Well, here is *the* photo

[impik]

President Barack Obama and daughter Sasha swim at Alligator Point in Panama City Beach, Fla., Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010. The President traveled to Panama City Beach with First Lady Michelle Obama and Sasha to meet with local business owners and officials and to encourage Americans to travel to the Gulf Coast beaches. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R! Great pic!!!

:thumbsup:

[nmbluesky]

2. K & R

[bigwillq]

3. Cute pic.

:)

[quiet.american]

4. K&R - thanks for posting, Impik! nt

[monmouth]

5. And Florida gives Obama a landslide in '12. Hahaha, thanks Mr. President...n/t

[madmax]

6. k & r

Yay! Daddy...

[Recursion]

7. I, on the other hand, would not swim somewhere called "Alligator Point"

But I'm just weird that way...

[Gordan Shumway]

9. What about "Shark Alley"

If I were in charge I'd probably veer away from naming a beach after a dangerous amphibious predator.

[Control-Z]

17. My first thought.

Alligator Point? I wouldn't swim there.

[TheEuclideanOne]

22. What you don't see....

He has Secret Service guys underwater with high powered rifles clearing out the Alligators. The word on the street is that if that picture was taken about 10 minutes earlier, you would have seen 7 Alligators floating to the top of he water, belly up.

[femmocrat]

8. Too cute!

Thanks for posting.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. That IS cute!!!!

[TlalocW]

11. They are obviously

Swimming in very Muslim fashion, once again giving us more proof where his loyalties truly lie. :sarcasm:

TlalocW

[Bobbieo]

12. I wish all of the members of Congress would have gone in the water with him.

and Sasha.

[nmbluesky]

13. I agree with you

N/T

[great white snark]

14. KICK for a beautiful family. Thanks impik.

Isn't our President's smile contagious?

[steve2470]

15. k and r nt

[handmade34]

16. thanks for the smile

great picture!

[glowing]

18. hope they don't get sick

[Phx_Dem]

19. He wouldn't have let Sasha in if there was anything wrong with the water.

I'm sure they had it EPA tested. He might have gone it either way, but I can't believe he'd let Sasha go in, all the way in.

[Capitalocracy]

20. Of course, lots of things will make you sick

over the longrun, not for being exposed just once. Not a problem for Obama, but for the people who live there, disaster.

Just saying we should think critically about this rather than accept this as proof that everything's hunky dory when a lot of scientists are saying otherwise.

[greiner3]

21. The waters of the Gulf;

Are the ones in question. The place were this pic was taken was at a place called Grand Lagoon. It is sin a protected area that has limited Gulf water access and in fact has a positive flow rate into the Gulf. When the tar balls were coming ashore at Panama City Beach, they did so from a SSW direction. That direction is cut off from the Grand Lagoon by land masses.

[Capitalocracy]

23. Does no one else think

that this seems a little bit irresponsible?

[suzie]

24. If the President and his daughter had gone into the Gulf on a day when red flags

were flying, it would have been quite irresponsible.

People drown on days when there are rip currents in the Gulf near the beach and the local authorities try to let the visiting public know about the danger, often to no avail.

Others may find people drowning a ROFLMAO topic, those of us who know people that have drowned on a day when red flags were visible--less so.

[MrMickeysMom]

30. Probably still not healthy, but what the heck, he had to, right?

I would not wish to stay in Gulf waters (not because of alligators, they're not in salt water in FL) but because of the continual waves of what has not been cleaned up yet (hint: Deep Water Horizon fiasco).

I'm betting they got out after a quick swim and removed all traces of the contamination.

[suzie]

33. Y'all need to decide which you want--either he swam in the Grand Lagoon where according to

DUers on another thread, there is no contamination.

And they killed the alligators off, OR he swam in the Gulf and removed traces of the contamination.

BTW, what traces are you talking about? Because I want to make sure about them the next time I swim in the Gulf.

[glowing]

34. The corexit breaks the oil into small (not visible to eye) droplets and encases that

little oil particle.. you would need de-greaser to get it off and soap and vitamins. But if where he was swimming was an output/ land locked area, there is most likely less since fresh water is supplying into and then out into the gulf. There are differing concentrations of this stuff and it depends on the tides, currents, weather... lots of factors.. However, no one is testing for corexit. Apparently, the only thing that gets rid of both oil and corexit is bio-remediation.. which is sitting idly by on pallets (bp doesn't own stock in that apparently).

[suzie]

40. The greatest danger yesterday in the Gulf was probably not from oil or corexit but

from rip currents, which definitely do kill some people every year along this coast.

And I was being flippant in my last comment, but do appreciate your explanation of the interaction of oil and dispersant and the mention of bio-remediation.

[MrMickeysMom]

42. Traces of oil, suzie.... traces of oil...

Isn't that what has been making its way ashore?

Whomever you are referring to in another thread, I'm not them. We don't all write alike, suzie... Ya'll got that one straight? Good.

[suzie]

46. Traces of oil? You mean like the kind you're likely to get on your legs in an

area where there are lots of boats with engines pouring oil into the waters--like the inland area where Obama and daughter swam?

Because I've been in the Gulf not too far from the Obama vacation site and not had any "traces of oil" on me when I got out.

But, I've stepped out of a boat in a small lake that has been cut off from the Gulf during the same time period and had to scrub off because of the oil that seeps from power boat engines.

Now, I know that I don't get it--but the folks who've done considerable testing say there's no determinable amount of oil in these particular waters. Not in the whole Gulf, but here.

[MrMickeysMom]

47. Aw, come on... is it worth not considering this-

Considerable testing has not been done by enough of the folks.

The story on Corexit, and all those derivatives present in the water is far from over. The bonds that have been breaking apart from oil is far from going through a level of testing the scientists are telling us we need to know to predict what is taken into our skin and what is being taken up in every organ.

I've stepped out in plenty of the same stuff, too. I lived in Fl for 30 years. Tannic acid or boat oil aside, what I would like to know more about has to do with that kind of testing.

I think we'd both do well to read the science journal, or at least take the blinders off when it comes to what we have left over in the Gulf.

[ensho]

28. kick

nt

[Phx_Dem]

31. True.

[66 dmhlt]

25. You gotta admit it's a much more appealing picture than these ...

Palin & family in Hawaii

[Diane R]

29. This post needs a thread of it's own!!!!!

[iamthebandfanman]

45. please no. lol n/t

[AlbertCat]

49. What are those lily white quitters doing in a place with "too many Aisians"?

[Drops_not_Dope]

26. are you sure that ain't the swimming pool?

[impik]

27. It's not even a real photo...

[Stellar]

32. aww, cute k&r

B-) B-)

[lies and propaganda]

35. It kills birds and maybe whales, HOP IN SASHA!

great fucking idea. SMH that we need bullshit like this to quell our scared little 4 year old hearts.

ITS NOT SAFE! They shouldnt have been there!

[iamthebandfanman]

44. i hafta say

its definitely made me look even more differently at him than before


i understand the purpose of this, but its for all the wrong reasons.


its not as safe as people want to pretend.


will they be hurt personally? probably not.

but to act like everything is fine and dandy, and use ur kid to do it, is kinda a low thing to do ... if you ask me.

[OnyxCollie]

36. He's so hunky!

I'm sure those held indefinitely at Gitmo and Bagram concur.

[Scurrilous]

37. K & R

:thumbsup:

[earcandle]

38. How do we know this was in Florida? Could have been Hawaii.

[OwnedByFerrets]

39. If you want to get specific, it was NOT the Gulf that they were swimming in....

however, I am more glad that he cared about the safey of his daughter MORE than he cared about a photo op. Letting her swim in gulf waters that have NOT been proven to be safe would have been unwise.

[Billmelater]

41. Summer lucky some are not

Some children get to go swimming with Daddy, some get third degree burns from missiles launched from predator drones by Daddy.

But so long as the rich people can still go on vacation, it gives me a warm feeling inside, no?

[iamthebandfanman]

43. hope nobody explodes!

dont get near a flame guys!!

[Beetwasher]

48. Wow, There Are Some Sick Mutherfuckers Posting In This Thread

n/t

[tishaLA]

50. no shit