Right Truth

I'm going to be tacky now

On Michelle Obama's trip, I suggest to her that if you don't have the boobs to hold up your blouse, don't wear it.  And what is it with the "tan" lines?  Has she been going to the tanning booth or laying out in the sun?  And if this is a "private family trip" why are we taxpayers footing the bill?

Millionaires' playground': The hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, where Michelle and Sasha Obama will stay for four days. Luxurious: The Obamas have booked 60 rooms and will spend four nights at the five-star Villa Padierna?

The cost, in addition to the lodging, a room for $2,500 X somewhere between 60 and 70 rooms equals around $170,000.00,  and those are just the rooms.  The suits are so very much more.  Don't forget the 70 Secret Service agents. 

But the first family is just like the rest of us smucks, Obama told us so, remember? Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there." 

The FIrst Lady's press office referred to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' statement at the White House briefing yesterday that "the First Lady is on a private trip."

"She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip," he said. "And I think I'd leave it at that."CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports the C-32A (757) the First Lady used to fly to Spain - one of the planes that usually serves as Air Force Two, and sometimes Air Force One - operates at a Department of Defense reimbursement rate of $11,351 per hour.

So a 6.5 hour flight to Spain would run $73,781.50 - double for the round trip.  (CBS)

 Would I be just as upset if this were a Republican president and family?  YES!!!!

  I suggest you read this excellent article by Andrea Tantaros, and this article and pictures at the Daily Mail, and this article at CBS.

Now back to me being tacky.  Ask your grandparents or great grandparents if they have ever heard of a "tacky party".  I heard about them when I was a very little girl.  Here's how it works:  Someone would decide to have a party, they would contact those they wanted to invite with the time and place.  The idea was to come dressed as "tacky" as you possibly could.

Participants would scrounge in the attic or basement, looking for old style clothes, things that were worn out, didn't fit, anything that was just downright "tacky".

That is how Michelle Obama looks every time she steps out in public, in my opinion.  TACKY.  Nothing fits right, nothing is the right style, or color, or shape.  She has never looked like a First Lady. 

I'm done being tacky now, it's your turn.

FARC and International Support

BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- Email messages linking the Colombian Marxist guerilla insurgency (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC) to politicians, union activists and left-wing parties overseas have revealed a network of supporters spanning several continents, and have kept tensions high between Colombia and some of its neighbors.

Most of the information comes from laptop computers, external hard drives and flash drives reportedly recovered from a FARC campground located in Ecuador that the Colombians bombed and then searched in March. The attack killed Raul Reyes, the guerrillas' second in command, who acted as the group's foreign minister.

Initially, the release of email messages documenting friendly relationships between the guerrillas and the leftist governments of Ecuador and Venezuela strained relations between Colombia and its neighbors. Since then, other emails made public have linked FARC leaders to government officials, academics, far-left political parties and union activists in Spain, Italy, Germany, Canada, Brazil and the United States.   (continue reading at World Politics Review)

From Douglas Farah, The FARC’s World of Terror Is Shrinking

The concerted effort by the United States and most of the European Union, along with a few countries in Latin America, are gradually cutting off the operational areas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Tuesday's OFAC designation of eight members of the FARC's international delegation is another step in that direction. The FARC is a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU.

These International Commission members represent the FARC in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and Canada.

As I wrote in this paper for the NEFA Foundation, the FARC's international structure has been one of the most underestimated elements of support for the terrorist organization.  (continue reading)

Other reading:

Gulf States' Aid for Cambodia's Cham Muslims Raises U.S. Concerns,

Syria: The Return Address on a Car Bomb

War is Boring: Somalia Shows Danger of U.S. Prioritizing Ideology Over Security

Is Russia Preparing for an Arms Race with the West?