A Night Excursion In Washington DC

Seeing the Capitol in a positive light.

A closeup of the Rotunda dome in the evening light.

From the Garfield statue near the Capitol.

At the Tidal Basin looking towards the Jefferson Memorial.

Marine One taking off with President Obama on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 from the White House on his trip to Israel. The dots you see in the upper right corner are the helicopter escorts lining up to join Marine One in formation as it flies off to Andrews and Air Force One.

Outside the Treasury Building.

The White House at night.

White House Releases President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate

The White House, in a surprise move, has released President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate, and while it should normally mark the end of this sad chapter in idiocy from those opposed to all things Obama, it wont.

There will not be enough evidence to convince people opposed to Obama that he meets the constitutional requirements to be President - namely that he's a US citizen.

UPDATE:
Not much new information here folks. The PDF shows that his mother was born in Wichita, Kansas and was 18 years old when she gave birth to Barack at Kapiolani Materinity & Gynecological Hospital at 7:24PM on August 4, 1961.

White House Social Secretary Regularly Allowed Party Crashers

This is the kind of action that deserves an investigation. Moreover, Desiree Rogers should be fired because she violated protocol and security in the process of allowing party crashers to attend events without invitations.

There's a reason that there are invitations and Secret Service checks on those who attend events with a President. Rogers' admissions show a reckless disregard for the President's security.

Desiree Rogers claimed in an interview with the trade magazine BizBash at the Creative Coalition's annual meeting in June that she had added extra tables and benches at every event to accommodate uninvited guests.

"Lots of people just come anyways," she said. "They won't take no for an answer. Finally, I just said, 'All right, come on in. It's no use kicking you out.' "

But an administration official yesterday insisted that Rogers "was clearly making a tongue-in-cheek comment about White House staff, already cleared to be on the complex," not about the general public.

What else is the White House going to say? They don't want to admit that Rogers screwed up, so they'd rather make a joke of it?

Fallout Continues From WH Party Crashers

The Secret Service has already acknowledged that they made mistakes in allowing Tareq and Michaele Salahi to enter the State Dinner hosted at the White House by President Obama in honor of the Indian Prime Minister.

But, that's not the end of the security and protocol breach. It appears that the White House staff responsible for the invitation list weren't where they were supposed to be at the time to determine whether the Salahis should be denied access. That would be Desiree Rogers and her staff.

Unlike at past state dinners, Rogers assigned no White House aides to vet guests before they went through security. Just as unusual, she was named as an invited guest rather than a staffer.

"I never sat down at a state dinner because I was always too busy taking care of what needed to be taken care of," Maria Downs, social secretary during President Gerald Ford's administration, told The Post.

"You are there all through the dinner, mingling with the guests, taking care of their needs, but you weren't a guest."

Rogers declined the committee's invitation "based on separation of powers," said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The move prompted immediate condemnation from Congress.

"It's a terrible decision by the White House. They are obviously stonewalling. You have to conclude there is something to hide," said Rep. Peter King (R-LI), the committee member who asked Rogers to testify.

Also declining the Committee's invitation are the Salahis. A statement issued last night by their publicist said, "Having providing all relevant information to Representatives King and [Chairman Bennie] Thompson [D-Miss], there is nothing further that they can do to assist Congress in its inquiry . . . They therefore respectfully decline to testify."

The statement adds that before the Salahis were admitted to the dinner, they presented their passports to "three different Secret Service Agents at various White House checkpoints."

Thompson later threatened to subpoena the pair.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan is expected to appear.

Rogers broke protocol, especially for a freshman social secretary, when she seated herself as a guest at the dinner. Gibbs refused to say if she had invited herself or was a guest of the Obamas.

This whole mess reeks of incompetence and cronyism. And at the heart of the matter isn't just garden variety scandal, but one that affects the very security around the President of the United States. This is the kind of security breach that could have led to assassination attempts or other criminal acts. That the gate crashers were merely reality-show fame-whores is small consolation.

In fact, it is a reminder of the problems facing the White House Protocol Office, which provided Obama-centric items to various dignitaries, including the Queen of England.

That Gibbs and the White House claimed executive privilege to avoid testifying before Congress on a security issue affecting the White House and the President itself is also surprising; even they must know how bad things would look especially once Congress started looking deeper into the mess.

The Sahalis claim no wrongdoing and that they broke no laws and aren't likely to willingly testify before Congress either.

UPDATE:
The Washington Post is reporting that the agents at the state dinner have been placed on administrative leave.

Friday Night News Dump: WH Military Liason Canned

It took the White House long enough to fire Louis Caldera, and then they did it on Friday night when there's the least interest in following such stories. Classy.

An Air Force flyover that caused panic on the streets of New York last month cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $357,000 and has left one White House employee without a job.

On Friday, President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office.

The president was said to have been furious about the incident and had ordered an internal review. The mission had been approved by Caldera, who had apologized.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

Also on Friday, in a letter to Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates provided requested details of the incident.

The White House says that they're going to release a photo of the flyby, but that remains to be seen.

UPDATE:
So, after all that, here's the photo. This is what we waited for? It's a mess.



Stevie Wonder could have taken a better photo than this. And where was the photo editing corps to deal with the cockpit reflections (which was one reason why this didn't make sense when they used F-16s as the photo platform in the first place). Not seen in the photo are the tens of thousands of people running from buildings in Jersey City and Lower Manhattan wondering if another 9/11 was underway.

Ace links. Thanks!

House Shocker Has White House Implications

I'm a fan of the tv show House, and last night's episode was truly a shocker as Kal Penn's character, Dr. Kutner, committed suicide. Everyone is left grappling with the issue, and Penn wanted to leave the show in order to pursue other interests.

Penn is going to the White House. He's going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison.

Yes. I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I'm going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They're basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It's similar to what I was doing on the campaign.

Will you actually be working in the White House?
PENN: This particular office is in the executive building. The White House has two buildings: the actual White House and an old Navy building called the Old Executive Office.

Are you there as long as Obama's in office?
PENN: A lot of that stuff is up in the air. This is a relatively recent development.

Safe to say you're taking a huge pay cut?
PENN: Oh, yeah. There's not a lot of financial reward in these jobs. But, obviously, the opportunity to serve in a capacity like this is an incredible honor.

Penn's character was one of my favorites on the show among the new characters brought on in the past season. The role on House and the new job at the White House is quite a leap from Penn's prior roles in stoner movies like Harold and Kumar go to White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

I'm curious as to what his actual qualifications are to do that job though.

Greening the White House? Been There. Done That.

On the heels of the second Earth Hour (when the first was such a farce to begin with), the Obama Administration is calling for new green efforts at the White House proper. Been there. Done that. President Bush did far more than any of his predecessors attempted, even when the AP derisively claims that the efforts slowed down during his tenure, even thought they had to admit that the Bush Administration made massive improvements to reducing the White House energy consumption and reduced waste output.

But now, President Obama is calling on White House staff to buy into the idea of switching to greener cleaning options, further energy consumption reductions, and expanding on programs begun by President Bush.

Yet, similar efforts by Congress have fallen by the wayside, even when attempts to use carbon credits to offset usage were purchased (your tax dollars at work!).

In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter installed a $30,000 solar water-heating system designed to save $1,000 a year in heating costs. It didn't really work.

"Talk to anyone who worked in the West Wing then, and they would say they washed their hands with cool water," said former chief usher Gary Walters, who spent 37 years at the White House before retiring two years ago.

Those who've been involved in past efforts to make the White House more eco-friendly say that for all that's already been done, there is plenty left to do, given how quickly technology changes.

"It's definitely time to revisit it," said Bill Browning, who helped launch the Clinton-era greening effort in 1993. "The green building movement has evolved quite a bit since then."

Browning, founder of the Terrapin Bright Green consulting firm, said the staff members who manage the White House and its grounds — employees who carry over from one administration to the next — have been "the real champions of greening the White House. They made it their project during the Clinton years and kept it going during the last administration."

For all the enthusiasm about going green, though, there are practical limits. Last year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced a "Green the Capitol" program to zero out the Capitol's carbon impact by December 2008. But this month, the House quietly shelved the project because it couldn't guarantee that Capitol operations were carbon neutral even after purchasing "offsets" that finance projects to reduce greenhouse gases.

Many of the interior systems were completely replaced during the Truman Administration when structural issues forced a massive interior renovation and restoration. Since then, more efficient systems have been routinely installed and new technologies applied.

During George W. Bush's two terms, workers installed three solar systems, including a thermal setup on the pool cabana that heats water for the pool and showers, and photovoltaic panels atop a maintenance shed that supplement the mansion's electrical supply. Bush also made a big push to recycle office paper, although the overall go-green effort lost momentum during his tenure, according to many outside observers.

Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch also incorporates numerous green features, without the ostentatious and fawning by the eco-left, primarily because it's George Bush we're talking about and not Al Gore (whose oversized mansion is an energy hog of the first order).

And while Gore and the other eco-leftists talk quite a bit about how we must go green and reduce our carbon footprint (even while flying around the planet to preach his pseudoscience pablum, I'm already walking the walk. Since that posting was written, I have added a layer of R30 insulation to the attic and installed the new energy efficient garage door I previously wrote about and am now in the process of picking out new entry doors to further tighten up the house. Since I'm buying the entry doors in 2009, I will likely take advantage of the Energy Star credit (30% on cost of doors or windows, up to $1,500 per year).

So Much For That Energy Conservation

Do as I say, but don't do as I do.

There's a reason that you keep seeing all those politicians and President Obama not wearing jackets in the White House.

He's turned up the heat.

Are you kidding me? What a hypocrite.

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

Thus did a rule of the George W. Bush administration — coat and tie in the Oval Office at all times — fall by the wayside, only the first of many signs that a more informal culture is growing up in the White House under new management. Mr. Obama promised to bring change to Washington and he has — not just in substance, but in presidential style.

Right, this wasn't just about style. It was about Obama's comfort. Obama turned up the thermostats at a time when he's busy telling you and me to turn down our thermostats to save money.

What does he care? You're paying for his heating and cooling costs. He's got to be comfortable after all.

And lest you think I'm being a hypocrite myself, I have my thermostat set to drop to 60 degrees at night, and when I'm out of the house. When I am at home, the heat goes up to 66. We manage. We also save quite a bit of money because of insulation I've added to our attic.

Obama's excuse? Obama's flack David Axelrod says he's got to be comfortable like he was in Hawaii? Wait a moment.

Wasn't Obama living and representing the good people from the great state of Illinois? It gets pretty cold in Illinois. Chicago is known as the Windy City. Yet, Obama gets to crank up the heat?

Gotcha.

UPDATE:
Slublog notes that former President Carter at least had the courtesy to wear a sweater when he professed that the nation should conserve energy. Obama isn't even bothering to hide his disdain for everyone in saying do as I say, but not as I do.

Dan Riehl also weighs in.

BTW, I grow orchids in my house, and I don't need it to be 75 degrees for them to survive and thrive. If I kept the house 75 degrees, I'd be wearing shorts all the time.

UPDATE:
Someone needs to toughen up, and it's not just the District of Columbia's schools. Just yesterday, President Obama basically told the DC schools to suck it up and stay open despite the snow. He commented that such snows wouldn't have closed the Chicago schools.

At a meeting in the Roosevelt Room with business leaders to discuss the economy, President Obama asked to make an unrelated comment -- on the weather.

"My children's school was canceled today, because of what? Some ice," Obama said, and all at the table started laughing.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," he continued. He said that in their old hometown, "you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. You wouldn't even stay indoors."

The President said he would have to bring "some flinty Chicago toughness" to Washington.

Where's the flinty toughness President Obama? Looks like you're going to wilt unless the heat's turned up. (HT: Mrs. Lawhawk)

White House Press Office Evacuated After Bomb Scare

DEVELOPING STORY:

WASHINGTON — The White House Conference Center and buildings surrounding Blair House were evacuated Monday after a K-9 unit made a "hit" on a car parked in front of Lafayette Park, across from the White House.

Members of the press who were standing outside of the executive mansion were also asked to leave the White House grounds, though staff and President Bush are in the building ahead of a celebration with NCAA winning teams.

U.S. officials said D.C. Metro Police were using an abundance of caution in calling in an explosives and ordnance team after what is reportedly a bomb scare.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had just arrived in Washington, D.C., for a stay at Blair House, where foreign dignitaries often reside while visiting the president. Ehud is in town for talks with U.S. officials on the recent dissolution of the Palestinian government, and security has been heightened because of his visit.

Probably nothing, but we will keep an eye on the story and report developments.

UPDATE:
As I guessed earlier, the bomb scare turned out to be nothing and the Secret service gave the all clear. Amazing how little coverage this has received in the press though.

Bush Reaffirms Strong Backing to Gonzales

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush renewed his support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday in the face of resignation calls, as the Democratic-led Congress moved to widen its probe into the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

White House counsel Fred Fielding was negotiating with lawmakers over which, if any, administration officials would testify about the sackings, which touched off a firestorm in Congress into whether the dismissals were politically motivated.

With a number of Democrats and a few Republicans in Congress calling for Gonzales to step aside as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, Bush telephoned him early on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"The president reaffirmed his strong backing and support of the attorney general," Perino said.

Congressional committees plan to vote this week on whether to subpoena those who refuse to testify. They are particularly interested in hearing from White House political strategist Karl Rove. A former aide to Rove was named to replace one of the prosecutors fired last year.

Critics charge the administration dismissed the prosecutors to make room for its allies or because it felt some were too tough on Republicans and not tough enough on Democrats.

Recently released documents showed the administration had considered firing all the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys, each a Bush appointee, at the end of president's first term in January 2005. But later it decided to dismiss just eight.

The documents also showed the U.S. attorneys were judged on such factors as their effectiveness as well as their loyalty to the administration.

Former prosecutors said they were given little if any reason for their dismissal and were warned the administration might retaliate if they complained. The administration denied any such threats.

Many Republicans lawmakers have said publicly that no judgment should be made on Gonzales until the facts are determined.

"I don't sense that members are rushing to his defense, nor does it appear that they would lose any sleep if he was replaced," a Republican leadership aide said.

Administration officials and GOP officials should tread lightly here. Acting to harsh or to quick may lead to accusations of racism, with Gonzalez being the first Hispanic Attorney General. Don't give the liberals fodder for claiming that he was thrown under the bus because of his race.

The Senate has already taken actions to limit the Attorney General's hiring/firing ability.

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.

***

With a 94-2 vote, the Senate passed a bill that canceled a Justice Department-authored provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists.

"If you politicize the prosecutors, you politicize everybody in the whole chain of law enforcement," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

The bill, which has yet to be considered in the House, would set a 120-day deadline for the administration to appoint an interim prosecutor. If the interim appointment is not confirmed by the Senate in that time, a permanent replacement would be named by a federal district judge.

The vote came as Gonzales and the White House braced for more fallout from the firings. The White House also denied reports that it was looking for possible successors for Gonzales. "Those rumors are untrue," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.