Free Republic

Despite the government shutdown, Vice President Joe Biden is vacationing at Camp David this long weekend. He's joined at the Maryland retreat by his family, including his wife (Jill Biden), children, and grandchildren. The vice president is also there with "essential" government workers, who must work despite the government shutdown. That includes his Secret Service detail, as well as the Secret Service details assigned to the rest of his family, and other support staff. They are protecting the Bidens as they vacation -- but aren't getting paid because of the federal shutdown. The vice president's public schedule simply reads: WEEKEND...

President Barack Obama will host Cabinet members and their families on Friday for a rare retreat at Camp David, a White House official said. Obama uses the facility far less often than many of his predecessors have, only occasionally holding meetings there or heading there for a weekend of rest and relaxation. The president has hosted Cabinet members and their families there just once before, weeks before Democrats' big losses in the 2010 midterm elections.

After a mini-controversy about a claim from President Obama that he shoots clay pigeons at Camp David, the White House released a photo of “Obama” shooting a $2500 Browning Citori shotgun. Problem: It doesn’t look like the President’s watch. And that leaves aside why the President is shooting a fancy Japanese-made gun instead of a down-to-earth Mossberg or Remington.

President Barack Obama shoots clay targets on the range at Camp David, Md., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House

This morning, the White House released a photo of President Obama shooting a gun: http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/files/images/8436110735_5ec05750a2_b.preview.jpg "President Barack Obama shoots clay targets on the range at Camp David, Md., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)," the caption reads.

News of President Obama's apparently long-secret fondness for skeet shooting came as a surprise to those who say they have witnessed the president's "awkward" attempts at pinging the (clay) pigeons. ~~SNIP~~ "The only time he shot skeet was for President's Cup," said the source, referring to a shooting competition tradition involving the presidential Marine guards. "I was there. He stayed for about five minutes, and couldn't leave fast enough."Skeet shooting "is very hard," said the source. "Especially for someone not used to guns ... He couldn't have been more uncomfortable."

President Obama recently told the New Republic magazine, "Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time." Today, after some suggested the president's claim might not be true, the New Republic tweeted a picture supposedly proving that Obama has gone skeet shooting:

I know you’ve seen this at Drudge, appropriately posted beneath a photo of the Hopenchange crew cracking up in laughter, but some panders are so shameless and comically implausible that they must be commemorated in a post. (Unfortunately, politicians’ need to ingratiate themselves with gun owners has been known to lead to this sort of thing.)To believe this, you need to believe that O splits sharply from most ivory-tower liberals when it comes to recreational shooting. How likely is that? In what other ways, based on what we know about him personally and politically, does he stray from the path...

In interview, Palestinian leader's widow says Arafat decided to launch Intifada after Camp David, according to research institute. Yasser Arafat's widow Suha admitted that the late Palestinian leader premeditated the Second Intifada, in an interview with Dubai TV earlier this month, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “Immediately after the failure of the Camp David [negotiations], I met him in Paris upon his return.… Camp David had failed, and he said to me: ‘You should remain in Paris.’ I asked him why, and he said: ‘Because I am going to start an Intifada. They want...

Secretary Panetta is talking about helping Egypt to do something forbidden by the Camp David Accords -- bring large-scale forces into Sinai. Israel's long term concern is whether Egypt will at some point remove the additional forces. Recent comments by Egyptian government officials suggest they will not. Egypt has moved forces into the Sinai beyond what was agreed to in the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Getting them in wasn't that difficult – Israel agrees that security in the Sinai has deteriorated. Getting them out again later may be another matter. And how the U.S. positions itself to safeguard the treaty itself...

CAIRO -- When Egyptian actor Ayman Kandeel believes he has been tricked into appearing on an Israeli television network, he smacks the show’s producer and charges to slap the female host, throwing her into a corner. He curses, tosses chairs, and single-handedly demolishes the set. Just before the famous actor reaches for his gun holster, the crew finally tells him he is a guest on a prank show and that everyone in the studio is actually Egyptian. A crew member admonishes Kandeel: “Shame on you for hitting a woman.” Kandeel, who admittedly carries a gun in these uncertain times of...

Camp David has been an historic presidential retreat since World War II, but according to New York Times White House correspondent Helene Cooper, Barack Obama "hates it" because there isn't any golf. Such was revealed on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show this weekend (video follows with transcript and commentary): NYT White House Correspondent: Obama 'Hates' Camp David Because There's No GolfHELENE COOPER, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alright, for something totally superficial, I have figured out why President Obama does not like Camp David. CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: He doesn’t like it? COOPER: He hates it. We were up there...

Leaders of eight of the world's largest economies are meeting at Camp David this evening for the G-8 Summit, marking the biggest gathering of heads of state at the president's country retreat in history. The rustic estate in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, however, presents something of a logistical challenge for the White House as it seeks to accommodate all of the leaders and their staffs. Before your mind wanders to those summer camp memories of bunk bed-filled cabins, the Obama administration assures there are "adequate facilities" for each delegation. But who sleeps where? And how were the arrangements decided? "The allocation...

Israel's concerns that its historic peace treaty with Egypt could be in peril amid the political upheaval in Cairo have intensified with the announcement by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood it will contest presidential elections next month. Amos Gilad, a top aide to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a former Israeli liaison with Cairo, said Tuesday he was apprehensive that the Muslim Brotherhood, which already dominates Parliament, could suspend or abrogate the 33-year-old peace pact. The treaty, the first between Israel and its Arab adversaries, has been the linchpin of U.S. policy in the Middle East since it was sealed...

In a surprise turnaround, the White House announced Monday afternoon that Chicago won’t be hosting the controversial G-8 summit after all. It will be held at Camp David instead of Chicago. The NATO summit will proceed here May 20-21. City Hall insisted that it was President Barack Obama’s decision — that Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not ask the White House to take the more controversial of the two summits off Chicago’s hands. One leading demonstrator pledged the protests “will go forward” here despite the switch. The White House issued a terse statement dropping the bombshell shortly before 3 p.m. “In...

Curiosor and Curiosor….. Headed to Camp David Marine One Diverts, Obama Disappears, Arrives Via Motorcade…. Posted on September 3, 2011 by sundancecracker (CNN) — President Barack Obama left for Camp David on Marine One Friday but, in a twist that has left some White House reporters scratching their heads, he apparently arrived at the presidential retreat by car. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained the decision not to land at Camp David was made in advance because of the weather.... Meanwhile, CNN’s weather team found no signs of stormy weather in the area at the time Marine One departed...

A fighter jet has intercepted a small civilian airplane in restricted airspace near the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., and escorted it to at an airport in West Virginia. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the Piper plane was out of radio communication when it was intercepted by an F-15E fighter at about 4:45 p.m. It was diverted to the airport in Martinsburg.

Supposedly Marine One landed near Frederick, MD, rather than Camp David, with POTUS aboard. POTUS continued to Camp David by motorcade due to bad weather at Camp David landing site. Story is pegging my BS meter. How would a/c with POTUS aboard ever be dispatched into such conditions? Was this a security situation?

In a highly unusual maneuver, President Obama’s 30 minute flight to the Presidential mountain retreat at Camp David this afternoon was diverted to an undisclosed landing near Frederick, Maryland and a motorcade assembled to drive him to the nearby site. White House press secretary Jay Carney tells ABC News a “bad weather call” was made before the President and his younger daughter Sasha even boarded the aircraft.

<p>In a highly unusual maneuver, President Obama’s 30 minute flight to the Presidential mountain retreat at Camp David this afternoon was diverted to an undisclosed landing somewhere in the Washington area and a motorcade assembled to drive him to the Maryland site. White House press secretary Jay Carney tells ABC News a “bad weather call” was made before the President and his younger daughter Sasha even boarded the aircraft. Carney says they have now arrived safely at Camp David. It remains unexplained why the President would be allowed to board Marine One knowing that the landing site on the mountain was experiencing weather making a landing difficult. The press first learned of the diversion when wire agency still photographers, who traditionally stand by at Camp David for news coverage in case of an emergency, were told by the military at the mountain top Marine base that the President would be motorcading. The White House press office did not inform the daily travel pool which remains at the White House and does not make the helicopter trip to Camp David. The pool does accompany any bad weather motorcade to the retreat.</p>