Anyone interested in facts?

I am ready to puke over some persons criticizing the Obamas' African trip as too costly, not the right time, etc.  Rabid Rightist Mark Levin said “I’ve never seen a presidential family take so many trips" and that Obama "doesn't deny himself or his family a damn thing." Levin stated that Obama is "on welfare, presidential welfare" and that "Obama believes that this is his time to live like a king" and that "his wife is the imperial first lady." He concluded by dismissing the fact that previous presidents have made similar trips by claiming "this president's propaganda is different from other presidents, this president's Marxist class warfare is different than other presidents."  Fox Nation highlighted Levin's attack on Obama with the headline, "Levin slams Obama's $100 million Africa trip: He lives like a billionaire off you and me!"

The truth: the projected cost of the Obama trip was an estimate based on only one of  the trips the Bush family made to Africa. In like manner the cost of an Obama Christmas vacation ($4 mil) was thrown around as abusive and extravagant, while Bush spent 5 times that in travel to and from his ranch in Crawford Texas, alone.  Even more concerning is the fact that GAO numbers for the 7 Africa trips undertaken by George and/or Laura Bush are “missing.”   Apparently the playing field is never going to be level. In conversation today, some friends were blaming the President for the lack of fireworks displays at some military bases, but when I pointed out that the sequester was the reason, another said it was the President’s fault because he couldn’t control his party. Pointing out that  Boeher and the Republican House were the problem and definitely not “his party”  made no difference.    

In fact,  measured  against Clinton and Bush African trips, President Obama’s trip was a model of austerity. He visited fewer countries in less time than  either  of his predecessors, and Bush went twice – in 2003 and 2008. One of the really irrelevant comments this morning was that the economy was better when Bush went, a blatant lie based on the Dow, which is higher now than at any time during 2008, when it was beginning to become obvious that the wheels where coming off the economy.  In fact, George Bush (and his wife) in separate visits both went to Africa in 2008 at a time when anyone with a shred of economic understanding could see the trouble brewing in financial markets.  By mid 2008 the Dow had already lost 3000 points, but the trips continued. Where were the Democrats hurling curses at them?  Didn’t happen!  

I  figured out today that during my years in the Submarine Force I spent  over four years day for day, actually underwater actually deterring a real enemy, the former Soviet Union, so that a**h***s  like Mark Levin had the freedom to distort  the truth and tell outright lies to further their overtly hate filled agendas.