Worth noting: Tony Snow's Snide Disrespectful Treatment of Helen Thomas + more 9/11 CoverUps

Mentioned in Froomkin's White House Briefing at WaPo, here's the original snippet from Saul Friedman's piece today about the role/influence of Bush's evangelical fundamentalism in the current foreign policy fiascos. Appears in Nieman Watchdog: Questions the Press Should Ask:

While I have your attention, let me recall the White House press made no protest at the regular briefing when Press Secretary Tony Snow, who was a flack for Bush when he worked for Fox News, casually tossed a gratuitous insult at Helen Thomas, who was pressing him on why the administration didn't favor a cease fire to save lives.

She pointed out, correctly, that the U.S. was perceived to have endorsed "collective punishment," against Lebanon and Palestine. His reply: "Well thank you for the Hezbollah view." Then he misinformed reporters by claiming the G8 meeting had endorsed the American position.

Not since the Vietnam war when an American official asked the press, "Which side are you on," have I heard a presidential flack insult and impugn a reporter's integrity for asking a legitimate question. Never in my dozen or so years asking tough questions of Larry Speakes, Marlin Fitzwater, Mike McCurry and even Ron Ziegler during Watergate, did I hear such a snide insult.

Helen Thomas could teach Snow about integrity and manners. Helen's roots are Lebanese, but as the longtime White House reporter for UPI, she would grit her teeth as she listened to the likes of Menachim Begin and Itzakh Shamir, ask a couple of provocative questions, then write a clean, straight account of what they had to say.

Jeers to Tony Snow, again, and the brain-dead cadre of greedy bastards he represents. Arrogance, hubris, condescending know-it-alls. Anyone out there ready for a change?

And, don't miss the riveting Vanity Fair article by MICHAEL BRONNER with accompanying audio clips in "9/11 Live: The Norad Tapes" -- in case you weren't convinced this administration was worse than inept, this should cause all doubt to end. You know that saying about 'the right hand not know what the left hand is doing?' It's truly worse than that, including a deliberate coverup afterwards.

In his bunker under the White House, Vice President Cheney was not notified about United 93 until 10:02 -- only one minute before the airliner impacted the ground. Yet it was with dark bravado that the vice president and others in the Bush administration would later recount sober deliberations about the prospect of shooting down United 93. ...

President Bush would finally grant commanders the authority to give that order at 10:18, which -- though no one knew it at the time -- was 15 minutes after the attack was over.

But comments [about having decided to shoot down United 93] were repeated by other administration and military figures in the weeks and months following 9/11.... The recordings tell a different story... because United 93 had crashed before anyone in the military chain of command even knew it had been hijacked.

...
As the tapes reveal in stark detail, parts of [the] testimony were misleading, and others simply false.