Presidential pooch gets own private jet to join Obamas on vacation

I have been away from the Internet for a few days, enjoying the joys of sitting down and reading a book instead of surfing the net.

In my absence, not much has changed.  The Gulf coat is still reeling from the pollution caused by the oil spill.  Lots of inaccurate and sensational reporting has compounded the problem by driving tourists away resulting in lost wages.  To put the final nail in the area's coffin, the Obama administration's decision to, in effect, end oil exploration in the Gulf -  may well have a more deleterious and long lasting effect on the area and the country than the BP spill did by itself.  But all that is not unexpected from Team Obama.  It simply validates our worst fears.

Meanwhile Obama used his weekend address to the nation (who listens to those things anyway?) to accuse Republicans of being the party of the rich.  Which made me laugh upon reading that part of the plan for getting the Obamas to their Bar Harbor, Maine, vacation spot involved sending the Obama dog in his own private jet.  I recall vaguely a movie ("Barbarians at the Gates") about wealthy tobacco CEOs who used their corporate jets to fly their dogs around.  I have no doubt that private jets have been used for that purpose.  But in this case, the Obama dog "Bo" was flown around at taxpayer expense.  The irony is delicious.  Can you hear the theme music of "Movin' On Up" swelling in the background?

Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.;