January 4, 2002

8:39 AM

Lynne Cheney says husband not hurt by stresses of 9/11This developing story via Drudge makes an important slip! Note that there had been some speculation as to what had happened on flight 93, the hijacked plane over Pa that crashed when the passengers rushed the terrorists. Aside from some reports that there had been an explosion first, a later story noted that the FBI would not release the black box because it would be "emoitionally disturbing." But Lynne notes the anxiety felt by the White House of having to "shoot down ANOTHER plane." What does that mean?
posted by Postroad (11 comments total)

"to order any additional hijacked planes to be shot down"

I think that you misread the quote. It is more likely that if there were any additional planes hijacked then the order would have to be made.
posted by smcniven at 8:46 AM on January 4, 2002

where in the article does it say "shoot down another plane"??
The closest thing I can find is "...to order any additional hijacked planes to be shot down", which is definitelly not the same as what you posted, and carries a different meaning.
posted by oneiros at 8:49 AM on January 4, 2002

And it's not a quote from Cheney -- it's Drudge's writing:

Referring to the difficult decision that faced President' Bush on whether to order any additional hijacked planes to be shot down, Cheney said: 'It was a difficult choice, but, of course, it was perfectly right to save thousands of lives, and I just thank God it didn't have to be really made.'"

This kind of seems like a stillborn FPP.
posted by Mid at 8:54 AM on January 4, 2002

i think what it means is that Drudge is a moron. But that's just me.
posted by zoopraxiscope at 9:13 AM on January 4, 2002

The decision faced by the Bush White House -- whether to shoot down a hijacked plane if more were found after the original four planes.
posted by rcade at 9:18 AM on January 4, 2002

Matt Drudge's site provides useful links (I especially appreciate newspaper sites from around the globe), but once he puts ink to his own quill, I stop paying attention.
posted by glennie at 9:39 AM on January 4, 2002

No slip. Just unclear, inarticulate writing.
posted by chipr at 11:45 AM on January 4, 2002

Actually, chipr, I propose that it's not unclear nor inarticulate.

Rcade correctly states the proposition: there are four hijacked planes that we know of and we're grounding the rest of the planes. This will leave any other hijacked planes in the air.

If any other plane is in the air, this will be in addition to the 4 we know of that were hijacked. Shoot any of them down.

Clear and concise, really.
posted by swerdloff at 2:17 PM on January 4, 2002

It's times like this that I think back to early Drudge, when he was posting movie-business gossip on Usenet, and wrote after seeing a Waterworld preview: "The most important movie ever made!" Something about wandering around the city seeing all the colors of the sky anew and just overwhelmed by it all. I mean, in WW, your own urine is precious -- just think of it!

I'd link but Google groups is actually down.
posted by dhartung at 2:28 PM on January 4, 2002

Here is the link that dhartung was looking for:

Drudge waxes rhapsodic about Waterworld
posted by obfusciatrist at 3:16 PM on January 4, 2002

Yup, that's the one, which I think I combined with this one. There are even replies saying he's losing it ...
posted by dhartung at 5:43 PM on January 4, 2002