Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: cassandra and sara's daddy on April 27, 2009, 08:45:56 PM
-
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7439287&page=1
Air Force One Photo Op Triggers Panic in Manhattan
NYC Mayor Bloomberg Blasts Flyover as "Insensitive" and "Ill-Conceived;" White House Aplogizes
By MARK CRUDELE, RICHARD ESPOSITO and LISA STARK
April 27, 2009
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is "furious" over a Department of Defense low-altitude flyover of NYC in the area around Ground Zero this morning, calling it "ill-conceived" and a "waste of taxpayers' money."
New Yorkers in lower Manhattan jolted by promotional Air Force One photo shoot.
More Photos
A photo shoot involving a 747 used as Air Force One and one fighter jet flying at low altitude led to hundreds of frightened calls from residents and workers in Lower Manhattan this morning, triggering memories of 9-11 as many evacuated their offices. The president was not aboard.
At a White House press briefing Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged questions about the flyover, even referring the media to the White House (that he represents).
Gibbs said he had no other information about the flyover other than news reports he had seen. "I was working on other things," Gibbs said. "You might be surprised to know I don't know every movement of Air Force One or what happens to it."
-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090427/pl_afp/usmilitaryaviationexerciseapology
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House apologized Monday after one of Barack Obama's presidential planes flew alarmingly low over New York city, sending residents into a panic and triggering fears of a new 9/11.
"While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption," said Louis Caldera, director of the White House military office.
"I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused," he said in a statement, adding that he approved the mission over New York -- described by other officials as a photo opportunity -- last week.
"I take responsibility for that decision," he added.
The administration of intelligence.
-
Wow, just.... Wow. This administration does the impossible: make Bush look like a diplomatic genius.
-
When they said "Anybody but Bush," they really, really meant anybody but Bush.
'Course I suppose this decision came from some level lower than the Oval Office.
-
I can't wait until some low-level guy in one of the PR companies that Hillary hired back in 2000 decides to get a conscience...
-
Hmm Obama flew low over my parents house a few months back and no one panicked......
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi332.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm330%2Fkpt42%2Faf12.jpg%3Ft%3D1240888364&hash=2c8f8d0b1657d53311995bc5bdbd5098104b0a22)
-
When they said "Anybody but Bush," they really, really meant anybody but Bush.
Very well said!
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN57C98B310
^^^ Video of the event.
-
Wow. Until I saw that, I had no idea how frightened people were by the whole snafu. Nor did I realize how the fighter escort added to the effect. Looked like he was getting ready to shoot it down.
-
Wow. Until I saw that, I had no idea how frightened people were by the whole snafu. Nor did I realize how the fighter escort added to the effect. Looked like he was getting ready to shoot it down.
I guess, but anybody with half a brain would realize that that fighter is waaay to close for such a thing. Oh wait...
-
Hmm Obama flew low over my parents house a few months back and no one panicked......
How many terrorists have crashed planes into your parents neighborhood?
-
I don't know why he even needs Air Force One....couldn't he just descend from Heaven on a cloud like every other messiah?.... :angel:
-
Wow...I really can't believe someone thought that was a good idea. From the ground, I bet it was hard to tell it was Air Force One. I can understand the panic from the residents of NYC, this was VERY poorly planned. They should have just photoshopped it.
-
I guess, but anybody with half a brain would realize that that fighter is waaay to close for such a thing.
Actually, no, most full-brained people would not realize that.
-
Actually, no, most full-brained people would not realize that.
Too close for missiles, switching to guns ...
-
I don't know why he even needs Air Force One....couldn't he just descend from Heaven on a cloud like every other messiah?.... :angel:
=D
-
He's just gettin' yu'ns ready for the coup. :police: =D =D
-
Actually, no, most full-brained people would not realize that.
This one didn't.
-
Too close for missiles, switching to guns ...
I have no flying experience, but I would think that lighting off air-to-air missiles in/over urban areas would be a bit more risky than using the plane's guns. Also, assuming a novice pilot of the airliner, using guns and targetting the cockpit might be more effective in immediately downing the aircraft than a heat-seeking missile to one of several engines.
-
Too bad the VC-25 wasn't popping flares during the flyby.
-
Anyone else catch this?
At a White House press briefing Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged questions about the flyover, even referring the media to the White House (that he represents).
That's a whole new level of ;/ and :lol: right there.
-
I gather the whole $taged photo op will now be $crapped as its poisoned imagery
I wonder what project they were going to use the imagery for?
The Whitehouse 2009 Christmas card?
If i was rolling AF1 with fighter escorts around Manhatten, I would have a REDOne camera on the chase craft
someone must have some really nice planned POV footage that will never be released...
-
One of the blogs I frequent had an apt quote about this. I added it as my sig line.
http://www.ace.mu.nu/ (http://www.ace.mu.nu/)
Does any image illustrate so neatly the wrongheadedness of the Obama administration than Americans scrambling in terror from Air Force One?
-
They should have just photoshopped it.
Whilst I agree, I can imagine the thread that would result:
Air Force One over Manhatten - faked
I can tell by the pixels!
This is just typical of this administration
etc
-
Arrogant waste, fraud and abuse. But at least they scared the sweet zombie jesus out of New York in the process.
This administration is like Amateur hour every day.
Pulled up some links that say it costs $60,000 + an hour to operate AF1. Figure an hour or so flight time from Andrews to New York, plus loiter time, plus flight back. Plus time on the ground, maintenece, oh, and the Photography aircraft and the F16's (who knows how much an hour those cost), we're already over $150,000 just for the flight time of AF1. All to scare the hell out of a bastion of liberal voting. Nice.
-
At a White House press briefing Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged questions about the flyover, even referring the media to the White House (that he represents).
I can't figure out if this administration is really that incompetent or if they just want us to think they are so they can get away with more stupid stuff.
-
Surprised they didn't try to spin it as a rouge AF pilot pissed at Obama and was trying to take him out. :laugh:
-
Hmm Obama flew low over my parents house a few months back and no one panicked......
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi332.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm330%2Fkpt42%2Faf12.jpg%3Ft%3D1240888364&hash=2c8f8d0b1657d53311995bc5bdbd5098104b0a22)
That was back when folks still thought he'd be personally air-dropping unicorns and rainbows for each of us
-
That was back when folks still thought he'd be personally air-dropping unicorns and rainbows for each of us
Odd....those unicorns smelled pretty bad....and the rainbows were kinda brownish...
-
Arrogant waste, fraud and abuse. But at least they scared the sweet zombie jesus out of New York in the process.
This administration is like Amateur hour every day.
Pulled up some links that say it costs $60,000 + an hour to operate AF1. Figure an hour or so flight time from Andrews to New York, plus loiter time, plus flight back. Plus time on the ground, maintenece, oh, and the Photography aircraft and the F16's (who knows how much an hour those cost), we're already over $150,000 just for the flight time of AF1. All to scare the hell out of a bastion of liberal voting. Nice.
It cost $328,835 (http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2009/04/28/they-say-it-was-as-training-mission-hhm-the-cost-328000/)
-
I would have done it in Photoshop for 10% of that, and they would have had a nicer shot.
-
I would have done it in Photoshop for 10% of that, and they would have had a nicer shot.
I'd have done it for 1% of that. Hell, maybe even .1%. :lol:
-
Did anyone report who was on the plane?
-
I still think this whole thing was somebody's idea of a practical joke.
-
this may put the perceived threat into perspective:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpremium1.uploadit.org%2FdocZox%2F%2FstupidAF1.jpg&hash=7de8637831d81d37033977ad903e3d8b9635ddb6)
-
That was back when folks still thought he'd be personally air-dropping unicorns and rainbows for each of us
He's settled on putting rainbows in the water.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6HsiixFS8
-
http://www.nydailynews.com/tech_guide/2009/04/29/2009-04-29_createyourown_nyc_air_force_one_flyover_photo__we_did.html
-
I attended Fleet Week '02, the first big celebration in NYC since 9/11. I'm from the country south, I hate cities, don't care for folks from up north, etc. =D I had a blast in that town, in fact every time I go to NYC I find I actually like the people there. Anyway, the town took care of us that week. Back to the story...
Our "job" was to fly the media from the city out to a gator freighter so that they could film the cruise up the river to our berth next to the Intrepid. Our ugly old helos had a very unrestricted flight clearance so our pilots were flying every load of journalists right over ground zero, letting them hang in the door on gunner's belts etc. Now by the time somebody finally figured out that we had clearance to fly there the angry phone calls had gone all the way to the Pentagon, then back down to the ship's CO, then back up again smoothing things out.
We had the same clearance when we left too. After we got our almost overweight helos flying we went out and flew orbits around the Statue of Liberty, flew up the Hudson, over Central Park, went down the other side of Manhattan over Yankee Stadium, and the Brooklyn and Verrezzano bridges. I've got great pics stashed away somewhere.
-
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05052009/news/regionalnews/phantom_air_farce_pictures_167671.htm
PHANTOM AIR FARCE PICTURES
By JEREMY OLSHAN
May 5, 2009 ––
The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday.
"We have no plans to release them," an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further.
The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city.
"The photos . . . are classified –– that's ridiculous," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said.
New Yorkers said they could not understand how a president who shares intimate snapshots from the White House could justify classifying these.
"So we're not gonna see the fruits of this cruel joke?" said Frank Antonelli, 39, one of the Wall Street traders spooked by last week's flyover.
"I'm not surprised. Obama . . . wouldn't further all the bad publicity by putting out those pictures."
-
Now they are saying that they are going to release them.
Wow, talk about flip-flopping.
-
[adjusts tinfoil]
Anyone know or heard who was on AF1 during the "flyover"....Rumor has it that campaign donors and/or bigshots were on board.
[/removes tinfoil]
-
if I was going to photograph Air Force 1 & the Statue of Liberty, I would have made a few more passes and had a Photographer in a chopper with a gyro stabilizer
-
Michelle Malkin has filed a FOIA request for the photos, names of those involved, those who were present and all other details. Should be interesting.
-
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpremium1.uploadit.org%2FdocZox%2F%2FAirforceone.jpg&hash=d7e5ecfe1de11d67b8aba36c3a97a2ed7d090377)
An Air Force presidential aircraft, part of the fleet used by U.S. presidents, is pictured above the Statue of Liberty in New York, in this photograph released to Reuters on May 8, 2009. White House military aide Louis Caldera, who authorized an Air Force flyover of New York that caused panic among some New Yorkers there, resigned on Friday.
REUTERS/The White House/Handout
Lets see cockpit edge, canopy glare
yep that thar is a 300,000 dollar image
-
Ah, schucks. I was hoping they wouldn't release any photos. Better for conspiracy-mongering, that way. Also, they didn't catch Lady Liberty very well. Too distant.
-
exactly, this was not a Photoshoot
-
Then it was a joy ride?
-
The tool involved in this resigned, Obama accepted his head.
-
Were any other photos released? I found one more, so far.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/286696.php
-
May 9, 2009
Official Quits Over Jet Flight That Alarmed New Yorkers
By JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON — The photo shoot of Air Force One soaring above the Statue of Liberty cost taxpayers $328,835. Now the incident, which incited panic among scores of people in New York City, has cost the director of the White House Military Office his job.
The director, Louis Caldera, who was appointed by President Obama to the White House post and had been a secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration, resigned on Friday for his role in approving the April 27 flyover. In a brief letter to Mr. Obama, Mr. Caldera said that the matter “has become a distraction for the important work you are doing as president.”
The White House released the resignation letter and a seven-page review of how the flyover was planned by several government agencies without anyone raising caution flags that the flight could spark fears of another terrorist attack in Lower Manhattan. A photograph of the plane, flying low above New York Harbor, also was released on Friday by the White House.
The president, who did not know about the flight before it took place and was described by aides as infuriated by it, directed his deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates “to make recommendations to him to ensure that such an incident never occurs again,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary.
The photo shoot of the Boeing 747 was intended to update the official picture of Air Force One, which is what the plane is called when the president is aboard. The last photograph was taken against the backdrop of Mount Rushmore, but in March military officials began planning for a new shot with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
The Air Force estimated the flight cost taxpayers $328,835, including $35,000 in fuel for the plane and the two fighter-jet escorts.
The internal White House review, conducted for the president by the White House counsel’s office, found that a series of bureaucratic missteps kept the public in the dark about the flight. Senior advisers to the president, including Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Messina, also said they were not notified.
“Will probably receive some local press, but W. H. shouldn’t catch any questions about it,” said an internal e-mail message that Mr. Caldera received from his deputy three days before the flight took place.
The White House report states that while some officials decided on “public outreach efforts” to notify people in advance about the flight, the commander of the Presidential Airlift Group, Col. Scott Turner of the Air Force, decided that the memo warning New York-area officials of the flyover would be marked “official use only,” and that it would tell government agencies not to disclose the event. Information would be provided, the report said, “only if asked.”
Through bureaucratic fumbling, the discrepancy over whether the public should or should not be alerted went unnoticed until after the flight.
In the review, officials wrote that Mr. Caldera said he “had no idea that the plan called for the aircraft to fly at 1,000 feet.” They added, “He feels terrible that the flight caused harm.”
The review concluded that “structural and organizational ambiguities” among officials in the White House and the Air Force led to the series of miscommunications that resulted in the most embarrassing act of the new Obama administration.
“The breakdown was the lack of public notification,” the report states, adding that Mr. Caldera believed others had been notified about the flight. He also conceded that he did not know the final details about the flyover mission, in part, because he had not checked his e-mail. He said he had gone home early for a few days because he was suffering from muscle spasms in his back when he returned from a presidential trip to Mexico last month.
Mr. Obama appointed Mr. Caldera to lead the White House Military Office in December, citing his 30-year career as a soldier, lawyer, legislator and law professor. It was a rare political appointment for a position that is usually held by a ranking officer in the military.
“His pedigree is second to none,” Mr. Obama said on Dec. 2. “I know he’ll bring to the White House the same dedication and integrity that have earned him the highest praise in every post.”
-
Were any witnesses on the ground actually able to identify the aircraft involved as part of the presidential fleet?
-
I so want to make a parody of this video:
Nelly - Air Force Ones (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxGavd199X8)
Except it would be an Obama impersonator in the video, it would take place inside an airplane cabin instead of a shoe store, he would be singing about "Scare Force One" instead of Air Force One sneakers. All references to pretty women would be replaced with references to people running in fear.
-
The tool involved in this resigned, Obama accepted his head.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaelhitchcock.com%2Fimages%2Fdeath%2520by%2520sword%2520serenity.jpg&hash=5ba9a0761a4ea6e1b31ac436f1e2d0e2ad800df1)
http://www.michaelhitchcock.com/images/death%20by%20sword%20serenity.jpg (http://www.michaelhitchcock.com/images/death%20by%20sword%20serenity.jpg)
"This is a good death....there is no shame in this"......
-
But Obama is the one who's sin is pride.
-
Yeah, but he's too proud to take the blame for this. =)
-
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpremium1.uploadit.org%2FdocZox%2F%2FAF1images.jpg&hash=15bc1564671d6b5efd0b377f2a4e317a321f4177)
spot the professional image
-
They're both pretty crummy.
-
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpremium1.uploadit.org%2FdocZox%2F%2FAF1images.jpg&hash=15bc1564671d6b5efd0b377f2a4e317a321f4177)
spot the professional image
It's obvious....the bottom one is fake....Obama's face isn't engraved on the mountain.... :laugh:
-
spot the professional image
I guess an amateur image is probably appropriate for an amateur hour presidency.
-
I'm at a photo festival in charlottesville va
I met the guy that shot the image from the f16 jump seat
-
OK, this stopped being about the political aspect of the incident quite some time ago.