, but continued with the classroom reading. My reaction to that was "What the hell is he thinking!!! My God! A major terrorist attack has just occurred in and you are reading a fucking children's book!!!!!" Then upon reflection, it dawned on me. Nobody came up to him to lead him out of the classroom. His handlers were likely preoccupied. Bush does not take it upon himself to leave. The video was edited and does not show how the classroom session finally broke up. But I am sure one of his handlers eventually interceded. The man sure does inspire confidence, no?
WWAGD - What would Al Gore do?
Gregory
Mysko
Northbrook, IL
Dear BuzzFlash,
The Side Effects of Cipro
The recent re-revelations of Cipro pill-popping by the White House staff (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15269-2002Jun7.html) beginning on the 11th of September demand to be reevaluated in the light of other recent events.
I don't mean we need to consider that the White House had prior information that anthrax letters would be sent through the US mail. God forbid. What I mean to say is that we need to analyze certain behaviors of White House staff in light of the fact that they were on drugs.
The early articles on this matter (see, for example, http://www.infowars.com/saved%20pages/Prior_Knowledge/bush_cipro.htm) suggested only that Vice President Cheney and other unnamed staffers were taking Cipro. Maybe a side effect of Cipro was to make them all disappear for a moment?
But another side effect, it seems, was to uncork their imaginations. Could that be why all of a sudden we were bombarded with so many fantastic tales of impending doom at the hands of some Laurel-and-Hardy terrorists (like Richard Reid and Jose Padilla)? The White House pill poppers were also probably seeing double, and maybe triple, in the early stages of antibiotic ingestion: is that why they claimed there were as many as 100,000 trained Al Qaeda agents laying in wait for us in Afghanistan?
Maybe it's the Cipro that explains Cheney's imagination regarding the Democrats. If he were a little more sober (and less "beyond the pale"), is there any way he could have thought that Democrats were accusing the Bush administration of having had foreknowledge of the events of September 11th? I can't even imagine that now. I think, however, we should all regret that the administration did not start taking Cipro a day or so earlier: in that case, might it not have been possible for them to have imagined terrorists using airplanes as guided missiles? Of course, they'd still need to connect the dots. Try doing that on drugs!
Howie Friedman
Dear BuzzFlash,
Here's an item overlooked by every report (I've read) of "what they knew & when they knew it" prior to 9/11.
In July, 2001, Ashcroft is making a speech (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/16/national/main301681.shtml) to FBI agents, emphasizing how previous embarrassments and tragedies like Hanssen and Waco were "injuring the public trust" in institutions of law enforcement.
After the speech Ashcroft is headed to his favorite fishing hole via $1600-per-hour chartered jet. That he's not flying commercial is so unusual the CBS reporter files a separate story (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml).
It says the FBI has a "threat assessment" on July, 26, 2001. By publicly denying the threat was against Ashcroft or "other Cabinet members," it's obvious the threat was to regular passenger airliners, but all the reporter gets is "no further comment." Anyone saying Ashcroft and the FBI didn't connect the dots before September 11 is lying.
I read BuzzFlash every day. Keep up the good work.
Keith Patti
Dear BuzzFlash,
12/4/2001 Check out what Bush said really happened on 9/11 . . . http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011204-17.html
THE PRESIDENT: Hi, Patricia; how are you? How old is Patricia?
Q: Five, and Jordan is in 3rd grade. And Jordan has a question, if I could give him the microphone.
THE PRESIDENT: You bet. Your mother is relaying the Mike to you, Jordan.
Q: One thing, Mr. President, is that you have no idea how much you've done for this country. And another thing is that, how did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack? (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jordan. Well, Jordan, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.
But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack."
And, Jordan, I wasn't sure what to think at first. You know, I grew up in a period of time where the idea of America being under attack never entered my mind -- just like your Daddy's and Mother's mind probably. And I started thinking hard in that very brief period of time about what it meant to be under attack. I knew that when I got all of the facts that we were under attack, there would be hell to pay for attacking America. (Applause.)
I tried to get as many facts as I could, Jordan, to make sure I knew as I was making decisions that I knew exactly what I was basing my decisions on. I've got a fabulous team. A President can't possibly be President without a good team. It starts with having a great wife, by the way. (Applause.)
And so, I got on the phone from Air Force One, asking to find out the facts. You've got to understand, Jordan, during this period of time, there were all kinds of rumors floating around. Some of them were erroneous. Obviously -- for example, there was a news report saying that the State Department had been attacked. I needed to know what the facts were. But I knew I needed to act. I knew that if the nation's under attack, the role of the Commander-In-Chief is to respond forcefully to prevent other attacks from happening. And so, I've talked to the Secretary of Defense; one of the first acts I did was to put our military on alert.
An interesting thing happened shortly thereafter. Condoleezza Rice -- who was not with me but was with the Vice President because they were in the White House compound -- called me on Air Force One after that, and said that she had gotten a call from Russia, from Vladimir Putin, who understood why we were putting our troops on alert, and, therefore, wasn't going to respond. That was an important phone call. Because when I was coming up, and a lot of other older-looking people here who were coming up with me -- (laughter) -- that would never have happened in the past. An alert by the United States would have caused Russia to go on alert, which would have created a complicated situation. But that wasn't the case.
By the way, we're heading into a new era. One of the positive things that comes out of the evil was, we're reassessing relationships in order to make the world more peaceful. I believe it's important for us to have positive relations with our former enemy and to rethink the defenses of the United States of America. (Applause.)
At any rate, I knew I had a job to do. And I was quoted in the press the other day as saying I haven't regretted one thing I've decided. And that's the truth. Every decision I made, I stand by. And I'm proud of the decisions I've made. (Applause.)
I don't know how Dubya managed to see the first plane hit the tower? Nobody else saw footage of it until many hours later....
Still, the pet goat story had to be told so he went right on into the classroom.....
Colin Swales
Dear BuzzFlash,
Thanks for making this available. Its a strange thing to watch and I really didn't react to it. It's as though nothing is going on. One has to remind oneself that he shouldn't be sitting there, we were under attack. Watching it, with the children chanting a goat story, I just don't understand how he could sit there. It's beyond my understanding.
This must have been available. I can't imagine that no one knew it was in existence. I wonder what the reaction would be if shown widely in the media and why it wasn't.
Many thanks for calling it to our attention.
bob reynolds, orange park fl
Dear BuzzFlash,
Just an observation, but isn't it odd that Idiot Boy had prepared remarks when he was at the podium announcing he was about to run off to save his sorry posterior? When would he have had time to have someone prepare them? After the first plane hit? Then why did he even go into the class? But supposedly he did not know it was a terrorist attack then. After the second plane hit? How would there have been time to produce a speech? Presumably it would not have only had to be produced, but faxed to him. Unless he was traveling with speechwriters, and in fact, took them with him to the classroom, the speech would have had to be written and transmitted to him in some format that eventually wound up on a piece of paper. Where did it come from? And how would he have had sufficient time to both have someone produce and get it to him in hard copy format if it was concocted after the second plane hit?
Of course on another level, the fact that he could not address a profoundly disturbing moment without a script is, well - so Bush-like. Not a sincere, spontaneous moment in his entire pathetic life. One can imagine Clinton handling the same situation with real emotion, hugs, reassurance. Instead we have a faux-president reading faux-emotions off a piece of paper. Really lame.
Sincerely,
Carol Schiffler
Dear BuzzFlash,
Absolutely love your site! I never miss a day.
Look, we all know that a big part of the political success of the extreme right is that they dumb down their message to first grade levels and then have all their soldiers across the country repeat the same tired theme until it oozes from the mouths of their cult members, er, constituents. We liberals hate to admit it but gosh golly it just works so well we thought we'd better do something as silly and stupid as them.
I own an earth-, animal- and people-friendly business in Lexington, Ky with my wife. Some of our clients/friends and us have come up with an idea we hope you'll share with your readers, as well as anyone else you care to.
We were trying to think of something we could all do that wouldn't require a great deal of bravery but would still get the message across that we disagree completely with the vision that George Bush has laid out for the United States and the rest of the world. I mean, hey, I'm 31 and Cheney tells me not to expect an end to the war on terrorism for the rest of my lifetime. Uh, hello?! Did I hear that correctly? I damn well don't think so!! Coming from folks who stole an election, slept with Enron and screwed the public, enabled a terrorist attack, threaten the planet with extinction and lie like dogs with complete disrespect for our country, I don't think I can let that happen!!
So I went to my old sheet bin (hey, they make good rags) cut off an inch wide by about 12" long strip and tied a white bow onto the antennae of my truck. On one flap of the bow I wrote in blue ink, "I do not support President Bush," and on the other flap in red ink I wrote, "I choose hope and peace NOT fear and war."
I choose white for a number of reasons--some of my friends thought indigo, which would represent enlightenment--but the biggest was for simplicity; probably everybody in the country has something white they could cut a strip off of for a bow. Anyway, white could also represent bright hope, bright future, purity, honesty, cleanliness--their are lots of things it could stand for that the Bush administration lacks completely.
So we thought that if we could spread the word about our silly little idea to enough people, perhaps folks would realize it was easy to protest in this simple fashion and they might realize there are more like-minded souls out there, just waiting for a non-threatening way to say "Thanks Bush but no thanks!" Heck, you never know, if people start to see these white ribbons on cars all over the country, it might inspire even more protest and patriotism. Sheet, we might just take our country back from these criminals.
Thanks for the time. And thanks for the work you do!! You are making a difference!
Sincerely,
Matt Schweder, Lexington, KY
Dear BuzzFlash,
What struck me about the video was the meaning-impoverished, lockstep recitation that passes for reading instruction at this school. Children reading a boring story in unison to a metronomic beat clapped out by the teacher is about as far from meaningful reading as anything I can imagine. And it is exactly the kind of reading instruction coming to a school near you, thanks to the No Child Left Untested Act that will add new layers of testing to our schools and reward those that implement the "direct, intensive, systematic, comprehensive" programs mandated by this federal law, which was passed by Democrats and Republicans alike. Welcome to a world of Stepford students.
Gloria Pipkin
Lynn
Haven, FL
Buzz,
Besides the obvious in the Booker Elementary video - that Dubya sat like a bump on the proverbial log listening to children reading for quite awhile after being told of the second plane - I found his later 'remarks' to be curious:
1- he had no idea where he was and had to refer to prepared notes to learn he was at Booker Elementary.
2- were those notes or a prepared speech? who prepared the notes/speech? when?
3- he couldn't even get through two minutes of an announcement of this major tragic event without someone telling him - through a full 3 pages of notes/speech - what to say
4- he lied when he said he was returning to Washington immediately after his 'remarks'
5- he lied when he said he 'ordered the full resources of the federal government... towards a full-scale investigation' of the turrist attack.
T Quigly
Dear BuzzFlash,
A protest of Dubyah is being organized for June 14 at Ohio State University.
http://www.turnyourbackonbush.com/
The Freepers are so hopping mad about it that they have even gone so far as to advocate a repeat of the Kent State massacre! [See post #'s 8 and 14].
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/698428/posts
Let's publicize this protest to the hilt, and embarrass the hell out of the unelected fraud.
And if it PO's off a bunch Freeper idiots, well that's gravy!
--Hesiod
Dear BuzzFlash,
Is it clear as "W" bites his cheek that he hasn't a clue what he was supposed to say or do. Too bad the editing is to thorough, I would have loved to see his "briefing."
He sits there listening to children putting on a show and still he does nothing. It would have been entirely appropriate to tell the children that a horrible thing happened in New York and that he had to leave, but no one told him what to do...scary...our leader?...
Francia Dejasu
Dear BuzzFlash,
I’m so impressed with all the points your readers make, and I wanted to write, but I am at meltdown. Blathering disjointed feeble protests—Enron, Anthrax, our rights, media manipulation, lies upon lies—it is, as someone called it, a brilliant strategy of scandal fatigue. I was left incoherently gnashing teeth, rending hair. Then I read the BuzzFlash Mailbag and found a gem.
Thank you Anne Filaci. Like so many, I have been incredulous asking, “Where is the rest of America? Are they insane? Don’t they notice?” Thank you Anne for pointing out that the apparent capitulation to madness by the country is actually just a case of Enron accounting. Back in October 76% strongly supported this idiot, now it’s only 44%. That’s approximately the same portion of Conservatives in this country, and there’s never been any accounting for their grasp on reality. There is hope.
Peggy Hirsch
To the management of the AP and Salon:
Can I have the name of the editor who is responsible for the misleading news story about the new GAO report which actually exonerates the Clinton administration from the vandalism charges made by the incoming Bush administration and which favorably compares the interadministration cleanup necessary after the Clinton departure with that necessary after the first Bush administration? We would like to know who is responsible for misleading the public. Negative spin put on a positive story is always the work of an editor.
Thank you,
Bill
O'Toole
Arlington
VA
