“No country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law, and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.”

Mark Twain 
The Gilded Age (1874)

Life is good when you’re not an average tax-paying, slave-laboring prole in America:

Via the Washington Examiner

First lady Michelle Obama’s weekend jaunt to Aspen, Colorado for a President’s Day ski holiday with her daughters Sasha and Malia makes the 16th time members of the first family have gone on extended vacations during their three years in office.

…

The Obama Vacation List

• President’s Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski.
• Christmas 2011, the first family in Hawaii for an extended vacation.
• Summer 2011, in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break.
• June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters traveled to South Africa and Botswana.
• President’s Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski.
• Christmas 2010, in Hawaii.
• August 2010, the first family traveled to Panama City Beach, Fla., for some sun and fun at the beach.
• August 2010, Obama spent the weekend alone in Chicago for his 49th birthday bash.
• August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha traveled to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation.
• August 2010, summer vacation again at Martha’s Vineyard.
• July 2010, the first family went to Mount Desert Island, Maine.
• May 2010, the first family had a four-day trip to Chicago.
• March 2010, first lady and daughter spend Spring Break in New York City.
• Christmas 2009, Hawaii again for the annual break.
• August 2009, at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon for a short vacation.
• August 2009, their first summer vacation as first family at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Millions are out of work, tens of millions more are living in poverty and struggling to feed themselves, the government is printing trillions of dollars to stay afloat, yet our First Lady has determined that it is prudent to take a vacation, on average, once every two and a half months at taxpayer expense.

The day I took office, one of my commitments to the people was that we would do a better job here in Washington in rooting out wasteful spending at a time when families have cut back and have had to make some tough decisions…

-President Barack Obama