COMMENT: With the budget talks coming down to the wire and growing [predictably] more acrimonious, it is worth noting the number of small planes that have intruded into Camp David air space–5 in one month. All apparently did so while Obama was at the retreat.
This is reminiscent of a number of “high, hard ones”–a baseball reference–that narrowly missed Bill Clinton’s chin while he was batting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The phenomenon also brings to mind the mortality discussed in FTR #742 [1].
Is this a form of sub-rosa political dialogue, analogous to the horsehead-in-the-bed gambit from the movie The Godfather?
“Fighter Jets Intercept Third Plane Near Camp David” [Reuters]; yahoo.com; 7/10/2011. [2]
EXCERPT: Fighter jets intercepted a private plane near Camp David on Sunday, the third civilian plane this weekend to fly the restricted air space while President Barack Obama was at the Maryland retreat.
In all three cases, the planes were met by F‑15 fighter jets and landed without incident at nearby airports, North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis told Reuters.
Following two incidents on Saturday, a Cessna 182 that was out of radio communication was intercepted on Sunday morning by two fighter jets.
The plane landed at the Carroll County Regional Airport in Maryland. Lewis did not know if the plane was met by law enforcement but said that typically occurs in such cases.
The incident marked the fifth time in a month that fighter jets have scrambled to guide civilian planes away from the area while Obama was at the presidential retreat. . . .
COMMENT: Also reminiscent of the Clinton years is the cascade of violent, openly seditious rhetoric being dispensed by the GOP and its right-wing allies.
The NewsMax site recently featured an editorial calling–in effect–for a military coup to overthrow Obama. This recalls Senator Jesse Helms’ statement that Clinton would be in danger if he visited military bases in North Carolina.
EXCERPT: In a column posted yesterday at the conservative website NewsMax, John L. Perry wrote that a military coup “to resolve the ‘Obama problem’ ” is not “unrealistic.”
Newsmax appears to have taken down the column for its website, but it’s been archived at Media Matters for America:
Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a “family intervention,” with some form of limited, shared responsibility?
Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.
Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.
While it might be tempting to dismiss Perry as part of the far-right fringe, his credentials suggest otherwise. According to his NewsMax biography, Perry holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and has worked as an editor or reporter for several daily newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times and the Clearwater Sun. . . .