Video- Asheville local's video of President Obama's stop while golfing

Pertinent part starts about 1:15, but if you can take the shaky camera it's worth watching the whole thing for how giddy everyone is to meet him. Too cute.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

ARIvederci, Tiger

By GottaLaff



Love 'em and leave 'em:

Meanwhile, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer acknowledged in an e-mail to the AP that he had been working for Woods and had decided to withdraw.

The AP gives no reason for Fleischer’s departure, but FoxSports reports that Fleischer “fell on his sword because he felt he was becoming the story": “[...] Having him in behind the curtain gave the impression Woods had something to hide, and that words were being fed to him.”

Pfft, why would Woods have anything to hide?

Ari-vederci, Tiger.

It was bad while it lasted.

H/t: Ellen

Tiger Woods hires Ari Fleischer

By GottaLaff

This is who Tiger Woods hires to get us to accept him again? With smarmy representatives like this, who needs enemies?

If this is how Tiger intends to rebuild his image, why not just hire Karl Rove? Or Mark Sanford? Or Tickle Me Massa?

How to cement Worst Judgment in the World status:

Two sources in the golf community have told The Post that Ari Fleischer, the former presidential advisor to George W. Bush and the man who was brought in to help repair the steroid-shattered image of Mark McGwire, has been huddling with Woods, plotting a strategy for his return to golf — at the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting March 25 at Bay Hill in Orlando.

That did it. I can't even look at the guy now...

... as if I could before.

VIDEO: Brown Justifies Denying 9/11 Rescue Workers Aid: ‘We Had To Take Care Of Our Own Priorities First’

By GottaLaff



Previously I posted about Scott Brown's refusal to give help to 9/11 workers:

One month after the September 11th attacks, Scott Brown was one of only three Massachusetts State Representatives to vote against a bill to provide financial assistance to Red Cross workers who had volunteered with 9/11 recovery efforts, we’ve learned.

Now he's justifying denying aid to Red Cross workers. On September 11, 2001.

During the same month Brown was voting down efforts to support 9/11 rescue workers, he was pushing a bill to appropriate a tax-subsidized bond to build a golf course in Norfolk, a city in his district. “Priorities,” indeed.

Also during the same period, he was busy fighting for tax subsidies for corporate interests.

Golf. Tax breaks. 9/11.

Video- Obama on Hawaiin Golf Course via YouTube

Via Jake.

Chambliss' leadership PAC funds more golf outings than candidates

So basically the big corporations are subsidizing Saxby's golf jones? Nice gig if you can get it.

WASHINGTON -- Over the past two years, deep-pocketed donors to Sen. Saxby Chambliss have helped the Georgia Republican enjoy a quarter of a million dollars worth of golf outings at some of the nation's ritziest resorts.

Through their contributions to the senator's Republican Majority Fund -- a type of leadership political action committee established by a member of Congress to support other candidates -- lobbyists and such industry leaders as Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Lockheed Martin footed the bill for Chambliss' rounds of golf at California's Pebble Beach, with its sweeping views of Monterey Bay. There were tourneys at the fabled Greenbrier in West Virginia and jaunts at the Breakers Palm Beach and Ritz Carlton Naples' sun-kissed fairways in Florida.

Chambliss' affinity for golf is so widely known in political circles that President George W. Bush joked about it during a 2003 golf fundraiser for the Georgia lawmaker. In 2005, the senator missed a highly sensitive Iraq war intelligence briefing to tee off with Tiger Woods.

In all, since 2007, Chambliss has used PAC money to golf at roughly a dozen of the nation's top resorts, according to Federal Election Commission records and an analysis by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization.

President Obama Goes Golfing

I like the detail on what he was wearing. Lordy.

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. – President Barack Obama took advantage of the summer conditions in Washington on Sunday to play a round of golf for the first time since taking office.

His motorcade left the White House at midmorning Sunday for the course at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

Obama arrived at the course wearing sunglasses, a cream-colored baseball cap, short-sleeved shirt and khaki shorts. He shook hands with a few other golfers and waved to other onlookers before stepping into a golf cart driven by the course's general manager, Mike Thomas.

Pics via.

John King describes "stripper" golfer and his... ball

By GottaLaff

(via)

CNN's John King just now, describing a video of a golfer who apparently likes to strip down to his underwear while playing:

"He's a bit of a stripper... His ball was stuck in the mud... "
[I didn't catch every word, but this is awfully close]

Tsk, tsk, tsk. John, John, John...

Shallow Thoughts: Dissing Obama edition

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

There is such a dearth of newsworthy material out there that ridiculing Obama's golf game is exactly what we should be focusing on. But it's okay, he deserves all the badmouthing he can get, since he's not president of anything yet.

That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.

Pool report: Obama checks watch at 12:22, smiles at 12:23, rolls his eyes at pool at 12:24

By GottaLaff

Pool reports are hilarious. The detail that they go into over the least little thing makes me wonder how they consistently miss all the really big important obvious news stories:

For the third time this trip, President-elect Barack Obama left the Kailua compound where he and his entourage are staying for a round of golf at an area course. It was the second time this trip that Obama has played at the course. At 12:05 p.m. Obama's motorcade left Kailuana Place in Kailua, arriving at the course at 12:15 p.m. Obama greeted Punahou classmate Greg Orme with a hearty handshake and hug.

Obama is golfing with Chicago friends Eric Whitaker, Martin Nesbitt, aide Eugene Kang, and Punahou classmates Bobby Titcomb, and Greg Orme After loading his clubs onto a cart, Obama, wearing sunglasses, a white shirt, khaki shorts, white and brown golf shoes, and a red baseball cap emblazoned with the City and County of Honolulu's Ocean Safety logo, drove down to the driving range. At 12:21 p.m. he bent over a grey plastic trash can and filled a bucket half-full with range balls.

Standing next to Whitaker, Obama , with a white glove on his right hand, spread the range balls out on the grass before putting an iron behind his back and stretching. Obama took three practice swings. His first shot was a ground ball straight ahead. His next shot went airborne but created a divet that Obama walked out to pick up and replace. After several more shots and one more replaced divet , Obama looked up to the pool and pointed at the photographers and reporters with his iron. The pool was then moved into the course's clubhouse.

He then inhaled, and exhaled, repeatedly, as he put one foot in front of the other to form step after step, which eventually propelled him into the clubhouse at 12:25. The clubhouse was decorated in pleasant shades of taupe, eggshell white, and off-mauve. There was a noticeable tear in one of the clubhouse curtains. Obama, who removed his now-sweat-soaked white glove at 12:28:03, shot us a look of "are you kidding me?" as we took copious notes about how many chews it took until he swallowed his food at lunch.

At 12:29, Obama turned his head three inches to the right, swatted a fly with his now-ungloved hand, sighed heavily when he caught sight of one of the pool reporters measuring the length of the now-dead fly, and continued to chew his food until swallowing. This act was repeated several times until all the food was gone from Obama's plate, at approximately 12:32:05. The plate was made of kiln-baked ceramic, awash in a pale seafoam green crackle-glaze, and measured exactly 10.019 inches in diameter.

Before the pool was able to notice, Obama slipped away, apparently placing right foot after left in a series of sequential steps, and disappeared for hours. Pool is still waiting. It is 3:48.22.

PhotObama: Golfing in Hawaii edition

By GottaLaff

(Via)

Hawaii watch: Obama's first day

By GottaLaff

(For Mellowjohn: At Chicago's O'Hare International airport)

(Their Hawaii vacation home)

You know it's a slow news day when the New York Times devotes three paragraphs to P.E. Obama's salute:

He’s not the commander in chief yet, but was President-elect Barack Obama briefly practicing his salute on Sunday?

On the first morning of his vacation here, Mr. Obama arrived at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii for his daily workout. As he walked out of the Semper Fit Center, his gray T-shirt soaked in sweat, he lifted his right hand and gave a quick salute to two Marines in fatigues who were standing in the distance.

The brief moment was not captured by cameras. Photographs and video were not permitted to be taken on the military base, according to campaign aides.

That was about as newsworthy as Rahm Emanuel's Rod Blagourhauaegriouwoich phone calls. Those would be the very same phone calls in which there was no criminal wrongdoing. You know the ones.

He is receiving his daily national security briefing and his transition team is scheduled on Monday or Tuesday to release an internal review of any contacts between his advisers and the Illinois governor’s office over filling his vacant Senate seat.

When he's not working, one guess what the prez-elect is up to:

Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, opened their day with a 45-minute workout inside a large gymnasium at Marine Corps Base Hawaii...

Not to mention:

The president-elect, after filling his Cabinet in record-setting pace, is taking a break. On tap for the rest of his Sunday? An afternoon tee-time and 18 holes of golf.

Rest up, P.E. Obama, you've got your hands full once you get back to the mainland.

How does Obama rank... at golf?

On a purely viewing stance, I prefer it when he plays hoops.

It may say more about the presidents who came before him than about his own skills, but Barack Obama has already cracked the top 10 of the best presidential golfers.

In the January issue of Golf Digest, which hits newsstands next week, the president-elect is No. 8 on the list of golfing presidents. "Yep, Obama is a golfer, too," is the headline.

(snip)

John F. Kennedy and his 80-stroke average tops the list. Calvin Coolidge, who left his golf clubs behind when he departed the White House in 1929, is ranked 15th.

Bill Clinton is just in front of Obama at No. 7 -- although Golf Digest flags Clinton's use of the score-improving "Billigans."