Tag: vacation

Obama Speaks on Ferguson Riots Before Returning to Martha’s Vineyard. Irony is Indignant

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

ObamaTransparentBranco852014Yesterday afternoon, at 4:00 p.m. Obama Standard Time, (meaning 30 – 45 minutes after any time zone he is speaking in), President Barack Hussein Obama strode up to the microphone, during a respite from his taxpayer-funded vacation with his family in Martha’s Vineyard, to deliver remarks about two ongoing situations which represent the failure of both his foreign and domestic policies…the situation regarding the insurgence of the Radical Muslims of ISIS into Iraq, after Obama declared that the Iraqi War was over, and the ongoing rioting, taking place in Ferguson, MO, over the shooting death of 18 year old strong-arm robbery subject Michael Brown, at the hands of a Ferguson Police Officer.

The following are excerpts from that speach, addressing the on-going, racially-charged chaos in Ferguson, MO…

(courtesy whitehouse.gov:)

The Justice Department has opened an independent federal civil rights investigation into the death of Michael Brown. They are on the ground and, along with the FBI, they are devoting substantial resources to that investigation. The Attorney General himself will be traveling to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with the FBI agents and DOJ personnel conducting the federal criminal investigation, and he will receive an update from them on their progress. He will also be meeting with other leaders in the community whose support is so critical to bringing about peace and calm in Ferguson.

Ronald Davis, the Director of the DOJ’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services — or COPS — is also traveling to Ferguson tomorrow to work with police officials on the ground. We’ve also had experts from the DOJ’s Community Relations Service working in Ferguson since the days after the shooting to foster conversations among local stakeholders and reduce tensions among the community.As Americans, we’ve got to use this moment to seek out our shared humanity that’s been laid bare by this moment — the potential of a young man and the sorrows of parents, the frustrations of a community, the ideals that we hold as one united American family.

…I’ve said this before — in too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement. In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper, I’m personally committed to changing both perception and reality. And already we’re making some significant progress as people of goodwill of all races are ready to chip in. But that requires that we build and not tear down. And that requires we listen and not just shout. That’s how we’re going to move forward together, by trying to unite each other and understand each other, and not simply divide ourselves from one another. We’re going to have to hold tight to those values in the days ahead. That’s how we bring about justice, and that’s how we bring about peace.

One Fox News Contributor was not very impressed with Obama’s response to the Ferguson Riots.

Charles Krauthammer on Monday criticized President Obama’s response to the violence that has occurred at the protests in Ferguson, saying on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that “we’re a democratic society, you don’t do that.”

The St. Louis suburb has been in a state of turmoil after the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, with protests at times turning violent and stores being looted. President Obama’s statement on Monday addressed both sides of the conflict in Ferguson- the looters and police force. 

Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and a Fox News contributor, said Obama should have gone further in condemning the violence. 

“He said, you know, if you riot and use guns and attack the police it serves only to raise attention and stir chaos,” he said. “Well that’s an instrumental way of criticizing it, you’re not going to achieve your goals. What he should be saying is that it’s wrong. We’re a democratic society you don’t do that.”

Krauthammer said he would like to see Obama ringingly condemn the violence, saying it is clear those perpetuating violence in the city are in the wrong. 

“We really have the law on the one hand. We rioters on the other. It isn’t a hard choice between them,” he said. 

Evidently, Dr. Krauthammer, that easy choice, which the overwhelming majority of law-abiding Americans would state without hesitation, is too difficult a choice for our “first Post-Racial President” to make.

Burned twice in the past, by his distinctly un-Presidential defenses of Cambridge Professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.and the death of robbery suspect, Trayvon, Obama is trying desperately to not seem so racially-divisive…but, he just can’t help himself.

With his didactic tone, which he no doubt used as a Guest Lecturer at the University of Chicago, Obama attempted yesterday to make it seem to the American People, that he was unbiased regarding the situation, while all the while, seeking to assure his Black American Liberal Voting Base, that he was still “down with the struggle”.

How can Obama be “fightin’ The Man” when HE IS “THE MAN”?

As I am putting the finishing touches on today’s post, the news is reporting that the high school in Memphis from which I graduated is having gang problems. 19 year olds are dressing as students and raping young girls.

Meanwhile, meetings are being held downtown by the City Administration on the subject of the ongoing Gang Violence Problems.

If Obama truly cared about young(and old) Black Americans, he would tackle the forbidden (by Liberals) subject of Black-On-Black Crime, especially the out-of-control Violent Crime Problem.

If Obama was being honest about the Ferguson Situation, he would have addressed the video, which showed Michael Brown and some of his homies stealing cigars from a local convenience store, and bullying the owner, just so they could put marijuana in them, and smoke their “blunts”.

Perhaps, when AG Holder is in Ferguson today, he will speak to the Black guy on the eyewitness video, presently on Youtube, whose story corroborates that of the police officer Michael charged at, like a 6’$”, 250 lb., stoned bull.

He probably won’t. It would ruin the narrative.

Remember, this is the same Attorney General of the United States who refused to prosecute the two Black Panthers who were intimidating White people at the Cleveland Voting Precinct, during the 2008 Presidential Elections.

Meanwhile, as Obama was attempting to be “authentic”, I’m sure that Mooch was having her fourth lobster at her late lunch/early dinner at some posh restaurant in Martha’s Vineyard.

Were these attempts by a Former Community Organizer to appear unbiased, hypocritical? You betcha. In fact, as I tweeted yesterday, the President’s Speech was an example of…

Irony: A Black President talking about Black men being left behind,  as he gets ready to return to Martha’s Vineyard.  #tcot #KJ #Ferguson

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Takes a Break From Vacation to “Fix Everything”… Except the Thing That Matters Most…the Economy.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

Obama-Shrinks-2Air Force One has landed. Obama is back in the White House! We’re Saved!

Well…the moment he decides to get up. and saunter down to the Oval Office, probably around 10:00 a.m., or so.

Foxnews.com reports that

President Obama took a break from his summer vacation to return to Washington early Monday for series of high-level, but unspecified, White House meetings.

Obama left his first family vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and will meet with Vice President Joe Biden and other top-ranking officials later Monday, according to White House staffers. But they have not disclosed what officials will discuss — amid a list of international problems that include fighting in Iraq, Israel and Ukraine and the humanitarian-immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Obama’s decision to return to Washington appears to be in part a response to criticism about him spending two weeks on a resort island amid so many foreign and domestic crises.

However, the president’s first week on the Massachusetts island, in which he played several rounds of golf, included on-camera statements on U.S. military action in Iraq and the clashes between police and protesters in Ferguson, Mo. And he called foreign leaders to discuss the tensions between Ukraine and Russia, as well as between Israel and Hamas.

“I think it’s fair to say there are, of course, ongoing complicated situations in the world, and that’s why you’ve seen the president stay engaged,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Officials disclosed Sunday that Attorney General Eric Holder will brief Obama on Monday about the situation in Missouri, where the Aug. 9 police shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown has sparked rioting.

Political observers have speculated that Obama might be returning to take executive action to help fix the country’s broken immigration system — perhaps broadening a 2012 order that delayed deportation for some young illegal immigrants to include as many as 5 million people now living illegally in the United States.

However, White House officials have said the president won’t take such action until after summer and after receiving full reports on the issue from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

Obama is scheduled to return to Martha’s Vineyard on Tuesday and stay through next weekend.

Well, gosh. I’m so sorry that Obama has to cut short his vacation to actually do his job.

Last week, a Liberal challenged me about my views about Obama going ahead and taking a luxury vacation in the middle of the world and his presidency collapsing around him.

The gist of his defense of The Lightbringer was the fact that ordinary Americans take vacations also.

My response to him was that Obamawais not an ordinary American. He is supposed to be “The Leader of the Free World”.

In January of 2009, Obama swore an oath to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic.

An oath which he has failed miserably to uphold.

IN the article I posted above, Fox News touched on all the major issues that Obama needs to address, except for one.

That is the indisputable fact that 92 million Americans have dropped out the workforce.

These are average Americans like you and me, who, in their very real despair, have given up trying to find a job, choosing instead to work under the radar as handymen or flea market vendors. some not even working at all, sitting at home and letting Uncle Sugar take care of them.

When you askLliberals about this unacceptable situation, they will respond to you with charts and graphs designed to buttress their opinion that Obama is actually moving America’s Stagnant Economy forward.

And, if that argument doesn’t work, their pre-programmed response is

But…but…Booosh!!!

Quite frankly, the reason that Obama has not moved our economy forward, like President Ronald Reagan did, is because Obama is more concerned about growing the Central Government, than he is about growing American Production by freeing the job creators from punitive tax rates, in order to encourage the growth that will revitalize our economy.

That is why I spent 6 hours on Saturday, on the phone with Punjab from Calcutta about my Comcast Cable Box, which was on the fritz.

But, I digress…

Make no mistake, granting amnesty to millions of unskilled, underage illegal aliens will do nothing for the health of our economy.This action would simply provide future voters for the Democrat Party, which is now firmly in the control of the Far Left. If Obama grants amnesty, he would be putting a further strain on our economy, as all of these “little rascals”, would rely on their new Uncle Sugar for their “daily bread”.

The latest Liberal defense going around is their claim that Reagan actually had a bigger Federal Government than Obama.

The funny part is: It’s true.

It was larger because President Reagan, through his sound Economic Policy, actually increased tax revenues.

American Production rose, therefore,  TAX REVENUES INCREASED.

Yes, “Trickle-Down Economics, “trickled up”, allowing for a well-funded, strong American Military and Administration.

You see, boys and girls, that’s the secret of American Exceptionalism,a concept that Obama gives lip service to, but, clearly, does not believe in.

For America to proper, we must remain free. For America to remain free, we must be prosperous.

American Capitalism is the engine which drives a strong, vibrant economy.  American Capitalism is the result of the courageous Entrepreneurial Spirit of American Citizens. The same “Can Do” attitude which led to Western Expansion and triumphs against those before-mentioned enemies, foreign and domestic.

The current state of the Shining City Upon a Hill can be summarized thusly:

America was formed by men seeking FREEDOM. She grew and prospered because of an indomitable will and spirit forged through the Refiner’s Fire, guided by the common-sense words, inscribed in our Constitution, and administered through a Constitutional Republic. Our nation’s largesse and strength comes through the actions and character of her citizens, not through the usurpation of power by professional politicians, who has long since lost touch with their constituency.

Obama’s attempt to “radically change our nation into a Third World Barrio is meeting with resistance, not because of these professional politicians, but, because of the defiance of the American People, who love their country.

America’s Heritage of God and Country is still alive and well in the hearts and minds of the overwhelming majority of the citizens in this country, even those who have dropped out of the workforce.

Mr. President, if you want to be viewed positively as a world leader, work to restore America to a position of strength, both both in foreign and domestic policy.

It all starts with the Engine that drives our country.

IN OTHER WORDS:

IT’S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Obama and the Ferguson Riots: Community-Organizing By Remote Control

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

ObamaFiddling8142014Yesterday, the President interrupted his taxpayer-funded vacation of Martha’s Vineyard to make a couple of remarks concerning the situation in Iraq and Ferguson, Missouri.

Concerning the situation in Ferguson, he said,

…Of course, it’s important to remember how this started.  We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances.  He was 18 years old.  His family will never hold Michael in their arms again.  And when something like this happens, the local authorities –- including the police -– have a responsibility to be open and transparent about how they are investigating that death, and how they are protecting the people in their communities.

“There is never an excuse for violence against police, or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting,” the President said. He added, however, that “there’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests, or to throw protestors in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights.”

Here, in the United States of America, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs and report to the American people on what they see on the ground.  Put simply, we all need to hold ourselves to a high standard, particularly those of us in positions of authority.
“I know that emotions are raw right now in Ferguson,” he said, “and there are certainly passionate differences about what has happened.” He added that even though there will be differences in both the accounts of how this event occurred, as well as what needs to happen going forward, we should still “remember that we’re all part of one American family.”

We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law; a basic respect for public order and the right to peaceful public protest; a reverence for the dignity of every single man, woman and child among us; and the need for accountability when it comes to our government. 
“Now is the time for healing,” the President said. “Now is the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson. Now is the time for an open and transparent process to see that justice is done.”

President Obama received a little constructive criticism,  according to thehill.com

The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police criticized President Obama Thursday for his remarks about law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo. 

“I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha’s Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation,” director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.

“I think what he has to do as president and as a constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States and the process is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutors’ office,” Pasco added. 

Pasco harkened back to 2009, when Obama criticized a Massachusetts police officer for arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, when he was attempting to break into his own home. Obama said the officer had “acted stupidly.”

“That is one where the president spoke precipitously without all the facts,” Pasco said, adding that the current situation “is a much larger and more tragic incident.”

Pasco said both police and members of the public are entitled to due process but said he is not convinced police have used excessive force in Ferguson.

“I’m not there, and neither is the president,” Pasco said. “That is why we have due process in the United States. And this will all be sorted out over time. But right now, I haven’t seen anything from afar — and maybe the president has — that would lead me to believe the police are doing anything except to restore order.”

Obama on Thursday called for “peace and calm on the streets” of Ferguson after “disturbing” clashes between police and protesters stemming from the police killing of an unarmed black teenager.

“There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting,” Obama said in a statement from where he is vacationing in Massachusetts. “There’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights.”

The officer involved in the Ferguson shooting is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police and is being represented by one of its lawyers. His name has not been released to the public.

Pasco declined to comment on whether Ferguson police should be withholding the officer’s name. 

“I would leave any statements on that to his defense,” he said.

Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) views everything in terms of race. He always has, since the days when he lived with his “typical white person” grandmother, next door to Black Communist, Frank Marshall Davis.

So, his choice for a first job was a no-brainer…

From 1985 – 1988, Obama was a Community Organizer in Chicago.  What does a Community Organizer do?  I’m glad you asked.

Per Byron York in an article found at nationalreview.com:

Community organizing is most identified with the left-wing Chicago activist Saul Alinsky (1909-72), who pretty much defined the profession. In his classic book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky wrote that a successful organizer should be “an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions.” Once such hostilities were “whipped up to a fighting pitch,” Alinsky continued, the organizer steered his group toward confrontation, in the form of picketing, demonstrating, and general hell-raising.

Obama was hired by Jerry Kellman, a New Yorker who had gotten into organizing in the 1960s.  Kellman was trying to help laid-off factory workers on the far South Side of Chicago, in a nearly 100% black community.   He led a group, the Calumet Community Religious Conference, that had been created by several local Catholic churches in the industrial community.   Kellman was advised to hire a black organizer for a new spinoff from CCRC.  They called it the Developing Communities Project, designed to focus solely on the Chicago part of the area.

One of Obama’s projects while he was there, was to try to build an alliance of white and black churches and enlist them in the cause of social justice.  Obama had a problem, though.   He didn’t go to church himself.   And that, brothers and sisters, is how Obama, drawn to the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and a political opportunity), joined Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street.

If you ask Obama’s fellow Community Organizers what his most significant accomplishments were, they’ll say two things: the expansion of a city summer-job program for South Side teenagers and the removal of asbestos from one of the area’s oldest housing projects.   Those  were his biggest victories.

As President of these United States, Obama is supposed to represent all of us. However, time and time again, he has inserted himself and, subsequently, his Department of Justice, have acted, at his bequest, in shall we say, a ‘political” manner, whenever race was involved.

The death of Michael Brown and the subsequent rioting, by Ferguson’s black residents and out-of-towners, will, no doubt, be handled in the same fashion

As Peter (Herman) Noone sings,

Second Verse…same as the first.

And, that’s not only sad…it’s divisive.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

The War Against Christianity: Obama Vs. The Little Sisters of the Poor

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics5 Comments

American FreedomWhen I was a child, I was taught by my parents to respect others. Quite frankly, I was raised to be a Southern Gentleman.

Any slip in saying “Yes, ma’am” or “No, sir” was met by a swift correction by my mother.

That same respect went out to everyone, regardless of their religion. I suppose that it was because my folks were members of America’s Greatest Generation, as I have recorded before, who all pulled together in the dark days of the Depression, the terrifying days of Word War II, and the uncertain days of the Cold War, when there was a nuke hidden around every corner.

They had to work hard, and with one another, for everything they had, and, in doing so, they became determined that their children would be raised with American values, principles, and ethics.

A couple of examples that I remember of that “mutual respect”, centered around my Mother. When I was in Second Grade, around 1965, she came down with severe Diabetes. Her doctor was a wonderful, old Jewish gentleman, whom my Mother had worked the Front Desk for.  He made sure that she got the best of care in the hospital, because she was not only his past employee, but his friend, as well.

While I was visiting my Mother in St. Joseph Hospital, in Memphis, TN, in walked this big, Black man, wearing a suit, with a red liturgical shirt and collar. His name was Parker, and he worked the loading dock at the 20 story Sears Building in Midtown Memphis, where my folks worked. He was another friend of their’s.

I remember his big old smile, and soft gentle demeanor, as his huge hands enveloped mine and my Mother’s, as he led us in a prayer for her recovery.

Not to beat a dead horse, but, please remember, this was Memphis, TN, in 1965.

Blows your Southern Stereotypes all to Hades, doesn’t it?

But, I digress…

Anyway, I was sitting at my desk in my office at work yesterday, when a Bing Update flashed across the top of my computer screen that President Barack Hussein Obama, still blowing $4,000,0000 OF OUR MONEY in Hawaii on his Family Vay-cay and his Administration, were urging the Supreme court to ignore Justice Sotomayor’s unexpected temporary injunction, stopping the Administration from forcing Catholic Institutions to provide free Birth Control, including abortiafacients, under Obamacare.

Politico.com summarizes the situation…

On New Year’s Eve, Sotomayor granted the Denver nursing home a last-minute, temporary reprieve from the health care law requirement that health coverage for employees include contraception. She will now have to decide whether to keep the temporary order in place, dissolve it, or take the issue to the other justices, who could decide to review the whole case in the coming months.

Justice Department lawyers in their response Friday said that the Little Sisters for the Poor Home for the Aged uses a Christian health insurer that is recognized as a church under U.S. employment law — and is already exempt from the Affordable Care Act contraception requirement.

“Applicants have no legal basis to … complain that it involves them in the process of providing contraceptive coverage,” government lawyers wrote to the court.“This case involves a church plan that is exempt from regulation” under a 1974 labor law that predates the president’s health care law.

The Little Sisters, in their reply to the government’s brief on Friday afternoon, said that signing a piece of paper allowing contraception — even if it doesn’t result in contraception being handed out —is itself a violation of their religious protections. That certification is part of the current legal process for religious non-profits that object to providing the contraception.

No matter which path Sotomayor takes, the central questions on contraception and religious nonprofits could eventually work their way through the legal system and return to the high court through this case or a different one.

The court has already agreed to take two separate challenges to the contraceptive requirement, but they involve religious owners of for-profit businesses, not religious nonprofits like this Denver nursing home. Dozens of religious-affiliated groups, dissatisfied with the Obama administration’s attempts to address their concerns, have petitioned federal courts to eliminate the requirement.

Anything the court does in the Little Sisters case could also affect nearly 500 religious non-profits that work with the Little Sisters and others on the lawsuit.

In all, more than 90 legal challenges have been filed around the country. A Supreme Court decision against the contraceptive rule would undercut but not cripple the health law. The birth control rule is a small piece of the overall law, but it’s been another source of ongoing political controversy for President Barack Obama’s signature law.

The Obama administration argues that employer health plans need to include contraception to ensure that women and their babies are healthy. Opponents of the policy — notably, the Catholic bishops — say that the administration is requiring some businesses to forgo religious beliefs against the use of contraception.

The case brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged falls into an unexpected loophole in the ACA’s contraception coverage.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration tried through regulations to accommodate religious-affiliated nonprofits over contraception. It allowed groups like the Little Sisters to tell their insurance company or third-party administrator that they objected on religious grounds. The insurer or administrator would then have to provide contraceptives to the employees at no charge.

The premise was that an insurer or administrator would not have the same objection to providing such products. But the catch here is that the Little Sisters’ administrator — the Christian Brothers Employee Benefits Trust — is also run by a religious order.

The Christian Brothers, who joined the Little Sisters on the lawsuit, qualify as a church under employment law known as ERISA. And under that law, if they don’t want to provide contraception, the federal government has no recourse to force them to do so.

So, why is the Obama Administration so desperately trying to make Catholic Institutions provide services which are diametrically opposed tho the tenents of their faith?

I believe that it is all about respect for Americans’ Faith.

With this Administration, more so than any Administration which has gone before, the insensitivity and, downright blatant opposition to the role of Christianity in American Everyday Life, has led to the heretofore unthinkable situation of the Department of Justice and the American Court System being used as a bludgeon to keep us “uppity” Christians in line, so that we do not interfere with the plans of a Secular All-powerful State.

Sound familiar?

The Obama Administration’s ongoing war with the Catholic Church over providing these services is just one example of a deliberate movement to isolate Christianity from American’s Everyday Lives and regulate our relationship and following of Jesus Christ to a 2-hour window on Sunday Mornings.

However, try as it may, this Administration may have Pyrrhic Victories, but in the long run, it will not succeed.

Y’see….I know how this thing ends.  I’ve read The Book.

Until He Comes,

KJ 

Mele Kalikimaka, President Obama…From the Proletariat

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

What are you doing for Christmas? Are you going to get to travel?

Heck, most of us will consider ourselves lucky to be able to spend it at a friend’s or family-member’s house.

But, what about the First Family? As I wrote yesterday, he’s in deep…ummmm…negotiations with the Republicans to avoid the “Fiscal Cliff”.

So, surely, he’ll be spending a working Christmas at Camp David, laboring feverishly to save us all from financial ruin, right?

Nope. And, don’t call me Shirley.

The Big Kahuna is going back to “The Land of the Choom Gang”.

The Hawaii Reporter has the story:

Residents living near the beachfront homes where President Barack Obama and First Family vacation with their friends every year since 2008 were alerted on Monday to some specifics of the Obamas’ holiday vacation plans.

The report delivered to residents living along the ocean and canal that surrounds the multi-million dollar homes at Kailuana Place where the President stays, informed them of restrictions that will be implemented for 20 days beginning December 17 and running through January 6.

In a matter of weeks, Kailua residents will see the familiar street barricades fronted by U.S. Secret Service agents and Navy Seals and the U.S. Coast Guard stationed in canal and ocean waters.

The President, who spent some of his childhood years in Hawaii, brings his wife, two daughters, Sasha and Malia, with dog Bo in tow, each holiday season. They settle into the small town community known for its spectacular sparkling beaches, warm turquoise ocean, rolling surf, country shops and restaurants and friendly people.

The homes where they stay are just a two-minute drive from Kaneohe Bay and the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where the Obamas and friends can access private white sand beaches and military workout facilities.

Kailua Beach

While many residents welcome the First Family, others are disheartened by the restrictions put on air, water and road travel while the President and family are in town, especially because it is the holiday season and many families on vacation want to use their boats or surf and paddle in the welcoming ocean waves fronting the Kailua homes. In addition, the President’s caravan of at least 22 vehicles including an ambulance can easily overwhelm the community that typically has single lane streets.

Adding to the controversy surrounding the President’s visit is the cost of the trip.

With the staff, special forces, local police presence and equipment, the President’s visit adds up annually to at least a $4 million vacation courtesy of the Hawaii and federal taxpayers.

While the President and his friends pay for their own rental homes, taxpayers pick up the cost of security and waterfront housing for the Secret Service, Navy Seals and Coast Guard as well as staff accommodations at a plush beachfront Waikiki hotel.

TRAVEL: $3,629,622

The biggest expense is President Barack Obama’s round trip flight to Hawaii via Air Force One.

A Congressional Research Service report released in May 2012 said the plane typically used by the President, a Boeing 747, costs $179,750 per hour to operate. The U.S. Air Force has listed the cost of travel as high as $181,757 per flight hour.

Travel time for Air Force One direct from Washington D.C. to Hawaii is about 9 hours or as high as $1,635,813 each way for a total of $3,271,622 for the round trip to Hawaii and back.

I want to go back to my little grass shack; In Kealakekua, Hawaii…

While Americans are eating Vienna Sausages, the Obamas dine on Wagyu Beef…on OUR money.

Beforeitsnews.com reported in October that

Over one recent 12 month period, Michelle Obama spent 42 days on vacation (and that does not even count Saturdays and Sundays). The following is an excerpt from a Daily Mail article about the legendary Obama vacations….

The First Lady is believed to have taken 42 days of holiday in the past year, including a $375,000 break in Spain and a four-day ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where she spent $2,000 a night on a suite at the Sebastian hotel.

And the first family’s nine-day stay in Martha’s Vineyard is also proving costly, with rental of the Blue Heron Farm property alone costing an estimated $50,000 a week.

The source continued: ‘Michelle also enjoys drinking expensive booze during her trips. She favours martinis with top-shelf vodka and has a taste for rich sparking wines.

‘The vacations are totally Michelle’s idea. She’s like a junkie. She can’t schedule enough getaways, and she lives from one to the next – all the while sticking it to hardworking Americans.’

As I wrote about the other day, many Americans are working so hard just to survive in this economy that they don’t ever get to take any vacations at all.

But it doesn’t seem to trouble the Obamas that many of their vacation trips cost more than many American workers will make in an entire decade….

The following is from a recent Newsmax article….

A trip to Spain in 2010 by Michelle Obama, family, and staff cost taxpayers $467,585 and a trip by the First Lady and family to South Africa and Botswana last year cost $424,142 for the flight and crew alone, according to Judicial Watch.

Yes, when the family of the president travels it is going to be expensive, but this is ridiculous.

It can even be insanely expensive for the Obamas to take a vacation even if they don’t leave the country.

For example, in 2010 an Obama family vacation to Hawaii ended up costing U.S. taxpayers more than a million dollars.

So how much is too much?

It has been reported that Michelle Obama spent over 10 million dollars of U.S. taxpayer money on vacations during just one recent 12 month period alone.

At a time when there are 46 million Americans on food stamps is this an appropriate amount of U.S. taxpayer money to spend on vacationing?

And yet, this is the president who recently won re-election by playing the Class Warfare Card.

Hypocrite, thy name is Obama.

Until He Comes,

KJ