George W. Bush's elastic time sense

[BurtWorm]

Einstein famously explained his theory of relativity by comparing how long 5 seconds is when a) you're looking at a beautiful woman or b) you have your hand on a hot stove.

George W. Bush has a similarly elastic sense of time. Some things require immediate attention (naming John Roberts to replace William Renquist) and others require some time to eventually get around to attending to (the destruction of New Orleans, for example).

Here are some comparisons to demonstrate Bush's time sense:

Getting out of going to Vietnam (immediate attention); completing one's tour of duty in the National Guard (taking as long as he wants).

Deciding whether a prisoner on Texas's death row lives or dies (15 minutes to "decide"); bringing Osama bin Laden to justice for 9/11/01 (going on four years).

Maturing into a "responsible adult" (40 years--allegedly); deciding to make a joke about his irresponsible youth upon landing in a devastated New Orleans (seconds).

Deciding to get up and deal with the news that the World Trade Towers had each been struck by an airliner (anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes); deciding that Saddam had not made sufficient efforts to avert an invasion by the US (decided before even winning the Republican nomination for President in 2000).

[trotsky]

1. EXCELLENT.

Nice post, BurtWorm.

[BurtWorm]

2. Thank you, Trotsky/

:hi:

[BurtWorm]

3. Instructive to reread "An Interesting Day"

to get a feeling for Bush's time sense.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.html






An Interesting Day:
President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11


By Allan Wood and Paul Thompson
May 9, 2003


"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11




Both images taken at 9:03 a.m.: Bush takes part in a meaningless photo-op, knowing full well the US is already under attack.



At approximately 8:48 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2001, the first pictures of the burning World Trade Center were broadcast on live television. The news anchors, reporters, and viewers had little idea what had happened in lower Manhattan, but there were some people who did know. By that time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon, the White House, the Secret Service, and Canada's Strategic Command all knew that three commercial airplanes had been hijacked. They knew that one plane had been flown deliberately into the World Trade Center's North Tower; a second plane was wildly off course and also heading toward Manhattan; and a third plane had abruptly turned around over Ohio and was flying back toward Washington, DC.

So why, at 9:03 a.m. - fifteen minutes after it was clear the United States was under terrorist attack - did President Bush sit down with a classroom of second-graders and begin a 20-minute pre-planned photo op? No one knows the answer to that question. In fact, no one has even asked Bush about it.

Bush's actions on September 11 have been the subject of lively debate, mostly on the internet. Details reported that day and in the week after the attacks - both the media reports and accounts given by Bush himself - have changed radically over the past 18 months. Culling hundreds of reports from newspapers, magazines, and the internet has only made finding the "truth" of what happened and when it happened more confusing. In the changed political climate after 9/11, few have dared raise challenging questions about Bush's actions. A journalist who said Bush was "flying around the country like a scared child, seeking refuge in his mother's bed after having a nightmare" and another who said Bush "skedaddled" were fired. We should have a concise record of where President Bush was throughout the day the US was attacked, but we do not.

[BurtWorm]

4. Kick

[BurtWorm]

5. kick