Claim that Barack Obama's India visit will cost $200m a day is 'wildly inflated' [Maybe only $199m a day]

Claim that Barack Obama's India visit will cost $200m a day is 'wildly inflated' | World news | The Guardian

White House officials have dismissed a claim made by an Indian news outlet that Barack Obama's trip to India would cost $200m (£122m) a day as "wildly inflated".

The claim was seized upon by rightwing talkshow hosts in the US, but the Obama administration declined to put a figure on the cost of the three-day visit to Mumbai and Delhi.

"The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said.

"Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated."

Another news report claimed the US would be deploying 34 warships off the coast of Mumbai to protect the president. Officials said that was similarly exaggerated.

The Factcheck.org website pointed out that the US war in Afghanistan, which involves 100,000 troops, costs about $190m a day.

But that did not stop some Republicans, conservative talkshows and Fox News from seizing on the report and accusing the president of wasting government funds in tough economic times.

There is little doubt, though, that – as usual when the president travels abroad – he will be accompanied by a large staff and a vast operation including aircraft, a fleet of cars and heavy security.

I know, ask Michelle Antoinette Obama: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

THE REPUBLIC OF PAPERWORK - Months of my life are wasted on this tyranny of nonsense!

SteynOnline - CAMPAIGN COUNTDOWN: THE REPUBLIC OF PAPERWORK

That won't get rid of all the nuts - Coconuts removed from trees in preparation for Barack Obama's India trip

Coconuts removed from trees in preparation for Barack Obama's India trip

...All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

Last week American security officers inspected Mani Bhavan and its surroundings along with other places the president is likely to visit.

Every year in India people are injured or even killed by falling coconuts.

Mr Obama, still smarting from heavy losses in the midterm elections, will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China on the 10-day tour.

Monkey catchers on guard for Barack Obama's India visit

Delhi's police are to build 30-feet towers in jungle surrounding President Obama's hotel to protect him from terrorist attacks during next week's visit, and also shield from an invasion by the city's most persistent threat – monkeys.

Tunnel for Obama near Mani Bhavan

Published: Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 1:59 IST By Pandurang Mhaske | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

It could give a sense of superior American organisation, or be an indicator of a deep-set persecution complex. It could also be a manifestation of Uncle Sam’s penchant for a show of strength.

The matter pertains to US president Barack Obama’s planned visit to Mani Bhavan —the Gandhi museum — on November 6, soon after he reaches Mumbai. On Monday, US secret agents visited the museum to plan Obama’s security detail.

They were accompanied by officers of Mumbai Police and civic officials of the D ward (where Mani Bhavan is located). While inspecting the route and the buildings lining up the route to the museum, the Americans detected a skyscraper near Peddar road and also found the area to be highly populated.

Since it is difficult to monitor such a congested area, they came up with a quick solution which left the Indians accompanying them amazed: A bomb-proof over-ground tunnel — to be installed by US military engineers in just an hour.

The tunnel would be a kilometre long and measure 12ft by 12ft — enough to let Obama’s cavalcade pass through. The tunnel would be centrally air-conditioned, fitted with close-circuit television cameras, and will be heavily guarded at every point, including, of course, its entry and exit.

Details about when exactly the tunnel would be made were not forthcoming. But officials said that the structure would be dismantled immediately after Obama leaves the area.

Is this an Invasion or a visit? 34 warships sent from US for Obama visit

An Ironic turn of events for the Anti-Colonialist, collectivist President!

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit

Press Trust of India, Updated: November 04, 2010

New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.

Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines and majority of the White House staff will be in India accompanying the President on this three-day visit that will cover Mumbai and Delhi.

He will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday. The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea.

Arrangements have been put in place for emergency evacuation, if needed.

Obama is expected to fly by a helicopter -- Marine One -- from the city airport to the Indian Navy's helibase INS Shikra at Colaba in south Mumbai.

From there, he will drive down in Lincoln Continental -- the Presidential limousine -- to the nearby the Taj Hotel.

Two jets, armed with advanced communication and security systems, and a fleet of over 40 cars will be part of Obamas convoy.

Around 800 rooms have been booked for the President and his entourage in Taj Hotel and Hyatt.

The President will have a security ring of American elite Secret Service, which are tasked to guard the President, along with National Security Guards (NSG) and personnel from central paramilitary forces and local police in Mumbai and Delhi.

Similar arrangements will be in place in Delhi, with the Air Force One to be kept in all readiness throughout Obama's stay here from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.

Maurya Hotel, where the President will stay, has already been swarmed by American security personnel and protective measures have been put in place.

Security drills are already been carried out at the hotel as well as Rajghat which he will visit.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/34-warships-sent-from-us-for-obama-visit-64459?cp

VDH was also interviewed on the radio by John Batchelor. The Presser time line and delusion played out-Obama Doesn’t Get It

Obama was petulant, impudent, lacking in any self re-assessment or honest introspection. He can't understand that he's had a charmed career by affirmative action, through school, Government sponsored jobs, politics and Chicago's corrupt style dirty tricks. That paved his way to the senate. He was fawned over by the press, voted for by whites who self congratulated themselves for voting for the 'articulate' black guy. Now they could feel good about being so liberally broad minded, temporally. Blacks voted for him because he was black, and why not?

Politics of race and running for office requires skill, but little responsibility. Executive administration, especially the Presidency, even in the best of times, requires responsibility, delegation, experience and natural ability. None of which has been exhibited in Obama. [Mooserider]

Obama Doesn’t Get It - National Review Online

Obama Doesn’t Get It By Victor Davis Hanson Posted on November 03, 2010 4:40 PM President Obama came close, but he still just cannot admit that his radical policies and their effects on the economy are the cause of his devastating political rebuke. For most of his press conference, an oddly depressed Obama voted present, as he all but said that the problems are mostly ours, not his — or at least not his agenda but perhaps an occasional inadequate communication. In clingers fashion, he once more is talking down to us, explaining that we confused his necessary solutions with a bogeyman increase in big government, and so typically, in fright and ignorance, lashed out at his party. He is claiming the outrage grew from the same frustration that elected him, rather than arising precisely because of him and his agenda. In short, we are angry because his EU-socialist agenda is progressing too slowly and hasn’t delivered as promised — as it will in time. Perhaps then we will thank him for his proper big-government, big-spending solution. He seems bewildered (for the first time?) that his popularity as a campaign rhetorician did not last when he became responsible for actual governance. For most of the press conference, a humbled but deer-in-the-headlights Obama half-heartedly argued that the populist outrage against his own massive debt, huge wasteful government, and elitism was really outrage against the economy he inherited, an outrage that he shares. We don’t know it, the president hints, but we are still angry at the Bush years, and yesterday mistakenly took our wrath out on Obama’s methodical, albeit too slow, efforts at recovery. In short, there was little admission whatsoever that Obama’s message and the way he pushed it turned off millions — there was no repentant Clinton, circa autumn 1994, here; instead, a shocked Obama who seems hurt that we do not appreciate him. I don’t think the American people — who just last week heard their president boast that Republicans had to sit in the back seat, and that Latinos should punish their Republican “enemies,” and who have now given him the greatest midterm putdown in over a half-century — suddenly will pay much attention to his calls for an end to the old divisiveness. Otherwise, I have two reactions to the election — one about the national scene, the other about my home state, California. Had not some zealots talked of possible 90-to-100-seat gains, the Democrats would be in greater shock today at the near-historic 60+ House pick-up, along with a stunning near sweep of state legislatures and governorships, as well as gains in the Senate — and all a mere 21 months after the beginning of hope and change. The idea that we are going to copy EU socialism is dead. So is Keynesian massive borrowing. So is the promised second wave of Obamism, such as cap-and-trade and blanket amnesty. Obama’s supporters can brag that erstwhile absolutely safe senior Democratic senators like Boxer and Reid managed to get reelected, but they must understand that Obama’s vision and his method of enacting it simply turned off the vast majority of the country. Some things also have to change on the conservative side. Congress must not remain hostage to farm-state representatives and senators, for whom the huge agricultural subsidy programs are sacrosanct; a decade ago, we went from “eliminating” those programs via the “Freedom to Farm” Act to calling farm pork a post-9/11 matter of national security. On the budget front, I doubt we will hear much talk, at least in the short term, of massive tax cuts that eventually will result in greater supply-side growth and thus greater revenue. Instead, I assume that any Republican tax-cut attempt will have to be matched in the here and now by a commensurate cut in spending, dollar for dollar — or rather, given the deficits, one dollar in tax cuts, two dollars in spending cuts. I also don’t think we will see representatives bragging of the new pork-barrel community centers they brought home, with their own names plastered on them — at least for a while. In California, there is some irony: The philosophy that led the state to the highest tax rates in the country, along with the near-worst schools, largest deficits, and most crumbling infrastructure, was reaffirmed. Now California’s state government will have to deal with the reality that if the highest-tax state in the union raises taxes still higher, it will lose even more high earners than the current 3,000 who leave each week. A Republican Congress is not likely to bail out a bankrupt California. More likely, we will see even more of the present ad hoc government-by-euphemism. More “furloughs” instead of pay cuts for unionized public employees, “temporary” larger class sizes in the schools, more “user fees” imposed by executive order in lieu of getting new taxes passed. The state will continue to descend into a pyramidal society. On top there is the wealthy, leftist coastal elite from Napa to Hollywood, which is seemingly immune from the effects of high taxes and regulation (and wants more green laws, gay marriage, abortion, and therapeutic bromides). The top of the pyramid is in league with a growing underclass in part dependent upon a huge entitlement industry; this coalition thus favors more taxes, entitlements, unionized public employees, open borders, etc. Meanwhile, a squeezed middle-class private sector is slowly being strangled, shutting down, and leaving. What are we left with? Public money in California running out is, in fact, a solution of sorts.

Daniel Webster beats the Devil

The Devil was famously beaten by Daniel Webster. He persuaded a jury from hell. A new Dan Webster was also persuasive against another Devil!

Alan Grayson-Daniel Webster: Webster wins Congressional race - OrlandoSentinel.com

Dan Webster beats Alan Grayson in a landslide

Democrat U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson — at the same time loved and hated by partisans across the country — was ousted from Congress on Tuesday by Dan Webster, a quiet conservative known to Central Florida voters after nearly three decades in the Legislature.

With 99 percent of precincts counted, Webster had 56 percent of the vote to Grayson's 38 percent.

The victory put a Republican back in Florida's 8th District, which had sent Republicans to the House for the past 26 years until Grayson was elected in 2008. It also adds another win to the GOP wave of victories across the country, and ends Grayson's tenure in Congress after a single, two-year term.

Webster credited the results to his grass-roots support and his decision to run a positive campaign....

The race drew national attention because of Grayson's bombast. When he said on the House floor that the GOP health care plan was to "die quickly," Republicans took note, and Grayson became a proxy for the bigger ideological war between the Democratic and Republican parties. Prominent conservatives, including Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and GOP chairman Michael Steele, roused the Republican base for Webster.

For his part, Grayson launched plenty of attack ads of his own. A TV spot that labeled his opponent "Taliban Dan" was widely criticized, giving Webster an unexpected shot of national exposure and a boost in fund-raising.

The race had been dogged by accusations that Grayson conspired with local political consultant Doug Guetzloe to create the FloridaTea Party so its candidate, Peg Dunmire, would sap conservative votes away from Webster. Grayson and Dunmire have repeatedly denied any collusion.

Dunmire drew less than 4 percent of the vote — not enough to change the race's outcome. A fourth candidate, independent George Metcalfe of Eustis, got 1.9 percent.

Webster rarely responded to Grayson's attacks, even refusing to debate because he said he couldn't stand to share a stage with his opponent.

Instead, he stuck to the issues worrying the Republican base: federal spending and borrowing.

...oth campaigns had aggressive voter-contact armies, who knocked on doors and manned phone banks. Grayson's get-out-the-vote operation was bigger and had been in place for more than a year.

Grayson also held a wide lead in campaign cash. The wealthy attorney largely self-funded his 2008 campaign, but this time brought in $5.1 million in contributions from around the country, compared with Webster's $1.3 million.

By mid-October, the most recent reporting deadline, Grayson had spent $3.8 million and Webster $977,000 — though both campaigns have spent heavily on TV ads and voter-contact activities in the final days of the election.

Mark Schlueb can be reached at mschlueb@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5417.

Heckuva Job, New York State GOP & Nevada, New Jersey, California

Heckuva Job, New York State GOP -

By Greg Pollowitz - Media Blog -

National Review Online- 11/3/10

This is embarrassing: Schumer 65%, Townsend 33% Gillibrand 61%, DioGuardi 37% Cuomo 62%, Paladino 34% And to put this drubbing in proper perspective . . . DeMint 63%, Greene 28% If you can outperform arguably the worst candidate in the history of the politics by only five to nine percentage points, you really have to ask if there’s any Republican Party to speak of in New York State at all. ---or in Calif., NJ, Nev. - The GOP got testy at Tea Party Outsiders and gave tepid support if any. The /County Club' perk loving co-opter insiders in the GOP would rather be the elite and not get their hands dirty on the new 'sons of liberty' who are just the little common folk. The GOP attitude was clearly stated by the penultimate Republican Insider who keeps putting his foot in his mouth, former Senator Trent Lott: Trent Lott, the former senate majority leader from Mississippi, made news last summer when he said this of incoming tea party-backed senators “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/03/trent-lott-to-demint-i-meant-mcconnell-should-reach-out-to-tea-party-senators/#ixzz14G4GnD4B

Boehner vows to repeal Obama healthcare reforms

Hold Their Feet to the Fire! Repeal it ALL and Retire Andy Griffith, PLEASE

Boehner vows to repeal Obama healthcare reforms | Reuters

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 3, 2010 12:16pm EDT

(Reuters) - Representative John Boehner, expected to be named the next speaker of the House of Representatives, vowed on Wednesday to repeal health care reforms pushed into law by the Obama administration.

"I believe that the healthcare bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best healthcare system in the world, and bankrupt our country," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told a news conference. "That means we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Vicki Allen)

John Kerry Bashes Politico, Huffington Post While Calling Harry Reid 'Lazarus' - "Dracula"

I vote not 'Dracula', but Renfield! 'Lurch' has the following opinion.

John Kerry Bashes Politico, Huffington Post While Calling Harry Reid 'Lazarus' - The Eye (CQ Politics)

John Kerry Bashes Politico, Huffington Post While Calling Harry Reid 'Lazarus'

by Christina Bellantoni | November 3, 2010

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tonight held nothing back when congratulating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for managing to survive a tough reelection bid tonight.

Here's Kerry statement:

"Politico was wrong, Huffington Post was wrong, hell, all the pundits were wrong. Harry Reid isn't just Dracula, he isn't just Lazarus, he's our Leader and our whole caucus is thrilled that he's unbreakable and unbeatable."

The World of Obama — A Glossary - By Victor Davis Hanson

The World of Obama — A Glossary - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online

The World of Obama — A Glossary. By Victor Davis Hanson November 2, 2010 ACORN: Never heard of it Arizona: Resembles 1930s Italy beer summit: Where investigating an apparent break-in is defined as acting “stupidly” bipartisan: A senator with a 97 percent partisan voting record Boehner, John: Is to be blamed bow: Correct greeting for sheiks; for the Queen, an iPod is appropriate BP: Company requiring a boot on its neck to make it fork over $10 billion, or $15 billion — or why not $20 billion? campaign finance reform: Applies to “them” capital-gains taxes: Increase them even if that brings in less revenue (it’s the punishment, stupid) Chamber of Commerce: Is really to be blamed Chicago community organizer: Best preparation for the Oval Office Chrysler creditor: To the back of the line Churchill: Eccentric 19th-century colonialist civility: Requires demonizing George W. Bush, while deifying Barack Obama comprehensive health-care reform: Entails astronomical rises in private health-insurance premiums comprehensive immigration reform: Blanket amnesty corpsman: One who carries corpses Costa del Sol: A cut-rate getaway spot for recession vacationing cowards: Won’t talk nonstop about race czar: Agency director subject neither to confirmation hearings nor to audit divisive: Opposing Barack Obama doctors: Medical professionals liable to cut off your limbs and rip out your tonsils needlessly for profit elections: Only sometimes have consequences enemy: An American who opposes illegal immigration; sometimes mistakenly used of combatants fighting Americans energy: To be capped and traded rather than produced exceptional: Old, inaccurate description of the United States faces: As in “get in their” filibuster: Archaic and obstructionist parliamentary maneuver except when used to stop reactionary appointments Fox News: Is really, really to be blamed George W. Bush: Is really, really, really to be blamed get out the vote: Dangerous except when applied to minority blocs golf: Sign of aristocratic disdain that can nevertheless be appropriately used to recharge exhausted liberal batteries green jobs: Massive subsidies to friendly progressive enterprises Ground Zero Mosque: No such thing Guantanamo Bay: Virtually closed guns: You cling to them, we bring them to a knife fight “hope and change”: An inspiring slogan that is better than the facts or the truth ice cream: Eating it will get your children deported inheritance taxes: Reason to die before 2011 Iraq: Now the good bad war jobs: Always potentially saved, never actually lost KSM: Virtually tried and convicted in a New York federal court Las Vegas: Where enemies of the people go to spend their ill-gotten gains Latinos: Group of Americans who must punish enemies of the people at the polls laws: Suggestions that may be followed in cases of social utility Limbaugh, Rush: Is really, really, really, really to be blamed “make no mistake about it”: As enlightening as “let me be perfectly clear” Martha’s Vineyard: Another populist recession-era getaway place minorities: “They’re counting on your silence. They’re counting on your amnesia. They’re counting on your apathy.” money: “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough” NASA: A social bureau dedicated to Islamic outreach “never waste a crisis”: Recessions are not so bad after all outliers: Formerly known as rogue nations polarization: Rising opposition to liberalism Predators: Bush started them progressive: Alternative to liberal, used when the latter polls badly prolonged detention: Acceptable, as opposed to indeterminate detention radical Islam: A construct of the paranoid Right redistributive change: What the Supreme Court needs to work toward renditions: Ongoing Bush felonies now impossible to stop Republicans: Cannot sit in the front seat reset button: Treating our friends as neutrals and our enemies as friends SEIU: A social-services organization shovel-ready: Neither ready nor involving shovels smoking: Does not occur if it occurs in the Rose Garden stimulus: Borrowing another trillion dollars with no plan for paying it back tax: Reclaiming public money that was taken by greedy and selfish private citizens Tea Party: Extremist anti-government types in the incendiary tradition of Jefferson; preferably called “tea-baggers” terrorism: A man-caused disaster addressed by overseas contingency operations “they”: Wealthy evil manipulators who use their obscene profits to vacation in places like Las Vegas times of economic uncertainty: A signal that you are about to be called a racist tribunals: Bush started those too $250,000: Above that bad, below good undisclosed: Description of anonymous opposition campaign contributors unemployed: Those whose jobs were lost under Bush Van Jones: Even the name was made up wealth: To be spread rather than created white person: Often “typical” and “bitter” with “untrained ears,” and likely to “cling” to religion and guns; in short, full of “antipathy” working across the aisle: Offering huge earmarks or presidential appointments in return for a single Republican legislative vote “yes, we can”: Inspiring slogan that went out of use during the summer of 2009