Posted on 08/05/2010 6:38:00 PM PDT by kristinn
Well knock me down with a feather! On tonight's broadcast of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric covered the controversy over Michelle Obama's luxurious 60 room Spain vacation during the continuing economic crisis.
The report, which clocked in at a lengthy 2 minutes and 29 seconds, was made by Sharyl Atkisson from the White House and included graphics showing the cost of Michelle Obama's round-trip airfare to Spain on a government plane and the per diem cost for the estimated 70 Secret Service agents on the trip:
• Transport on the Air Force version of a 757. That's $146,000 for the round trip, not counting four to five days' ground time.
• Expenses for the first lady's support staff
• Mandatory Secret Service detail, which could number 70 agents. At the $273-a-day federal per diem for five days, that's $95,550 for Secret Service room and board.
Atkisson noted that while Michelle Obama will supposedly pay her way, the taxpayers will pick up part of the cost because Obama tacked on a meeting with Spain's king and queen during the vacation.
The report mentioned today's New York Daily News column by Andrea Tantaros that compared Michelle Obama to Marie Antoinette.
Atkisson twice mentions, including at the opening of her report, that Michelle Obama got slammed for hypocrisy for vacationing in Maine, and now Spain, after she told everybody else they should vacation at the oil-damaged Gulf Coast.
There isn't much room to defend Michelle Obama's extravagance in these hard times. Even the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, featured in the report to defend Michelle Obama, conceded that the trip not "politically very smart."
Visitors to the CBS News page where the Atkisson report is filed have denounced Michelle Obama's trip as "improper considering the poor state of the U.S. economy" by a 79% to 21% Internet poll.
The text and video of Atkisson's CBS Evening News report can be seen here.
The report concludes by mentioning the Obamas plan to spend a weekend vacation on the Gulf Coast after Michelle's Spanish vacation, but fails to mention that they'll be spending ten days right after that in Martha's Vineyard--far from the Gulf and the jobless peasants.
Wookies are known to do that.
i was reading something on wiki 2nite about Michelle Obama and there is a photo entry to accompany. I think she would look way better is she shaved her head
i was reading something on wiki 2nite about Michelle Obama and there is a photo entry to accompany. I think she would look way better if she shaved her head
Could have went to Florida, and saved a bundle
It’s on a similar latitude, and many of the locals speak the same language.
What did she have to do with the King of Spain was this a wink wink nod nod type of deal? It’s kind of like a screw the man type of deal but the man is the public.
Why don't they know how many SS agents are there? I used to be a humble typing-drone for the Civil Service (Army Corps of Engineers, Air Force), and we counted *everything* and filled out a form for anything anybody did.
I saw the photo.Her forehead could use a good shave.
Who is on the guest list?
“Let them eat cake!”
Katie Couric got flak for making fun of Sarah Palin’s kids, so she went after Michelle Obama tonight.
Michelle Antoinette
Katie got the memo: Abandon the sinking ship. Next week: A look at the hard-working, no-nonsense Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I feel so much better. She’s taking a vacation for me.
Imagine the stinkeroonie if Laura Bush had taken the twins on a luxury junket like that, at such a price. Doesn’t bear thinking, but then, Laura Bush never had delusions of grandeur, and wouldn’t have been caught dead in a boob belt.
Aunt Esther says, “let them eat lobster.”
Pray for America
It’s good to be the Queen.
lol just the salaries of her attendants makes my head spin.
Marie Obama
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