Northwest Indiana Discussion

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained records from the United States Air Force and the United States Secret Service detailing Michelle Obama’s February 2012 President’s Day weekend ski vacation to Aspen, Colorado, with her two daughters.

Judicial Watch obtained the records pursuant to a May 31, 2012, lawsuit against both government agencies. Among the highlights from the records are:

The total cost for the Aspen ski vacation was at least $83,182.99.

The bill for the U.S. Secret Service, including accommodations at the Fasching Haus deluxe condominium and the Inn at Aspen, was $48,950.38.

The cost for the flight, per official DOD published hourly rates, was $22,583.70. Food and miscellaneous on-flight items cost $235.44. The cost for rental cars totaled $6,442.23.

Key details, including flight records for the Secret Service detail and the names of individuals who accompanied Mrs. Obama on the vacation, were redacted from the documents with the exception of two staffers. One was Meredith Koop, her personal assistant and style advisor, the other was her scheduler Kristen Jarvis.

Joe Biden is taking another week off.

According to his official White House schedule, “The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will be in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. There are no public events scheduled.” Just one month ago, Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, took the week of July 4 to vacation. That vacation was also spent at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Biden’s second week-long vacation in as many months is likely to fuel speculation that President Barack Obama is considering dropping the veteran politician from the ticket this election. Biden’s frequent errors and gaffes in office and on the campaign trail have been the source of much consternation for the Obama administration, and have resulted in strong calls for Biden to be dropped from the ticket.

Nevertheless, Biden’s absence–again–might fuel speculation that Obama could be better helped by picking another vice presidential candidate.

DAVENPORT, Iowa – President Obama isn’t a perfect man or a perfect president, but his wife is much more exceptional, he said here Wednesday evening as he wrapped up bus tour across the Hawkeye State.

Joined by first lady Michelle Obama in a town square here, he tapped a line he often uses on the campaign trail, that he said in 2008 that he’s not a perfect man and would not be a perfect president.

But, he said, “we do have a perfect first lady.” She’s “the best mom in the world,” patient, strong and “cute,” the president added.

Obama also reflected on the bus trip’s significance to him.

“Everywhere I went I was reminded … of how this movement for change started in folks’ backyards, in school gyms, in VFW halls, in diners,” he said in a leafy park at the center of a village square here.

DURHAM, N.C. — First Lady Michelle Obama told North Carolina voters Wednesday that President Barack Obama is still feeling the pain of Americans, despite living in the cushy confines of the White House.

At a packed rally at North Carolina Central University, Mrs. Obama said her husband has struggled each and every day since he took office nearly four years ago to make life better for people.

“Barack Obama has been working every day since the day he took office,” she told an adoring crowd of 3,000 that greeted her with deafening cheers at the public historically black university. “He has been fighting for us. He has been struggling with us. And slowly but surely we have been pulling ourselves out of that hole we started in.”

Obama Books Another Lavish La-La-Land Fundraiser
Breitbart's Big Hollywood, by John Nolte

The Middle East is burning, America's foreign policy is collapsing, and al-Qaeda is emboldened by its successful assassination of an American ambassador...Obama has no time to meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or to attend those pesky national security briefings... But: The Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill down at LA Live will be serving President Barack Obama and some big donors on October 7, a source with knowledge of the fundraising event told Deadline tonight. Jeffrey Katzenberg will be co-hosting the now $25,000 a ticket dinner scheduled after the 30 Days To Victory Concert at the Nokia Theatre. Harvey Weinstein

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/ ... fundraiser

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on
Obama family last year,
perks questioned in new book
Daily Caller, by Alex Pappas

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.

In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.

Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.

Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring the cost of the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.”

“The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said in an interview with TheDC on Wednesday.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/26/taxpa ... z27g6MAloU

With the election over and his golfing no longer a potential political liability, President Obama returned to the fairways today, playing for the 105th time of his presidency but only the 13th time this year.

Obama today is at the Andrews Air Force Base course along with some of his regular crew of young aides who golf with him – Eugene Kang, Joe Paulson and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson.

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.

The White House has not officially announced the vacation, and it is unclear if the travel plans are finalized or if the Obamas will be in Hawaii for the entire three-week window covered by the restrictions.

Amazing how a reelection can reshape an incumbent’s thinking about many things. Now safely ensconced in the White House for 49 more months, the Obamas have decorated the place with 54 Christmas trees this year.

Even allowing for the usual Washington excesses with taxpayer money, that’s a whole grove of Christmas trees.

“We have 54 trees in the White House,” an excited Michelle Obama proudly told visitors the other day. “54! That’s a lot of trees.”

In fact, the Obamas’ 54 trees this year are almost 50% more Christmas trees than last year. That was during the campaign before Obama whispered a reminder to the Russians that he had to be careful until Nov. 6, when a victory would give him more “flexibility.”

President Obama visited a middle-class family in Virginia on Thursday to underline his call for tax rates to be raised on the wealthy but not the middle class.

Obama reiterated that that he would not sign any legislation that would prevent the wealthiest individuals from paying higher tax rates.

But Obama did once again signal that there’s room to compromise on the looming crisis.

“Everyone is going to have to share in some sacrifice,” Obama said, speaking at a private home in Northern Virginia. “But it starts with folks who are in the best position to sacrifice.

“Just to be clear,” the president reaffirmed while sitting at the family’s kitchen table as television cameras rolled, “I’m not going to sign any package that somehow prevents the top rate from going up, the top 2 percent from going up.”

Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager interviews Michelle Obama about Christmas in the White House, and the first lady explains her role during the holidays is “hostess-in-chief:”

“This is the most special time to be in the White House. It’s the one time of the year when we really open up the White House. We have thousands and thousands of visitors just streaming through every day. It’s beautiful, everything looks great, the smells are magnificent. So it’s just special, very special,” Obama told Bush Hager, who spent many a Christmas in the White House when her father, George W. Bush, was president.

The White House has estimated that some 90,000 people will have visited during the holidays this year.

“I’m the hostess in chief. We host a number of events here for a whole range of people,” the first lady said.