On the one day of the year set aside to honor America's military dead, our nation's Commander in Chief decided to go golfing. Again.
Oh sure, he dropped by Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns...but rather than spend the rest of the day visiting with military families or pretending to be solemnly contemplative, Barack Obama put on his "lucky golf shirt" (the one he was wearing when he was dragged off the links to see "some TV show about Osama bin Laden" in the Situation Room) and hit the greens for the 70th time of his presidency.
In fact, despite ongoing wars around the world, domestic fiscal meltdowns, and inconceivable death and destruction in America's "tornado alley," Mr. Obama has now racked up nine consecutive weekends in which he's decided the best use of his time is whacking a ball around the fairways.
And God help us all...he's probably right.
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27 comments:
Sorry, while I yield to no one in my distaste for the current WH occupant and hope to see the back of him in January, 2013, this installment is unfair.
I would ask , “He who is without ‘sin’ may cast the first stone”, as I am sure many, many Americans choose to mark Memorial Day with family gatherings, barbeques, a day on the beach, etc., etc., etc.
Silly, I know, but I kind of have this expectation of the Commander in Chief being, I don't know, more 'Commander in Chief'-y?
@Anon: unfair? Well, I know what would have happened if George Bush had done any such thing. The leftist press and our liberal fellow citizens would have together sounded an outraged squeel that would have sounded like a hundred million hogs being slaughtered at once. And for once they would have been right.
Unfair or not, our president and our leaders in general are held to a higher standard. They must not only lead, they must be seen to be leading.
Obama does not understand that, or holds the rest of us in such contempt that he does not deign to disturb his recreation over it.
Of course, the president has already demonstrated to the satisfaction of anyone willing to perceive the truth that he was never a leader and is not one now. He is merely another narcissistic opportunist seeking to glorify himself and advance his lunatic ideas by duping those inclined to be duped.
Which does not seem to include any of us here.
This is one of many reasons elections matter. The President is Commander-in-Chief of all our armed forces. While I don't insist that our President have been a veteran (though it helps), I do insist that they have at least a shadow of a concern for the health and well-being of our fighting forces and that they don't use them as cheap political pawns to score points during an election season. Granted, Obama is not the first to do so, but he is the most blatant and vile. Still waiting for someone in the LSM to complain that their arms are tired from constantly propping up this turd.
If you think this installment was unfair, then stop reading this comment right here. Personally, I think the more time our soon-to-be ex-president spends standing around on the grass swatting his balls, the better for America. At least while he is out there he is not further destroying our country. One does have to wonder though, if he needs a teleprompter to yell "fore!"
Didn't he spend a whole two hours in Missouri promising federal aid to tornado victims? I remember thinking that was a pretty pathetic amount of time. Regardless, the Bush's (always a class act) spent a LOT of time (outside the view of media) comforting soldiers and their families. No doubt Obama will always view this as Bush's war. Unless he can take credit for any successes.
Yes, a little down time for a president is OK, and so why didn't he spend the day with the children whose father's are gone because of the wars he still wages? Or why not invite injured soldiers out to the course instead of his fellow politicians? Better still, a big family picnic for the men and women who serve in our armed forces at the White House.
Or from my perspective -- what a great day to bring together a foursome of his fellow Democrat in NY State who held a rally in the Bronx saying gay Americans are "worthy of death," one Ruben Diaz, with a few gay soldiers -- so that Ruben can see that he's a bit screwed in the head and meet the gay men who protect his right to say such horrid stuff about them, and perhaps quaff a beer for peace among different sorts of citizens.
He's such a symbol driven president - let him symbolize something more than "who gives a damn."
@Readers- You've addressed all the "debatable" points very well, so I'm just kicking in another two cents worth. It would be hypocritical for me to criticize the president on a day when so many other Americans have parties and cookouts, except for one very important point: he's the commander in chief of our armed forces. He is the man who orders men and women into harm's way, and sometimes (unavoidably) to their deaths.
And so he is held to a higher standard (albeit not higher than other presidents; Bush eventually stopped golfing because he thought it was inappropriate when soldiers were dying overseas).
There are grieving military families he could have called or spent time with. Parentless children who would have remembered a visit with the president of the United States for the rest of their lives. Or he could have simply attended a military cookout, and had a beer and shoot some hoops with the troops to show that he's thinking of them.
Your priorities are revealed through your actions. Which is how we know, with the evidence of our own eyes, that golf is a higher priority to this president than any of the things I mentioned above. And that's appalling.
The nice thing about being President is that you can choose when you want to take a day off to kick back and golf or whatever. It would have been nice if he had given Memorial Day to our country...given his time and effort...and kicked back another day.
I fully realize that people supposedly likes Obama because he's "just a regular guy" but there comes a point where a President just cannot be "a regular guy" or he ceases to be a leader. Leaders have to rise above the "regular guy" in order to lead.
He is the most flippant President I could ever imagine. :-( (Autopens, golfing, vacations, sending British gifts back, sending national leaders out the back door....sigh.)
@Suzy--He is more then flippant...to me he is down right disrespectful. But I would not have a problem with him golfing on Memorial Day if he was ever around to do his job any other day of the week. If I or almost anyone else took as many vacations and afternoons off we wouldn't have a job. Is this President so lazy that we as the American People and therefore his employer going to have to implement "Office" hours for this ignorant crap bucket??
@Doc Paul--He is leading....he's showing the left that you don't have to work to work (if you have a job)! Think about it: Odimna and the rest of the progressive left want everyone on the government tit, how better to achieve that then by showing everyone you should be entitled to go golfing AT LEAST 4 times a month?
@Jim - Holy Cow! I was just eating some McD's fries (before they get outlawed by the tree huggers) and about choked on one when I read "standing around on the grass swatting his balls!" Damn! That's a knee slapper!
I, too, would be perfectly happy if Barry Urkel would just give up trying to act like a president and just go play freaking golf EVERY day and be done with it. It actually sort of disgusts me when he feigns interest in the people that got shot at (and sometimes killed) so he can be FREE to go golfing. It seems he really doesn't much like anybody but himself, so I wish he would just go hang with his favorite person all the time and quit pretending.
He should take his ol' buddy Biden with him and leave the autopen with Boehner....
Jim said:
One does have to wonder though, if he needs a teleprompter to yell "fore!"
I am pretty sure he yells for-ee.
@Dave: What a great idea you have for a cool new entitlement for every American. Except I don't want the government guaranteed right to go golfing four times a month, I want the right to go SHOOTING four times a month. Say, a thousand rounds total every month, that the government pays for. It would be a great way to lower my stress levels and thus lower my future medical costs.
Let's pretend to seriously try to sell that to the lefties and see if they don't have a spasm.
Yeh, if Bush had gone golfing it would have been a crime, but its OK for BHO to do it! Simply another example of double stanards in the media. Thing is, the left would have attacked Bush, but the more fair news outlets feel it is beneath them to attack Obama, so they don't, to their credit.
btw, glad to see the bot again yesterday...I love that little sucker! Apparently Michelle did too!
pyrorguy, I remember the media getting in a tizzy just because Bush would go to his ranch to take a little break.
A little closer to home for me, the phony-one also skipped attending the 2011 Peace Officer Memorial ceremony in D.C. In his time as the so called president he has missed two such national ceremonies. He holds a true disdain for police which he showed during his campaigning by requiring uniformed law enforcement personnel to be out of sight of the media, and his public comments about police acting "stupidly."
I suspect he feels the same about military personnel, so its no surprise he didn't set aside Memorial Day as a time to reflect on the brave men and women who served our great country day in and day out and made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom.
For a 'genius', his chosen pastimes seem pretty pedestrian.
Basketball team picks. Golf. No offense to anyone who enjoys either.
Golf in particular seems a strangely tame, time-consuming, blandly repetitive choice for a POTUS with unlimited power and resources to indulge his every whim.
Maybe as a fatherless mixed-race waif he acquired the notion that golf was how rich people with power and money spent their time, and is living that out.
Golfing on Memorial Day is another deliberately chosen slap in the face to the American people, natch. Best possible use of his time, indeed.
@Doc Paulie--I can see the Left's reaction now to your entitlement program....Flames shooting from their heads....their eyes hemorrhaging---Bill Maher having seizures on any and all talk shows.....Pelosi freaking out and running around like a chicken with out a head (come to think of it a decapitated chicken is probably more intelligent) shrieking about how scared she is!!! Great idea for the new entitlement program....and we would be so entertained by the left's reaction that just the laughter value would lower any conservative's stress level so much that the heart-attack and stroke rate in this country would plummet....and that's with out the entitlement passing!!!!!!
@Bobo--Commander-in-Corruption's attitude toward the Police and the Military does not surprise me at all. His best friends are all radicals and revolutionaries who were all against "The Man"! And a uniform is the surest way to identify "The Man" Police the, Military, etc are all different versions of the "Establishment". While Mr. Odimnal is busy attempting to change our great country into his version of nirvana, where everyone dances in the streets all day worshiping his lazy a** while money flows from the heaven like honey, and beer spouts from every fire hydrant; he needs to make people think that all police are corrupt or "act stupidly" and the sacrifices or our brave men and women in uniform are meaningless and trivial!!
Andrew, I think youre on to something there...people DO live out what they think is the ultimate in life!
Me, I'd just like to buy a newer car!
btw, I have been putting together a little web page of my own, hoping youll all visit if I ever get it together! Stay tuned.
I'm going to be honest with you all here - part of my dislike for this president stems from a deep-seated hatred of his people. Yes, I said it. Let me qualify. Ten years ago the place I live was beautiful - woods and fields as far as you could see, always places to hunt and walk. Then Obama's people came, and they started building places for them all up and down the niegborhood, despite the protests of me and some others (we were told to get with the times, hmph). Now we have big cars speeding down the street everyday, leaving dead animals in their wake. Crime has gone up. Property values are going down. Litter everywhere. Then the final injustice - a friend of ours actually lost her mind and MARRIED one of them. We can't spend time with that friend anymore, because he's always there.
So, yes. I am prejudiced. I hate golfers with a fucking passion, and I cannot believe that we elected one to such an important position.
(Actually, haven't all of the recent presidents golfed? Horrifying.)
James - Certainly W and Billy C did, tho no one knows a 'true' score for Bill - even Monica never claimed a 'hole in one'... favorite club was the 'foot wedge'...
Anyway, I assure you we're not ALL that bad, I don't smoke cigars, litter, OR whizz in your bushes. Well, not often...
Dad got me started, must be 15 years ago, now, and I really do enjoy "a good walk in the park, perfectly spoiled (Twain?)"
Especially as Dad is getting older (as are we all) and I can see an end to his golfing days coming. Time on the course has done a lot to heal much of the damage from my 20's...
Of course time hunting in the woods might have been healing too - but might have req'd a hospital!
Not to mention, is there anything better than Golf on TV on a Sun afternoon for napping to? Flip it on, watch a few strokes, nodd off. Wake up in a bit, yep, still snow / raining where YOU are, bright, sunny, }zzzzzz{ wake up, watch a few strokes... oh, is it time for dinner already?
Doktor Paulie - Loving that! Tho, being a gov't program, I would get YOUR .308, YOU would get Suzy's .380, She'd get some 9mm (looks just like it, must work, right?) and some Anon Bozo would wind up w/ my 5.56. The .30-06 just goes to waste, not even helping reduce the surplus deer... a true pity...
Seriously, would settle for 1k rd of .22lr / month - that would be enough to make cleaning a gun worth taking out... and develop some skillz w/. Granted, it's not worth much, as a round, on anything much bigger than a goose (unless you get lucky / good enough to put one through an eye) but the skills you learn DO translate.
Also, seriously, you can buy most of the calibers mentioned (.308, 5.56, .30-06, and maybe 9mm and possibly .22lr)(sorry, no 380) from the Civilian Marksmanship program, at surplus rates (be sure to check quantity / shipping before you decide how good a deal it is - if you live close enough to pick up, that can be a factor...)
https://estore.odcmp.com/store/catalog/catalog.aspx?pg=catalogList&cat=AMC
Here's what they're about... want a Garand? M1 Carbine? not a bad place to shop... (as far as I know, no .308 / 5.56 avail surplus yet, and NO 9mm)
http://www.odcmp.co/about_us.htm
Looks like I ran long, had to split post... What, me getting wordy? Chya, go figure!
Here is an excellent "Affiliated Organization" who probably has a 'registered shoot' near you, where EVER you live, in the cont. US (Alaskans ALL know how to shoot already, right? You betchya!)
http://www.appleseedinfo.org/
Yes, I'm a shooter, I think it's fun, and I don't apologize for it. "Killing paper" is cool. Especially when some Fat Bastard horse fly lands on the paper, you lean in, exhale, and SPLAT!
Has happened precisely once, to me, but that was a SWEET shot.
I also realize that the 2nd amendment protects the first, and that it's there because the Founding Fathers (and their 'soldiers' - many of them local militia groups) found it necessary to kick out the previous gov't by shooting many of them (or their designated representatives / redcoats). Owning, and knowing how to use, a firearm is a uniquely American Right, Privilege, and a nearly a Sacred Duty. Check out the Appleseed link - I would expect if you called and said "I don't plan / want to shoot, I just want to come see what you're about" they'd be happy to let you watch / listen (to the history) for free, probably find you some free hearing / seeing protection, and if you decided to take a few shots, they'd even provide you a 'loaner' gun / ammo (and if you try to skeeze into a shoot 'free' and shoot the event, I suspect they'd take a Rather Dim View - they're welcoming, not idiots) Anyway, MY humble >koff!< experience is that they're generally a Fine Bunch, who are truly dedicated to promoting a) marksmanship b) citizenship - not necessarily in that order...
And if you DO want to shoot, and do NOT own any "gun stuff" they're pretty good about accommodating that too..
Just my $.02
Mannnnn, what ever happened to the 'cent' thing?
"My 2¢" used to be a beautiful statement....
Just sayin'..
Yeah, ok, 2nd time recently one of Dok's posts has 'inspired' me to go off on a tangent - I'll work on that...
Sorry all, resume presidential critique at your leisure - off now..
@Readers- I've been away a bit today because I'm juggling some computer woes (but hope to have everything fixed in a few days). But what a pleasure to get back here and see the give and take in all these discussions!
And James, you scared the hell out of me until you got to your punchline!
I do not dispute those such as the current WH occupant are held to a higher standard, but at the end of the day, they all use the toilet as we all do; they are not Olympian Gods who fart marble.
And while I as waaay too young at the time to remember, the current WH occupant isn’t the only golf-besotted president. Dwight David Eisenhower was quite the duffer, so much so that a putting green for him was built on the WH grounds.
And as to golf, which I don’t play I always keep in mind something Bill Cosby said way back in the 60’s on golf; why would anyone want to play a sport that requires you hitting the ball and then go chasing after it ;-)
BTW I would have rather posted with my Google account, but could not/cannot
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