Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	12/5/2005

Pharaoh Visits Kernersville, North Carolina

Our roving photographer in Kernersville today could only get so close to Pharaoh during his arranged trip to mingle with the common people.

He was able to snap off this shot however as Pharaoh pulled away from the CITGO station just down the street from his Potemkin Village photo-op at the Deere-Hitachi plant. Secret Service agents had pulled in with the Pharaonic limo to top off the tank and take advantage of the discount pricing being offered by Pharaoh's oil business compatriot and FTTA buddy Hugo Chavez.

They say Pharaoh was in this car but it could have been the one with the dummy Pharaoh in it to confuse terrorists and other antagonists. The whole process is intentionally arranged to make it hard to figure out. These people who identified themselves as small business owners for Bush were sure they had picked the right limo. Can you really go wrong though?

For the speech itself my partner Les Creech and I only got as close as the dining room TV in the Mrs. Winners in downtown Kernersville about 2 miles from the Deere-Hitachi plant. Walking up in our dark suits we asked the counter people if they had had any big orders from Secret Service agents today. They said, "No," and then asked us if we were agents ourselves. I said, "Well, would you give us a discount if we were?" The middle aged white woman working the counter quickly replied, "No. For anyone helping the President we would have to charge them double." I assured her we were commoners like her and we received our orders at the regular price with no further incident.

My two favorite missed lines of Pharaoh's speech were these:

"We need to make our economy strong and keep it stronger."

"One of every 12 jobs in North Carolina is exported (awkward pause)supported by exports." (editor's note: Kudos to the White House for including this in the official transcription -- 11th paragraph from the bottom.)

My favorite exchange from the crowd of four watching in Mrs. Winners' dining room with us came from two guys who seemed experienced in factory meeting etiquette. They were analyzing the crowd of Deere-Hitachi workers used as a backdrop for the speech:

"Do you think that was a mandatory meeting?"

"If it wasn't, I'd be at home."

Here is the shot of the excited Deere-Hitachi workers boarding their buses to go home at shift change since they weren't allowed to drive their personal cars to work today. The main entrance to the Deere-Hitachi plant is just on the other side of the buses so you can get a feel for how vibrant this part of North Carolina looked if Pharaoh's handlers allowed him to look out his limo window as he arrived...

Hey, did I mention yet how ironic it is that when Pharaoh needed tell us how good the economy is in the United States his handlers sent him to a plant that is being run under Japanese design supervision and is making a product that is most often purchased by companies doing government work?

All and all, I personally felt my day was well spent. As evening approached I could go home just like Pharaoh knowing that I had seen the real America today.

Sidebars:

This is my third close encounter with Pharaoh in North Carolina...or at least the dummy Pharaoh anyway. Best to make these close encounters now before I have to start carrying around my biometric RFID travel permit.

For those who might question the lack of support for Pharaoh we uncovered yesterday and today. Here is a close replication of the Vox Populi poll that was in the non-web available Saturday edition of the Kernersville News. (Note: The Kernersville News has GOP bias.)

8:23:46 PM

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