Air Force One

Reports are surfacing that a 747 and an F-16 flew around the air space of lower Manhattan this morning. No advance warning of the flyby was given, but afterwards the FAA announced that it was an "approved military photo op" using one of the airliners used as Air Force One. On this occasion 44 was not on board. The White House declined to comment and reaction in the press is sketchy at this time. Needless to say, many NYC residents became apprehensive at the sight of a large commercial airliner flying low near Manhattan. If 44 was aware of the mission, a fair question would be: What was he thinking?
More updates are sure to follow.
Update: last night on the CBS Evening News a very serious looking Katie Couric assured us that 44 was "furious" about the incident. Well, that should settle things. No hard hitting investigations about why the executive branch was caught flat footed by a stupid stunt. And in case you were concerned, the major networks spent half of their programs covering the ongoing swine flu epidemic; 44 announced at a speech he gave at the National Academy of Science that there was "no cause for alarm."
This piece at the NY Times gives a surprising amount of credit to 43 for laying the groundwork for a federal response to infectious diseases like the swine flu. So far, 44 has refrained from given credit to 43, although he has been free to blame 43 from economic and diplomatic problems he faces.

Another one bites the dust

44 made many campaign pledges. Somewhere, someone is keeping score of how many he has abandoned now that he is in office. Let's go over three examples. First, he pledged to close the prison for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. He has ordered it closed, but after a study is carried out. In the meantime, the US has a number of detainees it holds at Bagram AFB in Afghanistan, and they aren't going anywhere soon. This observer has tried to perceive a difference between holding war on terror detainees in Afghanistan versus Gitmo and can only see that its easier for journalists and other anti-American activists to travel to Gitmo. They certainly aren't at risk of being killed by terrorists on their way there. This suggests that the Gitmo detainees will eventually be taking a long trip to Afghanistan for the duration.
Second and third, he promised to name China as a manipulator of currency and to re-negotiate NAFTA. This article documents what happened to that promise once 44 was in the White House. Bear in mind, he has done the right thing in flipping on the issue, but does it give people confidence they can believe anything he says?

To the Shores of Tripoli

Drama on the waters off the coast of Africa continued into the weekend as Somali pirates, defeated in their attempt to hijack a US commercial ship, kidnapped the captain and drifted a few hundred yards from US Navy vessels. US Navy and FBI hostage negotiators attempted to talk the pirates into giving up without success. The captain jumped out of the life boat but was hauled back in after shots were fired. There is no word on whether he was hit by gunfire.
Now there is news that a US tugboat towing a barge has been hijacked by another group of pirates.
Meanwhile, 44 gave his weekly radio and internet address. No mention of the hijackings and hostage taking was made. Instead, 44 shilled his recent European trip, during which the leaders of Europe turned their backs on his request for boots on the ground in Afghanistan. To 44, the trip was a success.

I Want to Hold Your Hand

When 43 grabbed the hand of Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2005 you would have thought that he had been caught in the stall of the men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport with him. Here is the response from CBS News at the time. Now fast forward to the 2009 G-20 summit in London and watch as 44 does a 90 degree bow in front of the King of Saudi Arabia. Watch the videos where he does a short head bob to Queen Elizabeth and her consort Prince Philip. Notice any difference? Search CBS News for salacious chuckling over the Stepinfetch routine performed by 44. There is none. Just Old Man Double Standard, he just keep rolling along.