Limousine Liberals

Number of federally-owned limousines Limous soars on Obama’s watcha;

Limousines, the very symbol of wealth and excess, are usually the domain of corporate executives and the rich. But the number of limos owned by Uncle Sam increased by 73 percent during the first two years of the Obama administration, according to an analysis of records by iWatch News.

In related news; Strib still biased.

48 thoughts on “Limousine Liberals

  1. This is a green initiative teh Wingnutter Merg!11!!
    You see, limos are longer than your average vehicle and with all the circling of the wagons the Liberal is doing around Anthony Weiners’, er, wiener, Barry’s ruinous economic policies, keeping Gitmo open, Nobel Peace Prize winning drone attacks, etc; The Won is using less vehicles and therefore producing less earth killing hydrocarbons than you Rethuglicans would have produced had McCain been elected.
    Maybe your next post will address why you hate the earth so much.

  2. ROFL! Did you READ the article you quoted Mitch?

    “According to General Services Administration data , the number of limousines in the federal fleet increased from 238 in fiscal 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, to 412 in 2010. Much of the 73 percent increase—111 of the 174 additional limos—took place in fiscal 2009, more than eight months of which corresponded with Obama’s first year in office. However, some of those purchases could reflect requests made by the Bush administration during an appropriations process that would have begun in the spring of 2008.” (my emphasis added)

    But it gets better! Again, my emphasis added:

    “The GSA said its limousine numbers are not reliable, even though the federal fleet numbers are officially recorded every year. In a statement, GSA spokeswoman Sara Merriam said, “The categories in the Fleet Report are overly broad, and the term ‘limousine’ is not defined,” adding that “vehicles represented as limousines can range from protective duty vehicles to sedans.” Asked whether the GSA actually knows how many limos it has in its fleet, Merriam responded that GSA “cannot say that its report accurately reflects the number of limousines.”

    So we have the state department indicating that it was the source of increased vehicles classified as limousines, for the purpose of protection vehicles, not luxury or status, presumably as a response to concerns such as terrorism. Because clearly the Obama administration has been far more efficient when it comes to terrorism. Offsetting the green concerns of the limo purchases was – from the same article – “The increase in limos comes to light on the heels of an executive order from President Obama last week that charges agencies to increase the fuel efficiency of their fleets.”

    So clearly, the Obama administration DOES care about fuel efficiency and operational costs, if the majority of the rest of the government vehicles – the ones that are not specifically added for protective duty – are more fuel efficient.

    I was expecting to have to go further to fact check this, but just reading your source sufficed this time to refute your assertion. I’ll just bet that some of the other vehicles added actually reflect replacement of worn out existing vehicles too, not real additions.

    Because invariably what I read here, when fact checked, presents a very different picture – be it the voter fraud claims about felons where the studies cited specifically and clearly said the exact opposite, any of your other voter fraud stories (like that farce about the 103 ballots). Which reminds me, there is another court date coming up this month on that ice cream bribery farce in Ohio.

    The right is consistently fact-wrong. I’m just about to post something about that piece of crap report that Senator Coburn used to distract people from his ethics violations problems. I read it, and I’ve fact checked it. What he claims about the NSF, the National Science Foundation, is bull. It is factually INACCURATE AND FALSE.

    It is no coincidence that it is the same length within a page or two of the Senate Ethics Report on former Senator Ensign that is so damaging to Coburn, or that it came out within a day or so of that report. Coburn desperately needed some good PR and a lot of distraction from that report. (Naturally, I provide links to both – and I have actually read them.)

    Mitch wrote: “In related news; Strib still biased.”
    The STrib, dear Mitch, does a better job of presenting FACT than you do. You just don’t happen to like facts. Some writers at the STrib can be partisan, in either direction; but not as partisan as I have seen you be here. I can handle a little bit of partisan, if it is at least reality based.

    You are a smart man Mitch, clever and charming; but I read your blog to find out what new myth the right is promoting; I use it as a source of what new baloney needs to be fact checked to find out the real story.

    The facts INVARIABLY turn out to be very different than the partisan story you present. That makes SitD mostly propaganda, entertaining propaganda – you write very well – but still propaganda.

    Unlike the STrib, which has some legitimate claim to presenting news.

  3. I suspect that if I bothered to read the Strib, or beyond the first 200 words of a DG comment, I’d find that these acquisitions really came from the Cash for Clunkers program were the best cars were being retrofitted as “limos” for our visiting dignataries from our very best allies. Thus, the British ambassador will soon be arriving at the white house in an ’89 Chrysler mini-van retrofitted with an ice-bucket and an iPod-compatible stereo for listening to Obama speeches.

    The Israeli ambassador will be getting the cream of the crop – a ’78 Ford Pinto with a complimentary full tank of gas.

  4. NW, if you don’t go past the 200 word mark of a Dog Gone comment, you miss howlers like this: The STrib, dear Mitch, does a better job of presenting FACT than you do.

    In related news, the Nobel Prize Committee is pleased that Obama is dropping bombs on Tripoli and not Oslo. Expect a second Peace Prize.

  5. Oh, how I love how Doggie Dimwit takes a two sentence comment by Mitch and blows it into “The right is consistently fact-wrong.”

    Mitch simply states that this has happened during the Obamanation’s watch. And…it has. Its a FACT. Just like its a FACT that the libturds in the US Senate have not produced (as federally mandated) a budget in over 700+ days. FACT.

    Truth hurts, Peaches.

  6. The Shorter Doggone: They told me if I voted for McCain we’d get an uninterrupted continuation of the policies of George W Bush… and they were right!

  7. Listen, Dog-crap, Obama has NO PROBLEM allowing the limos…therefor…they are THEIR purchase. If they did NOT want them, and endorse them, then why did they not CANCEL them?

    Oh…and before you say we couldn’t, then why, in April 2009, did the Obamanation cancel the F-22 fighter jet program, but not cancel something as simple as a bunch of limos we honestly could do without?

    Easy answer. The Obamanation is more interested in making our country LESS secure, MORE vulnerable to attack, MORE unprepared to defend freedom and liberty, and MORE interested in slashing our national defense budget…and LESS interested in doing without the perks of Washington DC.

    Pretty easy to see, Dog-crap.

  8. “I was expecting to have to go further to fact check this…..Because invariably what I read here, when fact checked…..The right is consistently fact-wrong…..I read it, and I’ve fact checked it…..It is factually…..does a better job of presenting FACT…..You just don’t happen to like facts…..I use it as a source of what new baloney needs to be fact checked…..The facts INVARIABLY….”

    What a freaking TWIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. We need those government limos. It’s just another job creation program! Each driver only costs the taxpayer $800,000. I’m unsure, though, were those jobs “created or saved”?

  10. DG, GWB may indeed be partly guilty for this expansion. However, your arguement about this only amounts to, it isn’t Obama’s fault because GWB started it.

    Point your finger at GWB all day if you want and I think you will be partly right. However, just pointing out the mistakes of the past while repeating them isn’t getting anything worthwhile done.

  11. Better Doggone: Remember when Barack promised us that the world would love the USA again after eight years of McBushitlerburton? Well the State Department needing more armored vehicles (limo’s and otherwise) is an odd way to show the love. By the way, not even the President has the ability to cancel a contract from a previous administration?

  12. One other thing – according to the article, the government can’t keep track of or properly classify the vehicles they have in their fleet. Doggone, will the government do a better job running the health care system?

  13. Dog Gone said:

    “I’ll just bet”

    Yeah, your bias is better than that of others. BUSH! FACT CHECK! *tic*

    Too funny.

  14. If 9-11 was Bush’s fault because it occurred during Bush’s term of office, as liberals always assert; then limo-gate is Obama’s fault because it occured during his term of office, as is the Great Depression 2.0 now finally being admitted.

    If Obama gets to blame-shift all his problems back one administration, then Bush does, too, meaning Hilary and Bill were at fault for 9-11.

    Or is consistency in logic a concept too difficult for some of us to comprehend?

  15. Nate;

    Actually, Slick Willy is directly responsible for 9-11.

    Al Qaeda was emboldened to make further attacks, which ultimately included the WTC, the Pentagon and the White House had Flight 93 not been brought down by some brave Americans, after his limp wristed response to the USS Cole incident! Like all typical gutless libturds, he just threatened to sue those responsible. Yea, right! They would have shown up in court!

    After GW launched the attacks in Afghanistan, captured leaders of AQ were stunned at having a shit storm dropped on them, as they assumed that the only response would be that we would try to sue somebody.

  16. It wasn’t just Clinton’s “limp wristed response to the USS Cole incident”, it was the FACT that he refused Sudan’s offer to turn over Osama to American authorities citing “no legal precedence”.

    I wonder how many bombs our Nobel laureate president dropped on Libya today? I wonder how many people have been killed by the governments of Syria and Yemen today?
    Ya gotta love diplomacy.

  17. Not to mentio the fact that he could have taken him out not once, but twice and didn’t do it. Fortunately, he admits that this was one of the biggest regrets/mistakes of his presidency.

    I wonder if he felt just as bad about all of the secret data that he gave to China?

  18. bossHoss wrote:
    “I wonder if he felt just as bad about all of the secret data that he gave to China?”

    Clinton didn’t “give’ China secret data.
    He traded it for campaign contributions.

  19. Let me make it short and simple for those of you who have trouble reading.
    Per the actual article, and the government sources for it:

    1.The limos aren’t luxury vehicles, it is a clerical category; they are sedans and ‘protective duty’ vehicles.

    2. The numbers of these vehicles quoted are not correct.

    3. They were not purchased by the Obama administration but rather a number of them came from appropriations made during the Bush administration.

    So, NO, Obama did NOT drastically increase purchases of luxury vehicles. The whole claim is a crock of organic manure.

    See the photo caption, and the 2nd-4th paragraphs of the iwatch article linked.

  20. pic·a·yune (pk-yn) adj.
    1. Of little value or importance; paltry. See Synonyms at trivial.
    2. Petty; mean.
    n.
    1. A Spanish-American half-real piece formerly used in parts of the southern United States.
    2. A five-cent piece.
    3. Something of very little value; a trifle: not worth a picayune.

  21. Let me make it short and simple for those of you who have trouble reading.
    Obama DID run the national debt up past $14 trillion dollars with ZERO results. Putting our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in a hole they may never dig out of.
    But, he does enjoy his frequent vacations and Wagyu beef dinners. And golf. Lots and lots of golf.

    Anyone who apologizes for this failure of a president is a whore.

  22. That’s right, IdiotDog. When in doubt, Blame Bush*

    And, as you clearly can’t read, The One has NOOOOOO problem at all slashing an entire flighter program, making our nation LESS secure, LESS protected, MORE vulnerable to attack, LESS able to defend itself. Just like the limos, this was initiated under the Bush Administration!

    But The One’s administration didn’t take out the cleaver on the limos. No excuses, Dimwit Doggie. The One owns the limo issue, no matter how many irrelevant “facts” you want to spew.

    Go lay by your dish.

  23. * A wholy-owned DemocRAT brainwashing tactic, used when they can’t admit they screwed the pooch.

  24. Short and sweet is good. Reading is good. I love to read and can do so at around 400 wpm the last time I clocked it. I also have a ton of stuff to read each day, but I’ll give long chunks of text as much as 30 seconds – or 200 words – to show me signs that there’s a fresh insight, a new revelation or an amusing point up ahead that justifies further reading. If not, or if it seems like what I’m reading is a rehash of stuff I’ve already read, I move on.

    Of course, as Kermit pointed out, I sometimes deprive myself of some real howlers, but it’s a risk I accept.

  25. I will ignore all “fact checking” involving the Bush administration by people who believe that eliminating the “Bush tax cuts for the rich” (~70 billion/year) and “the money for Bush’s wars” (~100billion/year) is an answer to a 1.6 trillion dollar deficit.

  26. The $1.6 trillion deficit is nothing, Terry. The $14 trillion national debt that we all own now, thanks to an out of control federal government is really several times that amount if you take unfunded mandates (Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security) into the accounting.
    These idiots have sold us into slavery. Good luck, kids.

  27. OK, so let’s take Doggone’s thoughts at face value. The executive branch is either to lazy, or too stupid, to count the number of luxury and/or armored cars being used by the executive branch of the government.

    Agreed 100%. Obviously the executive branch is headed by the kind of guy who couldn’t even be bothered to stay at the office when the Seals were taking out the world’s premier terrorist leader, and it shows.

  28. Kermit, I can forgive the people before 1950 or so who endorsed the Marxist theory of history and social organization. After 1950 Stalin’s crimes were laid bare, the Marxists could no longer explain the World Wars as “end stage capitalism”, and the capitalist-oriented West overtook the collectivist East in virtually every measure of wealth and prosperity.
    At the very least the failure of Marxism should have been apparent to any so-called intellectual after the collapse of the Soviet Union, yet progressives still make pilgrimages to pay their respects to the last living commie dictator in Cuba.
    There is no rational, materialist narrative that explains human history. Progressives cling to the idea that there is because they are reactionary. It is the key to their holding on to the power to shape society in a way that pleases them.

  29. Well to be fair, conservatives are reactionary too. This comes from the fact that leftists don’t just threaten their way of life, they threaten their life. Liberal/socialist/communist orthodoxy has killed more people in the last 120 years than the bubonic plague.

  30. Just remember: “”The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”

  31. The commies did fine job of destroying themselves as well, JPA.
    The current crop of socialists aren’t marxists, though they may use their jargon. They are wannabe aristocrats.

  32. I admire DG’s determination but seriously, does she think were going to change our minds?

  33. Ben, DG doesn’t really care. She says what she says for her own benefit.

  34. There’s a lesson to be learned if you read between DG’s lines:

    From the article (emphasis mine):

    “However, some of those purchases could reflect requests made by the Bush administration during an appropriations process that would have begun in the spring of 2008.”

    From DG’s summation (emphasis mine):

    “3. They were not purchased by the Obama administration but rather a number of them came from appropriations made during the Bush administration.

    “Could reflect…appropriations” becomes “came from appropriations” with “They were not purchased” thrown in for good measure.

    From the article (emphasis mine): “vehicles represented as limousines can range from protective duty vehicles to sedans.”

    From DG’s summation (emphasis mine): “1.The limos aren’t luxury vehicles, it is a clerical category; they are sedans and ‘protective duty’ vehicles.

    Who was it that said “Conservatives deal in facts, liberals deal in assertions” a few weeks back?

    BTW DG; POTUS, FLOTUS, and his cabinet do NOT ride around in “sedans” or “protective duty” vehicles. They ride around in extended length, armored Cadillac LIMOUSINES.

  35. Of course, during one of his numerous ramblings, Obammy said that we all have to sacrifice during these trying times. What he forgot to say was; “Except me and my cronies! We can live as lavishly as we want and you gullible, ignorant, useful idiots have to pay for it.”

  36. jpa: From shortly after the beginning of the Obama regime, I have often felt like we were being presided over by Marie Antoinette. $100K overnight trip to NYC for dinner and an opera anyone?

    Loren, this isn’t so much a FACT CHECK, as it is “shining the spotlight on a political hack who accuses everyone ELSE of being a political hack”

  37. re Marie Antoinette – “Constituiton? We don’t need no stinking Constitution!” (with apologies to the Mexican Bandit).

  38. guys… you know if you keep on bringing up Marie Antoinette people are going to think you want to (literally) decapitate Obama as opposed to just voting him out. But yes he seems to be as insulated and out of touch as her, how many rounds of golf has he played again? 70-something?

  39. Did any one else notice that DG wrote over 700 words FACT CHECKING Mitch’s 15 word post? And that there was nothing in those fifteen words that was not true?

  40. The Powerline boys once again show the “fact checkers” how it is done:
    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/06/029162.php

    Best line:

    The problem with getting your information from web sites like ThinkProgress is that their writers–Lee Fang is a good example–don’t know anything about business, are not intelligent, are too lazy to try to understand the matters about which they write, and are paid to fabricate smears rather than report accurately.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.