Tag Archives: Hawaii

Beach Bum Barry Bests GOP-Today on the Teri O’Brien Show, 1/6/13

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This week, as we prepare for the beginning of the 113th Congress, we face a looming showdown over increasing the federal government’s debt ceiling. It seems like only yesterday that our courageous Dear Reader, Barack “I Won’t Play That Game” Obama was battling with his mean-spirited opposition over their unwillingness to send more cash from productive citizens to him to spend on his many worthy projects. Oh wait, it was just yesterday. Well, actually it was last week, during that whole “fiscal cliff” thing, a complete victory for the One. Will Sen. McConnell have the spine to get anything meaningful on spending decreases in the next round, or will he wave the white flag again? As usual, David Gregory, who interviewed Sen. McConnell today on “Meet the Press,” did an excellent job of presenting the White House perspective. I was very distracted, though, wondering “where is the perp walk for Mr. Gregory?”

Barack probably had a lot of time to fantasize about how he will vanquish McConnell, Boehner and friends again, and continue his ideologically-driven plans to “remake” America into his Euro-socialist vision driven by “fairness,” during his recent Hawaiian vacation, the latest in a long series of ridiculously extravagant holidays for our first affirmative-action assisted First Couple. Just how much have we spent on these presidential vacations? Are the President’s supporters correct that it’s horribly unfair to criticize Barack Obama for taking luxurious trips while many Americans are living hand to mouth?

Speaking of that 113th Congress, a couple of days ago, ABC’s Diane “Recycling!” Sawyer nearly wet her panties interviewing the incoming class of female senators, including another Diane, Sen. Feinstein of California. As you know, she has vowed to revive her infamous 1994 “assault weapons” ban, this time with a more muscular, even more freedom destroying version. What’s in the proposed bill? We’ll give you the depressing details.

Whoopsie File-Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder’s Department of [In]Justice must reimburse one of the state’s it decided to persecute, while allegedly enforcing civil rights laws, to the tune of $3.5 million, which is only slightly less than the reported cost of the Obama’s latest boondoggle to Hawaii.

Tune in today for the rest of the story.

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Politics, Pop Culture, the Hottest Issues of the Day, and Your calls. The Teri O’Brien Show, featuring America’s Original Conservative Warrior Princess, Live and in color, Sundays 4-6 pm Central time  at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Teri-OBrien. Daring to Commit Common Sense, Fearlessly, and More Important, Cheerfully, in the Age of Obama.

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We Knew the Real Obama All Along, Didn’t We

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As Charles Krauthammer points out in his column entitled “The Return of the Real Obama,”  he writes:

The rout was complete, the retreat disorderly. President Obama got his tax hikes — naked of spending cuts — passed by the ostensibly Republican House of Representatives. After which, you might expect him to pivot to his self-proclaimed “principle” of fiscal “balance” by taking the lead on reducing spending. “Why,” asked The Post on the eve of the final fiscal-cliff agreement, “is the nation’s leader not embracing and then explaining the balanced reforms the nation needs?”

Because he has no interest in them. He’s a visionary, not an accountant. Sure, he’ll pretend to care about deficits, especially while running for reelection. But now that he’s past the post, he’s free to be himself — a committed big-government social democrat.

Upon losing the House in 2010, the leveler took cover for the next two years. He wasn’t going to advance his real agenda through the Republican House anyway, and he needed to win reelection.

 

He concludes:

Now he’s won. The old Obama is back. He must not be underestimated. He has deftly leveraged his class-war-themed election victory (a) to secure a source of funding (albeit still small) for the bloated welfare state, (b) to carry out an admirably candid bit of income redistribution and (c) to fracture the one remaining institutional obstacle to the rest of his ideological agenda.

 

Not bad for two months’ work.

If you can call reading demagogic talking points before jetting off the Hawaii “work,” that is. Other than that questionable assertion, like most Krauthammer pieces this whole column is spot on and well worth your reading.

Reparations Have to Start Somewhere File: Taxpayers’ Price for Obamas’ Jet-setting Lifestyle

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This morning, during a well-deserved water break from a grueling set of bench presses, one of the other Gym Goddesses asked me how much taxpayers have spent on vacations for the One, the First Klingon and their spawn. I said this latest one cost $7 million, which is what is pretty much the consensus, but the overall figure is much, much more, probably closer to over $20 million. From The White House Dossier:

The $20 million figure is based on estimates of the cost of the four Hawaii vacations the Obamas have taken during Christmastime 2009-2012. According to a detailed breakdown by the Hawaii Reporter, the annual excursions in 2009, 2010, and 2011 cost about $4 million, much of it attributable to the expense of taking Air Force One, at an hour rate of about $180,000, on an eighteen-hour roundtrip journey to Honolulu and back.

New Year's Day, 2012

New Year’s Day, 2012

But $4 million almost certainly underestimates the true tally, as it does not include many miscellaneous items like the cost of flying advance teams out to Hawaii and separate flights Michelle Obama took in 2010 and 2011, when she left ahead of her husband, who was forced to stay in Washington to finish up work with Congress.

This year, Obama returned from Hawaii to complete a deal on the Fiscal Cliff and then jetted back to Honolulu, where he is now engaged in Part 2 of his vacation. The second roundtrip flight added about $3.24 million to the tab this time, bringing the cost of the 2012-1013 vacation to well over $7 million.

If we assume the estimates are probably quite low, then it’s likely to the bill for the combined vacations is more than $20 million.

As the publisher of The White House Dossier, Keith Koffler, notes times are tough all over this country, and most American families have cut way back on, if not completely eliminated, vacations. But that sort of thing is for the little people, the ones who pay for all this luxury, not for Barack and Michelle.

It’s good to be the king.

Remember, as we frequently note in this space (please check out this FLASHBACK, which I know you will enjoy!), Barack and Michelle figure that reparations for all the evil perpetrated by racist Amerika for centuries, which they learned about from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, have to start somewhere, so why not with them?

Obama’s “Balanced Approach”: Increased Taxes, More Spending

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That sounds about right, doesn’t it? From the Wall Street Journal:

So Congress has passed a bill to avoid the tax cliff, hallelujah. This is the way to look at it if you have a pre-Copernican view of politics where Washington is the center of the economic universe. The better way to see it is that the tax bill on the private, productive part of the economy is now coming due for President Obama’s first-term spending and re-election.

The Senate-White House compromise grudgingly passed by the House is a Beltway classic: The biggest tax increase in 20 years in return for spending increases, and all spun for political purposes as a “tax cut for the middle class.” But taxes on the middle class were only going up on January 1 because the politicians had set it up that way, manufacturing a fake crisis. The politicians now portray themselves as scrambling heroically to save the day by sparing the middle class while raising taxes on small business, investors and the affluent.

That completely captures it.

The jug-eared, braying jackass, having taunted his opponents, ridiculing them Alinsky-style on New Year’s Eve, has returned to Hawaii to recover from that grueling effort. “Shared sacrifice?”

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

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I think any of us who has worked with one of these dead weights can vouch for the fact that being a “historic” (read affirmative action assisted) office holder means never having to say you’re sorry for being a worthless slacker. From Washington Times:

Since returning from a trip to Southeast Asia on Nov. 21, President Obama has managed ­­­­­to play three rounds of golf but has met face to face only once with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the man with whom he is trying to strike a deal on taxes and spending that could prevent another recession.

With the deadline for averting the “fiscal cliff” less than three weeks away, the president’s schedule this week is exceptionally light. It does not include any time on the links with Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, who is also an avid golfer.

Yes, as the headline says “For Obama, trimmings all on holiday schedule.” “Fiscal cliff?” Syria exploding? No worries! Let the endless round of celebrity-studded soireès continue as a prelude to the 3-week Hawaiian vacation.

It’s good to be the king.

 

Pearl Harbor Still Resonates 71 Years Later

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I’ll never forget our visit to Pearl Harbor. That visit was memorable in every way, not only because it was our first trip to Hawaii. Of course, we would go at least once a year if we could get US taxpayers to pay for it like certain families, but that’s another story. Still, one aspect of that visit to Pearl Harbor stands out even today, years later. I was unprepared by how moved I would be standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Arizona. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what happened there. You know how thoroughly disgusted I am when I hear morons, usually under 25 years old, say “Oh I’ve never heard of that. I wasn’t born yet.” My standard response is “I wasn’t born in 1863, and I’ve heard of Gettysburg.” If I get a blank stare, I tell the ignoramus to stop playing Angry Birds and use his mobile device to look it up. It starts with a “G.”

It was on that trip that I realized the difference between knowing a fact and experiencing a fact. I was unprepared for being smacked with the reality of the 1177 American casualties, nearly half on the Arizona, who were lying below in watery graves. Of course, you, a subscriber to this newsletter, and therefore at least 2 standard deviations above the mean on the information and intelligence scale, know about Pearl Harbor, but if you show this piece to one of those afore-mentioned wet-behind-the-ears, low-information types, I’ll save that lucky recipient a few clicks. This is the U.S.S. Arizona during the attack, which happened 71 years ago today.

The U.S.S. Arizona, December 7, 1941

Today, as we recall the sacrifices made by previous generations that allow us to live in freedom for a little longer, sacrifices so enormous that they nearly defy description, I will have members of our military in prayers as I do every day. I will say an extra prayer for the heroes lost on that horrible day.

Check out this amazing first hand report of the Pearl Harbor attack written in December, 1941, but published for the first time yesterday. Elizabeth McIntosh, the reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin who wrote the piece, was told by her editor that her piece was too graphic. It is beautifully written, and there is a very cool photo of her interviewing a sailor back in the day. Now, 97 years old, she must marvel at how our country has changed during her lifetime.

 

In Countries Where Dictators Demonize the Rich, Only Dictators Live Rich

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In countries led by demagogues who come to power promising “fairness” and an end to “income inequality,” putting a stop to an unacceptable situation, otherwise known as the American way of life, the reality is that only the demagogues themselves live large. They vow to smash an outmoded system, in which the evil rich have the audacity to spend the money they earn on what they want, while the “middle class,” (including slackers, welfare baby factories, and that guy with the shopping cart talking to his imaginary friend outside of Starbuck’s) scrapes by on meager wages. Then they come to power, and everyone except the political royalty scrapes by. Consider North Korea and Cuba. We have an example of that undeniable truth on prominent display, the Obamas themselves. To wit, from the White House Dossier:

President Obama is reportedly scheduled to be vacationing in Hawaii on January 2, the date billions in spending cuts – and untold consequences for the economy – will kick in if a deal is not reached on the “fiscal cliff.”

According to the Hawaii Reporter, residents who live in the area of Oahu where Obama and his family vacation have been told that the usual restrictions on their movements during an Obama stay will be in place for 21 days, from December 17 through January 6.

Let’s right, Peasants. Your emperor is visiting and he doesn’t want to have to deal with your sorry riff-raff rear ends while he’s trying to enjoy his entitlements.

The Hawaii Reporter estimates that the total cost of the vacation to Hawaii and federal taxpayers, including funding for travel, staff and protection, is at least $4 million. Obama’s vacations are more expensive than those of previous presidents because of the huge costs to fly Air Foce [sic] One and an accompanying cargo plane for nine hours or so to Hawaii.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I’ll say it again. Barack and Michelle figure reparations have to start somewhere, and it may as well be with them. They continue to live at a level of luxury unheard of in human history, largely on the backs of taxpayers, because they successfully convinced a bunch of suckers and fools that they “care” more about them than people like Mitt Romney, who also lives large, albeit with his own money. Apparently “caring” means giving people food stamps and a few other crumbs from the political royalty’s table, not policies that promote economic growth and prosperity.

I ask you Obama voters out there: are you going to spend 21 days on a $4 million, taxpayer-subsidized Hawaiian vacation? Valerie, no fair. You don’t count.

Somehow the grifters are now the good guys.