Palin's Kids' Free Travel

[jdm2000]

This is interesting. I guess I never really thought of what the kids of a politician do in these kinds of circumstances. Apparently no official state babysitter? I don't blame them for wanting to go on trips to various places (or for her wanting to take them), but having the state of Alaska pay for it seems a stretch.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/21/palin.travel.ap/index.html

[DC Muskie]

Damn liberal media.

[Muskie]

This is interesting. I guess I never really thought of what the kids of a politician do in these kinds of circumstances. Apparently no official state babysitter? I don't blame them for wanting to go on trips to various places (or for her wanting to take them), but having the state of Alaska pay for it seems a stretch.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/21/palin.travel.ap/index.html

Does it qualify as state business? Is she doing any Alaska business on these trips?

[xu95]

Not saying it is right or wrong, but before you condemn them, let's see how many of the kids of Congress trips are paid for by you and me. Heck, lets see how many times PODUS's kids take a trip that are paid for by us.

xu95

[allornothing]

Why is it that the media can spend time and money digging up information on Palin's childrens travel expenses, yet when it comes to finding out the details of our potential next President starting his political career in the home of a known domestic terrorist, the media does next to nothing?

[kyxu]

Why is it that the media can spend time and money digging up information on Palin's childrens travel expenses, yet when it comes to finding out the details of our potential next President starting his political career in the home of a known domestic terrorist, the media does next to nothing?

It's for the same reason this whole Palin state-funding for kids' trips story is going to blow over rather quickly. The media aired the Ayers thing, but no one really cared, so it passed on. But the media definitely gave it play. I just think the general public doesn't care about this stuff anymore.

Stuff like this is just so insignificant. I agree with xu95. I'm no Palin fan, but I would imagine many other state and federal politicians do similar things for their children on the citizen dime.

[Raoul Duke]

The rest of the country already subsidizes the entire state of Alaska anyway.

[jdm2000]

That's a good point. In fact, it is kind of funny that Palin is tossing the "socialist" tag out there, as Alaska is the only state of which I'm aware that makes an annual payment to its citizens based on the income from the state-owned oil resources.

[allornothing]

It's for the same reason this whole Palin state-funding for kids' trips story is going to blow over rather quickly. The media aired the Ayers thing, but no one really cared, so it passed on. But the media definitely gave it play. I just think the general public doesn't care about this stuff anymore.

Stuff like this is just so insignificant. I agree with xu95. I'm no Palin fan, but I would imagine many other state and federal politicians do similar things for their children on the citizen dime.

I agree that the media did give it play, but they absolutely didn't give it the play it deserves. This guy BOMBED the Pentagon and other high profile targets and admits it! Can you imagine the media's investigative effort if Bush started his polical career in, let's say, David Dukes home. There would be unrelenting coverage. Obama gets a free pass, period.

[The Artist]

Why is it that the media can spend time and money digging up information on Palin's childrens travel expenses, yet when it comes to finding out the details of our potential next President starting his political career in the home of a known domestic terrorist, the media does next to nothing?

Hm, we must subscribe to different media outlets.

Also, the fact that it wasn't true helps.

[Raoul Duke]

How did Snipe get two screen names?

[Snipe]

Sorry Mr. Duke, I am not the only one who wonders why Obama would decide to kickstart his political in the home of a well known domestic terrorist.

But I guess if the Artist says it wasn't true, CNN be damned.

[Raoul Duke]

Just messing with you. I agree that it's a valid question.

[DAllen15]

<<...why Obama would decide to kickstart his political in the home of a well known domestic terrorist.>>>

That's not exactly the whole truth.


McCain misleading public in role Ayers played in Obama political career
By Lynn Sweet on October 15, 2008 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (60)

WASHINGTON--Barack Obama continues to be attacked by John McCain and other Republicans for his relationship with Bill Ayers, the former terrorist turned respected Chicago educator. Obama served on civic boards with Ayers and Ayers held a coffee for Obama when Obama first ran for a state senate seat in 1995. McCain said he may bring up Ayers at the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night.

Obama said McCain--running ads featuring Ayers with Sarah Palin making him an issue on the stump--never said anything to his face. Ayers did not came up in the first two presidential debates. If McCain continues to insist that Obama launched his political career from Ayers' Hyde Park living room, he is misleading the public by overplaying the size and significance of Ayers' early support.


*Obama's campaign really was launched when he got the backing of then state Sen. Alice Palmer (D-Chicago), who wanted him to replace her as she was planning a run for Congress. Palmer's backing gave him entrée into local influential political circles.

Obama and Palmer would later have a falling out that continues to this day. Palmer changed her mind and decided to run for re-election after all. Obama got Palmer and his other rivals knocked off the ballot. Palmer ended up backing Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic primary bid.

*Obama's formal kick-off to announce his run for state senate was at the Hyde Park Ramada Inn on Sept. 19, 1995. Obama was introduced by Palmer in a room filled with supporters at the Ramada, fronting Lake Michigan on South Lake Shore Drive, a stroll from the Museum of Science and Industry.

*Around this time, Obama started to attend a series of coffees in the Hyde Park community where he lived, standard operating procedure for political rookies running in the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Chicago.

"I was certainly (hosting) one of the first," said Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, rabbi emeritus at Chicago's KAM Isaiah Israel--located across the street from the Obama home.

"There were several every week," he recalled on Tuesday night when we spoke. "I remember what I said to him: 'Someday you are going to be vice president of the United States.' He laughed and said, 'Why not president?'''

*The Ackermans, Sam and Martha, longtime Hyde Park activists in independent Democratic politics, also held an early event for Obama in their condo on E. Hyde Park Boulevard. (They have since divorced.)

Sam Ackerman told me Tuesday when we exchanged e-mails that "as I recall, the event at Bill Ayers' house (prior to ours) was a fund-raiser for Alice's congressional campaign at which she also introduced Barack as the successor she would like to see elected."

If Ackerman's recollection is correct--that the event at Ayers home was really for Palmer and Obama just piggy backed on it--then any argument that the Obama's political career was launched in the Ayers home is moot.

Martha and I talked on Tuesday night and she said she was not sure if the coffee at their condo for about 20 people was before or after Obama's Ramada Inn announcement.

"As a starter, I know that Barack went to Alice Palmer," Martha Ackerman told me. "...Then the question was, 'how do you go about doing this in the Hyde Park way," she said, a reference to the personal touch needed in the Hyde Park- Kenwood neighborhoods, at the time immune to the dictates of the remnants of the Chicago machine and Mayor Daley's City Hall.

"...the way to launch the campaign was to have coffee, and not one coffee, as in 'this is the start of everything.' Barack went around to a number of people and requested that they hold coffees for him."

But the Ackerman's did not want to host an event for Obama without meeting him first. So he came over to their house and spent more than an hour with the couple.

When Obama left, "I said to Sam, 'this guy could be the first African American president of the United States."

Martha Ackerman said, "I know there were a number of coffees. It wasn't just one or two."

[Kahns Krazy]

I think it's bullshit how much non-essential government travel gets billed to the taxpayers at all levels. I don't know if Palin is better or worse than any others, but I still think it's bullshit.

This is just one symptom of what I think is wrong with politics. Do any of you work for a company that as a matter of course would pay for your kids to travel with you on a business trip?

Both sides of the aisle are guilty on this type of behavior, and it won't stop until one side chooses to stop it on their own. The waste is revolting.

[DC Muskie]

You know what I think is funny, the shopping spree Palin went on with the RNC's credit card. I can't believe someone running for national office would actually go out and buy expensive clothes. I'd rather have my candidates in barrels and suspenders telling me how they are going to fix the economy.

I just love the last two weeks of an election!

[The Artist]

<<...why Obama would decide to kickstart his political in the home of a well known domestic terrorist.>>>

That's not exactly the whole truth.


McCain misleading public in role Ayers played in Obama political career
By Lynn Sweet on October 15, 2008 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (60)

WASHINGTON--Barack Obama continues to be attacked by John McCain and other Republicans for his relationship with Bill Ayers, the former terrorist turned respected Chicago educator. Obama served on civic boards with Ayers and Ayers held a coffee for Obama when Obama first ran for a state senate seat in 1995. McCain said he may bring up Ayers at the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night.

Obama said McCain--running ads featuring Ayers with Sarah Palin making him an issue on the stump--never said anything to his face. Ayers did not came up in the first two presidential debates. If McCain continues to insist that Obama launched his political career from Ayers' Hyde Park living room, he is misleading the public by overplaying the size and significance of Ayers' early support.


*Obama's campaign really was launched when he got the backing of then state Sen. Alice Palmer (D-Chicago), who wanted him to replace her as she was planning a run for Congress. Palmer's backing gave him entrée into local influential political circles.

Obama and Palmer would later have a falling out that continues to this day. Palmer changed her mind and decided to run for re-election after all. Obama got Palmer and his other rivals knocked off the ballot. Palmer ended up backing Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic primary bid.

*Obama's formal kick-off to announce his run for state senate was at the Hyde Park Ramada Inn on Sept. 19, 1995. Obama was introduced by Palmer in a room filled with supporters at the Ramada, fronting Lake Michigan on South Lake Shore Drive, a stroll from the Museum of Science and Industry.

*Around this time, Obama started to attend a series of coffees in the Hyde Park community where he lived, standard operating procedure for political rookies running in the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Chicago.

"I was certainly (hosting) one of the first," said Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, rabbi emeritus at Chicago's KAM Isaiah Israel--located across the street from the Obama home.

"There were several every week," he recalled on Tuesday night when we spoke. "I remember what I said to him: 'Someday you are going to be vice president of the United States.' He laughed and said, 'Why not president?'''

*The Ackermans, Sam and Martha, longtime Hyde Park activists in independent Democratic politics, also held an early event for Obama in their condo on E. Hyde Park Boulevard. (They have since divorced.)

Sam Ackerman told me Tuesday when we exchanged e-mails that "as I recall, the event at Bill Ayers' house (prior to ours) was a fund-raiser for Alice's congressional campaign at which she also introduced Barack as the successor she would like to see elected."

If Ackerman's recollection is correct--that the event at Ayers home was really for Palmer and Obama just piggy backed on it--then any argument that the Obama's political career was launched in the Ayers home is moot.

Martha and I talked on Tuesday night and she said she was not sure if the coffee at their condo for about 20 people was before or after Obama's Ramada Inn announcement.

"As a starter, I know that Barack went to Alice Palmer," Martha Ackerman told me. "...Then the question was, 'how do you go about doing this in the Hyde Park way," she said, a reference to the personal touch needed in the Hyde Park- Kenwood neighborhoods, at the time immune to the dictates of the remnants of the Chicago machine and Mayor Daley's City Hall.

"...the way to launch the campaign was to have coffee, and not one coffee, as in 'this is the start of everything.' Barack went around to a number of people and requested that they hold coffees for him."

But the Ackerman's did not want to host an event for Obama without meeting him first. So he came over to their house and spent more than an hour with the couple.

When Obama left, "I said to Sam, 'this guy could be the first African American president of the United States."

Martha Ackerman said, "I know there were a number of coffees. It wasn't just one or two."

Say it ain't so!

[xu95]

That's a good point. In fact, it is kind of funny that Palin is tossing the "socialist" tag out there, as Alaska is the only state of which I'm aware that makes an annual payment to its citizens based on the income from the state-owned oil resources.

Why else would anyone live in Alaska?

xu95

[xu95]

Sorry Mr. Duke, I am not the only one who wonders why Obama would decide to kickstart his political in the home of a well known domestic terrorist.

But I guess if the Artist says it wasn't true, CNN be damned.

He read it in Obama's autobiography so it must be true.

xu95

[xu95]

You know what I think is funny, the shopping spree Palin went on with the RNC's credit card. I can't believe someone running for national office would actually go out and buy expensive clothes. I'd rather have my candidates in barrels and suspenders telling me how they are going to fix the economy.

I just love the last two weeks of an election!

Me too. I am glad I filled in an absentee ballot and that I have TIVO to skip over all the commercials.

xu95

[Strange Brew]

Amazingly, no one has mentioned that Palin sold the private jet that was used soley for the transportation of the Alaskan Governor and family for 4.5 million dollars. And yes, the money went to the state treasury. So, by my estimation her move to use commercial and other forms of transport has provided a net gain of approx 4.479 million dollars to the tax payers of Alaska (not to mentioned she reduced her carbon footprint for the Al Gores on the board).

[PM Thor]

Me too. I am glad I filled in an absentee ballot and that I have TIVO to skip over all the commercials.

xu95

Voted today, glad that I don't have to care about this crap anymore.....on a side note I was very surprised with how crowded the elections board was, and evenmoreso surprised with how efficiently they had everything running. It did take about 25 minutes to vote, but I was pretty impressed.

[Stonebreaker]

This is interesting. I guess I never really thought of what the kids of a politician do in these kinds of circumstances. Apparently no official state babysitter? I don't blame them for wanting to go on trips to various places (or for her wanting to take them), but having the state of Alaska pay for it seems a stretch.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/21/palin.travel.ap/index.html

Is this the same outrage from the media we heard when all the Clintons went to Africa?
She's saved Alaskans money by selling the frickin plane and going after the oil companies. If she thinks she needs a sitter so the kids can be with her (which is exactly what the media was complaining about before....her being a possible inattentive mother).......then God bless her. She's saving people money, while Obama and Biden find new ways to spend it.
I'd keep the saving money angle for conservatives, frankly.

[Cheesehead]

Palin sold the plane at a loss so I don't think she put that much in the state's treasury. I question your figures.

[Stonebreaker]

I hear ya. But selling the plane recaptured a nice portion of the money that should not have spent. In addition, maintenance and pilots cost money. Far cheaper to fly the unfriendly skies on Southwestern.
BTW-how many planes actually increase in value after delivery?

[jdm2000]

Is this the same outrage from the media we heard when all the Clintons went to Africa?
She's saved Alaskans money by selling the frickin plane and going after the oil companies. If she thinks she needs a sitter so the kids can be with her (which is exactly what the media was complaining about before....her being a possible inattentive mother).......then God bless her. She's saving people money, while Obama and Biden find new ways to spend it.
I'd keep the saving money angle for conservatives, frankly.

Relax, Stoney! It's just a GILF and her family. Not anything important, like Xavier Basketball.

[Emp]

Is this the same outrage from the media we heard when all the Clintons went to Africa?
She's saved Alaskans money by selling the frickin plane and going after the oil companies. If she thinks she needs a sitter so the kids can be with her (which is exactly what the media was complaining about before....her being a possible inattentive mother).......then God bless her. She's saving people money, while Obama and Biden find new ways to spend it.
I'd keep the saving money angle for conservatives, frankly.

So if your employee saves you on say purchasing a Xerox machine, is she entitled to bill you for her day care? the argument is circular. If "she thinks" a traveling chef would also be good for her and her kids, the government is supposed to provide that as a perquisite/commission of office because she sold a plane? Please.

This in a state where there is virtually no subsidy for day care for actual working mothers, and a teen/unmarried pregnacy rate that among the highest in the nation. The double standard is awesome.

[PM Thor]

The comparison isn't the same Emporer. Palin saved a bunch more than is now being spent on air travel. Is she abusing the travelling family aspect? Probably, but in the end, it saves a Hell of a lot more than it would have spent if they used the Jet.

I think this isn't really a story. In fact, if the McCain/Palin campaign was quick on the uptake, they could turn it to their advantage very easily. I doubt they will though.

[Strange Brew]

The comparison isn't the same Emporer. Palin saved a bunch more than is now being spent on air travel. Is she abusing the travelling family aspect? Probably, but in the end, it saves a Hell of a lot more than it would have spent if they used the Jet.

I think this isn't really a story. In fact, if the McCain/Palin campaign was quick on the uptake, they could turn it to their advantage very easily. I doubt they will though.

Holy, I picked a bad day to quit drinkin'. I actually agree with Thor :D.

Let's take this one step further and talk about what really matters. Thor, who will be better this year Frease or Love? I think Love early with the opportunity for a twin towers situation by the end of the year.

[PM Thor]

I think they will both be All Americans. Why would you think otherwise?

You are looking for division within the Xavier fanbase, and NO sir, I say NO...I will not play that game.

I HATE dayton.

[Strange Brew]

I think they will both be All Americans. Why would you think otherwise?

You are looking for division within the Xavier fanbase, and NO sir, I say NO...I will not play that game.

I HATE dayton.

Oh no, twice in one night. I HATE DAYTON as well. Thor, how do you feel about the other team in Cincy?

[PM Thor]

Oh no, twice in one night. I HATE DAYTON as well. Thor, how do you feel about the other team in Cincy?

There is no other team in Cincy. I am confused by your question.

I HATE dayton.

[DC Muskie]

We need 87's take on Dayton's incoming recruiting class. I hear he's pretty good at knowing what type of players they are bringing in.

[Kahns Krazy]

I hear ya. But selling the plane recaptured a nice portion of the money that should not have spent. In addition, maintenance and pilots cost money. Far cheaper to fly the unfriendly skies on Southwestern.
BTW-how many planes actually increase in value after delivery?

Because of the insanely stringent maintenance requirements for private jets - at least those in the $5 million range - they actually don't depreciate much. Planes are essentially rebuilt on a rotating schedule. The company I work for operates a plane on a 5 year synthetic lease. The residual value in the lease is something around 97%. We have had offers to sell the plane at a gain of 7-13%.

Having said that, the real cost is in operating those planes. Had Palin kept the plane, it's doubtful there would be any record of expenses allocated to her children, but they would have taken all those same trips. The all-in cost to operate a plane like that is in the neighborhood of $5,000 per hour and up.

I still think the travel costs are bullshit.