About that appallingly callous decision to fly Air Force One around Manhattan to get new publicity shots without telling anyone: From the start I wondered why the new pix couldn't have been engineered on a computer. The jet fuel savings alone--not to mention the hot-pulse panic suffered by thousands of citizens who feared they were under another jihad attack--should have appealed to this administration.

NRO's Mark Hemingway wondered the same thing, and received this gorgeous shot (above) from a reader who spent ten minutes on Photoshop. The reader said, according to his rates, the cost would have come out to $15 for his time. 

Let's double--no, triple--no, dectuple (if that's a word) these rates for a giant retail mark-up, and imagine the new picture costing We the Taxpayers $150. The actual cost of the exercise is in question, but let's just say it's...more. The Washington Times makes out the price tag to be $35,000 smackeroos, while Bloomberg calls it $328,835. Either way, Uncle Sam just might need to take out another subprime mortgage to be bailed out on to pay it off.

The White House has laid all blame on the head of it military office, Louis Caldera, who, according to the reports, has been "excoriated" by Rahm Emanuel. Is he really Mr. Big behind little Air Force Onegate? If so, you would think he would be fired for heartlessness alone. But somehow I don't think he's going anywhere. A guy who served on the board of directors of Indymac Bank, as Caldera did, and still ends up with a  nice White House job doesn't strike me as kind who gets fired from anything.