AF-1 Buzzing NYC: Priceless – UPDATES!

do go look at Fausta’s brilliant parody.

And pay attention to the numbers.

The president wants to find $100 Million dollars in wasteful spending?

He should, perhaps start with his travel budget.

UPDATE: So, the FAA knew they would be creating panic in NYC, but they didn’t care. For a photo-op! And they used to call the Bushies “arrogant!”

Who was on the plane? I thought I saw something yesterday about reporters wanting to see the flight manifest. I’ve had emails from people who suspect that the plane was full of campaign contributors being taken for a ride. Little Miss Attila thinks Barack Obama was on the plane:

The only potential justification for the media blackout (and FBI/law enforcement blackout) was that one of the passengers was a very high-value individual indeed. Like, the highest. . .If people in New York and New Jersey had been prepared, it could have been a mini airshow. But people weren’t informed, and in fact the Feds promised sanctions on anyone that let the secret out. It doesn’t make sense. Unless Obama was in the plane.

I don’t know if I completely agree. It’s not an unreasonable argument, but the thing is, Air Force One is a very expensive vehicle with a lot of secrets aboard it, even in its very design. It is entirely possible that the WH did not want the information about the photo-op out because even an empty AF-1 is a true target. And even if Obama was not aboard, and -perhaps- those campaign contributors were, we would not want to see it targeted.

And of course, if the thing had been announced, people like me would have loudly denounced the damn photo-op for its wastefulness. We’re broke. The president thinks he can maybe find $100 million in government waste, but we can afford this stunningly expensive, gaia-hurting (the carbon!) and useless “mission?”

It’s entirely possible that the president was on the plane, and we need to know that. We need to know who was on the plane. But there are lots of reasons to not announce the “mission” too far in advance, but New Yorkers should have been given a heads up -say 1/2 hour before AF-1 arrived- that they should not be concerned about what they would be seeing.

This was a stupid, stupid mission, stupidly managed. And yes, by all means, let’s find out who was on the plane. Why is it going to take two weeks to “investigate” this? Shouldn’t the POTUS be able to tell us about the use of his plane pretty quickly?

UPDATE II: And while you’re at it, go read this very surprising piece from HillBuzz. Anyone know who the HillBuzzers are?