VIDEO: Don't Cry for Me

On the day after Inauguration day...

Crowds outside the White House after Obama's speech about Osama

A White House War On Fox "News"?

Funny story from the West Wing...

[OMB's Peter] Orszag arrived for his first weekend of work on a snowy January day, [and] there were logs neatly stacked [in his new office].

“It still seemed a little suspicious. So I lit a piece of paper to see if it vented,” Orszag said. The smoke went up the chimney.

“So then we lit a few logs. It was venting. It was fine,” he said. The only problem: The Secret Service had capped the building’s chimneys. Smoke alarms started going off upstairs, and the building was evacuated.

And though Orzag wasn’t publicly named as the culprit (“Smoke Linked to Attempt to Use 2nd-Floor Fireplace,” was the Washington Post’s headline the next day.), the incident remains the source of much amusement inside the White House.

“Rahm asked me to send smoke signals to the Hill,” Orszag recalled.

From Politico via The Progress Report, 2/20/2009
-
-

Bush Cries?

President Bush is shown here leaving a farewell meeting with the White House staff. Is he crying, or is it just the momentary facial distortion caused by exertion or some other emotion?

Can't be sure - but if he was crying - who ever knew that he cared about ANYTHING in D.C.?

Another Republican View

There is great excitement in the air today. A new President and his young family will take over the affairs of state. We are blessed. BUT - many Republicans mourn the potential for greater recession and more wars (after all, we haven't attacked Iran or North Korea yet.)

You'll need to click on the image in order to view it larger - whoever designed it left it difficult to read at blog size.

The Presidents

President Bush (center in the photo below) invited President-elect Obama and 3 other living, former Presidents to the White House for lunch yesterday. Some photographer took the official photo for the White House archives. Here's the image...

Remind You Of Nixon Much?

The following is from Progress Report, 1/22/2008

The Presidential Records Act requires that the president "take all such steps as may be necessary to assure" that the activities of the White House "are adequately documented." Under the Clinton administration, the White House adopted a custom archiving system known as the Automated Records Management System (ARMS). But shortly after taking office, the Bush administration scrapped ARMS, claiming the system was "flawed." Despite proposing two other records-management systems in 2003 and 2004, neither was ever adopted. The White House "would not comment on why ARMS was eliminated." Not only was the White House recording over "computer backup tapes that provided a last line of defense for preserving e-mails" between 2001 and 2003, but Press Secretary Dana Perino has admitted that between 2003 and 2005, five million e-mails were potentially lost. "We screwed up, and we're trying to fix it," Perino told reporters in April.

Want to bet that the problem can't be fixed? Can you say, "bunch of crooks?"

White House Trembling On Bed of Lies

The Center for American Progress continues to provide some of the best stories about the Bush Administration with links providing excellent documentation. Be sure to subscribe to their "Progress Report" newsletter.

ETHICS -- REPORT REVEALS HUNDREDS OF WHITE OUSE/ABRAMOFF CONTACTS, LEGAL QUESTIONS RAISED:

The House Government Reform Committee has released a 95-page report documenting 485 contacts between top White House officials and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, "as well as tens of thousands of dollars worth of meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts." The contacts "raise serious questions about the legality and actions" of those officials, Roll Call reports. During a three-year period beginning in early 2001, "Bush administration officials repeatedly intervened on behalf of Abramoff's clients"; 82 of the 485 documented contacts were between chief White House strategist Karl Rove and Abramoff's lobbying team. After attending a NCAA basketball game with Rove in 2002, Abramoff described Rove in an e-mail: “He’s a great guy. Told me anytime we need something just let him know through [his secretary].” Other e-mails cited in the report add evidence that former White House political director Ken Mehlman "was Jack Abramoff's prime favor man in the White House." The most damaging e-mails reveal that Mehlman pressured Justice Department appointees "to release millions of dollars in congressionally earmarked funds for a new jail for the Mississippi Choctaw tribe, an Abramoff client." Check out this comprehensive
database on the Abramoff investigation.