Best Summation of Barack and Michelle Ever!

Mychal Massie is a respected writer and talk show host in Los Angeles.

The other evening on my twitter, a person asked me why I didn't like the Obama's? Specifically I was asked: "I have to ask, why do you hate the Obama's? It seems personal, not policy related. You even dissed (disrespected) their Christmas family picture."

The truth is I do not like the Obamas, what they represent, their ideology, and I certainly do not like his policies and legislation. I've made no secret of my contempt for the Obamas. As I responded to the person who asked me the aforementioned question, I don't like them because they are committed to the fundamental change of my/our country into what can only be regarded as a Communist state.

I don't hate them per definition, but I condemn them because they are the worst kind of racialists, they are elitist Leninists with contempt for traditional America. They display disrespect for the sanctity of the office he holds, and for those who are willing to admit same, Michelle Obama's raw contempt for white America is transpicuous.

I don't like them because they comport themselves as emperor and empress. I expect, no I demand respect, for the Office of President and a love of our country and her citizenry from the leader entrusted with the governance of same.

President and Mrs. Reagan displayed an unparalleled love for the country and her people. The Reagan's made Americans feel good about themselves and about what we could accomplish. Obama's arrogance by appointing 32 leftist czars and constantly bypassing congress is impeachable. Eric Holder is probably the MOST incompetent and arrogant DOJ head to ever hold the job. Could you envision President Reagan instructing his Justice Department to act like jack-booted thugs?

Presidents are politicians and all politicians are known and pretty much expected to manipulate the truth, if not outright lie, but even using that low standard, the Obama's have taken lies, dishonesty, deceit, mendacity, subterfuge and obfuscation to new depths. They are verbally abusive to the citizenry, and they display an animus for civility.

I do not like them, because they both display bigotry overtly, as in the case of Harvard Professor Louis Gates, when he accused the Cambridge Police of acting stupidly, and her code speak pursuant to now being able to be proud of America. I view that statement and that mindset as an insult to those who died to provide a country where a Kenyan, his illegal alien relatives, and his alleged progeny, could come and not only live freely, but rise to the highest, most powerful, position in the world.

Michelle Obama is free to hate and disparage whites because Americans of every description paid with their blood to ensure her right to do same.

I have a saying, that "the only reason a person hides things, is because they have something to hide." No president in history has spent millions of dollars to keep his records and his past sealed.

And what the two of them have shared has been proved to be lies.

He lied about when and how they met, he lied about his mother's death and problems with insurance, Michelle lied to a crowd pursuant to nearly $500,000 bank stocks they inherited from his family.

He has lied about his father's military service, about the civil rights movement, ad nausea.

He lied to the world about the Supreme Court in a State of the Union address. He berated and publicly insulted a sitting Congressman.

He has surrounded himself with the most rabidly, radical, socialist academicians today. He opposed rulings that protected women and children that even Planned Parenthood did not seek to support.

He is openly hostile to business and aggressively hostile to Israel. His wife treats being the First Lady as her personal American Express Black Card (arguably the most prestigious credit card in the world). I condemn them because, as people are suffering, losing their homes, their jobs, their retirements, he and his family are arrogantly showing off their life of entitlement - as he goes about creating and fomenting class warfare.

I don't like them, and I neither apologize nor retreat from my public condemnation of them and of his policies. We should condemn them for the disrespect they show our people, for his willful and unconstitutional actions pursuant to obeying the Constitutional parameters he is bound by, and his willful disregard for Congressional authority.

Dislike for them has nothing to do with the color of their skin; it has everything to do with their behavior, attitudes, and policies. And I have open scorn for their constantly playing the race card.

It is my intention to do all within my ability to ensure their reign is one term.

I could go on, but let me conclude with this.

I condemn in the strongest possible terms the media for refusing to investigate them, as they did President Bush and President Clinton, and for refusing to label them for what they truly are.

There is no scenario known to man, whereby a white president and his wife could ignore laws, flaunt their position, and lord over the people, as these two are permitted out of fear for their color.

As I wrote in a syndicated column titled, "Nero In The White House" - "Never in my life, inside or outside of politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader.

He is the most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed.

Even by the low standards of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious arrogance is unequalled.

Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated to sainthood...

Many in America wanted to be proud when the first person of color was elected president, but instead, they have been witness to a congenital liar, a woman who has been ashamed of America her entire life, failed policies, intimidation, and a commonality hitherto not witnessed in political leaders.

He and his wife view their life at our expense as an entitlement - while America's people go homeless, hungry and unemployed."

Semper Fidelis,

The Obamas display their colors at the Olympics...

Really??? South Africa???

Gee, ladies, thanks for your support.

h/t to Claudia Johnson

Technorati Tags: Mychal Massie,the Obamas,Michelle Obama,President Obama,BHO,Obamaland,South Africa,Olympics,Liar in Chief,lies,wake-up America,elitists,racism,czars,reverse racsism,Leninists,conservative black voices,Fire Obama,Hire Romney,black conservatives

Check back tonight for the latest reports of new information on Obama’s past…

Michelle Obama’s Nutritional Finger-Waggling

Amen!! I felt exactly the same way… How dare Michelle Obama intimidate and scold a disciplined Olympian who just won two Golds for her country for splurging by eating an egg McMuffin. (NBC for once had the fortitude to title their coverage… Michelle Obama scolds Gabby Douglas instead of ‘teases’ like a lot to the a_s kissers did, but then felt they had to soften it by adding a lot of kitsch to their video coverage).

Wow talk about being out of touch and a wet blanket. It almost made me feel bad for the President and certainly did for their girls!

I mean really? For an Egg McMuffin? These Olympic athletes can eat endless calories because they work out all the time and if you know this gal’s story… she is disciplined and deserves a splurge! And it wasn’t like she said ‘I ate a quarter pounder with cheese, fries, and a chocolate shake followed by an apple pie…’ It as an egg McMuffin~

I am not a McDonalds defender. Americans need to eat better and we certainly eat too much fast food but this is not the way to cure that ill!

God help us if Ms. O and crew get 4 more years to police our food and everything else! M~

Mark America (links added):

Setting Her Back?

On Monday night’s renewal of the Jay Leno show, Michelle Obama appeared along with Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, and as the discussion went on, Douglas mentioned eating a celebratory Egg McMuffin from McDonalds. Self-appointed National Nutrition Czar Michelle Obama, who enjoys telling everybody on the planet what to eat, chided Douglas over the choice. I realize this was said mainly in jest, but frankly, Michelle Obama needs to shut the hell up. Gabby Douglas needs Michelle Obama as a nutrition adviser like I need her husband as an automobile consultant. “No, I don’t want an exploding electric car, Mr. President.” There’s something wrong with the Obamas, and it comes down to their desire to run the lives of others, but more than this, there is something unseemly about a woman who has no accomplishments of note (beyond marrying a guy who was elected President), counseling or even jokingly chiding an Olympian about her choices of foods.

Really, what the hell has Michelle Obama ever accomplished? She was an attorney for a while, and there are questions to whether she can still practice. And she served in some positions in Chicago that appeared to have been little more than political favors to her husband, where a cloud still hangs over her (and cronies Axelrod and Jarrett’s) decisions and programs. Apart from that, and apart from spending millions of taxpayer dollars on her seemingly endless string of vacations, I can’t imagine what has qualified the lady to give any sort of nutritional advice to anyone, never mind an Olympian who has managed to train her whole life long and win Olympic glory all without the help of Michelle Obama. There were no quotas, no set-asides, and no special favors for Gabby Douglas, her only way forward and up to the top available having been to achieve it by her own efforts. She didn’t obtain Olympic fame and fortune by marrying a gymnastics judge.

I have no problem with first spouses who are accomplished in their own right. I think it’s terrific to see First Ladies becoming involved in various causes, but they shouldn’t have any official power, and in truth, they shouldn’t have any role in governance because we don’t elect them. Until Hillary Clinton, most first ladies tended to restrain themselves to charitable activities and voluntary efforts, more or less, but something was wrong with Hillary Clinton becoming involved in health-care plans, just as there’s something wrong with Michelle Obama nattering-on about nutrition. Hillary Clinton is not a medical professional, an insurance professional, and at the time, she hadn’t been elected to anything. Similarly, Michelle Obama is not a nutritionist, knows damnably little about food beyond consuming it, but certainly little about its production, and yet here she chastises the Olympian? Of course, she also toured Army posts earlier this year examining their dining facilities, and what nutrition is available to our soldiers, as if the Army needs her advice or direction.

I’m tired of this nonsense. I’m tired of her fake wisdom and her husband’s fake Presidency. For the better part of four years, we have had to listen to these two self-aggrandized nit-wits chiding the nation over this or that, but frankly, it’s time for them to shut the hell up. At every turn, here they are to remind us of a ruling family in some tin-pot dictatorship, like Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos of the Philippines, and while we can guess than Michelle doesn’t have 2700 pair of shoes, she does seem to have a thing for belts. I don’t believe the American people hired Barack Obama to provide a nutrition consultant in the form of his wife, and I don’t think the American people need any more lectures on the evils of oil. It’s long past time for these two to leave the White House, and be stricken from the American memory in the same way we have tried to forget James and Rosalyn Carter.

The next time I see Michelle Obama doing anything athletically, gracefully, and with extraordinary discipline, it will be the first, but until then, she should leave the nutritional concerns of our Olympians, our soldiers, and indeed our entire nation to qualified parties. When I notice how emaciated Barack appears, I wonder how well she’s looking after her own family’s nutrition. In stark contrast, like the champion she is, Gabby Douglas handled the situation with good humor, and her gracious approach sits well with her Olympic achievement. It’s too bad we don’t have a First Lady with similar grace and class.

Let us also remember that McDonald’s is a huge multi-national (CFR elitist company) sponsor of and contributor to the Olympics… But can you really take their money and demonize them at the same time?

Related:

More Fruit, Fewer Fries: Michelle Obama Might Have Taken the ‘Happy’ Out of McDonald’s Happy Meals

Food Fights and Class Warfare

Global Elite Using Obesity Vaccines to Alter Minds and Curb Consumption

OBESITY CONSPIRACY: The U.S. Government Scandal that's Really Making You Fat

Health department raids community picnic and destroys all food with bleach

Deal-making, arm-twisting, and sellouts

Comment:

Rebel Rashida:

If Gabby were my daughter, I know who I’d be votin for in November, and it wouldn’t be Obama!

Technorati Tags: Gabby Douglas,Olympians,nutritian,Big Sis Michelle Obama,Michelle Obama,food police,McDonalds,athlete's diets,Nanny State,control,fanatics,moderation,fast food,Obamaland,Olympics,David Axelrod,Valerie Jarrett

Watcher’s Council Nominations – UnOlympics Edition

JoshuaPundit:

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, your weekly magazine featuring some of the very best writing in the blogosphere and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing here on Friday.

Now, why exactly would I call this the UnOlympics edition? To find out the answer to that question, you’ll have to journey here. I promise it will be worth the detour.

Council News:

This week, Ask Marion, Right Truth , Liberty’s Spirit Against All Enemies and The Pirate’s Cove took advantage of my generous offer of linkage and earned honorable mention status with some outstanding and informative pieces.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then, simply return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it appears here on Wednesdays.

Nothing could be simpler!

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s take a look and see what goodies we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Joshuapundit-Nobody Else Made It Happen, Mr. President
• The Noisy Room – Dancing on the Global Fiscal Cliff
• Simply Jews – Mirra Eisenshtadt: the woman who leaked a Soviet state secret
• The Political Commentator – Just this once, OWS may actually have a point!
• The Independent Sentinel – The U.N. Wants the Rights to Your Child in the Form of a Treaty
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Romney’s right, but will it hurt him?
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Immoral Drones
• The Right Planet – Applying Jujitsu
• Bookworm Room – Moral hazard and martial arts — and was I making any sense at all?
• VA Right! - I Am Offended by Obama’s ‘You Didn’t Build That Business’ Comment
• The Mellow Jihadi – Connor: Cub Scout, United States Sailor
• The Razor – CBO Reports Tax Reality and Inadvertently Shows Path to a Flat Tax
• Gay Patriot – If Obama spoke to a gathering of Mormons, would the media focus on the crowd’s criticism or the Democrat’’s courage?
• The Glittering Eye -As Goes Scranton
• Rhymes With Right – What Romney Needs To Do In Response To Obamunist Felony Rhetoric

Honorable Mentions

• Right Truth – Quotas limiting the number of male students in science may be imposed by the Education Department in 2013.
• Ask Marion – Why Do They Want Us Disarmed?
• Against All Enemies – The Presbyterian Church (USA): What Progressive Christianity Looks Like
• Liberty’s Spirit – Class Warfare Rears Its Ugly Head: There is No Hope in Hate
• The Pirate’s Cove – GOP Effectively Kills Law Of The Sea Treaty

Non-Council Submissions

• Bret Stephens/Commentary – Born on the Fourth of June submitted by Joshuapundit
• Doug Giles – I’ll Take a Mormon Over a Marxist Anyday submitted by The Noisy Room
• Israel Matsav – Even the Israeli socialists never said anything like this submitted by Simply Jews
• Sultan Knish -The United States of Guilt submitted by The Political Commentator
• National Review Online – Farewell, Welfare Reform submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Buckhorn Road – Gutting Prop 13: Going after the symptoms instead of the cure submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Abu Muqawama – When to declare victory against al Qaeda? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• American Thinker – Is Obama Ripping Off the Mask? submitted by The Right Planet
• Via Meadia -Israel’s emergency as energy superpower making waves submitted by Bookworm Room
• Thomas Sowell/NRO – Perpetuating Obama’s Tax-Cut Lies submitted by VA Right!
• Tin And Phoenix – The Military-Civilian Divide submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Gavin McInnes/Taki’s Magazine – Living With Savages submitted by The Razor
• AEIdeas -Paul Ryan rips Obama’s comment that ‘if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen’ submitted by Gay Patriot
• KausFiles – Will Obama Get Away With It? submitted by The Glittering Eye
• PJ Tatler – If a Conservative Speaks in the Forest… submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Mark Steyn – The Islamist Generation submitted by The Watcher
• Jay Cost – Why Obama Is in Trouble submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! Tune in Friday for this week’s Council results…and don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Technorati Tags: Watcher's Council,collection of articles,alternative media,bloggers,blogoshere,news,news nuggets,unolympics,news and politics,knowledge is power

Olympics: Where Universal Brotherhood, Patriotism and Individual Accomplishment Meld

“The Olympics are where universal brotherhood, fierce patriotism and individual accomplishment meld creating the perfect microcosm of the world”

The modern Olympic games, where the majority of the countries of the world meet every two years now, it used to be every four years, is a microcosm of the world.  It brings out the best in us: the athletes, the spectators and the countries of the world… who really become participants in the ‘greater’ event.  We all put our differences aside as we are involved in this amazing global event, while at the same time exhibiting our deepest patriotic feelings and personal best efforts as athletes.

When Sean White exhibits his newest boarding trick in Torino or Vancouver, the youth of the world is mesmerized.  When an unknown luger from Georgia, Nodar (Kumaritashvili ), with a last name that almost no one can pronounce, dies in practice the afternoon before the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics the entire world, especially the entire Olympic athletic community, mourns. Or when Canadian Joannie Rochette loses her mother at the Olympics two days before her event, due to a massive heart attack, the entire world gasps. Joannie decided to continue on and skate in honor of her mother, who was her greatest fan. She skated her personal best and did not crack her game face until her phase-one bronze short-skate performance was completed, after which everyone cried with her.  She ultimately took home the bronze medal, ending her performance with a kiss as her eyes were raised on high to the heavens, to a chorus of applause.

In 2003 before the Beijing Olympics, when Kim Collins sprinted to a stunning victory in the 100 meters at the World Championships, most people had no idea which country the letters SKN stood for. Collins, from the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, said his victory was “the biggest thing” to happen since his country with a population of less than 40,000 gained their independence in 1983.

The Olympics are the one place where you don’t have to be from a rich or powerful country, a wealthy family or a big or well-known nation to be treated equally and have the same chance to win.  And for many, like Collins, their achievements add to their country’s national identity and help put it on the map for tourism or for others help the world see a softer side of a super power like when America’s Dan Jansen fell after dedicating his skate to his sister Jane, who died of cancer earlier in the day, to end up falling and crumbling into tears.  Dan won that Gold six years later and took his victory lap holding his one-year-old daughter named Jane… for his sister.

As Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has noted: “When the world looks at Australia, so much of their image of Australia is shaped by what our sportsmen and women have done on the field of sport, including the Olympic sports” and what the world saw of our country as the Australian’s hosted the Olympic Games.
 
When Tanzanian marathoner John Stephen Akhwari dragged his injured leg to finish last with a time of four hours 30 minutes in the marathon race in the Mexico City Games in 1968, he received warm applause and cheers from a crowd that stayed and waited for him to finish.  “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish,” said Akhwari, then 30.  Despite finishing last, Akhwari became one of the most memorable figures in Olympic history and was honored as a national hero by his country in 1983.

National pride is ingrained in every athlete and every game or event, yet so is compassion for fellow athletes from all over the world. Over the years the world witnessed how Japanese volleyball fans roared in favor of their national team and how the Italians mourned their football team’s loss on home soil.  We have seen Canadian powerhouse in soccer defeated by a long shot American team and the favorite beaten by less rated athletes, even from their own team.

And as Olympic training, in an ever shrinking world, has changed and overlaps more and more, we see true friendships and happiness for fellow athletes that are both friends and competitors like between the Canadian and American ice dancing Gold and Silver medalists, respectively, who share coaches and practice ice.  And again as now coach Brian Orser, that the Gold always eluded as a skater, watched Kim Yu-Na become the reigning Queen as she took Gold as the first South Korean to ever win a figure skating medal.

At times it has been the host countries that were as much the story as the athletes.  There were the Hitler Olympics ( Summer and Winter 1936) that allowed a madman to use them for propaganda. And then in 1972 Germany had her chance to redeem herself with the Munich Olympics where Jewish-American Mark Spitz took an unprecedented seven Gold medals but his accomplishments were ironically upstaged by the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes by a militant Palestinian group.  There were the war years (1916 Summer, 1940 Summer and Winter, and 1944 Summer and Winter) that caused the games to be cancelled completely and the 1980 Moscow Olympics that were boycotted by the United States and affiliated countries including Japan, West Germany, China, the Philippines and Canada, which then caused the boycott of 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games by Moscow and allies, 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany (but not Romania).  And there were the on-going doping and drug-enhancing scandals of the Eastern Bloc athletes under their influence by the Soviet Union.  And more recently there were the pre-Beijing complaints of human and animal rights violations.  But the Olympic flame apparently ignited the Chinese people’s love for their homeland and a multitude of them took to the streets after overseas attempts to disrupt, or even sabotage the Olympic torch relay early on, plus for at least 17 days the Chinese government was aware and publicly refrained from many of their practices against human and animal rights.  In the end the community of nations and the people of the world rose above the shadows.

And remember the 2002 Winter Games opening in Salt Lake City? A tattered U.S. flag recovered from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center was displayed as President George W. Bush declared the Games’ opened on behalf of a “proud, determined and grateful nation”.   The heart of the world was with them.  It was the U.S. message to the world:  Americans love their country as they stood  in the shadows of  the September 11th tragedy, and the world should stand united to promote common ideals and hope for peace.

However, in the end it is the names and performances of the athletes like: Sarah Hughes, Franz Klammer, Dick Button, Jean-Claude Killy, Bonnie Blair, Bjorn Dahlie, Nadia Comaneci, Usain Bolt, Eric Heiden, Hermann Meir, Peggy Flemming, Steven Bradley, Carl Lewis, Dorothy Hamel, Jesse Owens, Scott Hamilton, America’s Miracle on Ice Hockey Team and the list goes on and on that make the games and add to the living spirit of the Olympics.  Although Michael Phelps is generally considered the greatest Olympian, it would be hard to compile a list of the greatest.  There are so many factors.  And it is impossible to compare the athletes of the early Games against the professionals of the modern era.

Times of true crisis bring out the best in all of us, the people of the world, but the Olympics is the one event that for at least once every two years brings out the best in mankind without a crisis.  There is a great story of the airport and town of Gander in Newfoundland who allowed almost 200 inbound American flights to land at their airport, after the airspace was closed over the United States for the first time in its history within hours after 9/11.  But the 4-days that followed and the amazing hospitality of the people of Gander is the true story, and it is that essence, that emerges without the crisis, through the Olympic Games.

It takes much more than patriotism and ambition to host successful Games. It is important to show full respect to all athletes — to shining stars like Michael Phelps and Anton Apolo Ohno or those who purely persevere like Akhwari or the Cool Running Team from Jamaica, as well as to the countries and cultures of the world they come from, to the spectators who come to embrace the games, to the Olympic spirit itself, and to all those who have competed before.  It is a fine line between love of country, personal ambition and at least for 17-days every two years, world unity.  But, sitting together as a family and watching the Olympics with your children can be one of the greatest shared experiences a family can have including lessons and inspiration without a direct word ever being said.

The Olympics are the pinnacle of true global understanding and the personification of the outreach for a better world, unlike the Global coalitions, contractual leagues of nations and the talk of world orders put together and planned by selfish and scheming politicians and businessmen.  Let us hopefully all remember that and follow the light of the Olympic torch and true unity rather than the darkness of idle chatter of dividers and conquerors.

By Marion Algier

The Campaign Spot… For the 2016 Olympics – Updated… Olympics go to Rio

And the winner is…Rio

Olympics 2016: Tearful Pele and weeping Lula greet historic win for Rio

Football legend Pele, right, and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, celebrate with their delegation after it was announced that Rio de Janeiro has won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Photograph: Getty Images

The prospect of beach volleyball on Copacabana and sailing in the shadow of Sugarloaf mountain dramatically trumped Barack Obama's last-ditch intervention today as Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games.

Just two years after Brazil hosts the World Cup in 2014 and 120 years after the first modern Games, they will come to South America for the first time after IOC members overwhelmingly bought into Brazil's vision for expanding the Olympic movement into fresh territories and turbocharging economic development. Rio conclusively defeated Madrid, the third time in a row the Spanish capital has come close, in the final runoff by 66 votes to 32. (Full Article)

Obama's EPIC FAIL

Wow, this one is hard to explain. The President jetted off to Copenhagen to make his case for Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics. A move that the President shouldn't have been dumb enough to make if he wasn't fairly sure of the outcome. Chicago was the first city to be eliminated from contention for the 2016 games. A total embarrassment to the President--who is likely reaming out whoever it was that made the call to go to Copenhagen. Glenn reacts to the breaking news. ( Beck Radio Transcript )

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is seated with television talk show host Oprah Winfrey at the opening ceremonies of the the 121st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session and XIII Olympic Congress at the Copenhagen Opera House October 1, 2009. Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo are competing to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and the IOC will choose the winning city in a vote on Friday, October 2. REUTERS/Charles Dharapak/Pool (DENMARK SPORT OLYMPICS POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT)

Michelle Says a Sacrifice for Her to go to Denmark for Olympics

The noble “sacrifice” of Michelle Obama; Updated: Chicago & Tokyo eliminated; Games over, prepare for recriminations; It’s Rio

The Noble "Sacrifice" of Michelle Obama

by Michelle Malkin

It's hard out there for a first lady of the United States. Take it from travel-weary Michelle Obama. On Tuesday night, she boarded a luxury 757 for Copenhagen. Think of the stairs she had to climb. Oh, the agony of the feet!

Upon arrival, Mrs. O, her "chit-chat buddy," Chicago-based talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey, and Chicago powerbroker/interest-conflicted real estate mogul/senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett immediately embarked on a grueling, grip-and-grin campaign to secure the Olympics for their hometown. Our smile muscles ache in sympathy.

You will be comforted to know that the gracious FLOTUS feels your pain for her pain. "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days," the first lady told a group of fellow Chicago 2016 boosters, "so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home." Translation: Thank me, thank you, for all we do.

Never has self-congratulatory gratitude been raised to such an art form, but there was no time for loyal subjects to dwell. The selflessly indefatigable Michelle Obama had to rush off for an 800-meter wine-and-cheese dash with International Olympic Committee members, followed by a rigorous aerobic Heads of State luncheon hosted by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and another high-heeled trek to the IOC Opening Ceremony at the Copenhagen Opera House.

Of course, it's not entirely clear which "people" out there are saying that the Obamas' jaunt to Denmark is a "sacrifice."

Certainly not the families of the 43 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have died in Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal called for more reinforcements.

Certainly not the families of the nearly 40 children and teens in Chicago who lost their lives on the out-of-control streets of the Windy City so far this year.

The first lady's slip of self-absorption reminds me of a useful passage in Washington Post writer Liza Mundy's biography of Mrs. Obama. After graduating from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, the bitterly oppressed Michelle Obama headed back to her native Chicago to join the high-powered law firm of Sidley Austin -- the ninth largest in the world. There, Mundy's book reported, the future first lady griped about having to do the duties of a second-year associate while she was a second-year associate -- demonstrating the trademark attitude of entitlement and inflated ego that led the law partner who recruited her to later describe her as "perennially dissatisfied."

Doing her first job was a burden then. Enjoying the perks of her current job is a "sacrifice" now.

Michelle Obama has a gift for selling special-interest business-as-usual as public-interest charity. Thus, the insatiable appetite of Chicago's polite elite for a massive Olympics windfall to crony developers is redefined as a do-good campaign for the children. Said Mrs. Obama:

"We need all of our children to be exposed to the Olympic ideals that athletes from around the world represent, particularly this time in our nation's history, where athletics is becoming more of a fleeting opportunity. … When we're seeing rates of childhood obesity increase, it is so important for us to raise up the platform of fitness and competition and fair play; to teach kids to cheer on the victors and empathize with those in defeat, but most importantly, to recognize that all the hard work that is required to do something special."

"Hard work," you know, like jetting off with your gal pals to schmooze other world leaders, famous athletes and celebrities for a few days on the taxpayers' dime.

In the Olympics of the aggrieved, Mrs. Obama gets a gold medal.

The Cost of Obama's Copenhagen Trip

A reader adds a few points to my back-of-the-envelope math on the cost of President Obama's trip to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee and (probably?) witness the announcement that Chicago will host the 2016 games.

When I mentioned the cost yesterday, my aim was to note the financial, time, and opportunity costs for the president. I have a hard time believing Obama would take this trip halfway around the world if there was any chance he will be left standing as they announce that Rio is getting the games. I suspect the IOC has given the White House a wink and a nod, so to speak.

As to whether Chicago should get the Olympics, I'm undecided. I attended and enjoyed the Atlanta Games in 1996, but I also know hosting the games has enormous costs and headaches for the locals. It's a chance to shine on the world stage, but it also brings all normal economic activity in your city to a grinding halt for about a month. You end up building a decent amount of infrastructure that will rarely be used to that extent again; there's rarely enough ability to get around the city; and of course, you become a target for terrorism.

Bottom line, this seems like small potatoes for a president with a full plate. As Ed puts it, "Barack Obama has decided to put his international influence on the line not to push for more support in Afghanistan or sanctions on Iran, but to act as Salesman in Chief for Chicago and its Olympics bid for 2016."

The cost of Obama’s trip will not be close to $1 mil. It is well over $10 mil if it is a dime. The figures you quoted (accurately) are for flying a VC-25 (Presidential 747). Presidential trips require both 747s, as one is a backup. However, the costs soar when you realize that from the moment a POTUS indicates he wants to go somewhere, dozens, if not hundreds of people start preparing every detail. These details include security, communications, protocol, logistics that boggle the mind and transportation that most people never see. Several Air Force cargo planes of equipment are loaded and flown to the destination with armored limos, security personnel from the Secret Service and the relevant military branches, fuels specialists, etc. A National Airborne Operations Command Post 747 from Offutt AFB, NE will accompany him to keep POTUS in constant communications in case of national or word emergency . . . We are now up to three 747s, multiple cargo planes and costs for personnel who fly commercial ahead of POTUS. If FLOTUS flies separately, add a C-32 (757) for her and her staff, entourage, hangers-on etc, with attendant security, logistics, etc. Add a few more million dollars, though many personnel in Denmark will cover preparations for both POTUS and FLOTUS.

Air Force One is a perk for all Presidents and I hesitate to criticize their use and cost. Bill Clinton flew the wings off Air Force One, but I criticized him for his policies, behavior and attitudes toward what he considered the benighted peasants of this country. He is the head of his party and, all Presidents use AF 1 liberally, as they should. Moreover, we need to keep him safe at all times and in contact with whomever is needed. AF 1 is like the medieval king arriving to fanfares of trumpets and bringing the majesty of the office (however tarnished by recent occupants) to all destinations. Despite Obama’s words and best efforts, we are still the dominant country on Earth and any President is both head of state and head of government. Let the trumpets sound upon any POTUS’ arrival.

Obama’s trip to Copenhagen to bring the Olympics to my hometown is both stupid and unnecessary as half of Chicago does not want them. It will be the ultimate trough for the piggish politicians in Chicago to bury their collective snouts in corruption. However, I encourage all conservatives to go after Obama on the substance of the trip, not the cost of flying there. We shall soon have conservative POTUS and he or she will use AF 1. Let’s not justify the inevitable criticism from the lunatic left about use of AF 1.

Jim Geraghty Report

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Posted: Knowledge Creates Power – Cross Posted: Daily Thought Pad

Why Obama is Pushing the Chicago Olympics and Underlying Chicago Connections & Concerns

An illustrated guide: All the president’s Olympic cronies

Photoshop: Paul Croteau

By Michelle Malkin • September 30, 2009 05:05 AM

My syndicated column today — reprinted below with added links, pics, and info — gives you a rundown of the Obama cronies inside and outside the White House who stand to gain the most from the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid.

Chicagoans of all political stripes who oppose massive government funding of Mayor Richard Daley’s pet project have inundated my email-box. Reader Will P. sums it all up by noting that the games would “protect the current corrupt structure” and paper over Chicago/Illinois’s myriad woes, including: “Governor after Governor going to jail. Pay to play schemes. Crumbling and outdated infrastructure. Deteriorating public housing. Failing, dumbing-down schools. Hospital cutbacks. Sanctuary city. Never-ending gang wars (outbursts every Spring requiring massive police presence, police outmanned at the Taste of Chicago, innocents shot in the crossfire weekly, current beating video out now). Cemetery scandal (bodies removed and graves resold)…Acorn, Bill Ayers, Rezko, Blago, Wright. Univ. of Illinois “clout” scandal. Illegal preferential city hiring. City inspectors on the take (Operation Crooked Code). Voter fraud. The unemployment rate. Taxes through the roof. Mayor Daley attempting to extend city taxes to the suburbs. All this, and more…”

Daley’s approval ratings are at a record low as he scrambles to lease everything from parking meters to airports to raise cash. Residents are stillreeling over the murder of teenager Derrion Albert. But FLOTUS Michelle Obama, on her merry way to Copenhagen, is singing a happy tune: “I mean, you know, most of these Games are taking place blocks away from my house. There’s good security by my house these days. And while Chicago is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it is — people don’t live in fear. The downtown area is completely accessible…I know Mayor Daley, and he’s going to make sure that these Games go off without a hitch because that’s the kind of mayor he is. It’s not called the ‘City That Works’ for nothing.”

It “works” for the few at the expense of the many. That is the Chicago way.

***

All the president’s Olympic cronies
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

When government officials play the Olympic lottery, taxpayers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world (Forbes magazine even dubbed the post-Olympic financial burden the “Host City Curse”). So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback.

Bringing the games to the Windy City is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s “vision.” The entrenched Democratic power-broker – in office since 1989 – would like to cap off his graft-tainted career with a glorious, $4 billion bread and circuses production. The influential Daley machine backed Barack Obama for the presidential primary. Obama lavishedpraise on Daley’s stewardship of the city. Longtime Daley cronies helped pave Obama’s path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, they’re returning the favor for their hometown boss.

Senior White House adviser and Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett is a Daley loyalist who worked as his deputy chief of staff, deputy corporation counsel, and planning commissioner. She hired the future First Lady of the United States, then-Michelle Robinson, as a mayoral assistant. Jarrett went on to serve as president and CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate firm with a massive stake in federally-funded Chicago public housing projects.

One of those public-private partnerships, the Grove Parc Plaza Apartments, was run into the ground under Jarrett’s watch. Federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex a bottom-of-the-barrel 11 on a 100-point scale. “They are rapidly displacing poor people, and these companies are profiting from this displacement,” Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle of Southside Together Organizing for Power, a community group that seeks to help tenants stay in the same neighborhoods, told the Boston Globe last year. “The same exact people who ran these places into the ground,” the private companies paid to build and manage the city’s affordable housing, “now are profiting by redeveloping them.”

Coincidentally enough, Grove Parc — now targeted for demolition as a result of years of neglect by Obama’s developer friends—sits in the shadows of the proposed site of the city’s 2016 Olympics Stadium.

Jarrett served as vice chair of Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympics bid committee before moving to the White House, where she has helmed a new “White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport” with an undisclosed budget and staff. It’s not just taxpayers in cash-strapped Chicago who should be worried about this field of schemes. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Jarrett and Chicago 2016 committee member Lori Healey met this month with federal officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development “to discuss financing options” for the estimated $1 billion Olympic Village.

The door is open and the administration is “willing to meet and listen” to any federal subsidy proposals, Jarrett said. Hey, what happened to Obama’s tough rules on interest-conflicted lobbying by his administration officials?

A majority of Chicagoans who live in pay-for-play-plagued Cook County oppose public funding for the Olympic party. The city has more than a half-billion-dollar deficit – and just received word that its Olympic insurance policy will cover only about $1.1 billion of the $3.8-billion operating budget drawn up by Daley. Cost overruns, fraud, and union-inflated contracts are inevitable. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended President Obama’s all-out campaign for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid by claiming America will see a “tangible economic benefit.”

But as is always the case with sports corporate welfare disguised as “economic development,” an elite few will benefit far more than others.

Take senior White House adviser and Obama campaign guru David Axelrod. He’s been a Daley loyalist since 1989, when he signed up as a political consultant for the mayor’s first run. Axelrod’s public relations firm, Chicago-based AKPD Message and Media, has pitched in work for the Chicago 2016 committee. It is unknown how much AKPD has received for its services – or how much they’ll make in future income if the bid is successful. AKPD currently owes Axelrod $2 million.

The head of the Chicago 2016 bid committee is Patrick Ryan, chairman of the Aon Corporation and a co-chair of Obama’s deep-pocketed presidential inaugural committee. (Under Ryan’s watch at Aon, the company settled a massive corruption probe with 3 states for $190 million. More here on Ryan/Aon/Daley dealings More on corruptocrat Chicago Republicans like Ryan and others here.)

Also on both of those committees: Obama confidante Penny Pritzker, who in addition chairs the Olympic Village Subcommittee and is president of Pritzker Realty Group – a mega-developer in Illinois that could reap untold millions in project work if the Daley Machine/White House campaign succeeds.

Former Pritzker executive and Obama campaign treasurerMartin Nesbitt is also on the bid committee – and serves as Mayor Daley’s chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.

Another bid committee member, Michael Scott Jr., is “trying to develop a for-profit real estate project that would sit within feet of the cycling venue if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

It takes a crony-filled White House to raise a Chicago Olympic village. Daley and Obama will get the glory. America will get stuck with the bill.

Related Resources:

Olympics in Chicago… 10 Reasons Why Chicago Should Not Host the Olympics

Where Valerie Garrett Fits Into the Obama WH Scheme - Video

Here Are ALL of the People the WH Has Thrown Under the Bus – Video

WH Advisor Valerie Jarrett Slum Lord and Funded Slum Lords – Video

Making The Connections… (Part 1) – It is Time to…

Community Organizers (in Chicago) Pray “to” Obama…

Culture of Corruption

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power – Cross Posted: Daily Thought Pad

Olympics in Chicago… 10 Reasons Why Chicago Should Not Host the Olympics

No Games Chicago is holding a protest against the Daley/Obama crony bid today at 5:30pm in Chicago. City Hall. 121 N. LaSalle St.

Another blog, No Chicago Games, lists the Top 10 reasons why Chicago should not host the Olympic Games,worth reprinting in its entirety:

The Top 10 Reasons Why Chicago Shouldn’t Host the Olympics

1. President Obama should not reward Daley with his support for a Chicago Olympics because of the numerous crimes and civil rights violations that have occurred during Daley’s 29 year tenure as mayor and states attorney. Given the amount of corruption that has happened under Daley, it is absurd that President Obama or First Lady Michelle are even considering making a presentation on behalf of a Daley sponsored Chicago Olympics.

2. Daley planned and followed through on an unlawful hiring and election rigging system before Daley was sworn in as mayor. Daley is scheming to use Olympic contracts and contractors to further his political might just like Daley did before becoming mayor of Chicago. One election rigging scheme, shame on Daley. A second election rigging scheme, shame on us.

3. Daley’s unlawful hiring and election rigging scheme went on for 16 years until the FBI uncovered it. The building of a Chicago Olympic site and the assignment of the land and buildings after the Olympics will take at least 10 years The length of time involved to set up and close an Olympic village gives Daley a perfect opportunity to create another long-term scandal.

4. Given Chicago Olympic Committee Chairman Patrick Ryan’s previous conflicts of interests, his $100,000.00 unethical campaign contribution to Daley, and Ryan’s long time personal friendship with Daley, Ryan is the wrong man to chair the Chicago Olympic Committee.

5. Given Aon’s previous $180 million “conflicts of interest” fine and $5.25 million fine for “inadequate corruption and bribery controls,” Aon is the wrong company to spearhead a Chicago Olympics.

6. The Chicago Olympic Committee will disburse billions of dollars in contracts and concessions without proper transparency, bidding or assignment. The claim that the Chicago Olympic Committee is a free enterprise doesn’t prevent corruption, it guarantees it.

7. For 16 years Daley used patronage workers who unlawfully received jobs, promotions, overtime pay, etc. to campaign for Daley backed candidates. If we cannot trust the Daley administration with it’s personnel decisions when the federal court observes every employment decision, how can we trust Daley to manage 5,000 Chicago Olympic employees when no one is watching? Chicago doesn’t need Daley’s patronage office moving from Chicago’s Intergovernmental Affairs office to the Chicago Olympic headquarters.

8. The Chicago Olympic committee has already been involved in controversies and improprieties, such as a Chicago Olympic Committee member’s real estate investment across from an Olympic venue, Aon’s $47 million in city contracts that was supposed to be unrelated to Aon’s office space and human resource donations to the Chicago’s Olympic bid, and the use of tax increment funds to pay for the Chicago Olympic village. Chicago Olympic improprieties will increase exponentially if the IOC selects Chicago as the 2016 host city.

9. A Chicago Olympics may cost Chicago and Illinois taxpayers billions of dollars because the IOC requires a financial guarantee. It will be a shame if President Obama persuades the IOC to select Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics and the federal taxpayers end up having to pick up the tab.

10. Showcasing Chicago to the world, the money, and jobs from a Chicago Olympics aren’t worth the price of ten or more years of Chicago and Illinois political corruption and political oppression.

Hope the IOC is watching.

De facto Olympics czar and interest-conflicted real estate development mogul Valerie Jarrett “can’t imagine why anyone would be against it.”

***

Well, the IOC is certainly watching Mayor Daley’s mouth:

Could Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Games be hurt by Mayor Richard M. Daley’s comments about the competition with Rio de Janeiro?

Daley’s comments last week about Rio’s capabilities to host both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics are being taken by Rio as critical of Chicago’s presumed main rival in Friday’s International Olympic Committee vote for the 2016 Games. (You can read our original story about that by clicking here.)

What Daley said about Tokyo and Madrid also could be viewed as critical of those two other finalists, since he minimized their chances based on geographical factors.

The IOC prohibits bid cities from criticizing their rivals.

Questions about whether Daley’s comments had breached that prohibition were raised at both the Rio and Chicago media conferences here this afternoon, and a Brazil bid leader promoted that idea.

Responding to a question today about Daley’s comments, Rio 2016 bid chairman Carlos Nuzman said, through a translator, that such issues are “in the hands” of the IOC ethics commission.

Nets Give Obama Olympic Gold Medal for Flying to Denmark

Obama heads to Europe in Air Force One to promote the Olympics in Chicago, his adopted hometown with Oprah Winfrey, Valerie Jarrett, and Wife Michelle in tow. Many feel it is a pay back trip and endeavor for political favors and delivering the vote to Mayor Daly.

Another red herring for the American economy. Olympics cost lots of money that Chicago doesn’t have, so it will be another huge expense for America as a whole. :-( Something we really need in today’s financial climate?? Most say, “NO”!

The Fox News in Illinois was told that they could not run a piece on the negative of holding the Olympics in Chicago? (I guess this is already Venezuela or Cuba?) - FOX-TV CHICAGO ORDERED NOT TO RUN ANTI-OLYMPICS STORY

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