Who's Getting Fired For Today's Manhattan Jet Panic?
I would estimate it's about 45 minutes until Marc Mugnos is fired. Who's Mark Mugnos? He's the director of ops for New York City's "Citywide Event Coordination and Management." And he's the one the federal government told about the low-flying planes and fighter jets over Manhattan today that caused crowds of people to (quite reasonably!) run screaming in a panic. The CECM is a new outfit, formed in 2007, that actually has nothing to do with dealing with the FAA or national security (ALLEGEDLY). They deal with, like, street fairs and parade permits. (And probably, it's his boss that's being fired now. Also? The NYPD also got an email from the FAA yesterday and thought nothing of it.) The very idea that this is the entry portal for information from the federal government probably actually means that New York City and the federal government don't really communicate at all!
With the Special Olympics comment on Leno, the Saudi bow (and the administration's insulting subsequent denials), and now this, Obama's luster is oxidizing at an alarming rate that I don't think anyone, not even Rush Limbaugh, could have predicted.
That said, I don't think Obama was privy to the flight. Whether this was just an oversight or he was purposefully left in the dark is the question. I'm more inclined to believe that the Pentagon, intel — agencies with whom Seymour Hersh states Dick Cheney (Mr. Assassination Squads, Mr. Torture, Mr. Shadow Government, more present to the public now that when he was while in office as he pounds home that Obama is going to allow another terrorist attack) has many "left-behinds" to keep him very much in the loop — purposefully hung Obama out to dry on this one.
These things just don't happen. The Air Force needed to "update it's photo files" of Air Force One?! Are they fucking kidding?! They've got thousands and thousands of photos of the thing, and the damn thing doesn't look any different than it ever did. And why do it 900 feet over lower Manhattan with a fighters on its tail?! Come fucking on!
It looks like Louis Caldera — the White House Military Office Director (former Army Captain, former Secretary of the Army) — will be the one to fall on his sword for this mission. Mugnos probably knew days ago he'd do the same for Bloomberg. These guys know they're nothing more than water-carriers. They done well today.
There's something else, something larger, going on here, and the whole thing seriously. fucking. stinks.
More like cluelessness and acute out-of-touchedness. I fail to see anymore in this than that.
Perhaps a complete lack of foresight and little more than (maybe) someone's favorite 5-Diamond Whore getting a tour of NY and terrorizing its denizens.
But I've been accused of being naive more than once.
Agreed.
You have a really odd sense of which way said luster is going and how it is being tested.
Are you a tinfoil hat crazy person? You actually think there was a conspiracy to fly this mission to embarrass the President? WTF?
p.s. – The F-16s were there to take the photos, obviously.
Did Facebook Connect get enabled?
Socks, 2 pair for a dollar? Check. Soggy funnel cakes, five bucks? Check. 747 with F-16 escort screaming through lower Manhattan? Check.