Obama on the Vineyard: His Brave New World

Really, I appreciate the fact that you are all concerned about Lady M’s well being, butt trust me, she’s fine. Just a little puffy. From the humidity.

Photo embargos are just a part of our historic Vineyard get-aways. We like to wine and dine out of the public eye. So, no pictures at all from last night when she and Big Guy had dinner, alone, at our favorite restaurant, the Beach Plum Inn which you may remember from last year’s visit, when we were not allowed to release any photo evidence either.

And need I remind you why? Because of photos like this from the State Road restaurant included in last year’s vacation journal “A Fluke and an Imposter”:

With a menu like that, they might want to consider widening the doorway.

I expect this year’s embargo to be even more strictly enforced, due to CBS’ and the New York Times’ concern about the “bad optics” of the Won’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard hob-nobbing with the “tax me! tax me! I’m rich” liberal set.

Not that the MSM isn’t doing everything in their power to make it seem “OK” to be renting a $50k seaside enclave while the entire world is crumbling around our ankles. They’ve taken to comparing the Won’s vacation with the Bush and Reagan vacations at their respective ranches, clearing brush.

And Mr. Bush spent a lot of time in Texas: 180 days, at the same point in his administration where Mr. Obama is now, according to the CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, who compiles such statistics. Mr. Obama had spent 61 days on vacation before this holiday began.

Although the real reason the media went after George W for his vacations had nothing to do with the amount of time he spent away from Washington, as he continued to run business from his Crawford ranch, and everything to do with the accommodations. Theirs, not his.

Because it was so remote, with few hotels nearby, the White House leased 11 acres outside the gates from a neighbor of Mr. Bush, and put in five trailers, said Steve Atkiss, a former special assistant to the president for operations, who helped set up the outpost.

The trailers housed Secret Service agents, military aides, a communications center, helicopter pilots and members of the president’s senior staff.

“They were pretty run-of-the-mill double-wide trailers,” said Mr. Atkiss, who now works for Command Consulting Group, a security and intelligence consultancy. “They were functional spaces without being in the least bit luxurious. It was not Martha’s Vineyard.”

The Western White House was nowhere near as reporter-friendly as the Martha’s Vineyard Whitehouse.

And White House staffers and reporters are busy as bees making it appear as if Big Guy’s not resting until every American who wants a job has one.

Don’t worry! I’ll get us out of this ditch! Did I mention the R-words got us into this mess? And they’re the ones preventing me from driving us out?

So we’re bringing in the advisors and “taking daily meetings” - just like Bush used to between clearing brush on the ranch. Butt to make the most of the Bush/Obama vacation comparisons, Big Guy should have stayed in Washington and done some “brush clearing” of his own. It’s not as if there isn’t enough dead wood there to keep him busy for 10 days.

Anyway, I hope they lift the photo embargo because I sure don’t want to rely on my illustrations of the vacation again. As you can see from my attempt to render last year’s outing at Johnnie’s Cupcake hut,

I do not have a graphics illustrator pack on my hard drive. And for the last time, no, MO is not bald. It was just really bad lighting. I guess graphic artist isn’t in the cards for me.

I do have permission to release pictures of Big Guy taking the wee wons to the bookstore again this year, where he has lots of fans (who knew? Progressives love hangin’  out at the bookstore?).

You might remember the books that Big Guy bought during last year’s visit to the Bunch of Grapes:

The Red Pony is about closing the barn door after the horse got out. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the middle of the country’s Great Depression. It’s about a tragic miscarriage of justice by a racist white society against a Black man.

I don’t know what Freedom is about because it hasn’t really been released for sale yet. But an early Amazon review indicates it’s about a well-intentioned couple who lead the charge against an evil, environment-destroying big-coal mining empire, while falling prey to the nefarious intents of a Bush-Cheney crony. Not to worry: they emerge triumphant and filled with renewed hope. The review says we love the characters “not for their charm or goodness, but because they have their reasons…” Generally good enough for government work.

This year he picked up a copy of Brave New World, generally required high school reading. Come on! Are you kidding me? Big Guy came up with his ingenious concept of a benevolent dictatorship with an efficient, totalitarian welfare-state – all on his own!?! Without ever having even read Huxley? Wow! He’s even smarter than you thought.

Just an interesting little cultural fashion note: can you tell the difference between this year’s and last year’s book shop outing:

         

Bunch of Grapes visit 2010, left; 2011, right

Besides losing the hat and un-tucking the shirt, not much CHANGE. Ideologues are like that. I think Huxley had a thing or two to say about stasis too.

Oh, and the Secret Service made sure that the angry grapes were not allowed to congregate around the Bunch of Grapes bookstore this year. Supportive crowds only need apply:

“We’re counting on you!” one patron yelled as Obama left the store.

He also found a supportive audience outside the shop.

“He’s working all the time. He’s getting a little relaxing when he’s with his girls,” said Virlynn Atkinson White, from Washington, D.C., who also was on vacation. “But for the most part, I’m sure he’s working. There’s too much going on in the country. He’s very conscientious.”

Beware the Grapes of Wrath

That’s right Vivian. He’s working all the time, and he’s very conscientious. That’s what the “angry mob” has been trying to tell you all along. Consider yourselves warned.

Oh, butt I do have photo evidence of Little Bo’s arrival on the island, with his “handler” - who treats him like family.

Don’t follow that yellow brick road Little Bo, it’s a dead end.

I wonder if Big Guy will actually read his summer book selection.

“There is no escape from anxiety and struggle, and Huxley assists us in attaining this valuable glimpse of the obvious, precisely because it was a conclusion that was in many ways unwelcome to him.”        Christopher Hitchens

Linked By Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, Thanks!