Thanks to my old pal Karen who shared this:
ABC News Reports Millions of Tax Dollars wasted on foreign trips to observe billboards...
The gist of the story that for at least ten years, the Transportation Department has paid fairly big bucks for groups of Federal and State employees to travel abroad and investigate how other Countries manage their larger highway systems. look at issues like safety, materials used to construct the roads, climate issues, etc. Basically trying to learn how we can make our roads better, safer and last longer. Sounds reasonable. We can always learn from others, but in the last week or so a particular trip all OVER the world with the purpose of studying how various Countries handle policies related to billboards.
Reportedly, the employees stayed in high end hotels in Australia and Europe, ate at expensive restaurants, and had a wonderful time. Estimated cost of this particular trip? In the 300K range.
The program began under George Bush and continued under the current administration until yesterday, when Obama official Ray Lahood, Secretary of the Transportation Dept. ordered it suspended till further notice. Which was, albeit a tad late, the right thing to do.
A few questions:
1) I thought President Obama had staff working round the clock in every Federal nook and cranny to root out waste. How did they miss this? This seems like a big fat one hanging right out over the middle of the plate. So obvious Ray Charles could've seen it. On this count, there's no excuses Mr. President. Your Administration, and therefore you, Sir, appear inept. Please tell me how a well known expense drain such as Travel wasn't examined well enough to discover this? Clumsy, amateurish and once again, a self inflicted mis-step. (This is getting old...)
2) This story seems to have gotten a charge from the work done by Brian Ross of ABC News. Last I checked, ABC News was firmly in the group of "lame stream media" outlets that were nothing but Obama puppets. One story does not a new trend make, but its nice to see a story like this come from an association connected with "the left."
3) As of 12:15pm today, I couldn't find this story mentioned anywhere on Fox News. I count on Fox News to keep me informed on news such as this, because in all of media history, no other "mainstream media organisation" seems willing to show the President or his Administration in a less than adoring light. Thank God for Fox News. This seems exactly like the kind of story they would do well with. (What I did find on the Fox News home page was a clip alerting me to how many times Obama used the word "I" (or a form of it such as I've) in his Afghanistan speech last night.) Eck...
Its not the end of the world, but its more the principle of the thing. For a man who said " I got this" repeatedly during the campaign, you don't "got this" Mr. President nor did your Sec.of Transportation until ABC News put a story out on it. That's a Fail.
Fox News also gets a Fail on this because this is the kind of stuff they do better than anyone else. If you weren't so busy looking for Obama's imagined mistakes, who knows-you might find even more goodies like ABC did.
ABC News? They get a thumbs up for reporting the story, in spite of their "loyalty" to the anointed one. They should have done a better job providing details as to how and why the program began in the first place. What benefits have come from it that might offset the cost? How long was the program intended to last?
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/international-billboard-research-trip-ridiculous-watchdog/story?id=13900677
http://blogs.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/news/the-roundabout/28045-international-transportation-program-irks-altmire-?cmpid=bcpanel10
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1016772170001/the-obama-is-have-it/
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