Let them eat cake..

Courtesy of the lovely and talented No Sheeples

Tired, trite, over-used, but sadly appropriate.

I stumble through my finances today -- having received one-half of the pathetic monthly stipend paid me for purveying  questionable skills as a software developer entering his fortieth year in this profession. My bills loom large; my prospects for retirement, vacation, restful sabbaticals, or other sources of diversion -- save the nightly beer with my bride and occasional dip into the flagon of single-malt on the sideboard -- do not.

And then I read, as all of you have, of the FLOTUS and her younger daughter's escapades in Marbella, each day bringing a stinging revelation as to how out of touch this woman and her husband are with those they deem to rule.

"..deem to rule"? Did he really say that?

Yes I did. This lady with her ugly-assed $600 sneakers at a charity event, her $6,000 purse while on parade with visiting
foreign dignitaries, and the incredibly bad taste she exhibits when covering her ample buttocks and the rest of her body (except for her stevedore shoulders and Popeye arms) and comporting herself with probably the least dignity of any FLOTUS in recent memory.

..and I define recent here to mean, oh, the last 233 years or so.

Her sense of  propriety is the stuff of legends; her taste in clothing and the manner in which she presents herself in public the subject of constant and deserved ridicule by HillBuzz -- supporters of her husband's rival who was crushed by Barry's political machine squad of thugs.

So, I sit here in front of the computer, my dreams of painfully short cruises to Cabo San Lucas or Alaska evaporating in a red haze of debt, and I read a cloyingly saccharine account of the FLOTUS in Marbella:

First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in Spain today with, weeMichelle Sasha, for a vacation with close family friends. Mrs Obama took some time today to stroll through the historic streets of Marbella, a town in southern Spain. If I must say so myself the First Lady looked fabulous in her one-shoulder Jean Paul Gaultier top and black slacks. Can't wait to see what she wears when she meets with the King and Queen of Spain. Maybe we'll even get a few glimpses of Sasha.

..yes, he said breathlessly in anticipation, maybe we will.

Well, from various sources one reads deserved blow-back over this little sojourn, like:

Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends, which could easily cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering £50,000 a day.

The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette.

And her critics will be further annoyed when they learn that the president's wife had a Spanish beach closed off today so that she, her daughter and their entourage could go for a swim.

If course, the LoMO (Lovers of Michelle Obama) say that she deserves a vacation with her daughter and that she needs the protection befitting members of the First Family. There's no argument there, of course. But there's some pretty juicy insights into the details, like how Barry wangled a luncheon between the FLOTUS and Spanish royalty, thereby sticking you and I with a lot of the costs:

The thing that should rankle Americans, though, is the fact that lavish vacations, when most are suffering through the worst recession in memory, sends the wrong message. The White House response of Mrs. Obama being a private citizen on a private vacation is also a little more than misleading. There is an "Official Visit" thrown in when King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia will lunch with the First Lady at their summer palace in Majorca. An Official Lunch, go figure.

Now ain't that sweet of them? That broad-beamed woman sashays around Europe and we pick up the tab. It's..it's..it's..

..freaking imperious, that's what it is. They are nothing but a bunch of aristocrats with huge bulging, zit-covered posteriors, parading around in their finery, lording it over all of us while a fawning, sycophantic segment of the population bow down and worship them like they are royalty.

One of the best takes -- and there are many -- was done by the author of the blog Chicago Political Commentary, in fittingly describing The BeheMOth as the New Marie Antoinette and offering (emphasis added):

The Office of the Presidency is a stressful job and I can't begrudge the President and First Lady from taking a break. However, there is such a thing as "within reason" and they have not shown us that. Between the mini-vacations and family vacations to the multitudes of campaign fundraisers, you have to wonder when any work gets done. Real work, that is. Campaigning 24/7 and setting up the retirement connections don't qualify either. Unlike royalty of yore, America is not a Monarchy and public money is at stake. Money we haven't got, by the way to even take care of the 99ers who have run out of all their unemployment benefits.

Our own No Sheeples Here provides tart commentary on this royal presidency:

Ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the little people and sea bass tartar, strawberry gazpacho and sardines followed by a main course of lobster with seaweed risotto for M'Lady.

At a cost of between $500 and $2500 per night, Mrs. Fearless Reader is sleeping in Marabella, Spain’s Hotel Villa Padierna, one of the world’s Top Ten hotels, while the rest of us toss and turn in our beds worried about our jobs and the declining economy.

So, I turn my attention back to the stack of bills in front of me, give thanks that I have a job at least -- and a prayer for those in this country suffering without one -- and figure that Mrs War Planner and I will have to content ourselves with a one-day trip to Santa Barbara when he can scrape the money together. The only solace I have is the fact that November 2010 and November 2012, like the French Revolution, is coming soon..

..and things didn't exactly work out too well for old Marie then, did they?

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