If it were not so sad...

Definitely illustrative of something, is this newly-released transcript from the 9/11 tapes:

'"A young man answering the phone at a police desk near the ground floor is nonchalant about a plane hitting the building.

"It will affect new paperwork. . . . Only the paperwork," he says.

A woman asks him, "It's a big plane or a little plane?"

"Gotta be small," he says.

Seconds later, the second plane hits and, with the shock wave passing through the structure, he changes his tune: "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa -- that didn't feel good." '

Hopefully these tapes will highlight the lack of response (one emergency caller was told "Do not evacuate") from public officials. As we now know, GWB was raced off to AF1 and stayed seven miles high until it was safe to come down. Meanwhile his spin doctors were already working to pin the blame on Saddam Hussein.