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FLASHBACK: Clinton Vietnam Trip/$63.5 million - China Trip/$40 million (on your dime)
Free Republic ^ | 2/01/01

Posted on 01/19/2005 5:47:38 PM PST by Libloather

Free Republic 2001

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a70b8577a8c.htm

Clinton's Costly Vietnam Trip -- More than $63.5 Million
Source: Far Eastern Economic Review
Published: 2-1-01
Clinton's Costly Vietnam Trip

The massive cost of airlifting Bill Clinton and his entourage to Vietnam last year has ruffled some feathers in the U.S. military. The former president paid historic visits to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the former South Vietnamese capital Saigon, in November. Informal research conducted by officers and staff of the Strategic Assessment Centre and the School of Advanced Airpower Studies says 74 U.S. Air Force aircraft, including 26 giant C-5 Galaxy transports, were used to ferry secret service personnel, support staff and equipment to Vietnam for the one-week visit. The bill for the airlift alone came to $63.5 million, says a memo reporting on the investigation findings. The memo, which was headlined "Taxpayers and USAF get it one more time," compared this to a total airlift budget of $6.9 million for the Marine Expeditionary Force to move 27,000 marines and 3,000 tons of equipment and stores during the coming fiscal year.

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And his 1998 China trip cost at least $40 million.

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From CNN.com - 1/13/05

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/inauguration.costs.ap/

The amount spent on this year's festivities will rival the $40 million raised to celebrate Bush's first inauguration in 2001, and will exceed the $33 million spent by President Clinton in 1993 when Democrats returned to the White House for the first time in 12 years.

While the partying is being paid for privately, there have been some mutterings about the scale of the celebrations at a time of war and natural disaster.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2001; 40milmil; 635mil; china; clinton; delays; dubya; flashback; gore; inauguration; rats; trip; vietnam; waste
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And don't forget how Altoast2000 tried to screw up the last celebration -

Washington Post 2000

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/analysis19.htm

Analysis: Litigation May Prolong Process Into 2001
By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 19, 2000; Page A1

A welter of legal possibilities combined with hardening political lines could throw the presidential contest into the new year, experts in both parties warned yesterday. Some observers said they feared a chaotic situation that could deprive the eventual winner of the legitimacy needed to govern.

Whatever the outcome of tomorrow's hearing in the Florida Supreme Court, lawyers for both Vice President Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush see possibilities for further litigation that could delay the awarding of Florida's crucial 25 electoral votes. Leaders of the Florida Legislature are eyeing a possible intervention, and the dispute could come before Congress in January-just two weeks before Inauguration Day-in a challenge to the state's electoral votes.

"It's a very scary thought," Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) said yesterday, "but I'm getting a sneaky feeling in my gut that Congress may get involved in it. If impeachment was difficult, this would be far worse."

Vin Weber, a former GOP representative from Minnesota, said, "I have become an extreme pessimist. I've wondered in the last day or two if we haven't crossed an important point where it's too late for anybody to step back. I'm afraid we're committed to a course of action that will do a lot of damage to the system."

Others in both parties hold out hope that the Florida Supreme Court will resolve the situation and that its verdict will be accepted by both Gore and Bush. But all indications yesterday were that Gore strategists are interpreting public patience with the 11-day-old impasse as an indication that the recounting of votes can continue at least until the Dec. 12 deadline for selecting Florida's 25 presidential electors.

1 posted on 01/19/2005 5:47:42 PM PST by Libloather
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Call me black, call me white, call me anything you like
Just don't call me late for the party!

Steelheart - 1992

2 posted on 01/19/2005 5:48:23 PM PST by Libloather (IRAQ - the vote!)
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To: Libloather

I seem to recall that krinton's 'triumphal' visit to India and Africa (for no other reason than to get out of Dodge) had an entourage of over 90 aircraft. Seems to me somebody ought to download the documentation and jamb them down the pants or up the @ss of any RAT b@st@rd that has a problem with kicking out the stops for a historic Republican sweep. Hey, if it's really an issue, we can always take milk from starving inner-city kids to pay for it!


3 posted on 01/19/2005 5:55:44 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Let's arm all the "patriotic" Democrats and field a penal battalion...)
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To: WorkingClassFilth
Yeah, I was going to say that the Africa boondoggle had to be near the tops in wasted presidential spending.

That was blatantly disgusting... especially when you consider how they turned their back on the Tootsies in Rwanda.
4 posted on 01/19/2005 5:58:12 PM PST by ChicagoRighty (Surrounded by libbies and damn tired of it!)
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To: ChicagoRighty

My question: Has Bush ever done anything this stupid? I do understand that all presidental visits entail dozens, if not hundreds of people.


5 posted on 01/19/2005 6:04:44 PM PST by BunnySlippers (When it comes to humility, I'm the greatest! - Bullwinkle J. Moose)
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To: ChicagoRighty

Of course, the media had no interest in such petty details at the time. What was important was X42 dancing in a dashiki with the native chicks.

What a statesman!

hat a man of the world!

What a POS!


6 posted on 01/19/2005 6:05:50 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Let's arm all the "patriotic" Democrats and field a penal battalion...)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

From the India/Pakistan trip I remember one picture of bill surrounded by hundreds of young girls. It was funny.


7 posted on 01/19/2005 6:07:26 PM PST by TBall
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To: BunnySlippers

My facetious answer: Yes, Bush has done worse. He has allowed the Left to continue unfettered in their evil doing. Upon taking power, he should have slain the beast once and for all. In the end, allowing the Left to retain any lease on political life will cost us dearly in blood and treasure - far more than slick ever blew on his global chick cruising.


8 posted on 01/19/2005 6:10:03 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Let's arm all the "patriotic" Democrats and field a penal battalion...)
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To: TBall

Oh yeah. He was squeezin' the maidens in Africa too. He's quite the world citizen, you know.


9 posted on 01/19/2005 6:11:29 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Let's arm all the "patriotic" Democrats and field a penal battalion...)
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To: Libloather

Hey, those were some of Chelsea's Christmas and Summer break vacation trips! Willie had to impress Chelsea to sho her that he was a better man than her real father, Webb Hubbell!


10 posted on 01/19/2005 6:22:22 PM PST by Tacis (Democrats! - When You Need America Blamed Or A Pool Peed In!!)
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To: TBall; WorkingClassFilth; BunnySlippers; ChicagoRighty; Liz; Howlin
Removing any debris would be considered 'deflowering'. Please, at all costs, wash your hands after any *Crinton event...


11 posted on 01/19/2005 6:24:21 PM PST by Libloather (IRAQ - the vote!)
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To: TBall
How about the 'far-East' trip, perhaps in Thailand, where all were wearing the local "wedding shirt" and silly Billy was in the center of all of the Asian leaders looking like the dufus that he aspires to be.
12 posted on 01/19/2005 6:28:27 PM PST by ChicagoRighty (Surrounded by libbies and damn tired of it!)
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To: Libloather

I feel sick ...


13 posted on 01/19/2005 6:31:12 PM PST by BunnySlippers (When it comes to humility, I'm the greatest! - Bullwinkle J. Moose)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

No doubt he had a good time in China as well. Who knows, maybe he was able to enjoy a PYT with a microphone in the ear to whisper to. Mr. Crinton's campain was great investment.


14 posted on 01/19/2005 6:31:18 PM PST by TBall
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To: Libloather
Yikes, look at the one behind his right shoulder. I hope that is not the one he ended up with.
15 posted on 01/19/2005 6:35:56 PM PST by TBall
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To: TBall
I hope that is not the one he ended up with.

Hillary was there in disguise. What are you saying?

16 posted on 01/19/2005 6:37:54 PM PST by Libloather (IRAQ - the vote!)
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To: Libloather

Hillary? Yeah, but she must be wearing a fake nose.


17 posted on 01/19/2005 6:39:46 PM PST by TBall
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To: Libloather

He probably doesn't know it, but those women are flinging moldy rat excrement all over him and laughing about it.

Well, at least that's what I would do.


18 posted on 01/19/2005 6:46:02 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Let's arm all the "patriotic" Democrats and field a penal battalion...)
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To: TBall
...she must be wearing a fake nose.

An artist's rendering. (Gotta go with your intuition...)


19 posted on 01/19/2005 6:56:05 PM PST by Libloather (IRAQ - the vote!)
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To: Libloather

Well, at least you got my mind off the helicopter circling above my neighborhood. She must be around a lot of second hand smoke.


20 posted on 01/19/2005 7:00:16 PM PST by TBall
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