The Bush Pilot

If we didn't see it, we read about it. Last Friday, the Resident took a ride on a Navy S-3B Viking jet and gave a campaign speech on the deck of the USS Lincoln. We were told by the White House that he had to fly in a jet and not a helicopter because the ship was too far from shore. Well, it seems the ship was about 30 miles from San Diego, which is well within helicopter range. So, the White House has changed their explanation. It now appears, according to that font of truth Ari Fleischer, that Bush wanted, "to see an aircraft landing the same way that the pilots saw an aircraft landing. He wanted to see it as realistically as possible." So it was a taxpayer joyride, not a necessity. To further reinforce the field trip aspect:

Bush's televised landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, for which the president wore a flight suit and a helmet and took underwater survival training in the White House swimming pool, was the dramatic start to a visit to the carrier that included an air show and a televised speech to the nation.

He got to play dress up, go swimming in his clothes and see an air show! I wish I could be the fucking Resident too! And why, you might ask, was the ship so close to land?

Fleischer said the carrier had come hundreds of miles closer to shore than expected because of the weather.

So, a ship the size of the Empire State building lying on it's side was hundred's of miles closer to land because of a tail-wind? Funny, I didn't think this was the Age of Sail anymore. I thought the giant house-sized diesel engines pushed it along, and that the same military technology that allowed us to bomb a specific room in al-Jazeera's broadcast headquarters would enable us to figure out where a 1000 foot ship was on the ocean, AND it's distance from land. Silly me!

In other developments, Salam Pax has emerged safely from the bombing and occupation of Baghdad, and Christopher Allbritton is back from his Iraqi expedition, has posted an epilogue to his travels and is calling for comments.