http://www.prisonplanet.com/reuters-...ing-photo.html
Story said Obama played golf on August 4, retired for dinner
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
February 4, 2013
A Reuters report concerning Barack Obama’s activities on August 4th last year contradicts White House claims that the President was skeet shooting at Camp David, an indication that a photo released over the weekend showing Obama firing a rifle could be fraudulent.
On Saturday, White House Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer
tweeted out a photo showing Obama clay pigeon shooting with the caption stating the image was taken, “On the range at Camp David, Md., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012.”
Pfeiffer taunted that the photo was “for all the “skeeters,” in reference to those who doubted Obama’s claim that he “went shooting all the time.” The image was a not-so-sophisticated attempt to portray Obama as sympathetic to gun owners even as his administration is in the midst of a legislative and executive effort to eviscerate the second amendment.
The
White House even warned that, “the photograph may not be manipulated in any way,” in a futile attempt to prevent people from creating humorous photoshopped alternatives.
However, much of the backlash has centered around speculation that the image was either doctored or that it was staged recently in a crude attempt to address the “skeeters,” similar to how the administration released a dubious birth certificate as a response to the “birther” controversy.
The claims are not without foundation.
An August 4th Reuters report stated that Obama spent his 51st birthday “on the golf course” and makes no mention of his supposed skeet shooting.
“Obama, an avid golfer, played with colleagues and friends at the Andrews Air Force Base in hot, muggy weather conditions before taking Marine One to Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains in the afternoon,” states the report, adding that the President, “helicoptered to the Camp David presidential retreat for a quiet evening off the campaign trail.”
The story also notes that Obama’s evening plans consisted of a “birthday meal he was expected to share with wife, Michelle.”
The picture of Obama on the golf course shows him wearing different clothes to the skeet shooting photograph. Given that reporters obviously followed Obama’s activities closely on this day, it’s interesting that there’s no mention whatsoever of his supposed clay pigeon shoot.
A photo showing Obama boarding Marine One on the same day also shows him wearing a completely different outfit to the ‘skeet’ photo.
Innumerable other questions about the photo –
sardonically summarized yet not debunked by New York Magazine – have emerged, including the following;
- Why is Obama aiming straight when skeets are normally only shot at a high or low angle?
- Why is smoke coming out of the side of the barrel?
- Obama claims he goes shooting “all the time,” yet as innumerable gun experts have pointed out, his stance is atrocious and it looks like Obama has never even held a firearm before.
- Obama appears to have grown a pot belly that isn’t apparent in other photos from the same time period.
- The recoil of the gun immediately after being fired would result in camera blur, which isn’t evident in the photo.
- Prior to the White House released its image,
New Republic posted an obviously fake photoshop of Obama allegedly skeet shooting, before hastily deleting the tweet.
Labeling the issue a “conspiracy theory” fails to address genuine questions that have been raised about the photo, in addition to being incredibly naive given that the administration has admittedly staged photos of Obama in the past.
In August 2010, the White House released a photograph of Obama swimming with his daughter and claimed the image was shot in the Gulf of Mexico as a ploy to argue that the area was still open for business despite the BP oil spill.
It quickly emerged that the photo was taken off Alligator Point in St Andrew Bay, north-west Florida – which isn’t technically in the Gulf of Mexico.