My friend wrote: "Even in its final days, with its final gestures the Bush Administration, reveals the spite that is so much its measure.
The Blair House is not a single home, but a complex of over 100 rooms, dozens of bathrooms, a florist, an apearance salon, and a host of other services. This story tells us why the Obamas could not stay at Blair House, and why the taxpayers are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the Hay-Adams Presidentially secure; at the quality-of-life cost of discommoding tens of thousands of Washingtonians, and visitors.
What amazes me is that no one in the Bush Administration recognized that the response to the Obamas was so crass it instantly became part of the historic narrative - the antipode to Dolly Madison taking the Washington portrait with her to save it, when the British fired the White House. It will be cited again and again. We historians love this stuff, and keep it alive."
Blair House Mystery Solved: It's John Howard (https://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2009/01/06/blair_house_mystery_solved_its.html?hpid=topnews)
PHIL RUCKER and AL KAMEN - Washington Post
The veil is lifted. We now know who is booked at Blair House, kicking President-elect Barack Obama and his family to the waiting list and across Lafayette Park to the Hay-Adams Hotel.
The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse is none other than John Howard, a former Australian prime minister and leading member of President Bush's coalition of the willing in Iraq.
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. (Paul Miller/Associated Press)
Howard and his entourage will be bunking at Blair House on Jan. 12, the night before he, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bush, said Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush. The three current and former heads of state are longtime political allies of Bush, and Blair and Howard were key partners in the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Blair and Uribe also were invited to stay at Blair House, but declined Bush's invitation, a second White House official said today. Blair, who traditionally stays at the British Embassy, and Uribe apparently found other accommodations, said the second White House official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.
There are other scheduled events at Blair House, but no other planned overnight visits between now and Jan. 15, when the Obama family is scheduled to move in, McDonough said.
Tomorrow, Laura Bush will attend a private reception at Blair House honoring the administration's Global Cultural Initiative members, 80 of whom are in the diplomatic corps, McDonough said. The reception will be hosted by Protocol Chief Nancy Brinker.
"This has been a long-planned celebratory event at the Blair House," McDonough said.
She added that there are several other planned parties at Blair House.
The Obamas requested an early move-in at the 70,000-square-foot, 119-room mansion across the street from the White House so their children could settle in to start school this week at Sidwell Friends School. But the incoming first family was told the residence had been booked, so they took a suite at the Hay-Adams.
At the time, the White House would not say which events were bumping the Obamas.
toddwquigley
01-08-2009, 01:38 AM
My friend wrote: "Even in its final days, with its final gestures the Bush Administration, reveals the spite that is so much its measure.
The Blair House is not a single home, but a complex of over 100 rooms, dozens of bathrooms, a florist, an apearance salon, and a host of other services. This story tells us why the Obamas could not stay at Blair House, and why the taxpayers are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the Hay-Adams Presidentially secure; at the quality-of-life cost of discommoding tens of thousands of Washingtonians, and visitors.
What amazes me is that no one in the Bush Administration recognized that the response to the Obamas was so crass it instantly became part of the historic narrative - the antipode to Dolly Madison taking the Washington portrait with her to save it, when the British fired the White House. It will be cited again and again. We historians love this stuff, and keep it alive."
Blair House Mystery Solved: It's John Howard (https://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2009/01/06/blair_house_mystery_solved_its.html?hpid=topnews)
PHIL RUCKER and AL KAMEN - Washington Post
The veil is lifted. We now know who is booked at Blair House, kicking President-elect Barack Obama and his family to the waiting list and across Lafayette Park to the Hay-Adams Hotel.
The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse is none other than John Howard, a former Australian prime minister and leading member of President Bush's coalition of the willing in Iraq.
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. (Paul Miller/Associated Press)
Howard and his entourage will be bunking at Blair House on Jan. 12, the night before he, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bush, said Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush. The three current and former heads of state are longtime political allies of Bush, and Blair and Howard were key partners in the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Blair and Uribe also were invited to stay at Blair House, but declined Bush's invitation, a second White House official said today. Blair, who traditionally stays at the British Embassy, and Uribe apparently found other accommodations, said the second White House official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.
There are other scheduled events at Blair House, but no other planned overnight visits between now and Jan. 15, when the Obama family is scheduled to move in, McDonough said.
Tomorrow, Laura Bush will attend a private reception at Blair House honoring the administration's Global Cultural Initiative members, 80 of whom are in the diplomatic corps, McDonough said. The reception will be hosted by Protocol Chief Nancy Brinker.
"This has been a long-planned celebratory event at the Blair House," McDonough said.
She added that there are several other planned parties at Blair House.
The Obamas requested an early move-in at the 70,000-square-foot, 119-room mansion across the street from the White House so their children could settle in to start school this week at Sidwell Friends School. But the incoming first family was told the residence had been booked, so they took a suite at the Hay-Adams.
At the time, the White House would not say which events were bumping the Obamas.
OK, an FYI here:
The Blair house is reserved for visiting heads of state, it is not, and has never been used as a temporary residence for a President elect.
Why Obama should get special treatment above and beyond other elected Presidents is beyond me. It is perfectly correct to let Howard have the Blair house and deny it to Obama, there has never been special dispensation for housing the President elect until he takes office, that is their own responsibility until they take office. The man is not President yet.
What are we supposed to say: "Oh sorry Prime Minister, but we bumped you out, the Blair house has been taken by the President elect, because he is so special that we had to make room for him, he simply couldn't afford to rent a room like every other President elect".
Oh yes, that sends a real good message to the rest of the World...
Zeno Swijtink
01-08-2009, 11:35 AM
OK, an FYI here:
The Blair house is reserved for visiting heads of state, it is not, and has never been used as a temporary residence for a President elect.
Why Obama should get special treatment above and beyond other elected Presidents is beyond me. It is perfectly correct to let Howard have the Blair house and deny it to Obama, there has never been special dispensation for housing the President elect until he takes office, that is their own responsibility until they take office. The man is not President yet.
What are we supposed to say: "Oh sorry Prime Minister, but we bumped you out, the Blair house has been taken by the President elect, because he is so special that we had to make room for him, he simply couldn't afford to rent a room like every other President elect".
Oh yes, that sends a real good message to the rest of the World...
I don't want to make too much of this but you should note that John Howard is not a Head of State. He is a former Australian Prime Minister. He resigned late 2007.
Although you may use the term "head of state" loosely, a Prime Minister is technically not even a head of state.
Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia. She is Australia's head of state.
One of the many flaws of our political system is that our head of state, our President, is a partisan position, as it is in France, but not in Germany or the Netherlands, for example.
pjpete
01-08-2009, 12:16 PM
Oh, I am sure Pres Obama understands that the former prime minister of Australia, a good ally of ours, needs this place to stay for awhile.....:):
toddwquigley
01-08-2009, 11:29 PM
I don't want to make too much of this but you should note that John Howard is not a Head of State. He is a former Australian Prime Minister. He resigned late 2007.
Although you may use the term "head of state" loosely, a Prime Minister is technically not even a head of state.
Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia. She is Australia's head of state.
One of the many flaws of our political system is that our head of state, our President, is a partisan position, as it is in France, but not in Germany or the Netherlands, for example.
Thou art correct. QUII is the Head of State of the British empire and the commonwealths, although try telling this to the Irish.
(This is very much like the Palestinian problem, so much so that the IRA and the PLO used to train together as "brothers in arms").
I should have said that the Blair House is reserved for high level visiting foreign dignitaries.
MsTerry
01-09-2009, 09:59 AM
So, Todd, do you still feel Howard trumps Obama???
.
Thou art correct. QUII is the Head of State of the British empire and the commonwealths, although try telling this to the Irish.
I should have said that the Blair House is reserved for high level visiting foreign dignitaries.
toddwquigley
01-09-2009, 12:45 PM
I feel that any Foreign dignitary current or past trumps Obama, in fact I feel that even if it were empty, Obama should not be allowed to spend any time there except the night before the inaugeration.
Here is the Wikipedia:
In 1942 the house was purchased by the U.S. government and has since been the official residence for guests of the U.S. president. Blair House is primarily used to house foreign heads of state visiting the president, but it has also been used for domestic guests. Several presidents-elect of the United States have spent the night before their inauguration in the house.
Note that it says: "The night before their inaugeration", not the weeks preceeding it.
Why oh why is Obama so special?
What has he done so far except to break every campaign promise he made?
The problem is that as usual, Obama wants extra special dispensation, simply because he is Obama. How much must we do to accomodate the mans titanic ego?
I am sure that the true belivers see this as a horrible injustic, just as Obama does, but the rest of use, the non-true believers (and getting bigger every day), just see it as more of Obama's incredibly selfish and offensive behavior.
How can any one person have such a huge ego? He would have to singlehandedly save the whole Galaxy from imminent destruction to accomodate his stupendouse ego and sense of entitlement.
He is just a man, a soon to be president, which makes him a public servant. Do you know what a servant is, they are and indentured employee, one step above a slave.
Personally I want to see this particular servant shut up and get to work and make all those Biblical scale miracles he promised happen.
MsTerry
01-09-2009, 01:37 PM
Do you want him to do it from a stall in Bethlehem?
He is just a man, a soon to be president, which makes him a public servant. Do you know what a servant is, they are and indentured employee, one step above a slave.
Personally I want to see this particular servant shut up and get to work and make all those Biblical scale miracles he promised happen.
toddwquigley
01-09-2009, 11:10 PM
I've got to admit, That's pretty funny!
I am pretty sure that's who Obama thinks he is, although I may be wrong, as I don't think he would settle for just being the Son or the Holy Ghost...
Seriously though, tradition is that the President elect may spend the night before the inaugeration at Blair house, not the weeks before it. At some point he needs to realize that he is not master of the known Universe, and start acting like a humble human being with a very big job to do.
Once he is President, he can have whomever he wants stay there: Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, his dirt-poor brother in Kenya, maybe even the ghost of Karl Marx.
The time for speeches is over, now it's time for all those miracles he promised. So far his only plans are to spend yet more money. This will not work, it didn't work in the 1930's, it will not work now.
He keeps talking about a new "New deal", but it's obvious he missed the lesson of the last one, which is that from 1932 to 1940, unemployment dropped a whopping 2% from 16% to 14% under FDR's New Deal, not only that, but the national debt quadrupled during that time. The New Deal was an abject failure, and the only thing that saved FDR was the war.
The war allowed us to renige on foreign debt, and was an excuse to print billions in unsecured dollars, thereby employing everyone. After the war, we had the Cold War, during which there was more excuses to print yet more unsecured money. When the USSR started to crumble, we got hit with the ammased inflation. Bush Sr. distraced everyone with the first Gulf War, and Clinton distracted everyone with more public spending, and yet more funny money.
Remember, that when Billy was leaving office, our chickens were coming home to roost, and Bush enherited an economic timebomb. The Iraq war allowed us a few more years of distraction, but now we are out of games unless somebody wants to get us into another big war.
It's 2009, and the New Deal is finally coming due, along with 60 years of spending on social programs we can't afford, so what is Obama's answer: Another New Deal...
What I see happening is Obama writing more NSF checks, and hoping that they come due on somebody else's shift. It's like the old saying: "I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks left".
It's too bad Obama isn't the person he claims to be, but then he is nothing but a puppet for the financial elite, and they don't care what happens to the common person as long as they make money.
The only real and lasting answer is to freeze all spending across the board on all the precious social programs, cut all unemployment, cut all foodstamps, cut all subsidies to the poor and lazy period, deny credit to all but the most credit worthy, deport the illegals, and cut taxes in half.
8 years of this would go a long way toward repairing our economy, and putting us back on track, but I don't see it happening until we hit rock bottom because people are too selfish and lazy.
Well I guess I won't have to wait too long, because rock bottom isn't very far away. If Obama spends like he says he is going to, it might happen in the next couple of years...
aslanonthego
01-10-2009, 07:13 PM
Yikes...you are really bitter, and mean, I might add. Is there something wrong with being "dirt poor"? Do you really think that all poor = lazy? I won't spend time on your post, but suffice it to say, you need emotional help!
I've got to admit, That's pretty funny!
I am pretty sure that's who Obama thinks he is, although I may be wrong, as I don't think he would settle for just being the Son or the Holy Ghost...
Seriously though, tradition is that the President elect may spend the night before the inaugeration at Blair house, not the weeks before it. At some point he needs to realize that he is not master of the known Universe, and start acting like a humble human being with a very big job to do.
Once he is President, he can have whomever he wants stay there: Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, his dirt-poor brother in Kenya, maybe even the ghost of Karl Marx.
The time for speeches is over, now it's time for all those miracles he promised. So far his only plans are to spend yet more money. This will not work, it didn't work in the 1930's, it will not work now.
He keeps talking about a new "New deal", but it's obvious he missed the lesson of the last one, which is that from 1932 to 1940, unemployment dropped a whopping 2% from 16% to 14% under FDR's New Deal, not only that, but the national debt quadrupled during that time. The New Deal was an abject failure, and the only thing that saved FDR was the war.
The war allowed us to renige on foreign debt, and was an excuse to print billions in unsecured dollars, thereby employing everyone. After the war, we had the Cold War, during which there was more excuses to print yet more unsecured money. When the USSR started to crumble, we got hit with the ammased inflation. Bush Sr. distraced everyone with the first Gulf War, and Clinton distracted everyone with more public spending, and yet more funny money.
Remember, that when Billy was leaving office, our chickens were coming home to roost, and Bush enherited an economic timebomb. The Iraq war allowed us a few more years of distraction, but now we are out of games unless somebody wants to get us into another big war.
It's 2009, and the New Deal is finally coming due, along with 60 years of spending on social programs we can't afford, so what is Obama's answer: Another New Deal...
What I see happening is Obama writing more NSF checks, and hoping that they come due on somebody else's shift. It's like the old saying: "I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks left".
It's too bad Obama isn't the person he claims to be, but then he is nothing but a puppet for the financial elite, and they don't care what happens to the common person as long as they make money.
The only real and lasting answer is to freeze all spending across the board on all the precious social programs, cut all unemployment, cut all foodstamps, cut all subsidies to the poor and lazy period, deny credit to all but the most credit worthy, deport the illegals, and cut taxes in half.
8 years of this would go a long way toward repairing our economy, and putting us back on track, but I don't see it happening until we hit rock bottom because people are too selfish and lazy.
Well I guess I won't have to wait too long, because rock bottom isn't very far away. If Obama spends like he says he is going to, it might happen in the next couple of years...
toddwquigley
01-10-2009, 08:48 PM
Nothing bitter or mean about it, our social system suffers massive abuse from the majority of people who use it. The vast majority that are on welfare and use all of the assorted social programs are perfectly capable of getting a job that while not glamerous, will support them. They are unwilling to be inconvenienced, and unwilling to make the sacrafices to get ahead in life, BECAUSE, there is a social system to ENABLE them.
Go down to the county social services office and look at the people applying. The majority of them have decent cars, decent cloths, nice cell phones, kids playing on PSP's, etc. etc. etc., they are simply unwilling to make the necessary sacrafices to better themselves because they know the government (taxpayers) will take care of them.
Socialism is downright evil, it promotes mediocrity. The vast majority don't need it, they simply TAKE ADVANTAGE of it.
I used to think that the people it helped who actually needed it off-set the abuse of those who take advantage of it, but the abuse is now so rampant that I can no longer justify that.
The mediocrity and abuse now offsets the help it does.
Read my many other posts, I have been on the street, I have been in these positions, and it was my decisions and my actions that got me there, and it was my decisions and my actions that got me out of there.
The 90% that abuse the system and live in dysfunctional mediocrity because of it, off-set the 10% that actually need the help. in most cases, those 10% will make it out anyway.
You want your beloved social system, fine, it comes with a price, and that price is a broken economy.
Maybe you should look to MLK as an example, when he said: "Please don't give my people welfare, because it will make them slaves to it". MLK didn't want handouts, because he knew that it was addictive and made people weak, and useless.
You want social systems, fine, lets make everyone that benefits from them donate part of their week working for the government, and the other half of their week looking for jobs, and make the whole thing accountable.
Let's stop giving benefits to illegals, because there should be no reward for those who break the law. To come to America Illegally, and then apply for every benefit possible is just amazing abuse, lack of respect and complete disregard for the law. These people should be jailed in a big uncomfortable jail in the Arizon desert for 90 days before being deported.
Start making the fines for screwing the system harsh and nasty. People who lie to get help, should go to jail and spend their time on work crews. People who are capable of providing for themselves if they were to stop spending their money on frivelous luxuries should not get any help. People who are capable of working at Walmart or McDonalds and supporting themselves, should not be given help.
It's just sick and disgusting how these people abuse the system. The majority of people getting social help, are just using it to cover for things they need in order to free up money for the things they want. Get County medical, there's $200+ a month freed up, get food stamps, there's another $200+ a month, get subsidized housing, there's more hundreds freed up. Gosh, now you have enough to get a new car, go eat out, buy music and video games, get cable, get a cell phone, buy new clothes, etc. etc.
I perfectly understand helping people with their needs, but only after they have sacrificed their wants. If you look at it from this perspective, there are very few that actually qualify.
People need to be held accountable for their decisions and actions, it is not the taxpayer's job to cover your ass when you make bad decisions. People need to be responsible for themselves, not place that responsibility upon people who are responsible for themselves.
You want me to support social programs, fine, come up with a way to get rid of all the flakes, so that the help only goes to those who really, truely need it. In the meantime, the abuse of the flakes outweighs the true needs of the few, and it is destroying this country economically. If it doesn't stop, there will not be any money left for anybody, we will all be out of work because the economy will have been taxed to death.