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Morning Bell: Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

• Posted November 26th, 2009 at 8.30am in Family and Religion, First Principles.
• http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/26/morning-bell-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclomation/

~~

Obama’s:

The audio and video will be available at 6:00am Thursday, November 26, 2009 at www.whitehouse.gov.

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Thursday, November 26, 2009

For centuries, in peace and in war, in prosperity and in adversity, Americans have paused at this time of year to gather with loved ones and give thanks for life’s blessings. This week, we carry on this distinctly American tradition.  All across our country, folks are coming together to spend time with family, to catch up with old friends, to cook and enjoy a big dinner – and maybe to watch a little football in between.

As always, we give thanks for the kindness of loved ones, for the joys of the previous year, and for the pride we feel in our communities and country. We keep in our thoughts and prayers the many families marking this Thanksgiving with an empty seat – saved for a son or daughter, or husband or wife, stationed in harm’s way. And we say a special thanks for the sacrifices those men and women in uniform are making for our safety and freedom, and for all those Americans who enrich the lives of our communities through acts of kindness, generosity and service.

But as much as we all have to be thankful for, we also know that this year millions of Americans are facing very difficult economic times. Many have lost jobs in this recession – the worst in generations. Many more are struggling to afford health care premiums and house payments, let alone to save for an education or retirement. Too many are wondering if the dream of a middle class life – that American Dream – is slipping away.  It’s the worry I hear from folks across the country; good, hard-working people doing the best they can for their families – but fearing that their best just isn’t good enough. These are not strangers.  They are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. Their struggles must be our concern.

That’s why we passed the Recovery Act that cut taxes for 95 percent of working people and for small businesses – and that extended unemployment benefits and health coverage for millions of Americans who lost their jobs in this turmoil.  That’s why we are reforming the health care system so that middle-class families have affordable insurance that cannot be denied because of a pre-existing condition or taken away because you happen to get sick. We’ve worked to stem the tide of foreclosures and to stop the decline in home values. We’re making it easier to save for retirement and more affordable to send a son or daughter to college.

The investments we have made and tough steps we have taken have helped break the back of the recession, and now our economy is finally growing again.  But as I said when I took office, job recovery from this crisis would not come easily or quickly. Though the job losses we were experiencing earlier this year have slowed dramatically, we’re still not creating enough new jobs each month to make up for the ones we’re losing.  And no matter what the economists say, for families and communities across the country, this recession will not end until we completely turn that tide.

So we’ve made progress. But we cannot rest – and my administration will not rest – until we have revived this economy and rebuilt it stronger than before; until we are creating jobs and opportunities for middle class families; until we have moved beyond the cycles of boom and bust – of reckless risk and speculation – that led us to so much crisis and pain these past few years.

Next week, I’ll be meeting with owners of large and small businesses, labor leaders, and non-for-profits from across the country, to talk about the additional steps we can take to help spur job creation. I will work with the Congress to enact them quickly. And it is my fervent hope – and my heartfelt expectation – that next Thanksgiving we will be able to celebrate the fact that many of those who have lost their jobs are back at work, and that as a nation we will have come through these difficult storms stronger and wiser and grateful to have reached a brighter day.

Thank you, God bless you, and from my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

~~

And for our Muslim friends in eight languages

Hajj and Eid Mubarak

Pilgrims from over 160 countries, including nearly 20,000 Americans, have gathered in Saudi Arabia for the annual performance of the Hajj.  They have assembled in Mina and will travel to Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Mecca to offer the rites of pilgrimage. On Friday, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha.  The President issued the following statement today marking the beginning of Hajj and the upcoming Eid holiday:

Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha.  The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions.

During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat.  The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less fortunate to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son out of obedience to God.

This year, I am pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Saudi Health Ministry to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1 during Hajj.  Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration’s commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest.

On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak.

Translations available in Arabic, Persian, Dari, Urdu, Pashto, Russian and French.

 Thoughts to Ponder

Do not eat natural foods. I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
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Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

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Being healthy is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
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Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
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There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
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Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
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The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
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An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
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If quitters never win and winners never quit, then who is the fool who said, “Quit while you’re ahead?”
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The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
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Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.
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Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days, no one talks about seeing UFO’s like they used to?
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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
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All of us could take a lesson from the weather; it pays no attention to criticism.
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Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200 and a substantial tax cut save you 30 cents?
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In the 60′s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
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How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

One of the basic precepts carried through our nation’s history is that the majority rules in a democracy, protecting the rights of the minority, but reflecting the people’s will. A Republic elects representatives to focus the will of the people.

Currently, the people have spoken to the extent that 56% are virulently opposed to government intervention in basic life and death decisions, like health care. Based upon an activist agenda, with no voice of the minority consulted or listened to, our current Democrat-majority disregards the will of the majority.

Both the House and Senate versions of Obamacare create detailed new federal regulations that micromanage all health insurance decisions. Specifically, Section 2713 of the Senate Health Bill would give the recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force the force of law by requiring all health insurance plans to provide coverage (with no patient co-pays) for “items or services that have in effect a rating of “A” or “B” [recommended] in the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force.”

Conversely, under Obamacare, last week’s Task Force decision to give annual mammograms a “C” rating (not recommended) will henceforth be viewed by insurers and employers as a justification for discontinuing coverage. This move to give the evidence-based medicine determinations of health experts the force of law is not incidental to Obamacare: this cost control rationing is the very heart of Obamacare’s promise to control health care costs. Trying to convince wayward moderates that Obamacare would control health care costs, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag wrote in the Washington Post last Friday:

“An independent Medicare commission … will ensure that reforming the health-care system is not a one-time event but an ongoing process that implements the most recent progress in medical science with the goal of improving care and lowering costs.”

In other words, when the Obamacare health experts conclude that the “medical science” dictates that women’s mammograms must be cut to meet “the goal of … lowering costs,” then you’ll be out of luck.

The Preventive Task Force has also relegated cervical cancer screens, and men’s prostate cancer exams to ‘C’ status. Then the government lies to us, saying that the Task Force is serving as but an advisory panel, that after all, the current one was appointed by Bush, so what’s the problem. The problem is regardless of who appointed the Commission, it has the force of law carrying out its directives – and the Task Force has been in existence over 25 years – through Reagan, Bush 41, Hillary Care, Dubya, and now to be implemented by Obama.

This administration, and the majority of leadership currently in power, is arrogantly taking the paternalistic stance that ‘Father knows best’ and knows better than us ‘children’ how to spend our money, and decide our health, as well as our collective future. It has forgotten, or doesn’t acknowledge, it was elected to govern and serve, not rule.

During one of his numerous prime time conferences this past summer, the President made the argument that the American people already covered were spending their money with ‘greedy corporate special interests.’ How much better, he argued, to funnel those funds through a compassionate government to allocate their already-spent resources. On the surface, it sounds good. It is part of the left’s design to control 1/5-1/7 (depending on who’s figures on whatever day to support an argument) of the US economy. And through health funds manipulation and ‘behavioral health education and modification,’ control our lives in all other aspects.

But remember, this is the same government that has brought us the US Postal Service (7+ Billion loss), Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (on the verge of bankruptcy), Cash for Clunkers, Amtrak, and booted the ball when providing swine flu vaccine was its only goal. This is the government that already denies Medicare coverage at a three-to-one margin against the top three private insurers – combined.

I THINK I GET IT

Let me see if I understand all this…. 

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.
 
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

 IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER, YOU GET SHOT.

 IF YOU CROSS THE TURKEY BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN PRISON!

 IF YOU CROSS THE MEXICAN BORDER YOU GET ARRESTED AND SHAKEN DOWN FOR MONEY OR GO TO PRISON!

 BUT IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER  ILLEGALLY YOU GET:

    A DRIVERS LICENSE

    A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD 

    WELFARE AND A CELL PHONE

    FOOD STAMPS

    FREE EDUCATION FOR THE KIDS

    CITIZENSHIP FOR THE KIDS BORN HERE

    AND  FREE HEALTH CARE!!!
http://www.foxco-2ndbn-9thmarines.com/page_2.htm

Back in my younger days, I remember my Uncle Paul (and my Grandpa Carl) grousing that if the gummint continued in its headlong rush to tyranny we would be taxed for breathing. Well, Kerry-Boxer CAP&TAX wants to do just that. But right now, there is another issue before us: Healthcare under Omamba wants to kill women.

Under ReidCare and PelosiCare, with the HHS and Omamba Administration, women are to put themselves at greater risk for death by no longer getting mammograms. Under the same guidelines, we guys are to quit having prostate exams. Now, truth be told, being a guy, I have no clue what a woman goes through for a mammogram. I know what I go through having a cancerous history, what I go through as a guy having my rectum intruded upon for a prostate check, and what happened after…

Notwithstanding, women are being told to quit believing the American Cancer Society, their gynecologist, the government before 2009, and common sense, to save their lives. Before Tuesday, November 17, 2009, every woman was told that annual mammograms were necessary for good healthcare. As recently as February 2009, America’s women were told that not having mammograms was a threat to not only their health, but America’s weal and welfare. Now, under Omamba and HHS Sibelius, taking preventive care is too costly, and may cause anxiety for false-positives. Umm, Tell me if you’d rather have a false-positive than the reality of cancer?

The government is pushing vaccines that can cause paralysis, sterility and swine-flu like symptoms on your 9-12 year old daughters to prevent cervical cancers, yet tell you that PAP smears are unnecessary if you are under a certain age (21) for cervical cancers… and after that, you really don’t need them before 40 (forty). Then why the vaccine?

This is Comparative Effectiveness Research run amok.

What is CER, you ask? This is the theory that three 25-year-olds have the potential of contributing more to the ‘good of society’ than one proven 75-year-old person’s. The 75 year old, under this theory has no further value because he/she is no longer contributing to the ‘good of society, but rather drawing upon it.’ Or, that if the cost of caring for a 43 year old woman with breast cancer doesn’t match her potential earnings (tax contributions), she isn’t worthy of care. So much for Susan G Komen and the pink-ribbon campaign.

Now, there are two problems with the above premise: That three 25 year olds are worth more than one 75 year old. 1) We are talking potential; there isn’t any guarantee one or more of the 25 year olds won’t be killed through crime, disease, or genetic time bomb. 2) The 75 year old contributed already to his/her care through government fiat. It’s a proven fact as to his/her value to society. And if he/she contributes through working, where is the moral justice?

Back in my younger days, I’ve had expensive and necessary surgeries to save my life, or (after military action), reconstruct vital body parts to walk rather than be pushed in a wheelchair. I’ve had reconstructive knee surgeries, heart, PAD/PVD, cancer (bone and prostate) treatments, and an arterial renal thrombosis bi-femoral transplant in my life. So far, persons other than myself have awarded/given me Who’s Who in Business, a Silver Star, journalistic, inspirational and religious awards. I have undergone veteran and civilian PTSD counseling. What have I done wrong/right?

Back to women under onslaught: The current heath care Bills are saying nothing goes forward until passed; LIE!The Reid Bill says it will base its actions under Section 804 of the America’s Recovery Act (Stimulus Act) of 2009, already passed. And under this Act, signed by President Omamba, women are nailed. Because it says so… don’t believe me? Read it for yourselves…

www.reid.senate.gov and download.

Just now reported on Rush Limbaugh, per James Taranto of the WSJ, the AP is devoting 52 times the effort to fact check her than are fact-checking the largest legislative increase of Federal power in our country’s history.

Eleven AP staff are devoted to try and trash Sarah Palin. Two staffers are relegated to checking both the House and Senate versions of Health Care reform. There are 2,074 pages of the Reid Senate version of Health Care, 2,026 in PelosiVersionCare. There are 415 pages of Going Rogue, Sarah Palin’s memoir. Four thousand One Hundred One pages versus Four Hundred Fifteen. Nine point nine pages to one.

Each page of Congressional action will cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars in effect on our lives (and our children and grandchildren’s) versus zero dollars of Sarah’s memoir on our lives. Where is the justification of time, effort and dollars on AP’s part? More and more, I’m coming to the reluctant conclusion that the AP is no more relevant than Izvestia was under the Soviets.

If Senator Gregg’s (R-NH) extrapolation of CBO figures are to believed, the cost of federalizing (nationalistic socialistic) health care will cost every American $8,064 per year. How are we going to pay for this stuff? Can you come up with an extra eight grand a year, over and above what you are paying now, whether for health care or not? Can you afford an additional $1,761 in taxes on energy on top of this? If Nancy Pelosi has her way, every single purchase we make will have an additional 10% tax for Value Added Taxes. In addition, she says it is every American’s duty to pay 0.75% National Sales tax levied for the United Nations to pay for Third World countries to pay for carbon offsets on the rest of the global stage.

I’m so happy I live in a rich country that can afford to already donate more to victims of tragedy worldwide than any other in history. We have cured or offset more medical tragedies than ever done before, we as private citizens donated more money to the victims of the 12/26/2004 tsunami than our government (or any other) did. We have led more peoples on earth to a democratic form of government (of course they are imperfect, they are run by humans). Nowhere else in the history of mankind has the average citizen had the ability to rise above circumstances of birth, genetics, race, or religious creed to ‘be somebody.’ Yet, per the worldwide apologia tour, we are the nastiest people to have inhabited the earth.

I’m getting really tired of being the universal bad guy on the world stage. Our history of fair play and coming to the defense of the under dog makes it necessary I get placed in this category some time soon, dontcha think? But wait, I’m an honorably medically discharged officer of our country’s armed service, a right wing ‘extremist’ who loves God, guns, my Bible, beer, and monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. I should be put on another Watch List sometime soon.

Words: 630

The Obama Administration, in the person of Eric Holder, Attorney General, doesn’t want Americans to rush to judgment on the terrorist acts of Major Hasan of Fort Hood, yet is launching an unprecedented onslaught upon Americans’ Second Amendment rights, using the very same attack as justification.

• Holder wants new federal authority to prohibit any person on the Federal Watch List (reported to be 400,000 names) from buying guns and supports confiscating guns from those on the list who possess them.

Attorney General Holder testified before Congress November 18, 2009: “The position of the Administration is that there should be a basis for law enforcement to share information about gun purchases.”

There are proposals in Congress to list and pay a federal tax of $25 per year per firearm, on current gun ownership, on our annual 1040 tax forms. Holder (and Obama) wants to expand this to have guns further controlled, and confiscation if a person gets added to the arbitrary listing on a Federal Watch List.

Remember this is the List that Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano says should include returning service personnel from the Middle East, veterans, tea party goers, pro-life activists, Town Hall attendees and like right wing ‘extremists.’ Later, we got word that anyone who was flagged as being ‘fishy’ by the White House website should be added. In other words, anyone who resists the Administration’s domestic and foreign policies is, or should be, on the List.

The Law Enforcement Alliance of America thinks Holder’s proposal is a very bad idea. Representing over 65,000 law enforcement professionals, crime victims and concerned citizens, LEAA’s Executive Director Jim Fotis replied, “Those behind the badge don’t believe more restrictions on honest gun owners is a reasonable, practical or constitutional response to acts of terrorism. As a retired officer, I know that America’s men and women in blue want to fight terrorism, to stop terrorists; not waste time keeping records on innocent gun owners!”

When we do have a terrorist, this same administration doesn’t have a consistent approach to enforcing, investigating or prosecuting terrorist acts, as shown by the mixed signals currently extant with Major Hasan, the NYC 5, and attackers of the USS Cole. Monitoring, preventing the purchase of, and confiscating the guns of over 400,000 law abiding Americans by virtue only of their names’ placement on a ‘Watch List’, after they have passed otherwise stringent background checks is a violation of not only the Second, but Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.

As horrific as the attack at Fort Hood was by jihadi terrorist Major Hasan, MD, Psychiatrist, SoA, SWT, we do not know that he was on the Federal Watch List. Had he been, action should have been taken to strip him of his US Army commission. Nothing under law prevents or could foresee this monster from owning, possessing or using firearms in the heinous manner he did. Our system of laws is not based upon mind control or prevention of possible intent. It is based upon swift and sure punishment should a citizen break the social contract between citizens and lawful behavior.

For those who play the ‘but look what he did, had he been prevented from buying guns, this wouldn’t have happened’ card, I can only respond this is an aberrant act of terror. Honestly, ask yourself how many times in the history of our country (or the world, for that matter) have we had medical psychiatrists run amok, wounding and killing dozens of his/her patients, regardless of type of weapon?

Criminals and terrorists by definition and action are outside the mainstream of lawful and moral activity. Rushing to seize firearms because we ‘should not’ call a terrorist a terrorist is a violation of American Constitutional rights and liberty.

 Words: 635

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the history of the world, predominantly with a one-earner income and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What happened? Can we spell ‘greedy, power-grabbing politicians?’

Tax his cow, Tax his goat,
Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirt,
Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink,
Tax him if he Tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers,
If he cries Tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas,
Find other ways To tax his a** (bootie).

Tax all he has Then let him know
You won’t be done till there’s no dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then tax him more,
Tax him till He’s good and sore.
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in Which he’s laid.
Put these words Upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me to my doom…’
When he’s gone, Do not relax,
Its time to apply the inheritance tax.
~~Author unknown

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Most of us, when pressed will mention Federal and state income tax, and sales taxes and let it go as far as taxes go. A few will mention property, inheritance, gas and cell phone taxes, and that’s about it… Well, folks, there’s more already on the books. A partial list follows:

Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Excise Taxes Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License
Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline At (44.75 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Internet Service Provider (ISP Access) Tax
Inventory Tax IRS Interest –IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax Luxury Tax Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Personal Property Tax
Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service Charge Tax Social Security (FICA) Tax
Road Usage Tax Sales Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal tax
Telephone State and Local Surcharge Tax Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax 9-1-1 tax

Now, if the two current Bills in the House and Senate – Healthcare Reform and CAP&TRADE (read Tax) are passed, we will be adding a minimum 1.5-9.5% or more additional taxes! In my own case, CAP&TAX will add 5.1% (House version) and 7.6% Senate version, based upon little over minimum wage, and current expenses. In the US Senate, Harry Reid as of 7/28/2009 stated it was too hard to pass as a stand-alone Bill, so was planning on adding it as an Amendment to existing legislation, then had a change of heart when he saw Healthcare is holding up the process.

Figure your new taxes added costs if CAP&TRADE passes. Replace the figures prefilled with your own household budget figures. Multiply by 1.5 if the Kerry-Boxer version of the Bill passes the Senate. The worksheet is for the Waxman version of the House that passed : http://www.taxfoundation.org/capandtrade

Healthcare Reform would cost me an additional 2.5-8%, or possibly federal jail time – makes it really easy (sarcasm) to be competitive in client bids. Plus, the ‘wealthy’ will be taxed income surcharges of 1.5-5.4% to help pay for this…and, both the Senate and House are considering a Value Added Tax!

Let your Congress and President know whether or not you want to continue to do your ‘patriotic duty’ and voluntarily add to your tax burdens.

From WA Times 9/3/09, remember the night our Pres took the First Lady on a ‘night out’ on Broadway?:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/polls/2009/sep/do-you-think-department-education-should-have-invo/results/?cpage=3
Zeb
The emperor Obama! We just can’t afford him America. From a former Air Force Colonel…. First, let me say that I’ve flown (moved) three presidents up to now and I’ve seen incredible waste. But, the “new” guy really takes the cake. I don’t have an issue with the President promising his wife dinner and a show or that he even takes his wife out. But, when I see the news say that the date cost (only) $24,000, I can’t resist exposing what they DON’T say. Three days before “dinner” a C-17 flew Marines and the helicopter maintenance equipment to JFK Airport . The day before “dinner” I flew the USSS (Secret Service) and the motorcade to JFK Airport Our crew of 5 spent two days and nights at the Hilton in Times Square. My hotel bill: $621.66 plus $64 a day in per diem. The USSS guys were at a different Hilton in NYC, so figure that cost another $14,000 (or so) plus per diem. The Marines had to have cost as much and were there four days, so figure another $55,000 plus per diem (for 44 Marines). We were supposed to fly the motorcade back and go home, but the Air Force was so short of C-17′s that we were re-tasked to take the motorcade back, return to JFK and take the helicopter back to Quantico . When we got back to JFK, while the pilot was turning the plane around to park, he noticed a rotor blade sticking out of the hangar where the helicopter was parked and informed me that either it wasn’t ready to transport or it was flying home. After shutting down I walked over to the hangar and to my surprise I find FIVE helicopters, not ONE. We’re obviously not transporting five big helicopters. I went and talked to the Marines guarding the “fleet” and found that they were flying all five helicopters home and we were only transporting the Marines and the maintenance equipment. After talking to the Marine in charge, I was told that the White House requested FIVE helicopters. The Marines told me that they spent all morning trying to figure out how much it cost them to come and said they figured it cost them $140,000 to stay there (I don’t know where they came up with that). Overall, the trip’s total had to be about $1,000,000. We heard that the President didn’t use Air Force One (the 747) so I asked if he came in on one of the 757′s. I was told that he came in on THREE Air Force Lear jets. So, date night consisted of: Two C-17′s flying three missions, 3 Lear jets, 5 Helicopters, Presidential Motorcade, 44 Marines, more than 20 USSS personnel on our plane. Who knows what it cost the NYPD and NY Port Authority (at the airport) in overtime. Note that these are the people who chastised automobile CEO’s for using their aircraft. One also sees that the media only use the facts that make the President look good and hide any facts that will detract from his persona.. Is this the ‘change’ we expected