Bill Maher claims Bush wasted additional 20 min on photo op on 911.

[wurzel]

The link is a DU post by "stickdog" on Editorials and Articles Board Called "Bill Maher: Bush blew it the morning of 911." There is a link on that post. I don't know how to transfer it. Maher claims Bush wasted 20 minutes on a photo-op in addition to the 7 min "pet Goat" reading that morning. I don't know what he is referring to. Does anybody?

[bossfish]

1. Apparently, the Bush crew stood around for another 20 minutes

at the school after the infamous goat story. Not a lot of action

[nostamj]

3. and PLEASE bear in mind..

the 'goat story' scene lasted longer than MM's 7 minutes...

[Warpy]

4. Bush did schmooze the kiddies and the teacher

as though they'd just told him fish was off the AF1 menu for lunch in favor of prime rib.

He wasted 35 minutes after that first crash, 26 minutes after the second. He did NOTHING. This isn't collecting one's thoughts, folks, this is incompetence!

[wurzel]

15. But even Micheal Moore never mentioned it.

This has to be a huge story.

[Beaverhausen]

2. here is the link

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/221433p-190107c.html

[wurzel]

16. Thanks. I just can't see how this story got so little attention

[Sterling]

5. Yes he stayed there and gave a speech.

I have it on tape.

[IdaBriggs]

7. You are kidding, right?

He really did that? WHAT THE ... ARGH!!! I just get madder!!!

May I ask how you got the tape? Where can I get it? (grammer edit)

[soup]

11. It wasn't very long. about 1 minute.

But, it did take place at exactly on time (9:30 a.m.).
*He was supposed to give a talk about education after visiting the classroom, but cut it short to get out of harm's way.

9:30 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for America. I, unfortunately, will be going back to Washington after my remarks. Secretary Rod Paige and the Lt. Governor will take the podium and discuss education. I do want to thank the folks here at Booker Elementary School for their hospitality.

Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the Director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act.

Terrorism against our nation will not stand.

And now if you would join me in a moment of silence. May God bless the victims, their families, and America. Thank you very much.

END 9:31 A.M. EDT
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911.html

There's a link to listen to it at the above page.

[IdaBriggs]

12. Well, to be fair, those remarks aren't that bad...

...although I would have preferred him to be taking care of other business rather than listening to "My Pet Goat." A quick one minute explanation seems reasonable...I guess...(calming down) So where does "20 minutes" or more come into this?

[LizW]

20. Yeah, but those remarks took 15 minutes to prepare

from the time he left the classroom at 9:15 until he gave the speech at 9:30-9:31. Then he hopped in the car and left for the airport at 9:35. All the while, 77 was hitting the Pentagon, and 93 was way off course and out of contact. At the time, eleven other planes were suspected hijacked, although they turned out not to be.

Had Bush left the classroom and called the White House Situation Room at even 9:10 or so, he would have been able to speak to Richard Clarke, who KNEW and TOLD CHENEY AND RICE "It's an Al Qaeda attack and it may not be over."

Remember that Deb Loewer, the Director of the WH Situation Room, was with Bush on the Florida trip. The Situation Room had an open line to her cell phone minutes after the attack began. But was she put in the car with Bush and her open line to the Sit Room? No. On the video screens in the Sit Room were Rumsfeld, Richard Myers, and Jane Garvey of the FAA, among others. But Bush never spoke to them. Conveniently, Cheney and Rice were the only people in the White House who spoke with Bush until much later in the day. Everything he supposedly said was filtered through them.

I'm not suggesting LIHOP or MIHOP. I'm suggesting that Bush was not the acting President that morning. Cheney and his assistant Rice were in charge, and they did a piss-poor job.

[Cyrano]

13. Notice that he left the Secretary of Defense out of his comments

It was the Defense Dept., specifically the Air Force, that would have been in a position to avert further attacks.

And as far as "I have spoken to the Vice President..." does anyone think John Kennedy asked Lyndon Johnson what to do during the Cuban missile crisis?

Jeeeez, what an incredibly incompetent imbecile.

[Beaverhausen]

18. I will never forget when * used the term "folks"

I knew we were screwed. I knew he was NOT in charge. At that point we needed someone strong to stand there and make us all feel safer. He didn't do it. It took Rudi Guliani to do it in a speech a few hours later.

[Cyrano]

6. 27 Minutes??? How about the 3 1/2 years he's spent

not fighting terrorism.

We will never be safe until this hollow man, and his war-crime cohorts are gone from the White House and we get a competent, intelligent human being, i.e. John Kerry, in charge.

We are in extreme danger every second this man is in charge. And that danger comes from enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC (i.e. Ashcroft).

[Child_Of_Isis]

8. And the ten hours

it took him to get back to Wshington to run the country!

[Cyrano]

9. Actually, those 10 hours were spent

trying to get the deer in the headlights look off of his face.

I have inside information that aides spent those 10 hours screaming at him, "Smirk, smirk."

[gatorboy]

10. I've been meaning to ask about the photo-op.

Did they ever print pictures from this? I was curious to see how schmoozy he looked after knowing what he did...

[Disturbed]

14. Why?

It has never been explained why Dumbass didn't make the call to have the flights headed toward DC to be shot down. If the passengers hadn't forced the one plane to crash it would probably have hit the Congressional Bldg. The other plane may not have hit the Pentagon.

[gatorboy]

17. I was curious to see if he looked like he was enjoying himself

After knowing what was going on. Did they ever print the pics from the photo-op? The idea that they even HAD a photo-op is mind numbing.

[Generator]

19. An interesting day

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/essay.jsp?article=essayaninterestingday