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Barack Obama, King of Gas? [Update]

By Bronwyn's Harbor on December 7, 2009 at 2:04 PM in Current Affairs

UPDATE: “Copenhagen climate change summit to produce as much CO2 as an African country.” (Reader Diana commented on the “carbon footprint” left by Obama’s entourage, and then I saw this article, and thought, “How appropriate to add to this post.”)

Original: Does this man think he’s King Of The World???

Thanks to an outraged columnist for Scripps Howard, we get the inside scoop on the way-over-the-top entourage that Obama apparently required for his stop-in at Copenhagen’s climate summit (the G-8 in March 2009). Here’s a list gleaned from “Editorial: An entourage more royal than the Queen’s“ (h/t Diana):

  • “500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water”

  • “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters” — count ‘em, TWELVE teleprompters

  • Besides “Air Force One and all its bells and whistles” there was also “the presence of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and a fleet of identical decoys to ferry him from Stansted airport to central London.”

FIVE HUNDRED STAFF? SIX DOCTORS? THE WHITE HOUSE CHEF?

I am flabbergasted. We know the man has a narcissistic complex. We know he loves, about all else, the accoutrements of power. But this is sickening.

While Americans are desperately trying to find jobs and struggling to figure out how to get a gift or two for each child, this man blows money on a conference that he should have skipped?

Here are the TOTUSES that Obama needed for that fast stop-over:


TOTUS1 TOTUS1 TOTUS1
TOTUS1 TOTUS1 TOTUS1
TOTUS1 TOTUS1 TOTUS1
TOTUS1 TOTUS1 TOTUS1

And FOUR of this guy (speechwriter Jon Favreau):


hillary_party1228595393-s hillary_party1228595393-s
hillary_party1228595393-s hillary_party1228595393-s

At the risk of repeating myself — hell, I am repeating myself — here’s that list again:

  • “500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water”

  • “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters” — count ‘em, TWELVE teleprompters

  • Besides “Air Force One and all its bells and whistles” there was also “the presence of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and a fleet of identical decoys to ferry him from Stansted airport to central London.”

FIVE HUNDRED STAFF? SIX DOCTORS? THE WHITE HOUSE CHEF?

Columnist Dale McFeatters ends with this note in his column, “Editorial: An entourage more royal than the Queen’s“:

The president is entitled to all the security, communications and support he feels necessary to do his job but surely, when we’re trying to project a more restrained, humble image to the world, the president’s huge retinue could be scaled back to something less than the triumphal march from “Aida.”

In an upcoming story, I plan to write about how anti-Americanism affected the outcome of the trial of Amanda Knox in Italy. This kind of extravagance hardly helps America’s reputation around the world.

  • b mathews

    this man is truly disgusting. he has no shame, no humility. if he did he’d be too embarrassed to go to oslo to pick up a prize he most certainly did nothing to deserve or earn. just like everything else in his life. its always about HIM.

  • b mathews

    lets see which of the so called msm will report the cost to taxpayers of this egocentric trip of his. front page of the NYT? not likely. olbermann? chris tingle? fat chance. hopefully fox (the only place to get the real truth) will.

    • Bronwyn’s Harbor

      One of us, who knows how, needs to file an FOIA.

      • Bronwyn’s Harbor

        Since this occurred during the G8, I need to check and see if this practices continues to date. My strong hunch is that yes, Obama still requires this huge retinue of staff and accoutrements like his very own food, etc., etc.

        Background: I got this in an e-mail today and thought it referred to his current trip. About that I was wrong, however I am so sure that this all continues. It will be just a matter of finding out if that is so. Thing is: Every journalist who gets to go along on these trips would NOT DARE write about this because they’d be banned from all future trips. So it may be difficult to unearth except through a FOIA.

  • Bronwyn’s Harbor

    Decided NOT to add 500 photos of people, or the 6 doctors, or the chef’s staff (no precise # given for them), or the 200 SS agents.

    And how interesting that we learned that the threats to Obama are no more than for previous presidents. But you’ve got to believe that he demands the most agents he can possibly get. Granted, he needs absolute safety — including a social secretary who doesnt let uninvited, unvetted guests into a WH dinner — but I bet the Secret Service is overwhelmed by the demands it faces.

    Now there’s a budget I’d like to see increased. We need the Secret Service for so much more than protection. For the white collar crimes they investigate. And much more.

  • Obama: Dubya 2 Electric Boogaloo

    Maybe this is part of Obama’s “job program”…we all get to become one of his special serfs and we’ll get to party like it’s 1599.

    • Brodie

      ROFLMAO!! yeah, that’s the ticket…

  • ahs

    FWIW, the linked and quoted article is nearly nine months old, and is about Obama’s state visit to London, not his trip to Copenhagen. Don’t let that get in the way of criticizing ever misstep (real or imagined), of course.

    • Ferd Berfle

      So by your own admission, this is an appropriate use of government funds. Is our little man afraid to go without a cast of hundreds? Does their presence help ensure the proper pressure necessary to maintain his overinflated ego? You, like him, are an empty gasbag and about as shallow as they come, ahss.

      • Onofre’s arm

        I think the sexually frustrated adolescents that constitute the bulk of the entourage surrounding Obama (Secret Service guys excluded) heard about the free prostitutes over there and they threatened to load up TOTUS with ten times the usual gibberish if Obama didn’t drag them along with him.

        • Ferd Berfle

          they threatened to load up TOTUS with ten times the usual gibberish if Obama didn’t drag them along with him.

          LMAO. Please take them with you, Obozo–*please*. I can’t take any further fracturing of the English language when you read your speeches collections of words strung together gibberish.

  • Diana L. C.

    Reading this commentary made me furious! It was first sent to me in an email from my uncle, a long-time Democrat, now ex Democrat, who supported Hillary.

    The thing that gets me the most is that he absolutely has no sense of propriety. Does he not really understand the “carbon footprint” of his entrourage and how it may seem to negate anything he wants to accomplish at a climate summit?

    It’s bad enough also that he’s spending my money and probaby could have funded a few more troops to Afghanistan with what he is spending on his entourage. Will we soon hear MEchelle ask why all our out-of-work people can’t just enjoy their cake?

    • Diana L. C.

      Besides the personal chef and kitchen help, does he also employ a food taster, probably someone from Rezko’s slum buildings perhaps?

      • DeeLee

        It takes a special skill to cook possum, armadillo and any other type of road kill that MEchelle is used to serving up. Now I guess she can add ‘tax-payer’(it’s becoming an endangered species) to that list.

  • felizarte

    Gallup today reports his approval at 47% and disapproval at 46%. I suppose this motivates him even more to LIVE-IT-UP while it lasts.

  • elizabethrc

    This man must be held to account. Where is Congress? I hope someone is taking notes because this is ammunition for his run in 2012. Wanton describes this Affirmative Action family and he’s living on the taxpayer’s dime, like so many of his ‘constituents’. Call me racist, if you like, but the shoe fits!!

  • Surfered

    We usurped the King in 2008.

  • http://noquarter foxyladi14

    KING OF THE WORLD yep thats him okey doeky

  • Blue Heron

    Does anyone know how this compares to the number of staff and equipment (not including teleprompters)previous President’s took on a similar overseas trip?

    • steve1

      Ditto….it would be nice to check what other presidents have spend on these foreign junkets???? Any body have any figures???

      • Bronwyn’s Harbor

        I’ve asked Larry Johnson if this is typical.

        What makes me think it is NOT typical is that a seasoned columnist for Scripps Howard would not spend an entire column on Obama’s entourage if it were not extraordinary.

      • Elizabeth

        Look at it as cost cutting ! haha Bush normally travelled with over 700 and I recall reading a couple of trips to Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. around the 2,000 mark.

        http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/nov/19/uk.iraq

    • Nellie

      If you look at the last UN Summit Meeting in September of this year in NYC of all places, Sarkozy only needs 6 (six) security people for a run from the Waldorf and through Central Park. The pictures of proof are in this article:

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1215361/A-sweaty-Sarkozy-pounds-pavements-New-York-ahead-U-N-climate-summit.html

      There are many more Muslims per population, as well as employment problems in France, than are here in the USA. Are we supposed to believe that Sarkozy has less enemies or that he is easier to protect??

      Obama makes an A$$ of himself, and the American people every time he goes overseas. How can any of take “Climate Change” seriously with this show of ostentation?

      Thanks Bronwyn for yet another needed to be revealed article. We need to start keeping track of this extravagant spending by the WH, as well as “PORK” and Perks congress gives itself. Then when they try and tell us we need “NEW” taxes, we can send them these and tell them the money they steal/embezzle from taxpayers would more than make up any shortfall they are trying to justify.

  • Elizabeth

    Before his G-20 summit to London, US security teams carried out three visits to prepare for Obama’s first official visit to Britain. The first was a “site survey”, the second a “pre-advance visit” which was carried out to pick sites that the president would visit. Finally there was the “advance trip”, which took place last week. Its purpose was to set up equipment, sweep venues for electronic bugs, test food for poison and measure air quality for bacteria

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/obama-london-visit-uk-g20

    • FLDemFem

      I read the article at the link, and wondered. Why would the Secret Service need to test food for poison when the WH chef apparently brings food for Obama with him? Any ideas?

    • Portia Elizabeth

      Measure air quality for bacteria???
      Is his immune system compromised?
      That explains why a “healthy” middle-aged man needs 6 doctors on call.

  • Hot Librarian

    Whoahh! King of The Earth.

    • Docelder

      Just like the guy on the Titanic movie… right out front proclaiming he’s the “king of the world”. Right before the whole ship goes under. Exactly like that.

      • lark

        Exactly. Because it is obvious that this country will not be able to sustain the largess of the Fed Gov + its regulatory structure.

        If all of these things that are slate to be enacted are enacted, then we have definitely and without a doubt lost the government and we are simply people under the rule of government just like the Iranians, Russians and any other pseudo democratic dictatorship.

        Chaos is next. Then military rule under Obama and then full fledged revolution and the break up of the country.

        • Docelder

          Obama isn’t a leader who unites people… on the contrary he is divisive. Some people are welcoming “socialism”. But surprise, this is not socialism, but rather some kind of corporatist fascism.

          • lark

            Today I was told that I am prohibited from purchasing a ‘Heat Pump’ A/C system and have it delivered to my home because I don’t have an A/C contractor’s license. Why? Because the systems in question are ‘pre-charged’ with Freon. In top of that if you want to purchase a new 410 type system, because it is so much more encumbered with stuff it cost a real fortune to purchase and install.

            This idea of encumbering the people to the hilt is a precursor for some unseen new type of slavery in the horizon. The children growing up are going to get a big surprise very very soon.

            • Docelder

              Check out taking the EPA freon handler test. The material set isn’t that large. I started to do it once, I forget now all the details. I was shopping around for the geothermal heat pumps and wanted to bypass the dealers, buy one off the Internet and just pay somebody local with the equipment to set it up. I don’t think it’s expensive to sit the exam. The precharged freon is the main reason you can’t buy units around the dealer though.

  • TeakWoodKite

    Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods Batman! – Robin

    6 doctors? Dude where is my healthcare?
    12 TOTUS? What? You don’t trust your disciples?
    Or is this the 12 days of Christmas?
    His own food and water? What’s he waiting for the Last supper?
    And what was Valerie Jarret saying they couldn’t afford recently?
    \
    =====
    Bronwyns Harbor Master, please for give the OT:
    but I just don’t know what to say!!

    An outside review of the beleaguered community group ACORN has found “serious management challenges,” but no pattern of illegal activity.
    The review, commissioned by ACORN in the wake of a hidden video expose that showed a few of its employees appearing to offer tips on how to break the law, also largely absolved the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s current management, laying much of the blame on founder Wade Rathke for lax oversight and dangerously rapid growth.

    .

    • PainkillerJayne

      lmao teak……….it’s the twelve days of Obama

  • TeakWoodKite

    On the first day of Christmas my TOTUS gave to me…

    • trixta

      TeakWoodKite–great idea! It would be fun to substitute lyrics for “The 12 Days of Christmas,” listing items and persons in BO’s bloated entourage.

      ["On the twelfth day of Christmas,
      my true love sent to me
      Twelve drummers drumming,
      Eleven pipers piping,
      Ten lords a-leaping,
      Nine ladies dancing,
      Eight maids a-milking,
      Seven swans a-swimming,
      Six geese a-laying,
      Five golden rings,
      Four calling birds,
      Three French hens,
      Two turtle doves,
      And a partridge in a pear tree!" ]

    • sowsear

      The Twelve Days of Obamamas

  • steve1

    Well, maybe he needs the 6 Doctors?? You know, nerves!!!! Than again he has never released his medical records??? Come to thing of it, he has not released any of his educational transcripts??? But than again-he has released a COLB? In fact aren’t all of his educational transcripts sealed???

  • I’m a Linda too

    Do we have a KING, or a president?

    Neither, but he sure acts like what he wants to be.

    • Bronwyn’s Harbor

      Hilarious.

  • Addendum

    This is most important and should not be missed: the hypocrisy of generating greenhouse gases traveling to Europe when a television link appearance would have sufficed and set a good example.

  • DBB

    For his “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters,” claim, McFeatters cites not his own or Scripps-Howard’s reporting but the London Evening Standard, not exactly a gold standard unimpeachable source even before it was taken over by Alexander Lebedev, a Russian businessman and former KGB agent. Russia which relys hugely on oil is not exactly friendly to the Copenhagen summit’s agenda.

    Beyond that, I see no context at all regarding the size of Obama’s travelling party. Copenhagen was the scene of Muslim outrage regarding those notorious newspaper cartoons, the Bush foreign trips could be 700 strong, etc. I doubt very much that the Obamas dictated the security arrangements.

  • Ferd Berfle

    This is an example of wretched excess with emphasis on wretched. The vanity of That One knows no bounds, apparently, as he seems to need a cast of thousands at his beck and call to fulfill his constant need for attention. The phrase, delusions of grandeur, comes to mind. We see the same crap on a different scale here with the self-appointed guardians of the Obozo myth who come here to get their fix of attention, albeit negative.

  • West Virginia

    The early numbers are in from Dopenhagendas. Here is how the attendees are getting there and around.

    1,200 + Limos
    140 + Private Jets
    5 Electric cars

    This is how the world leaders show their concern and personal commitment.

    • Ferd Berfle

      The hypocrisy is stunning. It would be like serving highballs at a 12-Step Convention.

  • http://deleted BuzzisbackLatte

    What do you bet that four of those doctors are psychiatrists.

    How many teleprompters and mirrors will be going?

    • Ferd Berfle

      How many teleprompters and mirrors will be going?

      I don’t know about teleprompters but the number of mirrors must be multiplied by the number of reflection incidents for Me-chelle.

      • sowsear

        They have to have His and Hers. (Unable to share, their individual need is so great)

        • Ferd Berfle

          Yeah, and in addition while he fractures our common language, she fractures mirrors.

    • Bronwyn’s Harbor

      Oh god you are cracking me up.

    • Nellie

      BuzzisbackLatte,

      LOL!! 4 Psychiatrists! Are you sure that is enough, or are the Danes holding the meeting in a house of Mirrors to accommodate O’s grandiose ego?

  • DBB

    I have thoroughly checked thisislondon.co.uk, the Evening Standard online, for the “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters” claim in the McFeatters piece. Can’t find it. Can someone substantiate it before I call BS on the whole thing?

    • goldengrahme

      Oh, come now, DBB; loosen up. There might be a tad differential in the stats but even a stickler for facts can’t help but be amused by the irony of carbon tax zealots puttering around in oxygen-starved private jets and limos.

      If O’Bambi was geared up for audacious conspicuous consumption in London, why should he
      drop anchor in Copenhagen without the trappings of all-American meritocracy? Zeesh! Why run for political office if you can’t strut your
      stuff?

  • http://www.syd4.blogspot.com SYD

    “Restrained?” “Humble?”

    Obama?

    They have GOT to be kidding!

  • mountainaires

    Suffering people denied gas for cooking, hospitals, business

    http://www.gazagateway.org/

  • propertius

    Much as I dislike President Obama ™, his entourage is basically the same size as his predecessor’s. See:

    http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/29/president-bushs-trav.html

    for a discussion of Bush’s entourage for his trip to New Zealand:

    250 Secret Service agents
    300 aides and advisors
    15 sniffer dog teams
    personal chef and 4 cooks
    3 jumbo jets
    40 armored cars
    2 helicopters

    No mention of how many teleprompters or physicians he needed.

    • Hot Librarian

      Yeah but NZ is VERY dangerous.

  • dave martin

    Second time i have posted here but i frequently lurk.

    I am so confused

    questions.

    1. do most of the posters here agree that man made(mostly women!) global warming exists? y/n

    2. Yes or no, do most regulars think recent revelations (da emails) have influenced their opinion?

    just wondering …. GO PACKERS! I’ll check at halftime! I love this blog. thanks Larry.

  • Docelder

    We are polluting the Earth all to h*ll, but CO2 isn’t a toxin and isn’t what we should be worried about. CO2 is about taxing modern civilization. Nothing more.

    The email leak doesn’t change my opinion of warming. But instead it proves the scientists aren’t neutral and they have an agenda. Therefore, we can’t trust any of their work or opinions.

    • Not Likely

      Are you really this stupid? Nobody is claming CO2 is a toxin.

      • Docelder

        Nobody but Obama’s EPA. That way they can act independently from congress… under emergency powers. First CO2 needs to endanger life… like a toxin. Yes, they are that stupid.

        • lark

          All of this will be explained to us by people who have gone through it in other dictatorial regimes. We just need the freedom to purchase those books or CDs.

    • lark

      And why aren’t scientist neutral or so called ‘objective’, why? Why are scientist biased? But of course, because the government funds them and more money for the government means more money for them.

      It’s okay. Scientist have children too. And scientist children will grow to be destitute Americans like the rest of the population. Oh, maybe not. Maybe scientist can push their children into government employment as czars of their neighborhoods.

      I am sure that we will be able to translate some good books written by Cubans explaining all of this to us and how to find contentment in misery.

  • hollyfock

    it’s not global warming that is causing the rising sea levels and the melting ice cap.it is not co2 and other air pollutants that are causing smug and bad air quality.no its NOT don’t be fooled people !
    this is because THE RAPTURE IN COMING ..the good book says so …first we elect the messiah and no all of these disasters are happening ..coincidence?..NO…it’s THE RAPTURE

    • Docelder

      The bible also says the Earth will abide forever. It isn’t going anywhere.

  • MBC

    Maybe I am too old to remember my biology classes, but don’t trees and plants absorb our CO2 and release oxygen back?

  • MBC

    Ok, I’m not crazy -

    As of March 2009[update], carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is at a concentration of 387 ppm by volume.[1] Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide fluctuate slightly with the change of the seasons, driven primarily by seasonal plant growth in the Northern Hemisphere. Concentrations of carbon dioxide fall during the northern spring and summer as plants consume the gas, and rise during the northern autumn and winter as plants go dormant, die and decay. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas as it transmits visible light but absorbs strongly in the infrared and near-infrared.

    And….Carbon dioxide is used by plants during photosynthesis to make sugars, which may either be consumed in respiration or used as the raw material to produce other organic compounds needed for plant growth and development. It is produced during respiration by plants, and by all animals, fungi and microorganisms that depend either directly or indirectly on plants for food.

    And the EPA has determined this is a TOXIC substance, who is buying this crap?

  • plumberswife

    Well America, live and learn, we’re stuck with him now. Maybe next time more people will read the fine print..

  • http://! stodgie

    funny thing the last days of king louis of france comes to mind!

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  • mdmdstork

    Since CO2 is a toxin, we all need to stop exhaling.

  • Docelder

    Gray is the renowned hurricane forecaster and Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University (CSU).

    Hurricane Expert Rips Climate Fears: ‘There has been an unrelenting quarter century of one-sided indoctrination’

    http://www.climatedepot.com/a/4369/Hurricane-Expert-Rips-Climate-Fears-There-has-been-an-unrelenting-quarter-century-of-onesided-indoctrination

  • Docelder

    Who even counts the “trillions” anymore?

    In energy infrastructure alone, the transformational ambitions that delegates to the United Nations climate change conference are expected to set in the coming days will cost more than $10 trillion

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/science/earth/09cost.html

    • Docelder

      We are to be paying for the worlds energy with Chinese monopoly money. Obama says to the world… don’t worry we got it.

      President Obama’s spokesman said last week that the president supported a short-term fund to aid developing nations and that the United States would pay “its fair share.” In many multilateral efforts, the United States picks up a quarter to a third of the tab.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/science/earth/09cost.html

      • Docelder

        There is no end to this. It is insanity. Insanity with an agenda.

        http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100019301/climategate-another-smoking-gun/

        According to the IPCC, the Himalayan glaciers could be gone by 2035.

        Or should that be 2350? Yep it seems those scientific experts who make the IPCC’s reports so famously reliable and trustworthy have a bad case of numerical dyslexia.

        none of the 10 authors of the 2007 IPCC report could spot the error and “misread 2350 as 2035″.

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