WH tours canceled, military lacking equipment...

[Forever_frost]

Obama's kids vacation in the Bahamas

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/25/Exclusive-Sasha-Malia-Obama-vacation-in-Bahamas-Atlantis

Sasha and Malia Obama are quietly vacationing at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, Breitbart News has learned.

A source tipped Breitbart News off to the First Daughters’ spring vacation, which was not publicly announced or reported.

Breitbart subsequently confirmed President Barack Obama’s daughters’ trip with other sources. Both the White House and the Atlantis resort declined to confirm the report or comment, but another guest provided a photograph of Sasha and Malia at the resort.

Social media, including Twitter and Facebook, have also carried reports of the First Daughters' presence at Atlantis. One person who is at the resort wrote: “Rumor confirmed: friends saw the first daughters with a gaggle of friends being escorted to the held elevator.”

Via Twitter, another person wrote: “Obama daughters at the same restaurant as me...in the bahamas.”

A third tweeted that she was excited to see Sasha and Malia at Club Crush, the Bahamian resort’s nightclub for teenagers: “OBAMA'S DAUGHTERS SMILED AND WAVED AT ME. I WAS IN THE SAME ROOM AS OBAMA'S DAUGHTERS.”

Atlantis describes Club Crush as the “ultimate nightclub for teens ages 13 to 17 and tweens ages 9 to 13 vacationing on Paradise Island.”

Another hotel guest tweeted a photograph of what she said was the motorcade for "the Obama crew":

It is unclear at this time if first lady Michelle Obama is also at the resort, or if she is planning to join her daughters there.

Atlantis spokeswoman Megan Marchesini told Breitbart News that “our company policy is to never comment on guests.” Secret Service spokesman Bryan Leary told Breitbart News that the Secret Service does not confirm or deny trips for anyone under the agency’s protective detail, including Sasha and Malia.

Sasha and Malia both attend Sidwell Friends School, which is currently on its spring break. That break continues through Friday. It is unclear how long the first daughters will be staying in the Bahamas, or what the cost will be to taxpayers.

Earlier this month, the White House canceled public tours as a result of the recent budget sequester, citing Secret Service staffing costs.

According to Judicial Watch, Malia Obama's trip to Mexico last spring break, during which she was apparently accompanied by Secret Service protection, cost taxpayers $115,500.87. Sasha did not accompany Malia on that trip.

[bcoop]

A buddy of mine is with the Blue Angels, and was stuck in CA for a week after an air show due to the sequester.

[Forever_frost]

Not the Emperor or his brood. They get first class everywhere

[8mpg]

What did you expect? Rules that govern us do not apply to him

[Forever_frost]

And now they're skiing in Idaho.

A local news affiliate in Idaho reports that the Obama daughters are spending Spring Break skiing at Sun Valley:

obama
view on site

"Sun Valley is known to be a getaway for celebrities and the First Family is no different," reports KMVT.

"In an exclusive photo obtained by Idaho's First News, you can see the First Daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama skiing at River Run Thursday. The Sun Valley Ski Patrol confirms the girls were enjoying the wonders of the mountain. We also received unconfirmed reports the daughters were staying at Thunder Spring in Sun Valley."

Earlier, it was reported that the Obama daughters were at a resort in the Bahamas for Spring Break.

Both reports could be true: The Obama daughters could have spent the first half of the week in the Bahamas, before leaving the sun for the Idaho snow.

Meanwhile, the White House remains closed to the public, as the Secret Service is said to lack the funds necessary to keep the building open to all.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/report-obama-daughters-skiing-sun-valley-idaho_712194.html

[Geor!]

WH Tours were canceled, yet the additional SS agents they need to help facilitate the tours are still getting paid. So basically, the money is still being spent and the only ones taking it up the ass are the kids.

Then their teachers go on to tell them that those lousy Republicans caused their trip to be canceled because Republicans don't like kids (of course). 10 years later and 80% of those little bastards are helping to elect another Kenyan.

[Forever_frost]

A local news affiliate in Idaho reported that the First Daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, are on a Spring Break ski trip in Sun Valley, Idaho. The story quickly spread across the Internet when picked up by the highly trafficked Drudge Report website.

But hours later, the story disappeared from the KMVT website without an update or correction. Breitbart News confirmed that the White House requested that the post be removed.




In March of last year, the White House requested media outlets remove accurate reports that Malia Obama was on a trip in Mexico with over two dozen Secret Service agents.

The First Family has been criticized in recent days for taking frequent vacations. Earlier this week, Breitbart News broke the story that the Obama daughters spent part of Spring Break at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Michelle Obama and the First Daughters took a separate ski trip last month to Aspen, Colorado.

While each of these trips require a significant Secret Service presence, the White House canceled public tours this month citing Secret Service staffing costs.

***

UPDATE: The White House has confirmed the report was removed on their request. From Kristina Schake, Communications Director to the First Lady:

From the beginning of the administration, the White House has asked news outlets not to report on or photograph the Obama children when they are not with their parents and there is no vital news interest. We have reminded outlets of this request in order to protect the privacy and security of these girls.

Alexander Marlow is Managing Editor of Breitbart News. Follow him on twitter

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/29/idaho-ski-story-removed?utm_source=contentsharing&utm_medium=linkexchange&utm_term=postion1&utm_content=idaho-ski-story-removed&utm_campaign=foxnews

[Forever_frost]

At it again:

The Obama Administration's dire warnings about the impact of the automatic sequester cuts have failed to live up to expectations. That hasn't prevented them, however, from making dramatic and very public cuts to increase their effect. Canceling public tours of the White House during the busy tourist season is the highest profile of these cuts. Breitbart News as learned that the National Park Service has also scaled back public tours of the memorials at Pearl Harbor.
Effective Wednesday March 6, 2013, the last public tour to the USS Arizona Memorial will be offered at 1:00 P.M. as opposed to 3:00 P.M. Regular program tours to the USS Arizona Memorial will take place from 8:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. and daily tickets remain available for those time frames on Recreation.gov in addition to tickets that are available for walk-in visitors on site.

The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center hours of operation will be between 7:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. as opposed to 5:00 P.M. The book store, snack shop, museums and audio tours remain available during visitor center hours. Access to the USS Bowfin Submarine, Pacific Aviation Museum and the USS Missouri Memorial will not be impacted. Please take this opportunity to take advantage of Passport to Pearl Harbor through Recreation.gov.
At least the Park Service still allows some tours of the historic landmark. Still, it begs the question of how a need to trim pennies from a federal dollar necessitates such a move. The Park Service manages 7 national parks in Hawaii. No other park in the state has any restrictions or cutbacks due to the sequester cuts. Only the park on hallowed ground.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/10/obama-administration-cuts-back-pearl-harbor-tours

[Forever_frost]

More tax dollars being spent while the WH is closed.

WASHINGTON – Around the same time the State Department was warning the public about the painful pinch from sequester cuts, it was also signing off on a $700,000 gardening contract at the home of a U.S. ambassador in Belgium, federal documents show.
The March 11 contract for the U.S. Mission in Brussels includes $134,744 in the first year for grass cutting, weeding, trimming and other landscaping services at Truman Hall. It also calls for planting nearly 1,000 violas, begonias and tulips at NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder’s home.
The total amount of the contract awarded to Brussels-based landscaping company Iris Greencare stretches to up to $704,198 over a four-year period.
“Maintenance and appearance of the grass, shrubbery, garden areas, trees and related landscape elements of the U.S. Post and properties are an important part of the representational responsibilities of the U.S. mission,” the contract states.
The U.S. is also shelling out money for 36 window box planters and 1,008 different kinds of vegetation including 60 Hedera, 72 Skimmia japonica rubella and 504 Pelagorium Peltatum, or ivy geranium.
The government argues the upkeep is needed because Truman Hall hosts diplomats and other guests from 28 NATO nations around the world. U.S. missions and embassies are expected to be maintained, as their appearance reflects on America. But some could question spending so much money on shrubbery especially at a time when the State Department issued warnings that cuts from sequestration would result in scaling back security at foreign facilities and assistance to U.S. allies.
In a five-page letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, Kerry said sequestration would cut $2.6 billion from the department's 2013 budget.
“Reductions in funding would jeopardize the Department’s efforts to provide secure, error-free travel documents to those eligible to receive them, while denying them to those not eligible,” Kerry wrote in the Feb. 11 letter.“Reduced funding would also undermine progress made in ensuring that visa requests are processed in a timely fashion.”
The landscaping contract was first reported by CNSNews.com.
Truman Hall, named after former President Harry Truman, was built in 1963 by Architect B.A. Jacquemotte and Landscape Architect René Pechère. According to the State Department’s web site, the 28-acre property consists of several gardens, meadows and a lawn pavilion. The entry hall is paved in “pierre bleu” Belgian black marble, with “wide and inviting” corridors and a library with “fine 18th century wood paneling.”
The State Department is also shopping for landscaping services for U.S. embassies in Santiago, Chile; Bangkok, Thailand; and in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Multiple calls to the State Department and emails to Iris Greencare for comment were not returned.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2QIifbDIb