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Ear to the Ground

Bush: Sept. 11 ‘Ended on a Relatively Humorous Note’

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Posted on Jun 1, 2006

In a 2003 interview with Ladies Home Journal, Bush told Peggy Noonan that during the late-night hours of Sept. 11, he and wife Laura were hustled around the White House in their bedtime clothes because it was thought a jet was going to crash into the building. “[T]he day ended on a relatively humorous note,” he said. “We got a laugh out of it.”
“Bad taste” doesn’t really seem to do this justice.
(h/t: Daou Report. Also: full-text interview.)


Democratic Underground:

George W. Bush: But the day ended on a relatively humorous note. The agents said, “you’ll be sleeping downstairs. Washington’s still a dangerous place.” And I said no, I can’t sleep down there, the bed didn’t look comfortable. I was really tired, Laura was tired, we like our own bed. We like our own routine. You know, kind of a nester. I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared. So I told the agent we’re going upstairs, and he reluctantly said okay. Laura wears contacts, and she was sound asleep. Barney was there. And the agent comes running up and says, “We’re under attack. We need you downstairs,” and so there we go. I’m in my running shorts and my T-shirt, and I’m barefooted. Got the dog in one hand, Laura had a cat, I’m holding Laura —

Laura Bush: I don’t have my contacts in , and I’m in my fuzzy house slippers —

George W. Bush: And this guy’s out of breath, and we’re heading straight down to the basement because there’s an incoming unidentified airplane, which is coming toward the White House. Then the guy says it’s a friendly airplane. And we hustle all the way back up stairs and go to bed.

Mrs. Bush: And we just lay there thinking about the way we must have looked.

Peggy Noonan (interviewer): So the day starts in tragedy and ends in Marx Brothers.

George W. Bush: That’s right — we got a laugh out of it.

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By John A Robles II, June 3, 2006 at 9:55 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Before George Bush terrorism was not a threat. Of course he was comfortable sleeping in his own bed, he was in on 9-11.

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By Gregory Goebel, June 3, 2006 at 8:07 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

This rallying cry over 9/11 is absolutely crazy.  The event was a major fuckup in security measures.  When people say thank God for Bush in this situation I say it probably would not have happened under president Gore.

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By Andrew Wanielista, June 3, 2006 at 7:51 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

What I don’t understand is with a crises such as 911 on his hands, how could the pResident of the US get tired and have to “sweep in hims own wittle bed’.  I’ve never been president, and never faced a crises that large.  I did spend 32 years in IT and they were chrises.  Sleep usualy came after the problem was solved; or when I fell down.  How in gods name could that monkey worry about sleeping?
No wonder we are on the Highway to Hell.

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By Pinky Tinkleton, June 3, 2006 at 5:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Silly liberals…......we’ve been safe from terrorists attacks here at home because of the man. Thank God for George W. Bush!!!!


As long as I pay-a the protection money, my store she-a no get bombed! My store is-a safe because of this man! Thank God for Vito Corleone!!!!

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By richard wagner, June 3, 2006 at 2:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

George W caught in another lie! My god…will there be no end to the surprises?  I’m pretty sure he and Laua would’ve been caught, not in their Jammies, but in their Nazi regalia, which I am sure is what they wear to bed at night.  There is a sickness spreading over this land and it is the Bush pandemic. I fear for our children and our children’s children. Kinda like the measles only it’s the weasels!

Richard….Scottsdale

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By Sage, June 3, 2006 at 12:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I read this article when it was first published and was wishing that his comments should have been put up on every billboard in America.  I also wished that Michael Moore had put these comments in his Farenheit 911 film. As usual, it was all about him.  I need my routine, I need my comfortable bed.  Yeah well, here’s a question for him, what about all the victims that day fighting for their lives - if they were lucky enough to survive. I’m sure bedding wasn’t in their thoughts. And I can’t imagine any other Americans thinking about their bedding on the night of 9-11. And quite frankly, I don’t think he should have been able to even sleep that night, or want to. He was supposed to be involved in protecting us through this terrible night.  What a selfish, self-centered, narcisstic cry baby.  Oh yeah, he’s Presidential material alright!! And shame on Peggy Noonan for not criticizing him loudly for such a cold appraisal of that day.  But of course, he got a pass - as always.

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By Brendan O'Maidian, June 2, 2006 at 11:20 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Can we believe this is happening in our country, our America?  These smug, arrogant, inhumane, profiteering butchers just keep on ticking, and we, the people, take the licking.  Never before in our history has there been such a bunch of thugs and tyrants sitting in the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court, all at the same time.  Let us not forget the doting corporate media that abets all of this murder and treason.
Somebody please prove me wrong…please.

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By Chris Vosburg, June 2, 2006 at 3:20 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

LibHater writes: Silly liberals…......we’ve been safe from terrorists attacks here at home because of the man. Thank God for George W. Bush!!!!

An argument which would have worked as well on September 10, 2001.

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By Mark Lozano, June 2, 2006 at 3:06 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Hey LibHater (comment #10961) why is it that the continental USA had never been attacked by a foreign enemy BEFORE 9/11? The Idiot in Chief was “in command” when we were attacked on 9/11. Just because we have not been attacked since PROVES NOTHING! There is a history of over 200 years of not being attacked by a foreign enemy PRIOR to 9/11!

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By MATTHEW, June 2, 2006 at 12:37 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

What really staggers the imagination is that part of the populace still stands with these idiots despite being dissed by them repeatedly.Amazingly stupid,naive Americans.

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By LibHater, June 2, 2006 at 12:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Silly liberals…......we’ve been safe from terrorists attacks here at home because of the man. Thank God for George W. Bush!!!!

“Tolerance is the virtue of a man with no convictions”- G.K. Chesterton

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By Cole..., June 2, 2006 at 11:55 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

#10872
—-without the slightest sense of guilt or regret’.

bush is even beyond that, he subordinates all events into his having a ‘good time’. Whatever term fits a description of his ‘brain’ it is deeply pathological.

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By C Quil, June 2, 2006 at 11:54 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

To Devil’s Advocate:

“Predator” is indeed the correct spelling. The next time a take a quote directly off a site to save myself typing, I’ll proofread it. I need a Guardian Angel Spell Checker.

http://www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com/psychopath.html

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By Cole..., June 2, 2006 at 11:43 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Sept 11 in the White House? I recall that bush was flying around and away from ground zero and DC on the 11th and ended up in Omaha.


Actual ‘being’ flown—on AF 1. Had his pic taken “on the phone” which was sold as a high price momento of a hero in action!

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By Freebyrd, June 2, 2006 at 9:07 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I was led to believe that there was a “No Fly” order for aircraft at that time?  Perhaps it was the bin laden’s flight?

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By pw, June 2, 2006 at 9:03 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Welcome . . . and congratulations for your willingness to look at the proof about 9-11.
http://www.911proof.com/
========
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Osama Tape Appears Fake, Experts Conclude
Here’s the newest press release from Scholars for 9/11 Truth.

The latest audio tape attributed to Osama bin Laden appears to be one more installment in a succession of evidence fabricated by the US government to deceive the American people, according to Scholars for 9/11 Truth. “This tape is only the latest in a series of fabrications intended to mislead the American people,” said James H. Fetzer, the society’s founder. “The closer we get to revealing the truth about 9/11, the more furiously the government fights to conceal it!” He said members of Scholars and other experts had detected evidence of fakery.

In this new recording, a voice attributed to Osama bin Laden asserts that Zacarias Moussaoui was not involved in 9/11, which he knew to be the case because he had personally assigned the 19 hijackers involved in those events. The Osama of this tape thereby implicitly confesses his responsibility for orchestrating the attacks. However, in a tape released on December 27, 2001, the authenticity of which is not in doubt, Osama denied having had anything to do with 9/11. “Moreover,” Fetzer added, “some of the 19 hijackers he ‘personally assigned’ have turned up alive and well.”

To be sure, this new tape is not the first one in which bin Laden appears to take responsibility for the attacks. As David Ray Griffin, a prominent member of Scholars, points out, “The Osama on the video tape that appeared on December 13, 2001, confessed to planning the 9/11 attacks. But he is far darker and much heavier than the real Osama bin Laden. People can see the difference by looking up ‘The Fake bin Laden Video Tape’ on Google.”

Griffin’s point is supported by a work-in-progress by members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which appears on its web site under the heading, “9/11: Have we been lied to?” It offers evidence of fakery in some of the videos based upon various physical properties of the figures that are presumed to be Osama, pointing out that there are differences in the ears, cheeks, eyebrows, length of the nose and shape of the nostrils. “The use of computer analysis can ‘fine tune’ these questions of facial characteristics,” Fetzer said, “but the gross differences already show they are not the same.”

Content Inconsistencies

“Another problem with the video of December 13, 2001,” Griffin pointed out, “was that its stocky bin Laden praised two of the alleged hijackers, Wail M. Al-Shehri and Salem al-Hazmi, by name, and yet both the London Telegraph and the Saudi embassy reported several days after 9/11 that al-Hazmi was still alive and working in Saudi Arabia. Given the fact that the earlier video in which Osama confessed was clearly a fake, we should be suspicious of this latest apparent confession.”

A professor at Duke, Bruce Lawrence, who has published Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, expressed profound skepticism about a tape that was released January 17, 2006, in a report that appeared two days later. “There’s nothing in this from the Koran,” Lawrence said. “He’s, by his own standards, a faithful Muslim who quotes scripture in defense of his actions. There’s no quotation from the Koran in the excerpts we got, no reference to specific events, no reference to past atrocities.” Lawrence also observed the tape ran only 10 minutes, whereas the shortest previous tape, at 18 minutes, was nearly twice as long.

Fetzer noted that many of the same anomalous properties are found in the latest tape. “Compared to Osama’s past performances,” he observed, “this message is too short, too direct, and full of falsehoods. It was even described on CBS News by Bob Schieffer as ‘almost American’.” A translation of the text of the tape has also been released by IntelCenter, a private company that does contract work for the US government. “I suppose I would be accused of being a ‘conspiracy theorist’ to suggest there is any connection,” Fetzer added.

Authentic Voice/Fake Content

Informed that Reuters news agency has reported confirmation that the voice on the tape is indeed that of Osama bin Laden, Fetzer replied, “The fact that the voice is his does not prove that the tape is authentic. We have had phony tapes before using voices that were authentic. Mark Bingham, a passenger on Flight 93, is supposed to have called his mother and said, ‘Hi, Mom, this is Mark Bingham!’ His mother confirmed it was his voice, but does anyone seriously believe that Mark Bingham would have used his last name in identifying himself to his mother?”

Griffin agreed, adding, “Back in 1999, William Arkin published an article entitled, ‘When Seeing and Hearing isn’t Believing’ (which can also be accessed on Google). Describing the new technology of ‘voice morphing’ (or ‘voice synthesizing’), Arkin explained that, if audio technicians have a recording of your voice, then they can create a tape in which your voice‹your authentic voice!‹says anything they wish.”

In a press release on April 22, 2006, the Scholars observed that a tape played at the trail of Zacarias Moussaoui included discussion among the passengers about using a drink cart to break down the cabin door alleged to have been picked up on a cockpit voice recorder, which does not record conversations in the passenger cabin. “This is not the first and certainly will not be the last time that the American government plays the American people for suckers,” Fetzer said.

“We have just acquired new evidence that the Pentagon video tapes were processed and manipulated in an apparent effort to distort or conceal what happened there on 9/11,” Fetzer observed. “Apparently, whenever the government feels the need to bolster the official myth about 9/11, it simply fabricates a new tape! Anybody who wants to keep score should visit our web site.”“
http://www.911blogger.com/2006/05/osama-tape-appears-fake-experts.html

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By KJ Lovell, June 2, 2006 at 8:47 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It is really easy to be light hearted when you know there is absolutely no danger of a jet hitting the WWH (white whore house).  How did dumbya know that?  Because as everyone knows 9/11 was an inside job.

Even if you have your head in the sand about the true facts of 9/11 and think der leader and company couldn’t possibly have been so evil and calculating as to facilitate that attack, they still at the very least knew more than they are telling about that day.

If you doubt they knew more than they are telling about 9/11, I submit for your approval all the other times the so called administration has lied (spying on innocent americans/being caught doing it afterward etc) and been caught and having to play catch up/spin the facts and finally admit a little spying, then a little more.  For the sake of keeping this short, I will only mention:  Spying on Americans, phone taps on Americans, spying on students, spying on Quakers, election fraud, voter purges, leaking CIA agents identies, whores & bribes, illegal trips, kickbacks, no bid contracts, overcharging, cronyism, reich-wing appointments, accusing the poor of “just refusing to leave N.O.”, planning a war and fixing the facts to justify it, lying about WMD when they knew the truth, and finally:  THOSE 6 WORDS IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS. 

That’s just the short list.

Even if you are still a die-hard bush lover, it is a very small man that can joke about the largest terror attack on the darkest day in America when so many innocent people were killed.  The little chimp wouldn’t have even been able to sleep if he had half the compassion of a NORMAL HUMAN.

SIDEBAR:  Why was Neil Bush’s company in all 3 of the collapsed buildings on 9/10?  When asked about that fact the reply was that his company was installing “security devices” and wouldn’t specify what those “security devices” were.

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By Truthseer, June 2, 2006 at 8:34 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Not out of character for a bumbling drunk and his murdering spouse. Completly self-centered, their whole world is the 6 feet around them. It is the only way they can continue to believe their own lies and betrayals

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By Mike C, June 2, 2006 at 8:24 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It’s the reaction of a person who doesn’t care about anyone else, despite his job being the main concern of the American people.

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By Mitch Goldstein, June 2, 2006 at 7:45 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I think the essential question of our day, when the historians of the future peer back to our time, is this: was George Bush really an idiot?  Was he a puppet raised from birth to read only teleprompters and mispronounce noo-cue-lar? 

Personally, I believe that anyone who thinks for half a moment that George W. Bush is the brains of the operation needs to spend some time in therapy.  Has there ever been a more transparently incompetent dupe pretending to be head of state?

I do not believe his reaction is of malice - he doesn’t really understand what happened on 9/11 any more than you or I do - much in the same way that Stevie Wonder doesn’t understand the idea of ‘magenta’.

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By Mr. Inappropriate, June 2, 2006 at 7:37 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Bush’s reactions are always inappropriate.  He used to smirk every time he talked about Saddam Hussein’s “rape rooms” too, cause he liked to say it and think about it I guess.

Our first(?) certifiable sociopath president.

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By Taurus, June 2, 2006 at 7:35 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The best assessment of the Bush family’s psychology (and how that affects policy) appears in BUSH ON THE COUCH by Justin Frank.  A must read, because it shows how the MSM has completely ignored reality, even when it’s as crude as this episode.  I can understand nervous or even hysterical laughter in the face of a crisis, but not something like this.  It’s beyong the pale.  I don’t find Peggy Noonan’s enabling surprising, however.  I heard her give a keynote and she was the most arrogant, condescending, and unprepeared speaker I’d ever heard, dripping with unconscious contempt for her inferiors, which we all obviously were.  She’s in perfect company with her interviewees here.

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By Oscar, June 2, 2006 at 3:39 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It fits a pattern: he showed the same amount of indifference when he was reading ‘My Pet Goat’.

Maybe this was not the behaviour of a psychopath. If you accept the theory that he knew about the attacks on beforehand, his reactions seem quite natural.

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By marc box, June 2, 2006 at 3:32 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

All President Moron and his stupid bitch wife had to do was phone up “Dead Eye” Dick Cheney and they would have been informed that no more attacks were in the works.  Hell. I’m surprised they didn’t stumble over Dick in the White House basement.

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By KEVIN SCHMIDT, STERLING VA, June 2, 2006 at 1:10 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

You can’t blame Bush. He was brought up wrong by his parents. When he was young, his sister died while she was with the parents on another vacation. The Sr. Bush and his wife Babs went golfing the very next day! Then they buried their daughter the day after that.

When they got home they told young George what happened. He never knew his sister was dead until days after she died and was buried!

This incident helps to explain a lot about Bush’s behavior throughout his life.

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By Devil's Advocate, June 1, 2006 at 6:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

First off the correct spelling is “predator”, and second he is both.

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By mike, June 1, 2006 at 6:05 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I remember reading this at the time it came out. My friend sent it to me and neither of us could believe it. It got no attention at the time though and was ignored in the ‘04 election. Unreal.

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By relayer, June 1, 2006 at 4:30 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Horrific and disgusting. Of course, nervous humor in an emergency situation is human and understandable as a relief mechanism. What is not is uttering such a statement more than two years after the event in a public forum with absolutely callous stupidity. The horror of it is that they thought they were being “charming.”

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By felicity smith, June 1, 2006 at 3:51 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Robert Hare’s definition of a psychopath is an apt overview of Bush’s entire life.  The question is can this nation survive three more years of rule by this psychopath and his co-psychopath. The next question is why must we be put to the test.

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By C Quil, June 1, 2006 at 1:01 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Robert Hare’s definition of a psychopath:

‘Psychopaths are social predetors who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret’.

Sound familiar?

He is either profoundly stupid or profoundly amoral. Neither is very comforting.

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