It doesn’t snow in Hawaii. It “snowbamas.”
And with it being that time of year again, Christmas in the islands gets decorated with Secret Service agents, street barricades and the U.S. coast guard. It means the Obamas have started their Annual Hawaiian Christmas Getaway. Well, almost started, that is.
Obama after some much needed time on the golf course during his last Hawaii vacation.
First Lady Michelle Obama, their two daughters and (one lucky) dog Bo, arrived Saturday to the five-bedroom Kailua rental home. All that’s missing is the Prez, but before he can swap his three-piece suit for a pair of board shorts and slippers, he’s got to resolve the payroll tax cut and to push for a short-term spending bill in Washington. You know, President stuff.
Local media say Obama should not be here before Tuesday (yesterday). And while we continue to twiddle our thumbs (some of us choosing to instead use another particular middle digit when it comes to all the traffic that’ll be created and the $1.5 million tab tax payers have to pay for the family’s trip), I thought it’d be funny to share some photos from a parody site I found. It’s called “Not the White House” (whitehouse.gov1.info), which tries to answer the question: “What would whitehouse.gov look like if you take the ‘openness and transparency’ promise to its extreme?” Looks real, right? Not sure if he’d choose a maitai as a Hawaiian thirst-quencher, though. Perhaps the Snowbama shave ice will do.
At first glance, one could easily mistake the site for an official government one, down to the color scheme and page design. And even after more careful browsing, the reader may still be scratching his head in confusion. The site’s got some detailed articles and includes realistic-looking photos of the President. Photoshop, yes. But done quite well that you’d really have to look closely to figure it out.
There’s stuff like APEC Hawaii 2011 Costume Vote (how bout these costumes?) and White House Happy Hours with a pic of Obama cheersing to the (freakin’) weekend. A section dedicated to the presidential family’s Hawaii Christmas vacay has got to be the most cray-cray on the site. And with permission from the “webmaster” (who never told me his/her name or location), I’ll leave you with these photos to ponder while you wait patiently for your next Obama sighting and hear all the reports by media ragging on how expensive the expected 17-day trip turned out to be this year.
But whatever the cost, the First Family deserves a nice stay in the islands. See ya soon, Mr. Prez!
Photo Credit: Not the White House
