Posted on 01/02/2016 9:57:31 AM PST by jazusamo
Obama Family Vacation Breaks the Bank at Taxpayer Expense
Judicial Watch Files for Contempt in Supreme Court against State of Hawaii
Judicial Watch Comes to the Rescue of Congress in Climate Change Scandal
Obama Family Vacation Breaks the Bank at Taxpayer Expense
I hope your Christmas and holiday season has been wonderful. The Christmas holidays are a busy time of year for Judicial Watch because corrupt politicians and bureaucrats often leak embarrassing scandal information during a time when many Americans aren't focused on the news (and many reporters are on vacation). Sure enough, we received a Christmas document dump from the Secret Service about Obama's travel costs. If the hope was to bury the information, it failed, as our JW team got the word out and gained headlines across the globe.
How would you like to vacation in Hawaii on the taxpayer dime every Christmas? Would your employer give you a nearly three-week break to do so? Barack Obama and his family vacation every year in Hawaii - and now we have more of the outrageous costs you incur for his time in Hawaii.
This week we received expense records from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that Secret Service expenses for the Obama family vacation to Honolulu during December 2013-January 2014 cost taxpayers at least $316,698.03. These new expense records bring the total for the Hawaii Christmas vacation trip to $8,098,060.33.
The Secret Service waited nearly two years to produce the requested numbers to Judicial Watch. The records were mailed to us on December 22, but it took the U.S. Postal Service six days to deliver them a few miles across town to our offices on December 28.
The heavily redacted records were in response to a January 6, 2014, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. According to the records:
The documents are heavily redacted and the Secret Service is withholding 28 pages in their entirety.
Saying he was " eager to skip town " Obama took his family to Honolulu on December 20, 2013, for a 17-day Christmas vacation. As detailed at the time by The Washington Post:
The presidential motorcade ferried the Obamas across Oahu, the state's most populous island, to the well-to-do oceanfront neighborhood of Kailua, where as in years past they have rented a private home for what this time will be a 17-day holiday vacation.
For the sixth straight year, Obama plans to spend Christmas and New Year's in Hawaii, gathering with extended family and friends -- and, yes, perfecting his golf game.
Obama is right now in Hawaii on another Christmas vacation. His golf games must be the most expensive in history.
In March 2014, Judicial Watch released flight expense records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that for the 2013 Hawaii vacation the Obamas incurred $7,781,361.30 in flight expenses alone (36.9 hours at $210,877 an hour).
This was the first Judicial Watch FOIA request about Obama's security costs the Secret Service has answered since July, 2014.
Our efforts investigating Obama travel began back in 2009 when we obtained the Secret Service costs of the Obama's "date night" in New York City.
Click here for our various Obama travel exposés.
Last month, Judicial Watch separately sued the Department of Homeland Security for ignoring 19 other FOIA requests. The FOIA lawsuit asks the court to enjoin the Secret Service from continuing to withhold responsive documents from Judicial Watch. The known total expense to the American taxpayers thus far for all Obama travel is now $70,880,035.78.
It seems our lawsuits finally got the attention of the Secret Service. It is easy to see why the Secret Service, reeling from itsown scandals, covered up these outrageous expense numbers for just one of Obama's luxury Christmas vacation. The $317,000 in Secret Service expenses are only the tip of the iceberg for the true cost of Obama's 2013 vacation in Hawaii, which has now skyrocketed to $8,098,060.
It is nice to know that Obama's "tradition" of Christmas vacations in Hawaii comes courtesy of overburdened taxpayers.
Judicial Watch Files for Contempt in Supreme Court against State of Hawaii
A little less than one month ago, I reported to you our historic Supreme Court victory. Our lawyers convinced the Supreme Court to issue an injunction halting a race-based "Native Hawaiian-only" election in Hawaii. In August, Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of five Hawaiian residents and one Texas resident of Hawaiian descent who opposed the discriminatory election process ( Keli'i Akina, et al. v. The State of Hawaii, et al. (No. 1:15-cv-00322)).
But, unbelievably, the State of Hawaii thought it could game the Supreme Court.
Just before Christmas, we filed a Motion for Civil Contempt against the State of Hawaii for its contravention of an injunction in the race-based "Native Hawaiian-only" election. The civil contempt motion alleges the State of Hawaii circumvented the order from the United States Supreme Court enjoining Hawaii from counting ballots or certifying winners in the election until a review of the case is completed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
On August 28, Judicial Watch sought a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii to stop the vote that had been scheduled for November 2015, arguing that its clients would be denied the right to vote either because of their race or their political views, in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Hawaii's Act 195 authorizes the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission (NHRC) to create a list of "Native Hawaiians" who would be eligible to elect delegates to a planned constitutional convention that would then prepare "governance documents" for a separate Native Hawaiian entity.
Ultimately, on December 2, the Supreme Court ordered an injunction stopping the race-based election, which reads:
The application for injunction pending appellate review presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the Court is granted. Respondents are enjoined from counting the ballots cast in, and certifying the winners of, the election described in the application, pending final disposition of the appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan would deny the application.
Hawaii violated the injunction on December 15, 2015, when the Na'i Apuni Foundation, a defendant in the case, allegedly acting on behalf of the State Hawaii, announced that all 196 candidates in the now-enjoined election will be seated at a February 1, 2016, constitutional convention to consider whether Native Hawaiians should seek some sort of federal tribal status. Thus, instead of counting the ballots and seating the 40 candidates receiving the most votes, the State of Hawaii, through its agents, declared every candidate running for delegate to be a winner and plans to seat them all. Judicial Watch's attorneys argue that Hawaii's gamesmanship is intended to ensure the success of the Obama Interior Department's controversial plan to recognize the new Hawaiian "tribe."
The plaintiffs ask the Supreme Court to stop the plan to seat all candidates at the convention, to impose fines to ensure compliance, and to bring the State of Hawaii's election-related actions under the supervision of federal courts.
Robert Popper, director of Judicial Watch's Election Integrity Project, is Judicial Watch's lead attorney on the lawsuit and lead counsel for all plaintiffs.
This is a constitutional crisis. That is why we are asking the United States Supreme Court to hold the State of Hawaii in contempt. Rather than stand down as the Supreme Court lawfully ordered, Hawaii plans to proceed with an unconstitutional, race-based, separatist election that violates the fundamental constitutional rights of American citizens. We went to the Supreme Court because President Obama, whose administration is in cahoots with Hawaii public officials, obviously will not send troops to Hawaii to defend the rule of law, as President Eisenhower did to enforce the Supreme Court's desegregation order in Little Rock.
The Supreme Court could take action this month on our contempt motion, so watch here for updates.
In the meantime, click here (behind a paywall) to view a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the Hawaii controversy and what it means for our nation by our friend, Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President of the Grassroot Institute and a plaintiff in the case. The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, a Hawaii-based think tank, has been helping Judicial Watch to investigate Hawaii's plan for a race-based election.
Judicial Watch Comes to the Rescue of Congress in Climate Change Scandal
They sure aren’t slumming when taxpayers pick up the tab.
I’m glad that besides choosing between food and meds, I can also pay those few bucks toward Obama’s tropical vacation.
Nothing’s too good for our King, his extended family and retinue.
I hate Obama and am fighting the urge to use a bad word... But our congress has allowed this. The rape of Americans continues.
And to think my vacation cost less than four hundred dollars for camping and hunting.
The turd in a Hawaiian punch bowl.
SCOTUS ping?
According to Black Author Mychal Massie:
The Obamas behave as if they were sharecroppers living in a trailer and hit the Powerball, but instead of getting new tires for their trailer and a new pickup truck, they moved to Washington . And instead of making possum pie, with goats and chickens in the front yard, they’re spending and living large at taxpayer expense – opulent vacations, gala balls, resplendent dinners and exclusive command performances at the White House, grand date nights, golf, basketball, more golf, exclusive resorts and still more golf. In the 1950’s they called it acting (NIGGER RICH)
Mychal Massie pretty much nailed it, he doesn’t hold back.
Wife and I can’t afford health insurance for me, so we’re going to really be hurting to come up with Obama’s penalty (for being impecunious) in about three months.
They need another, larger slice of our pie so they can provide “free” health insurance to the people we’re already feeding and housing. I’m thinking of just blowing it off.
Now they want to pull the same **** with the 2nd amend.: “Comply or else”. I really hate them.
Time to slow down earning money and lower your taxes.
What’s a vacation? I haven’t had one since 2002.
Yeah but just think what you could do and where you could go with an unlimited budget and someone else paying for it.
The clowns that write these stories never include the C17s or the second 747 on foreign trips in the flight expenses.
When the king gets a raise so do his jesters.
If Cruz becomes President, the Democrats will be the ones yelling like they did with Bush.....although Bush went to Texas, it wasn’t cheap either especially since they made his entire house Top Secret compliant. However, I am not saying a word about the Obama’s because I don’t want to look hypocritical when I am happy the Cruz’s take their vacation which no matter where they go will not be cheap. Even Camp David costs 20 million a year to run.
It cost 1.5 billion to run the white house for a year and everyone thinks Congress is going to complaining about 8 million......that's like 10 bucks.
And who appropriated the money for this extravagance? (”No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law”).
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