10 May 2012

Biden Gets a Clue or Two

L. -V.P. Joe Biden, R.- Jeopardy host Alex Trebek


Vice President Joe Biden appeared on a special Teen Tournament edition of Jeopardy! The Obama/Biden razzle dazzle extended to the venerable game show with Alex Trebek, where the second in line to the Presidency was reduced to giving video clues about automobiles to those too young to exercise their franchise.


 

 Since the topic was about automobiles, this was probably intended as being a subtle contribution to the Obama 2012 Re-Election Campaign as it emphasized one of the accomplishments of the Administration, which was "saving" G.M. and Chrysler from bankruptcy by structuring a bankruptcy which gave a significant interest of both companies to the United Autoworkers union and in Chrysler's case, also to a foreign company like Fiat at a taxpayer discount. It reminds viewers of the mantra which Biden introduced "Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive." To again echo Biden: "It was a Big F***ing Deal."

 Pundits can be amazed that Biden actually had a clue for a short while. If only he would not give away clues so quickly. Biden's brash pronouncements on Meet the Press forced President Obama to stop his cynical charade of opposing same sex "marriage" too early, instead of just before the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte this September.

08 May 2012

Sunset at the Penn Quarter

On a beautiful spring evening, I had the pleasure of spending some time before a dinner in the Penn Quarter enjoying the sunset at the Navy Memorial. Despite only having a smart phone camera and a hazy horizon, the twilight hues during the Golden Time shed a new light when focusing on a familiar part of the Federal City.

 

Although it was a bit further down "America's Main Street", the seeing the setting sun through the glass ceiling of the renovated Old Post Office was stunning.
 

The beautiful soft light on the National Archives was beautifully complemented by some of the fountains at the Navy Memorial.
 

My hometown walkabout allowed me to discover the name and present occupants of a distinctive building in the Penn Quarter. The building with turrets on Pennsylvania Avenue had been a hotel in the early 20th century but is now the home of the National Council of Negro Women.
 

The salmon colored stone looked awesome in the twilight. After a fine meal, it was a treat to see the  of the National Gallery of Art West Building.

 

It was reminiscent of the exterior of Night at the Museum, without the monkey business (aside that that is typical of the District of Calamity).

04 May 2012

Composite Snickering


The Obama 2012 Re-Election effort launched a campaign to contrast how Americans lives would be different under a Romney Administration compared to Obama’s stated policies.  To illustrate this complete life cycle, Obama-istas proposed “The Life of Julia".

Alas, this campaign broke at the same time there was controversy concerning the use of composite characters in Obama’s first autobiography “Dreams From My Father.”  Fine print in  “Dreams From My Father”  does warn readers in fine print that some characters may be composites and time may be compressed, this is technique is highly unorthodox in auto-biographies, but hardly raises eyebrows in hagiographies.

Nevertheless, the inconvenient truth that the Obama campaign used a composite character to sell their message, much like the author of “Dreams From My Father”, it has inspired conservatives to have their own comedic comebacks with different framing.




It makes you wonder if Barack’s composite New York girlfriend was named “Julia” or something sounding similar.

It would be nice to be privy to hypothetical correspondences with Barack’s composite squeeze.  May they be as interesting as  “The Juliet Letters” by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet.



h/t: Misfit Politics