I tend to believe it's true but realize no matter how objective I'm trying to be - and I ALWAYS strive to be objective - my opinion might be colored somewhat by my intense dislike of Nobama, Pelosi, Frank, Reid and the rest of his law-breaking cronies. Where are the objective (relatively) of yesteryear that we need so much today? Laying at their master's feet or in the case of freaky Chris Matthews, drooling and paralyzed by the thrills and chills running down his leg:-)
Jackie
Subject: Re: Date Night With the Obamas
I checked truthorfiction.com and snopes.com and neither had anything about this so who knows?!
----- Original Message -----
From: Jackie Brown
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 3:36 PM
Subject: Fw: Date Night With the Obamas
Can this rank, gross-out, "let 'em eat cake" story POSSIBLY be true??!! I haven't vetted so don't know but if so, it is beyond appalling!!! So far beyond the pale that even I who despise his policies and outright lies, can hardly believe it. Jackie
From a former Air Force Colonel....
Subject: The Date
First, let me say that I've 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 saw the news say that the date cost $24,000, here's what you DON'T know.
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 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(s) 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) and 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 757s. I was told that he came in on THREE Air Force Lear jets.
So, date night consisted of:
2 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.
These are the same people that chastised the automobile CEO's for
using their aircraft. It further proves 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?
Talk with friends and those who are not blinded by charisma. Many
folks I know who voted for Obama are very disappointed and sorry they did so.
The Emperor's clothes on a grand scale. "Transparency"? Remember, 2010 is just around the corner. All we have to do is survive long enough.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thanks Judi Cole! Ben Stein's final column
A great piece, Judi!
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: judith Cole
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:23 PM
Subject: Ben Stein's final column
Ben Stein's Final Column - Worth the Read
For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called 'Monday Night At Morton's.' (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.
Ben Stein's Last Column...
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?
As I begin to write this, I 'slug' it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is 'eonline FINAL,' and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to.. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars.. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a 'star' we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit , Iraq . He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad . He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded... He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad .
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament..the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But, I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me.. This came to be my main task in life.. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York .. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human
Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will..
By Ben Stein
We truly take a lot for granted.
Forget the Hollywood 'stars' and the sports 'heroes' ...and pass this on
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: judith Cole
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:23 PM
Subject: Ben Stein's final column
Ben Stein's Final Column - Worth the Read
For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called 'Monday Night At Morton's.' (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.
Ben Stein's Last Column...
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?
As I begin to write this, I 'slug' it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is 'eonline FINAL,' and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to.. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars.. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a 'star' we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit , Iraq . He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad . He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded... He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad .
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament..the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But, I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me.. This came to be my main task in life.. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York .. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human
Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will..
By Ben Stein
We truly take a lot for granted.
Forget the Hollywood 'stars' and the sports 'heroes' ...and pass this on
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
O-czars- leaders for the proletariat
This from an April report. they say he has 140 or so now. Recently, our policy czar is a "devout muslim". Don't worry. Be happy!
Sam
Obama's Czars Spark Concerns Among Some Lawmakers
Some lawmakers believe President Obama's multitude of czars is a power grab.
By Brian Wilson
FOXNews.com
Friday, April 17, 2009
PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ
a.. Obama Czar Has Socialist Ties 25390142
b.. Rise of the Czars The Glenn Beck Blog 25383764
c.. We Warned You About Czars 25394152
d.. » Obama Accuses Fired Inspector General of AmeriCorps of Being “Confused, Disoriented” Row 2, Seat 4 « FOXNews.com 25661498
e.. ABC News Teams Up With Obama White House to Present President's Health Care Plan 25475630
Although former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin and the late Russian ruler Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov appear to have nothing in common, thanks to President Obama, they now share a title.
Romanov, known as Nicholas II, was the last Russian czar. Bersin is Obama's border czar, a new Homeland security post responsible for issues related to drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The appointment of czars is nothing new in Washington. President Obama apparently likes the idea of appointing them -- he's got a bunch of czars.
Foreign Policy magazine composed a list of 18 Obama administration czars, including Carl Browner, who is the energy czar, and Gil Kerlikowske, who is the drug czar. But almost immediately, typical Washington quibbling began over who is and who is not a czar.
Czardom does not sit well with Sen. Robert Byrd. Though slowed by age, the West Virginia Democrat remains vigorous in his defense of the powers ceded to the Congress by the Constitution. He said he believes czars are a slick way of governing without having to answer to Congress.
There is no constitutional requirement that czars undergo those pesky Senate confirmation hearings.
Former Rep. Ernest Istook said he doesn't like the term czar either because it's too Russian.
"We could just call somebody the big boss, el jefe, head honcho, the big cheese," he said. "My father used to refer to people as the chief cook and bottle washer."
Istook said he believes the Obama team is using the appointment of czars to reinvent how the executive branch operates.
"If Barack Obama thinks that the executive branch is badly organized, and you could make a great case for that, then he ought to present a coherent system," he said. "But it's just ad hoc on a case by case basis."
If there is a public outcry over the czar mania, it's entirely possible, knowing Washington, that the Obama administration will appoint a super czar to resolve the issue.
Sam
Obama's Czars Spark Concerns Among Some Lawmakers
Some lawmakers believe President Obama's multitude of czars is a power grab.
By Brian Wilson
FOXNews.com
Friday, April 17, 2009
PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ
a.. Obama Czar Has Socialist Ties 25390142
b.. Rise of the Czars The Glenn Beck Blog 25383764
c.. We Warned You About Czars 25394152
d.. » Obama Accuses Fired Inspector General of AmeriCorps of Being “Confused, Disoriented” Row 2, Seat 4 « FOXNews.com 25661498
e.. ABC News Teams Up With Obama White House to Present President's Health Care Plan 25475630
Although former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin and the late Russian ruler Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov appear to have nothing in common, thanks to President Obama, they now share a title.
Romanov, known as Nicholas II, was the last Russian czar. Bersin is Obama's border czar, a new Homeland security post responsible for issues related to drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The appointment of czars is nothing new in Washington. President Obama apparently likes the idea of appointing them -- he's got a bunch of czars.
Foreign Policy magazine composed a list of 18 Obama administration czars, including Carl Browner, who is the energy czar, and Gil Kerlikowske, who is the drug czar. But almost immediately, typical Washington quibbling began over who is and who is not a czar.
Czardom does not sit well with Sen. Robert Byrd. Though slowed by age, the West Virginia Democrat remains vigorous in his defense of the powers ceded to the Congress by the Constitution. He said he believes czars are a slick way of governing without having to answer to Congress.
There is no constitutional requirement that czars undergo those pesky Senate confirmation hearings.
Former Rep. Ernest Istook said he doesn't like the term czar either because it's too Russian.
"We could just call somebody the big boss, el jefe, head honcho, the big cheese," he said. "My father used to refer to people as the chief cook and bottle washer."
Istook said he believes the Obama team is using the appointment of czars to reinvent how the executive branch operates.
"If Barack Obama thinks that the executive branch is badly organized, and you could make a great case for that, then he ought to present a coherent system," he said. "But it's just ad hoc on a case by case basis."
If there is a public outcry over the czar mania, it's entirely possible, knowing Washington, that the Obama administration will appoint a super czar to resolve the issue.
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