"So What"? was Pub sister's reaction to Bush's remaining in classroom for

[patricia92243]

seven minutes after second plane flew into World Trade Center building. Naturally, I gnashed my teeth in frustration.

I just wonder what other people's friends/family's ho-hum reaction are to situations that absolutely outrage us.

[Skittles]

1. TELL HER HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE A LEADER

AND LEADERS DO NOT JUST "SIT THERE" IN TIMES OF CRISIS.

[KittyWampus]

2. It's Bush's Responsiblity To Order "Shoot Downs" Of Planes

that have been hijacked and threaten Americans.

[LoZoccolo]

3. I know someone who mocked the Pentagon "Siberian climate" report.

I know it's a worst-case scenario kind-of-a thing, but still. It's kind-of around then that I didn't feel so bad about not putting money in my 401(k) for a while to pay off debt.

[Warpy]

4. Ask her what she did when she first heard the news

Did she ask anyone else for more information? Did she switch on a television set? Did she make any phone calls?

Then point out that Bush just SAT THERE.

Blankly.

No emotion, no concern, no worry no curiosity.

That boy just aint right. Rub her nose in it.

[AndyTiedye]

12. Bush* KNEW!

No reaction because everything was going according to plan.
If his AWOLness thought that his ass was really in any danger
he would have been out of there soooooo fast!

[Justice]

21. That is a Great Response

I remember frantically trying to get cnn.com at work (as were others).

I remember being in a meeting and people were bringing messages in to everyone (family members in NY checking in to let us know they were okay). That was before we knew the towers fell.

[Still_Loves_John]

5. That's what a lot of people think

It's just not a very powerful argument to many people. I think it's odd that, among all the powerful images of F9/11, this one is continually cited.

[salin]

28. Perhaps when joined with the knowledge that bush had been briefed

only a month earlier on a document titled: Bin Laden Plans to Strike U.S. the image gets much more jolting.

While we watched transfixed and tried desperately to get more information during the confusion. He had been briefed per a major terrorist with plans to strike the US... he had the information to understand IMMEDIATELY what had likely happened. And rather than swing into motion... he decides (after the first plane hit) to proceed on to the elementary school rather than postpone to learn all he could about the first hit. Then when briefed of the next hits and that it was clear the US was UNDER ATTACK... again - knowing he had been warned of plans to attack the US by Bin Laden... then suddenly those minutes in the classroom - doing nothing... rather than finding a gracious way to end story time and leave... those minutes suddenly are very big. A very different image than one that emerges a week later after his handlers have time to manufacture "GIANT BUSH" who grew into the job... Instead we have overwhelmed bush - who is way over his head. Then all of the misteps that follow... relying on really bad advisors... etc., makes sense - he continues to be overwhelmed and expect others to do the work. Just as then, he simply has no clue what to do.

[HawkerHurricane]

6. Bah.

Some people don't have a clue.

The nation was under attack. The second tower being hit PROVED that it was a coordinated effort, not a one shot, isolated incident or a lousy pilot.
And the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces sat and did nothing for 7 minutes.
And then disappeared for 8 hours.
Bill Clinton got from Australia to NYC in less time than it took Bush. Bill Clinton, who had to wait until planes were flying again, flew from another continent to NYC in less time than it took Bush, who had his own private plane and didn't have to worry about being grounded, did.

Bah.

[ljm2002]

8. Exactly!

Whether we like it or not, whether *he* likes it or not, GWB is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. It is his sworn duty to protect this country.

In the chain of command, he is the *only* one who can order a shoot down of an aircraft. They already knew that several planes had been hijacked, and that an airplane had hit the first WTC tower, before he got to Booker Elementary. (If he did not know that several planes had been hijacked, that brings up other disturbing questions about the chain of command...)

But when the second plane hit, whether or not there had been a breakdown of communication before that, he had the responsibility to take charge and shoulder his responsibilities as the nation's Commander in Chief. Instead, he sat there, while precious minutes ticked away...

And meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld, our Secretary of Defense, was sitting in a conference at the Pentagon, blissfully unaware of anything untoward occurring at all... until the Pentagon itself was hit.

You'd think, wouldn't you, that the people who run this country, the people who operate and the highest levels of government, the people who take advantage of all the latest and greatest communications technology, could FIND A WAY TO CONTACT THE PRESIDENT AND THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE at a time when we were being attached on our own soil!???

</rant>

[scottxyz]

32. Bush WANTED those hijacked planes to do their job

Another Pearl Harbor was needed, as PNAC specified.

He thought he could just sit there and Let It Happen On Purpose and nobody would call him on it.

Well, guess what Georgie Boy, Michael Moore just did. You sat there like and idiot and let thousands of Americans die so that your buddies could go get wealthy invading Iraq.

This is Murder and High Treason.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Ask her if she thinks FDR would have done the same during Pearl Harbor?

:)

[AndyTiedye]

13. Pearl Harbor was LIHOP

but FDR was at least smart enough to keep his story straight.

[HawkerHurricane]

16. Keep his story straight?

The first words out of FDR's mouth when told Pearl Harbor was bombed were...
"WHAT! You mean Manila or Clark, don't you?"

(Manila and Clark Field are in the Phillipines, btw.)

FDR didn't need to keep his story straight, because while he was expecting a attack, and had warned his commanders that war was coming, the ferocity and effectiveness of the attack was a surprise.

Bushco... no warnings to commanders, no reaction when the attack occurred... incompetentence, negligence, or complicity?

[Cheswick2.0]

27. please stop spreading that lie

That is a lie of the right.

[BeFree]

9. Lives could have been saved

Had he immediately gone into a meeting with staff members, someone would have suggested he give an order to stop any other hi-jacked planes. Instead, it was an hour later before such an order was given.

Had he met with staff, surely someone would have suggested that they make sure the Towers were evacuated.

In the seven minutes after the second attack several hundred lives could have been saved, and they should have been. It was the failure of * that increased the human toll that day.

[nostamj]

20. lives WOULD have been saved

if he had SKIPPED the silly photo-op on learning of the first strike.

he and his staff had the inside info that hijacked planes and a strike on the WTC was a TERROR attack. period.

the South Tower would have been evacuated immediately.

the BLOOD of MANY South Tower victims is on their hands. period.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. 7 minutes while his country was under attack and people were dying...

...what was he doing? Not a god damned thing! Reading "My Pet Goat".

That's not leadership.

Ask her if she would have felt the same way if it had been an incoming missile from China or Russia and he just sat there for 7 minutes while the country was under attack.

[sandnsea]

11. I was sleeping...

My daughter woke me up when the first plane hit. At first I said to keep me updated, but after about 1 minute, I got up myself because it was just so weird. I hadn't even gotten a "Bin Laden Determined To Strike US" memo!

I understand what they mean though, it's low on my list of Bush fuck-ups. On the other hand, it's much more a defining moment in the "war on terror" than Bush & the firefighter. He's incompetent and that 7 minutes shows it clearly.

[TexasSissy]

14. Well, what COULD she say? Notice she didn't respond with

a substantive response about what he was doing just sitting there. The Repubs, having lost a lost of their substantive arguments, seem to be resorting to childish retorts..."Yeah, and...and..your mother wears army boots!)

[Zomby Woof]

15. if it were Clinton...

Remember that scene where it showed people with torches, ready to get Clinton? LOL. That would be your sister's response if Clinton waited 7 minutes.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

17. "So WHAT?" is their reaction to EVERYTHING

he does. Believe me.

[Straight Shooter]

18. What if one of your family's children had been in that classroom?

There's our fearless "leader," totally clueless as to what to do, and he doesn't get the hell out of there?

Excuse me, but I would be outraged if he had subjected my child to being an assassin's target. Supposedly no one knew who was safe from attack at that time. And that means any kind of assault could have been implemented upon that school while bush sat on his tush.

[Bridget Burke]

19. And the school visit was public knowledge

It was planned in August but announced to the public on September 7th. One of those "funny" coincidences: Later that same day, 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi traveled to Sarasota and enjoyed drinks and dinner at a Holiday Inn only two miles down the sandy beach from where Bush was scheduled to stay during his Sarasota visit.

From "An Interesting Day"

www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.html

Edited to add: Since the first plane had already hit, he should never have gone to that school. Of course, he really should have done some different things in August...

[oldcoot]

26. This is a good point

Since it was possible that Bush was a target, his presence endangered those poor kids.

[Misunderestimator]

22. She might have a different reaction to actually see those smug little rat

eyes twitching around cluelessly, waiting for someone to tell him what to do. It was EFFECTIVE!

[testing123]

23. I was watching TV that morning

At first I thought that we were under attack and I kept thinking about what city would be next.

A few minutes later it crossed my mind that * had just come off of a 4 week vacation and I knew he was behind it at that point.

[Cheswick2.0]

24. ask her why he rigged the election if he didn't want to do the job

You sister is having a problem with expectations. Hers are way to low.

[oldcoot]

25. He is the Commander in Chief

Shouldn't the Commander in Chief be doing something other than sitting on his ass when the nation is being attacked?

[opihimoimoi]

30. Shouldn't the Commander in Chief at least warn us the attack was coming?

He got the warning on Aug 6th and did nothing except make sure his people all rode private jets.

He sat on his chair and did shit. He musta been thinking, "OMG, we let THAT HAPPEN?"

"Now What?"

[salin]

29. Here is what...

Since he had recently been briefed on national security on a report titled: Bin Laden Plans To Strike at America....

He could have relayed to DC and then to the Port Authority that the Towers should be evacuated.

The towers did not begin to be evacuated until after the second plane hit. That 30-45 minutes could have saved many, many lives.

[fob]

31. Does she have kids? If so, see if she'll accept this plan;

she has to sit in one room and you and her kids(works best if she has 2 or 3) in another. You and her start in the room you and her kids will be in. You slap the first kid as hard as you can across the face,(remember bush* says he saw the first tower hit) and then she has to leave for the other room with this knowledge. She has to sit and read a book(preferably a children's book, the Goat story would be best) for 7 minutes, during the reading someone else(husband, who should also have to agree to this) will come in after witnessing you slapping kid #2 across the face, and whisper this information to her. At this point you should have to go out and run around the block with the intent of returning to slap kid #3 (pentagon) and her husband (flight 93). Of course your sister could choose to end the "attack" after the first slap, but then she would have to admit that "so what?", is a bullshit response.

If she truly believes herself, she should DEMAND that you do this while she sits there and does nothing.

NOTE: THIS IS A VERBAL EXERCISE ONLY!! NO HARMING OF ANYONE IS CONDONED OR SUPPORTED.

DISCLAIMER: TIMELINE OF ACTUAL EVENTS IS UNIMPORTANT FOR ABOVE EXERCISE