Bannergate Update - Hilarious! Bush the Lying Liar can't find a scapegoat!

[Stephanie]

No one will take the fall, it seems.

Elisabeth Bumiller tries to get to the bottom of Bannergate and comes up empty when she asks, "Who came up with the idea for the Mission Accomplished banner?"

You have to read the whole thing to see what a runaround they gave her. The quotes are priceless. After getting non-answers from Scott McClelland, Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman, and Lt. Cmdr. John Daniels, the public affairs officer aboard the Lincoln, she finally gets the name of somebody who might know the answer:

************************************************************

<snip>Soon enough, Commander Daniels called to say that one person in the meetings preparing for the ship's homecoming was Cmdr. Ron Horton, the executive officer of the Lincoln and the ship's second in command.

Commander Horton was too busy to come to the phone, Lt. Cmdr. Daniels said, but he recounted what he said Commander Horton had told him about a shipboard meeting in late April with officers of the Lincoln and members of the White House advance team. The team, including security, had boarded the ship in Hawaii around April 28 to make preparations for the president's speech — some 75 to 100 people strong.

"The White House said, `Is there anything we can do for you?' " Commander Daniels said. "Somebody in that meeting said, `You know, it would sure look good if we could have a banner that said `Mission Accomplished.' "

And who was that someone? "No one really remembers," Commander Daniels said.

One of the White House communications people in the meeting, Commander Daniels said, was Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer who oversaw the production of the sign. Mr. Sforza did not return telephone calls seeking comment last week.<more>

************************************************************

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/03/national/03LETT.html

[arcane1]

1. a question- have any of the OTHER returning ships had this treatment?

are they also getting banners "for the troops", or just the vessel that happened to be the one Bush landed on...?

[Stephanie]

3. Depends who you want to believe

Maybe we can have some San Diegans do an informal investigation. From the article:

*****************************************************

In any case, Commander Daniels said that it was not uncommon for a ship to have a homecoming banner. "Having a banner hanging off the ship is not unheard of," Commander Daniels said. "Does it happen every single time? No. Does it happen every third time? Probably."

*****************************************************

[arcane1]

5. one professionally made by the White House using their same...

logo, font, style, etc?

I think not..

[nostamj]

6. maybe a bedsheet painted with WOO HOO!!

but not that banner!

someone needs to detail the cost, design time, manufacturing turnaround, etc. (as if they could make something like that on an aircraft carrier returning from combat!)

[Stephanie]

2. Previously, in >>>Bannergate<<<

=================================================
Bush's denial that the WH placed the banner on the carrier:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031028-2.html

Q Mr. President, if I may take you back to May 1st when you stood on the USS Lincoln under a huge banner that said, "Mission Accomplished." At that time you declared major combat operations were over, but since that time there have been over 1,000 wounded, many of them amputees who are recovering at Walter Reed, 217 killed in action since that date. Will you acknowledge now that you were premature in making those remarks?

THE PRESIDENT: Nora, I think you ought to look at my speech. I said, Iraq is a dangerous place and we've still got hard work to do, there's still more to be done. And we had just come off a very successful military operation. I was there to thank the troops.

The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way. But my statement was a clear statement, basically recognizing that this phase of the war for Iraq was over and there was a lot of dangerous work. And it's proved to be right, it is dangerous in Iraq. It's dangerous in Iraq because there are people who can't stand the thought of a free and peaceful Iraq. It is dangerous in Iraq because there are some who believe that we're soft, that the will of the United States can be shaken by suiciders -- and suiciders who are willing to drive up to a Red Cross center, a center of international help and aid and comfort, and just kill.

====================================================

The Banner, hung (and designed? and produced?) by the USS Lincoln crew, according to Bush. Looks suspiciously similar to backdrops we see at every Bush speech:

====================================================

Bush's speech on the carrier:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/01/bush.transcript/index.html

Bush makes historic speech aboard warship
Thursday, May 1, 2003 Posted: 9:48 PM EDT (0148 GMT)

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- The following is an unedited transcript of President Bush's historic speech from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, during which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq:

Thank you. Thank you all very much.

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

Video of the speech linked here:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/01/sprj.irq.bush.speech/index.html

====================================================

Bush handlers stage manage every aspect of his appearances, including this one:

Keepers of Bush image lift stagecraft to new heights
By Elisabeth Bumiller
New York Times
Friday, May 16, 2003 Posted: 7:08 AM EDT (1108 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

The president's image makers, Mr. Bartlett said, work within a budget for White House travel and events allotted by Congress, which for fiscal 2003 was $3.7 million. He said he did not know the specific cost of staging Mr. Bush's Sept. 11 anniversary speech, or what the White House was charged for the lights. A spokeswoman at the headquarters of Musco Lighting in Oskaloosa, Iowa, said the company did not disclose the prices it charged clients.

<snip>

The most elaborate — and criticized — White House event so far was Mr. Bush's speech aboard the Abraham Lincoln announcing the end of major combat in Iraq. White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the idea, and that Mr. Sforza embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech.

Media strategists noted afterward that Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the "Mission Accomplished" banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call "magic hour light," which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush.

"If you looked at the TV picture, you saw there was flattering light on his left cheek and slight shadowing on his right," Mr. King said. "It looked great."

The trip was attacked by Democrats as an expensive political stunt, but White House officials said that Democrats needed a better issue for taking on the president. A New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll conducted May 9-12 found that the White House may have been right: 59 percent of those polled said it was appropriate, and not an effort to make political gain, for Mr. Bush to dress in a flight suit and announce the end of combat operations on the aircraft carrier.

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Bush handlers admit that the event was SO stage-managed that the ship had to slow down so San Diego would not be visible to the cameras

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22502-2003May6?language=printer

Explanation for Bush's Carrier Landing Altered
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 7, 2003; Page A20

President Bush chose to make a jet landing on an aircraft carrier last week even after he was told he could easily reach the ship by helicopter, the White House said yesterday, changing the explanation it gave for Bush's "Top Gun" style event.

Bush's televised landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, for which the president wore a flight suit and a helmet and took underwater survival training in the White House swimming pool, was the dramatic start to a visit to the carrier that included an air show and a televised speech to the nation. In his address, the president declared victory in Iraq in front of cheering sailors and a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."

White House officials had said, both before and after Bush's landing in a Navy S-3B Viking jet, that he took the plane solely to avoid inconveniencing the sailors, who were returning home after a deployment of nearly 10 months. The officials said that Bush decided not to wait until the ship was in helicopter range to avoid delaying the troops' homecoming.

But instead of the carrier being hundreds of miles offshore, as aides had said it would be, the Lincoln was only about 30 miles from the coast when Bush made his "tail-hook" landing, in which the jet was stopped by cables on deck. Navy officers slowed and turned the ship when land became visible.

<snip>

Citing Fleischer's revised explanation, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) wrote to the General Accounting Office to ask for a "full accounting" of the cost of the trip.

After Fleischer's remarks, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, saying he was "deeply troubled" by Bush's actions, which he called "flamboyant showmanship." The octogenarian lawmaker criticized the White House for using the carrier "as an advertising backdrop" and the military "as stage props" for Bush's speech.

====================================================

An eerily similar backdrop:



Mission Accomplished:



Another flag backdrop:



One more:



They used the SAME flag graphic:

This...



Makes this:



====================================================

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/27_mission.html
'Mission accomplished': Bush brag or Demo fib?
U.S. News- Washington Whispers ^ | 09/29/03 | Paul Bedard

After weeks of Democratic assaults that President Bush was a nitwit for declaring "mission accomplished" in Iraq during his May 1 landing and victory speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the White House is bidding to set the story straight. The issue should be a simple one: Bush never uttered those words. "The president," argues communications boss Dan Bartlett, "said exactly the opposite: The mission continues." But Bush stood under a banner declaring "mission accomplished." Why? Bartlett says that the Lincoln's captain had the banner made up to thank his crew for the longest-ever carrier tour, not to declare the war over. "It is something the troops are really proud of," says Bartlett. "Of course they can hang the banner." But the picture was all the Demos needed. "On TV," he says, "they never play the bite of the president, they just show the image with the banner." Democratic polls show that the public buys their spin, which doesn't really surprise Bartlett. "Look, perception becomes reality," he says. "But the facts don't back it up."

==================================================

WAPO Editorial May 4, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A10976-2003May3¬Found=true

An Unfinished Mission
Sunday, May 4, 2003; Page B06

THE VICTORY celebration held aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday was well-deserved, both for President Bush and for the servicemen who cheered him. Thanks to those who gathered on the carrier's deck and their comrades in arms, Saddam Hussein's homicidal hold on Iraq was broken in three weeks, with relatively small, if painful, losses of Iraqi and American lives. None of the disasters feared before the war has come to pass: neither burning oil fields nor bloody street-to-street battles; neither Arab revolutions nor armed interventions by Iraq's neighbors. Mr. Bush acknowledged before the war that these risks were real, but argued that they were outweighed by the risks of not acting: So far, he has been proved right. Nor can there now be any doubt that most Iraqis welcomed the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of his apparatus of terror. When the horrors of the Baathist regime -- now being confirmed in terrible but necessary detail -- are set against even the destruction and deaths of the war, it's impossible not to conclude that the United States and its allies have performed a great service for Iraq's 23 million people.

Still, it's also impossible to agree with the banner that was draped near Mr. Bush on the carrier deck, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished." Aides say the slogan was chosen in part to mark a presidential turn toward domestic affairs as his campaign for reelection approaches.But neither Mr. Bush nor the American public can afford to put Iraq on the back burner. There is much to be done; the greatest tests and risks still lie in the future. Perhaps Mr. Bush understands that reality; yet his reluctance to fully explain it to Americans or to work for the support he will need is troubling.

==================================================

http://www.notinourname.net/resources_links/bush_image_may03.htm

.... First among equals is Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer who was hired by the Bush campaign in Austin, Tex., and who now works for Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director. Mr. Sforza created the White House "message of the day" backdrops and helped design the $250,000 set at the United States Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, during the Iraq war.

Mr. Sforza works closely with Bob DeServi, a former NBC cameraman whom the Bush White House hired after seeing his work in the 2000 campaign. Mr. DeServi, whose title is associate director of communications for production, is considered a master at lighting. "You want it, I'll heat it up and make a picture," he said early this week. Mr. DeServi helped produce one of Mr. Bush's largest events, a speech to a crowd in Revolution Square in Bucharest last November.

To stage the event, Mr. DeServi went so far as to rent Musco lights in Britain, which were then shipped across the English Channel and driven across Europe to Romania, where they lighted Mr. Bush and the giant stage across from the country's former Communist headquarters.

A third crucial player is Greg Jenkins, a former Fox News television producer in Washington who is now the director of presidential advance. Mr. Jenkins manages the small army of staff members and volunteers who move days ahead of Mr. Bush and his entourage to set up the staging of all White House events. ....

==================================================

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2346349.php

The president sought to distance himself from the upbeat message in the banner, explaining at Tuesday’s press conference that the idea for the sign came from the ship’s crew.

“I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff — they weren’t that ingenious, by the way,” he said.

Turns out they may have been that ingenious.

==================================================
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/28/national2020EST0815.DTL

After the news conference, a White House spokeswoman said the Lincoln's crew asked the White House to have the sign made. The White House asked a private vendor to produce the sign, and the crew put it up, said the spokeswoman. She said she did not know who paid for the sign.

Later, a Pentagon spokesman called The Associated Press to reiterate that the banner was the crew's idea.

"It truly did signify a mission accomplished for the crew," Navy Cmdr. Conrad Chun said, adding the president's visit marked the end of the ship's 10-month international deployment.

==================================================

http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2346349.php

==================================================

Bush also made the comment in Qatar a month later. No banner - just the quote:

"I am happy to see you, an so are the long-suffering people of Iraq. America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished. (Applause.) "

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030605-1.html

==================================================

"The president's image makers, Mr. Bartlett said, work within a budget for White House travel and events allotted by Congress, which for fiscal 2003 was $3.7 million."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

==================================================

Asked if Bush had misled people by appearing in front of the banner, McClellan said "the Navy put it up and it was the Navy at the -- asked us to take care of the production of the banner. And we said that yesterday."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=13&u=/afp/us_bush_iraq_mission

==================================================

http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/10/ana03291.html

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[zbdent]

15. "I said, Iraq is a dangerous place . . . "

Lie.

I clicked on the link to the speech, and searched for the word dangerous.

Not even Danger was there.

Chalk up another lie.

[Stephanie]

16. Oh REALLY?

Have you uncovered YET ANOTHER Bush Lie on the Lincoln? Are you sure the SAILORS aren't to blame for this?

So Bush has now LIED about the Lincoln Banner, and the Lincoln Speech. When he comes out and says the ride in the fighter jet didn't make him cr*p his pants, we'll have the USS Lincoln Trifecta.

[KT2000]

4. Pretty Darn Funny

Thanks for the laugh. Priceless. Especially like the "quotes" from the Navy personnel.

[Stephanie]

8. I know. I love when they say, "Horton might know..."

But then Horton's "too busy to come to the phone."

And this whopper:

"The sailors came up with an idea of a banner, and they said, `Hey, is there any way we could get a `Mission Accomplished' banner made?' " Commander Daniels said.

[neuvocat]

7. Why doesn't anyone bitch about him landing on the carrier?

I mean, its great that he's getting pooped on about the banner but that's small compared his wearing a flight suit and landing in a jet with a backdrop of color-coded sailors.

[Stephanie]

9. It's all one big uber-scandal

Bannergate is a simple, easily grasped lie that can open the eyes of those who haven't yet seen Bush for the Lying Liar that he is. Begin to look at Bannergate, and the next thing you know you are wondering about the phony jet landing when they were only 30 miles off San Diego. Then you might wonder if the Mission really was Accomplished. And exactly what WAS that Mission? WMDs? But, where are they? And soon you are looking at the many, many lies that got us to the sorry state we're in today. And by that time you'll be saying, along with Ms. Thomas, "George W. Bush is the Worst President EVER."

[Toby109]

12. Exactly, the whole stunt was undignified

for a United States so-called President.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. One sailor: "It was a slap in the face."

Indeed, six men at one table last night were sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier on which President Bush landed as it returned to San Diego after a 10-month deployment to the Middle East.

"I was on the flight deck when Bush landed," said one sailor, who did not want his name printed. "It was a slap in the face."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001765465_clark14m.html

[fob]

10. The team, including security, had boarded the ship in Hawaii

bush* needs a security sweep on a United States Navy ship before his visit?

[gratuitous]

11. If you were that lying sack of crapola

Wouldn't you insist on a security sweep, too? I know I sure as hell would.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MGKrebs]

17. And, uh, how did this advance team get on the ship?

April 28 meeting? In Hawaii? May1 speech? Near San Diego? what am I missing?

on edit; I guess what I am asking, is can a carrier sail from Hawaii to San Diego in 4 days?

[Stephanie]

18. Well, they had to slow it down and turn it the other way, or Bush

would have been reading his speech in the middle of downtown San Diego. The Lying Liar in his stupid flight suit. Sure, it's FUN to play dress-up, if you're not the one who's DYING for your Lie of a War.

[MGKrebs]

22. OK. I've done some math.

It is 2610 miles from Hawaii to San Diego.
The Lincoln's top speed is apparently 30 knots, which is 34.5 miles per hour (a knot being 1.15 miles per hour).

2610/34.5 = 75.65 hours. The fastest they could have made the trip.

We know the speech was in the evening, what, about 6PM (San Diego time)?

Let's say the advance team boards the ship in Hawaii at 8AM on the 28th. The ship immediately sets sail at top speed. It would reach San Diego in 75 hours, which would be 11AM on the 1st of April. But there is a 2 hour time difference, so it's actually 1PM local time.

That leaves 7 hours to get out of Pearl Harbor, get up to speed, then slow down and turn near San Diego.

Doable I guess, but VERY tight.

[MGKrebs]

23. And by the way, how did they get the BANNER on board?

Did that come on a jet too?

[kodi]

19. he's getting like john cleese in "fawlty towers" lying and getting caught.

he just keeps digging in and making more absurd remarks each time he opens his mouth trying to cover his last lie.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

20. Has Bush taken responsbility for anything?

The buck stops here, remember?

[kskiska]

21. No one has asked THE question:

(the ones that wingnuts loved to ask about Clinton):

"If he'd lie about something like that, what ELSE would he lie about?"

I keep waiting to see someone on TV ask that question of someone like Sean Hannity.

[lovedems]

24. Why isn't anybody investigating anything else like this?

I mean really! There is 9/11, Iraq, the war profiteering, the outing of Plame, etc. etc. etc. If we could find some reporters with this kind of enthusiasm about getting at the truth of REALLY IMPORTANT MATTERS I would feel much better. I know this exposes another lie from Bushco. but there are so many more important ones that should be investigated to get to the truth. I hardly think this one issue will make or break the election.

[Stephanie]

25. Hit 'em High, Hit 'me Low, Hit 'em Hard, Hit 'em Again

We can't give ground on ANY front.

When Bush tells baldfaced lies in broad daylight in the Rose Garden, about relatively trivial matters, he must be called on it.

And when he tells baldfaced lies in the SOTU, in front of the whole world, he must also be called on it.

And when his "aides" exposed the identity of an American secret agent and Bush lies and says he wants to find the leaker as much as anyone, he must be called on it.

There's no reason to stop hitting them on one scandal just because another one seems more important. You never know what's going to be the last straw for some wavering Americans, what will open their eyes.

[JetJaguar]

28. The banner issue is safer to pursue

9/11, Iraq, the war profiteering, the outing of Plame, etc. etc. etc.

are issues with lawyers, guns, and money piled high in their
defence.

The banner was a mistake.
The lies about it compound the mistake.

It is somewhat interesting that the Navy mouthpiece Conrad Chun last
made the News cycle during the Chinese spy plane ordeal. The time
before that was the sub sinking the Japanese fishing boat. He is
someone that appears to get involved in larger issues.


Also can anyone find substance to this phrase from the press conference.

"There's a market developing. There are women-owned small businesses
now beginning to flourish in Iraq. And there's positive things happening in the midst of the danger. "

other than prostitution.


http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/world_2003/torstar-030503.html



TORONTO STAR
Saturday, May 3, 2003
Mitch Potter
-------------------------------------------------------------------

p. A1.

Iraqi prostitute revels in freedom to ply trade
Saddam jailed, executed streetwalkers

BAGHDAD — With a long black abiya gown stretching shapelessly down to her ankles, there is little to suggest Nasreem Sothba walks the streets in search of men.

But when glances linger a fraction longer than usual, Sothba, 22, does something that hasn't been seen in the Iraqi capital in years. She hikes the gown to just below the knee, flashing bright floral leggings and the tiniest glimpse of calf.

Smiling through lips painted pale pink, Sothba's subtle message is clear now: Sex for hire.

The world's oldest profession is hardly unknown in the lands that gave rise to the world's earliest civilization. But in the latter years of Baathist rule, Iraqi prostitutes were subject to pogroms ordered by Saddam Hussein.

The trade continued behind closed doors, but streetwalkers faced prison or worse.

Now, Sothba and others like her are stepping back into the lawless streets of Baghdad, where the dangers of sporadic gunfire remain constant.

"I am happier now, to have this freedom. This is not a job I want to do forever, but until I can get something else I have no choice. We need the money," said Sothba under the watchful eye of her aunt, who declined to give her name.

[Stephanie]

29. Wow! You're sharp! Great catch

So Chun appears to be a fixer when the Bush Administration gets in trouble with the Navy. Here he is WRT the sub accident, which, if you'll recall, involved Bush donors riding in the sub and actually operating the controls. It then crashed into a fishing boat:

http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2001nn/0102nn/010215nn.htm

<snip>

On Tuesday, four days after the accident, the Navy disclosed that two civilians were seated at control positions on the Greeneville at the time it soared to the surface.

Nine men and boys from the fishing vessel are still missing and feared dead, possibly trapped inside the ship, which is resting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 1,800 feet down. Twenty-six others survived.

Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said it was routine for civilians to be allowed at the controls ``under close supervision.'' But he would not comment on whether it was proper for the civilians to be seated at the controls during an emergency maneuver.

The Navy has a longstanding tradition of taking civilians aboard its ships and submarines. The trips, often called ``tiger cruises,'' began as a way to allow officers to bring their sons along for a trip. They were expanded to include fathers and brothers and now include journalists, Navy supporters and others.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As to the "women-owned" businesses - it seems that if we parse just this ONE press conference for lies we will find too many to count.

[Stephanie]

26. Good Answer!

Meanwhile, Republicans said that it was increasingly unlikely that Mr. Bush would use the film of his "Top Gun" landing on the carrier in a campaign commercial.

But would the Democrats consider using it in an attack ad?

"Yes," said Jim Margolis of GMMB, who is making television commercials for the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

[oasis]

27. This will come back to bite the Chimpster in the ass, again and again.