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Material girl Michelle, while people are without jobs

Larrry

Well-known member
Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacationAndrea Tantaros
Thursday, August 5th 2010, 1:53 AM
alg_michelle_obama_smiles.jpg

Torres/APFirst Lady Michelle Obama smiles while she visits Marbella, southern Spain.
Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.
But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.
Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.
To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.
Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."
A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!
The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear. From lavish trips to Spain to reportedly flying Bo, the President's Portuguese water dog, on a separate aircraft to vacation with them in Maine, to a date night in New York City that perhaps cost nearly $100,000, their idea of austerity is really just the lap of luxury, at least for ordinary folks.
Incredibly, the Obamas have long portrayed themselves as precisely such commoners. Just this month, Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there."



http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_material_girl_michelle_obama_is_a_modernday_marie_antoinette_on_a_glitzy_spanish.html#ixzz0vjvkMl2e
 

Tam

Well-known member
Rest assured the US tax payers are paying for this trip as Ms. Obama is officially meeting with Spanish Royality. Official visit tax payers get the bill. :wink:
 

Mike

Well-known member
A couple of stories I read had the flight costs at $150,000.00.....but this won't touch the cost of a 757 atlantic crossing with all the things they go through. Just parking that jet over there will cost upwards of $100 grand.

I say the trip will cost $2.5 - $3 MILLION when all is said and done....

Wonder who is tending the garden at the whitehouse? Oh I forgot, they have a guy that gets paid over $100,000.00 per year to raise two crops annually in a 30 foot by 30 foot space................... Wonder how much this saves on the Whitehouse food bill? But at least he's working.. :roll:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Tam said:
Rest assured the US tax payers are paying for this trip as Ms. Obama is officially meeting with Spanish Royality. Official visit tax payers get the bill. :wink:

Kind of like the US taxpayers paid the bill for the NCBA CEO's wife and daughter to travel to New Zealand for a little jaunt ....
Did you complain about that Tam?
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Tam said:
Rest assured the US tax payers are paying for this trip as Ms. Obama is officially meeting with Spanish Royality. Official visit tax payers get the bill. :wink:

Kind of like the US taxpayers paid the bill for the NCBA CEO's wife and daughter to travel to New Zealand for a little jaunt ....
Did you complain about that Tam?

OT, have you ever tried arguing a point without doing the strawman thingy? One has nothing to do with the other.

If you'd dug up some of Laura Bush's vacation details and how much they cost the taxpayers, and then asked Tam if she'd complained about those, then you'd at least be making an apples to apples comparison.

From Wiki:

The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern of argument:

1.Person A has position X.

2.Person B disregards certain key points of X and instead presents the superficially-similar position Y. Thus, Y is a resulting distorted version of X and can be set up in several ways, including:

1.Presenting a misrepresentation of the opponent's position and then refuting it, thus giving the appearance that the opponent's actual position has been refuted.

2.Quoting an opponent's words out of context – i.e. choosing quotations that misrepresent the opponent's actual intentions (see contextomy and quote mining).

3.Presenting someone who defends a position poorly as the defender, then refuting that person's arguments – thus giving the appearance that every upholder of that position (and thus the position itself) has been defeated.

4.Inventing a fictitious persona with actions or beliefs which are then criticized, implying that the person represents a group of whom the speaker is critical.

5.Oversimplifying an opponent's argument, then attacking this oversimplified version.

3.Person B attacks position Y, concluding that X is false/incorrect/flawed.

This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious, because attacking a distorted version of a position fails to constitute an attack on the actual position.
 

Tam

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Tam said:
Rest assured the US tax payers are paying for this trip as Ms. Obama is officially meeting with Spanish Royality. Official visit tax payers get the bill. :wink:

Kind of like the US taxpayers paid the bill for the NCBA CEO's wife and daughter to travel to New Zealand for a little jaunt ....
Did you complain about that Tam?

My GAWD Oldtimer you will defend ANYTHING won't you. :roll: Tell me Was the NCBA's CEO telling everyone they were to tighten their belts, turn down their household heat and not vacation in Las Vegas to save money during the worse Depression since the Great Depression. Was the NCBA CEO in charge of an economy the is experiencing 10% unemployment and telling people that this unemployment rate is something that everyone is just going to have to get use to? Is the NCBA CEO fly his wife to Maine to a multi million dollar estate, Hawaii to a Multi million dollar estate, Florida to guess where and to the West to all national Parks all within the last year? And please don't tell me how many vacation Bush took as most if not all were to his OWN RANCH not various MULTI MILLION ESTATES AND HOTELS!!!!!!! :roll:
 

Mike

Well-known member
Which reminds me...........

Didn't the Prime Minister of England fly over here a few weeks ago on a commercial flight?
 

Tam

Well-known member
Mike said:
Which reminds me...........

Didn't the Prime Minister of England fly over here a few weeks ago on a commercial flight?

Did the President's Dog even fly commerical when the family went on vacation in Maine? :? NO :roll: Watch Oldtimer will defend this SOMEHOW :wink:
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I got this from Yahoo. This is her 8TH vacation this year. :shock:

As her husband celebrated his 49th birthday in Chicago with Oprah, first lady Michelle Obama was halfway around the world, on vacation with her 9-year-old daughter, Sasha, in Spain. The two are traveling on what the White House has described as a four-day "private trip" with several Obama family friends along the country's ritzy southern coast.

Of course, no first lady's life is truly ever private, and already plenty of drama is swirling around Michelle Obama's foreign jaunt. Some critics have laid into the trip's price, while others are highlighting an apparent diplomatic gaffe between the United States and Spain.

Fox News reports that prior to the first lady's arrival, the State Department had issued a travel warning to Americans advising that "racist prejudices could lead to the arrest of Afro-Americans who travel to Spain." The wording was reportedly removed from the State Department website Monday, ahead of Michelle Obama's arrival in the country Wednesday.

Yet the bigger public furor concerns the cost and appearance of the trip. In a scathing editorial published Thursday, New York Daily News writer Andrea Tantaros trashed Michelle Obama as a "modern day Marie Antoinette" for taking such a glitzy vacation while most of the country is struggling to make ends meet.The Obama entourage is staying at the luxury Hotel Villa Padierna, a Ritz-Carlton property often described as one of the world's top 10 hotels. Rates range between $500 and $2,500 a night. It's not clear that the Obama delegation picked this hotel specifically, or if the Secret Service — which often gets final say over where a protectee stays — made the accommodations call.

Either way, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the first lady will pay her personal expenses — as will the friends who are traveling with her. But that only covers a small part of the ultimate expense, given that she has full-time Secret Service protection and has to travel with an entourage of staff. That cost, as well as her travel on board an official Air Force charter plane, is covered by taxpayers.

As the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet reports, by the end of the summer, the first lady will have taken eight vacations. That includes a June trip to Los Angeles, where she and her daughters attended the NBA Finals, as well as an upcoming trip to the Florida Gulf Coast next weekend and a 10-day visit to Martha's Vineyard later this month with the president.

Michelle Obama is hardly the only first lady to travel overseas without her husband. Laura Bush and her daughters, Barbara and Jenna, traveled to Africa in 2007, where they went on safari. Yet her trip was regarded as an "official" visit and included several public events. According to the White House, this trip is entirely private, save for a photo-op with the Spanish royal family, who has invited the first lady and her daughter for an official visit.
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hopalong

Well-known member
oldtimer have you ever offered an argument that did not have "they done it " so it must be ok???

Never mind we know what your arguments consist of nothing but garbage, and cut and pastes that you only keep what you think is important,

EH oldtimer???
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
hopalong said:
oldtimer have you ever offered an argument that did not have "they done it " so it must be ok???

Well, I certainly understand the concept of selective outrage. Liberals are guilty of it on a daily basis.

But geez, at least come up with something that reasonably compares to the point you're trying to refute. :!:
 

Larrry

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Tam said:
Rest assured the US tax payers are paying for this trip as Ms. Obama is officially meeting with Spanish Royality. Official visit tax payers get the bill. :wink:

Kind of like the US taxpayers paid the bill for the NCBA CEO's wife and daughter to travel to New Zealand for a little jaunt ....
Did you complain about that Tam?

OT seems to always want to lower the bar since he thinks someone else lowered.
That kind of attitude is what this country is suffering from

Heck let's not enforce any laws since someone else broke the law before....come on ot step up to the plate and condemn crap instead of defending crap
 

Tam

Well-known member
OH come on Oldtimer can't you come up with something to defend the Obama's flying their little BO to Maine on a private plane. :cry: I just can't wait to read your excuse for this total waste of money by a couple that seems to think money is absolutely not an issue even when it is not their money they are spending like a fleet of drunken sailors. :wink:
 

Larrry

Well-known member
The-Obamas-Spain-Retreat_reference.jpg


First Lady descends on former 'gangster's paradise' Marbella for holiday with daughter Sasha
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:40 AM on 2nd August 2010
Comments (40) Add to My Stories
It seems an unlikely holiday destination for a First Lady, but the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella will be the setting for Michelle Obama's summer break.
More commonly associated with reality television stars and gangsters, Mrs Obama and her youngest daughter Sasha have booked 30 rooms at the Villa Padierna, one of Spain's most exclusive hotels, in the Andalusion resort.
But the booking is likely to raise questions over use of taxpayer's money as an entourage of secret service agents will protect Mrs Obama and her nine-year-old daughter.
Holiday season: Michelle Obama and youngest daughter Sasha, left, are booked into a 5-star hotel near Marbella this week
Prices at the Villa Padierna - a golf and spa resort - start from £210 per night and can cost up to £4,175 for a private villa within the hotel grounds.
Mrs Obama will pay an official visit to Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia. Spanish newspapers hve said the royal family invited her to join them at their summer palace on Majorca.
Marbella has been struggling to restore its 1960s reputation, when the likes of the Kennedys enjoyed holidays on the south Spain coast alongside European aristocrats and Hollywood actresses.
The town has been beset by accusations of corruption after mayor Jesús Gil was forced to resign over a property scandal in 2002 and his successor Julián Muñoz faces trials on charges of abusing planning permission.
In 2006, the entire town hall administration was summarily dismissed by the Madrid government. Juan Antonio Roca, chief of urban planning at the time, was jailed and faces further charges later this year.
Luxurious: The Obamas have booked 30 rooms and will spend four nights at the five-star Villa Padierna
Piles of cash were found in Roca's homes, which were filled with collections of art, cars, helicopters and thoroughbred horses.
One of his stud farms was guarded by a tiger.
Shootings between rival Russian, Irish and British gangs became commonplace around Marbella as criminal elements took over bars, restaurants and beaches in the town.
José Luis Hernández, chief of the town's tourist board, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'When you have half a million tourists in the town over the summer, of course some of them are not going to be as desired.
'But the idea that Marbella is this sleazy place is a myth. The town was being run by a band of delinquents from out of town - and now we, people who were born in the town or been her of years - are cleaning things up.'
Costa del crime? The south of Spain has battled a reputation of gangsters and corruption
U.S. President Barack Obama will not be attending and his wife and daughter will miss his 49th birthday as they enjoy the Mediterranean sunshine.

Their eldest daughter Malia, 12, is attending a summer camp in the U.S.

Reports that Mr Obama would fly into Marbella to celebrate his birthday with his family have been denied by the White House.
Following their holiday in Spain, Mrs Obama and Sasha will tour the oil slick devastated Gulf Coast of Florida before spending ten days on the New England resort island of Martha's Vineyards.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1299625/First-Lady-descends-gangsters-paradise-Marbella-holiday-daughter-Sasha.html
 

Mike

Well-known member
Gangs & Gangsters? Marbella sounds a lot like Chicago.............

She probably feels at home.

Wonder if they wear their pants halfway down their butts?
 

Larrry

Well-known member
I believe that would translate to around 400 to around 7,000 a night for rooms.

Does this not bother our resident libs...silence
 
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