Gleaning Facebook: Souza's White House in the Snow

 Feb. 2, 2010

"Because of a predicted snowstorm, I spent the night sleeping in my office knowing how bad the roads would be the following day. Early the next morning, I walked around the White House grounds and made several photographs using a tripod so I could shoot at a slow shutter speed. Mrs. Obama liked this picture so much that she chose to use it on the official White House Christmas card."

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Covering Posteriors

An old story that deserves retelling:

When shortly before the terrorist attacks of 2001, President Bush was presented with evidence that a terrorist attack on our country was likely being planned, he asked no questions, directed no action, called no further meetings. Instead he ended the meeting in a typically cavalier manner. He said to the presenter: "All right. You've covered your ass now."

Try as I might, I cannot imagine Bill Clinton, George Bush, Sr., Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, or Harry Truman responding so flippantly. Those are the Presidents of my lifetime. Neither can I imagine John Kerry, or Al Gore failing to take such a briefing seriously. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, or any of the other current candidates for president behaving so?

That is just one of the multitude of evidences of the shallow, coarse, arrogant, cluelessness of this fraternity-boy President. Ladies and gentlemen, the current occupant of our White House is the least competent President in the history of our country. He is worse than Nixon. Worse than do-nothing Buchanan. We still have a chance to survive his presidency better than we did Buchanan's. But it's far from a sure thing.

Shocking News! The Tragedy in Iraq was Forecast!

The Washington Post has broken the story (gasp!) that intelligence analysts knew, and advised the administration, before the Republicans invaded Iraq (without a consensus of support in the world or even at home) that the likely result would be terrible sectarian violence, new bases in Iraq and Afghanistan for Al Qaeda, a surge of radical politics in Islamic countries, an opportunity for Iran to exert more influence in the region, and a financial windfall for terrorist groups. Good grief! I knew those things were likely and I am just a reader of the news with one college course in the history of the Middle East who has lived 60 years in an reasonably sane state of awareness.

The magnitude of the Republican folly of the last six years is mindboggling, and plain for all to see. Though a small percentage (less than 30%) of Americans still profess support for Bush, I believe, if you could read their hearts you'd see most know a castastrophic error was made and fib to the interviewers in a misplaced sense of patriotic duty.

Randon Flickr Blogging: 0088

Hold it, boy!

Brush-cutting and bush-hogging at the Crawford ranch is one thing, George, but this is a whole 'nother matter ---- and despite the legendary precedent, cutting cherry trees here is not gonna make you first in the hearts of your countrymen!
(Click on the pic to see the original.)
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Tom Hilton at If I Ran The Zoo originated and posts "Random Flickr-blogging" every Monday and invites other participants. Check out how it works here.