Posted on 01/10/2012 10:12:15 AM PST by jazusamo
Complete title: Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Revealing Cost of Barack and Michelle Obama’s Failed Bid to Bring 2016 Olympics to Chicago
Two-Week Trip to Copenhagen Cost Taxpayers in Excess of $467,175
According to the records obtained from the Obama Department of Defense (DOD), President and Mrs. Obama; Secretary Ray LaHood; Secretary Arne Duncan; Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President Valarie Jarrett; and representatives of the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport visited Copenhagen from September 21 through October 3 in an effort to convince members of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to select Chicago as the location for the 2016 Olympics. The Obama administration ferried dozens of other participants, including supporting staff members, to Copenhagen. However , the DOD has redacted many of their names.
Among the itemized costs associated with the Olympics trip (totaling $467,175):
President Obama tapped Valarie Jarrett to serve as his “Olympics Czar” and lead the effort to secure the Olympics for Chicago despite her personal and business ties to Chicago, which included a stint working for Mayor Daley. Jarrett’s work on the Olympics bid would have violated Obama’s own Executive Order against engaging in lobbying activities prior to his administration. However, then-“Ethics Czar” Norm Eisen granted Jarrett an “ethics waver” from the president’s highly-touted ethics pledge so Jarrett could run the push for the Chicago Olympics bid. The waiver exempted Jarrett from the restrictions of President Obama’s own ethics pledge, even though she had personally led the bid before entering the White House.
Judicial Watch obtained the documents pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted to the DOD on October 5, 2009. FOIA law required the DOD to respond within 20 days. However, the DOD took 26 months to release the records. In September 2009, Judicial Watch submitted an open records request with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s to obtain records related to the Olympics bid, and the mayor’s office has failed to respond. Therefore, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the mayor’s office on November 10, 2009 , seeking those records.
“Barack and Michelle Obama wasted taxpayer dollars on a junket that seemed designed for one purpose – to take care of their Chicago cronies who stood to gain financially from the Olympics racket,” says Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The fact that Valerie Jarrett needed an ‘ethics waiver’ to lead this failed bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago tells you almost all you need to know about the scandalous nature of this trip.”
This is just on top of a mountain of 0dumbo crap
and still he will get defended by medai
If please God we get rid of this vile POS it will mean voters aren’t as stupid as media and 0dumbo think they are
I want to be hopeful.
$467,175???
Shoot, it costs a million bucks just to fire up Air Force One.
The latest Obama vacation in Hawaii was over 4 million.
This $467,175 number needs at least two more zeroes after it.
I see the problem: That amount is chickenfeed. We obviously failed to spread enough wealth around to get the job done.
Agreed...With the cost of AF 1 and the transports listed the 1/2 million doesn’t even come close to what it cost.
Chump change for these pleasure spending morons.
Yep, I think even Obama knew he couldn’t bribe the Olympic officials enough to have the games in Chicago.
Au contrare (sp) mon ami. I think that he felt that his sublime presence was all that was needed to ensure that the big bucks would flow to his Chicago cronies. The narcissist in chief knew and still knows no limit to the persuasive power of himself. After all, he is number 1 although I put him down more like number 2.
'We're gonna show these Olympic Board bigots the Chicago way.'
There's no doubt he thought by his presence they'd jump to accommodate his every whim and it didn't happen, it was beautiful. :)
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
That’s one hell of an expensive clown show.
The look on her face is priceless, must be her little people stare. lol
I still want to see the passenger list for the 747 fly-by of New York City.
Is that some sort of Druid legal team?
I was just thinking of this yesterday when the news of the Sooper Seekrit White House Halloween Party hit the internet. I went back and replayed that CNN twit’s whole “Chicago is out? Chicago is OUT? CHICAGO IS OUT???” soundbite as they were showing all the crowds gathered in the Windy City (complete with brass band) to celebrate the awarding of the Olympics.
Oh, and didn’t Valerie Jarrett own a boatload of fabulous slum properties that she planned to sell off for construction of the Olympic facilities when the Messiah brought the Olympics home?
I love it when a plan all comes together.
Really?
There's no fat in the budget to cut? Really?
The Olympic people are not as easily impressed as the Nobel people.
You’re right about the amount; it’s not realistic.
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