Friday, March 21, 2014

The First Lady Goes To China, On Taxpayer Dime, without Free Press to Watch

"First lady Michelle Obama, her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and her mother touched down Thursday in China for what’s being touted as a weeklong feel-good tourist event, amid increasing murmurs back home about U.S. taxpayers having to foot the bill."
Mrs. Obama is supposed to use her visit for soft diplomacy only, and shy from the more controversial topics that plague U.S.-China relations, namely human rights and economics. No reporters accompanied the family on the trip.

“The nature of her visit is really quite different,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters ahead of the trip. “What the first lady really brings is the power of her own story, the power of American values.”

The White House also announced that Mrs. Obama wouldn’t field any questions from journalists she encountered in Beijing, which rankled some members of the press and the private sector, given her trip — complete with an entourage of about 70 — was still being paid for with tax dollars.
Any chance the first lady will bring up income inequality to the Chinese?

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Rand Paul and others in the GOP could promise that this kind of thing will end under their administrations.

Hillary will take tax payer funded travel to the extreme. She already has.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Chi-Com tour of delusion. Just like The Cuban communists gave Chuck Hagel(D) and other democrats the "look at our wonderful nation where everything is free and perfect" Tour in Cuba. (but please, ignore the reality)

Unknown said...

I found this somewhere:

Throughout the 18th century, for example, France was the greatest superpower in Europe, if not the world.

But they became complacent, believing that they had some sort of ‘divine right’ to reign supreme, and that they could be as fiscally irresponsible as they liked.

The French government spent money like drunken sailors; they had substantial welfare programs, free hospitals, and grand monuments.

They held vast territories overseas, engaged in constant warfare, and even had their own intrusive intelligence service that spied on King and subject alike.

Of course, they couldn’t pay for any of this.

French budget deficits were out of control, and they resorted to going heavily into debt and rapidly debasing their currency.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"I found this somewhere:"

I too found it and posted it.

thanks.

Unknown said...

That's what a I meant. "Somewhere" is at Casa Lem. Just below...

Unknown said...

The two topics join perfectly.

deborah said...

The House of Lem. Me gusta.

AllenS said...

Her fortune cookie tonight:

You will fly the sky. Someone else will pay

Lucky numbers: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

ricpic said...

Hey, grifters do what grifters do.

edutcher said...

Moochelle is going home for her next batch of orders.

The Dude said...

She is looking for her next job in a government or country only slightly more communist than the one where she will, I hope, be unemployed in a scant few years.

Don't let the door hit you on your enormous posterior, Moochie.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm hardly a home owner.

Methadras said...

These people are nothing but glorified parasites. Truly.