ABC Scandal: "Goat-gate": Pet Goat AWOL from TV drama!

npincus

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Wed Sep-06-06 04:54 PM
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ABC Scandal: "Goat-gate": Pet Goat AWOL from TV drama!

Edited on Wed Sep-06-06 04:56 PM by npincus

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003087654

Much like those missing 18 1/2 minutes on the Nixon Watergate Tapes, now we have "Goate-gate": the missing 7 minutes of Presidential eye-blinking while reading "The Pet Goat" to a classroom in Sarasota, Florida on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Missing from ABC's "Path to 9-11" mini-series, that is.

Has The Goat gone AWOL, much like our fearless leader did from the Texas Air National Guard in 1973?

"The Path to 9/11" ends with a long segment on the day of the attacks and top officials' response -- though we only see
President Bush in his speech to the nation, not in the Florida classroom with "The Pet Goat."

Here's a fascinating blow-by-blow of the Moron-in-Chief's non-reaction to the events on the morning of September 11th that probably didn't make it inot the ABC docu-drama:

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

Descriptions vary greatly as to how Bush responded to the news. It is said he “blanched” , “the color drained from the president’s face” , he “wore a bemused smile” , “because visibly tense and serious” , and so on. Watch the video and draw your own conclusions (the 11-minute video can be viewed at the Center for Cooperative Research, Buzzflash, Global Free Press, The Emperor’s New Clothes, or Liberty DYNU). Bush later recalled his own reaction: “I am very aware of the cameras. I’m trying to absorb that knowledge. I have nobody to talk to. I’m sitting in the midst of a classroom with little kids, listening to a children’s story and I realize I’m the Commander in Chief and the country has just come under attack.” Asked again what he thought after he heard the news, Bush said, “We’re at war and somebody has dared attack us and we’re going to do something about it. I realized I was in a unique setting to receive a message that somebody attacked us … t became evident that we were, you know, that the world had changed.”

So what did the Commander in Chief do with the knowledge that the United States was under attack?

He did nothing.

Bush did not say one word. He did not ask Card any questions. He did not give any orders. He did not know who (or which country) was attacking, whether there would be more attacks, what military plans had been taken, what military actions should be taken—indeed, he knew virtually nothing about what was going on outside the room. He just sat there. Bush later recalled: “There was no time for discussion or anything.” Even stranger, as one newspaper put it, although the nation was under terrorist attack, “for some reason, Secret Service agents not bustle him away.”

Military pilots must have “permission from the White House because only the president has the authority to order a civilian aircraft shot down.” But if retaliatory strikes needed to the authorized, Bush was not available. If one of the planes had to be shot down to save more lives on the ground, Bush was not available. Although several fighters had been dispatched to defend New York City, the pilot of one of the planes flying to catch Flight 175 later noted that it wouldn’t have mattered if he caught up with it, because only Bush could order a shootdown, and Bush could not be reached in the classroom.

<asnip>

The Photo-Op Goes On

After Card told Bush about the second plane and quickly left, the classroom was silent for about 30 seconds or so. The children were about to take turns reading from a story called The Pet Goat. Bush picked up the book and began to read with the children. In unison, the children read out loud, “The—Pet—Goat. A—girl—got—a—pet—goat. But—the—goat—did—some—things—that—made—the—girl’s—dad—mad.” Bush mostly listened, but occasionally asked the children a few questions to encourage them. At one point he said, “Really good readers, whew! ... These must be sixth-graders!”

Who was really in control? Certainly not Bush. In the back of the room, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer caught Bush’s eye and held up a pad of paper for him to see, with “DON’T SAY ANYTHING YET” written on it in big block letters. Some person or people had overruled the security who wanted Bush evacuated immediately, even as Vice President Cheney was taken from his White House office to a safe location. Bush’s security overruled Bush on security matters later in the day on Air Force One, but who overruled them that morning?

(on eidt: original DU thread on missing goat by sabra: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2061702)