Patterico's Pontifications

3/29/2013

Obama Kids Living It Up While Regular Kids Can’t See the White House — and News Outlets Are Scrubbing the Information

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:10 pm



Alex Marlow at Breitbart.com reports:

A local news affiliate in Idaho reported that the First Daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, are on a Spring Break ski trip in Sun Valley, Idaho. The story quickly spread across the Internet when picked up by the highly trafficked Drudge Report website.

But hours later, the story disappeared from the KMVT website without an update or correction. Breitbart News confirmed that the White House requested that the post be removed.

Obama’s kids were just in the Bahamas. Must be nice.

And the White House’s justification for asking that this news be scrubbed? Alex publishes this statement from a White House spokeshole:

From the beginning of the administration, the White House has asked news outlets not to report on or photograph the Obama children when they are not with their parents and there is no vital news interest.

Awww. It’s not newsworthy, eh? I beg to differ, and I applaud Alex for breaking the story of how the cowardly Idaho news outlet caved. Elizabeth Price Foley expresses my feelings well:

While I certainly understand the concerns about security, presumably the Secret Service is accompanying these girls wherever they go. If these media reports are true and the girls have been to both luxurious and expensive locations during their spring break, this would be legitimately newsworthy at a time when the President has halted White House tours and other basic government functions, supposedly due to sequestration-based budget cuts. The public deserves to know whether the Obamas are being hypocritical and/or squandering tax dollars during a time of economic austerity.

HOW DARE YOU REPORT ON THEIR LUXURIOUS AND EXPENSIVE VACATIONS!!!!!!1!!!!111!!!!!

UPDATE: That’s Elizabeth Price Foley and not Glenn Reynolds. Fixed. Thanks to Ipso Fatso.

160 Responses to “Obama Kids Living It Up While Regular Kids Can’t See the White House — and News Outlets Are Scrubbing the Information”

  1. I’m sorry. I should not have reported this. After all, John Podhoretz says Obama is a very Serious Man. And I am sure I am somehow detracting from that by criticizing him.

    Patterico (2efd47)

  2. These grifters in the white house would make a sow eat her farrow.

    mg (31009b)

  3. You know, I was treated to enough “Jenna and Tonic” cracks from the media during the Bush 43 years to not really care that Sasha and Malia are being discussed in the media.

    It is not a personal attack to simply state they went to the Bahamas and then to the Rockies to go skiing and their daddy spent considerable taxpayer coin to do it.

    Not like when the media breathlessly reported the rumor that “Jenna and Tonic” got kicked out of Argentina (remember that). To advance some leftie theory that the girls drinking antics were proof that their daddy was a white-knuckled dry drunk.

    But this story isn’t about Sasha and Malia. It’s about daddy Obama’s priorities. The Secret Service can only do so much under any circumstances. So under sequester if the WH gets to choose, and it always gets to choose, the SS will guard the Obama kids and not supervise the kids who might visit “the people’s house.”

    Priorities.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  4. I haven’t been to Chuy’s in Austin since they raped the Bush kids

    which just means (thank you jesus) I get to eat more Torchy’s and if I want a rita I go to Baby’s

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  5. “…The public deserves to know whether the Obamas are being hypocritical and/or squandering tax dollars during a time of economic austerity.”

    Correction, Glenn Reynolds is on vacation. The comment above is from one of his guest bloggers, Elizabeth Price Foley.

    Ipso Fatso (1e3278)

  6. The Obamas are making Billy Carter look good.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  7. If it is too dangerous for people to know what city the Obama girls are in, they probably shouldn’t go. Of course, people already know they are in DC most of the time. So why are they in more danger when they are in a vacation city?

    MayBee (dde5bb)

  8. No censorship like voluntary censorship.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  9. I don’t think that it is unreasonable for President Obama and his family to take a vacation now and then, and yeah, that is going to entail public expenses for security. Every Christmas, in Hawai’i? OK, that’s fine with me. Summertime on Cape Cod? Yeah, that’s fine, too.

    But at some point, you do have to start asking about profligacy with the taxpayers’ dollars. Sun Valley and the Bahamas, one right after the other? That’s starting to look a bit excessive.

    We’re borrowing a trillion dollars a year, and have had these horrible, draconian, terrible and heartless sequester spending cuts; many Defense Department civilian employees will be required to take off fourteen unpaid days between now and September; that’s almost three weeks of paychecks lost to them, perhaps a considerable hole in many people’s budgets, but the President of the United States somehow can’t rein in the expenses of the Presidency just a little?

    The Dana who has to balance his own family budget (3e4784)

  10. Some things money can’t buy. For others, there’s the taxpayers. — Michelle Obama

    nk (c5b7ef)

  11. So the children are off limits… except when they are not.

    stungjury (507dee)

  12. I know I use the phrase “limousine liberal” a lot, and some may think that, after awhile, such a description, as applied to liberal A, B or C, goes without saying. But when it comes to the people currently occupying the White House, they truly are the epitome, the essence, the very definition, the heart and soul of “limousine liberal.” And, again, one does not have to be wealthy, or take a lot of vacations (on the taxpayers’ dime or not), to be deserving of that label, since when it comes to two-faced behavior, most on the left are, in effect, limousine liberals.

    I won’t say anything about even more extreme, contemptible versions of such lunacy, otherwise known as “champagne socialists.” George Soros or quite a few folks in Hollywood fit that label, and New York City’s money-bags mayor is chomping at the bit to graduate to that level.

    Let them eat cake.

    Mark (212a14)

  13. Let’s be honest: The Obamas’ pay for their own vacations. It is our duty to protect the first family from the crazies out there, as has been the case for all Presidents’ families. Why, I ask, does the Right have some different expectations regarding this issue of President Obama’s family. The logic, if that’s what you call it, simply does not compute! I’d rather call it what it actually is: partisan disrespect!

    Perry (23796f)

  14. The circles in which the term ‘limousine liberal’ has any understood meaning as an indignation are extremely small.

    stungjury (507dee)

  15. Let’s be honest

    OMFG

    The Obama’s do not pay for the SS, security, etc … Which accounts for the vast majority of the costs of their privileged travel.

    Perry’s act is predictable.

    JD (b63a52)

  16. I don’t see how the situation is any more dangerous then when we had two major theatres of operation, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    narciso (3fec35)

  17. “stungjury” – does that term not accurately reflect them?

    JD (b63a52)

  18. Perry, the term ‘limousine liberal’ is used to denigrate the Obamas for not treating their children the way that the rest of America treats theirs.

    I mean, the Bush twins didn’t have secret service protection when they were in college. Or wait…

    stungjury (507dee)

  19. There is a “vital interest” in reporting this, simply due to the fact that “the sequester” somehow does not preclude the Obama daughters from reportedly taking successive extravagant vacations, traveling from the Bahamas to Sun Valley. Can’t the President explain to his daughters that, in times of economic difficulty, “everybody’s got to have some skin in the game?”

    tek (73963e)

  20. JD@15:

    The Obama’s do not pay for the SS, security, etc … Which accounts for the vast majority of the costs of their privileged travel.

    Like I said: “partisan disrespect”!

    Perry (23796f)

  21. Perry – I think you and yours are disrespectful to the actual taxpayers, who you are shutting out of the White House for blatantly partisan reasons. While thousands of Americans who had planned their spring breaks will not get to see the white house, the same SS that cannot afford to do WH tours is spending millions protecting the girls all over the globe on spring break(s). Predictably, you and your new troll buddy don’t get that, because you are a sycophant who blindly follows whatever they tell you to.

    JD (b63a52)

  22. It’s instructive as Carney used to ding W, as Walsh did everything but put out an APB, doublethink, it’s the new fad.

    narciso (3fec35)

  23. Perry, your usual weapons-grade hypocrisy.

    SPQR (cfcecd)

  24. the term ‘limousine liberal’ is used to denigrate the Obamas for not treating their children the way that the rest of America treats theirs.

    Huh? In your case, yes, the label I mention above apparently isn’t understood by you. Although I suspect you’re just being disingenuous.

    I post the following in your honor:

    americanthinker.com, February 2013: As an adolescent, I was a limousine liberal in my dad’s house in Great Neck. I felt compassion for all the needy of the world and admired the communists who were trying to spread the wealth in equal, fair shares to people of unequal talents, efforts, and ambitions.

    I later found out that the world is a nasty place; I learned that if we really want our fair share, the only way to get it is to earn it. We’re not given it by misguided, bathetic bleeding hearts who are in no position to decide who deserves what.

    When I was in jail for tax evasion, the prison psychiatrist would ask me, “Why are you the only one here who seems happy?” I liked being removed from the mediocre work-a-day world and having the opportunity to write four hours a day and work out three. I told the warden, “Thank you for putting me in fighters-writers camp.” He looked at me like I was mad. I was happy. I was into myself like a pit in a watermelon.

    Now I am sitting in my tiny office at Gleason’s Gym, thinking of how liberal the world has become. Particularly the Brooklynites. More so the rich Brooklynites.

    Why? Because the rich want the advantage of their money and goodies, while they also want the self-satisfaction and egotism of being good people. They feel superficial feelings for the disadvantaged and pat themselves on the back. How greedy to want everything for themselves — the money and the moral high ground.

    The limousine liberals open their windows as they drive by and throw out a cookie or an encouraging word. Then they drive past a church or a temple and whisper to each other that they are too big, too sophisticated for God. They praise communism but don’t mention the hundreds of millions of people slaughtered in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, etc.

    I’ve been a limousine liberal twice in my life: in the sixties in my dad’s Lincoln, in the eighties and nineties in my Rolls-Royce. Now the subway car is my limousine, and my driver is my Republican views. I have grown up. I admire my monthly Metrocard. I do not suck up to beggars and the poor just to feel like Christ.

    The liberals do — yet most of them are ironically atheists and have not suffered crucifixion for the sins of mankind. They are believers in nothing. They are regulations minus the moral convictions. They are mouths of emptiness spitting out the saliva of platitudes.

    Liberalism is quaint in youngsters, unsurprising in teenagers, fashionable in the college-aged. But liberalism in humans much older than that becomes increasingly pathetic.

    BTW, Barack Obama is 51 years old. He has yet to grow up, and he sure as hell ain’t quaint.

    Mark (212a14)

  25. Perry, you missed the obvious: It’s racist to point out the hypocrisy, so shame on us.

    Whether it’s Michele Bachmann making up lies about how much their trips cost, or the entire conservative blogosphere freaking out over Michelle Obama’s trip to Spain or her fancy shoes, or whining about the president bringing in a few things of his choice to the Oval Office, or apoplexy over the fact that Malia and Sasha have armed protection at their school, as all first children have always had, or that they are vacationing during the sequester! (Boyle’s latest excuse for his dreck) though families of presidents have vacationed in times of recession and war; when conservatives freak out over things that are either exactly the same or directly comparable to what every American president and his family have done, well, it’s easy to get the feeling that some people think our first black first family doesn’t deserve what other first families do.

    Or that conservatives think they’re a little bit uppity, somehow living beyond their station, even though their station (the presidency) is the very highest station in the land.

    Racism: the best go-to ever.

    Dana (292dcf)

  26. So your argument, Mark, is that liberals are conservatives who just haven’t grown up yet?

    stungjury (507dee)

  27. JD@21:

    While I agree with you that discontinuing WH tours was ill-considered, I note that you have now decided to reduce yourself by diverting the debate to ill-informed ad hominem attacks, a sign of the weakness of your position on this issue. “Partisan disrespect” earns you points only within your own tribe!

    Perry (23796f)

  28. Perry – ill-informed? What was inaccurate about what I said? As is your practice, you can’t see the splinter because of the mote in your eye. But your new buddy enjoys you.

    JD (b63a52)

  29. While I agree with you that discontinuing WH tours was ill-considered,

    Yet you cannot recognize that the same Budget that could not afford the WH tours is able to find room in the budget for trips to the Bahamas and Sun Valley so the kids can have their normal Spring Break(s) like the rest of the world.

    JD (b63a52)

  30. Perry, when Democrats were ridiculing Bush for playing golf to the point where he had to give up the game, your claim of “partisan disrespect” is just your hypocrisy.

    Which matches only your weapons-grade ignorance.

    SPQR (cfcecd)

  31. Interesting article, for those who wish to read articles not whitewashed (heh… white… should be attractive to rEPUBLICANS) by breitbartism.

    http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/my_%e2%80%9chypocrisy%e2%80%9d_about_the_bush_daughters/

    stungjury (507dee)

  32. JD: I don’t “blindly follow” anyone. Do you?

    Perry (23796f)

  33. You could have fooled everyone not named Perry, Perry.

    JD (b63a52)

  34. That was already linked above, and not in your passive-aggressive hipster ironic kind of way.

    JD (b63a52)

  35. ZOMFG a troll implied we are racists! SHOCKING!!!!

    JD (b63a52)

  36. Perry, if you would just take your Gingko Biloba, your Fish Oil, and drink your can of Ensure on a more consistent basis, you might fare better in the trenches of partisan bickering.

    Obama is the one person in the country whose family’s vacations are subsidized by the taxpayer. Please don’t embarrass yourself by exclaiming, “But the Obamas pay for their own surfboards, and shaved ice !”

    The mind-numbing taxpayer cost of providing transport, security, support staff, et al, while the Obamas are on vacation, totally dwarfs the out-of-pocket expenditures of paying for frozen bananas and sunscreen.
    Obama is the one—er, I mean, he is THE ONE !—who has been lecturing everyone else about taking a haircut, and making “sacrifices,” and talking about the apocalyptic consequences of sequestration. Yet he’s never willing to make a sacrifice.
    The President of the United States—even the piece of garbage who currently occupies the Oval Office—is entitled to a couple of vacations a year. A couple a year. Not a couple a month.But this is his third vacation this year, and we’re still in the calendar month of March.

    The Obamas could have demonstrated good character and sacrificed their spring break vacation in order to donate that money into covering the overhead of providing White House tours for other Americans who want to see the people’s house on their own vacation to DC.

    But the Obamas are not magnanimous people, so they didn’t sacrifice for the good of the people.

    You liberals are the greedy ones, always wanting to mooch off of somebody else, all the while you wear your myopic glasses, oblivious to what’s going on with the people on your periphery.

    Elephant Stone (612aa4)

  37. SPQR: And you know that I was ridiculing Bush for playing golf? You don’t! However, I did question him for the extraordinary amount of time he took on vacation.

    Perry (23796f)

  38. Why, I ask, does the Right have some different expectations regarding this issue of President Obama’s family.

    Because President Obama has closed the White House to the public, and is declaring a national emergency because the Republicans demand fiscal responsibility.

    Point out to me a time when a Republican president indulged his family while preaching austerity to the American people and punishing them for their demands for fiscal responsibility and I will grant your point.

    gahrie (3fff08)

  39. And they are shutting down, tuition assistance to soldiers, while paying for the salaries of Morsy’s soldiers. probably their courses at Ft. Leavenworth.

    narciso (3fec35)

  40. And you know that I was ridiculing Bush for playing golf? You don’t! However, I did question him for the extraordinary amount of time he took on vacation.

    Raise your hand if this surprised you.

    JD (b63a52)

  41. Elephant Stone: If you were simultaneously calling for increasing revenue by closing tax loopholes taken advantage of by our very wealthy class, then I would think your argument has some merit. It’s like in these difficult times, we all must sacrifice except for the wealthy. That’s lopsided; I don’t buy it!

    Perry (23796f)

  42. Just like Jay Carney, what a coincidence. meanwhile tiger woods was less attached to a golf club.

    narciso (3fec35)

  43. You know, JD, it’s only a short hike from the Left’s attitude that they are smarter and better than the Right to feverish adulation of an aristocracy.

    Some are already there, with pom poms and knee pads.

    Simon Jester (84094a)

  44. Playing golf for a few hours is not a full-on vacation. Re-locating the white house to Crawford, Texas while our enemies were conspiring to attack us is… oh wait, is this a ‘look squirrel’ argument? I suppose that any time you bring up a hypocrisy it counts as a distraction.

    stungjury (507dee)

  45. Oh, and JD? How is that Presidential and First Family Vacation Clock going? I know that BHO plays a lot more golf than GWB did. But no worries: the cheerleaders will be here shortly to explain.

    Simon Jester (84094a)

  46. Trolls are funny in cheerleader outfits.

    Simon Jester (84094a)

  47. for those who wish to read articles not whitewashed

    The only whitewashing occurs when liberals pen a screed against those opposed to a politician, claiming that it’s due to his or her being [insert name of race or ethnicity, or sexuality, or gender, or religious affiliation here], but conveniently — routinely — leave out the fact that if such a politician of [insert name of race or ethnicity, etc, here] were a conservative, or even a true, staunch centrist, and verbally slammed or accosted, most of those same liberals would zip their lips and look the other way.

    Stripping away even the ideological issues, some of those on the left might be similar to people who are drenched in liberalism (hello, Sean Penn!), living in an environment drenched with leftism (hello, Hollywood/LA), yet behave like this:

    foxnews.com, March 28, 2013: Sean Penn’s 19-year-old son Hopper apparently has a lot in common with his dad when it comes to his feelings about the paparazzi. Sean, who famously kicked a paparazzo in 2009, was quiet and calm in a graphic video posted on TMZ, which shows his son Hopper going berserk on a photographer.

    The younger Penn seems to be angered by the paparazzi as he walks with his father into a building and begins cursing at one of the photographers. After pushing the African American photog, Hopper shouts a string of curses and insults at him, calling him a n***er and a f***ot.

    However, I did question him for the extraordinary amount of time he took on vacation.

    Oh, partisan disrespect.

    Mark (212a14)

  48. There was a ‘supposed sitcom’ about the Bush twins, from Comedy Central, as I recall, that’s how far the meme had spread.

    Meanwhile, the victims of that ‘workplace accident’ at Ft. Hood, don’t get combat benefits.

    narciso (3fec35)

  49. So, Mark, you are arguing that an article that more or less is titled “Here is where the Obama girls are currently located… come and get ’em” is appropriate. Good to know.

    stungjury (507dee)

  50. If you were simultaneously calling for increasing revenue by closing tax loopholes taken advantage of by our very wealthy class, then I would think your argument has some merit. It’s like in these difficult times, we all must sacrifice except for the wealthy. That’s lopsided; I don’t buy it!

    You already got your revenues, and now you want more. Shocking.

    “stungjury” – we are shocked, shocked I tell you, to see you being dishonest in your characterizations.

    JD (b63a52)

  51. Gahrie: As I already said, closing the WH tours was “ill-considered”. Did you criticize Bush & family for their vacations at a time when we were spending off-budget to support two wars of choice and Medicare Part D? I suspect your criticism of Obama is “partisan disrespect” as well.

    Perry (23796f)

  52. SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!

    JD (b63a52)

  53. It’s like in these difficult times, we all must sacrifice except for the wealthy.

    Yea, like the family who currently occupies the White House, who’ve cynically given the finger to families (some of average income) wanting a tour of it, while they (Barry and Michelle) live large and happy, all comfy and snug.

    nymag.com: Going into campaign season 2012, Obama’s net worth is now estimated at $7.3 million.

    Mark (212a14)

  54. I love how Perry accuses people of being partisan while being overtly partisan at the same time. All while trying to claim to be above the partisan fray and bridging gaps and building bridges. It is cute.

    JD (b63a52)

  55. YAAAAAYYY TEAM, JD. He thinks the QB is dreamy, and carries his books.

    Simon Jester (84094a)

  56. Perry,

    Your Cialis pill is diverting blood to the wrong head.

    You can’t defend the fact that the Obamas cannot control their appetites (hmmm, sounds like Barack Obama, Sr., huh ?), so now you want to talk about “tax loopholes.”
    You mean the tax loopholes taken by Jack Lew and Timothy Geithner ? Or the ones taken by John F. Kerry ? Or the ones that Antonin Rezko took, which the government deemed were fraudulent and criminal ?

    If Obama wanted to close alleged “tax loopholes,” he would have done it between 2009-2011 when he had total control of both houses of Congress. But he opposed closing those “tax loopholes.”
    Gee, I wonder why !

    By the way, you’re lying about Bush taking vacation days. The man retreated to HIS OWN HOUSE in Crawford, Texas for the month of August, just as every member of Congress did for the month of August. He wasn’t trolloping around on white sand beaches, or occupying an entire hotel in Aspen, Colorado as the Obamas have done. The ranch at Crawford became “White House West.”

    The cost comparison between Bush living at his own house for the month of August VS the Obamas taking over an entire hotel at a sexy foreign locale at taxpayer expense is not even close.

    Elephant Stone (612aa4)

  57. Hey look! I said that JD was going to yell squirrel and he did. Dance, little puppet boy, dance for your keepers!

    I want to give a big sloppy kiss to whoever it was that called you the resident junkyard dog.

    stungjury (507dee)

  58. Yes, JD, I want more revenues from the wealthy, who have been a favored class for decades, as per our well-known, highly skewed wealth distribution.

    Perry (23796f)

  59. stungjury – That you again imdw?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  60. Your Cialis pill is diverting blood to the wrong head.

    Classy guy. Why is it that every time you get a conservative in a tizzy they start mentioning penises. Quite a complex they have.

    stungjury (507dee)

  61. you are arguing that an article that more or less is titled “Here is where the Obama girls are currently located… come and get ‘em” is appropriate

    I’ll tell you what. Let me worry about that, you worry about this:

    Twitchy.com, March 29, 2013: Progressives have been gunning for Dr. Ben Carson ever since his speech at the National Prayer breakfast last month. For failing to extoll the virtues of The One, Carson was branded a race traitor. The vicious epithets continued after he dared to speak at CPAC. MSNBC’s Touré declared that Carson was the GOP’s token “black friend” and suggested that the pediatric neurosurgeon owed his success to the government.

    So, who better to weigh in on the GOP’s race problem than Touré? The stupidity was strong during his appearance on Martin Bashir’s show today, but it was compounded exponentially by a graphic of an albino elephant and the phrase, “Blinded by the white.” Really, MSNBC?

    In all of this, the one thing — the ONE thing — that annoys me the most is all the liberals who fall for the notion that their philosophy is rooted in such a humane, beautiful, generous, tolerant, open-minded, beautiful, humane, open-minded, generous, loving, tolerant, humane, wonderful — and did I mention humane? — part of the human spirit.

    Mark (212a14)

  62. Perry – So you want a wealth tax, not an income tax? How is that going to work?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  63. Let them eat cake

    JD (b63a52)

  64. “stungjury” just cany stay away. Obsessive compulsive.

    JD (b63a52)

  65. Perry and the serial troll are demonstrating the fact that this would not sit well with the public, and that is why the MFM is not covering it, and getting it pulled by those who do.

    JD (b63a52)

  66. Elephant Stone: You abundant with opinion but bereft of the facts: Not impressive!

    Perry (23796f)

  67. Perry – How is France doing with that new millionaire’s tax its president just enacted?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  68. narciso beat me to it!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  69. You realize, Mark, that those of us who consider ourselves ‘liberal’ do not all have the exact same opinions about everything. In fact, we thrive on being open minded. You can’t bring up a singular thing that msnbc may have broadcast and declare me a pig because of it. You are defending an article that infringes upon the security that the secret service is attempting to provide for 14 and 11 year old girls.

    stungjury (507dee)

  70. Linking to DU?!?!?!?!?! Perry is bridging gaps, people.

    JD (b63a52)

  71. Correction: You [are] abundant ….

    Perry (23796f)

  72. It does nothing to infringe on their security. That is an overt lie.

    JD (b63a52)

  73. All in all, it’s worthy of Billy Madison. I think,

    narciso (3fec35)

  74. He thinks the QB is dreamy, and carries his books.

    When I read or hear left-leaning comments and envision them flowing from the word processor, pen or mouth of a, say, high-school-aged girl, or perhaps someone no older than a bratty college-aged kid, I tend not to be too irritated. That’s because I sense one and the other goes with the territory.

    But when I envision such sentiments being voiced by someone much older than that, the one phrase that does cross my mind is “arrested development.” I can’t help but think of, for example, a 35- or 45-year-old (or, in Obama’s case, 51-year-old) who still doesn’t know how to drive a car, fill out a check or, worse of all, tie his shoelaces.

    Mark (212a14)

  75. “….highly skewed wealth distribution.”

    One more time for you slow guys Comrade Perry, wealth is not distributed, it’s earned. I assume in your life you have aquired and accumulated wealth. Was that wealth “distributed” to you or did you earn it? I therefore ask, who the hell are you to determine how anyone’s wealth should be “distributed”?

    Hoagie (3259ab)

  76. Perry – The single “fact” you bring germain to the thread is not impressive. comparing eight years of Bush to one vacation of Obama is stupid.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  77. Principal: Perry, and stungjury troll – what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

    Perry and stung jury – Okay, a simple “wrong” would’ve done just fine.

    JD (b63a52)

  78. You are defending an article that infringes upon the security that the secret service is attempting to provide for 14 and 11 year old girls.

    I’ll tell you what. Again, let me worry about that. You worry about a media that has routinely, consistently given back rubs, big hugs, and blown kisses to the behavior and hypocrisy of the classic limousine liberals who occupy the White House. That is at the core of the issue, the heart of the matter, and the disdain I feel for what makes the MSM (and the left in general) tick.

    Mark (212a14)

  79. I have no idea who “stungjury” is (JD? Guesses?), but this made me laugh out loud:

    “…In fact, we thrive on being open minded…”

    OMG. Look at what this prat has posted just in this thread!

    It’s beyond avant garde retroreality theatre. It’s even funnier than the famous “I work here is done” comment.

    Simon Jester (84094a)

  80. Hoagie: Tax policy distributes wealth, as you well know because you have taken advantage of it yourself. Our tax policies have distributed wealth upwards. For your reference, here is a classic study on this topic, which shows that our wealth distribution (gini coefficient) is nearly the most skewed globally.

    Perry (23796f)

  81. Any topic leads to Perry’s class warfare schtick

    JD (3cbfc7)

  82. JD@78, bereft of debate counterpoints, has instead freaked out, completely! Please help him.

    Perry (23796f)

  83. When someone becomes a parody of a satire, what do you call that?

    JD (3cbfc7)

  84. Perry,

    So are you inferring that Bush did not own his own ranch at Crawford, TX ?
    Are you also inferring that Obama hasn’t been running around like Chicken Little, screeching that the sky is going to fall as a result of “sequestration” ?

    Going home to your own house during the month of August (as George W. Bush did) when Congress have all gone home is hardly the same as flying around to Europe or trolliping around on ski slopes in Aspen, Colorado, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in hotel bills per night.

    The problem with you lefties is that you don’t know much about finances or economics—probably because you’re so accustomed to spending other people’s money, rather than your own.

    Poor people have been getting away with paying zero income taxes, thanks to George W. Bush.
    It’s time they start putting some skin in the game. They need to pay their fair share. They need to be givers, rather than takers. (And no, that’s not a Reggie Love joke. :))

    The Obamas have been living high on the hog for four and a half years now. They couldn’t even afford to pay for their own property in Hyde Park without the help of convicted felon Tony Rezko. It’s time they inject a little restraint and discipline into their lives. Then again, Barack’s drunken skirt-chasing daddy didn’t provide a good example as far as restraint and discipline goes.

    Elephant Stone (612aa4)

  85. Perry – You remain a galactic moron.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  86. “You realize, Mark, that those of us who consider ourselves ‘liberal’ do not all have the exact same opinions about everything. In fact, we thrive on being open minded.”

    This guy is either a comic, or delusional.

    Regnad Kcin (54fbab)

  87. Painted Jaguar: Mr. JD asked, “When someone becomes a parody of a satire, what do you call that?”
    Well, it’s not an armadillo, but I think my mummy’s advice is approppriate anyway. Whatever you call it, leave it alone.
    And you know my mummy is very wise, along with ever so patient and kind.
    But I think she would grow impatient with this one, yes she would.

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  88. The kid didn’t run for office. They didn’t set policy. They were likely not consulted on policy. They should be left alone unless and until they choose o participate in the debaters their own. Anything less is vile. And saying “people who agree with their father were vile no the bush twins” doesn’t make it any less vile. Even if it Obama had been personally involved with cracks about the bush twins (and i dont think that he was….) it would not make his daughters guilty. Sorry if that makes it marginally harder to make rhetorical points about the lack of budgetary discipline in our current government. But please stop being gross towards a couple of kids juste because you hate their dad. It’s Below you,

    Time123 (05096f)

  89. Since there isn’t enough money for kids on vacation to go on tours at the White House, maybe there ought not be enough money for the White House kids (i.e., the Obamas) to tour the world on vacation.

    Elephant Stone (612aa4)

  90. Painted Jaguar: If I wanted to make a serious observation, it would be that the administration decided to hide the fact than defend it. Given all of the stuff they don’t hide, maybe they thought it was pretty indefensible too.

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  91. Nobody is being gross towards the kids, time123. Pointing out that the WH SS cannot afford to do tours, depriving normal Americans of their vacation plans, but can afford to fly all over the globe for extravagant spring break(s) without even the parents going along is not an attack on the girls. But, apparently the Left has decided that claiming it is racist, or an attack on the girls, is an appropriate way to defend Obama’s choices.

    JD (b63a52)

  92. Painted Jaguar: If I wanted to make a serious observation, it would be that the administration decided to hide the fact than defend it. Given all of the stuff they don’t hide, maybe they thought it was pretty indefensible too.

    Fortunately for them, the MFM plays right along.

    JD (b63a52)

  93. Painted Jaguar; I would think it would be easy to note that no one is criticizing the children, like they spend too much money on lip balm or eat cheeseburgers when their mom isn’t looking.
    The criticism is on the parents for thinking the kids needed to be sent out west for a ski trip, as if bumming around the White House with friends from school wasn’t enough.
    And letting one of their WH projectionists play movies for them.

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  94. “The kid didn’t run for office. They didn’t set policy. They were likely not consulted on policy. They should be left alone unless and until they choose o participate in the debaters their own.”

    Time123 – Merely reporting that the kids are on vacation is a public interest story. Criticizing their father for the optics and hypocrisy is a valid news story.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  95. Time123,

    Oh, please, take your Chris Matthews tingly legs over to the local Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Parlour and go play a few games of whack-a-mole.
    It might do you some good.

    The Obama Girls did not decide to go on these outlandishly expensive vacations at hotspots for the rich and famous—their parents made that decision.
    We’re not attacking the girls, rather, we’re attacking the judgment by their lame parents. You may not know this Mr. Time123, but Michelle Obama is actually on vacation with them.

    Barack has been pontificating about how everyone needs a haircut, and everyone needs to sacrifice, and the sky is going to fall, and there won’t be any acorns for squirrels, and fish will start riding bicycles all as a result of “sequestration.’

    If he realllllly believes the apocolypse is about to descend upon us, then why the hell is he sending his wife and kids on two more expensive vacations at taxpayer expense at the very same time that average Americans on vacation in the nation’s capital are being turned away from touring the White House ?

    Seriously, some of you lefties really have poisoned hearts and driftwood for brains.

    Elephant Stone (612aa4)

  96. “Hoagie: Tax policy distributes wealth”

    Perry – Did tax policy select your stock investments for you? Moron.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  97. Fortunately for them, the MFM plays right along.
    Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/30/2013 @ 9:12 am

    Painted Jaguar: Yes, that is sort of what MD was thinking up at #8.
    We’ve really spent 100 comments on this?
    These people have much thinner skins than an armadillo, or most other creatures as well,
    except newts, salamanders, and frogs. They all have very thin skin, and slimy, yuch.

    Mummy’s calling, doesn’t want me to spend all day playing with silly humans (you’re not all silly, but you know what I mean).

    Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72)

  98. Feed the trolls, two pence a bag.
    two pence, two pence, two pence a bag.

    felipe (3243af)

  99. “You should be thanking me.”

    President King Barack Milhous 0bama

    Colonel Haiku (f8b051)

  100. how many sloppy kisses on your ass today, JD?

    Colonel Haiku (f8b051)

  101. Who argues the daughters’ guilt or responsibility? Its the parents and president to blame.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  102. You can’t bring up a singular thing that msnbc may have broadcast and declare me a pig because of it.

    funny stuff!!!

    Colonel Haiku (f8b051)

  103. Ol’ Perry and his fellow tingly-leg banshees have a lot in common with left wing journalist Joan Walsh of Salon.com.

    A decade ago, Ms. Walsh wrote a piece (believe me, it was a real ‘piece’ !) about the Bush twins drinking alcohol while underage, and so forth.
    Apparently, Jenna and Barbara were the first underage undergrads to ever consume alcohol at college parties before their 21st birthday. Or something.

    Of course, it’s not like they drank alcohol, then drove their Oldsmobile into Chappaquiddick Bay, only to leave someone to drown. Or whatever.

    But now, in 2013, that same Joan Walsh is writing columns about how nobody should write about what vacations that Michelle and the girls go on at enormous taxpayer expense because it is wrong to write about a President’s daughters.

    Elephant Stone (612aa4)

  104. Time123 – this isn’t about the kids even as much as you want to make it so. No one is discussing his kids behavior, his kids conduct nor his kids character. Its about Obama’s decisions. Obama decided that even though he cancelled White House tours to save a few hundred thousand dollars in sequester, it was appropriate to spend millions of dollars to send his family on a vacation.

    Obama’s decision.

    SPQR (768505)

  105. The economy collapses, the wars and American troop death toll grind on, the Norks are making noises with nukes, Obamacare is rearing its ugly head, unemployment worsens, spending is catastrophic and the deficit is out of control. Not one SINGLE thing under this administration is working in the American people’s favor.
    But it’s vacations every thirty days for the Obamas!

    UncleDan (71f73f)

  106. I agree with SPQR but I also think the political ground rules changed in the Bush years. Nothing was off-limits for Democrats during Bush’s terms and thus nothing is off-limits now.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  107. the obamas think elections are like winning the showcase showdown on the price is right

    mostly they just don’t know any better I think

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  108. SPQR, I agree. We keep hearing about “optics.” This is a great example.

    It’s funny. Had BHO make a big deal about spending time with his family at Camp David for vacation—given the sequestration business—he would have been hailed. His proponents would have had the Big O over this sacrifice. His opponents would have grudgingly said that, this time, his comments about sacrifice worked in both directions.

    But I guess he doesn’t have to do any of that. He can say almost anything he wishes, and he will have supporters hailing him. It’s actually very, very strange, and a little frightening.

    Aristocracy. Who would have thought Americans would love it?

    Simon Jester (e88e07)

  109. DRJ, with great respect, not at all.

    The Left has turned a complete 180 on multiple topics since BHO was elected.

    Which is why I call their philosophy alphabetism. I don’t think they have any core principles, other than what the DNC says…which as we have seen, changes quite often.

    Gitmo. Rendition. Drone attacks. Deficit spending as a bad thing. “Insulting the Presidency” as a theme. Golfing. The list is endless.

    Partisan hypocrites.

    Simon Jester (e88e07)

  110. I’m not sure I get your point, Simon Jester. I agree Democrats are hypocrites when it comes to Obama and other Democratic politicians, but my point is we should be able to point it out — even if the hypocrisy involves their children.

    Michelle Rhee is another example of how Democrats use their children as swords to advance their liberal narratives, but then use the fact they are children to shield themselves from criticism. (Of course, in this case, Democrats are attacking Rhee because of her private school child but the Democrats aren’t complaining. Perhaps that’s because Rhee recently deviated from the liberal narrative by supporting school vouchers.

    As I said, the political ground rules have changed and even children are fair game, especially when their parents use them to benefit themselves or their policies.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  111. Barack Hussain Obama Mmm Mmm Mmmm

    elissa (25efb5)

  112. the flip side is that food stamp is very very very wary of producing a jimmy carter sweater moment

    some of this is calculated to err on the side of…

    not producing a jimmy carter sweater moment I think

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  113. Hey all you conservative racists! You’re in good company. Did you see this interview with the great Thomas Sowell where he discusses his new book and takes on race baiters and liberal multiculturists?

    AmSpec: In the book you have a definition of “multiculturalism.” Can you talk about that and its implications?
    Sowell: The central premise of multiculturalism is that no culture is superior to another. The proponents of this draw conclusions such as it is wrong for school teachers to insist that black kids from the ghetto speak standard English.
    The idea that no culture is superior is another fact-free premise. If you look at the actual history of any society, they borrow from other societies. That’s why I believe that isolated societies are almost invariably lagging because they can’t borrow from other people. An example I like to give to challenge the notion that cultures are not superior but simply different is the adoption of Arabic numerals in countries that derived from Rome and had used Roman numerals prior to that. Any mathematician will be able to elaborate on why Arabic numerals are better than Roman numerals. Moreover, Arabic numerals have triumphed all over the world.
    What multiculturalism does is it paints people into the corner in which they happen to be born. You would think that people on the left would be very sensitive to the notion that one’s whole destiny should be determined by the accident of birth as it is, say, in a caste system. But what the multiculturalism dogma does is create the same problems that the caste system creates. Multiculturalism uses more pious language, but the outcome is much the same.

    AmSpec: You say that multiculturalism declares all cultures equally valid. What does that do to a person’s or even a whole people’s ability to advance?
    Sowell: It means that you are stuck with whatever culture you have. And again, if you look at the history of blacks, and I did this in a previous book Black Rednecks and White Liberals, a wholly disproportionate number of successful blacks came from a very small number of highly atypical cultural settings. They came from educational institutions with a culture that was different from the Southern culture in which a vast majority of blacks grew up. And these institutions made a conscious effort to substitute for that culture, often with a culture from New England. One such place was Dunbar High School (an all-black high school in Washington, D.C.), of the first ten principals of that high school a majority came from a New England background. And Dunbar was remarkable. The first black man to graduate from Annapolis came from Dunbar. So did the first black enlisted man to get a commission in the Army, the first black general, the first black cabinet secretary, and so on. This was a school of about 1,500 black kids. And as I like to point out, within walking distance of the Supreme Court which declared its existence impossible.

    AmSpec: Near the end of the book you mention the “Race Industry.” What is the Race Industry, what does it do to minorities’ chances to advance, and what does it do to race relations in general?

    Sowell: The Race Industry would include “direct leaders” like Jesse Jackson and so forth, groups like the NAACP
    or La Raza. It can also include diversity consultants, academics, and community activists.
    One of the things that happens with organizations over a span of time, they’ll start out with a good purpose and over time evolve into self-serving organizations with negative consequences. The Race Industry tends to promote solutions that enhance the power of those in the Race Industry, regardless of whether the policies help the people the Race Industry claims to speak for. In some cases those solutions may actually be counterproductive, such as affirmative action.
    And the people I cannot stand are the ones making a living off of racial paranoia and polarization. And it’s a very good living. Someone once asked me why don’t I try to convert Jesse Jackson to my view of the world? And I said, “I’m sure he makes ten times what I make, and how do you persuade someone to give up 90 percent of his income?”

    As they say—read the whole thing.

    http://spectator.org/archives/2013/03/29/sowell-race-hustlers-and-david

    elissa (25efb5)

  114. That sounds like a KKK pamphlet, Elisa.

    JD (b63a52)

  115. He did a similar analysis of Chinese prevailing in Malay dominated schools, see how sneaky he is.

    narciso (3fec35)

  116. Apropos of nothing, I’ll just mention that the Obamas don’t have the option of returning to their wonderful home in Chicago as it cannot be appropriately secured. (That’s why he’s only spent 3 days in it so far over the past 4-5 years.)

    luagha (1de9ec)

  117. stupid food stamp misallocated spendings on his own damn house??

    you’re effing kidding me

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  118. 13.

    Let’s be honest: The Obamas’ pay for their own vacations. It is our duty to protect the first family from the crazies out there, as has been the case for all Presidents’ families. Why, I ask, does the Right have some different expectations regarding this issue of President Obama’s family. The logic, if that’s what you call it, simply does not compute! I’d rather call it what it actually is: partisan disrespect!

    Comment by Perry (23796f) — 3/30/2013 @ 6:59 am

    Perry Wasserman-Schultz is a complete ****ing idiot.

    WaPo (August 3, 2005!!!): Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record

    WACO, Tex., Aug. 2 — President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of — nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.

    The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening to clear brush, visit with family and friends, and tend to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.

    …To critics and late-night comics, they symbolize a lackadaisical approach to the world’s most important day job, an impression bolstered by Bush’s periodic two-hour midday exercise sessions and his disinclination to work nights or weekends. The more vociferous among Bush’s foes have noted that he spent a month at the ranch shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when critics assert he should have been more attentive to warning signs.

    …Those who think he does not remain in command, aides say, do not understand the modern presidency or Bush’s own work habits. At the ranch, White House officials say, Bush continues to receive daily national security briefings, sign documents, hold teleconferences with aides and military commanders, and even meet with foreign leaders.

    Obama doesn’t even do that when he’s at the WH.

    Just as Bush has made these August trips a regular feature of his presidency, so, too, have Democrats made a tradition of needling him about them.

    …Bush rarely takes the type of vacation one would consider exotic — or, to some, even appealing.

    Perry Wasserman-Schultz, what’s it like going through life a verifiable idiot and complete hypocrite.

    Bush caught a lot more crap for doing something in August that Obama and his family does every month.

    Not only is what Bush was criticized for quantitatively different, it was qualitatively different. What did he do for vacation? He went home. That’s what other Presidents did. The WaPo article names Reagan the previous title holder of “presidential vacationer” because of all the time he spent on his Kali ranch.

    It notes Bill Clinton didn’t have a home, so he borrowed a home on Martha’s Vineyard or in Jackson Hole. Fair enough.

    Obama has a home in Chicago. Has anyone criticized him for going back to it? No.

    As the WaPo article concedes, Bush rarely took a trip that anyone could consider lavish. Obama? It’s the trips to Spain’s Costa del Sol, the skiing in Vail or Aspen, the Bahamas, the Tiger Woods golfing vacation in Florida, the Bahamas, Hawaii, etc.

    The libs even tried to make an issue of this (from the WaPo article) when it was Bush:

    Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents’ compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush’s time away from Washington even further.

    WTF?! Camp effin’ David?! That was an issue when Bush was President. A place that by design is a second WH just 70 miles from DC.

    Which brings up another aspect of how what President Prom Queen and his family is doing that is qualitatively different then previous presidents. When Mooch decides to jet off to the Costa del Sol on the taxpayer’s dime (I’ll get to that later) the Secret Service first has to send an advance team to scout the location, do liaison with local authorities, etc. All the details that go with their personal protection mission.

    Guess what? None of that’s necessary when the Preezy goes to Camp effin’ David. And really, it’s not necessary if you keep going back to the same place like your Crawford Ranch. Or at least greatly reduced. You just have to dust off your old plans and check to see if anything has changed. It’s a lot less work.

    And in reality, when a President goes home on vacation during his term he’s giving the SS a chance to learn about and prepare for the personal protection mission they’ll be performing for the rest of that president’s life. By law.

    So when Bush 43 went to visit Bush 41 in Maine the SS (and the rest of the staff that accompanies a president) knew exactly what they were dealing with. In the case of the SS they were already there.

    So all those trips Bush 41 took to Kennebunkport weren’t complete waste of time like prepping for Mooch’s one-off (but there’s still time) Spanish holiday.

    Let’s look at other aspects of presidential “vacations” to Camp David. When the president goes from one federal reservation in DC (the WH) to another federal reservation just outside DC (CD) both of which are designed to be presidential residences and executive offices it’s a hell of a lot easier on the staff that must accompany them.

    The WH communications team, which has members from all branches of the armed services, already has all the comms equipment at CD. It’s built in. plus they and every other staff member can go home at the end of their shift. It’s only 70 miles to DC. A little over an hour. Or maybe less or maybe more depending on where home is around the DC area.

    Which is why previous presidents did take their holidays including Christmas at CD. Out of consideration for their staff. At the end of their shift they could go back home to their families for the holiday.

    What do the Obamas do? Go to Hawaii and **** up Christmas not only for their staff but for SEALs, Marines, everyone else they drag into it, plus for everyone on that part of Oahu who have to now deal with roadblocks and not using the beach.

    http://hillbuzz.org/class-vs-crass-where-did-the-bush-family-spend-christmas

    George H. W. and Barbara Bush spent Christmas in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992 at Camp David — all four years of Bush-41′s presidency.

    George W. and Laura Bush spent Christmas in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 at Camp David — all eight years of Bush-43′s presidency.

    Barack and Michelle Antoinette Obama spend Christmas in Hawaii, tearing White House staff, Secret Service agents, and reporters away from their Washington-based families so the Obamas can enjoy a tropical vacation at immense taxpayer expense. In the middle of a depression.

    Hope!

    Change!

    Priorities!

    That was from December 2010, so we already knew what President Tiger Beat’s priorities were before choosing between WH tours and lifestyles-of-the-rich and famous during the sequester.

    Oh, yeah, reimbursement. Who sets the rules, ultimately for federal officials who travel on the government’s dime? Congress. Does anyone think congresscritters like Nancy Pelosi actually want to set things up to the point where federal officials actually have to repay the actual costs of their boondoggles?

    http://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosis-in-flight-food-and-drink-costs-101000-2010-1

    Documents uncovered via a FOIA request show that Pelosi racked up over $101,000 of taxpayer dollars for “in-flight services.”

    And by “services,” she clearly meant alcohol. Look at all the booze on this receipt pictured right!

    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosis-in-flight-food-and-drink-costs-101000-2010-1#ixzz2P3O6CD00

    Yeah, the Obamas “reimburse” the government. They pay the price of a commercial ticket. Which isn’t close to the cost of jetting off in a Boeing 747, 757, Cessna Citation, or whatever executive mode of transport in the federal fleet they extravagantly use.

    Perry Wasserman-Schultz is an ass. The high-pocrisy reeks to the heavens. It’s like with everything else. Bush started a grease fire once in the kitchen and they shrieked about it and will never let you forget.

    But HOW DARE you complain about Obama torching the entire house, you raaaaacist!

    Steve57 (be3310)

  119. See Simon Jester @110 for a shorter version of my previous comment.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  120. I’m sorry, DRJ. I missed your comment. What bothers me is the flexibility in the hypocrisy. So it is easy for the Left to take position X as being horrific, and then applaud it as necessary after their guy or gal is elected who does those things.

    Next time someone who is not a “D” individual is in office, the press will have utterly no problem contradicting themselves yet again.

    Alphabetists.

    Why, if BHO decided against gay marriage and became pro-life, I can almost promise you that the Left would defend his positions.

    Simon Jester (e88e07)

  121. 117. Apropos of nothing, I’ll just mention that the Obamas don’t have the option of returning to their wonderful home in Chicago as it cannot be appropriately secured. (That’s why he’s only spent 3 days in it so far over the past 4-5 years.)

    Comment by luagha (1de9ec) — 3/30/2013 @ 12:31 pm

    Really? But they do return to it on occasion. In any event if the SS can keep Bush43 safe in his home in downtown Dallas then they can do the same for King Putt in downtown Chicago.

    Or, maybe not considering for the most part the people running around armed in Dallas shoot the criminals while the ones in Chicago are the criminals. But that’s an argument for another day.

    The bottom line is the SS doesn’t dictate to the president what his options are. He most definitely does have the option of returning to his place in Hyde Park. It’s typical of this bozo to blame someone else for his own decisions. As if they forced his hand. Loser.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  122. 121. Next time someone who is not a “D” individual is in office, the press will have utterly no problem contradicting themselves yet again.

    …Why, if BHO decided against gay marriage and became pro-life, I can almost promise you that the Left would defend his positions.

    Comment by Simon Jester (e88e07) — 3/30/2013 @ 12:51 pm

    I can also guarantee that the same press that is producing the polls that say the public is now wild about gay marriage would then produce polls that say the opposite.

    CBS – Poll: 53% of Americans support same-sex marriage

    Although public opinion on this topic has been consistent for the last few months, it has reversed markedly from as recently as a year ago. In May 2012, just after President Barack Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, 51 percent of Americans said it should not be legal for same-sex couples to marry.

    Amazing, isn’t it? In only a year the public’s opinion shifted from supporting President Kardashian’s opinion to supporting President Kardashian’s opinion.

    I mean, game over. Or so says the press.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  123. i’m worried about Mr. Milhouse

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  124. Steve@122-

    I predict that the Obamas will never again call Hyde Park “home”. Chicago has served its purpose for them. The Obamas have outgrown Chicago. That’s fine with me.

    Once several years ago we attended a concert at Rockefeller Chapel on the U of Chicago campus. It was difficult to get to because one of the Obamas was in town for (surprise) a fund raiser and a number of streets were blocked off/closed near the Obama-Rezko manse. It is actually quite easy for the secret service and CPD to secure that location.

    elissa (25efb5)

  125. his library will prolly be there i bet

    but given food stamp’s penchant for narcissistic grandiosity he’ll probably have one in chicago and one in hawaii

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  126. teh hopeychangey
    prostate with grief and pray for
    warm impermanence

    Colonel Haiku (f933e7)

  127. I’m pretty sure Valerie has invested in some lovely slum land that under proper persuasion she will be willing to sell for a nice profit to the developers of a BHO Presidential Library. This land just happens to still be available since it was not needed for the 2016 Olympics venues.

    elissa (25efb5)

  128. I think it’s sick how Obama’s kids are living it up while regular kids don’t get to see the White House.

    I wonder if the Smithsonian is even open. They have dinosaurs! And spaceships!

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  129. Nothing was off-limits for Democrats during Bush’s terms and thus nothing is off-limits now.

    The mob-attack of Palin and her children solidified this removal of limits. And not ironically, the very side that pushed the envelope is now throwing a fit about the unfairness of it all.

    At the least, this decision to send the children off to spring break evidences the consistently immense tone-deafness of the president; at most, it’s a shameful evidence of further hypocrisy.

    If there wasn’t a problem with it, there would be no effort to scrub it from the media outlets.

    Dana (292dcf)

  130. Whoever it was that compared the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart — clown nose on, close nose off — to some commenters here was certainly prescient.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  131. 125. It is actually quite easy for the secret service and CPD to secure that location.

    Comment by elissa (25efb5) — 3/30/2013 @ 1:18 pm

    Yeah, elissa, I know. I know that for a fact. Let’s just say I never worked at the home office, but I worked at a branch that had to deal with the home office. Plus we’d cycle people through the home office. So I’ve got a pretty good idea of how things work at the home office. And I know when I’m seeing lies like “the Obamas don’t have the option of returning to their wonderful home in Chicago as it cannot be appropriately secured.”

    Which isn’t to say I thought laugha was in any way lying when he repeated the line. It’s kinda sorta believable on a casual level. But it’s complete bull**** when you think about it. The secret service doesn’t dictate an ex-president’s options. They deal with the choice. And as you point out quite easily.

    “In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn’t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.”

    Chris Kyle, SEAL sniper, approximately 9 months before his death.

    Oh, yeah, elissa. This administration lies. It lies promiscuously. There are people, like the Benghazi survivors, who know it lies. But like the Benghazi survivors who honor their obligations to the American people they can’t expose the lies of those who spit on the American people.

    But the the truth will out.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  132. Good points, Dana.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  133. DRJ, the Jon Stewart reference is from Jim Treacher (I liked to that earlier), but Patterico has written about it as well:

    https://patterico.com/2009/03/14/i-always-see-the-clown-nose-on-jon-stewart/

    The “clown nose on / clown nose off” is a sure signifier of someone who lacks deep convictions but wants to appear cool and faux-intellectual (while revealing very little of themselves).

    Like Jon Stewart.

    Simon Jester (e88e07)

  134. “i’m worried about Mr. Milhouse”

    Mr. Feets – I thought Mr. Milhouse was sposed to poligize to Mr. Stahiu3 before commenting again. Mr. Milhouse has commented a few times, but I don’t remember seeing no pology.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  135. oh. Ok. I kinda remember that now.

    At least that explains why we are Milhouseless.

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  136. While I agree with you that discontinuing WH tours was ill-considered, I note that you have now decided to reduce yourself by diverting the debate to ill-informed ad hominem attacks, a sign of the weakness of your position on this issue. “Partisan disrespect” earns you points only within your own tribe!
    Comment by Perry (23796f) — 3/30/2013 @ 7:24 am

    — Perry be illin’.

    Icy (82b7b0)

  137. See, I don’t know if this is fair, but:

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/more-vacation-month-obamas-2013_711998.html

    The “optics” are bad. Yet the press is just dandy with it.

    As people keep getting kicked in the pocketbook, they might start to care about aristocratic nonsense. Eventually.

    Simon Jester (e88e07)

  138. So it appears that Perry managing to see “disrespect” in everything is eerily related to his seeing or claiming “victimhood” in everything he does not like. What a way to go through life, eh?

    elissa (25efb5)

  139. What kind of parent allows this profligacy in their kids? A few years ago some rich New Yorkers were mocked for giving outrageous ‘sweet 16’ parties featuring the top musicals acts in the business. This is the same thing, only Obama is supposed to be setting an example where the random millionaire hasn’t signed up for anything.

    The Obamas are simply bad parents. They’ve taught their kids nothing but that they are better than your kids.

    East Bay Jay (a5dac7)

  140. R.I.P.

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/29/17520371-member-of-seal-team-6-killed-another-seal-injured-in-parachute-accident?lite

    A Navy SEAL from the elite SEAL TEAM 6 was killed and another SEAL injured Thursday night during a parachute training accident in Marana, Arizona, the military said. Details of the accident are not immediately available.

    One SEAL was pronounced dead on arrival at the University of Arizona Hospital after the accident near Pinal Airpark. The second remains hospitalized in stable condition.

    Josephus described the Roman army’s drills as bloodless battles and their battles bloody drills. So realistically did they try to make their training for war. It would be as much as possible like the real thing, and then the real thing wouldn’t shock anyone who had been through their training.

    The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

    But you do bleed in peace. I don’t know this SEAL, but he joins the Marine mortar men who recently died during an exercise at an Army depot.

    I wonder how long it will be before the Dems try to make an issue of it.

    But, please, don’t let any of this distract you from how despicable it is to exploit the apolitical when it’s the Obama kids just to score points.

    Steve57 (be3310)

  141. Let’s not forget that Marco Rubio took a swig of water while giving a televised speech.

    Elephant Stone (ad9fb6)

  142. Perry wrote:

    SPQR: And you know that I was ridiculing Bush for playing golf? You don’t! However, I did question him for the extraordinary amount of time he took on vacation.

    Then you agree that it is perfectly legitimate to raise questions about the Presidents’ vacations. Or does that apply only to Republican presidents?

    The Dana who spotted it (af9ec3)

  143. Steve57 – maybe Hairy Reed will go to the floor of the Senate and blame the sequester. Again. And the MFM will not cover it. Again

    JD (3cbfc7)

  144. Oh joy. I missed this delightful little blue on blue gossip gem while I was on vacation. Perhaps it was already covered here in my absence–but just to make sure….

    Disgraced pol Anthony Weiner is potentially climbing back into politics after recently spending more than $100,000 on campaign consulting and polling — and sources tell Page Six that one person he’s looking to prove wrong about him is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who urged him to resign in 2011. “Weiner is still fuming over his downfall, and he blames Nancy Pelosi,” said a source. After Weiner’s sexting scandal, he announced he was going to get psychological treatment and take a leave from the House, but Pelosi released a statement calling for him to resign after he’d informed her of his plan to deal with the situation. Our source further adds, “Weiner has recently been telling pals that ‘when Hillary is president,’ he will get his revenge.” Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, is a longtime Clinton aide. Weiner’s rep said of Pelosi, “This is not true, and he never said that.” A rep for Pelosi had no comment. Word leaked last week that Weiner paid $54,000 for polling and $52,500 more for research, presumably to test the political waters.

    http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/weiner_rage_comes_to_head_fUdaIGK4oARGLKfy0AxV8K

    elissa (25efb5)

  145. This post… more evidence of Bobby Jindal’s assessment, “We must stop being the STUPID party.”

    Keep it up.

    Dad (af3d40)

  146. weiner way bad needs hillary to avoid a bad case of the clots between now and 2016

    i don’t see him getting anywhere on his own

    it’s not like there’s some fascist whore shortage in NY where people can’t find one with less baggage to vote for

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  147. Does Huma still serve work for Hillary now that she’s no longer Secretary of State —or anything official for that matter?

    elissa (25efb5)

  148. “Dad” is a hateful little cur.

    JD (3cbfc7)

  149. “Dad” doesn’t remember the rest of “The Stupid Party” trope from Alan Simpson.

    Simon Jester (f50ab7)

  150. I don’t know what Huma is up to I think she had a baby yes?

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  151. Huma is hot. Too bad she married that weenie.

    nk (c5b7ef)

  152. *Too bad she is married to that weenie-wagger.*

    nk (c5b7ef)

  153. Don’t think of it as an extravagant vacation to a tropical paradise.

    Think of it as burnishing one’s foreign policy bona fides.

    Pious Agnostic (20c167)

  154. Excellent, Pious.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  155. Stungjury sounds a whole heck of a lot like that New Zealand Socialist who has previously admitted directly that he hates the US, one “phoenician in a time of romans”. And that Perry is a lying hypocrite is of no surprise to anyone. Has he threatened anyone’s livelihood yet? If not, be patient. He will.

    John Hitchcock (c9d16b)

  156. I predict that the Obamas will never again call Hyde Park “home”. Chicago has served its purpose for them. The Obamas have outgrown Chicago. That’s fine with me.

    But Chicago — symbolically and in other ways — has not outgrown America’s fine leader, per a report linked at the drudgereport.

    BTW, I’ve seen the snotty nickname of “Chicongo” aimed at America’s third largest city. But keep in mind that Argentina, a nation whose populace is around 98% of European extraction, also has a high crime rate. But both Chicago and Argentina do have one thing in common: They’re enraptured by liberalism run amok.

    chicago.cbslocal.com, March 30: Chicago police made several arrests Saturday evening following another “wilding” scene instigated by young people along the Magnificent Mile. Photographers shot chaotic video of police officers and vehicles swarming Michigan Avenue near Huron and detaining several young people around 7:30 p.m. Some of the disturbance leaked onto Chicago Avenue near State Street on a relatively warm night with temperatures in the 50s.

    Chicago Police News Affairs released a statement overnight saying officers made 17 arrests on the River North disturbance — of 15 juveniles and two adults — for misdemeanor reckless conduct. The department said the disturbance was caused by “a number of kids fighting among themselves” and there were no reports of assaults, robberies or property damage.

    Witnesses say pedestrians were bumped as they walked down the sidewalk some time after 7 in the evening. But community activist Andrew Holmes, who happened to be shopping with a relative in the upscale retail district, described a scene in which hundreds of young people misbehaved, with some of them harassing and attacking people on the street.

    “They assaulted a Chicago police officer who was on a mounted horse. And all of a sudden, they assaulted the citizens walking the streets – just normal citizens shopping, enjoying the weather,” Holmes told CBS 2’s Chris Martinez.

    Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and nearby retail strips [have been] beset by numerous wilding, or “youth mob,” episodes the past two summers. The phenomenon continues in Chicago and its suburbs.

    Mark (212a14)

  157. And the “activist” Martinez seemed truly surprised. What a tool! I bet he’s made a fine living off activism.

    Patricia (be0117)

  158. “81.Hoagie: Tax policy distributes wealth, as you well know because you have taken advantage of it yourself.”

    Again Comrade Perry, you err. Tax policy is for income NOT wealth. Get it? And progressive tax policy is skewed alright, against the high earners. The top 5% of income earners pay about 70% of all tax revenue. And still the communist thieves want more.

    Hoagie (3259ab)

  159. Hoagie@159:

    Your comment is an obvious demonstration of how skewed our income distribution has become, a huge detail which you chose to ignore, as usual.

    Moreover, let me have your explanation why Mitt Romney pays only 18% of his income in taxes?

    Better yet, why does Warren Buffet’s secretary pay a higher per cent of her income in taxes than Buffet himself pays?

    The answer: Those like Romney and Buffet have most of their income from capital gains and dividends, thus pay lower tax rates. And more, they get to take advantage of loop holes not as proportionally helpful to middle income folks. Moreover, there are the off-shore tax havens, a loop hole which you have disclosed in the past that you yourself use, allegedly legally.

    Perry (23796f)


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