Wonkette
If you have ever wondered how much it costs to make 7 million New Yorkers all shit their pants at the same time, now you know: $300,000, which is actually kind of a bargain. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, that’s how much it cost to send a low-flying passenger jet on a little tour of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty a couple of weeks back. The cost of adult diapers, on the other hand, is expected to run into the billions. [MSNBC]
Vitter should be happy. He has that market cornered.
If those accompanying F16s had taken out Giuliani, it would have been worth every penny! Damn, so close!
mmmm, MANHANDS
Stupid, stupid, stupid. The person who greenlighted this stupid stunt needs to be fired. They are either incompetent or a Republican trying to make Hopey look bad.
Billions of dollars worth of adult diapers - that’s nothing to sniff at…
Mad Farmer Manifest: He just resigned.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/08/costs_for_that_air_force_one_f.html#more
Mad Farmer Manifest:
The White House official who approved the Air Force One flight over New York City last month that frightened many and prompted building evacuations resigned today after an internal White House investigation found flaws in how the decision was made and passed on to other agencies.
In his resignation letter to President Obama, Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, wrote that the controversy had “made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office,” which oversees Air Force One and other presidential aircraft.
Mad Farmer Manifest: He was fired/forced to resign, Louis Caldera, military affairs director, today.
You know what would have prevented this? If Louis Caldera and the other officials responsible could have empathized with New Yorkers about how they might react to a low-flying jet in Manhattan. But, I guess, if public officials start using empathy, the terrorists/Nazis have won.
All New Yorkers shitting at one time must be something. To avoid.
jetjaguar: vote “mmmm, MANHANDS” for alt-text!
chascates:
Even been on a NYC subway in the middle of August? Same thing.
Look on the bright side: if we ever have planes crashing into NY skyscrapers again, New Yorkers will just say “Oh it’s just another photo op. Nothing to worry about.”
Doglessliberal: Texan Bulldoggette: Well then. My rage is sated.
Brendan M.: Haha. Brilliant.
“They let me sign checks with a stamp Marge. A stamp.”
How much did Obama have to pay for the real 9/11, though?
chascates: All New Yorkers shitting at one time must be something.
I’m pretty sure Obi-Wan could sense the disturbance in the Force.
Has he been offered a gig at FauxNooz yet?
The really scandalous thing is that people are just finding out how expensive it is to run the World’s Most Expensive Flying Club (also known as the US Air Force). The one useful mission they do have (air transport) is looked down upon by the leather-jacket/silk-scarf set that run this boondoggle.
Okay, sorry, not funny. Truck Nutz. Butte-zechs. There.
Naked Bunny with a Whip: ACORN picked up the tab…
What about those bankers in Jersey City? There’s meconium and flop sweat all up in Goldman-Sachs that somebody’s gotta’ clean up!
bitchincamaro: They can clean up after themselves. It’ll be a refreshing change.
V572625694: $16,000 or something like that an hour for an F-16? And how many desk-bound Pentagon pilots do a flight once a month to qualify for flight pay? Plus all the PR flights at games, air shows, funerals, etc.?
Bearbloke: Well, they did get $4 billion from the Porkulus package, so they can afford it.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Those gotdamn New Yorkers need to get over this shit. Try living in Afghanistan or Iraq or gotdamn Somalia and then bitch and moan about PTSD.
Nathan Arizona Sr.: I’m kind of with you, but, hey living in TX our tallest building is Southfork that JR lived in. So I can’t really relate to the whole falling skyscraper trauma.
BTW, the one of the pics is on the NYT and it looks effing sweet. Totally worth is.
*it
Texan Bulldoggette: Although we have had snipers from some of ours.
B-b-b-but they got pretty pix!
http://online.wsj.com/media/flyoverphoto20090508.jpg
Brendan M.: word.
Glad the guy resigned. Maybe Barry can hire someone with some empathy on his ass, ya know?
I would have done a photo shop for them for half the price!
chascates: Yeah, that’s true … forgot about ole Charles Whitman. So, hey, TX grows our own terrorists; we don’t have to import them from the Middle East. USA USA USA!!
Sorry y’alls. Don’t buy the official explanation. That there diaper is ready for a change I can believe in.
Couldn’t they just have put Air Force One and the Statue of Liberty together with Photoshop?
Zhu Bajie
I didn’t know Lady Liberty had manhands.
Seriously, what a bunch of bullshit. The real “cost” of this adventure was the people-hours spent hyperventilating over it and tallying up some stupid number to give to McCain. I assume the aircraft and it’s crew would have been sitting in mothballs had it not been for this “mission”.
As far as New Yorkers are concerned - as a New Yorker myself - I can only say - what a bunch of pussies.
I hope the photo is on Gate’s Christmas Card this year!
Texan Bulldoggette: Back when this happened, this poor bastard got called into a meeting with COS Emanuel, where Rahm “expressed the President’s displeasure at the incident” which I took to mean that everyone in the White House learned a whole bunch of new cuss words that day and Bo, the Portugues Water Monster that passes for a dog, hid under Malia’s bed..
What Johnny Zhivago said.
Wait, MSNBC reported this? But this is an actual embarassing news story for the administration! Why would they cover-up Obama’s use of Muslin Dijon mustard but then report on this? MY WHOLE WORLD IS FALLING APART HERE PEOPLE!!!!!1111
SayItWithWookies: I hear that.
“Made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office.”
Really? Your effective leadership is in question? Horribles! Instead of being a weenie, howzabout, “I fucked up. No, I mean that I really, really, really fucked up. You can’t believe how I fucked up.”
I fucked up so badly that my dog hates me. I couldn’t command a dandelion now. It was the stupidist decision not only of my life, but also of the lives of anyone within ten feet of me. I look in the mirror and see a stupid freakazoid looking back. My picture is in the dictionary under “fucked up.” I fucked up so royally that I can no longer effectively lead the White House Military Office.
Wait until people realize that the same dope who gave the AF-1 flyover order for a New York photo op also is in charge of the military types who carry the nuclear codes for Hopey. So although I really fucked up, I could have done worse. Just not by much. Thank God they got rid of me.
All you have to do to get 7 million New Yorkers to shit themselves is say President Guliani. His campaing slogan should have been, Just like Bush, only nastier.
Ehh, Dress up the $300k as a stimulus package and everyone will be happy
TeddyS: Please! Under President George Bush, the Air Force flew a load of HYDROGEN BOMBS to New Orleans and parked them on the tarmac like a load of potato chips.
Come on - I mean, if you accidentally fire a cruise missile at the Statue of Liberty, sure, an apology is in order. But a photo flyby??? Send Bloomberg an autographed copy of the photo!
New York could learn a lesson here from New Jersey - when you see a low flying Air Force plane, don’t automatically assume it’s on a suicide mission.
Just imagine how the liberal media would have bashed Bush if this happened under him. Stories like “Bush horrifies poor NYers” ..but since it is under Obama the media story is how “Obama will get to the bottom of this:. Pathetic ! They should all learn something from this site:
http://www.thebarackobamawatch.com/
larry2: much less outcry when Bush misplaced some hydrogen bombs and flew them around the country…oh teh liberal media-that is funny!
Go ahead and watch Barack Obama , larry2.
with Daryl, your other brother Daryl and larry1.
larry2: Try this shit at the beginning of a thread next week, larry, and we’ll see how far you get defending this tripe. But I’m guessing you’re a hit & run pussy, a chickenhawk like all those neocons you fantasize about while blowing your boyfriend.
Can someone break down the cost for me? 30K for fuel, I get. What about the other 300K?
gilgamess: $30k for fuel, $300K for Mil-spec, 256 bit encrytpted, alpha partical resistant, SD Card.
I live and work in Manhattan and frankly was not aware that I was supposed to have been terrified that day; I didn’t even hear about this until I saw it on The Daily Show and I was surprised by JS’s reaction to it. I don’t think New York was anywhere near as freaked about it as the MSM depiction would suggest.
larry2: lolwut? The opening paragraph of this turdcluster you linked to says “Thebarackobamawatch.com is viewed as an impartial Barack Obama website.” Two sentences after that, it says “So after all of the Obama hoopla, celebrations, obama maniacs and start-studded crowds are gone and after the self-jubilant barack attacks have calmed down from listening to Obama’s electricfying speeches it is now time to make way for real action.”
Methinks that re: grammar, spelling, impartiality, coherence (seriously, what the fuck is a “self-jubilant barack attack,” fool?) and overall purpose, this site is a straight-up EPIC FAIL.