Oh sh*it!!! Al Franken finally putting it together.

[skypilot]

He's talking about Bush at Booker Elementary on 9/11. He hadn't previously realized how long Bush stayed in the classroom after hearing about the second crash at the WTC. Wondering why Bush was allowed to stay in the classroom for so long and why no one put two and two together considering that they'd been given a brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" Finally!!!!

[Misunderestimator]

1. Yes.... he's really "on" today.

Sometimes I only half listen to him, but so far he's commanding my attention.

[truthspeaker]

2. WTF, has Al been watching Fox and CNN?

I'm glad he's finally talking about it, but this is old, old, old, old news. Like almost three years old.

[alvis]

3. He was at the premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11

That probably had something to do with it.

Can't wait to see it.

[skypilot]

9. This is kind of exciting.

If someone like Al Franken is still getting an education about the Bush administration--especially regarding 9/11--imagine how many other people out there are in for a real eye opening.

[Trajan]

15. Exactly ....

He, and many political notables were at the premiere in NYC ...

[Beetwasher]

16. Yup, I've Been Told That is One Of The Most Jarring Scenes In

the film. Bush sitting there doing nothing. It's damning when you see it and mind blowing. Most people have never seen it nor are even aware of it. We at DU are light years ahead of the curve. Of course this is old news to us, but for most of America, they will see it and hear about it for the first time in this film. It's damning and there is no excuse and it's all there in full color. It will wake countless people up and make them very angry. Who you gonna believe, bushco. or your lying eyes?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

22. And that's the beauty of having it on film...

...because the neocons can bash "Lies" and "Bushwhacked" and "Dude, Where's My Country" and the rest as figments of the authors' imaginations, but from what I've heard and seen of "Fahrenheit." Moore has connected the dots in a way that cannot be dismissed.

[Beetwasher]

24. Nothing's More Powerful That Seeing It W/ Your Own Eyes!

People will see it and they will know...It's irrefutable evidence of at best, supreme incompetence...

[skypilot]

4. I know.

I was really surprised to hear him say that he had never heard about this before. That definitely had me scratching my head. Also, unfortunately, he dropped the topic much too quickly.

[LittleApple81]

5. I know. I wonder if Symbolman could send him the web address

for his movie on this...It is the most haunting testimony to that event I have ever seen.
Somebody said yesterday on DU that Randi has mentioned this movie on her program...I guess they don't communicate much.

[tom_paine]

6. Better late than never.

Go, Al!

[tridim]

10. No, he finally saw F-911

Just like millions of others will next week. Most of the reviews I've seen so far have said the classroom scene is incredibly powerful. This film is going to turn the tide so to speak.

[Cleita]

20. For us it's old news, but getting the information out past the

RW whore media makes this new to a lot of people.

[Scairp]

50. He's covered this already

He wrote rather extensively about this in his book. So he is isn't "finally" talking about it; he perhaps is bringing it up for the first time on his radio show, but he has certainly covered this topic publicly before.

[Delano]

7. Wow, and only 2 years later than the rest of us!

This doesn't speak well for how informed he is...

[KittyWampus]

19. When You Write A Best Seller Debunking Right Wing Lies

using hard sources/quotes comparable to Franken's... then I think talking about how informed he is might seem more appropriate..

No one is omniscient.

[Delano]

26. OUCH! Touché!

But it was pretty well-known long ago. It does concern me that Franken is so trusting of mainstream corporate media and so out-of-touch with all the info on the web and foreign news sources. He's no Alan Colmes, but it's a faintly Colmes-esque aspect of his personality.

That being said, maybe he is starting to catch on...

[skypilot]

27. I think I read somewhere...

...(maybe right here at DU) that Franken doesn't own a computer. If that's true then that could explain some things also. I wouldn't know some of the things I do if I didn't own a computer.

[Delano]

28. Wow.

Even my 64-year old mom has been using them since the early 80s...

[Skittles]

31. I find it hard to believe he did not know

I mean, come on.

[eleny]

8. All he had to do was listen to Randi

Jeez! She's been talking about this forever.

[AgadorSparticus]

21. yup! my first thought too! she's practically a broken record by now

about how bush CHOSE to sit in that classroom to read the children's book instead of dealing with 911. randi rhodes is awesome. she is so ahead of the game. i love her show.

[seabeyond]

11. do you know how many people dont know sh*t

i am not surprised. look at all that dont know. why are you surprised. that is why moore movie so important. this is why i say we have to get those of us that do know, out talking. why i am looking at cooridinating booths at the university and college in this area for why vote. and having someone informed. looking at bringing highschoolers into it. get to talking, get to informing. we cannot allow a nation of uninformed, of non participating. people have got to start thinking again.

same in school with our youth. same in what they are being taught and walk into work force. people have issue with greenspan saying we are too stupid as employee or whatever. in seeing the work pool of employees into our business, the young and what they are not teaching in schools, you know what, there is a problem here

those that talk of how we dont know world events, yet other countries know so much more about the world

all this is spiralling out of conrtol and feeding stupidity

[skypilot]

13. I'm not surprised that...

...so many people are ignorant about the facts surrounding 9/11. I know some anti-Bush people who didn't even know that there was an Independent Commission Investigating 9/11. I'm just surprised that Al Franken, of all people, was so in the dark until just recently, apparently. I mean, didn't Team Franken ever uncover any of this stuff?!?!

[calimary]

45. Also, I think the eye-opening part is the same visual epiphany that

the torture PHOTOS turned out to be. You can talk about it. You can describe it. You can hear about it at length. But until and unless you actually see the pictures, somehow it just isn't driven home. Remember rummy testifying, repeatedly saying "we announced TO THE WORLD..." blah-blah-blah. He said it, too. It was the pictures. Evidently, when you SEE THIS, it tells you everything. Seeing is believing. Remember Thomas the Apostle. Doubting Thomas, we call him. Wouldn't believe it, either, til he saw it for himself. Most people are like that. I have not yet seen the Michael Moore film. I am EAGER to see it. And I'm guessing, from what I've heard and read about it, nothing in there is any material I'm not already familiar with. But the seeing of it, the pictures, the visuals, will likely be stunning even to someone like me. Maybe it's because a majority of Americans process information visually. Dunno. But I'm glad Moore has made this movie. Should be required viewing for everyone. Especially since it laces so many things together. I mean, HOW MANY OF US saw the footage, over and over, from that day, of Andy Card whispering in bush's ear, and that peculiar smirk that came over his face. Then after those few seconds, we usually cut back to the announcer or something else. But to see it, at length, and to then add two and two and get - hey! guess what? FOUR - gotta be devastating. That may just win us the election, right there in the movie theaters of America.

But people HAVE to know. People NEED to know the truth. For justice truly to be served. For us truly to learn the full lessons of 9/11. For the people who died that day (as well as what other days it led to), and all the rest of us, who had our collective guts ripped out - needlessly.

[seabeyond]

47. very good calimary

you are right. i knew about this you are right and the impact was truly seeing it in clip and sittin with it in visual. yes to what you say, agree wholeheartedly

[Marymarg]

12. Talking to my friend

about Moore's movie and told her about the classroom incident being included. She had no clue. And this is a person who tries to keep herself informed. When I described to her what our fearless leader was doing while occupants of the WTC were hurling themselves out of their burning building, etc, she was aghast and horrified. She was also upset that she did not know about it.

Using my friend as a bellweather, I can only imagine the reactions of so many people who think they are informed (or know they are not) when seeing that incredible footage of Bush with that deer in the headlights expression, reading a children's book. Such an image! :eyes:

[Eloriel]

17. Sure -- remember, that bit of info (Booker T Elementary) was

wrapped in the label "conspiracy theory" and didn't make it to mainstream press (I don't think).

FURTHER, there were concerted efforts on the part of the administration to conceal it. I vividly remember Andy Card in an interview (9-11 anniversary perhaps, Nightline?) specifically saying "a few seconds later" -- he knows that huge gap of total inactivity on Bush's part is damning, damning, damning and was trying to pre-emptively rewrite history.

[skypilot]

18. I really think that....

...this is the ONE thing in the movie that the freepers don't want people to see. I think that's why there is such a concerted effort on their part to keep people from seeing the film. They are scared shitless. And the fact that they are scared proves how evil they are. Why wouldn't they want people to know that our "president" behaved this way on 9/11? Why aren't they themselves upset about it?

[Booster]

43. I would think the media...

would be totally embarrassed when people see Bush sitting on his thumb on that day and not one of them reported on it correctly. In fact they kept spreading the lie that he was forceful and courageous on that day - what a crock the news media is. I get the correct news much faster here at DU. I'm embarrassed for them - the media has failed all of us on this misAdministration for their own hidden agendas, whatever they may be.

[No2W2004]

14. Looks like Al isn't the only one waking up,

"Furthermore, the newspaper quoted 9/11 commission chairman Thomas Kean as saying "there was a lot of chaos" in the White House response. It said commission members wanted to know why Bush was allowed to continue meeting with Florida schoolchildren after the attacks were known, and why Bush hopscotched around the country on Air Force One before returning to Washington."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20040616/pl_nm/security_commission_dc_3

[LittleApple81]

23. Bush was allowed??? WTF??? isn't HE the commander in chief?

Allowed? The question should be "why did Bush run around like a chicken without a head!"

[scrotim]

29. I noticed that spin in an article about the 9/11 comish.

they'll try to blame this on subordinates, who didn't tell the shrubster which foot to put in front of the other.

[Generator]

57. About Goddamn TIME!

Honestly, to read and see this stuff and shudder in horror at the without a doubt utter incompetence of your government if not the utter complicity. And to feel so alone-only you and the and the crazy internet people. Damn, crazy is just someone telling the truth that no one else will or can see.

There is more truth in a "conspiracy" site than there is on TV most of the time.

Thanks for the link-it's in the no ties to Iraq and Al Queda headline.

Does anybody ever want the whore media to say, hey, great leaders, you might want to have verified that before you went to war, not after!

What a shameful disgrace is our leadership and media.

[Randypiper]

25. Here's Bush's version:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/bush-lies-to-jordan.rm
Remember there was no video of the first plane until the next day.

[cease_fire]

35. No No No... Al's not waking up... He....

He knows how to re-invigorate an issue. Michale Moore's film will be released at a time of tide-turning. It will enable folks who have been screaming about the inaccuracies of mainstream press reporting to re-visit an issue that was NEVER ANSWERED by this administration.

Al knows what he's doing. He's feigning surprise in order to generate interest in an issue that got buried. "Steady Leadership" is the core of shrubs re-election efforts. F-9/11 will methodically and intelligently refute that campaign position, and the timing of the release will enable all of our pundits to re-visit ALL of the issues that were swept under the rug.

Imagine this:

People start asking questions that you've know the answer to for 2 years. You can answer them with information that supports what they've seen in the film and what the mainstream media can no longer ignore.

We've been equipped with this information for 2 years, but - no one has cared.

Until Now.

Suddenly, everything old is new again. It's like playing a favorite album from the 80's that you were embarrassed about owning - now, that kind of music is suddenly back in style.

You know how slowly the media can move. The film opens late June - By early July, it will be the talk of the town. And it's up to us to make sure we're available to all of our fence-sitting registered voter friends who start asking "What's going on with this country?"

We've been "Swatting Flies".

Now, we can build a a movement of expose' that cannot go un noticed by any American.

[KansDem]

52. I agree...

This reminds me of the Peter Falk's "Columbo" character of the 1970s: seemingly naive and clueless but neither as the viewer learns when the suspect is caught at the end of the episode. It turns out "Columbo" knew all along but allowed the suspect to hang himself.

I know that's a TV program, but if Franken is playing a "Columbo" character, it might be because he knows that to look at the 9-11/school video like a majority of Americans will--with "disbelief and shock"--is better than an "I told you so" diatribe. That would only turn people off.

Face it...Many Americans don't want to believe their CIF is a liar and fraud, and responsible for the murder of 1,000s. Let them find it out ala Franken/Columbo.

[fob]

30. Here's my take on the Al Franken "awakes" deal.

It's theater. I think Al has known about this for a long time and as many have said Randi has been talking about this for a long time too. It makes it OK for those who are much less informed to "discover" this along with Al. It would be easier for casual listeners to pooh-pooh if Al came out talking about this from the beginning. Instead he has been slowly building his case and now he comes across this info WITH the listeners, much easier for them to buy into, and spend time to verify for theirselves.


fob

[Az]

32. Its the Everyman approach

People really do not accept things as true until they discover it for themself. The Everyman approach casts the lead as an ordinary schlub. Someone everyone identifies with. Thus they identify with his discovery of the truth as he awakens to it and internalise it as a discovery of their own.

[skypilot]

34. That would make sense...

...if it is, in fact, true. I can think of no other reason that he would have let the topic drop so quickly after bringing it up today. Maybe he does want this to be a slowly unfolding revelation for some people so that the controversy won't die out before the election. Hmmm.

[nostamj]

33. moveon (if not Kerry)

should do the coup de grace ad:

bush reading, card whispers, bush reading

stoptime with a clock running

split screen with realtime video of WTC jumpers

final image: LEADERSHIP?

yes, I know this is basically the TBTM flash but that hasn't been seen on CNN. it needs to be!

[skypilot]

36. I also wish that someone...

...could work in the footage of him speaking to the people in Florida in December 2001 where he makes the infamous, "There's one terrible pilot" remark, because in addition to that well-known doozy he also uttered the words, "I didn't have time to think about it." Imagine those words and then: LEADERSHIP?

[FlaGranny]

37. Since Booker Elementary is

in Florida, it was well broadcasted by local Florida TV stations. No one questioned his actions at the time, but it was all hanging out there for anyone to see.

Edit: I saw it and wondered.

[skypilot]

38. I love it when people say...

...that he sat there because he didn't want to frighten the children, despite the fact that he gathered the children in the school library with him when he announced that the country had been ATTACKED.:eyes:

[oscar111]

39. How many minutes B.sit there?

newbie, sortof, with basic cpr unab;le to view linked videos wants you to pls tell me....

How many minutes did bush sit there idle, after plane 1 and also after tower/plane 2? Does this imply turkeydom, or foreknkowledge and planned inaction?

Is the film reenactment, or made by teacher at the time?

[skypilot]

40. He claims to have seen...

...the first plane BEFORE he even went into the classroom. He remained in the classroom for somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes AFTER being told about the second plane. He apparently also remained in the school for some additional time since that is where he was when he addressed the nation about the attacks. He was surrounded by children when he did this and the attacks were still underway--Flight 77 which struck the Pentagon and Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania were still in the air. It wasn't known at the time how many other hijacked planes there might be. Thus, it was extremely irresponsible for Bush to be in that school with all those children. It's really a shame that you can't view linked videos.:-(

Here is a link to the transcript where Bush claims to have seen the first plane crash. Go towards the end of the transcript. Scan for the name JORDAN. That is the name of the person he is addressing.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011204-17.html

Also, the footage that is out there is not a reenactment. There was a news crew in the classroom and they are the ones who got the footage.

[DoYouEverWonder]

58. There were at least 3 TV stations at Booker Elem

News 8
10 News
Fox 13 News






Plus across the back of the classroom was a line of hi res cameras.






Yet neither the 9-11 Whitewash Commission nor anyone else have supeanoed these videos?

If anyone wants to know the truth, there is plenty of video available and the world needs to see it.


More at http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/emma/9.11.01/photogallery.html

[TexasSissy]

41. I thought he stayed in classroom after FIRST hit...not the second?

[Beetwasher]

42. Nope, He Knew About the First Plane Before He Even Got To

the school. With all the warnings they recieved that summer, it's inconceivable they didn't know the FIRST plane was a terror attack and yet he STILL went to the school. Then the second plane hit and they told him and he STILL did nothing.

[skypilot]

44. Both.

He entered the classroom after the first crash, was told about the second crash while sitting in the classroom and then remained there (some say for up to 20 minutes) reading with the children. And, as I said in an earlier post, he remained in the school itself while he addressed the country--surrounded by school children whom he supposedly didn't want to alarm.

[nostamj]

48. i saw an unedited tape

and it was more than 7 minutes... more like 17.

[catzies]

46. What about Ari Fleischer's "Don't say anything" sign he held up?

Is that mentioned anywerhe as part of what happened at Booker? Has there ever been a photo of that??

[skypilot]

49. I've read about that.

I don't remember where, though. Where do you hear about it? As far as I know no one has a picture of Ari holding up that note.

[catzies]

54. I heard/read about it here on DU of course.

But would love a source and corroboration.

[Lex]

51. Andy Card stepped away from Bush after telling him

of the 2nd plane.

That is what is so freakin' bizarre to me.

Andy Card leans over to Bush, whispers (presumably) that the 2nd plane has hit the WTC,

AND STEPS BACK AWAY IMMEDIATELY from Bush.

He does NOT wait for Bush to direct him in any way, or for Bush to tell him what should happen, or what Bush wants to do next.

He steps back away immediately.

That is weird.

[skypilot]

53. Sometimes I think...

...that something closer to "mission accomplished" was what was whispered in Bush's ear that morning.

[Lex]

56. It makes me wonder too.

It only seems right that Andy Card would've bent down, whispered that the 2nd plane had hit, and then kind of waited for Bush to whisper something back.

Andy Card didn't even expect a question, or ANYthing to be said to him by Bush after a pronouncement that essentially meant that we were under attack on our own soil at that very moment?!

Card just walks away from Bush after whispering.

Something was WRONG with that whole scenario that morning.

[Q]

55. What makes this even more damning for Bush*...

...is that he knew about the first tower being hit BEFORE going into the classroom.

- And let's not forget that the mainstream media reported that Bush* 'stormed into action' the moment he heard about the second tower.

[DoYouEverWonder]

59. Plus he knew something else that the rest of us didn't

that there were other hijacked planes in the air.

All of the people in the chain of command had this one piece of information that the rest of us had no clue about, and they choose to sit on their hands.

There's a big difference from knowing that a plane hit WTC 1 and knowing that a plane hit WTC 1 and there are at least 3 other planes that have gone off course.

[Jim Sagle]

60. And don't forget this press confab question where he shows obvious guilt.

How could anyone view this and not admit he knew?

Worse - think about the follow-up question and the roomful of reporters laughing their knowing laughter. All of official Washington must know.

Too bad Moore didn't use this in his film. I wonder if it's too late to add it?