It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => Politics/Legislation/Elections => Topic started by: RickZ on October 04, 2011, 06:48:55 AM
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This is the first I read or heard about this trip by our Me First! Lady. The MainStreamf**kingMedia. What would we ever do without them, without their dogged determination to uncover stories, to go for that Pulitzer. That must happen in another dimension.
http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2011/10/03/michelle-obamas-expensive-family-trip-to-africa/ (http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2011/10/03/michelle-obamas-expensive-family-trip-to-africa/)
Michelle Obama’s Expensive Family Trip to Africa
As Congress was in the middle of the debt ceiling debate this summer, deciding which bloated federal programs to cut, Michelle Obama decided to take a nice taxpayer-funded “working” vacation to South Africa and Botswana with her children. Judicial Watch began asking some very simple questions: What was the purpose of the trip and how much did it cost? We’re just now starting to get some answers.
(http://biggovernment.com/files/2011/10/michelle_obama-south_africa3.jpg)
Last week we obtained mission expense records and passenger manifests from the United States Air Force related to the June 21-27, 2011, trip. Judicial Watch obtained the documents pursuant to an August 19, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. It is amazing how transparent the Obama administration becomes once you sue them in a federal court!
On June 28, 2011, we filed a FOIA request seeking the mission taskings, transportation records, and passenger manifests for Michelle Obama’s Africa trip. Our FOIA lawsuit extracted some interesting information:
- According to U.S. Department of Defense’s published hourly rates for the C-32A aircraft used for the trip, we calculated the total cost to American taxpayers was $424,142 for the flight and crew. (The C-32 is a specially configured military version of the Boeing 757.) Other expenses ? meals (off the plane), transportation, security, various services, etc. ? have yet to be reported.
- The expense records also indicate $928.44 were spent for “bulk food” purchases on flight. Overall, during the trip, 192 meals were served for the 21 passengers on board.
- The passenger manifests confirm the presence of Obama’s daughter’s, Malia and Sasha on the trip. The two girls are listed as “Senior Staff.” The manifests also list Mrs. Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, and niece and nephew, Leslie and Avery Robinson, as well Mrs. Obama’s makeup and hairstylist (Carl Ray and Johnny Wright).
The professed purpose of Michelle Obama’s trip to South Africa and Botswana was to encourage young people living in the two growing democracies to become involved in national affairs; and during her scheduled stops in Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa, and in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, the First Lady used the opportunity to speak on education, health, and wellness issues.
The trip also included such tourist events as visits to historical landmarks and museums, plus a nonworking chance to send time with Nelson Mandela, a meeting that Mrs. Obama described as “surreal.” The trip ended with a private family safari at a South African game reserve before the group returned to Washington on June 27.
While the aircraft and crew expenses are now known, as stated in an analysis by White House Dossier (the blog of White House reporter Keith Koffer, writer for CongressDaily, National Journal, Roll Call and POLITICO), certain expenses incurred during the trip are difficult to assess without examining the records ? such as Secret Service protection, the care and feeding of staff, and pre-trip advance work done by administration officials in Africa.
This trip was as much an opportunity for the Obama family and friends to go on a safari as it was a trip intended to advance the administration’s agenda in Africa.
This certainly isn’t the first time Judicial Watch exposed the Obama’s frivolous spending on family social events. We previously uncovered that the First Couple’s 2009 “date night” trip to New York for dinner and a Broadway show cost taxpayers over $11,000 in Secret Service costs alone.
Yes, what a perfect time for Moochelle to skedaddle from DC and take another little vacation with family and friends: Right in the middle of the debt ceiling debate. And the little brats draping themselves in South African flags.
These grifters have got to go.
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Disgusting. And yes, wearing the South African flag is inexcusable. Any real American First Lady would recognize the inappropriateness and put a stop to it. This pig probably planned it in advance just to piss people off.
Presidents and First Ladies have always been given the royal treatment on the taxpayer dime, at least in my lifetime. But these are not ordinary times, and these grifters take the assumption of royalty to a whole 'nother level.
They got their sincerest wish: "The greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression." They're the ones who keep telling us this. Yet they want to act like royalty, even under these circumstances. When it is obvious to everyone that government is bloated and out of control, they want to raise taxes - and they turn around and force the taxpayers to fund a half-million dollar family vacation to Africa.
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Grifters.
That describes the Obama's to a "T"!
Too bad Africa didn't keep them...
Oh well, maybe next time.
And thanks Congress, for not questioning this grotesque waste of taxpayer funds. Your reputation as a lapdog remains unvarnished.
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When it is obvious to everyone that government is bloated and out of control, they want to raise taxes - and they turn around and force the taxpayers to fund a half-million dollar family vacation to Africa.
And remember, that's just plane, crew and food in flight costs. If it's 11 grand for Secret Service protection for a night out in the Big Apple, I can imagine the Secret Service costs for this trip easily topping two hundred grand, if not much, much more.
When all is said and spent, the cost for this Obama/Robinson family outing could top a million.
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I can't imagine the luxury of a million dollar vacation. I've traveled pretty extensively and stayed at a few very nice places, wanting for absolutely nothing. You'd have to try awfully hard to shed that kind of coin, even without Secret Service.
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She's a pig and her spawn are both ugly!! ::doublebird::
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She's a pig and her spawn are both ugly!! ::doublebird::
Quit holding back ttomm, it really annoys me when you do that!
::stirpot::
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.... a trip intended to advance the administration’s agenda in Africa.
Excuse me? What agenda? WTF business does this administration have in even having an agenda that concerns Africa.
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.... a trip intended to advance the administration’s agenda in Africa.
Excuse me? What agenda? WTF business does this administration have in even having an agenda that concerns Africa.
Hopefully a retirement home .
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.... a trip intended to advance the administration’s agenda in Africa.
Excuse me? What agenda? WTF business does this administration have in even having an agenda that concerns Africa.
Must be bribing more relatives to stay out of American and out of the news...about the only business I can think of...
Oh, you meant official business? Oh, my bad, like Holder I misunderstood the question...
PS-I am lying!
;)
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Reminds me of this.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb6ErLPt4t8&feature=player_detailpage
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She's a pig and her spawn are both ugly!! ::doublebird::
Quit holding back ttomm, it really annoys me when you do that!
::stirpot::
Sorry..I'm very shy... ::whoohoo::
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She's a pig and her spawn are both ugly!! ::doublebird::
Quit holding back ttomm, it really annoys me when you do that!
::stirpot::
Sorry..I'm very shy... ::whoohoo::
::hysterical::
Yeah, me to!
OK, now I gotta go before Pan brings that swatter after me!
::exitstageleft::
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Damn, I still get a hoot out of this!
"Michelle Obama listed daughters Malia and Sasha as 'senior staffers' "
::laughonfloor::
I can't wait to audit those expense reports!
::laughonfloor::
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She's a pig and her spawn are both ugly!! ::doublebird::
Quit holding back ttomm, it really annoys me when you do that!
::stirpot::
Sorry..I'm very shy... ::whoohoo::
::hysterical::
Yeah, me to!
OK, now I gotta go before Pan brings that swatter after me!
::exitstageleft::
As if, sweetheart .............
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"Michelle Obama listed daughters Malia and Sasha as 'senior staffers' "
they're as qualified as all the rest of the staffers in the WH
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She's a pig and her spawn are both ugly!! ::doublebird::
Quit holding back ttomm, it really annoys me when you do that!
::stirpot::
Sorry..I'm very shy... ::whoohoo::
::hysterical::
Yeah, me to!
OK, now I gotta go before Pan brings that swatter after me!
::exitstageleft::
As if, sweetheart .............
::kissface::
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"Michelle Obama listed daughters Malia and Sasha as 'senior staffers' "
they're as qualified as all the rest of the staffers in the WH
Maybe more...
::facepalm::
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It's a Reuter's photo so in order to view you've got to click the link. It's worth it.
Click then scroll down just a tiny bit.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Angela+Merkel&view=detail&id=60F083E50C2C36361CDA62B8DCA3B029ED7009C1&first=181&qpvt=Angela+Merkel&FORM=IDFRIR (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Angela+Merkel&view=detail&id=60F083E50C2C36361CDA62B8DCA3B029ED7009C1&first=181&qpvt=Angela+Merkel&FORM=IDFRIR)
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He's really an ass.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Angela+Merkel&view=detail&id=60F083E50C2C36361CDA62B8DCA3B029ED7009C1&first=181&qpvt=Angela+Merkel&FORM=IDFRIR (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Angela+Merkel&view=detail&id=60F083E50C2C36361CDA62B8DCA3B029ED7009C1&first=181&qpvt=Angela+Merkel&FORM=IDFRIR)
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Trash is as trash does.
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So 'ttomm46' is gone?
Don't get it.
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So 'ttomm46' is gone?
Don't get it.
He asked for his account to be deleted. Literally. It was in response to my request that curse words not be included in thread titles, and the poll questioning the use of the "Double-Bird" emoticon.
Yes, really.
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Maybe he saw it as a "tone" thing ::exitstageleft::
Actually I thought he fit in well and enjoyed his contributions. Oh well, I can't get too worked up over someone who overreacts that much.
The analogy I like to use is that of the campfire. A place to sit and chew the fat, to tell jokes and trade lies, and even argue a bit (knowing that it won't come to blows). Talk can become salty at times - that's how life is - but not so much that it blisters the paint.
Here's to hoping that ttomm46 finds another campfire more suited to his liking.
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Oh, well.
Here's to hoping that ttomm46 finds another campfire more suited to his liking.
Yeap.
Can't be everything to everyone.