Posted on 09/05/2001 11:00:01 PM PDT by Libertarian_4_eva
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED SEPT 05, 2001 22:31:58 ET XXXXX
FIREWORKS FOR THE FEW, WHITE HOUSE FEARED CROWD; COST ESTIMATED IN SIX-FIGURES
Taxpayers may have footed the bill, but White House officials wanted no pre-publicity for a massive fireworks display on The Mall Wednesday night celebrating President Bush's first State Dinner.
The common man was not invited to view the 20-minute fireworks display launched from The Ellipse, described as one of the most dazzling in the city's history.
Officials feared tens of thousands of residents and visitors would gather to watch the show if word leaked out, creating a "security concern" around the executive mansion.
The president and his guests watched the fireworks from the White House's South Balcony.
The cost of the display is said to be $175,000 to $250,000.
A source connected to the Pennsylvania pyrotechnic company responsible for lighting the fireworks, Zambelli Fireworks Internationale, told the DRUDGE REPORT show fees ran into "six figures".
With just 136 invited guests at the White House -- the price tag for the fireworks alone was well north of $1,200 per attendee.
A White House spokesman refused comment on the financing of the fireworks.
The secret fireworks show caught residents by complete surprise.
One local e-mailed: "From my apartment, I just witnessed the most amazing fireworks I have seen in my twenty years in Washington."
A second eyewitness described the show as being "one of the very best fireworks displays I've ever seen.
"The display I saw tonight had many, *many* fancier fireworks than the ones used on the Fourth of July. Tonight there were fireworks that shot up, in three colors, a sort of planet, with a ring around it in another color; a firework that shot off a central band of white explosion and a sort of wheat-sheaf of fireworks in other colors both above and below the band; a firework that shot off hundreds of massive white streamers each of then exploded into five more small streamers. I go into this detail only to say how fancy and beautiful the whole thing was."
Park police estimated less than 100 people quickly gathered to watch from public space surrounding The Ellipse.
END<<<
Who?
If I knew, I wouldn't have written, "Maybe we can find . . . . " Okay, let me act like the all-knowing field commander, without a shred of doubt. And I still don't know.
But this is how I envision the process should go:
1. We need to form some kind of organization -- maybe several organizations -- that will act in concert to oppose illegal immigration.
2. Rather than collect money and pass it on to candidates, these organizations will instead carefully examine candidates for their voting records, and inform members of who to donate their money toward. This will sidestep campaign spending limit problems.
3. All we need is a million people willing to donate $100 each, and we've got enough to wage a presidential campaign as big as what the Democrats or Republicans put on.
4. Our goal is takeover of the Republican Party. Weed out the moderates in the primaries, support the most conservative candidates in the elections. After the elections, of course, we'll be willing to work with the moderates, because we have no choice at that point. But before the elections -- we fight, just as they fight.
5. Form an ad hoc committee to identify possible presidential candidates to run in challenge to President Bush in for the 2004 Republican Party presidential nomination. Make the investigative process exhaustive and detailed, so that we don't learn about DUIs one week before the election.
6. Throw as much united support as we can behind that one candidate who emerges from the selection process, so that he can win the primaries. What we don't want is the conservative vote split among several candidates, so that they cancel each other out and a Dole-type walks away with the nomination as in 1996. In 2004, the Dole-type will be the President of the United States, and have a tremendous advantage. To topple him from the nomination, we must be united!
7. Stick the Democrat in the general election campaign as a supporter of illegal immigration as his means of demagoguery and vote-buying. Make normally Democrat voters realize that if the illegals get the power to vote, they'll suffer far more than rich Republicans.
Indeed, that'll be the strategy: our candidate is the anti-Republican Republican. That is, where the common defintion of a Republican is someone who plays golf at the country club, our definition is someone who actually believes in freedom and justice -- and in something higher than his own short-term material gain.
To sum up: the answer to 'Who?' is Us. WE have to set up a movement that can seek out the best candidate. In the past, we've waited for the best candidate to come to us, and so far he hasn't. In the future, we need to go out and find the candidate.
And remember, this isn't an impossible task. Remember, Bill Clinton was only governor of Arkansas, and virtually unknown on the national stage a year before he became President. Among the thirty or so Republican governors out there, it's quite possible that one of them has been quietly doing a spectacular job, and we can find him. Even in the most incompetent organizations, there are always a few stellar performers who don't get weeded out by the good old boy network. We need to find that guy, and in order to do that, we need to set up a process to find him. I hope we'll do that before 2004 rolls around, or we may not have a chance to affect elections for decades to come.
Free speech...buddy. (why don't we just "move along"?)
Would be nice to snag a job at the White House when I graduate this December. ;)
If the American taxpayer is intentionally not invited to watch an expensive fireworks display, for which he/she PAID, in the skies over America's capitol city, it is an insult to the little guy and NOT in the best spirit of America. It has the stench of European monarchies sequestered in the Palace of Versailles.
Further, my joy in Bush's winning the presidency is not to be taken for granted nor a license for more of the government waste practiced by Clinton or anyone else. We want Bush's NEW TONE in Washington. Part of that NEW TONE is greater respect for the hard-earned money of taxpayers.
I had...until I saw I had a response from you. Move along...now....;)
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