My two cents regarding the “photo op” Boeing 747 and F-16 flyover of Manhattan yesterday:

1. Poor judgment would definitely be a nice way to phrase the situation.  “What the fucking hell were they thinking!?” would be a better way to phrase it.
2. The official reason for the fly-over was to “update file photos of Air Force One near national landmarks”.  My question is, how much did this decision cost during this time of economic crisis?  Not only in the price of flying the 747 and F-16 but also the general panic it caused?  Use fucking Photoshop for christ’s sake.

“One of the president’s official planes and a supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the lower Manhattan skyline in a flash just as the work day was beginning Monday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11.

For a half-hour, the Boeing 747 and F-16 jet circled the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline near the World Trade Center site. Offices evacuated. Dispatchers were inundated with calls. Witnesses thought the planes were flying dangerously low.

But the flyover was nothing but a photo op, apparently one of a series of flights to get pictures of the president’s airliner in front of national landmarks.

[...]

When told of the flight, President Barack Obama was furious, a White House official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Still, federal officials provided few details and wouldn’t say why the public and area building security managers weren’t notified. They also wouldn’t address why someone thought it was a wise decision to send two jets into New York City, all for a few photos with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop.

An administration official said the purpose of the photo op was to update file photos of the president’s plane near the Lady Liberty.

[...]

John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said about 1,000 people “went into a total panic” and ran out of the building after seeing the planes whiz nearby.

‘We were informed after we cleared out of there,” Leitner said. “I kind of think heads should roll a little bit on that.’

Employees of the Wall Street Journal also left their desks to see what was going on.

Kathleen Seagriff, a staff assistant, said workers heard the roar of the engines and then saw the planes from their windows.

‘They went down the Hudson, turned around and came back by the building,” she said. “It was a scary scene, especially for those of us who were there on 9/11.’ ”

[source: armytimes.com]

Next we’ll see 9/11 greeting cards, 9/11 store sales, and 9/11 carols:

Police in Peabody, Massachusetts, could be getting holiday pay on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in what may be a first-of-its-kind contract provision.

A proposed new contract between the city and the police union would make the anniversary a paid holiday. The proposed contract still needs budgetary approval from the city council.

Officers would receive an extra 25 percent pay for working September 11.

The USS Arlington joins the exclusive group of Navy ships who carry a payload of 9/11 memorabilia .  But unlike her sister ship, the USS New York (who is made from Ground Zero steel), the USS Arlington displays steel from the Pentagon.

Twisted chunks of steel torn from the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, will be displayed aboard a new Navy ship named after Arlington County, Va.

The rusted fragments will be displayed in a Lucite box on the quarterdeck of the USS Arlington, a symbolic reminder for those aboard of the terrorist attacks on Virginia and New York.

“This will be very tangible to the young people on the ship,” said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who yesterday attended a small ceremony at the Pentagon where the Secretary of the Navy presented the fragments to Arlington County officials.

“This will give them the history of why it was named” the USS Arlington “and why we do the things we do,” he added.

The 80-person ceremony took place barely an hour after 60,000 people attended an outdoor unveiling of the Pentagon’s new Sept. 11 memorial.

A third San Antonio-class ship, the USS Somerset, joines the fleet of 9/11 ships by carrying a name which honors the passengers of United Flight 93 who died in Sommerset County, Pennsylvania.

…the 9/11 conspiracy theories are still giving me a migraine.

The problem with these sorts of accusations is that it releases responsibility of the deaths from al-Qaeda and moves it into hands of the American people.

Never forget.

[video] Egyptian Researcher Muhammad Al-Said Idris: The American Response to 9/11 Proves that the Official Version of Events Is False

Al-Rafidein TV (Iraq) – September 8, 2008

It’s the token phrase we all love to mutter… Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:

New data from a public health registry that tracks the health effects of 9/11 suggest that as many as 70,000 people may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the terrorist attacks.

The estimate, released Wednesday by New York City’s Department of Health, is based on an analysis of the health of 71,437 people who enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. They agreed to be tracked for up to 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the study was based on answers they volunteered about their health two and three years after the attack.

Of the estimated 400,000 people believed to have been heavily exposed to pollution from the disaster, data suggests that 35,000 to 70,000 people developed PTSD and 3,800 to 12,600 may have developed asthma, city health officials said.

They include rescue and recovery workers, lower Manhattan residents, area workers, commuters and passers-by.

Overall, half of the respondents said they had been in the dust cloud from the collapsing towers; 70 percent witnessed a traumatic sight, such as a plane hitting the tower or falling bodies; and 13 percent sustained an injury that day.

It’s strange because 9/11 was also the catalyst to our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.  What do the studies say about the troops in the Middle East:

Nearly one in five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is currently suffering from depression or stress disorders, according to the latest and most comprehensive study of current and former military service members, released today.

Less than half of those 300,000 veterans have received care for depression or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the study, signaling significant problems with the U.S. mental healthcare system.

The study shows that the stress disorders may be more prevalent and lasting than previously known. Although the Army has conducted annual evaluations of troops deployed in Iraq, the new study, conducted by the Rand Corp. and funded by the California Community Foundation, is the first to try and assess the mental health of the 1.65 million service members that have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Fuck the Colbert Nation.  We’re now the PTSD Nation.

[video]

Ms. Missive:  This is my favorite part:

Interviewer: “Are homosexuals on your agenda?”

Yahya Saade: “My agenda is about the freedom of any human being. My agenda is about personal liberties. We should respect and accept one another, despite all our differences.

[...]

Interviewer: “Are you for or against the 9/11 attacks on America?”

Saade: “What would you like me to say – for or against?”

Interviewer: “Tell me, are you for or against? Tell me the truth, without embellishing it – what you say when you are with your friends.”

Saade: “I am for them [the attacks on 9/11].”

Interviewer: “Why?”

Saade: “Because in my view, they constituted a very loud cry, which raised a very important question within American and European society

Ms. Missive:  Let the contradictions roll on.

Source: MEMRI TV

Our country has entered a new wave of recycling. God help me from my puns.

The Navy has unleashed the newly christened U.S.S. New York with the strength of seven and a half tons of steel wreckage from the September 11th World Trade Center attacks.

Perhaps it’s just me but it feels strange to honor the dead and wounded from the 9/11 attacks by using wreckage from the disaster to create a warship. Pieces of that horrible day are literally a functioning part of a machine that’s most basic purpose is to destroy. A strange irony or a fitting vengeance?

In related news, progress at the site of Ground Zero proves that it’s possible for construction workers to move even slower than highway repairmen. Then again, you can’t rush perfection. Here’s some ground zero linkage to tease and tantalize:

• A live webcam courtesy of EarthCam.com directly facing the Ground Zero construction site is a pleasure for both patriots and voyeurs alike.
• You can find details of Freedom Tower here, the center piece of Ground Zero construction, which is estimated to be completed by 2011.