Return of 'floating White House'

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=9f6b82d90c0bbdc4&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Return of 'floating White House'

JACQUI GODDARD
IN MIAMI


THE US is to spend $2 million (£1.03 million) buying back the presidential yacht from a private owner, saving a national treasure from the potential indignity of becoming a floating casino.

The move has delighted those who view the USS Sequoia, which was once dubbed "the floating White House", as a piece of history worth saving.

snip...
The money was slipped into a $388 billion (£200 billion) spending bill approved by Congress, angering some politicians at a time when education budgets have been slashed, the national debt increased and the war bill is rising daily.

"When we’re sending American men and women to war in Iraq without the necessary body armour and equipment, why in the world are we spending money on a yacht?" demanded congressman James Oberstar.

more...

Republicans are having a party with our money!!!

That would retrofit 100 Hummers or so....

then let his friends the "have mores" raise the money for it.
Jesus H. Christ, I'm sick of these people.

needs another yacht?

who pays those bills?

The previous thread on this, I said I read
that the yacht is assessed at close to
10 million. Are the current owners
obligated to sell for 2 million?

...and call it the USS Bush**. Think Congress will go for that?

for years before it finally returned to ?? New
Jersey to dump its load.

Why? Because the Queen knew it was too damn expensive to run each and every year. And the Queen felt it separated her too much from her U.K. people by driving home The Royal Yacht Britannia's symbolism of great wealth and upper class.

So she *retired* it. It's now a museum for all the people to enjoy.

http://www.tcmuseum.org/royal_events/1966_visit_by_queen_elizabeth_ii/
http://visit.travelscotland.co.uk/magazine/royal_yacht2.htm

The present owner of the U.S.S. Sequoia aka "The Floating White House" says that "far more than $2 million will be needed to buy the yacht outright." (http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=9f6b82d90c0bbdc4&cat=c08dd24cec417021)

What will George Walker Bush do? Will he want the U.S.S. Sequoia for presidential "pomp and circumstances" adding to our already bloated federal deficit? Or will it be conserved as a museum as if a "national treasure?"

Which horse would you bet on? "pomp and circumstance" or "conserved as a museum?"

edited to add: BTW, can you imagine -- visualize it -- the security needed for this yacht, leaving a harbor, going to sea, then returning to a harbor? Ground cover? Air cover? and Sea cover too? What's wrong w/ this picture?



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

they said that Social Security funds would begin running out in 2024? And I thought it was 2075? Well I guess the Presidential Yacht explains the 'difference'...plus the war, and of course those pesky pay-offs to nations for NOT prosecuting those silly ol' "War Crimes" charges. Oh, and what's left over to Swiss Bank accounts.
No wonder Social Security needs privatized! So our retirement/ disability "safety-net" can be better "managed."

Something went wrong with the November 2 flush. Blame it on the White House plumbers, I guess.

he'll be in the drink in no time

And here's more stuff on the U.S.S. Sequoia:

http://www.sequoiayacht.com/importance.htm
(this must be the guy who presently owns it)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1359854
(NPR comments)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Sequoia Presidential Yacht is fully restored, 104-foot, 1925 Trumpy-designed yacht that has served more than nine Presidents. It is thus not a surprise that Congress designated the Sequoia a National Historic Landmark. This is perhaps the most important piece of Americana in private hands, and it may be the most famous vessel in America.

The Sequoia was the scene of some of America's most historic events: It was used during the Harding administration to enforce Prohibition; Herbert Hoover promoted his use of the Sequoia during the Depression in a misguided effort to elevate the spirit of a starving public; FDR and Eisenhower planned D-day; Truman decided to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and later conducted the world's first nuclear arms control summit; Eisenhower entertained Korean War veterans; Kennedy celebrated his last (46th) birthday party; LBJ lobbied for civil rights legislation, and planned Vietnam War strategy; Nixon negotiated the first arms control treaty with the Soviet Union, and later decided to resign; Gerald Ford conducted cabinet meetings on board; Ronald Reagan met all of the nation's 50 Governors at the Sequoia's gangplank; and George Bush negotiated with the Chinese Premier.

... snip ...

A starving American public did not care that Hoover was using a 104-foot yacht instead of a 318-foot yacht. The public saw Hoover's use of the Sequoia as an example of a President who was out of touch with the needs of a poor populace.

http://www.sequoiayacht.com/importance.htm

There is the batmobile...




The batplane...




The batcopter...




and of course the batcave in the WH basement where Dick likes to hang out...




Fitting then that Presidentman gets a batboat. Too bad Moammar Khadafi isn't an enemy anymore - he'd make a great looking super-villain.

It's trivial bullshit to argue with probably the only decent thing Bush has done in office. It's historic and we ought to have it. This has absolutely nothing to do with Bush's massive failure in providing the proper equipment to our troops. THAT was supposedly provided with that $87 billion and THAT is what we ought to be screaming about. John Kerry voted no because Bush had proven to be totally incompetent in spending money and the fact that our troops STILL don't have armament proves he was right.

bill originally passed...:grr: Now I'm mad all over again!

he brought it from then President Carter admin for 1.9 mil. and upgraded it.

of this administration. The carpet * walks on and the toilet he sits on will end up in a museum, I suppose?

when the bush thugs get their ANSWER to the crimes they commit,,,, we will know the true meaning of indignity!!!

A pox on them all.

boat.

Built in 1925 and used by ten presidents since Herbert Hoover,

and the enforcement of "morality"

Originally used in the 1920s to enforce prohibition, it became a Depression-era retreat for Hoover