24 October 2010
President and Mrs. Obama Plan Trip To Mumbai:
Mumbai, India
This is mind-boggling!
With our jobless rate sky high and our deficit at record highs...
The Presidential "First Couple" are planning to jet over and spend a few days visiting several cultural sites in Mumbai, India.
Now, maybe there are some actual good reasons for making a trip to India at this time... but at such an exorbitant cost to us taxpayers???
We are, of course, not given any specifics about the trip and lodging while there, BUT...
the general info provided, says the President, Michele, and their entire security and traveling entourage will occupy (or at least buy out) the entire 5-star, 570-room Taj Mahal Hotel for a couple nights!
Not only that, but all restaurants, banquet rooms, and conference rooms are bought out, too!
AND... 200+ rooms in a couple other nearby luxury hotels are also rented for this traveling fiasco for several more nights around the Presidential visit time frame!
Now, I'm no travel agent OR math genius OR even an accountant, but... when you start adding all these expenses up... WOW!!!
If you multiply the 570 Taj Mahal Hotel rooms times a cost of $500/night (and I'll bet these 5-star rooms are probably more in the $1,000/night range)... that equals roughly $285,000/night or $570,000 for a 2-night stay!
Then we can throw in another ballpark guess of $200,000+ for the 100-200 other hotel rooms for the security and government aides for the week...
And don't forget all the restaurants and special rooms that were fully booked for the few days, at an estimate of another $100,000+ or more!
And this MILLION DOLLARS is just for their lodging for a few nights!!!
This doesn't include all the travel costs to fly half way around the globe...
all their meals paid for at government per diem rates...
the dozens of vehicles rented for ground transportation, and so on, and so on, and so on...
All on the U.S. taxpayers "dime"!
This visit has got to be pretty darn important:
like heading off the Apocalypse...
or keeping WWIII from starting...
or receiving the final cure for Cancer from some doctor in Mumbai !!!
All I can say is, Wow, it must be nice to be a President or First Lady...
or at least a travel buddy of those two!
Bon Voyage !
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Bill Clinton Speaks At H.S. In Detroit:
Detroit, MI
If the bloom hasn't fallen off the flower yet... then it is at least dying on the vine!
There was a lackluster turnout at a Democratic rally in a high school gymnasium in Detroit this past weekend.
The key speaker to energize the crowd was none other than the former President and "big slugger" himself... Bill Clinton !
To illustrate the lack of enthusiasm for the Michigan Democrats, only about 500 supporters came to the rally!
Bill Clinton used to "pack them in" everywhere he went... maybe those days are finally over.
Or... maybe all the Dem supporters are just waiting until they get their chance to see the "other Clinton" come speak... when she does her next run for President in 2012!
Big Bill can only hope the glory days will come back to him then!
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Street View Comments From Google CEO:
Google HQ
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt doesn't quite know how to "win friends and influence people" yet!
When asked about the privacy concerns associated with Google Street View projects around the world (especially Britain lately)...
he smarted off to an interviewer by saying that people should just move from their houses if they don't like Google putting pix of their houses on the Google program!
Google just recently apologized for "accidentally" picking up emails and computer passwords from homes in Britain... this was done with strong antennas as passing Street View vehicles gathered pictures for their programs.
It sounds pretty much like "Big Brother" is getting close!
Maybe Google needs to back off a while... and show some regard for individual privacy concerns... especially when their worries turn out to be substantiated!!!
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