I hope it was a frickin’ amazing photo:

“The White House plans an inquiry into a low-flying photo shoot by a presidential plane that panicked New Yorkers and cost taxpayers $328,835. President Barack Obama said Tuesday it won’t happen again.

But the origins of the government public relations stunt that went awry remained an engrossing mystery – and a potential political problem for Obama. The White House military office approved the photo-op, which cost $35,000 in fuel alone for the plane and two jet fighter escorts.

[...]

The sight of the huge passenger jet and an F-16 fighter plane whizzing past the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan financial district sent panicked office workers streaming into the streets.

“It was a mistake, as was stated … and it will not happen again,” Obama said.

White House officials did not say why new photos were needed of the plane that is sometimes used as Air Force One – Obama was not aboard the flight – or who the presumed audience of the planned photographs were.”

[source: military.com]

President Obama and Michelle Obama view photos  inside the White House’s private theater.  Hey, are those Crate&Barrel chairs?

[source:  Gawker]

FYI, newsmedia, we are only that many days into Barack Obama’s president. And fyi again: the “first 100 days” is a meaningless marker.

When FDR was inaugurated, he noticed that congress was willing to pass anything he wanted. So he basically made a special 100-day-long “special session.” Thus, for him, this “100 days” thing made logical sense. And plus people did not judge him on those 100 days until they were done with, and everyone had time to evaluate the various programs and bills he introduced.

Ever since, Presidents have been judged on their first 100 days. But this year the country is in so much shit, and our president is so young and cool and popular, that every news organization is falling all over itself to analyze Barry Obama’s first 100 days, even though there hasn’t been a special 100 day special session of congress or anything. And as we mentioned, it has not been 100 days yet. Next week will be terrible. What do the various ancient hacks of the Washington Post think about Obama’s first hundred days compared to the meaningless first 100 days of the presidents they used to cover when they were the best newspaper in the county? Oh good they have vlogs from Woodward and Bradlee about it. GERALD FORD ATE AN ENGLISH MUFFIN IN HIS FIRST 100 DAYS WE DID NOT MAKE THAT FACT UP.

(Barack Obama sort of brought this on himself when he mentioned reading a book about Roosevelt’s legislative marathon, and he even has his own blog about his first 100 days.)

Post-Roosevelt, why did this 100 days thing stick? We don’t judge anything else based on 100 days! Nothing! 30 days, or 90 days, or six months, sure. We will accept that amount of free AOL. And sure, trying to put the actions of a new president into historical context, or evaluating them as a whole, is good and useful, especially in a news environment of constant, never-ending information and a ten-minute news cycle and an audience without the ability to retain memories for more than ten minutes. But when you are liveblogging the first hundred days you are contributing to that, not actually providing useful, coherent analysis.

So here is what Barack Obama has done with his first hundred days:

• Stimulus
• Puppy

Now let’s move on to documenting his first YEAR!

But surprise!  The military supports every commander in chief equally.  Why?  Because it’s our duty.  Anyone who claims otherwise is an unpatriotic wing-nutty windbag.

Over in the world of the politically insane, a video is floating around their sad excuse for blogs.

I present to you exhibit #1 of a video splice showing ex-President Bush speaking to a group of Marines with a video of President Obama addressing a different group of Marines.

And if you read the analysis by Mudville, it’s easy to see they’re correct.  Obama’s group of Marines are OBVIOUSLY standing at attention which means one thing… you don’t f**cking move.  Period.  Bush’s group of Marines were allowed full liberty of their emotions which is evident in the way their commander announced Bush’s arrival to the stage.

Not a fair comparison.  Not a valid argumenet. DE-BUNKED!

Admit it…. you’re curious to know about the dog the Obama’s will chose.  Don’t be shy.  No need to pretend.

The Portuguese Water Dog

Obama said the presidential pooch will arrive at the White House in April after daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, return from spring holiday.

The choice of a rescue dog will bring joy to animal rights groups who have been urging the Obamas to adopt a pet from a shelter.

Senator Ted Kennedy should also be pleased with the selection. He owns two Portuguese water dogs, and lobbied hard for the breed.

Sasha and Malia get their dog, but what to name the poor thing?

“Oh, the names are really bad. I don’t even want to mention it, because there are names floating around and they’re bad,” Mrs. Obama said. “I think, Frank was one of them. Frank! Moose was another one of them. Moose. I said, well, what if the dog isn’t a moose?”

But I think an interesting point is made by concerned animal lovers that the general environment of “Obama-mania” will have a negative impact on the breeding of Portuguese Water Dogs to keep up with new demands for the pups. The choice could mean a spike in the dogs’ popularity – and that could mean a rise in shady breeders and fickle owners who don’t understand the dogs and eventually abandon them, owners of Portuguese water dogs say.

In any case, it’s a pretty cool dog:

[Guardian]

When I saw the cartoon from the NY Times yesterday (below) I thought to myself, “Well, the quote seems to be related to President Obama but WTF does that have to do with the rest of the cartoon?”.  Honestly, I was completly stumped for the meaning of the damn thing.  I mean, it didn’t have anything obviously funny about it nor did it have anything politically edgy about it either.

In fact, it seemed more like a conglomeration of several news stories that just happened to be occuring at the same time and thrown together by a lazy cartoonist.

Al Sharpton jumped the gun when he condemned it as racist.  I think he’s giving the cartoonist too much credit.

Perhaps the only guilt associated with it is the lack of awareness by the cartoonist and the editor for not acknowledging the need for sensitivity when showing police men shooting a character that’s historically been identified with black men.

In the end, it’s just a boring and lazy cartoon.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Thoughts?

When will Limbaugh just shut the hell up?

From the Media Matters comment section:

“I thought that this economic crisis was all the fault of poor people who couldn’t afford the houses that they bought? I’m confused now.”

Yes, Limbaugh seems confused too.  Confused, idiotic, grappling at fantacies…  out of his damn mind.  Just another day for the Rush-man.

President Obama wrote a book, it sold a bunch of copies, you might’ve heard of it- “Dreams From My Father”, anyway… in it there’s a bit about someone he knew growing up who had a bit of a colorful manner of speaking.  Well Obama himself did the audiobook version, and so there’s tracks out there of the Prez spouting some interesting phrases.  It was only a matter of time before someone made a remix of them.  So now for your listening pleasure- our President cussing, the dance mix.

Now, I post this here because I find the whole thing rather comical, but there are some out there who are actually trying to use this audio in criticism of him.  Some people will grab on to anything, no matter how ridiculous.  Ah well.

From the most trusted news source on the internet…. TMZ:

The half brother of President Barack Obama has been busted for possession of marijuana … in Kenya, and the circumstances sound weird.

Cops busted George Obama Saturday at his home. We don’t know why cops went there in the first place, but he was taken into custody for marijuana possession and resisting arrest.

George — who shares the same father with the Prez — told CNN “They took me from my home … I don’t know why they are charging me.”

He had a grand total of one joint on him.

Barack and George have met, but barely know each other.

Of all the photos they could have chosen to link with this story, they chose the two most baked pictures of the brother’s that they could find.  Seriously?

President Obama has said throughout his campaign that he wanted ALL U.S. troops put of Iraq within 16 months of his inauguration.

Lately, he’s been open to suggestions.

Here is the top U.S. commander in Iraq’s alternative:

[NYT]  -  “I believe that if we can get through the next year peacefully, with incidents about what they are today or better, I think we’re getting close to enduring stability, which enables us to really reduce,” General Odierno said as he inspected a polling center south of Baghdad in advance of provincial elections on Saturday.

General Odierno said the period between this weekend’s elections and the national elections to be held about a year from now would be critical to determining the future of Iraq. While some American forces could be withdrawn before then, he suggested that the bulk of any pullout would probably come after that.

“We are going to reduce forces this year,” the general said. “It’s the right time to reduce our forces here. I believe that Iraqis are making progress. It’s time for us in some places to step back and give them more control.” He added, “What we want to do is to slowly shift our mission from one that’s focused on counterinsurgency to one that’s more focused on stability operations.”

In a nut shell, withdraw 2 brigades this year and slowly withdraw remaining brigades after 2010 which could take several more years??

All indications say that Obama is seriously considering this alternative.

hmmm….   My opinion?  We’re wasting money, resources, and lives in a war that should have been declared over months ago.  Obama has it right with the 16 month time-frame.  But I suspect that after all of his security briefings which he is now privy to as the President, Obama may move at a “slower withdraw” pace as is being suggested to him here.