Thursday, August 16, 2012

"The printer's jammed and the secretary's out sick..."

"...and the press pool's blind with fright..."

Biden is touting his boss's combat experience again...

You should have seen Barack (call sign "POTUS") fast-roping out of that Pave Hawk with a knife in his teeth!

Y'know, Dubya's "Mission Accomplished" stroll across the deck of CVN-72 in his nomex poopie suit may have made for an easy target for pundits to mock, but at least he flew the plane a little bit on the way there.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was a Stealth Hawk! =D

Randy said...

If ever I agreed with him about his famous line this is it: “Bin Laden, you didn’t kill him”.

Woodman said...

We had a guy who used to fast rope with a knife in his teeth.

Called him Topless Tim at the Funeral.

perlhaqr said...

Randy: "Someone else made that happen."

:D

og said...

Dubya landed the plane there, he didn't just fly it. Landing on an aircraft carrier is, oddly enough, somewhat more difficult than sitting in your comfy chair in the oval office and saying "OK".

Tamara (remotely) said...

og,

"Dubya landed the plane there"

Highly doubtful, if not actually physically impossible.

Yes, Dubya had flown ANG jet fighters from concrete runways decades earlier, but that doesn't in any way qualify him to make a carrier landing.

Just 'cause some '60s-era driver takes the wheel of the pace car for lap around Indy doesn't mean they have the skillz to put a new car on the grid.

Panamared said...

Even if you believe that W used his influence to avoid service in Vietnam, his service in the National Guards, is more service to this country than the empty suit occupying the oval office, including his time in office. At that he did not claim any bravery on his part, in sending troops into harms way.

rickn8or said...

Yes Tam, in the S-3, only the guy in the left front seat drove. The guy in the right front seat navi-guessed and worked with the guys in the back seats to find and kill submarines.
Not a whole lot of seat-swapping in flight.

Sport Pilot said...

Most of the folk's that I know who have either been shot at or shot at somone don't talk about it. Why somone would take credit for something where other's put their live's on the line is odd. I was taught to alway's give credit to other's and steer away from bragging.

Woodman said...

Sport Pilot, in politics there is a necessity to talk about it, otherwise other people will.

Always giving credit to others can be as damaging as always taking credit.

Moderation in all things, including moderation.

Will said...

GW's detractors generally ignored the fact he was a fighter pilot, and that his mount was considered a hazardous plane to fly. IIRC, it had the highest loss rate of its type.
They don't select dummies for fighter pilots.
Not one of our better presidents, unfortunately.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Better than the one we have.

Scott J said...

Only in the same sense that a Hi Point is better than a rock as a self defense weapon, Fuzzy.

Anonymous said...

Scott, great analogy!

Bubblehead Les. said...

Funny. Notice how Biden said "WE" before he "corrected his misspoken comment" and gave credit to his boss.

Guess designating the Drone Target Packaging isn't good enough for Joe.

Critter said...

i like Joe. we need to keep him around as a mascot or something after the election.

Ritchie said...

Post title, what's the reference? Not quite Industrial Disease, but keep working on it.

Tamara (remotely) said...

Ritchie,

"The Gatling's jammed and the colonel's dead and the regiment's blind with fright..." from Henry Newbolt's "Vitaï Lampada".

Tamara (remotely) said...

...er, "blind with dust and fear".

Stupid memory! :o

Old NFO said...

Meh... I'm just ignoring Joe Bite Me...

Joe in PNG said...

I'm beginning to see the brilliance of the Biden VP choice. They found the only guy more gaff prone than "58 states corpseman" Obama.

Anonymous said...

Pro-Obama bumper sticker here in Ohio, "GM's alive, bin Laden's dead. Any questions."

Well, a few...

OldeForce

Stuart the Viking said...

So let's follow O's train of thought.

He says: "You didn't build that" because there was all sorts of (presumably government-funded) stuff that helped you build it.

He is basically saying: "I killed bin Laden" When it was the brave men of our armed forces that did that deed.

So isn't it a natural progression to extrapolate that "O" thinks the HE built all those businesses, and that HE should be getting the credit for "building that"?

s

og said...

"Highly doubtful, if not actually physically impossible"

I clearly remember a radio interview with the NFO on that flight, on a local radio station. W flew front seat on that trip, and the NFO kept his hands on the controls, but said W not only put the plane on the deck but stuck it. He may have just been being gracious, but from my limited experience NFO's are nothing if not brutally honest about what they do. I don't have a cite, just my recollection.

Tam said...

Here's a transcript of an interview with CDR Lussier on CNN.

Tam said...

(I love the anchor smugly saying "The president just did look a little wobbly when he came off the plane, though." Lady, he just made his first carrier landing. I get a little wobbly just watching video of carrier landings.)

Justthisguy said...

And the Gatling's jammed.

Anonymous said...

I recall doing a fun graphic of that very thing, some time ago:

http://www.artofthehammer.com/fal_web/team_obama.jpg

Justthisguy said...

If he got both trapped and cat-shot, he is entitled to be a full member of the Tailhook Association. The perks of that aren't what they used to be before that little scandal a few years ago, alas.

og said...

"Here's a transcript of an interview with CDR Lussier on CNN."

Yeah, I ran across that looking for the transcript of the interview I remember.

The morning hosts on the local radio station have a son, Hunter Wade, a Marine who flew with the Blue Angels in 2000,still on active duty IIRC. The hosts have also flown backseat with the Angls in several Chicago airshows. The conversation with Lussier was therefore very inside baseball, and he was pretty talkative. I tend personally to buy that interview more than anything on CNN, but that's just me. Even if none of that is the case, the F102 is still a damned difficult machine to fly, I remember doing some research on it after the Bill Whittle piece, and I'm surprised anyone can keep one of those bastards in the air. The Hornet must have been a dream by comparison. But don't firget, Bush was DUM!!!

anyway, thanks for the diversion down another memory hole.

Tam said...

Navy One is apparently on display now in Pensacola...

og said...

Sweet!! Very cool.

wrm said...

Newbolt eh? Reminded me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's F#A#