Barack And Michelle Take Night Off And The RNC Hits The Bitch Switch.
Obviously the RNC opposes Romance, happy marriages, heterosexual or same sex; they just approve marriage. These people have no lives, no viable party and do not engage their brains before they open their mouths. I am going to examine this latest nonsense and then we are going to look at the Bush travel record and suggest that the GAO be contacted for a full revelation of his expenses. They ought to release that because it’s not an Impeachable or Prosecution deal, or maybe it is. Anyway here is where yesterday’s No.2 News Story began. GM was No.1!
It’s Probably a damned good thing the Republican writers didn’t conjure up what Barack and Michelle did when they got home. They couldn’t get that right either!
The italics will be personal critique commentary.
From the Drudge Report Link …The Washington Times Right Wing Parakeet Droppings Rag:
The president has been criticized for the trip to New York in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and with thousands of auto workers facing unemployment as General Motors prepared to file for bankruptcy and Chrysler was about to emerge from court-guided restructuring. (I guess they should have stayed home and walked the carpet in a woe is us ritual.)
One early “estimate” (that would be guesstimate) (from the New York Post) put the cost at $24,000. Absurdly low. (Oh boy the Times is winding up now. Just remember all the things they are going to throw into the expense pot. We’ll want to apply ALL of them to the Bush record; just to be fair you know.)
The Daily Mail in London threw out another number — $75,000. Sure, three times as much as the first estimate, but still probably spectacularly low. (Spectacularly low… a big poly syllabic word for this shit sheet) Remember, joyriding Air Force One around for a few hours over Manhattan a couple months ago cost $250,000, so the cost of the weekend trip was likely not likely that low.
With the White House simply refusing to say how much taxpayer money it spent, here's a helpful way to calculate the cost of the trip: (Don’t you just love it when the Press is HELPFUL.)
First, the First Couple (and entourage) flew from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base — three choppers (two decoys), if the Marines stuck to standard operating procedure (and they are sticklers for SOP). That means dozens of men and women — radar, communications, mechanics, crews, everyone, perhaps 100, (nice round number air-picked who knows? — were involved. (A batch of tagalongs must've taken a taxpayer pool of vehicles out from the White House to AAFB, since it took three jets to get the gang to NYC). (This is reporting the news; the facts? It sounds more like middle school gossip found on a study hall note on the floor.)
Second, the president moving on a Saturday takes a full operation at and around the White House, dozens and dozens of people. Maybe they're all on salary, so that didn't likely cost much. But all the cops involved — D.C. police, uniformed Secret Service officers, Capitol police — were probably paid overtime, even double time. Probably, again, 100 personnel or so. (Probably, maybe, who knows; such precision investigation of the facts. One reports the facts; they don’t suggest what the facts might probably, possibly might be.)
Then there were the jets — at least $24,000 for the three aircraft used to ferry the Obamas, aides and reporters to New York. The Obamas' jet, a Gulfstream 500, served as Air Force One.
Third, a C-17 had to fly to NYC to put in place a full motorcade (at least a dozen vehicles, maybe more). (Oh, there’s that maybe again.) The military cargo plane may have taken up at least two, but maybe three, more choppers to fly the whole party from JFK to a Wall Street landing zone, where the motorcade was waiting. If not, the choppers flew there solo (White House veteran reporter Mark Knoller of CBS Radio wrote recently that "The VH-3D that serves as Marine One consumes about 1,200 pounds of fuel per hour." Ouch. (We have some Bush multiplying that needs to done a bit later.)
Fourth, driving through Manhattan is an expensive exercise. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of NYPD have to be stationed all along the way, shutting down roads, holding back pedestrians. There were police cars involved, dozens of motorcycles, and the ever-present NYC ambulance (oh, don't forget that the White House doctor also probably went — with all his gear). The city likely gets reimbursed by the White House for the cost (they usually do). And they were all probably getting time and a half (the NYPD overtime budget is extraordinary).
Fifth, the United States Secret Service (USSS) had to scope out the whole thing, then station agents all over — sharpshooters, undercover agents, etc. — at a huge cost. Who knows if they were on overtime. And if you think they went up Saturday morning, think again. They were likely in NYC upwards of a week before, planning the whole evening, every second of every movement. They had to map out five movements — from JFK to the Wall Street LZ, then a motorcade to the restaurant, then another motorcade to the play, then a final motorcade back to the LZ, then a chopper flight to JFK, before the First Couple and crew jetted back to AAFB for another chopper to the White House.
One thing is known — The Obamas picked up the cost of dinner costs and their orchestra seat tickets, which cost $96.50 a piece. So if the whole thing cost $250,000, the Obamas offset that by at least a few hundred bucks. Phew.
And there you have News Story No.2 for the day. What Bullshit and everybody followed the lead like empty-headed drones.
NEW YORK MAYOR BLOOMBERG HAD A VERY DIFFERENT TAKE ON THE ENTIRE VISIT.
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RNC SLAMS Obama For Romantic Date With Michelle In New York
By Jimmy Orr | 05.30.09
Sure, it’s one of the worst songs ever written. But perhaps President Obama and First Lady Michelle are closet Air Supply fans and are simply “Keeping the Love Alive” by enjoying a date-night in New York City tonight.
As we told you earlier, the Obamas are spending a presumably romantic evening together with dinner and a Broadway show this evening in the Big Apple.
If the RNC are fans of Air Supply as well, perhaps they believe the Obamas are “Lost in Love” because flying off to New York while the economy is tanking is just not right they say.
“As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills,” RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in an email this afternoon.
That’s not all from Gitcho. She then added a snitty, “Have a great Saturday evening — even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense.”
Fung Wah
Well, you can say the Obamas are at least trying to keep the costs down. They downsized the transportation opting not to take the normal Air Force One 747.
It’s not like they took the $10 Fung Wah Bus either though. They just hopped on a smaller plane. Although it is still called Air Force One, it’s just part of the fleet.
The plane they took this afternoon is an Air Force Gulfstream V (C-37A) — a 12 passenger aircraft. (H/T Mark Knoller). And there are no plans to circle the Statue of Liberty.
Snazzy
It looks like they’re ready to hit the town too. Reports are that they’re all snazzed up. According to the Associated Press, Michelle “…wore her hair up, heels and a sleeveless black ruffled dress that fell below the knee while he went tieless in a dark suit and white shirt.”
No details yet on the restaurant of choice. Although we are surmising that’s it’s a notch up from the hamburger stand the president visited yesterday (nothing against hamburger stands).
As for the Broadway show? They are heading to the Belasco Theatre for a performance of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”.
First Couple to Hit Broadway This Weekend
For all of the people sprawled out on those lawn chairs along shuttered Broadway in Times Square, take note: A certain famous family plans to be awfully close by on Saturday evening.
President Obama and his wife, Michelle, plan to visit New York City on Saturday and take in a Broadway show, the August Wilson play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Belasco Theater on West 44th Street, according to three theater executives who have been informed of the First Family’s plans.
The theater executives spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the president’s itinerary, and cautioned that the trip was subject to change.
“The president and the first lady will be making a personal visit to New York tomorrow,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the president, who declined to elaborate on the schedule.
The Obamas plan to attend the 8 p.m. performance of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” a critically acclaimed production that has been nominated for six Tony Awards, including best revival of a play.
Set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” centers on a group of African-Americans searching for their place in the world and coming to grips with the legacy of slavery. Lincoln Center Theater produced the play, which first ran on Broadway in 1988; this production was directed by Bartlett Sher, who has been nominated for a Tony for his work.
The Tonys will be handed out next Sunday night. “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” is in a tough contest for best play revival against three other oft-praised Broadway productions: “Mary Stuart,” “The Norman Conquests,” and “Waiting for Godot.”
The theater executives had no additional details on Friday about what else the Obamas might do in New York, nor did they have any advance word about whether car or pedestrian access to additional parts of Times Square might be limited due to the Obamas’ visit.
Barack and Michelle Obama went to Manhattan last night to see aBroadway play.
The Obamas plan to attend the 8 p.m. performance of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” a critically acclaimed production that has been nominated for six Tony Awards, including best revival of a play.
Set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” centers on a group of African-Americans searching for their place in the world and coming to grips with the legacy of slavery.
They traveled there in a 12-passenger Air Force Gulfstream V (C-37A). Here’s the Republican response:
“As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills,” RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in an email this afternoon.
That’s not all from Gitcho. She then added a snitty, “Have a great Saturday evening — even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense.”
It’s not like New Orleans is drowning.
There are many ways to assess President Bush’s eight years in office. Countless hours of broadcast time and tons of newsprint are being consumed in that pursuit these days.
And you can agree or not with what’s being said and written.
It’s difficult for any of us to convey an objective assessment of the Bush presidency - but numbers come close to offering a bit of unbiased insight.
So here - in no particular order - are some of the numbers that mark the record of the 43rd President of the United States.
National Debt Increase: $4.9 trillion.
National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009: $10.6 trillion
Debt when Mr. Bush took office: $5.7 trillion
(Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)
Number Of Political Fund-Raisers Attended By President Bush: 338
Amount Or Money Raised At These Fund-Raisers:$802,586,070
(Some campaigns refused to disclose the amounts)
Number Of Baseball Games Attended: 12
(Including Game 3 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, 2001)
Number Of All Sporting Events Attended: 98
(Counting the Beijing Olympics as one)
Number Of Cabinet meetings: 49
What…98 sporting events and only 49 Cabinet meetings! No surprise; Cheney was doing whatever the Hell he thought needed to be done from his prevented mind perspective.. Heil!
Number Of Times President Bush Had Dinner Out At A Restaurant: 21
That includes his Crawford burgers.
U.S. Military Deaths In Iraq: 4,228
(Source: Dept of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
U.S. Military Deaths In Afghanistan: 634
(Source: Dept. of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
Medals Of Honor Bestowed By Pres. Bush: 12
(Nine were awarded posthumously. Four were for service in Iraq, 1 for Afghanistan.)
Number Of Commencement Speeches Delivered:23
(The last one was Dec 12, 2008, at Texas A&M)
Number Of Visits To Camp David: 149, totaling all or part of 487 days.
Number Of Foreign Leader Visits To Camp David:19, including 3 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and 2 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Number Of Visits To His Texas Ranch: 77, totaling all or part of 490 days.
That means he spent 977 days, over 2 ½ years at Camp David or Crawford!
OK, I’ll be accurate: 2 years=720 days, plus 257 left over,(1/2 year=184) so 2 ½ years plus 72 days!
Number Of Foreign Leader Visits To His Texas Ranch: 20, including 2 by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (Crown Prince at the time) and 2 by President Vicente Fox of Mexico.
Number Of Visits To His Parents’ Home In Kennebunkport, Maine: 11, totaling all or part of 43 days.
Number Of Out Of Town Domestic Trips: 609
(That's not counting Camp David visits or bike riding outings)
Number Of Foreign Trips: 49
Number Of Foreign Nations Visited: 75
Foreign Nations Visited Most: Mexico, Italy and Russia, 6 times each.
Number Of Rounds Of Golf Played As President: 24
(The last one on Oct. 13, 2003. President Bush has since explained that he stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.)
Number Of Katrina-Related Visits To The Gulf Coast: 18
Number Of Formal, Solo, White House News Conferences: 44
Total Number Of News Conferences: 212
(Including many joint sessions with foreign leaders at home and abroad)
Number Of News Conferences At Which Shoes Were Thrown At Him: 1
Number Of Presidential Pardons: 189
By Comparison:
Bill Clinton: 396
George H.W. Bush: 74
Ronald Reagan: 393
Jimmy Carter: 534
Gerald Ford: 382
Richard Nixon: 863
Lyndon Johnson: 960
John Kennedy: 472
Dwight Eisenhower: 1110
Harry S. Truman: 1913
Number Of Commutations Of Sentence: 11
Number Of Recess Appointments: 165
(Source: Senate Historian)
Democrats blocked the practice in the fall of 2007 by keeping the Senate in session even during holiday periods.
Addresses To The Nation: 23
(The last was his Farewell Address on Jan. 15, 2009)
Addresses To Joint Sessions Of Congress: 9
(Of which 7 were State of the Union speeches)
State Dinners For Foreign Leaders: 6
Pres. Vicente Fox of Mexico
Pres. Alexander Krasniewski of Poland
Pres. Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines
Pres. Mwai Kibaki of Kenya
Queen Elizabeth II of UK
Pres. John Kufuor of Ghana
States Not Visited As President: 1, Vermont.
(Last of the other 49 to be visited: Rhode Island, June 28, 2007.)
Vetoes: 12, including 1 pocket veto.
(President Bush did not cast his first veto until his sixth year in office - a measure to extend federal funding of stem cell research.)
By comparison:
Bill Clinton cast 37 (not counting line item vetoes)
George H.W. Bush: 44
Reagan: 78
Carter: 31
Ford: 66
FDR: 635
Vetoes Overridden By Congress: 4
H.R. 1495 - the Water Resources Development Act of 2007
H.R. 2419 - the $289-billion "Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008”
H.R. 6124 - The “Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.”
H.R. 6331 - the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.”
Number Of Flights On Air Force One: 1,674
(Source: Presidential Airlift Group)
Number Of Miles Flown On Air Force One: 1,490,698
(Presidential Airlift Group)
Number Of Chiefs Of Staff: 2, Andrew Card and Josh Bolten.
Number Of Press Secretaries: 4, Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony Snow and Dana Perino.
Wouldn’t just love to see the accounting on that record? I would.
The Date:
After dining a little more than two hours at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant touted by New York magazine as a "seminal Greenmarket haven" that features food grown by chef and owner Dan Barber on his upstate farm, the president and first lady headed to the Belasco Theater to make it in time for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."
Two martinis, a swank restaurant, a Broadway show -- President Obama really knows how to treat a First Lady.
"I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said yesterday after touching down at JFK for an intimate night on the town.
The first couple left their girls, Sasha and Malia, behind at the White House yesterday afternoon, taking two helicopters and a small Air Force jet to make their way to Manhattan.
The Obamas were dressed to the nines -- Michelle in a sleeveless, black cocktail dress adorned with fringe, a pair of low, strappy heels and a turquoise clutch; and the president in a dark suit and white shirt, no tie.
The first stop was a meal at low-key, but elegant, Greenwich Village restaurant Blue Hill, which boasts farm fresh, locally grown dishes.
The Obamas were tucked into an out-of-the- way corner table where they enjoyed a multi- course feast specially prepared by the chef. They washed down the fine fare with wine, said a fellow diner, who also no ticed Michelle re laxing with a cou ple of martinis.
Photographers were kept blocks away be hind barri cades for the first couple's privacy.
"We left them alone the entire night," said Blue Hill diner Rachael Levit, of Manhattan. "Nobody asked for autographs or took any pictures. They were laughing and talking and seemed like they had a genuinely good time."
But as the Obamas departed, the respectful diners, who had been screened by Secret Service personnel before they could enter the eatery, erupted into a round of applause.
Then it was up to Broadway, where they had tickets at the Belasco Theatre for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," a play by August Wilson about a man coming to terms with the history of slavery.
"I'm nervous, excited, honored," said Andre Holland, who plays character Jeremy Furlow, before the show. "It's like in Shakespearean times, when the king would come to the show."
Although the play's up for a Best Revival Tony Award, the first couple got the biggest standing ovation of the night as theatergoers applauded and took photos of the dashing duo for 10 minutes before the show began.
The president gallantly guided his wife to their orchestra seats with his hand on the small of her back, while shaking hands with fellow theatergoers and smiling broadly. Due to security screenings, the curtain rose an hour late.
"I couldn't think for the first 10 minutes of the show because the president was sitting right to me," said seatmate Lloyd Lederkramer.
The Obamas weren't the only celebrities in the audience. Actress Meryl Streep sat a few rows ahead of them, and Olympia Dukakis was also on hand.
"I was very honored the president took a date night with his wife and chose to see our play," said leading actor Ernie Hudson. "We were all very honored."
The Obamas sent a note to the cast afterwards saying they loved the play and wished they could go backstage, but couldn't because of security, actor Michael Cummings, 13, said.
Taxpayers footed the bill for the big night on the town, which included a total of at least $24,000 for the three aircraft used to ferry the Obamas, aides and reporters to New York and back. Dinner costs and orchestra seat tickets -- at $96.50 apiece -- were paid by the Obamas.
It’s Probably a damned good thing the Republican writers didn’t conjure up what Barack and Michelle did when they got home. They couldn’t get that right either!
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