How Green Is Your White House?
In the WaPo, Dana Milbank chronicled a concerned "green" American mother's struggle to get a nice organic dinner on the table:
Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:
The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.
Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"
Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.
There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.
The first lady had encouraged Freshfarm Markets, the group that runs popular farmers markets in Dupont Circle and elsewhere, to set up near the White House, and she helped get the approvals to shut down Vermont Avenue during rush hour on Thursdays. But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market. Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.
I Don't think Milbank's quite right on the carbon footprint calculation, but going green this way sure isn't too green -- or too convenient for anybody who has to get anywhere in Washington. Couldn't she have just loaned some assistant a J. Crew sweater, given her a few $20s, and left the big black SUVs and all in the White House garage?
Sure, I think she should be a prisoner in the White House.
I think there are several criticisms, what happened to her garden, and was this really impromptu or a canned (pun intended) media moment, but I don't think it's really fair to criticize her anytime she wants to get out of the White House. Let's face it, regardless of how green she wants to be, for the next 4 to 8 years, the requirements of her life are going to force her to have a huge carbon footprint.
I also think Milbank is talking out his ass regarding: "But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market." I've shopped at farmer's markets in LA, SF, Berkeley, Phoenix, Seattle, Boston, ... and they are all far closer to yuppie porn than a quaint farmer's market with Fred Ziffel and Sam Drucker. Organic Asian Pears and Tuscan Kale indeed.
jerry at September 24, 2009 1:08 AM
What is wrong with this picture? If the Head of State (and his family) has to be protected to this degree, something is fundamentally wrong.
This kind of showing reeks of a banana republic, whose leader is scared of his own population. Why are so many people so upset at the government?
Could be a clue there somewhere...
bradley13 at September 24, 2009 1:27 AM
Are you saying this is atypical for family members of the President, Bradley?
I seem to recall a certain pair of fraternal twins, who used to take great delight in attempting to elude their secret service detachment. That is when they weren't threatening them, insulting them, etc.
Bill Clinton will be the last president to have Secret Service protection for life, however. After Clinton, laws were changed to allow all subsequent presidents Secret Service protection for 10 years after their terms are up.
Patrick at September 24, 2009 1:48 AM
"Couldn't she have just loaned some assistant a J. Crew sweater, given her a few $20s, and left the big black SUVs and all in the White House garage?"
Sure - but as you've seen already, this administration is about show, not go.
Radwaste at September 24, 2009 1:59 AM
I thought America was a downright mean country? Didn't she say that?
It sounds more like I'm an awfully damned priviledged American.
David M. at September 24, 2009 3:44 AM
What a role model for American Women!
You go out and do what you want no matter what the cost is to other people.
Well I guess she does live with that guy, so not much of a stretch here.
David M. at September 24, 2009 3:49 AM
"Are you saying this is atypical for family members of the President, Bradley?"
Yes, exactly. In most Western countries, there may be a couple of bodyguards in the background, but that's it. Heck, in many European countries, high government officials ride the train/subways to work like any other business commuters.
This kind of showy, excessive security is just weird in a first-world country - it's more what one expects of Libya, or some military dictatorship in Central America.
bradley13 at September 24, 2009 3:55 AM
Does anyone seriously believe that She was cooking dinner herself?
Can you name a more entitled person than her?
With tax payor supplied servants at her beck + call we're supposed to believe that she's doing the cooking???
Maybe, maybe I could believe it if the story was about her Mother doing the cooking but not her. Just more image polishing, that's all.
sean at September 24, 2009 4:33 AM
@Jerry: "but I don't think it's really fair to criticize her anytime she wants to get out of the White House."
I agree. These days, I guess, if you want to get out of the White House, the Secret Service and all the inconveniences that go with it are a fact of life. It's been that way for quite a few years. I don't know when was the last time a resident of the White House could just go out and stroll around town on his or her own. In a book of presidential humor, Senator Bob Dole said that Calvin Coolidge used to ring all the servant bells at once, and while they were converging, sneak out of the building and walk around downtown.
old rpm daddy at September 24, 2009 5:27 AM
Sounds to me like she's just showing off her over-inflated sense of entitlement.
Twit.
Flynne at September 24, 2009 5:56 AM
I understand the security need and I can sort of sympathize with the prisoner-in-the-White-House thing, but... y'know, if she doesn't want the job, she can always let someone else have it.
Cousin Dave at September 24, 2009 6:30 AM
I don't know why we feel the need to protect our presidents so much. If a few of them get popped, who cares. Maybe it will make them more humble. Maybe they'll learn to kick ass on their own.
Because you know damn well nobody was gonna roll up on George Washington and pop a cap in his ass.
I guess what I'm saying is the President shouldn't be treated like royalty, he's just another dude. We've got procedures for dealing with it if he falls off his bike and splits his head open.
I mean, it's not like he's Steve Jobs or anything!
brian at September 24, 2009 6:40 AM
Personally, I suspect she didn't know what the Secret Service would have to do in order for her to go shopping at a Farmer's Market. She has been shopping in other areas, such as France, without closing down entire blocks.
I suspect that she simply dutifully told the Secret Service that she was planning on shopping at the Farmer's Market, probably expecting just a small detachment with her, enough to flank her on two or three sides, not expecting the entire block to be closed down for her.
Patrick at September 24, 2009 6:43 AM
I imagine she expected just what she got. I agree the security in our own country is out of hand. If you have to be that afraid of your own populace, something is very, very wrong with you and what you are doing.
momof4 at September 24, 2009 7:04 AM
Didn't Bill Clinton go out and about on his own a bunch? I know in Switzerland everyone loved him because he would wander around and go to local restaurants...
I think this is a post 9-11 thing.
NicoleK at September 24, 2009 7:26 AM
If I were the First Lady (or very, very wealthy), I wouldn't do my own shopping for food. I might cook, though, for fun.
It's possible that she didn't know how big of an ordeal the trip would be, and I'm sure she does get tired of being at the White House all the time.
My friend is in Rick Perry's (TX governor)running group. He takes his security entourage with him when he's running around the lake. You know, because someone might try to assassinate him him while he's on a 5-miler...
ahw at September 24, 2009 8:05 AM
No, Nicole, it's a post JFK thing. With everything they did they couldn't stop him from getting shot, so they went crazier.
And then someone took a pot-shot at Ford.
And they went crazier.
And someone actually shot Reagan.
And they went crazier still.
And now we have the President as a prisoner of his own job.
It can't be good for the mental health of the man in the chair.
brian at September 24, 2009 8:06 AM
She's trying to promote something and it really is not her fault that she cannot do so without the Secret Service detail. Security for the President and his family is at least one thing you cannot blame on the Obamas. I would hate to never be able to go shopping without ever going through that. Sure she has people do run out and do errands, but I don't think the case here really was that she needed two heads of organic kale. I think she is trying to promote organic food, and farmer's markets, but the reality is she doesn't have the type of life that will allow her to frequent them with the ease that the rest of us could.
Kristen at September 24, 2009 8:11 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/09/24/how_green_is_yo.html#comment-1669327">comment from ahwIf I were the First Lady (or very, very wealthy), I wouldn't do my own shopping for food.
I would think about all the people I'd put out with my showboat trip to the farmer's market.
Amy Alkon at September 24, 2009 8:18 AM
I would think about all the people I'd put out with my showboat trip to the farmer's market.
So you favor the First Lady staying in the White House all day every day? Because anything else she does involves, for better or worse, a security and media circus that is bound to inconvenience others.
Whatever at September 24, 2009 8:34 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/09/24/how_green_is_yo.html#comment-1669330">comment from WhateverSo you favor the First Lady staying in the White House all day every day? Because anything else she does involves, for better or worse, a security and media circus that is bound to inconvenience others.
She really needs to make a lot of people late to pick up their kid to go to school when somebody else could go get veggies for her?
Amy Alkon at September 24, 2009 8:39 AM
No one is suggesting the First Lady should be a prisoner in the WH 24/7/365. All some of us are trying to point out is, since she knows or should know of all the trouble, expense, and inconvenience the security apparatus puts everyone to whenever she does leave, she should consider when it's really necessary to leave, particularly for something like veggies that an assistant could quickly and quietly go get.
Further, this whole concept of being a prisoner in her house is laughable. She (quite frequently) gets to travel to places most of us only dream of. She can do this whenever she wants. She has everyone available to do everything for her at all times. If this is one's definition of being a prisoner, then I submit that the one doing the defining has never truly been a prisoner.
cpabroker at September 24, 2009 8:52 AM
She really needs to make a lot of people late to pick up their kid to go to school when somebody else could go get veggies for her?
Reading the article, it sounds like she was out promoting organic foods, one of the pet causes that it seems First Ladies must have. Given that there was a sound stage and speech, I doubt that this was just a "popping out for some greens" deal:
I doubt even Michelle Obama can just comandeer the Mayor of DC when she wants to get some groceries.
Whatever at September 24, 2009 9:23 AM
Yes.
You should have heard the obscene tirade I launched when Bush and (at a different time) Gore traveled through Connecticut. They had large swathes of highway shut down so Gore could speak at some university, and as I recall I had to change my work plans for that day because there was simply no way to "get there from here".
If the President is going to be that much of an inconvenience to us, then we don't need to see him in person.
Either that, or ditch the fucking security details and act like a man.
brian at September 24, 2009 9:26 AM
This seems to be an "official" event. However, they do this shit all the time to "grab a burger," and shut down huge swaths of suburban VA to show how "Normal and down to earth" they are. Or how about Barack and Michelle's "date" in NY. They could have had it this week when they are Fing up the traffic anyway for no additional cost or inconvenience due to UN week, but NO! They chose another date where they could make a big show of it and I had to serve dinner to guests with helicopters hovering above me for hours.
Brian - try living in NY.
carmela at September 24, 2009 9:50 AM
If you read Kessler's Inside the White House, you'll find that most presidential offspring were terrors for the security personnel (especially the teenaged ones). Chelsea Clinton was one of the few exceptions to that rule. (Her mother, on the other hand....)
She's still new enough in the role to not completely understand how big a production the Secret Service is going to make of a simple trip to the market.
However, it appears this was more than a simple trip to the market:
This was a staged event held to bring publicity to Michelle Obama's cause of healthy eating. The details were probably published beforehand. That means security had to be tighter than on an impromptu trip to a Parisian market.
Conan the Grammarian at September 24, 2009 10:09 AM
Yes this was just an unannounced publicity event - hence the tone of Milbank's article.
It's one thing if a public figure is going to schedule an event of this sort - when everyone who lives and works in the area can be warned of the inconvenience - but her majesty basically held several blocks full of people captive in their homes and businesses in order to pull a silly and condescending publicity stunt. Not to mention all of the people trapped when trying to enter the area. What if someone needed to get home to their kids, or pick someone up?
There's a very weird vibe w/ the Obama administration. They really do seem to be promoting a 3rd worldish sort of 'cult of personality'.
Maurice at September 24, 2009 11:09 AM
Please tell me she didn't dispatch Air Force One to Tuscany for the kale.
MarkD at September 24, 2009 12:41 PM
No, but Bill C. shut down LAX for a few hours to get a haircut.
That's all you really have to know about him.
Radwaste at September 24, 2009 2:37 PM
She was giving a public speech. You think this kind of security detail isn't Standard Operating Procedure every time Michelle Obama (or Laura Bush before her, or Hillary Clinton before her) gives a speech?
This article is the very definition of manufactured outrage. Y'all could be a little smarter about interpreting the media -- if it weren't feeding back to you the very anti-Obama messages you're already predisposed to hear.
Morans,
F.
franko at September 24, 2009 4:43 PM
For cryin' out loud, people! It's spelled M-O-R-O-N-S!
Although, I really don't think the guy in that picture won many spelling bees in high school. A few drinking contests, perhaps.
Conan the Grammarian at September 24, 2009 4:47 PM
Patrick, I re-read my earlier comment (the one with all the bold highlights) and it reads like I'm busting on you. I'm not.
This seems to have been a pre-planned event. That means the schedule was published ahead of time and many people knew the First Lady was going to be there (including ones who might wish her harm). Hence, tight security.
Conan the Grammarian at September 24, 2009 5:34 PM
Radwaste, I usually expect better from you.
"According to Federal Aviation Administration records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the May 18 haircut caused no significant delays of regularly scheduled passenger flights - no circling planes, no traffic jams on the runways.
Commuter airlines that fly routes reportedly affected by the president's haircut confirmed they have no record of delays that day.
The FAA records, generated by the regional Air Route Traffic Control Center, show that an unscheduled air taxi flight had the only delay attributed to the closure of two runways for an hour in anticipation of Air Force One's departure. The air taxi took off 17 minutes after leaving the gate -- two minutes late, by FAA accounting.
"If you understand the air traffic system, you'd find that statement [that planes were circling] ludicrous," said Fred O'Donnell, an FAA spokesman at the agency's Western-Pacific regional office, which responded to New York Newsday's May 21 request under the freedom of information law.
O'Donnell said that although two runways were closed, traffic was light that afternoon and arriving flights were simply diverted to the two other runways. "It did not cause any problems," he said."
jerry at September 24, 2009 5:45 PM
Conan,
Welcome to the internets.
F.
franko at September 24, 2009 5:54 PM
Illiteracy is not limited to the "internets."
I once passed a store that had an expensive-looking sign in the window informing all passersby that it sold "novolties."
And don't get me stared on the misuse of apostrophes and "between you and I."
Conan the Grammarian at September 25, 2009 9:14 AM
jerry, you can get a better explanation of ATC from Patrick Smith, at Salon.com.
Essentially, no commercial aircraft in the USA takes off unless it has a landing slot ready for it at its destination.
But if you want to think that closing two runways at LAX has no effect, be my guest. If you think the seventh-busiest airport in the world can lose literally half its capacity and not notice... well.
Do notice that I didn't make any noise about taking AF1 in the first place. I'm not one of those who thinks the President should ride a bus.
Radwaste at September 25, 2009 5:36 PM
Yeah, but does he really need a 747? couldn't AF1 be served just as well with a G5 or a CRJ-200?
Oh, and on the green angle - I still use less energy in a year than Algore does in a month.
brian at September 25, 2009 8:09 PM
The 747-based flying command center that is most often designated AF1 is designed to make sure the president is in command of the US military at all times no matter what.
The designation, Air Force One, is the official designation of ANY plane on which the president is being transported - from a Beechcraft to a Boeing.
Conan the Grammarian at September 25, 2009 11:34 PM
Conan -
No need to get pedantic on me. I'm aware of protocol.
What I'm saying is what the zark does he need to have with him that requires a double-decker jumbo motherfucking jet?
I suspect it's more a "My plane is bigger than yours" than anything else. He could get the same job done in a much smaller aircraft. If range is an issue, I'm sure they could come up with something. Seriously, how hard would it be to retrofit an air-fueling rig onto a small aircraft and let him refuel in the air instead of having a plane that can do cross-country in one shot?
brian at September 26, 2009 6:21 AM
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