World leaders in DC to discuss the economic crisis dined like kings. And they washed it down with Shafer Carbernet Hillside Select 2003, which goes for up to $400 a bottle. (h/t Americablog)
Other bargain basement dishes included:
We are truly blessed to have leaders with such advanced culinary taste.
Check this video out for insight on our economic crisis. http://www.thetruthabout.com/public/297.cfm?affID=and16
Stop handing out money to companies who can’t manage their business. If you continue to hand out money to a company with a bad business plan they have no incentive to change.
As a supplier to GM, Ford and Chrysler for many years I can clearly present how UNIONS, via their leaders, did as much as they could to destroy American car business. NEVER – NEVER did the union consider what it takes to maintain AMERICAN car business. The union only concern was how to GRAB more for their members at the expense of realistic automotive industry. Yep, elect a union leader who can’t spell his first name and listen to the union members concern over what? EXTORTION. Also we need to remove car companies of lousy Corp management. Naturally, Alan will ignor the total problem to serve his personal misguided verbal BS and the total concern.
Isn’t it so very unusual that Alan does his best to discredit common sence and defend the undefencable. Especially true as Alan speaks non truth as his defense for any LIBERAL objective. AS Alan so clearly presents his view of Obama voters as being TOTALLY uninformed but defends their uninformed vote. Yes – it is Alan, who at any cost, prefers to push non truth over fact. LET’S KEEP ALAN ON TV AND RADIO AS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF COMPLETE DEFECTIVE LIBERAL THINKING. Thank’s Alan!
Winelover
The interesting thing is that when I made that statement, you *could* find the Hillside Select on wine-searcher below $150/bottle. Now I can’t find anything below $165. I suppose this gave the wine some publicity or stores bumped their prices.
The White House wine cellar is the domain of Daniel Shanks who was hired by the Clintons for the job some 13+ years ago. He makes his own decisions and may not necessarily buy consecutive vintages.
See this article: http://www.northjersey.com/food/wineandbeer/The_politics_of_the_White_House_cellar.html
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I had fried potatoes, sweet corn, and a hamburger.
November 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Most Americans dine better than medieval kings every day; you’d expect less for world leaders who are, well, modern elected kings?
November 15th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I stuffed a Spam brick with beenie weenies and put carrot on the side—-Emirl would have been proud.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I would rather have Willy’s dinner than the one served the world leaders.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Yea, yea, yea. They live like hogs and we live like worms. Blah, blah, blah. This is just one problem in govt today. It really comes down to a ’spending to solve’ mentality that often comes with a rich lifestyle. People think that putting a bunch of oridinary folks in Washington woull solve this. It wouldn’t. We need to realize we give these people piles of our money and acres of responsibilty then expect them to dance to everyone’s tune at once.
Pork-barrel spending is not the problem, dispite what McCain says. The problem is that no govt person ever did a damn thing without a nice glass of Shafer waiting at the office. They should be a little more civic motivated but what you gonna do??
November 15th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Makes one think that these people don’t understand the term ‘excessive’.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Clearly you all are missing the point. This is a great vintage, but it’s too soon to drink it. It would be best in another five years. Looks like to me, their drinking all the good stuff, so it won’t be there for the next President. With a little research, in 2005 they served the Queen “1994 Hillside Select”, excellent age. Now in 2008 their serving “2003″, too young. My question, there seems to be some vintages missing, like six years of, wheres it at. Maybe a ranch in Texas?
November 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Another reason why we were so much better off under Clinton. At least the guy knew what a Big Mac tastes like.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Actually I prefer a Wendys burger. But hey, to each his own.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
What economic crisis! Where has all the money gone?into space or down the toilet.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Sounds as momentous as Sarah Palin’s clothes – I would have been embarrassed if the President had served hot dogs and jello
November 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Hey at least Bush didn’t erect a $5.3 million dollar Greek monstrosity to welcome the leaders in!
November 15th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Have Ken Germana come wine and dine with these folks and i,ll 1 cent his he will change his tune.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Somehow, this story doesn’t surprise me one bit. The unfortunate judgment of the present administration has been manifested in a multitude of mishaps…this being the most recent in a long chain of national embarassments.
November 16th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I saw a new $47,000 Ford F-350 truck that probably took $15,000 to build—tell me again—why are we bailing out The Big Three?
November 16th, 2008 at 3:03 am
Not a bail out…but, a loan…and because approximately three million workers are affected, and because they build Hummvees, tanks, and trucks for military….
November 16th, 2008 at 3:08 am
This what gets me about the right. Under your great savior RONALD REAGAN laid the ground work for the mess our country is in now. Jobs going overseas,open borders,trickle down ill logic,union busting and divided our country. Telling us to buy AMERICAN and selling us out at the sametime. Imposing moral values on us without ?ing whos moral values. Gold standard on our dollar went away under his leadership. I lived in DAYTON,OH in the 80,s and watched those jobs go away and kept voting the trickle down thinking into the WHITE HOUSE. This country gets someone in as CLINTON that got this country back on track only to be gangster by the GOP. Under REAGAN that refused to see gobal warming,never tried to get the big 3 to go green. This country needs jobs and this free trade thinking has left the big 3 in a bind. The right wing thinking says let them go bankrupt with loss of jobs instead of letting them become no.1 in the world by going green. Yet,it,s the liberals fault on all of these issues. I say,let gold back the dollar. Have a reasonable concept on slowing down people coming across the border. Going green and our country being a world leader about being green. Lets start the trickle up affect and watch this country grow.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Right On Steve! Trickle Up is The Way.
November 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Hmm, that truck had $15,000 in parts, then freight, labor, salesmen’s commissions, dozens of regulatory fees, advertising, etc.
The “Big” Three employ millions. We attempted to bail out AIG and they’re spending the money on corporate retreats. We have evidence that the auto manufacturers will work with the money differently. Not only are they mostly family owned (and who want’s the family business to tank) but it’s happened before with Chrysler, and Le Iacocca invented the K car – cheap, gas efficient, unibody vehicles that surged Chrysler out of the red and into the black. That started with a government ‘bail-out’.
If the big three follow his example – we could seriously improve the future prospects of Detroit.
Hopefully we see a new Milennium version of the K car from all the manufacturers. I had a Plymouth Reliant with almost 400,000 miles, they were cheap to fix.
November 16th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Should the President have served macaroni and cheese?
November 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Yes….we should have….sheesh….LOL As long as it was low fat cheese…and American macaroni.
A great way to kick off the decade to eliminate the dependence on foreign sources of energy. Tie a big string on the loan about mpg standards. Yeah, more regulation…..if that’s what it takes to turn their heads out of the sand….yeah.
As for the “we don’t need to bail them out”….that is a Republican ploy to attack the unions. Sure, cars cost more because of the unions….well, food costs more because we ship it by unionized railroads, ships, trucks…..get it? So what? Our economy needs jobs to survive. We can’t depend on the Republicans to make jobs….they haven’t generated much in eight years. Who says their economic wizardry is great?? Reagon? Well, he is dead…he didn’t like the railroads or unions either…nice guy…I can remember when he was known as “Ray-gun” for his hawkish stance on wasting our soldiers in foreign lands.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
If anyone thinks this kind of excess is going to stop just because a democrat is going to be President is delusional.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I see there is still no shame at all in what the fat-cats will give themselves when given the opportunity. The thing that probably bothers me the most about this is it’s a “business as usual” attitude of “of course we had expensive wine, what’d you expect us to do, drink wine that only costs $50 a bottle.” It’s the kind of mentality that is living proof of why “trickle down” doesn’t work. Wine at $400 a bottle – I’m gonna bet that the average waitstaff didn’t make $400 for working that night.
It’s the same mentality that has allowed CEOs to give themselves multi-million dollar bonuses while they laid off thousands of workers. NEWSFLASH folks – it’s NOT trickling down, it’s being used to pay for nonsensical excesses for the greedy fat-cats (see also 400,000 junkets on your tax dollar) who don’t give a damn whether or not you can pay your bills, have health insurance or lose your house.
PS- – Despite what the far right would have you believe, not everyone who lost their homes or declared bankrupcy was “irresponsible” in terms of what they borrowed or mortgated. Many of them were/are honest, hard working Americans who just caught a bad break in this economic morass that our current leadership has lead us into.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
The far right along with their talk radio buddies haved shown a total lack of concern for a poor person having an AMERICAN dream. THE BIG 3 and they fail to realize the impact if those jobs are lost. The drum beat of their savior RONALD REAGAN. They want to return to those days. Yes!we need free trade,but fair trade.We need to restore unions and make labor strong again. With higher wages so folks can buy items. That creates a trickle up affect. You will have supply and demand and not just supply. Jobs haved trickle away since 1980. The GOP current platform,is anti gay,guns,nat,l security and a womans right to choose. Oh! tax voodo as well. Does anyone see jobs with that platform?
November 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Jersey–Robert—I still don’t understand why poor management rates a government bailout.The company I work for has been around for over 100 years—we are union—our upper management tops out around $250,000 I am told.(Excluding stock options)
As far as Republicans vs. Unions goes–Since 1980 we have had a Republican President 20 out of 28 years with only One strike intervention that I know of—Air Traffic Controlers.
Millions of jobs were in jeapordy(people who depend on airlines for their businesses) if the government didn’t step in there also.
The answer maybe to cut prices to sell more cars and trucks.Cut management salary (per salary cap) till things change.I just don’t think a bailout is the answer here.Reorganization is–but you don’t put millions of dollars into the same hands that ran a business in the ground.
I heard one commentator say last week we could have bought AIG for 1/2 of what the bailout cost.We could buy The Big Three for 1/4 of what this bailout will cost.Whatever happened to the idea of a poorly managed business being allowed to fall?
November 16th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Anyone know where I can get numbers on job creation? Dept.of Labor states that the US has a 25 million more jobs since Clinton signed NAFTA(20M under Clinton-5M under Bush)Any idea where else to look up these numbers?
November 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
The wine retails for as low as $135 (never mind that the White House paid anywhere from 30% to 50% of that price per bottle).
The CNN reporter was either sloppy or intended to get this response out of people.
This is a diplomatic dinner. All standards of protocol dictate that these guests be hosted graciously and in a way that honors the office and country they represent. Any and all other Presidents would follow this protocol and serve high end foods and wines.
As an active blogger, I spend a lot of time and energy urging other bloggers covering the same topic as I do (wine) to aspire to lofty journalistic ideals. This CNN piece is not one I would use as as a positive example. It is *exactly* the kind of thing I urge them *not* to do.
This blog post is just as bad. You did not check the facts despite the numerous commenters to the CNN post stating that the price reported is not correct.
Funny how some willing to accept or repeat anything as fact if it suits ideology or validates anger or agenda.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
That wine doesn’t nearly as much as represented. So just what should the greatest nation on Earth be serving to world dignitaries? Mad Dog 20/20 or Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill? I think not…even if it is Alan’s favorite! I guess it’s time to unionize the wine industry.
November 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Hey Arthur,
If you know where I can get “Hillside Select” for $135, let me know, I’ll take a ten cases. Are you sure your not mistaken Shafer’s regular Cabernet instead of Hillside Select, or are you just trying to make your point. I don’t have a problem with them serving fine wine, they should. But as I posted before my question is. Why are they serving 2003 HS when three years ago they were serving 1994. Seems like some vintages might be missing. The concern should be are the Bush’s and Cheney’s raping the White House Wine Cellar, like they have our country.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:34 am
One other point. Even though Hillside Select does sell in restaurants for as much as $500, and is very hard to find. Many fine wine makers donate cases of wine to the White House every year, so they can say their wine is being served there. Chances go this wine did not cost the taxpayers anything. So maybe this whole blog is a waste of time anyway.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am
What does Bush care? The taxpayers are paying for it.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Winelover
The interesting thing is that when I made that statement, you *could* find the Hillside Select on wine-searcher below $150/bottle. Now I can’t find anything below $165. I suppose this gave the wine some publicity or stores bumped their prices.
The White House wine cellar is the domain of Daniel Shanks who was hired by the Clintons for the job some 13+ years ago. He makes his own decisions and may not necessarily buy consecutive vintages.
See this article: http://www.northjersey.com/food/wineandbeer/The_politics_of_the_White_House_cellar.html
November 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Isn’t it so very unusual that Alan does his best to discredit common sence and defend the undefencable. Especially true as Alan speaks non truth as his defense for any LIBERAL objective. AS Alan so clearly presents his view of Obama voters as being TOTALLY uninformed but defends their uninformed vote. Yes – it is Alan, who at any cost, prefers to push non truth over fact. LET’S KEEP ALAN ON TV AND RADIO AS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF COMPLETE DEFECTIVE LIBERAL THINKING. Thank’s Alan!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
As a supplier to GM, Ford and Chrysler for many years I can clearly present how UNIONS, via their leaders, did as much as they could to destroy American car business. NEVER – NEVER did the union consider what it takes to maintain AMERICAN car business. The union only concern was how to GRAB more for their members at the expense of realistic automotive industry. Yep, elect a union leader who can’t spell his first name and listen to the union members concern over what? EXTORTION. Also we need to remove car companies of lousy Corp management. Naturally, Alan will ignor the total problem to serve his personal misguided verbal BS and the total concern.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Stop handing out money to companies who can’t manage their business. If you continue to hand out money to a company with a bad business plan they have no incentive to change.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Check this video out for insight on our economic crisis. http://www.thetruthabout.com/public/297.cfm?affID=and16
November 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm