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Barack Obama has been savaged by a top spending campaigner for taking the First Family on an eighth consecutive Christmas vacation to Hawaii, at huge expense to the American taxpayer.The President was accused of treating Air Force One, which costs $206,000/hour to run, 'like an Uber ride' ahead of his next jaunt to his home state.Fly-time alone will set taxpayers back somewhere in the region of $3.5million as Obama, the First Lady, Sasha and Malia and their two dogs jet off for around two weeks.They have traditionally rented a luxury villa in the upscale Kailua area on Oahu, the main...

WASHINGTON — President Obama has already made clear what he will miss the most when he leaves office in 15 months. “People sometimes ask me what the biggest perk of being president is,” he told visitors at the White House last week. “No. 1 is the plane.” In September, he told another audience that “the plane is nice” and that unfortunately for him “my lease is running out,” so he might soon have to “start taking off my shoes again going through security.” In Kenya in July, he noted that when he visited as a young man his luggage was...

Kennedy, in a book scheduled to be released Monday, provides an intimate picture of a dysfunctional family and some of its well-publicized struggles with alcoholism and mental health issues — and what he describes as a blanket of secrecy that papered over their problems...The book, which Kennedy will discuss on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night, is bound to rile other members of the famous family. “I know how some of them are going to react,” Kennedy says in a brief excerpt from the show released by CBS. “They’re angry.” He describes a drunken sailing trip in 2000 that turned out...

Now, a batch of Kenyan newborn babies will be called 'Air Force One Obama' in honour of US President Barack Obama's visit to the country -- with some mothers evidently hoping their offspring will be future high-flyers. Already there are numerous young Barack Obamas living in Kogelo, the president's ancestral village, but soon after Obama touched down on Friday night two mothers in the western city of Kisumu took the unusual decision to name their sons after the president's jet, Air Force One. "I have decided to call my baby Air Force One Barack Obama so that we can all...

Secret Service: Mr.President, Are You All Right? CIC(Canine-In-Chief):Ruff! Ruff Ruff!

On Wednesday, according to The Hill, the White House Office of Management and Budget approved new plans to regulate airplane emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency will now hold hearings on the prospective findings, then write up regulation. According to the OMB, the EPA has shown that such emissions justify an “endangerment finding” because they affect climate change; the regulations will reportedly “align… with regulations that the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency of the United Nations, is developing.” So the Obama administration wants to crack down on emissions from airplanes. Except, of course, if President Obama is aboard. Then, it’s...

Bill Nye was heavily skewered online Tuesday evening after revealing his plans for an Earth Day event.The popular science educator tweeted that he plans to “catch an #EarthDay flight on Air Force One” Wednesday with President Barack Obama.“We’re going to #ActOnClimate,” he added. Heading down to DC to catch an #EarthDay flight on Air Force One tomorrow with the President. We're going to #ActOnClimate. — Bill Nye (@BillNye) April 21, 2015 Individuals were quick to criticize Nye for flying on a 747 in an effort to save the Earth and rescue the environment. Hypocrisy much? MT @BillNye: Heading to DC...

President Obama tapped taxpayers for a weekend golf trip to Florida -- and merriment flowed aboard Air Force One. The president split a cold and windy D.C. (temps were in the 30s) and jumped aboard the presidential plane with a throng of friends and support aides. Just minutes later, beers were being tapped. A reporter wrote in a press pool report: "You can tell this is a non work trip ... someone forward of the press cabin ordered 3 beers at 9:26 a.m." Saturday's round will be Obama 222nd round of golf as president --and the family has taken some...

The White House said Monday that taxpayers paid for first lady Michelle Obama and President Obama to fly on separate planes to Los Angeles on the same day last week because they were traveling to “different airports” on slightly different schedules. “They flew into different airports,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “It’s also my understanding that the first lady actually left to get back to Washington, D.C., before the president even arrived in California.” Mr. Obama flew to Los Angeles International airport last Thursday on Air Force One, arriving around 4 p.m. local time for an appearance on

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane ... No, it’s two planes! Two taxpayer-funded planes, that is. And on those two planes last Thursday were two occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, jetting across country to the same destination — L.A. Separate planes. Your money. Ready for the pain? You’re going to need a No. 2 pencil and scrap paper for this. Estimates are that Air Force One costs about $206,000 per hour to operate. You could go on Priceline right now and book a round-trip itinerary from Boston to LAX for between $500 and...

One gallon of jet fuel burned creates about 19 pounds of C02. A 747 burns about 25,000 pounds of fuel per hour. A round trip from Washington DC to LA would take about 11- 11 1/2 hours. That comes to about 287,000 pounds of fuel. And that results in the production of about 5,462,500 pounds of CO2. A 757 burns about 6,000 pounds of jet fuel per hour. A similar round trip to LA would burn about 69,000 pounds of fuel and create about 1,310,000 pounds of CO2. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama both traveled to Los Angeles on the...

One of the least back-slapping presidents in recent memory may have finally found a way to bond with lawmakers — by treating them to the most exclusive upgrade in air travel. Since his party took brutal losses in the November elections, President Barack Obama has invited nearly 20 members of Congress to fly with him on Air Force One to state visits in India and Saudi Arabia, to Tennessee for the announcement of his free community college initiative, and to Nevada to promote his latest sweeping moves on immigration. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander used last month’s flight to his home...

Republicans hate Obama. They hate him so much that they’ve lost all perspective. In the red mist that falls over their eyes when thinking about the President of the United States, they are now advocating the near-total destruction of the executive branch if it means Barack Obama may be inconvenienced for the next two years – and hinder the government’s functionality for the rest of time. They think that’s a fair trade. In the screeching hissy fit the GOP is throwing over Obama’s actions on immigration – just the latest in a long line of perceived slights that conservatives have...

As President Obama embarks Thursday on a three-day Democratic fundraising trip to California, the White House adamantly refuses to to disclose the cost of presidential political travel or how it calculates reimbursements to the government, CBS News said. “As in other administrations, we follow all rules and regulations to ensure that the DNC or other relevant political committee pays what is required for the president to travel to political events,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Aboard Air Force One En Route Princeton, an Indiana event. U.S. foreign policy and international engagement. A full transcript will be available on the White House website. * * * * Q: Do you have the week-ahead? MR. EARNEST: I do have the week-ahead. Thank you for reminding me. Let me come through it here, and then we’ll all go put our seatbelts on. On Sunday, the President will deliver remarks at the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial Dedication Ceremony in Washington, D.C. On Monday, the President will attend a DNC roundtable in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the President...

The president spent over $7.3 million on just three trips in 2013, including $2.1 million to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in August, according to new flight documents provided by the Air Force to a public watchdog group.

In the past two weeks, President Obama has twice interrupted vacation and fundraising trips to take presidential planes to Washington for a brief period, only to turn around and fly back to his earlier location — once after just a few hours in the White House. Why the peripatetic travel schedule? Well, there was a wedding and a bachelor party involved — and an expensive mix of socializing, work, and vacation. On Thursday, the White House announced Obama would travel to Westchester, N.Y., on Friday to attend a Democratic fundraiser. The president would then travel on to Newport, R.I., later...

The president spent over $7.3 million on just three trips in 2013, including $2.1 million to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in August, according to new flight documents provided by the Air Force to a public watchdog group. Judicial Watch told Secrets that the sky-high jet travel costs for the first family's 2012-2013 Christmas vacation in Hawaii, their beach vacation on Martha's Vineyard last summer and President Obama's brief trip to California in August totalled $7,396,531.20. The Air Force said it costs $228,288 an hour to fly Air Force One, a massive $48,535 jump from the last...

President Obama boarded Air Force One this morning together with the 949-page, $956 billion farm bill, which he plans to sign at the Michigan State University on Friday. The president was accompanied by White House press secretary Jay Carney, Senior Advisors Dan Pfeiffer and Valerie Jarrett.

40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan aims a rifle from a window onboard Air Force One; circa 1983