Well there's at least $40,000 we could have saved.

[Phlem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/official-portrait-cost_n_4435128.html

-p

[FarCenter]

1. Let them take selfies.

[Phlem]

2. True but

I still wouldn't pay a penny for frames or the nail in the wall.

We all need to make sacrifices.



-p

[frazzled]

3. Oh, for heaven's sake

Are you kidding me? Think about how many billions are poured into wasteful and unnecessary military expenditures.

And the liquor bill for the Senate Christmas party probably easily exceeds $40,000. And all that money just gets peed out the next day. At least oil portraits will become a part of our nation's history, and people will see them at the Smithsonian, or wherever, a hundred years from now.

[Phlem]

4. OK

....

-p

[FarCenter]

6. Even worse, because we have to pay to store the damn things and restore them in the future.

A few megabytes in the cloud is cheap, and will get less expensive with time.

[frazzled]

8. I suppose you're for cutting the arts budget in the schools, too

What good is that useless coloring and music stuff, when you could be, um, taking a technology lab?

Really, of all the things to worry about that this country spends money on--dropping bombs, incarcerating nonviolent offenders, overpaying military contractors—you're gonna focus on a pitiful handful of oil paintings? You're making the "welfare queen" and "ketchup is a vegetable" arguments of the good old days sound nostalgic.

Really, this thread wins the cretin award.

[HappyMe]

10. I agree.

I can't believe what I'm reading here. Don't all Presidents and First Ladies have official portraits painted? Shouldn't that artist be paid for their time, use of materials and talent?

We waste money on way worse things.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Those two in the middle of this pic, they look like wax figures, unreal.

Gives me the shivers.

[Phlem]

7. Whoa

Laura's pulling the "happy deer in headlights". Can't say I've ever seen that at all. An ole' Mr.G, I betcha he's got a "Six Shooter" under that coat and he's a wait-in to draw!

Amazing Picture Award!



-p

[jmowreader]

9. Memo for the future: cut off Shrub's bourbon supply 24 hours before photo ops

That boy is so smashed Pickles has to hold him up...as for Laura's expression...well, MDMA is a wonderful thing.