Posted on 09/28/2009 8:14:29 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and the man tasked with finding a winning strategy for the war there, has talked with President Obama exactly once in more than two months. Federal officials have made one arrest in what they describe as the most dangerous terrorist plot in the U.S. since 9/11, and they have only started unraveling the conspiracy. Years before previously expected, Social Security is about to run out of money to cover the monthly checks that millions of senior and disabled Americans depend on to make ends meet. Unemployment is nearing 10 percent nationwide and has reached its highest mark since World War II among younger Americans, 52 percent. As many as 80,000 people in California's Central Valley are out of work in part because of federal environmental policies that make fish more important than people. These are only a few of the most important crises facing the nation today. And where is our president? He is in Copenhagen, Denmark, to deliver a sales pitch for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics.
Curiously, Obama had different priorities on Sept. 17 when he said First Lady Michelle Obama would go to Copenhagen in his stead: "I would make the case in Copenhagen personally, if I weren't so firmly committed to making real the promise of quality affordable health care for every American." What has changed since Sept. 17? Why is the president now taking it upon himself to persuade the International Olympic Committee to award an event with global prestige and worth untold billions of dollars to a city whose governing establishment virtually defines political corruption? This is no one-time distraction for the president, either. As senior presidential counselor and fellow Chicagoan Valerie Jarrett recently told Chicago Business: "The president has been an ardent supporter from the beginning ... We talk about it every day."
Reasonable people familiar with Chicago history know there must be more to this story than mere civic pride. A look at the finances of the bid ought to scare the dickens out of hard-pressed taxpayers everywhere. Chicago's proposed operating budget totals $3.8 billion, but, as Crain's Chicago Business pointed out in a scathing editorial, the plan only includes insurance for $1.1 billion. There's nothing in the budget to cover the possibility that private sector donors won't contribute the $1 billion needed to construct an Olympic Village. And what about cost overruns, which in Chicago, Crain's notes, have a lurid history of "coming in at two or three times estimates." Federal stimulus funds perhaps? That would be the Chicago way.
sarc/
Chicago is a war zone. More violent deaths there by the waring factions in the hood. Why would the IOC want to risk the safety of fans by going to Chicago.
I actually don’t have a problem with a president trying to bring the Olympics to the U.S., so the trip to Cophenhagen doesn’t bother me. I just wonder if Obama would be doing it if it wasn’t Chicago?
By this time next year it won’t even be considered for the Top Twenty failures next year.
“Bidding for the Olympics, Chicago-style”
The ACORN delegation!
Zer0’s found a way to throw tons of money at his corrupt cohorts in Chicago, it’s payback time.
Why didn’t he send Daley and Michelle to do the bidding, could it be Daley is too well known as a crook?
Besides, would run it in Chicago?
Does Chicago have a Peter Uberroth? No.
There's got to be a money grab in here somewhere.
Think about Drudge's current headline: OLYMPIC SPIRIT: VIDEO SHOWS BRUTAL GANG MURDER IN CHICAGO, and Chicago politics.
I can't see a Chicago Olympic Games being anything but a complete embarrasment for the US.
We don’t need no more stinkin olympics in this country for a long time. Let Rio have it.
We do need this worthless leader to meet with commanders while we are in a war.
Imagine if Bush had dropped everything to push a US Olympic venue ...the MSM and Congress would have wet their collective pants. No problem sending the misses, but Barry, you are the President not the mayor of Chicago. I imagine the Olympic bid will include millions of federal dollars, most of which would be lining the pockets of Barry’s Illinois cronies.
Did you forget your sarcasm tag? Many favors are owed. It's almost a million dollars for the creep in chief to travel there on AF1 and I've read Michelle is commandeering a second plane. Screw our fine soldiers and wing off to Denmark.
I despise 0bama.
The total cost of the 2004 Athens Games was somewhere between $12B-$14B ...
Where the #^&*^@# is the rest of the money going to come from ???
Mayor Daley told him to, “Get your B.A. in gear and start repaying me for what I have done for you”.
Sickening, disgusting crooks.
Introducing Denmark to the Chicago sport of knee breaking.
Loans from China.
Can we honestly expect National Security or economics to matter to a damn gang of street punks?
I have my trusty throw up cup ready.
It sure looks like Valerie is wearing down. Just look at old and tired she looks. Have to use plenty of that special high powered lighting on her.
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