Lazy Saturday Morning Lighthearted News and Views

Good Morning Conflucians! It’s been a tough week for me personally and I’m sick and tired of depressing news. I hope you’re forgive me if I stick to lightweight and/or humorous stuff this morning. Feel free to post links to serious stories in the comments.

First up, the President’s golf game. It’s seems he’s “no Jack Kennedy,” who was
“the best golfer to ever inhabit the White House.” I heard the whole painful story on NPR’s “Only a Game” this morning in an interview with Elizabeth Williamson. She’s the author of a story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on November 25, Quietly, the President Finds That Golf Is No Slam Dunk. The interview on the NPR sports program featured much laughter from Williamson and host/interviewer Bill Littlefield. From the WSJ story:

One day last summer, Gene Mulak, observing carnage in the sand trap, decided it was time to rescue the Leader of the Free World.

“Open the clubface more!” the golf pro yelled to President Barack Obama. A rank of bodyguards stiffened when they heard the shouting, but the commander-in-chief continued to hack away, sand flying, recalls Mr. Mulak, a resident professional at the Vineyard Golf Club in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Mr. Obama waved off the guards and welcomed Mr. Mulak into the pit. The pro says he gave the president tips on his golf stance and his swing, both of which were conspiring against him. “He would have had trouble getting out of any bunker in the country,” concludes Mr. Mulak.

Williamson writes that Obama’s golf handicap (said to be in the mid -20s) is considered a top national security secret, and that the President has huge security team following him around on the course in order to prevent onlookers from seeing how bad his swing is. Williamson:

A recent anonymous posting on Golf.com comes from a golfer who claims to have caught some of the action: “I had the misfortune of being stuck in a group on the same course as the Prez and his buddies and watching them play one hole in the time it took our foursome to play 3 was painful. The only thing stopping us from telling them to pick it up was the incredibly large security detail he had with him.”

The talk around Washington and Chicago is that the White House has thrown the Secret Service under the bus after the party-crashing scandal in order to protect WH social secretary Desiree Rogers.

A committee investigating how the Salahis did it want to talk to Rogers.

That’s not likely to happen.

So far, the White House has dug in its heels — ignoring threats from members of Congress that if Rogers doesn’t voluntarily talk to them, she will be subpoenaed.

Why is Rogers being protected even though she is clearly the one who fell down on the job–not the Secret Service agents, who are not the ones who are supposed to be checking off names on the guest list?

For one thing, Rogers, who once headed up Peoples Gas and was the Illinois Lottery lady during former Gov. Jim Edgar’s administration, is so socially connected, who would dare humiliate her publicly?

As an early supporter of the Obama campaign, and the BFF of Obama insider Valerie Jarrett, Rogers has been instrumental in hooking up the first family with the right benefactors.

Truth be told, Rogers — who was a leading member of Chicago’s business and philanthropic community when Obama couldn’t rent a car with his credit card — is the one who brought the Obamas to the party, not the other way around.

That’s how it works in the Obama White House: the rich and connected are insulated from criticism, while less powerful Secret Servicemen get the axe.

Greg Mortensen, author of the best-selling book Three Cups of Tea has some advice for President Obama on Afghanistan. He

…urged the U.S. to include input from Afghani tribal elders in the Pentagon’s expanded military effort in the region, or risk failure, …. [saying that] “there were nine meetings held behind closed doors, in secrecy, between Obama and military leaders but Afghanistan’s provincial elders were not considered in any of those meetings — even though they are the real power in the country.”

What was being discussed in all those secret meetings then? The blog Library Grape has the answer. They have posted the military’s plan for Afghanistan, or as they refer to it, “the whole frickin PDF in all its psychedelic glory.” Here is just one of the complex diagrams in the document.

As Library Grape puts it:

I shall rest easy now, secure in my knowledge that all the world’s extremist mullahs are quaking in their sandals—demoralized by their impending doom at the hand of the world’s most powerful flowcharts.

Oh no!! Senator Max Baucus–the guy who helped to destroy America’s chances of getting real health care reform–is in trouble for “nominating his girlfriend for U.S. Attorney.”

Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on an affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. attorney in Montana.

According to a source familiar with their relationship, Hanes and Baucus began their relationship in the summer of 2008 – nearly a year before Baucus and his wife, Wanda, divorced in April 2009. The Senator had informally separated from his wife in March 2008 and they were living apart when he began dating Hanes, according to Baucus’ office.

It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy, IMHO.

Finally, in another case of just desserts, Glenn Beck’s new live show The Christmas Sweater–A Return to Redemption “bombed in New York, Boston, and Washington, DC,” according to Raw Story.

In New York, Beck sold 17 tickets. In Boston, another 17. And in Washington, D.C., the hotbed of political activism, his tearful film drew only 30, Raw Story has found.

So what are you reading this morning? Please post links in the comments–and more lighthearted stories among the serious ones would be appreciated–at least by me.

HAVE A STUPENDOUS SATURDAY!!!!!!!

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