The other day, I mentioned that except for continual travel, I couldn’t think of anything Hillary Clinton ever did as Secretary of State. In fact, other than her denying involvement in Benghazi, I don’t remember her name ever coming up regarding anything important whatsoever.
When I mentioned her last time, I wrote that I believed her travel schedule depended on where her husband Willie was headed. And once she knew the locations she picked the farthest place on the planet from those to visit, especially since she really had no agenda or goals and wouldn't be missed by anyone in the administration at all.
I bring her up again today because, according to Jim Snyder and Danielle Ivory of Bloomberg on line via Drudge: “In her four years as the top U.S. diplomat, Hillary Clinton kept a running total of countries visited, miles traveled and hours spent in transit on the State Department website.”
Then they go on to note that: “Still untallied: The bill to taxpayers for her globe-trotting.”
They further report that: “Bloomberg News last year asked for the details of out-of-town trips for the heads of 57 major departments in fiscal 2011, a test of President Barack Obama’s pledge to run the most open government in history. As of July 12, about one-fifth of those surveyed hadn’t responded. The State Department is one of five Cabinet offices that have yet to fully comply with requests under the Freedom of Information Act to disclose the details and expenses of official travel more than a year after they were filed.”
According to Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a Washington-based open-information advocacy group: “These are exactly the kinds of records Cabinet offices should have at their fingertips. You should not even have to ask for these records. They should be online already.”
However, although there’s no mention of the costs involved, an idea of their extent can be estimated from information listed on “Travels with the Secretary” a State Department website page, which says: “She visited 112 countries, traveled 956,733 miles and spent 2,084 hours -- or more than 86 days -- in flight, according to the department.”
Additionally, “In the year ended Sept. 30, 2011, the time period subject to the FOIA filing, Clinton visited 46 countries, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Mexico and Haiti in January of that year.”
So, in conclusion, I guess the nation could have saved a huge fortune if instead of ignoring Hillary and her travel altogether, the administration had kept her in D.C. and demanded she and Willy get marriage counseling or divorce.
And speaking of things that can’t or don’t work, I found another item today on Drudge by David Lightman and William Douglas of McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
The article discusses the proposed immigration bill which like anything else done in the Capitol contains “Details, bureaucracy and pork.”
Among the items mentioned is a task force that would have 33 members, 19 from the southern border region, 14 from the north and one of their missions would be “a recommendation as to whether the DHS Task Force should continue to operate.”
Aside from that, “Once a border strategy is set, it must be submitted to eight congressional committees, as well as the comptroller general.”
So, it seems to me that, as usual, the immigration issue is going backward. Which, of course, is because the Democrats don’t want the border really secured and all those thankful future voters kept out of the booths. Because anyone seriously interested in fixing the problems would start building an impenetrable fence this afternoon.
The article contains some other interesting facts and data, so here’s a link: Inside immigration bill- Details, bureaucracy and pork
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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