It's Mofficial

We here at The Sandwich Shop have tried to avoid ad hominem attacks on members of the President's family but things with his wife are getting out of hand.

Reports are now surfacing that the former attorney and hospital eviction specialist has cost the American taxpayer over $10 million on vacations. It seems she's averaged 42 vacation days a year since the election and, while the Obamas supply some of the money for their trips, the rest of us are on the hook for the transport and, of course, the security.

Take the most recent vacation, for example: this year's jaunt to the Vineyard. Seems it wasn't convenient for her to travel with the President, so she followed 4 hrs. later, on another jumbo jet, with another security detail. Once ensconced, everything is first class, and if a shopping trip means shutting down part of the island to everyone else, well, lese majeste.

(Now to some extent, this wallowing in privilege is not strictly a Democrat thing. When W was in the White House he and Laura were modest in their spending, but both Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld bought property on the Eastern Shore near St. Michaels, MD, where they blocked off airspace and closed down restaurants on a whim.)

We here in NJ are more than a little familiar with the phenomenon of Dem politicians living a lot higher on the hog than their constituents. Former Mayor Sharpe James of Newark - a city so impoverished and corrupt that the Feds took over the Housing Authority and the state took over the schools - was paid $250,000 a year, had several city vehicles, a city credit card and regularly traveled on the city expense account as far afield as Rio de Janeiro. The former mayor of working class Linden, NJ, John Gregorio, demanded and received a customized Cadillac with $10,000 in upgrades for no other reason than he wanted to drive it. When he was finally forced from office the car was sold at wholesale.

And just as the First Lady had a six-figure job created especially for her in at a Chicago hospital, NJ is rife with politicos who hold down no-show jobs, wangle exclusive pension deals, build up huge "campaign" funds that they raid for personal reasons and, in the most recent scandal, hold lucrative jobs in education while enrolling their kids in taxpayer-funded free lunch programs.

It only remains to be seen if Mrs. Obama's habits will be at all curbed by recent publicity regarding her spending. For the most part she has so far been given a free pass, but as the re-election becomes more and more problematic, that may change.

The One Comes To Joisey

Saved By The Bull

In a near tragedy today, singer, actress and political liberal Barbara Streisand was mistakenly put out with the trash by staff at her Hollywood home. It was only later, when she failed to appear at a benefit for people crippled by eating caged chicken egg products, that a search was conducted and she was located in the alley behind her palatial mansion.

Streisand's major domo, Claude Lelouche, apologized. "Ms. Streisand was never in any real danger and besides, if she is eventually discarded, she would not go in the trash, but would be fully and completely recycled.

We Came, We Saw, We Campaigned

President Training Pants will be heading to Paterson NJ to examine flood damage and then on to Detroit to deal with political damage. Not sure that's the best place for a speech previewing his Big Jobs extravaganza, since unemployment in Detroit has been rising ever since Toyota started making cars in the US.

Of course, both Paterson and Detroit have mayors who became unemployed recently, after indictments, convictions and imprisonment.

The Prez is at Camp David for the early part of the weekend, after his helicopter was diverted by bad weather and he went the rest of the way by... yep, motorcade. This guy has the biggest carbon footprint since Al Gore.

A Visit From the One

Before the President jets off to someplace tropical he will be visiting our fair state to survey the hurricane damage. Well, actually he will be in Paterson trolling for black and Hispanic votes, since we seem to be trending Red State.

Paterson was also chosen because it still typifies the kind of politics and finance he finds so comforting. Why should the Paterson Board of Education worry about money? After all, when they need more the legislature shovels more in from the rest of the state's taxpayers.

Socialist Media

Thank Gosh for the Intertubes. Here's a Facebook page that will let you keep track of just where the Obamas will be headed next for a vacation. (Hint: scenic Indonesia)

Of course, you have to be a FB member to access it, so the three of you left on the planet who aren't are plum out of luck.