White House Public Tours Canceled But First Family Trips At Full Throttle

March 11, 2013 by

White House Public Tours Canceled But First Family Trips At Full ThrottleWhile the Secret Service said it needed to pull officers off the White House public tours for more pressing assignments, the budget ax didn’t swing early or deep enough to curtail a host of recent Secret Service-chaperoned trips like President Obama’s much-discussed Florida golf outing with Tiger Woods and first lady Michelle Obama’s high-profile multi-city media appearances.

‘Spared furloughs’

Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert referenced press reports pegging the cost of a recent Florida golf outing Obama took with Tiger Woods at $1 million. He also cited press reports saying 341 federal workers could have been spared furloughs if Obama had stayed home. The price tag and draw on Secret Service resources involving promotional campaigns like Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative is less clear.


‘Shameless political stunt’

The Secret Service does not usually reveal how many agents and other resources are assigned to protective missions so it’s not known just how much it cost taxpayers to ferry the first lady to events like her dance routine on Jimmy Fallon’s show — the highlight of a Feb. 22 media blitz in New York — or her Feb. 27-28 visit to Mississippi, Missouri and her hometown of Chicago.  Those trips would all have involved Secret Service details traveling with the first lady, as well as advance work by teams of agents on location.

Some Republicans in Congress expressed their displeasure with the cuts more forcefully. “Canceling all self-guided White House tours is the latest shameless political stunt by the president, who is twisting basic government efficiency into an extreme consequence,” Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., said in a statement March 5.

Should the sequester cuts also be applied to the first family’s trips? Are you in favor of cancelling the White House public tours?

Source: Barnini Chakraborty, Fox News

Image: Breitbart

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Why Kobe Bryant Wants To Be A Laker For Life

February 20, 2013 by

Why Kobe Bryant Wants To Be A Laker For LifeIn that meeting in the fall of 2007, near the start of training camp, Jerry Buss presented Kobe Bryant with a scenario of Bryant’s own request: a trade out of Los Angeles, out of the franchise that drafted and groomed him and taught him to be a champion.

‘True for all of them’

Even now, Kobe Bryant still thinks about that time in his life when he was too impatient, when he failed to give Buss’ own history and greatness its proper due. Whatever the owner had told him that night about a trade – Detroit or Chicago, Dallas or wherever – it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

For all Bryant’s impatience, there was still such an immense part of him that was comforted in the company of the Los Angeles Lakers’ patriarch. True for Bryant, true for all of them.


‘Lakers for life and beyond’

No one walks away from the Lakers, from Buss, and does so without a deep, lingering regret. These were the Showtime Lakers, and they would be again with Bryant and Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. In his 17th season, Bryant’s belief that he’ll never wear another uniform is unwavering.

The late Jerry Buss gave Bryant the gift of Jerry West trading for him on draft day in ’96, of Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson, of five NBA championships that perhaps wouldn’t have been available anywhere else.

All these years later, Kobe Bryant is blessed to know that he never walked out on Dr. Buss, that he’ll share something with the late, great owner forever: Lakers for life – and beyond.

Do you think Kobe Bryant still could have achieved the same set of achievements if he agreed to other NBA trades? Who is your favorite NBA player of all time?

Source: Adrian, Wojnarowski, Yahoo Sports

Image: Elite Daily

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