Obama paid $35,000... OUT OF HIS OWN POCKET... for this vacation

Did Bush pay for his own vacations?


I'm betting no.

Yet he earned it, which should cause them to admire him, according to their own garbage.

But they won't do it, just watch.

they shouldn't give him any shit for this. Bush took three vacations by this ime and had not faced ANYTHING like Obama has had to deal with.

And he's worked harder in 7 months than the average American does in a half decade.

It pushes your buttons to mention this, so I must be on to something.

Just wondering. That's all.

Hey--it's GOT to trickle down sooner or later!

Seriously?


Hard to take anything you say seriously if you are.

as to another.

I understand this comparison isn't flattering to your POV, but suck it up, and own your ideology.

..if you think my posts to you come close to meeting the definition of "unhinged".


Simple question:

Where, in any of your posts in this thread prior to this one, did you mention or discuss Obama's "policies"?


Answer: You didn't. I hit too close to home with my mention of your jealousy of his success... which is why you answered with non sequiters like "you're unhinged" and, for the first time, the canard "I'm talking about POLICIES".



Suck it up, and own your envy.

after losing.

So you jump on some trivial point on this thread, looking for a pile on.

That's what I think.

"Suck it up, and own your envy."

You sound just like a Republican. :hi:

What have we discussed in the past?



Also... what "trivial point" did I jump on? I addressed every point you made.


..unless you're calling all of your points "trivial". If so, I can't say I disagree.

Really?

A mixed-race child growing up in the 1960s and 70s had more opportunities than you?


You are right about the unequalness of society. Many people who have wealth did not earn it... they were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths.


But you cannot claim, with a straight face, that Obama is one of them.


He wrote two books... sold a lot of copies. He earned his money, it wasn't inherited.



His success came from the same or similar opportunities that most middle class people have. He excelled. Don't be jealous because you didn't.

How utterly bizarre a tack! :wtf:

Just from your posts in this thread.

No logician, you. No psychologist, either.

What is the precise and objective amount a vacation should cost?

On what non-biased, objective standard is that amount based off of?

...at least, that's what he's projecting.

Is it really so difficult to imagine someone with money in the bank who is concerned about the condition of those less well off than he?

Perhaps I should add a poverty of spirit? :shrug:

I imagine concern does not deny a vacation.

And I doubt either of them equate to a lack of concern.

"I imagine concern does not deny a vacation."

It's a nonsense, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it's a play on some popular song, or a current children's book? There's no Seussian rhyme there, that's for sure, so I'm leaning toward pure gibberish.

O-kay. Sure.

:rofl:

I'm still wondering what the precise worth of his vacations should be and on what objective standard that figure is based off of...




(You may take in such as way as to better validate your presumptions...)

Works for me.

Are you saying that Obama is someone "with money in the bank" who is not concerned about the condition of those less well off than he?


Because his actions for his entire adult life would put lie to that claim.


Obama is one of the rare leaders that does "get it" when it comes to understanding the plight of those less well off than he.


To suggest otherwise is to ignore the man's life.

Do you see how you are having difficulty following the plot while following a half a dozen subthreads? :hi:

Thanks.

post that is being replied to.



That's how it works. You post... I reply.... the reply shows up under your post.

:eyes:

I give up.

Yes... I understand the difference.


Do you really not understand that there is no such thing as an "exclusive" sub-thread on a public forum?


If you post, expect replies.

When you post nonsense, regardless of whether it is in one subthread or another, expect folks to reply.



The fact that your post was a response to someone else does not preclude someone else from replying to it.

If you are truly interested in a discussion, you will confine your comments to me to one (maybe two) subthreads. If you are interested in hooting and hollering, you will post "from the hips" responses to every one of my responses to other posters in this thread, thus stifling conversation.

Which are you trying to do?

(Such as my #42.)

"Please google "subthread", and then "net etiquette".

Maybe "civility" would be a good one too... all the way around

:hi:

I have no idea how much he has to reimburse for 4 tickets on Marine 1. remember, they also will have to take marine 1 and AF1 when they leave... I assume the SS is on us....

Obama was raised by three highly intelligent, successful, and motivated adults who gave him opportunities to travel and put him in the best private school money could buy.

I don't know where you come from, but where I come from, you don't get that kind of opportunity unless you've got a giant silver spoon in your mouth.

His mother may have technically been middle class, but he was given the opportunities that are usually only reserved for the upper class.

It's unavoidable.


The only option would be to never leave the White House. And even then, the SS bills are still enormous.

:hi:

Another non-sensical non-sequiter by you.


Minimizing SS expenses puts the President and his family in danger. You're being obtuse.

Mr. Obama, like any citizen, has the liberty to travel freely in the US. It is the job of the Secret Service and others to protect him in the exercise of his liberty, not the other way around.

6's and go sightseeing the way my average family did when I was growing up.

If he wants to spend his vacation on Martha's Vineyard and spend his own money doing so, that's fine with me. His wife is a successful attorney, he is a successful writer, and college professor.

I don't follow.

You're going to argue that Obama uses "class privilege" to his advantage?


Are you so thick as to think that his financial situation is because of his "class"?


It is in spite of his class!


He's the very definition of "pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps".


His money was well-earned. Not as a result of his "class". His class upbringing was lower middle-class to a single-mom as a mixed race child in a nation that shunned such people.

You're seriously going to use the "class" argument in reference to Obama? Wow. Just wow.

You know better than this. This is trolling. :eyes:

:hi:

DUers.

The US is still a free country. When it's NOT, then you get to dictate where people spend vacations and how much they spend.

Have you swallowed the RW's "communism" nonsense???? We do not live in a communist state. And no one here that I know of wants one. What we want is a democracy wherein certain of society's group costs are borne by the group as a whole.

But you knew that, right?

You can call me a "communist" if you like. I don't consider that a bad thing to be, though I am no fan of the USSR, the DPRK, or the PRC.

Your take on my posts to this thread--that I think Barack Obama should spend less on his vacations because I think he is a "communist"--makes no sense to me.

...and the SS is paying the appropriate amount to protect him as he does.



Any arguments about the SS costs to his travel are pointless. They're going to spend whatever it takes. No corner-cutting should be accepted.

:eyes:

What do you want him to do, hitch a ride on the highway and stay at a Motel 6?

points.

He's evil for spending his own money. He's evil for needing an expensive security detail so he doesn't get assassinated.

do you drink his bathwater too?

i'm sorry, obama has not worked harder in 7 months than my dad did in ANY 5 year period of his life.

yes, obama works very hard, and yes he deserves time off.

but when you become president it gets a little more spendy to take a vacation. Can't just plop yourself and your kids down on the Mount Vesuvius water slide in the Wisconsin Dells when you are the leader of the free world.

Obama is using his own.


Some don't want to see the difference... but the difference is HUGE.

or was it Bush's property.

Romulox is trying to make a point on classicism.

Our president clearly gets an exception to this rule being that he has to be followed by one of the most extensive security details on the planet.

But the point still stands. We should not be applauding the rich for "stimulating" our economy. Supply side economics is a crock of shit.

that on vacation. does that make all others "slave" to middle class.

he may be "trying" to make a point, but i do not take that point seriously. everything is relative. what is a lot to you and me is not a lot to someone else. there is not a chance in hell i am going thru life measuring myself by others or demanding that they have no more or less than me.

i just

think it is

bullshit

That's ridiculous. I doubt you make as much money as Obama. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

I'm not trying to say that we will ever achieve a classless society. But we sure as hell need to make giant leaps towards social and economic equality.


You are telling me that you don't feel an ounce of guilt when you spend 5K on a vacation? I feel guilty filling up my truck with gas. There are people that make less than 500 dollars a year and fight every day to survive. It kind of throws the whole "relative" argument out the window.


On edit: Yes, each lower class is, for lack of a better word, a slave to the classes above them. I do not mean a slave in the physical sense. I mean a slave in the social and economic sense. That is the price of capitalism.

and i am doing good now.

no, i am not jealous, envious or look at it as unjust (even dirt poor. i knew why i was there). i see a man like obama that started without much, less than me, and becoming successful. he created this for himself. good for him

we can give everyone a million dollars. in 6 months you would have those that having nothing again. those that have more. and those that continue to sit at a million.

you can see yourself slave.... adn that is what you will be. but no... dont include me in that, it isnt true now and wasnt true when i had nothing.

on edit: hell no i dont feel guilty about our vacation. it was 15 yrs of hubby working ass off, years of no vacation, or little vacation. and years of saving, not spending that allowed us two weeks without feeling guilty about spending money. actually enjoy what he worked so very fuckin hard for.

or put a roof over their head for a night or two. Instead some millionaire is collecting it as rent probably.

life. or this whole fake drama. but 35k for vacation, now i am curious.

last i saw, michelle was at grand canyon in too short of shorts, lol

Those things are a little expensive.

just not the same i am sure, but was awfully lovely and we enjoyed the area

I hope he has a great vacation!

wink

on edit: or ohios joes anyway, lol

I believe the Obama family and close friends are staying at Martha's vineyard for a week.

Hush money to shut up the carping, whining, complaining conservatives trying to make a fake issue out of how much this week costs the taxpayers.

And they will still complain anyway.

for taking this vacation. They had on nothing but RWers saying how awful it was for Obama to take a vacation at a time when the health care debate was heating up, how awful it was that he was vacationing in an elitist, liberal enclave, blah, blah, blah.
They then follow that BS up with Michael Steel to dis on health care reform with no one at all on the Democratic side to counter him.
Pure drivel. I have to stop turning on that crappy show.

I don't recall any whining about the multitude of vacations Gee Dubya took. Especially that one he went on while the national security lights were blinking RED.

The corporate media toadies can kiss my arse.

You'd be right. All of bush's 977 vacation days- I doubt he paid for all that!

"Bin Laden Determined To Strike Inside the U.S." went completely ignored. No one is the MSM has ever called him out on that shit.
And yes, this is Obama's own money. One would think the right wing would love it, but if it's Obama, it must be wrong.

Didn't we, the taxpayers, pick up the tab for all his trips to Crawford? Probably the most-expensive brush-cutting jobs in American history...



And weren't we, the taxpayers, paying Bush while he sat and did nothing on 9/11?

Mr. President, we're under attack! Mr. President? MR. PRESIDENT??? Hello?...


edited for correct past-tense of "hang"

:sarcasm:

... what, exactly, is wrong with someone spending their OWN money as they see fit?

link?

Thus making it seem equivalent to Bush's vacations.

Noblesse oblige

24/7 to save on security costs.

summer vacation? It's totally private. It's secure. It's got great facilities for a family vacation. It's beautifully located. Aside from not being on the shore, it offers everything the Vineyard does.

Seriously, they like to be around others. They are very sociable, probably, and would be bored at Camp David.

And, the beach rules, of course. :)

(speaking as a parent here)

who you are or if it's your money.

and no, i'm not going to say how much i think people should be "allowed" to spend on vacation. they can spend what they want and i can comment on it.

i just hope the wealthy don't wonder why some people hate them.

No exceptions.

They live in a fishbowl. I don't think it's even right to "price" their vacations.. the only quibble I had with Bush's vacations, was that he took TOO MANY of them, and he did too LITTLE "work" when he was AT work.

An ordinary run-of-the-mill worker in the EU gets 5-6 weeks paid vacation...surely the president of the US should get more than an occasional weekend at Camp David. and it's none of our business how much it "costs".

He HAS to take the sec ser with him, and he has to use government transportation, as part of his JOB.. Can't see him & the family lining up to board Jet Blue, now can we?

I'm sure there are plenty of wealthy donors who would gladly foot the bill for any vacation spot he wanted to visit, but then they would be pilloried for accepting favors.. He's in a no-win situation.

Funny, but I don't remember that being brought up one time when Bush spent half his preznidentsy on vacation.

1) Their own clothes
2) Dry cleaning
3) Food/meals for the Obama family and guests at the White House (unless it is a 'state dinner')
4) Michelle's hairdresser
5) Barack's barber
6) The kid's school tuition
7) The kid's music lessons, etc.
etc. etc. etc.

The media almost never reports on any of that!

Now folks are bitchin' about Michelle's 20+ aides/staff
I seen a snippet yesterday that said Laura Bush had more staff than Michelle.

I hope the Obamas have a great vacation - they deserve it!

No disappointments here.

he does.

We're overdue for some housecleaning.

:spray:

The Obamas don't own a ranch. How awful.

But I know from having my own stressful job what he's looking for. I get my once-a-year vacation in the summer,
and as we travel all the way back to the States for it, and I pay for some peace and quiet and some nature. It's
expensive. It costs me probably as much out my take-home pay as Obama's vacation costs him (proportionally). So?
I have a stressful job for the rest of the year, and if I can afford it, you better believe I'll pay for it. If
I can't afford it any more, then I'll drive down to the Alps and live in a cabin or something.