34 warships to guard Prez off the coast of India
So while we wallow in debt and unemployment, the president moves Washington to India by sea;
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.
Yeah, I understand that the President needs protection, but holy smokes! 34 warships? Looking for a couple of rubber rafts?
Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues
Not just that–a friggin carrier? We gonna launch an alpha strike on a Zodiac? Drop a few Tomahawks on a cab driver that gets too close? Land an MEU if Me-Shell doesn’t get lobster the way she wants it?
Oh, I can just see Obama asking for a Waygu steak. Only him.
But…but….but…I thought the world loved him, why would he need protection?
/sarc
I want to know what the reason for the $2 billion, 10 day Asia trip is for? What is the purpose for spending $2 billion we don’t have on a trip that no one will say what it is for. Why does he need to take almost his entire WH staff with him? There is no mention what the diplomatic agenda is, or what is to be discussed between him and other leaders.
This trip is a money wasting farce.
OT, he needs protection from all the evil TEA partiers that are out to get him. I mean, look how they manipulated the election and got so many hard working Democrats tossed out of office. Why, they must have spies EVERYWHERE!!!
There’s probably one right next to you…
I say: Let the Zodiacs through. Just make sure our SEALs are the occupants. They won’t screw up the job.
A pleasure-seeking, power-mad, paranoid President. Lovely.
I can only imagine what they would have said had this been the previous president…
Too much protection is always better than not enough, but this is stupid.
I don’t have a problem with protecting the President. What I have a problem with is why it is necessary to take almost the entire WH staff with on a trip that has no agenda, no purpose, and is costing us $2 billion for 10 days.
Do they have golf courses in Mumbai?
You guys are making yourselves look bad. Don’t you have anything more important to bitch about this morning?
THERE’s Joe. Hi, Joe!
34 warships being used for pleasure yachts isn’t enough to complain about? Tell us what’s on your mind.
Examining the blatant waste of public funds and manpower makes us look bad Joe? We’re not talking about a difference of opinion concerning administrative or national policies as we might were we discussing say, the war. No, we’re discussing the apparent squandering of billions in national resources on what can only be described as a pleasure trip since the administration hasn’t given any other explanation.
Really man, what color is the sky on your home planet?
Joe Says:
November 4th, 2010 at 11:51 am
You guys are making yourselves look bad. Don’t you have anything more important to bitch about this morning?
Why, Joe; should I not be wondering why a 10 day trip is costing us $2 billion? Should I not voice my concerns about that amount of money being spent on a trip with no purpose? Should I not wonder why almost the entire WH staff is going along on a trip with no stated purpose?
You lose your mind about smaller things than this, yet now you want to lecture us? I wonder what you would say if it were President Bush doing this?
I have an idea, Joe; why don’t you shut your fucking piehole and go back to watching your re-runs of grandma botox swinging her gavel, mmmmmkay?
It’s just $2 billion. That can be printed in an hour, tops.
Unreal.
Hell, I’m starting to think Capt. Teleprompter is outsourcing the frickin’ government to India.
it’s another Muslim ‘mission’ trip
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-28/politics/obama.asia.trip_1_indonesia-largest-muslim-majority-nation-bilateral-meeting?_s=PM:POLITICS
Joey popped up, we can cancel the canvass of the mental hospitals.
“You lose your mind about smaller things than this, yet now you want to lecture us? I wonder what you would say if it were President Bush doing this?”. Old Trooper, you know what Joey would be saying, waste of money, waste of time, he should be concentrating on the problems here at home, what a dunce, $2 Billion? how many homeless could be fed and clothed for $2 Billion, what about the safety net?
http://www.stripes.com/blogs/the-rumor-doctor/the-rumor-doctor-1.104348/will-34-warships-accompany-obama-to-india-1.124293
“Then again, The Rumor Doctor has been wrong before.”
You ain’t kiddin’. I’ve seen him get the rumor he was investigating wrong.
So, the rumor doctor is privy to information that everyone else isn’t? Is the rumor doctor more in tune than a member of congress, or are we supposed to take a staffer’s word for it?
“Foreign media always exaggerate about presidential trips,” Gordon Johndroe, former deputy White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said in an e-mail.. “I am positive there will not be ‘34 warships’ involved in this trip.”
Oh, well I guess that settles it then….
There’s only so much room on AF1.
Perhaps he needs the transport for the entourage, the multitude of sycophants and hangers-on?
He isn’t worth kayak, much less 34 war ships. What EXACTLY is this trip about? It’s an insult like everything else he has done to the American people to spend this much money on a trip.
I want justice.
While The O One is over in India, can SOMEONE, ANYONE, cancel his passport and NOT let him back into the US of A?
The figures are all bogus, pulled out of thin air by some guy in India, and you coolade drinking ditto heads fell for it. Sad story….
Are you still walking around with a saggy diaper that leaks, Joe?
What’s sad is you say they are bogus figures, yet you provide no proof that they are. Are we supposed to take your word for it? Yeah, like THAT’s gonna happen.
You talk about Koolaide drinking, yet you haven’t looked in the mirror, lately; have you? I like your projection, as a good lefty does it so well, though.
I hate to kicka man when he’s down, Joe, but in your case I’ll make an exception every time.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell: “We obviously have some support role for presidential travel. We don’t speak to that in detail for security reasons. But I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy — some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier — in support of the president’s trip to Asia. That’s just comical. Nothing close to that is being done.”
Wall Street Journal: “WSJ: Calls the figures “outlandish hyperventilation,” says the report is “demonstrably incorrect.” On November 4, the Wall Street Journal published an article about the figures, saying Obama was “getting pilloried by the right” on the cost of the trip “without a pause for fact-checking.”
Joe, I did read an article that quoted FactCheck as saying the numbers are “wildly exaggerated,” and were provided by an anonymous source in India; that being said, there has been no verification of numbers by the WH. If you have any articles that give different numbers, please post the link.
To be honest, I’d like those numbers to be wrong. I’d give you the opportunity, gladly, to say “I told you so.” The fact is, if those numbers ARE true, they are appalling.
PintoNag,
I don’t think they have revealed the actual numbers: “Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell: ‘We obviously have some support role for presidential travel. We don’t speak to that in detail for security reasons.'”
you people are fucking idiots.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jnvgjuZmmmbXI-QwUkdw1UrxCzgQ?docId=CNG.e6845d9c6b2c4020d697d067ff57e4ad.431
Old news alf, now to contribute constructively could you possibly find some real figures for us, as well as a reasonable purpose for the visit? There’s a good chap.
reasonable purpose? probably to discuss the issue of Pakistan and figure out what India can do to not further complicate an already complicated situation in afghanistan. its always good to engage the second most populous nation and world’s largest democracy on earth from time to time, ya know. last i heard, we do have two republican governors with ethnic ties to that country as well… as for costs. who knows. let me ask the secret service about that..
The only number I’ve been able to refute for sure is this: the anonymous source out of India said that the WH booked 780 rooms at the Taj Motel in Mumbai. The Taj Motel in Mumbai only has 565 rooms.
That is the only hard number I’ve been able to effectively research so far.
… and the Maurya Sheraton, where the President will be staying, has 440 rooms.
That’s reasonable speculation alf, now why can’t the WH just say that?
Good job PN, now that’s USEFUL info.
Here’s another set of numbers, although I’m going way out on a limb here because I know next to nothing about the Navy. Maybe some of our naval folks can tack this one down.
Say a carrier has been dispatched to protect the President. A carrier strike force is said to contain 1 aircraft carrier; 2 guided missile cruisers; 2 anti-aircraft warships; and 1-2 anti-submarine destroyers. The maximum total number of ships there would be 8. Now — would any other ships have been attached to a strike force for something like this?
As this “scandal” unravels, having TAH post a retraction would probably be too much to hope for…..
As this “scandal” unravels, having TAH post a retraction would probably be too much to hope for…
I suspect it would probably be too much to hope for you to retract the loads of bullshit you’ve spewed on this site?
I suspect it would also probably be too much to hope for you to actually want the White House to release the actual numbers for their spending on this trip, instead of just saying current reports are “bogus”, but not providing any info to correct those numbers.
Nah, instead of holding the Administration accountable for something, you choose to be Joe Courage! and hold accountable… a blog for reporting on a news story.
The fact is, Joe, this is a scandal. Why is Obama taking this trip to India? What is its purpose? Why isn’t his Administration releasing any info about it?
One would think that would a priority for you. Of course, most of us here know better than to assume you to have your priorities in order when it comes to this Administration’s actions.
Pinto,
While I wasn’t in the Navy, that group will need tenders which wouldn’t be “warships” and how many I also wouldn’t know…..
Say, did you know it’s now “racist” to ask how the government is spending OUR money? Learn something new every day.
Michael
Chris Tingle said so??? I guess that settles that eh???
Alf, “resonable purpose”? “Probably”? “As for costs, who knows”? Way to pin things down there. Nice job of presenting facts to back up your spin on things. That’s totally worth $2 Billion, that’s with a “B”, only because he couldn’t rent enough rooms to get up to the T for Trillion.
And, there’s still crickets from the WH on what the purpose of this trip is, other than sight-seeing and dinner out on the town. Must be Chicago and New York are so passe’ this time of year?