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Can We Dispense, Now, With The Myth That They Feel Our Pain?

I'd be proud of my country too, with those perks...


[img via Moonbattery]

Honestly, I don’t care about the frequency with which our King and his Queen vacation from the tough grind of their having to talk out of both sides of their mouths. And I’ve long since grown accustomed to taking a shiv in the back at the 4th rib from the Monarchy on a fairly routine basis. And I’m fine with them going places I’ll never be able to afford to see or getting really cool stuff I’d never dream of being worthy of owning…but, can we please stop now with the nonsense of being asked to believe that our rulers are just private folk; simple and humble and understated like the rest of the riff raff that walks the streets and pays their bills?

Please?

And could someone please tell the White House and that Gibbs creature to shut the hell up already?

The first lady is paying for her own room, food and transportation, and the friends she brought will pay for theirs as well. But the government picks up security costs, and the image of the president’s wife enjoying a fancy vacation at a luxury resort abroad while Americans lose their jobs back home struck some as ill-timed. European papers are having a field day tracking her entourage, a New York Daily News columnist called her “a modern-day Marie Antoinette” and the blogosphere has been buzzing.

The White House said it would not comment. “The first lady is on a private trip,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said this week. “She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip. And I think I’d leave it at that.”

Nothing about the President and the First Lady is “private”…I mean, I know they have forgotten that we are their employers and all…but it’s not like they can turn turn their lives on and off like a switch. And, how ever much of their glamorous lives they pay for on their own, we’re still spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of OUR money to make sure nothing happens to them while they do it. There’s really no need to rub it in our faces…is there?

Millions are out of work, millions are on food stamps, and millions more on welfare. Our idea of a vacation is the phone being disconnected long enough to miss a few days worth of collection calls. Do we really need to be asked for some level of interest or concern for what the Queen is doing in Europe when she could be here…spending that time on the poor folk from whence she wants us to believe she comes, and believes she is well-suited to relate to?

Enough already.

COMMENTS

  • RedBeard
    • E Pluribus Unum
    • throwback59

      have the same ring.

      • edintexas

        Gets the “Best Comment of the Day” award. :-)

  • bjf182

    than to paint this as the second coming of Camelot – the charming and graceful First Family barnstorming thru Europe, winning Heart and Minds.

    Why not vacation in the Gulf and help out those who are really hurting?

    • stephaniet

      That would require associating with the unwashed, unkempt peasants! Eww!

      (Also, I doubt no one in the Gulf wants to see them. If they showed up and started preaching their We’re Just Like You?, they’d probably get ignored.)

  • lukematthews

    This ridiculous spectacle should put to rest the Obama’s attempt to ‘regular peoplize’ themselves in the lame-brained media circus. Not that it will. I’m sure Chris Matthews will still have to change his shorts after an Obama teleprompter recital and the Perky One will dutifully report exactly what Gibbs tells her to, but it won’t sell.
    It’s truly hilarious to see these people trying to keep track of their lies. The truth would be so much easier, but not nearly as ‘sophisticated.’

    • Scope

      they have been on overtime and in over drive trying to keep up with the D’s.

  • neomom

    “a private citizen and her daughter”….

    I’m sure the Palin’s would appreciate the irony here.

    • acat

      Yes, the subtle mockery there was minor compared to what the Palin children are still going through but it *was* there.

      Mew

      • Next93

        At least the Carters had the decency try to keep Amy out of the public eye while telling the press corps that she was off-limits. The Obamassiah has no trouble trotting out the kids and the puppy when he needs to look like a “regular guy”, and then acts outraged at coverage that he doesn’t like. Look chum, they’re either a political tool or they’re not. You brought them into the political fray, you get the consequences, good and bad.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    Can someone make them dig into their own pocketbooks to pay for the excessive abuse of the taxpayer trust?

    Or is it something that could only be handled through impeachment?

    I think it would be suuuuper smart for the dems in the House to demand the O pay for the “excess” trips within a very short deadline and when he refuses or misses that threaten impeachment… of course it would all have to be before the elections – it’s the only thing that might save their hides in November…

    Heck they could even cut a “backdoor deal” that it’s all for show and the proceedings will be dropped or he’ll be exonerated after the elections… I’m sure the O would trust them enough to go for it, after all the left has kept it’s word all the time right?

    just sayin’…

  • gazill

    she sure does spend a significant amount of time telling the rest of us private citizens about how we should eat and exercise…

    • stephaniet

      At this point, I would like to look her in the eyes, stomp my feet, put my hands on my hips, and yell, third-grader style, “You’re not the boss of me!” Or one that I used a lot in childhood: “Who died and made you Mom?!”

      Why on Earth does she want to tell us all what to eat? My inner conspiracy theorist wants to look at those “suggestions,” then at her, and ask snarkily, “Is it poison, Nanny?”

  • taxpayer1234
  • nepanyrush

    After all, she is generating an estimated 1 billion for the Spanish economy, according to the New York Times. Isn’t that part of their job, to resurrect the economy of Europe?

    Furthermore, she is reimbursing the airfare for the cost of a commercial, first class airline ticket. That must take up some of the cost of the $165,000 cost of using Air Force 2.

    • nepanyrush
      • itrytobenice

        Just not in black and white. :-)

  • teresakoch

    After all, the Secret Service has to stay in the same place as those they are charged with protecting, no? Why not put the President and First Lady on a budget as well?

    And just the “appearance” of FOM’s (Friends of Michelle) travelling (on AF2 and staying at that swanky hotel) with her to Spain is bad – if she can’t see that, then someone needs to set her straight….

  • http://www.FranBaker.com frankieb

    Or rather the taxpayers who’re having to cough up money they don’t have to keep her in the style to which she’s rapidly becoming accustomed. Just sayin’ …

  • johnt

    But why did she cover up those toned arms? Aren’t they beautiful, I mean really beautiful.
    And when she goes out in public doesn’t she dress so elegantly? I mean, those shorts, or house dresses, or those photos from Spain on Drudge, so classy, and did I say beautiful.

    • Achance
      • cactusjack

        “Keep your hands off the Wookie.” They are hairy, yet noble and faithful to the Republic. Always have been, Always will be.

        • erod

          There is literally a class called: “How to Get Michelle Obama’s Arms.” No joke and of course there’s no liberal bias in higher education.

          • stephaniet

            Also worse is a Facebook game that I play in which one of the limited edition items for sale is “Michelle Obama Hair.” *gag*

    • dambama

      Many Whores dress nicely too! This whore is spending our money though!

  • deevee

    for security detail etc. for three separate outings at once for the Obama family:

    1. Michelle and Daughter 2 in Spain.

    2. Daughter 1 at camp.

    3. President Obama in Chicago etc.

    And I don’t pay enough taxes?

  • puffin

    For the worst press secretary ever, — that’s Bobby Gibbs for those who live in Rio Linda — to assert that The First Lady of the united States is a ‘private citizen’ requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

    We get a two-for-the price-of one when we elect someone to sit in the White House — even if illegitimately — which removes both members of the first family from ‘private citizen’ status.

    And any pretense of a ‘private trip’ being enjoyed by the ‘first lady,’ without criticism, is laughable because of the ‘contrived’ luncheon with King Juan Carlos; to ensure the taxpayers pick up the tab for the latest in an appallingly ostentatious series of jaunts.

    Their combined arrogance, in flaunting the ‘perks’ of the office of the presidency, is just one more thumb-in-the-eye to truly ‘private citizesn by these two haters of America; haters of all for which she stands, and haters of her ‘real’ people.

    They don’t feel our pain today, but they both will in November and afterwards. That’s a promise!!

    • acat
    • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

      Lord and Lady Douche Bag.

      The fun starts at 2:33:

      For Liberty,
      ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman,? not ?political child!?)
      Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (87 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)

      • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

        nt

        CW

  • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

    that will be costing the taxpayers…

    The thing that should rankle Americans, though, is the fact that lavish vacations, when most are suffering through the worst recession in memory, sends the wrong message. The White House response of Mrs. Obama being a private citizen on a private vacation is also a little more than misleading. There is an “Official Visit” thrown in when King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia will lunch with the First Lady at their summer palace in Majorca. An Official Lunch, go figure.

    Presumably, Robert Gibbs doesn’t want to talk about the “official” part of it because it defers much of the costs incurred with the Air Force Jet and Security Services assigned to the First Lady and friends.That official lunch will cost the U.S. Taxpayer!

    http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-political-commentary/2010/08/michelle-obama-the-new-marie-antoinette.html

  • america1st

    starring what is arguably the first affirmative action placement at this level, and unquestionably the most grossly incompetent ‘president.’

    This pair is an on-going insult to hard-working Americans of all genetic origins and a foul stain on our Republic. I think of Dr. King, Medgar Evers and so many other courageous citizens of color who gave their lives fighting for respect and equal rights . . . . Somehow I don’t think this crew represents the dream I heard proclaimed in DC so many years ago.

    Sadly, throwing them out in 2012 will not end their ability to steal from the taxpayers’ wallets. Although, perhaps, impeachment & criminal prosecution for treason would work.

  • Scope

    she has been bitter and dishonest for a long long time.

    I saw an article, supposedly written by a close friend of Michelle’s when she was growing up, (no I don’t believe everything I read or even see), the friend claimed that she has lied about her humble beginnings, if that is what you call it. The M has talked about growing up in a poor neighborhood, in a poor section of Chicago, and, in a one bedroom apartment. She said that her and her brother had to share a livingroom made into a bedroom. The friend posted pictures of the “house” the M and her family grew up in, in a middle class neighborhood. Get it- she knows how it is to be poor. BTW, her father, that supposedly was refused a union job, actually had a management position, with pay in the area of $60 grand annually. That was back in about the 70′s. . Don’t know how to equate that with todays dollars, but, sounds like a family of 4 would not have been starving, right. They probably could even have afforded argula once and a while.

    Attending Princeton University, no cheap college for sure, she had to take student loans to pay for her tuition, while she watched the rich white kids parents paying for their tuition, no loans. I bet none of you have had to take loans for your college ed, huh. The indignity of it all.

    In her Princeton thesis, she claimed that she always felt like she was “black” first, and a “student” second to all her classmates. I believe one of her majors was in African American studies. I read at New Zeal that the head of the African American studies dept. at Princeton, when the M attended, was in fact a Communist. No surprise there, the Universities/Colleges are top heavy with them.

    Then it was onto Havud, and more student loans. I wonder who did pay for the O’s Havud education? I don’t think that was ever determined, but, you know it wasn’t grandma, who was a typical white person, and, afraid to walk past blacks on the sidewalk. I bet out of state tuition at Havud is pretty pricey.

    The story goes that the O and the M met, when she was assigned to “mentor” the O when he came on board, at a Chacago law firm. I heard it was called Frank, Marshall and Davis, but, I don’t think that’s true. I’d have to run that by FactCheck.org for conformation.

    Onto, the “chickens are coming home to roost pastor, Black Liberation Theologist, Rev. Right, ooops, Wright, my bad. He married them, and baptized their children. I thought that only Christians baptized their children, who knew that Black Liberationists did too. You remember Mr. Wright, the one that the O could no longer disown than his white, black fearing grandma.

    The speech- the one that put Shelly onto the national stage- “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.” That one. The one that gave us on the other side, more than a little glimpse into our future queen. Oh, there were more, many more. Remember when she forewarned us schmucks that Baaaarack will not allow you to not work (to bad he destroyed all the jobs), he will not allow (get that, “allow”) you to go back to your old traditions, and prejudices (oh man, that was a good one) and, he will not allow you to eat cake. Sorry, I threw that one in myself since the M is on a anti-anything sweet crusade, though I did read that she had the butter infused, rich in bad fat chocolate ice cream in Marabella. Sasha, who knows “dessert is not a right” got the watermelon or some such fruit flavor. I guess that’s just good parenting, no.

    I’ve forgotten how many vacations the O’s have had in the year and half since the coronation. The coronation that the M decked herself out in the lace window drapes, Rush said that, not me. I’m surprised that those Greek Columns weren’t permanently built at the entrance to the White House, but, alas styrofoam doesn’t wheather well, and it would have been a sacrilege to have BeBe or the Dali Lama walk through them. Oh, wait, I believe they both used the garbage door in the back.

    Think about how much food a family could buy with the $66 price tag for the M’s dinner out in a cave, turned 5 star restaurant in El Spaino. I guess there was a saving on the secret service duty that night, kinda hard for any would be assinators to come in through the back door. It’s a cave after all.

    The M “commissioned” a new cream colored coat, in August, in Spain. I’ve never been to Spain, but, I am of the thought that it isn’t coat wearing wheather in Spain, or here in the US, in August. I suspect that she just wants to be sure, that if the O gets impeached for any reason, like turning our country over to the Communists, she won’t have to rely on any measley government rebates to pay for her stylish threads. You know that rebate that was sent to the taxpayers in the Bush years, when Shelly said that it wasn’t even enough to pay for a good pair of earrings? She don’t speak for me, my little enameled Christmas Tree earrings left me with a whole lot left over. I even bought a life size Manger setup for my front yard, and, guess what, there weren’t even any bullet holes in it, and it reusable, and, the ACLU didn’t sue me over it.

    2010 elections are so critically important for those on the right side of the Constitution, the one printed on dead trees, not the one that is breathing in and out, like Kagan. But, the best part of it all for me will be in 2012, when the King and Queen O, are brought crashing back to earth, and will have to walk amongst us filthy rotten stinking dirty unwashed peasants. Then again, the M may be scoping out their place of asylum.

  • swami7774

    …is stunning. Do they really have no clue how bad this looks? Or are they so ensconced in their cocoon they are unaware of public opinion?

    • usadying

      that somebody will say “enough” and lose it. Bye bye to November elections.

      • Michael Dugas

        They have a road map to the destruction of America and by Saul Alinsky they’re going to follow it through. They just don’t see why they can’t enjoy themselves while Rome burns…so to speak.

        • holystone

          Tragically they aren’t even aware enough of reality to recognize the need to “give a damn” ……..

          Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorderr defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.”[1]

          The narcissist is described as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, and prestige.[2] Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness

          According to analysis provided by Laura Ingraham the Obamas fit 8 out of 8 characteristics that identify the disorder. I firmly believe that this entire affair will end tragically by their own hand when they are rejected by the people of the United States in 2012. I do not wish it on anyone, but hell is of our own making and release is only possible through recognition of our dual role as prisoner and jailer. Failing that recognition tragedy ensues when the duality consumes itself.

  • Scope

    in our time of what I would consider just a little tad more than economic turmoil. The witch won’t even allow you to eat cake.

    • http://www.veronicaestrada.com Veronica

      and kudos to your post above.

      I assume they did this to get away from “us” (double de-capitalized … get it?).

      They look very much at home. This must have been the type of hob-nobbing they’d been doing before the start of his campaign, before the rigors of the election distracted them from missing the high life.

      Now we know.

      Personally, I hope they stay over there .. or find more reasons to “vacation” more frequently.

      Leave us. Alone.

  • bassethound

    The author mentioned Michelle’s extravagant vacation while “millions were out of work and on food stamps”.

    I can’t help but wonder how many of those “millions” were people who up until recently had stable employment histories, and were comfortably able to support their families until the Obama recession. I guess the Libs, who strut and preen about “helping the poor” can really pat themselves on the back for creating so many poor people from what once were productive citizens.

  • pamela1631

    There was something I was taught to do when in pain.
    During my prayers offer the pain up to God.

    Maybe if everyone feeling pain right now would send it up to The
    WONS and their associates so they could understand how much devastation their dreams and desires caused and how those dreams and desires have afflicted the American people.

  • Superheater

    Of leftwing hypocrisy.

    When Jackie Kennedy redid the White House, it was fawning over “style” . When Nancy Reagan did it, it was 24-7 “excess”.

    Now, not a word about unreasonableness of this trip from the adjunct members of the vast left wing conspiracy.

    The really sad thing is how screwed up the Obama daughters might grow up to be. It would be bad enough to be be steeped in the parent’s ideology, now they’ll be trained to think the world exists to provide them with the most extravagant satisfaction of their every whim.

  • mobamablues

    Secret Service and White House staff advance teams would have been in Spain upwards of two weeks prior to the Royal Visit to arrange security and accomodations. Secure, bullet-proof vehicles would have been flown in — with “backup” vehicles — in C-130′s under Military Airlift Command and flown out when she leaves.

    A team of Signal Corps would be assigned to provide secure communications with His Highness.

    European field offices of the FBI would have been alerted well in advance to track down and assess any potential threats that might exist in the presidential locale. And Spanish taxpayers — already hard-pressed by their county’s financial collapse — would foot the bill for police and military overtime for their own security services.

    Total cost to the taxpayers in the US is well into the seven figures, easy. For Spain, its probably several hundred thousand dollars.

    I certainly hope she had a good time.

  • stephaniet

    I once had a dream about becoming rich and famous, but my idea of a glorious European vacation involved me and ONE friend going to England to live in a little apartment or small country cottage for a month or two. It didn’t involve 70 hotel rooms, umpteen million staffers, OR taxpayers’ money. My plan revolved around me paying my own way.