Eating on just $75 a day
The Obama administration paid more than $182 million to Texas-based BCFS to house illegal immigrant children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma this summer, documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.
That works out to about $76,000 per child, most of whom came across the country's southern border from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In perspective, the median household income in the United States was $51,939 in 2013.
Further, 30 Incident Management Team employees were paid $2,648,800 ($88,293 each) in total compensation over a four-month period.
At Fort Sill, the documents reveal, BCFS was paid $18.2 million for three meals and two snacks daily - who eats this much? - for the 1,200 illegal immigrant children and 822 staff members at Fort Sill. That works out to $75 per person per day for the 120-day period. In perspective, according to the Daily Caller, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates it costs around $10 per day to feed the average American teenager.
The care and feeding of the illegals was mandated by federal law, which requires that - rather than immediate deportation - minors from countries that do not border the United States be turned over to the federal health department while they work through the immigration court system.
President Barack Obama's recent plan to give more than 4 million illegal immigrants longer U.S. stays, experts say, is expected to only worsen the problem with Central American parents sending their children into this country.
How do you wrap hate?
Nothing goes better with Christmas than hate, right? That's what the Democratic National Committee figures.
Just in time for the celebrated birth of Jesus is a tumbler that proclaims "I Hate Tea Parties." The DNC tweeted out its list of merchandise last week, including the $30 tumbler, according to The Daily Caller.
What else is the DNC hoping you'll give your favorite liberal?
Big spenders can opt for the T-shirts with President Obama's picture on the front and the slogan "Like A Boss," while those with tighter budgets because of the president's policies can fork over $5 for an "I Lean Left" button.
Of course, the site also notes "Your Generous Donation" of $10 or more also would be a great gift.
He couldn't help himself
Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, was a bit flummoxed at having to defend President Obama's flip-flopping on executive action on illegal immigration before the House Judiciary Committee last week that she as much as said the president had to lie to the immigrant community even though he really meant to tell the truth.
"Unfortunately I think the president was talking politics," she said. "He made those comments, much to our dismay, because we believed for many years now that the president did and does in fact have the legal authority. The president on a number of those occasions was specifically talking about immigration reform - he has been so focused on getting immigration reform done with Congress that he continually told the immigrant rights community that he could not do immigration reform."
Before Hincapié's testimony, the committee saw a four-and-a-half minute video, which compiled the 22 separate times Obama said he couldn't take executive action to change immigration law.
Sunshine State?
All down with that political correctness? Try this: Among the holiday decorations at Florida's capitol building this year is a display from the Satanic Temple. The approved display will carry the phrase "Happy holidays from the Satanic Temple" above a diorama of an angel falling into hell.
"We hope that, this holiday season, everybody can put their religious differences aside and respect that the celebratory spirit of responsible hedonism is available to all," Lucien Greaves told the CBS television affiliate in Miami in an email.
A spokesman for the governor said the state's Department of Management Services makes the final decisions on such displays.
Also approved for seven-day displays were a Nativity scene by the Florida Prayer Network, a "Happy Winter Solstice" banner from the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and an entry from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Waiting for approval was a 6-foot stack of beer cans to mark the "Seinfeld" sitcom-created Festivus pole and a poster by the American Atheists of Tallahassee, which was to say "Celebrate the true meaning of Xmas" and include words such as "charity," "family," "Rockettes," "hot chocolate" and "Chinese food."