Patterico's Pontifications

4/1/2013

Too Good to Check: Joe Curl’s Broadside Against Obama’s Excesses

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:38 am



I have not verified every assertion in this column by Joe Curl at the Washington Times, but I have verified that every sentence will make you go: “Damn right!” whether it’s accurate or not. I have already found one factual inaccuracy in the following passage:

But something remarkable has happened with these occupants of the White House: Neither President Obama nor first lady Michelle appear to give a damn about perception. They won the White House and, by God, they’re going to enjoy their time there, no matter the cost. And who cares what you think, anyway?

How else to explain the nonstop vacations the pair keep taking during what Mr. Obama calls the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression”? In 2013, the First Family has already enjoyed three vacations — that’s one a month. (Sorry, Joe America, you might have to forget your week at the beach again this year, but make sure you get those taxes in on time!)

The Obamas ended 2012 and kicked off 2013 in an $8 million, 6,000-square-foot house in Hawaii (they left well before Dec. 25, by the way). There, the president played five rounds of golf (breaking the 100-rounds-as-president threshold). Scarcely a month into Term 2, Mrs. Obama headed off for Aspen, taking along the couple’s daughters. Vice President Joseph R. Biden also hit the Colorado slopes. While the girls (and Joe) were gone, Mr. Obama nipped down to Florida for a four-day boys weekend of golf, teeing it up with his buddies — and Tiger Woods. He hit the links again this weekend, then dropped in for an NCAA tournament game in Washington.

Did you spot it? Obama didn’t play his 100th round of golf as President over Christmas, silly! He did that a long time ago: way back in June 2012!

I was struck by Curl’s assertion that G.W. Bush spent every Christmas Day at Camp David before jetting off to Crawford, so that Secret Service families could spend Christmas with their dads. He says he is reporting that for the first time, which isn’t quite true: Rush Limbaugh pointed this out in 2011, and HillBuzz appears to have made the same point as well (though their post is hard to access). But, if true, that certainly shows a quiet thoughtfulness that is conspicuously absent from the actions of the Prima Donna in Chief — whose family not only spends Christmas in Hawaii, but also takes vacations all over creation, dragging Secret Service people in tow. Remember how we have to close down the White House because of the Secret Service budget cuts owing to sequestration? I wonder how their budget would be if Sasha and Malia didn’t go to the Bahamas and then Sun Valley and if Barack weren’t attending basketball games and going golfing with Tiger Woods while Michelle and the kids are in Aspen and Joe Biden is living it up in London and Paris and Colorado and South Carolina.

Anyway, the whole column is gold. Read it now. Trust me.

Happy April Fool’s Day

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:19 am



No April Fool’s jokes today. The last one went over like the proverbial lead balloon. You’d think a lead balloon would at least be funny — who tries to fly a lead balloon? — but not so much.

However, the guy who generally devises the April Fool’s jokes we have done here, Eric Turkewitz, has a Justice Alito/baseball quiz in place of his usual April Fool’s jokes. If there is some joke or hoax built into his post, I expressly disclaim any knowledge of same, with no express or implied warranties, guarantees, or any legal whatchamajigs.

It’s also “Cesar Chavez Day observed” here in California, I think. So there’s that.

Feel to free to run hoaxes in the comments. It might be kind of obvious, but what are ya gonna do.

UPDATE: Google’s contribution is a deal where you try “Google Nose Beta” and when you click on it, you’re Googling “Diaper.” Try to make yours better than that, mmmkay?


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