Posted on 06/09/2004 8:09:07 PM PDT by SerpentDove
Greetings, FReepers!
SerpentDove here. I will intersperse photos along with my report.
Last night, June 8, 2004, Dallas FReepers had the distinct honor of meeting and dining with the Big Enchilada, Jim Robinson! We met at Cozymel’s Mexican Restaurant in Plano.
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For those of you who have never met Jim in person, he is everything you would expect and more. Lightning shoots from his eyes and fingertips, and he went around all night telling everyone to “knock it off.” :-)))
No, in actuality, Jim is a kind-faced man with smiling eyes, a gentle demeanor, and a sincere laugh.
It was an honor to meet the man whose internet site helped shake one Presidency to its foundation, and helped keep another from being hijacked.
It was heady stuff discussing with Jim the days of Whitewater and Lewinsky, when each day brought a new scandal that unfolded on our monitors. Stroke of a the keyboard, end of a legacy. Kinda cool.
The fajitas were swell, but at one point I decided to set down the fork and go meet “The Man.”
While I felt ill-prepared to strike up a political conversation with JimRob (I mean, this is JIM ROBINSON, and by this time he must have absorbed billions more bytes of information than even the most die-hard FReeper!)...I still was compelled to engage him.
So I sat down at the table with him, SUSSA and Moiraine.
I asked about the early days when Drudge linked to his site, and he and SUSSA told me of the days when Rep. Bob Barr called to meet with the FR “staff” during the impeachment inquiry, of clues dropped by Lucianne Goldberg, of the drumbeat joined by Alan Keyes, et al.
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I fumbled for relevant questions. “Jim, when did you first know that FreeRepublic was a big deal?”
“When we were getting hits from the Executive Office of the President.” I wonder how many times Lanny Davis and James Carville have hit FR? Or Hillary and Slick, for that matter. Plenty, I’ll bet. We all know Rush and Sean Hannity lurk.
If I remember correctly, he said FR has 150,000 members.
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My next volley. “Jim, I’ve gotta ask you...how do you see the unfolding of America in the next twenty years?” About 1/1000th of a second elapsed when his eyes sparkled and he said, “It will get more conservative.”
I reflexively smiled and said, “I think so, too.” He shares Reagan’s optimism.
I intimated that the eight years of Clinton probably took years off of my life. But I also had to share, "You know, it was kind of fun, though." He let go a genuine belly laugh, the kind like when someone really identifies with what you're saying. Then he added sarcastically, "Come on, Kerry!"
For my next question, I bore down, not for emphasis, but because I just had to know. “How does it feel to know that you are a channel through which history and the world is being changed?” I knew this was no exaggeration or flattery.
Again, the answer was firm and instant. He leaned forward and looked at me intently. “YOU know...because you’re part of it too!”
He knocked it out of the park with that answer. Power to the FReeple. I, like many, have witnessed firsthand the power of the internet to shake the world. It is an unbridled torrent that is about to destroy the mainstream media. It belongs to ordinary citizens, not the elites in Washington.
For a tiny while I sat in a little restaurant in Texas, amid empty glasses and tortilla chip crumbs, across the table from one of the primary architects of the media revolution.
Ronald Reagan said he wanted to be remembered for giving the people back their government.
I believe Jim Robinson’s legacy is in giving the people back their press.
Thanks, Jim, and God bless you.
SerpentDove
Great pics! Looks like you had a lot of fun. It's great to see what some of you look like, I haven't seen any freepers since the Palo Alto rallies of election 2000. You guys all look so friendly.
Great pics of Jim and Sheila!
You folks still stopping in Phoenix, AZ?
Please add me to your Texas ping list. Thanks!
I've added you. Thanks. :^)
Yes. We should be arriving in Phoenix Thursday evening and will depart sometime Friday afternoon.
I am really sorry to have missed getting to meet you. I had planned to be at the party.
I had been in San Antonio at the Republican Convention the previous weekend and had just barely gotten back into town and was scrambling to catch up on things.
(BTW, while at the Convention, I was elected to be the 2004 Presidential Elector from my District, following in the footsteps of my father who was the 1952 Presidential Elector for Eisenhower, representing the same general area.)
I was over in Dallas during that day, and I kept thinking there was something I had really planned to do on the 8th, but I couldn't remember what it was and I didn't have my calendar with me. It would have been sooooo much closer for me to go to Plano from downtown Dallas than from home which is about 120 miles round trip.
Unfortunately, since I had not had access to my email for several days, I didn't discover I had missed it until the next day when I was about to take off for the restaurant. Thankfully, I called before I took off a day late and a dollar short.
Oh, well. Maybe next time. In any event, I'm glad you and all the other FReepers had a great time!!!
Hopefully, if you ever get back to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, maybe we can meet in the mid-cities area, e.g. Arlington or the Hurst-Euless-Bedford area, so it is a lot more centrally located within the metroplex than Plano.
Want us to organize a dinner with Phoenix area FReepers?
That would be great.
Thanks,
Jim
You guys have a food preference, or know what part of town you'll be in?
No food preference. We've got a reservation at the Candlewood Suites on I-17 just a few miles north of I-10 for Thurs night. Please check with Cyber Liberty and Slip18. They'd like to meet for dinner too.
Oh, well. Here's a bump for you :o)
Oh, I know. The one on my Profile Page has Red X'd too.I have that one saved on my computer and need to upload it and replace that one.
We saved the pics on an FR site, but I guess that they only last so long and are taken off. :^(
I didn't know that at the time.
Well, please ping me when you get those pix back up.
Okay, will do. Thanks! :^D
Here is the pic of Jim Robinson and myself from the June 8, 2004 get-together:
I updated my Profile page with that pic now also.
From your profile page: For those of you who have never met Jim in person, he is everything you would expect and more. Lightning shoots from his eyes and fingertips, and he went around all night telling everyone to “knock it off.” :-)))
Too funny :o)
LOL! Isn't that hilarious ?? SerpentDove wrote that
and I borrowed it for my Profile Page with the pic.
It sure is :o)
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