The Bush Betrayal: Chapter 2

We continue coverage of this awesome book with another small sample:

        Chapter Title: 9/11: Canonization and Coverup
Section Heading: The Window of Gullibility

The surge in trust boosted people's opinion of almost every government agency. A Gallup Poll shortly after the attacks found that, compared to one year earlier, the number of people who favorably viewed the IRS rose from 44 percent to 63 percent.¹⁶ The number who approved of the Security and Exchange Commission spurted 18 points, from 53 percent to 71 percent. The only federal agency with a significant fall in approval was the Federal Aviation Administration, declining from 58 percent to 54 percent. This raises the question: How many planes would have to be hijacked before public faith in the FAA fell below 50 percent? American Demographics magazine summed up the pro-government poll results: "Today, love of country seems to have expanded into love of government."¹⁷
. . .
The president's team relished Bush's glory. When Bush went to New York City to throw out the first ball of Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, the crowd went wild. Biographer Bob Woodward noted, "Watching from owner George Steinbrenner's box, Karl Rove thought, It's like being at a Nazi rally."²⁵

Footnotes without a direct link:
  25. Woodward, Bush at War, 277.

I think people are starting to see how and why Bush used 9/11 for his political gain without any regard for what was actually good for America. Bovard does well here to show the fallacy of trusting government officials just because they're public servants. Not sure if that's just a Bovard thing or something that stems from the Libertarian philosophy.

I definitely like how Bovard is extremely skeptical of all government policies. That should be the norm for all citizens, but it's not - at least, not for Bush supporters. Bovard also does well to show how trust in the government went up dramatically after 9/11. People wanted to believe their government was trustworthy, so they did, regardless of reality continually slapping them in the face. Bush took advantage of a lot of people. Even today, regardless of facts, in spite of them, Bush still has his supporters - a lot of them, in fact. I don't understand that slavish mentality.

UPDATE: I decided that I just had to add one more quick section from this chapter. Flight 93 is the plane that went down in the Pennsylvania on it way towards DC. It's the flight being addressed in this next excerpt:

Section Heading: 9/11 PIETY

The FBI has refused to release the tapes of the cockpit recorder that would include the last travails on the flight. The final three minutes of the flight recorder have mysteriously vanished.³⁷ The government has the black box with key information about the crash but claims that it must avoid disclosing its contents because of national security. (The Justice Department initially claimed that it must keep the black box secret to save the information for revelation at the trial of Zaccarias Moussaoui, the alleged twentieth hijacker.) Some peoploe have speculated that a U.S. jet show down the plane after the people on board captured control from the hijackers.³⁸ Vice President Richard Cheney gave orders to shot down Flight 93 at a time when it was 80 miles -- barely 15 minutes -- from Washington.³⁹ According to the Bush administration, the plane crashed before it could be shot down.

Granted, I'm a huge conspiracy theorist - I actually do believe that more than one person was involved in the 9/11 hijackings. The 'magic hijacker theory' - the one that posits that a lone hijacker was responsible for crashing three airplanes - just doesn't 'fly' with me. But at some point I'm hoping the other half of the country will wake up from their Nazi-like sleepwalking state and realize that they've been had. Actually, I suspect many of them know they've been had and just don't want to admit it. I wouldn't want to admit it, but I would - for the greater good.

Now, check out some more from footnotes 37 and 38, above. Vernon Grose, a former National Transportation Safety Board member who says he still has questions about the Flight 93 crash, is quoted in the story. One of the biggest problems is that the FBI won't release evidence on the crash/shootdown - the black box recording, for instance.

In fact, the subtitle of this article is Cockpit voice recording ends before Flight 93's official time of impact. Three minutes. That's how much time is missing from the flight data recorder. Three minutes. And not just any three minutes - the final three minutes. It's apparent to me that the hijackers had been overtaken by the passengers, and the passengers were attempting to get the plane back in the air, but the military jet shot down the passenger airliner - not too popular for Bush/Cheney if this came to light. No wars, no reelection, etc.

Did you just do a huh? But you shouldn't be surprised. Our government covers stuff up all the time - mainly to benefit the people in power - to cover their illegal, or incompetent tracks - or to just prevent them from taking a political hit. To deny our government engages in all sorts of covert activities both here and abroad is to deny reality - which could make you a card-carrying member of the non-reality-based community.

Check out the end of the article referenced:

But the three-minute gap is certain to fuel ongoing debates on the Internet over how Flight 93 really crashed, and whether the plane could have been shot down by military jet fighters that were sent aloft as the Sept. 11 hijackings unfolded. The government insists there was no shootdown.

Numerous witnesses in the Shanksville area have told the Daily News and other publications since last September that a mysterious, low-flying unmarked white jet, military in nature, circled the area at the time of the crash. The FBI has claimed this was a business jet that had been asked by air-traffic controllers to inspect the Flight 93 crater.

The debate has also been driven by the wide debris field from Flight 93 - including papers found eight miles away - and by conflicting accounts over whether a 911 caller reported an explosion and white smoke on board.

Grose, the former NTSB member, said he doubts the entire story of Flight 93 will ever be told.

"I don't think so," he said. "It's like David Crockett at the Alamo. We need heroes."

Link to original article (and Chapter 1 - Introduction) here.

Chapter 3.