What is Digg?Sponsored by Sony Pictures
Do you believe the 2012 Mayan Prophecy? view!
whowillsurvive2012.com - The Mayan Calendar predicts the end of time: 2012. See the trailer for 2012, opening November 13.
211 Comments
- suxmonkey, on 10/29/2007, -14/+84Uh, you do realize it costs *over 50 THOUSAND dollars per HOUR* just to fly Air Force One? What economic rock have you been living under? http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-06-01-air-force-one_x.htm
- euphemizeme, on 10/29/2007, -3/+57And I thought Orbitz shafted me...
- quomen, on 10/29/2007, -7/+59Every other president has made these expensive trips.
- Ajajadude, on 10/29/2007, -2/+39Well, you also have to figure in the 2 other jumbo jets, the cost of the 5 transport aircraft (which includes the salaries of the people its carrying), the cost of packing and unpacking then re-packing then re-unpacking the two helicopters, 21 cars, 500+ people, etc.
Think about just the cost of fuel, alone, to transport all that crap roundtrip. - disassociated, on 10/29/2007, -0/+34Despite the fact 21 world leaders will be in Sydney for the APEC forum, the US President is all anyone is talking about. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sorry-for-the-trouble-i-cause-says-bush/2007/08/31/1188067367820.html Sometime ago the cost of staging the APEC event at which he will be centre stage was estimated at $200 million. A more recent news report now places the cost at $330 million http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=229268
- Monolith4, on 10/29/2007, -42/+72Uh, how about a source for those numbers? There's no way it costs that much to fly down to australia - even with that kind of entourage.
- boris92, on 10/10/2007, -5/+32Down, I can has mirror plz?
- sockpuppets, on 10/29/2007, -9/+34http://schestowitz.com/IMG/blog/cat.jpg
- Lemonblood, on 10/10/2007, -3/+27Gotta love titles that ignore half the details!
- K3ITHK, on 10/10/2007, -4/+27You clearly didn't use the reply button.
- PiGuy, on 10/29/2007, -7/+29The site has been down since at least 60 diggs, and duggmirror never caught it, which means almost 200 of you have clicked the Digg button without actually reading the article.
Good job Diggers, you truley are the most rational, intelligent, independently thinking group of people on the internet. / - gwolf, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19With the kind of security our president has to travel with, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. He won't be able to leave the country for decades once his term ends, he's one of the most hated figures on the planet.
- areric, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19Now if only the chasers could get close enough to make the trip completely worth it.
- airiox, on 10/29/2007, -7/+24Gubernatorial? Maybe you should check your definitions next time you try to use a word that you don't quite comprehend...
- geoboy, on 10/29/2007, -6/+20Not in this scary new post 9/11 world they haven't!
- Ajajadude, on 10/10/2007, -3/+15I'm fairly certain that you can't carry 2 helicopters (especially one the size of Marine One) on one 747.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+14uh, most other countries don't spend that much on their leaders, because their leaders aren't quite as potential targets as Bush. there are quite a few countries out there that have presidents that live downtown with only basic, sufficient, and not excess security.
- soil, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Dugg for lightly veiled, totally appropriate, self-deprecating Princess Bride reference.
You are the brute squad. - Monolith4, on 10/29/2007, -29/+40Well, my rock must have a much better stock of math books than yours, since 50 hours (roundtrip to australia) x 50k = 2.5m. Hell, lets multiply that figure by TEN just to make sure we're including everything. Thats still only 25m. Nowhere near 200m. So please, stfu.
- mrchi03, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13I am going to have to agree with Monolith. Come on people, whoever thinks it costs 200 million dollars for Bush to go to Australia is insane. Here is an example of an Air Force One flight.
President Clinton's 10-day trip to China in 1998 provides a case in point. Accompanying the president were his wife and daughter, 5 Cabinet secretaries, 6 members of Congress, 86 senior aides, 150 civilian staff (doctors, lawyers, secretaries, valets, hairdressers, and so on), 150 military staff (drivers, baggage handlers, snipers, and so on), 150 security personnel, several bomb-sniffing dogs, and many tons of equipment, including 10 armored limousines and the "blue goose," Clinton's bulletproof lectern. The cost of the expedition was almost $19 million dollars according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.5 This figure represents what is called "incremental costs," that is costs in addition to the salaries of the federal employees who accompanied the president and the costs of planning the trip. The reported costs also did not include the expense of protecting the president, a figure that is classified for national security reasons.
The bulk of costs accrue to the Defense Department (DOD), which some critics charge is an unwise way to spend the country's defense dollars. To get the presidential entourage and its vast array of equipment to China and back, the Air Force few 36 airlift missions using Boeing 747, C-141, and C-5 (the largest transport, with a capacity of 145 tons of cargo) aircraft. The cost to DOD of the China trip was $14 million. Indeed, operating Air Force One alone costs over $34,000 an hour.
China was neither the least nor the most expensive presidential trip per day (that was probably the $42.8 million, 1,300 person, 10-day trip to Africa in March 1998). But if China can be used as an average, the cost of $1.8 million per day for a presidential trip overseas means that the incremental costs of President Clinton's foreign travel during his eight years in office came to more than $500 million.
http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1999/eb1092199.htm - itsdafrank, on 10/29/2007, -6/+16
Worth every penny, how much to fly him to the moon, or even better, Mars? - blorc, on 10/10/2007, -12/+21Yes, because no other country leaders spend obscene amounts of money on travel, press, etc.
I'm not a Bush fan, but come on. This is ***** retarded. Buried. - indicas, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11Love the *****-waving personal attacks on Digg as of late.
- Memitim, on 10/29/2007, -1/+8And they were douchebags for doing it as well. Just not douchebags who had access to the massive amount of options currently available for accomplishing the exact same goal without spending millions of our dollars. If these politicians really can't hold a meeting without costing their respective nations millions of dollars each and turning the places that they meet into ***** for the poor bastards who are trying to live out their daily lives then they should exercise some serious fiscal responsibility and utilize teleconferencing instead. The president of the US is the most disposable person on the planet; we already know who the next several hundred successors will be in something happens to him so all of that crap sure as hell isn't for our benefit, but lord knows that we are paying for it. I'm sick and ***** tired of footing the bill for these ***** trips where he carts around a small town with him because he's too ***** to stick his own neck out for the sake of the country.
- Sino, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8It would be in his best interests NOT to stay in THIS country, once his term is up
- airiox, on 10/10/2007, -27/+32This figure it totally bogus. All the US government has to pay for is gas, man hours, food and hotel. All the vehicles are bought and are stowed on air force one. Maybe someone should use reason, logic and facts before they start making stuff up for sensational headlines.
A 10-25 million dollar figure would be a less biased estimate albeit I would say the 25 million dollar end of the spectrum would be rather liberal. Besides these people would still be getting payed if Bush didn't visit Australia, thus it really just comes down to gas, food and hotels. Which is probably in the low millions, if that. - satx, on 10/10/2007, -6/+11Just because the word is most commonly used to refer to state "governors" does not mean that it can't be used in reference to any person that governs. And GW Bush, unfortunately, does still govern.
- ts87, on 10/29/2007, -2/+7Don't forget about the special travel pay and expenses for every single Bushie...It adds up.
- GregR, on 10/29/2007, -4/+9Why are you quibbling? This amount of money spent for a visit at the expense of the people is just obscene!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5http://falsedawn.blogspot.com/bush_entourage_graphic.gif
I saw the article in question in the news. This is similar (not as dramatic) - boris92, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5HOW can all of you see the site, when I can't?
- KlayBorg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5They will have something planned, they always do. I loved the strippers thing the other day, that was funny. I can't wait till the new series starts.
They really have been elevated to a status as the Australian political jesters. At any major political event, everyone expects them to be there, and they rarely disappoint. - Bdog2g2, on 10/29/2007, -0/+5No he needs it to carry all the ***** he shovels.
- ripple123, on 10/29/2007, -1/+6Lets also not forget the cost of essentially shutting down a large portion of the sydney cbd for a few days..
- quomen, on 10/10/2007, -4/+8Executive, not gubernatorial.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Voting is the biggest lie ever told in America.
How many people have an extra 100 million cash lying around to run for President?
Can the people counting the votes electronically be trusted to tell the truth?
You're a fool! - lostmongoose, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Fail. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=gubernatorial
- grumpyrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I wonder if they could hug Bush holding a Battle-Axe?
- dixta, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5"Worth every penny" my ass, we don't want that ***** down here..... too bad, he probably already is. Businesses in the CBD are CLOSING DOWN for a day so this ***** and his entourage can "be secure".
- dixta, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Sydney residents like myself are the ones being ***** over for a weekend for this *****. We sure as hell didn't vote for him.
- boris92, on 10/29/2007, -1/+5Everyone who comments after me is a lier, the server shut down, and the sites comming up 404,
STOP DIGGING A BLOODY 404 IDIOTS - pauleku, on 10/29/2007, -7/+11dude this is the case for ANY US President. get over it.
- aussieNickuss, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I can't either, and no caches (duggmirror, google or coral) have picked it up.
- Nupeper, on 10/29/2007, -1/+5yeah well we also have never had so much debt...
- cvelusc, on 10/29/2007, -1/+5Each of the vehicles incurs depreciation. You need to take into account depreciation and other expenses that are at hand.
- gwolf, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6There's also the salaries of the white-house staffers, secret service, 5 star accomodations for most of them and there may be a need to reimburse the Australian Govt. for all they will have to expend to keep him from getting whacked. 200 million is the price of a fighter plane; Oh and did I mention fighter escorts.
- Anifanatic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3What the hell is wrong with you? Did you just flip open a math book full of terms and just decided to make ***** up or are you just retarded?
- treelovinhippie, on 10/29/2007, -8/+11Funny thing is all that money won't be able to stop the Aussie protesters from telling Bush to ***** off (and rightly so).
- GonzoLiga, on 10/29/2007, -10/+13Gosh, no other US President flew like this. Evar.
Tards. - moofer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Tony Blair used to fly on Virgin Atlantic. A lesson to be learned?
-
Show 51 - 100 of 211 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 
