Not sure how best to say this...

Yes it is satire. But I wouldn't be surprised if it is in fact true.

And no Walt it was not designed to make DU look bad.... if you knew me you would realise that I love this place. LOVE IT TO BITS.

It is just that the official story doesn't make any sense and the reaction to this report kind of indicates why in a myriad of ways.

Why wasn't the President notified?

If 30,000 people are being scared shitless and the nation's capitol closed down and his own wife is in mortal danger - why would they not interrupt his bike ride?

There is no adequate explanation for this. And this is by far the best one.

I posted some speculation about this in a couple of other threads with discussion (which someone might like to find - I will provide a chocolate fish) but nobody was paying attention.

So I thought I would try satire.

So Sorry everybody... I didn't mean to alarm anyone.

come across as satire and that's why it was locked. We have lots of Newbies on DU and they may not get stuff. I'm an oldie and if I'd seen what you posted I might have taken it seriously, too. :D

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& therefore it sort of misses out. So perhaps it is flame bait. I wasn't aware of the technical definition.

not cool at all.

on edit: not that i believed you. but you really could have notified somebody of it being satire in the thread.

The polite thing would have been to put it just like you did and then at the end tell us it was satire. I can't imagine how much time and anger were wasted by poeple trying to confirm and others venting.

BTW, it wasn't even very good as satire.

it wasn't even good satire.

Will have some entertainment tonight at our expense.
What a jerk.

ends do NOT justify means, dude. If no one's paying attention (I noticed quite a few responses to your other thread(s) - so not sure just how much you need to feel satisfied) ... try writing a different way.

Engaging in the same sort of misdirection as we so ... dislike in the Bush Administration is just so ... beneath you. I'm surprised.

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People would take this this badly....

Mea culpa mea maxima culpa.

In my defence... while it was satire. It is not satire of the "funny" kind. It is satire to make a point.

People jumped to beleive the story because it makes a curious kind of sense. While the official story makes no sense. And to be frank... just because Scott McLellan doesn't say something doesn't mean it isn't true.

And they had their own forum of DU. One that they laughed and made fun of everyone.
I can't believe you would provide them something to belittle what we try to accomplish here on a silver platter.
What about the news pundits who peruse our site?
This shit will probably end up on the blog spot on "Connected" as one of those stupid internet conspiracy theories.
Our credibility rating just dropped from your "practical joke".
Hope it was worth it to you.

And still sorry..

That said. If stupid internet conspiracy theories are what you are worried about then this one doesn't even hold a candle to many of the good ones that feature around here on an hourly basis.

And on the issue of gullibility. Aren't we being gullible if we accept the original explanation on this? Why wasn't the president notified? There is still no adequate explanation to this question.

but I'd rather be taken by someone that I didn't trust than by someone I did.
My panties are in a slight wad now--it may take a few hours to get them out.
Cause like the poster below me, I told someone else as well to prove a point.
It'll be all better later, but right now I am gonna pout.

should have been posted in the lounge,

that its satire.

:sarcasm: >> is our sarcasm icon, you can throw that in.

Its just hard to distinguish author intent on a website like this. All you have is the black and white text.

But you raise a valid point in that thread.

Why the hell wasn't Bush notified?

Apparently your satirical explaination made more sense than "The president didn't need to be notified".

We sometimes take for granted that what we read in the DU is the truth. This is especially true when what we read reinforces our own beliefs.

but some sort of spoof, or what would be NICE to be 'Breaking News'...I never believed it to be true and NO link??? I say you are correct...that could be the 'Breaking News' is Rove thought the fact that bush** was not notified became a problem....REMEMBER WHEN IT WAS REPORTED AF1 WAS THREATENED IN BRITISH AIR SPACE?

Still sorry though.

Very very very very very Sorry..

relax . . .

if it doesn't make the news - so what
if it does, half the RW ignoramouses will believe it - GOOD

this is a small closed society that 99.9999999% of america never hears about

I might also add I called you on it by post #2... but apparently not harsh enough for others understand I was challenging your creditability. Thats always a hard thing to do around here esp when it involves folks that have been here longer than I.

This too will pass....

MZr7

edit: No harm done. Thanks for being honest.

Period.

and all that you have done for the cause will understand that you meant no harm. As for the rest, they can go stick it where the sun don't shine.

Don't let it bother you, it's not worth it and most of us know you're a good guy.

Still sorry though....

I must admit I was a bit shocked at the reactions... and at how fast they came in. I sort of thought someone would notice my earlier posts.... (I still have choc fish to give out) which would have shown the truth had someone linked to em.

and didn't care for his post opens me and many other members of this board up to an insult from you.

Sorry, next time someone annoys me I will spend a few hours researching every single post they have made so I will know that they are a good person and I should not be offended.

for example, I would be surprised if some with a 1000+ posts and a star wouldn't be familiar with Will Pitt. In my opinion althecat is in the same league. It is ashame that you are unfamiliar with his work. Here's his website http://www.scoop.co.nz/news/scoops.html.

Which is that if some of us don't like beiong jerked around by a stupid prank post, we can stick it because it was done by a better DUer liberal than the rest of us.

Frankly the elitist bullshit around here is un fucking real sometimes.

... any elitist strutting fest. That's not what DU is about. And I am sure is not what Doyoueverwonder meant.

I wouldn't expect any special treatment because some people know me. That said I kinda thought someone who did know me might have guessed a bit quicker. That they didn't is probably evidence that I am not actually that well known/elite :)

Plus I despise that crap as much as you do... and hope you accept my apology as it is truly meant... I really did miscalculate the level of annoyance it would cause.

That said it wasn't purely a bit of fun as I have been trying to explain.

The bottom line purpose of the post was to alert people to the fact that they are being lied to about this incident. I don't think people should swallow this sort of bullshit.

The exercise scenario is just one of many possibilities... but the official explanation is a crock in so far as we are aware of it's detail thus far.

And in that context my efforts in misinformation were a bit of a poke at the other misinformation.

I read this post about an hour ago and have been smiling on the inside ever since. Even told my wife.

She told me it was a wonder my head could fit through the dining room door. Being compared to Will is truly an honour as he is a hero of mine.

So thankyou for your efforts in my defence, and sorry they seem to have got you a bit offside with this other poster. As I have been at pains to point out there was a bit of a miscalculation involved in all this on my part.

The silver lining is all the nice people like yourself helping me make good my misdeeds.

al

There's a big difference, and if you don't grok the difference, you shouldn't be screwing around with things like this. And yes, let me admit it, I'm a little bit pissed because I was taken in. The fact is, the Bushies have gotten away with things at least this incredible (the plastic turkey comes to mind), so there was no particular reason to disbelieve you. As it happens, I told someone else about this & will now have to admit that I was taken in. If the story were really outre', I'd admit I deserved the egg on my face, but in these times, this is not an outre' story at all, so I'm not so much angry at myself for being a sucker as I am angry at you for suckering me. As a result of your little "joke," I will never again trust your posts, and someone else will never again fully trust me. Thanks, sh!thead.

no link was provided. One must admit that the Bush Junta is capable of such a thing. It should teach us all to stay alert and question everything.

This is why I wrote it.

While I am sorry I still think it might be true. And so it was not a hoax..

If anything it was a sort of satirical/hoax/fake news hybrid - with a point.

"BREAKING NEWS: D.C. Small Plane Incident Was An Exercise - Scott McLellan


Just heard on C-Span ..."

I don't think it was obvious to someone who simply didn't expect a known poster to grossly misuse GD in this way. It's a violation of an implicit trust.

Sorry JR I hope your friend doesn't give you too much shit.

Anyway, in retrospect I think I overreacted, so maybe I should not only accept your apology but tender one of my own. These times are making us all a little crazy.

:toast:

Satire by him with many thumbs is not a pretty thing.

They just leave him alone, let him play his gameboy while they do all the work and make all the decisions. He's completely out of the loop. He just has to listen to his earpiece for press conferences and that's about it.

because it's such an outrages claim - but we are all so used to the abuse of this administration that some accepted it as true or even possible.

and thought "Heh?" :wtf: THEN I found the locked thread sinking into oblivion. Got as far as "*was the only one who knew" and had to grab my sides in a failed attempt to control the convulsions, then grab a tissue to dry my eyes enough to see. You're VERY NAUGHTY Althecat! :spank:

DON'T YOU REALIZE YET WE'RE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS ON BAD ACID AND

SATIRE IS FUCKING DEAD????? (See: John Cleese and the parrot)

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Don't do it again!:)

meeting and then play it off as if he didn't need to know anything while having a fun bike ride.

Y'all did know that they have to change his batteries every 100,000 miles right? :crazy:

of the actor Orson Welles broadcast on the radio in the 30's I believe (my Dad tells this story )-- saying that the US had been invaded by Martians. People all over the east coast went into a panic. Orson Welles didn't adequately make clear that it was a story:
-------------
At precisely 8 p.m., a CBS announcer welcomed the audience of about a million to the Mercury Theatre production of ''War of the Worlds.'' A Latin dance band swung into action only to be interrupted by a series of chilling bulletins: Alarming atmospheric disturbances had been observed on Mars; ''a huge, flaming object'' believed to be a meteorite had fallen on a farm in Grover's Mill. A roving ''reporter'' described the aliens' emergence: ''Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed. . . . Someone's crawling out of the hollow top. . . . There, I can see the thing's body. It's as large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face. It . . . it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it.''

Listeners who switched over from other programs sat by their radios stunned; without hearing the introduction, many took the urgent reports as God's truth. As the drama continued, they were told that hideous invaders had wiped out the New Jersey militia, the Army and the Air Force; that President Roosevelt had declared a national emergency; that New York City had been taken over by aliens as tall as skyscrapers. Though members of the audience, which rapidly swelled to 6 million, were assured four times by an announcer that they were listening to a work of fiction -- and though Welles stated in an epilogue that ''((This was)) the Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and saying 'Boo!' '' -- about a million people missed the message.

By all accounts, Welles was shocked by the panic that ensued. ''He hadn't the faintest idea what the effect would be,'' says Houseman. CBS was inundated with calls; newspaper switchboards were jammed. Hysterical mobs took to the streets in New York and northern New Jersey. It was reported that only a husband's intervention saved a Pittsburgh woman who tried to poison herself rather than die at the hands of Martians. Welles himself later told the story -- perhaps apocryphal -- that the actor John Barrymore was drunk when he heard the broadcast and, convinced the world was coming to an end, ran into his backyard and threw open the door to the doghouse where his two Great Danes were kept. ''Fend for yourselves!'' he was said to have thundered.

Henry Sears, a carpenter whose parents owned an inn and tavern near Grover's Mill, remembers the scene as one of bitter confusion. ''I was sitting upstairs over the bar doing my homework and listening to the radio,'' says Sears, then a teenager, now 63. ''And all of a sudden come this break -- a news flash -- that the Martians had landed . . . at Grover's Mill. I listened again and kept hearing some more, then I unplugged the radio and took it down to the bar. There were about eight or so local customers, most of them farmers. I made them stop their checkers games, and I asked them to please listen to this. I was impressionable and believed what I heard, and so did everyone else.

''One man, Sam Dye, owned a bar. He said, 'Gawl darn, I'm going to get my shotgun, and we're going to get those Martians.' Everyone got their guns and came back. I had my .10-gauge shotgun, and we had an entourage of autos all heading toward Grover's Mill. We didn't much know what we were going to see, but we knew we were bound to see something. We got right up close to the lake, and everybody was milling around and getting excited. I can tell you, people were upset and aggravated, and some of them were disgusted. I think it was a mixed mood."

--from a story in People Weekly on the 50th anniversary of the Martian "invasion"
------------------------

(better use winking smilies in future, althecat. You did take me in for a few minutes...it is all too plausible. LOL --
But am not angry. Intereesting... :) :7 :D we're kinda jumpy (well better that than comatose and unresponsive I guess)

I admit it. You got me. You got me GOOD.

What is truly terrifying about the whole affair is that the "press conference" actually sounded just plausible enough to be worth responding to. At any rate, it didn't sound any more surreal than any of the legitimate ones.

For the record, I was leaning toward the theory that the "exercise" was Bush**co's lame-ass attempt to cover for the Pretzeldunce not being notified, rather than that they would actually have done such a thing, but still... :scared:

There was no need. Plans have already been made to shoot someone down at a certain point. The fact that it will land on helpless civilians is apparently not a major concern.

IMO, this just gives Bush a "plausible denial of guilt or responsibility" if they shoot down a non-threatening plane.

Hey, Look how many people you fooled right? You have a great satire writing ability. I even thought for a second that it was real, until I let it sink in for a few minutes and realized it was obviously satire.

The funniest thing was that there was even a post saying "yes, I knew it, I said it and once I find the post I'll prove it!" LOL

So you definitely had some truly convinced, and for that I give you kudos, as not many people could write something that creative and convincing off the top of their head. :)

:hi:

You lost a lot of credibility by pulling this stunt. Hope it was worth it.

"fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me, we can't get fooled again."


Pretty much sums up this whole thing to me.