What a way to cap off 100 days in office, huh?

Using military resources for a cheap photo-op. Scaring the pants off the public. Exploiting 9/11 imagery for self-aggrandizement. Keeping secrets and causing mass panic.

Um, can you imagine if a GOP administration did this?

Can you imagine?!

Here is what President Obama said about Louis Caldera, the head of the White House Military Office, who conducted this disastrous “mission” when he appointed him:

President-elect Barack Obama announced today that Louis Caldera will serve as Director of the White House Military Office. Caldera brings a lifetime of military and public service to the Military Office, which coordinates all military support for Presidential operations.

“Louis has served his country with distinction in uniform and in government, and his pedigree is second-to-none. I know he’ll bring to the White House the same dedication and integrity that have earned him the highest praise in every post, from Secretary of the Army to university president,” said President-elect Obama.

Stephen Spruiell points to a fun fact left off Caldera’s official bio.

Allahpundit launches the Obama’s next terror photo op contest!

Tmazgal suggests: “Hey maybe the Prez will want to do a photo op with a rental truck in OKC next?”

***

The NYPost calls it “Plane Dumb:”

Workers scrambled out of their office buildings, thinking the worst. Calls to emergency hotlines flooded in. Even Mayor Bloomberg was caught unawares: “I’m annoyed — furious is a better word — that I wasn’t told,” Hizzoner fumed. Terrific.

An FAA spokesman, Jim Peters, defended the event, calling it “a planned, pre-approved military flight over New York to take photos.” He said it was “pre-coordinated with everyone involved, including the city.”

Except that an FAA memo specifically warned officials that if they released information about the flights to the public or the press, they’d be violating the law.

It even cited a specific statute.

The director of the White House Military Office, Louis Caldera, later apologized: “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities . . . it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”

But, hey: These folks don’t just hide information so as to needlessly trigger alarm; it also keeps secrets concerning problems the public clearly needs to know about — like the rate of birds striking planes.

After geese brought Flight 1549 down in the Hudson last January, the FAA refused to release relevant data about such incidents.

Later, the agency relented under pressure, and it turned out that bird collisions at JFK were actually on the rise.

Indeed, Kennedy is America’s most at-risk airport when it comes to bird strikes. La Guardia and Newark are tied for 16th-most-dangerous.

The FAA had long preferred to keep passengers ignorant of these dangers. Better to have people panic, it seems, at the sudden sight of low-flying aircraft over Lower Manhattan.

Someone needs to straighten out these folks — quick.

A better description: “Felony stupidity.”

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