Expensive massages, top shelf vodka and five-star hotels: First Lady accused of spending $10m in public money on her vacations
Last updated at 8:28 PM on 24th August 2011
But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances.
White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers' money on vacations alone in the past year.
Expensive taste: Michelle Obama, pictured yesterday in Massachusetts, has been accused of spending $10m of public money on vacations
Branding her 'disgusting' and 'a vacation junkie', they say the 47-year-old mother-of-two has been indulging in five-star hotels, where she splashes out on expensive massages and alcohol.
The 'top source' told the National Enquirer: 'It's disgusting. Michelle is taking advantage of her privileged position while the most hardworking Americans can barely afford a week or two off work.
'When it's all added up, she's spent more than $10million in taxpayers' money on her vacations.'
His and her jets: The President and his wife, who are spending nine days on Martha's Vineyard, have come under fire for travelling on separate planes
The First Lady is believed to have taken 42 days of holiday in the past year, including a $375,000 break in Spain and a four-day ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where she spent $2,000 a night on a suite at the Sebastian hotel.
And the first family's nine-day stay in Martha's Vineyard is also proving costly, with rental of the Blue Heron Farm property alone costing an estimated $50,000 a week.
The source continued: 'Michelle also enjoys drinking expensive booze during her trips. She favours martinis with top-shelf vodka and has a taste for rich sparking wines.
'The vacations are totally Michelle's idea. She's like a junkie. She can't schedule enough getaways, and she lives from one to the next - all the while sticking it to hardworking Americans.'
Travelling in style: Mrs Obama during her $375,000 trip to Spain last year
High security: Bodyguards surround the First Lady and youngest daughter Sasha as they take a stroll on the Costa del Sol
While the President and his wife do pay for some of their personal expenses from their own pocket, the website whitehousedossier.com says that the amount paid by the couple is 'dwarfed by the overall cost to the public'.
The magazine also reported that Mrs Obama, whose fashion choices are widely followed, had been going on 'wild shopping sprees', much to the distress of her husband, who, its sources reveal, is 'absolutely furious' at his wife's 'out-of-control spending'.
The President has already come under fire this week over his decision to take a family vacation while millions of Americans are out of work and countless more are financially strapped.
Luxury break: The President and his family, pictured in December, splashed out more than $1.5million on a Christmas holiday in Hawaii
'Winter White House': The property in Kailua cost $38,000 to rent
But the situation sparked further anger after he and his wife elected to fly separately to the Massachusetts retreat - despite travelling on the same day.
Mr Obama left the White House aboard Marine One on his way to Andrews Air Force base to hitch a lift aboard Air Force One - along with First Dog Bo.
After landing at Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station, he then took a final helicopter to his holiday destination to complete the remarkable 500-mile journey.
His wife and daughters, who arrived just four hours earlier, were also travelling from Washington, but took a specially designed military aircraft.
They would also have had their own motorcade from the airport to the vacation residence.
FIRST LADY OF LUXURY TRAVEL: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE OBAMAS' LAVISH GETAWAYS OVER THE PAST 12 MONTHS
GIRLS' TRIP TO SPAIN: AUGUST 2010
The exact cost is unclear as Mrs Obama and her 40 friends footed many personal expenses, such as hotels and meals themselves.
But the U.S. taxpayer would have paid for the First Lady's 68-strong security detail, personal staff, and use of presidential jet Air Force Two.
Per diems for the secret service team runs at around $281 each - nearly $98,000 for the length of the summer break.
Use of Air Force Two, the Air Force version of a 757, comes in at $149,900 for the round trip. This does not include time on the ground.
Mrs Obama's personal staff, of which there are an unknown amount and might cost considerably more per day, should also be taken into account.
CHRISTMAS BREAK IN HAWAII: DECEMBER 2010
According to the Hawaii Reporter, the bill for the $1.5m trip included:
- $63,000 on an early flight bringing Mrs Obama and the children to Hawaii ahead of the President.
- $1,000,000 on Mr Obama’s return trip from Washington on Air Force One.
- $38,000 for the ‘Winter White House’ beach property rental.
- $16,000 to rent nearby homes for Secret Service and Navy Seals.
- $134,000 for 24 White House staff to stay at the Moana Hotel.
- $251,000 in police overtime.
- $10,000 for an ambulance to be on hand at all times
SKI TRIP TO VAIL: FEBRUARY 2011
Mrs Obama and her daughters stayed at the Sebastian hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms cost more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites.
The family appear to have flown there on Air Force Two.
They were escorted to the resort by a motorcade of about a dozen vehicles, including 15 state and local law enforcement officers
SUMMER HOLIDAY ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD: AUGUST 2011
The Blue Heron Farm estate, where the Obama family are currently staying, rents for about $50,000 a week.
According to U.S. News and World Report, the Coast Guard is required to keep ships floating near the property, the presidential helicopter and jet remain at the ready and security agents will be on 24-hour duty.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029615/Michelle-Obama-accused-spending-10m-public-money-vacations.html#ixzz1W1GUWY1r
Our fashion plate First Spender knows HubbyFloppyEars is a one termer. Who can blame her? Live it up while the living is good.
ReplyDeleteShe sure knows how to dress.
Give her a break, least she doesn't have a thing for really expensive fast race horses.
And she doesn't seem to be a collector of high quality art.
b
Who Is The World's Most Famous Jewish Cowboy?
ReplyDeleteBeen reading Obama's current numbers in Florida.
President Toast.....
b
Check out photo #3.
ReplyDeleteShe may have a little hair under her arm (lots of men like that) and she's definitely got tan marks where her blouse keeps falling down.
She should be on some fashion runway in Paris, and that's for sure.
She's at high risk of ballooning to 250 pounds, and will, after she's "out of office". And doesn't have to bike ride for photo ops.
I expect Melody might well come in and just riddle her today. She is wide open to a Melody attack.
b
Items For Your Person Or Home Made From Kassem Rocket Debris
ReplyDeleteWould make excellent Holiday gifts for your Christian or Jewish friends.
b
All trash from nowhere always drink nothing but top-shelf and always when someone else is picking up the tab.
ReplyDeleteEek! Another Republican moron is running for president, and the blogs on the Left are aghast.
ReplyDeleteAnother village in Texas is missing its idiot!
Another s--t-kicking cowboy has messed with their heads.
The question this time is not just whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry is dumb -- the Left claims the obvious answer is yes -- but also whether he is as dumb as George W. Bush, or even much dumber, moronic where Bush was simply "incurious," and also much less gently bred.
Either way, few on the Left doubt that neither is, as Steve Benen says, "an intellectually curious, creative thinker, capable to examining [sic] complex issues in a sophisticated way."
Fortunately we have such a thinker, "capable to examining" things to perfection, and that is the problem: President Obama is their ideal of a thinker. He is president, and he has been -- how to put it? -- a bomb.
Based on results, Perry has been more successful as governor of Texas than Obama has been as president, or as anything else he has ever tried being, in the entire whole course of his life.
In 2008, Obama was hailed as a genius, a "first rate intellect," the smartest man to ever be president, and we know now the first part is true. He is the political genius who shed 30 points in his first years in office.
He's the political genius who blew up his coalition in his first months in office, who led his party to annihilation in the 2010 midterms (while showing utter indifference to the fate of congressional Democrats), and gave the Republicans -- who were on the floor, in a coma -- more than they needed to come roaring back from the dead.
He is the policy genius who "leads from behind," whose engagement ideas have gone nowhere, whose stimulus stimulated only the deficit, whose health care "success" helped kill off his recovery, and whose efforts to create jobs all fell flat.
Almost 40 percent of the new jobs that were created happened under Perry in Texas. Liberals who fault that state for its low levels of taxes and spending might ask themselves why, if it is a hellhole, so many people go there and stay there.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/08/what-if-obama-isnt-so-smart#ixzz1W2YFppMY
Perhaps mrs. Obama can have the CBC help find her a job at one of their job fairs.
ReplyDeleteRick Perry and Barack Obama, when they were age 22.
ReplyDeleteBecause a picture says a thousand words.
C'mon Miss T, Barry looks to be about a punk 15 in that photo.
ReplyDeleteIf he had a baseball cap woulda been on sidewise.
Reading an article yesterday, Obumble's numbers don't tell the whole story.
It's not so much that people dislike his policies, whatever they are, it's that people are starting to really dislike him.
This pundit opined when it gets personal like that....well, the guy is toast.
b
She don't want no stinkin' job, anon.
ReplyDeleteb
This man is going to walk --
ReplyDeleteCOEUR d'ALENE - A man charged with unlawfully shooting and killing a grizzly bear had so many supporters at his arraignment Tuesday in federal court that the judge had to move the hearing to a larger courtroom.
Even there, every seat was taken as his family, friends and neighbors, young and old, squeezed in.
Jeremy M. Hill, 33, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to killing the animal with a rifle on his 20-acre property near Porthill, Idaho, at the Canadian border. He lives five miles from the closest grizzly bear recovery zone.
The grizzly bear is classified as a threatened species in the lower 48 states, according to the Endangered Species Act, and protected by federal law. Hill's charge is a misdemeanor.
Magistrate Judge Candy Dale set trial, at least for now, for Oct. 4.
Hill has declined comment. His lawyer, Marc Lyons of Coeur d'Alene, said he plans to defend Hill on the basis of self-defense and protection of family.
Following the hearing, his father, Mike Hill, of Athol, said, "This whole thing is a waste of taxpayer money."
He said his son was concerned for the safety of his children playing outside when a mother grizzly and two cubs wandered onto his property on May 8.
Jeremy Hill has six kids, ranging in age from 14 years old to 10 months old. At least five were home when the grizzly was killed, Mike Hill said.
The bears had gone after some pigs in a pen that the kids had been raising, Mike Hill said.
He said his son shot one of the bears, then called authorities to notify them of the kill. The other two bears ran off.
He said his son could have just buried the animal and not said anything to law enforcement. He said his son is being penalized for coming forward.
State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, attended the hearing in full support of Jeremy Hill.
"The charges are simply unjust," she said following the hearing. "Hopefully common sense will prevail. It's clearly an issue of protecting the family."
She predicted that punishing someone who reported killing a grizzly will damage government efforts to protect the animals.
She said nearly $20,000 was raised by community members for Hill's defense.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho was asked about the case while appearing in Sandpoint on Tuesday.
While Labrador said he needed to be careful in dealing with the prosecutorial side of things, he did have this to say:
"Clearly, we have a problem with the ESA when situations like this happen." He later added, "We're doing everything we can to make sure this man is treated fairly."
The Boundary County commissioners on Monday said they are standing beside Hill on the charge, saying in a statement that Hill had "not only the right, but the obligation to protect his children and his family."
The commissioners said they'll be seeking help from Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (QUIRK PAY ATTENTION!!) and Idaho's congressional delegation to get the charge dismissed.
The charge of killing a threatened species is punishable by up to a year in prison, a maximum fine of $50,000, and up to one year of supervised release.
b
He said his son could have just buried the animal and not said anything to law enforcement. He said his son is being penalized for coming forward.
ReplyDeleteah, the wisdom of shoot, shovel, and shut-up
:)
b
It is obvious that the White House is operating within its Congressionally approved budget.
ReplyDeleteFolks have gotta travel in style, while representing the United States of America.
Mr Perry, he seems to be coming on strong.
Is there a Mrs Perry?
The answer ...
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a Mrs Perry.
Mrs Anita Perry
ReplyDeleteGoogle to Pay $500 Million in FDA Investigation of Pharmacy Ads Settlement
DailyTech -
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an investigation against Google in 2009 regarding whether the search leader knowingly accepted pharmacy ads online that were illegal.
Thread is an exercise in propaganda, rat. Want to bury Barry.
ReplyDeleteLike in 'bury Barry AuH2O'.
This country started to go wrong when it failed to elect AuH2O, some say.
b
"It's not so much that people dislike his policies, whatever they are, it's that people are starting to really dislike him.
ReplyDelete"
---
Some people are.
*I* started to dislike his hateful guts the first time I learned he regularly exposed his young daughters to the likes of "Rev" Wright, Bill Ayers, and his cop-killing wife.
Soon To Be First Couple
ReplyDeleteb
.
ReplyDeleteThe commissioners said they'll be seeking help from Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (QUIRK PAY ATTENTION!!) and Idaho's congressional delegation to get the charge dismissed.
Butch Otter. :) :) :)
Things must be pretty quiet there in Ideeho if they are making a federal case of this.
What's next, and appeal to Obama to commit Pete Jellico's 10 day sentence for pissing in the alley after leaving the Alibi Inn Bar and Bate Shop after last call?
.
Rufus claims he's gonna vote for these miserable pigs.
ReplyDelete...so they can give more of our money away in subsidies to crooks and flim flam artists sell bogus green schemes.
An interesting aside, as to the racial component of Presidential elections.
ReplyDeleteIn 2008, in Mississippi ...
... the racial divide that produced that result is staggering: an 88-11 percent spread for McCain among whites, and a 98-2 percent margin for Obama among blacks.
The "White Tribe" almost as monolithic as the "Black Bloc"
And there are sure a lot more voters in the White Tribe.
Which is why Mr McCain carried Mississippi by an 11% margin of victory.
Wonder how the Latin Tribe of Florida, is going to flow in 2012?
Rufus sobered up last time around. He just might repeat.
ReplyDeleteQuirk however seems a lost cause politically speaking......
b
*I* started to dislike his hateful guts the first time I learned he regularly exposed his young daughters to the likes of "Rev" Wright, Bill Ayers, and his cop-killing wife.
ReplyDeleteditto
That griz is the very one I faced down, Quirk, another story mentioned the nick in it's ear.
ReplyDeleteb
A federal stimulus grant of nearly $500,000 to grow trees and stimulate the economy in Nevada yielded a whopping 1.72 jobs, according to government statistics.
ReplyDelete""The goal obviously was to make trees available to local government entities, parks, schools, things like that, at our state nursery," said Conrad. "We basically grew and provided about 2,000 trees to these local entities." "
ONLY $250 PER "TREE"
...back in the day, I bought 1,500 Redwood Seedlings for less than 200 dollars.
The grant also funds Spanish-language training for Hispanics in the landscaping and tree care industry to "develop employability skills and increase job retention."
Conrad could not say how many, if any, jobs were created by that training.
"We had to put together projects within very specific parameters. If the particular project you're referring to didn't create jobs necessarily, that's really something that's beyond the parameters of the program and it's really something you'd have to ask the federal government, the U.S. Forest Service."
Repeated calls by FoxNews.com to the U.S. Forest Service were not returned.
The "White Tribe" would be monolithic in their support for Herman Cain against this America Hating Socialist Pig.
ReplyDeleteShared Sacrifice for thee.
ReplyDeleteSelf-Indulgence for me.
America's First Bitch
Two Planes to Hawaii
ReplyDeleteTwo Planes to Chappaquidick
Because She Wants to
Fuck you
...and me
I do recall the horror stories about Mr Obama. How he was gong to lead US to a new form of governance, a Communistic Islamic Nazism.
ReplyDeleteBut, the reality, Mr Obama cannot lead US beyond the hospital waiting room.
There are no Federal re-education centers, no slave labor camps.
No, Mr Obama just turned out to be a normally normal President, in the mold of GW Bush.
One wonders ...
ReplyDeleteWhere are the protesters?
When Mr Bush vacationed in Texas, the protesters were camped out side the gate.
Mr Obama vacations and no one cares enough to tag along.
One wonders if you will ever pull your head out of your ass.
ReplyDeleteNot a chance.
ReplyDeleteb
Sure ur an expert on the black tribe blogger desert rat.
ReplyDeleteBlogger desert rat appears every bit as competent as the POTUS. Your posts aren't convincing, do you have any better information? Ur lacking
ReplyDeleteI ask the questions, you can ferret out the answers, anon.
ReplyDeletedoug, he's just Polynesian Parrot.
boob is an expert at having his head up an ass.
I did not know that you needed convincing, anon.
ReplyDeleteNor do I care.
Where are the protesters?
Where are the politically aggrieved?
Where are the people that care enough to show up?
Blogger desert rat, not swayed by ur questions or posts. Do u have anything better than the material you have posted? Anything?
ReplyDeleteWhere are the jobs blogger desert rat?
ReplyDeleteMy number one concern is getting off, as much as possible, Foreign Oil. In my estimation the best way of doing this is to go "balls to the walls" on biofuels.
ReplyDeleteI'll vote for the candidate that seems to "get this." Right now, that candidate is Barak Obama.
The Presidency is too important to vote on "who I'd like to be Best Buds with."
ReplyDeleteMr Cain will not be the GOP nominee.
ReplyDeleteThe "Black Bloc" will vote, 98% for Mr Obama. The only pertinent questions:
In how many States will the "Black Bloc" further increase electoral participation by their members.
Will there be a mobilization of the "White Tribe", in the "Swing States"?
Are the tribal interests of Caucasians in Mississippi the same as the tribal interests of white folks in New Jersey?
I voted "Tribe" in 2008. I won't do it again.
ReplyDeleteThe jobs are in Mexico and China, anon.
ReplyDeleteThey are exported, in trade deficits, to Saudi Arabia.
They are tied up in the $3 trillion USD the corporations are holding in US Treasuries.
Rufus II said...
ReplyDeleteMy number one concern is getting off, as much as possible, Foreign Oil. In my estimation the best way of doing this is to go "balls to the walls" on biofuels.
I'll vote for the candidate that seems to "get this." Right now, that candidate is Barak Obama.
ha ha ah ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
The jobs are in the off shore accounts of US multinationals, driven there by the US tax code.
ReplyDeleteThat's where many of the jobs are, anon, lost in the tax code.
A code seemingly held sacrosanct by the Tea Partiers.
Perhaps group prayer would help Rufus.
ReplyDeleteVote for a man that has given us three years of keelhauling?
b
Barak Obama didn't come within a gnat's whisker of crashing the entire world economy. Bush, and the neocons did that.
ReplyDeleteNow, the tea partiers want to "finish the job." No thanks. I've had quite enough of that crowd.
To replace the imported oil with domestically grown and processed ethanol is the most important single issue facing the country.
ReplyDeleteIt impacts upon defense spending priorities, the balance of payment deficit and would provide for tens of thousands of construction jobs, as the distilleries were being built and, of course, the impact of adding millions of acres of agricultural production and processing.
That such an obvious partial solution to the challenges we face is being ignored by the powers that be, indicative of the current state of Federal Socialism in the US.
Quite right, Rat. And, the Dems aren't particularly great on this issue, but they're better than Coburn, Perry, and the tea partiers.
ReplyDeleteNone of the above bunch say a thing about the fact that we're paying farmers Not to Plant 30 Million Acres, but they're dead set against using some of those acres to grow swithchgrass to compete with their precious Saudi/Koch Bros Oil.
Ah, nah, not even group prayer would help these two.
ReplyDeleteb
Check Out The 'Uppercut' At 00:23
ReplyDeleteb
boob supports the US funding Islamic States.
ReplyDeleteAttached at the hip with the Princes and their Golden Chain, in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Funding Hugo and his anti-US behavior in the Americas.
Stay the Course!
Exporting $7.00/bu corn to fatten up Japanese cattle, while Importing $110.00/bbl oil from Japan via Saudi Arabia just seems natural for some.
ReplyDeleteTo others is looks like insanity.
Well, gotta get moving. Good luck with your day, everyone.
ReplyDeleteLater.
Yobboidiotrat has reverted to his name calling, so early this morning too, and his attributing of nonsense to others. It's always a sign of frustration.
ReplyDeleteThis is the moron who claimed islam was at the forefront of individualism.
And the Roman Legions brought Christianity to the Americas.
And an endless bunch of other shit.
He lives in occupied Arizona.
The crossword puzzle calls.
b
re: Kinky Texan
ReplyDeleteThis is the spirit that makes me LOVE Texas and Texans! Texans fight, no-holds-barred, but when the fight is done they will kickback with an ice cold Shiner Bock and a Cuban cigar - spinning tall, taller and tallest tales until the cows come home.
boobie, it was the Roman Catholic Church, which brought Christianity to the Americas.
ReplyDeleteThat there is a direct line of descent, from the Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church is indisputable.
It was the Spanish Legion, boobie, "Los Conquistadors" that brought Christianity to the Americas.
ReplyDeleteNorth, South and Central America, well before a Protestant ever landed at Plymouth Rock.
I'd vote for Kinky even on the Sabbath.
ReplyDeleteb
boobie, it was the Roman Catholic Church, which brought Christianity to the Americas.
ReplyDeleteThat there is a direct line of descent, from the Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church is indisputable.
Thu Aug 25, 12:53:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...
It was the Spanish Legion, boobie, "Los Conquistadors" that brought Christianity to the Americas.
ah, shit, you two geniuses can fight it out.
It was Lola Clyde's father that brought Christianity to the Nimiipuu. Though their religion now is mostly Trinitarian Casino.
b
b = boobie, or boob.
ReplyDeleteAlways has.
That is not name calling.
That is "Situational Awareness".
Boobie
ReplyDeleteTheir name was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bubie, meaning "dunce", as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably Captain Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents, during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.
Constantine really didn't know squat about the arguments ongoing among the Christians. A warlord, he wanted his folk to sit down, shut up and quit the bickering.
ReplyDeleteAnd bickering they were, all around the Med, in the five or six major centers, in Egypt, Jerusalem, Rome, Odessa, Damascus, sometimes to the extent of slitting each others throats.
Anathemas abounded.
So he called a get together, to get 'em together.
It's said he saw some sort of sign, in the sky, in a dream before battle, in a dream after battle, or perhaps in some mythy etiological legend that grew up after his day.
And this is how the Roman Legions brought Christianity to the USA.
It's also possible one Joe of Arimathea, a big cheese tin merchant, brought Christianity to England, along with some others....and this is how Christianity came to the USA.
!
:)
yobboidiotrat is an yobboidiot, (I like the sounds of that) and when frustrated always starts calling names.
I'm going to Wal-Mart, that wonderful middle class store.
b
Yobboidiotrat's Moslem Individualists At Prayer (you know somebody is going to cut the cheese)
ReplyDeleteb
.
ReplyDeleteGold brought Christianity to the US. Primarily to support the coffers of kings. However, the padres came along to spread the word and dip their beaks.
.
Yobboidiotrat's Individualist Muslems Do The Joe Campbell Chimpanzee Cha-Cha Round The Black Rock, 7 Times Round
ReplyDeleteOff to Wal-Mart, promise.
b
Scientists find underground river beneath Amazon
ReplyDelete...and He opened the fountains of the deep...
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".
In the days of Shakespeare, philosophy and science were identities. Think about the quote in that light for a moment.
allen said...
ReplyDeletere: Kinky Texan
This is the spirit that makes me LOVE Texas and Texans! Texans fight, no-holds-barred, but when the fight is done they will kickback with an ice cold Shiner Bock and a Cuban cigar - spinning tall, taller and tallest tales until the cows come home.
I remember Kinky growing uo... Used to wear my Tony Lamas back then, even to Temple.
Michelle Obama has been as disappointing as her husband. You'd think she took a leaf, a gold one, out of Sarah Palin's playbook, when Sarah went on her open the checkbook, shopping spree on Fifth Avenue, following, being chosen the Republican vice presidental nominee. Probably worse, this time the taxpayer must reimburse. And she probably thinks the US taxpayer is still as rich as Croesus. It is the symbolism, and the sybaritic places she likes vacationing in: Vail, Costa de Sol, Martha´s Vineyard...some socialist family? As Gore Vidal says there is only one party in America,"the property party, with two wings".
ReplyDeleteNot bad Steve.
ReplyDeleteVikings converted to Christianity in 1000 AD.
ReplyDeleteVikings founded Vinland in 1000 AD.
First Mass in the Americas, therefore, was 492 years before Columbus.
Sarah Palin's biggest problem is her poll numbers against Obama, especially with independents.
ReplyDeleteOl' Bobbie needs to find another crush du jour.
Millionaires are vanishing. 40% gone in two years. (Obama considers this a rousing success.)
ReplyDeleteElmhurst College put a question on its admissions application that won’t appear on any other school's application.
"Would you consider yourself to be a member of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community?”
That optional question makes Elmhurst the first school in the country to ask applicants about their sexual orientation or gender identity, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Gary Rold, the dean of students at Elmhurst, stressed the question falls in line with the campus’ mission statement to increase diversity.
advertisement
A “yes” answer could put students in line to qualify for a scholarship worth one-third of tuition at the private, liberal arts school affiliated with the United Church of Christ, said Rold.
Good ol' Miss T.
ReplyDeleteI knew it was my folks brought the gospels here.
They got it from Joe of Arimathea, tin merchant, early on when they raided the coasts of England.
Romans, Spanish, my ass.
b
Those Norse, boob, not "Real" Christians.
ReplyDeleteThey being of the same ilk as Anders Behring Breivik, a self described Christian Fundamentalist.
Anders Behring Breivik whose Christianity is questioned by some of his brethren.
I've been on her for much longer than a day jour.
ReplyDeleteb
Besides, those Norse left during the "Little Ice Age", having little subsequent impact on the Americas, Ms T.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Los Conquistadors.
Can't slip out that easily yobboidiotrat.
ReplyDeleteWho are you to say what a 'real' anything is, other, than, maybe, a horse, or a moslem brother.
Peaceful folk, they went to Vinland to drink, of course, away from the distractions of home.
b
Yobboidiotrat's wife has been for Sarah for more than a day jour, too.
ReplyDeleteShe's the brains of the outfit.
b
Exactly, boobie, what is "Real"?
ReplyDeleteChristian, American or Muslim?
Those Norse had no impact upon the natives, they brought their Christian beliefs with them to Vinland, they died with them there, too.
Los Conquistadors spread the Christian faith by force of arms, successfully, across the Americas, North, Central and South.
I'm related to King Harrold Fair Hair on one side, and Erik Red Beard on another. I got some other sides too, like a seal.
ReplyDeleteThe damned Christians were unfair in trade --
Probable causes of Norse expansion
Main article: Viking expansion
Norse society was based on agriculture and trade with other peoples and placed great emphasis on the concept of honour, both in combat and in the criminal justice system. It was, for example, unfair and wrong to attack an enemy already in a fight with another.
It is unknown what triggered the Norse expansion and conquests. This era coincided with the Medieval Warm Period (800–1300) and stopped with the start of the Little Ice Age (about 1250–1850). The start of the Viking Age, with the sack of Lindisfarne, also coincided with Charlemagne's Saxon Wars, or Christian wars with pagans in Saxony. Historians Rudolf Simek and Bruno Dumézil theorise that the Viking attacks may have been in response to the spread of Christianity among pagan peoples.[7][8][9][10][11] Professor Rudolf Simek believes that “it is not a coincidence if the early Viking activity occurred during the reign of Charlemagne”.[12][13] Because of the penetration of Christianity in Scandinavia, serious conflict divided Norway for almost a century.[14]
With the means of travel (longships and open water), their desire for goods led Scandinavian traders to explore and develop extensive trading partnerships in new territories. It has been suggested that the Scandinavians suffered from unequal trade practices imposed by Christian advocates and that this eventually led to the breakdown in trade relations and raiding. British merchants who declared openly that they were Christian and would not trade with heathens and infidels (Muslims and the Norse) would get preferred status for availability and pricing of goods through a Christian network of traders. A two-tiered system of pricing existed with both declared and undeclared merchants trading secretly with banned parties. Viking raiding expeditions were separate from and coexisted with regular trading expeditions. A people with the tradition of raiding their neighbours when their honour had been impugned might easily fall to raiding foreign peoples who impugned their honour.
Historians also suggest that the Scandinavian population was too large for the peninsula and there was not enough good farmland for everyone. This led to a hunt for more land. Particularly for the settlement and conquest period that followed the early raids, internal strife in Scandinavia resulted in the progressive centralisation of power into fewer hands. Formerly empowered local lords who did not want to be oppressed by greedy kings emigrated overseas. Iceland became Europe's first modern republic, with an annual assembly of elected officials called the Althing, though only goði (wealthy landowners) had the right to vote there.
We also invented democracy, of a sort, through the Althing. This may have been a major mistake. But they tempered it by having a tradition that deuce might well agree with, only the gooi had the right to vote.
These days any dimwit like yobboidiotrat can vote.
With the results you see all around you.
b
She "likes" Mrs Palin, which does not mean she'd vote for her.
ReplyDeleteMy wife has more than feelings to guide her, she uses her intellect, as well.
An intellect that tells her Mrs Palin is a quitter. A woman unable to go the distance.
A mother that preaches abstinence as public policy, whose own daughter bore a child out of wedlock and who's son married a woman who was six months pregnant.
Christian family values are a propaganda sham in the Palin clan.
Exactly, boobie, what is "Real"?
ReplyDeleteAnd, alas, I have been trying, in vain, to teach you something of that, all this time.
Invincibly ignorant as you are, I just sit back and silently sigh these days, along with a little mockery.
Isn't the bowling alley open or something?
b
I'm a real property holder, white, free, a veteran of military service and over 21 years of age.
ReplyDeleteI'd have been qualified to vote, almost anywhere in the historic norm.
Your knowledge of history, wikipedic.
Have you called that diagnostician, yet?
The societal results all around you, boob, are caused by the citizenry failing in their duty to the common good.
ReplyDeleteAs in not reporting violent felonies to Law Enforcement.
When citizens no longer do what is right, they'll fall for anything at all.
A mother that preaches abstinence as public policy, whose own daughter bore a child out of wedlock and who's son married a woman who was six months pregnant.
ReplyDeleteTut tut tut tut!
And you called Trish the hen mother or den mother or some shit.
Why the scandal of it all.
When actually Palin handled the situation best she could.
I'm biking downtown to buy some tickets to The Tempest this weekend, at our new Grain Bin Theatre in the Round.
b
Those that fail to perform their civic duty are the cause of the cultural dysfunction that you think you see.
ReplyDeleteA reflection of your own image of pathetic inaction.
.
ReplyDeleteNATO aids Rebels in Hunt for Gadhafi
“This is not over yet,” said Foreign Secretary William Hague of Britain, which has played leading diplomatic and military roles in the effort to end Colonel Qaddafi’s dictatorship. “There are huge numbers of weapons out there and some thousands of forces are continuing to fight for a regime that is finished,” Mr. Hague said, speaking of loyalist resistance in the south of Tripoli and in Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s tribal home. Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, said Thursday that NATO was trying to help the rebels locate Colonel Qaddafi, apparently breaking from the frequent Western assertion that it adheres to its United Nations mandate to protect civilians.
The "Allies" no longer see the need to deny they are actively seeking regime change and, one would assume, the death of Gadhafi.
Likewise, their claims of only being in Libya for humanitarian reasons can now be put aside as well.
Hundreds of wounded fighters and civilians streamed into Tripoli hospitals from the new clashes in Tripoli’s Abu Salim neighborhood of apartment blocks, adjacent to Colonel Qaddafi’s former Bab al-Aziziya compound, which was overrun by rebels on Tuesday. Rumors swirled in the capital that insurgents fighting in Abu Salim had cornered Colonel Qaddafi or at least one member of his family. The claims were impossible to verify.
There were reports, too, that the bullet-riddled bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters had been found at a military encampment in central Tripoli. At least two were bound with plastic handcuffs, suggesting that they had been executed, Reuters reported.
Five of the dead were found at a field hospital, one strapped to a gurney in an ambulance with an intravenous drip still in his arm, Reuters said...
Killing Continues in Tripoli
It's been predicted here how this will turn out. It will be interesting to see how the denouement plays out.
.
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - The Libyan rebel government hopes to restart oil exports within two to three months and reach full volumes in about a year, Ali Tarhouni, the official in charge of financial and oil matters told Reuters from Libya's oil ministry in Tripoli.
It was the first time an official from the rebel National Transitional Authority was seen in the capital taking up the reins of government, after rebel fighters swept into the city four days ago aiming to topple Muammar Gaddafi.
"The NOC (National Oil Corporation) initial estimate is that we can have about 500,000 to 600,000 barrels within two to three months. And then we ramp this up to the normal, which is about 1.6 (million). My expectation is that this will be done within a year or so," Tarhouni said.
Damage on most of Libya's oilfields from the civil war has been minimal, he said.
"The state of the oil fields are a lot better than expected,"
ReplyDeleteTripoli, Libya (CNN) -- An agreement has been reached in the U.N. Security Council to release $1.5 billion in frozen Libyan assets to meet the humanitarian needs of the country, diplomats said Thursday.
"Today's action demonstrates the international community's solidarity with the brave people of Libya at this historic moment," said Susan E. Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in a statement.
"The unprecedented international coalition built upon U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973 prevented mass atrocities in eastern Libya, averted large-scale killings of unarmed civilians and avoided a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Yet this is not the end of Libya's transition. It is the beginning. The United States will continue to work with our international partners to support the Libyan people as they chart a democratic, prosperous and secure future for their country."
But technicalities remained to be worked out and the hold was not immediately lifted, diplomats said.
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Libya's rebel council knows who killed their top military commander but will not immediately identify them for fear the information will hurt the revolution, the council's chairman said on Thursday.
Rebel military commander Abdel Fattah Younes, Gaddafi's interior minister before defecting to the rebels on February 22, was killed on July 28 after he was taken into custody by his own side for questioning, sparking an investigation into his death.
"They have reached a final conclusion and the identities of those who assassinated (Younes) have started appearing," National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil told a news conference.
"They will be arrested at a time when the higher interests of this revolution will not be damaged."
I bet he's out in the desert somewhere. It's a big place. Low level civil war probably go on for a long, long time.
ReplyDelete---
The coming of Christianity to these shores really isn't of much interest. Most everyone knows the basic story.
Of real interest is how the symbolism of the kundalini ascent ended up in Navajo sand paintings.
From Hinduland, and Egypt (they say it came to them in the form of a White Bull from the east -Hinduland) how did the seven stage ascent end up in sand paintings in occupied southwest USA? Cultural difussion? Hard to see how. But maybe. Something innate in the human psyche. Maybe. Maybe both.
But there it is, in those lovely sand paintings, the ascent up the seven stages/chakras on a corn stalk, whence the footsteps turn off to the right, to continue on with life, transformed.
Now there is something to think about.
Wish I could find a picture of it, but can't.
b
.
ReplyDeleteI was caught by the hutzpah involved in the title of this article written by Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defence at the Centre for European Reform.
U.S. Cuts Leave Europe Defenseless
...There is a real danger that cuts on one end of the Atlantic will encourage more cuts on the other end, thus degrading NATO's credibility. While some of the bases that the United States is thinking of closing may well be redundant, NATO defence guarantees will lose their meaning unless the allies maintain a certain minimum number of forces and military installations. In theory, the Europeans should be responding to US force cuts by studying whether NATO is close to reaching this threshold, and whether they need to augment their forces to replace the departing US ones. But the opposite is likely to happen: without US pressure, many European governments will feel freer than ever to reduce military spending and forces. This may yet turn out to be the most significant and corrosive legacy of current US budgets cuts for allied security.
.
:)
ReplyDeleteEveryone is always saying how the US spends more on defense than X other countries combined.
Never mentioning that X other counties, well, in Europe anyway, spend practically nothing on defense.
----
Prospero worked hard to teach Caliban to speak, and when he picked up the knack, all he did with it was curse, threaten, bluster and slander.
b
without US pressure, many European governments will feel freer than ever to reduce military spending and forces. This may yet turn out to be the most significant and corrosive legacy of current US budgets cuts for allied security
ReplyDeleteSo the unilaterialism of Cowboy Bush throwing his hyperpower weight around and making the Europeans feel bad was a corrosive legacy, and now doing precisely the opposite is also corrosive. I guess we need a "nuanced" approach to find the perfect middle ground.
The US spends more than
ReplyDeleteALL THE OTHERS COMBINED,
boob.
Friends and foes, combined.
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, champagne in one hand, strawberries in the other and screaming "Woo Hoo! What a ride!"
ReplyDeleteThe US spends more than
ReplyDeleteALL THE OTHERS COMBINED,
boob.
Friends and foes, combined.
Good thing too, because China got an aircraft carrier from Bolivia on Ebay, greatly enhancing their sea power projection capabilities, and now they are only months away from an amphibious invasion of the West Coast.
The foes spend next to nothing, too.
ReplyDeleteThe NorKs, Iranians, Russian and Chinese, all combined don't reach the US level of military spending or foreign troop deployments.
And the Chinese are not even adversaries, rather, now they our economic partner.
Invested in US success.
Timing is the trick, to that, Ms T.
ReplyDeletesong of the day
ReplyDeleteLibya’s Lesson to Syria -
ReplyDeleteStay the Course
Voice of America ...
Stay the Course!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDying is the last thing I want to do T.
:) heh, but it won't be the last thing you do.
I'm with Woody Allen: It's not death I'm worried about, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
----
Caliban is a take off on cannibal, at the time reports were coming back from English ships 'cross the seas, of some rude bunches, over thata way.
b
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told conservative radio show host Laura Ingraham he would not vacation on Martha's Vineyard as president.
ReplyDelete"I'm not even sure I know where it is," Perry said.
According to a new Pew Research survey out Thursday, Obama's approval rating stands at 43 percent, down six points from its last survey in February.
As the experiences of recent years in Iraq and Afghanistan have vividly illustrated, it is far easier to depose a regime than it is to govern a country. It has also proved to be very difficult to build a stable government from the remnants of a long-established dictatorial regime.
ReplyDelete...
One of the biggest problems that will confront the Libyan rebels as they make the transition from rebels to rulers are the country’s historic ethnic, tribal and regional splits. While the Libyan people are almost entirely Muslim and predominantly Arab, there are several divisions among them.
...
While the NTC is an umbrella group comprising most of the groups that oppose Gadhafi, the bulk of the NTC leadership hails from Cyrenaica. In its present state, the NTC faces a difficult task in balancing all the demands and interests of the various factions that have combined their efforts to oust the Gadhafi regime.
Rebellion to Rule
Question. What’s the smallest muscle in a sheep?????
ReplyDeleteAnswer A KIWI’S Penis
If I was Qadafi, I might well head to Ghat.
ReplyDeleteMaybe.
b
Stop us if you’ve heard this before.
ReplyDeleteA late entrant into the presidential race whips up all kind of buzz and jumps into a race where the rest of the field is off to a supposedly lackluster start, only to have his first day on the campaign be his best. By far.
...
Romney doubles down on ‘corporations are people’: Far from backing away from his contention that “corporations are people,” Romney is doubling down.
In a campaign stop Wednesday in New Hampshire, Romney brought up the remark — which some have portrayed as a gaffe — unprompted.
...
It’s not yet clear how Romney’s remarks will cut. He may alienate more populist voters, but the remarks are more likely to be used in a general election attack than a primary one.
Huntsman then moves to some policy issues, calling the U.S. debt a "cancer growing in this country" and warning that "it is eating us alive and we've got to do something about it."
ReplyDelete...
"I look at Libya where we're becoming more and more entangled. I can't for the life of me see a definable national security interest.
...
He goes on to say that it is time for the U.S. to remove its troops from Afghanistan, which is supposed to be a counter-terrorism mission, not one of nation-building.
In the wake of violent revolutions in Europe the royalty took it easy on the treasury for rear they might lose their heads. Oh but not here in this "democracy." Our king & queen - although avowed critics of the captains of capitalism - have been lecturing to us to do only as they say, not as they do... Typical socialist ivy-collegate Eurotrash with a Chicago bent.Yeah, Michelle the people be easy on the fat and fries... how bout you on the "free" Don Perrier and jet rides?
ReplyDeleteThe president’s speech will also include his recommendations to a congressional “super committee” charged with coming up with a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Mr. Obama will push the committee members to come up with a package much larger than $1.5 trillion, making the case, as his aides have, that a smaller package is no easier to adopt than a larger one.
ReplyDelete...
The retrofitting proposal under consideration was announced by the White House in June and has already gotten commitments from companies. The jobs council estimates that the engineering program could turn out 10,000 additional engineering graduates a year.
Mr. Obama created the jobs council earlier this year to find ways government could partner with the private sector to grow the economy. The council is scheduled to hold two meetings focusing on the initiatives Mr. Obama is considering prior to the president’s speech – one on Aug. 31 in Portland, Ore., and another on Sept. 1 in Dallas.
"The defendant will simply not have the ability to care for his children and work with attorneys in this case if this case is tried at the October 2011 Criminal term in light of the absence of his daughter," the document states.
ReplyDeleteLast week, Edwards also added a new high-profile litigator from Washington to his defense team. Abbe Lowell, according to the document, has been unable to have the "necessary tasks to participate meaningfully in his defense."
In July, during a pre-trial hearing in Greensboro, the judge overseeing the proceeding set the trial for October but acknowledged that another judge who would take over the case might entertain a request for a delay.
What's up with Gov. Chris Christie, a guy who earned his national reputation with a pugnacious, in-your-face style, suddenly going all soft on us? First, he practically turned the other cheek when Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) called him a "rotten prick" for his cuts to social programs.
ReplyDeleteTexas’s Rick Perry has been telephoning the Iowa crew who organized a draft-Chris-Christie mission earlier this presidential election cycle, with a goal of winning their financial support, as well as their political backing.
ReplyDelete...
The seven Republicans – the others are GOP activist Mikel Derby, real estate developer Denny Elwell, and former state Sen. Jim Kersten – have an eye on fiscal issues.
They traveled to New Jersey by private jet on May 31 to try to talk Christie, the state’s governor, into abandoning his disinterest in running for president in 2012. Christie isn’t as emphatic in his private conversations as he is in his public statements that he’s not interested in running, the Iowans have said.
ATTENTION: MISS T
ReplyDeleteRight Up Your Alley, So To Speak
Think I'll try to see this movie.
b
The Romney campaign in 2007 pointed to an agreement Romney signed “with the federal government to deputize state troopers to enforce immigration laws in Massachusetts….”
ReplyDeleteBut the Globe noted: "As governor, Romney never directly addressed the issue of sanctuary cities. His strongest stand on illegal immigration resulted in a successful veto of tuition discounts at state colleges for illegal immigrants.”
And: “That state trooper initiative, signed by Romney three weeks before leaving office, was largely ridiculed as grandstanding by critics who said he was burnishing his conservative credentials for a presidential run.”
Must be a work of fiction. Lesbianism doesn't exist in Iran, we are told.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a well made interesting movie, though.
b
http://www.kxly.com/news/28964715/detail.html
ReplyDeleteSad story. We know he shot the girl, but not who the shooter was.
Multiple personality to the tune of six, his students said he was quite up front about it. And a great teacher when he was all there.
Must have been 'the beast' as he called one of the six.
She played the cello, very bright, outgoing, whole life ahead.....
Sad as hell.
b
Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon has decided to endorse Rick Perry for president, a Cannon adviser told POLITICO Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteJason Johnson, a political professor at Hiram College in Ohio, said the White House was correct in thinking that independents would value the deal. The problem, Johnson said, is that the public soured on the debt accord because it was quickly followed by the Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating.
ReplyDelete...
Following the death of Osama bin Laden in early May, many political experts predicted that Obama would win a second term. At the time, Intrade, an online prediction market, set the chances of Obama winning in 2012 at 70 percent.
Nearly four months later, Intrade now pegs Obama’s chances at 50 percent.
Have a Bet
ReplyDeleteMuammar al-Gaddafi to no longer be leader of Libya before midnight ET 31 Aug 2011
ReplyDelete73%
A cap and trade system for emissions trading to be established before midnight ET on 31 Dec 2013
ReplyDelete10%
Irene to make first landfall as Category 2 storm (or higher) in North Carolina
ReplyDelete84%
The Freedom Tower/One World Trade Center to be officially opened before midnight ET on 31 Dec 2014
ReplyDelete99%
Any country currently using the Euro to announce their intention to drop it midnight ET 31 Dec 2014
ReplyDelete58%
Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Pt 2 to have highest opening (3 day) box office returns in 2011
ReplyDelete92%
Feb 2012 (G12) Gold Futures to close ON or ABOVE 1400 on 30 Dec 2011
ReplyDelete95%
Naoto Kan to no longer be Prime Minister of Japan before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011
ReplyDelete99.5%
Sarah Palin to formally announce a run for President before midnight ET on 31 Dec 2011
ReplyDelete39%
Monthly House Price Index for Vancouver, BC to be 121 or less before the end of 2013
ReplyDelete40%
Higgs Boson Particle to be observed on/before 31 Dec 2012
ReplyDelete60%
Highest Marginal Single-Filer Fed Income Tax Rate to be Equal or Greater than 34% in 2011 Tax Year
ReplyDelete98%
Apple iPad unit sales to be 25 million (or more) in fiscal year 2011
ReplyDelete99%
Deuce to ban Sam from EB in month of August '11
ReplyDelete75%
Bob to fake own death in September '11
ReplyDelete80%
I could use the insurance money.
ReplyDeleteb
What's the odds on Rufus actually carrying through on his threat and voting for Obama?
ReplyDeleteb
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/08/greece_outlawing_shariah_law.html
ReplyDeleteHooray for Greece, Lord Byron would be proud.
b
What's the odds of Rufus walking in the polling booth "drunker'n a skunk?"
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with that ancient dump the girls lived in Anon?
ReplyDeleteLooks to be at grade level, surrounded by dirt, can't imagine living there in inclement weather, much less living in a hundred year old shanty through an Idaho winter.
Also, one might think the girl would exit the scene after multiple serious encounters with a firearm pointed at and inserted into her person.
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