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Clinton signs library's last beam into place [Barf Alert - Clinton writing a cookbook]
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ^ | May 24, 2003 | ANDREW DEMILLO

Posted on 05/24/2003 8:28:19 AM PDT by HAL9000

It has taken two weeks, 402 fine-tip markers and a college student with a bad case of writer's cramp to sign the names of more than 5,000 donors onto the white beam.

Armed with a new Sharpie and surrounded by workers building the multimillion-dollar presidential library that the beam is a part of, Bill Clinton made the marker count 403.

More than 3,000 people cheered Friday as the former president signed his name to the beam that completes the skeleton of his presidential library in Little Rock.

The Starship rock song "We Built This City" played from a speaker as a 29-foot, white, steel beam was hoisted to the top of the library's frame.

On nearly 30 acres of parkland, the Clinton center will open in the fall of 2004 and will feature a 20,000-square-foot museum, an archive of Clinton's papers and a college of public service. "I've lived a highly improbable life," Clinton told the crowd gathered on the construction site in downtown Little Rock. "I hope this library and a museum will capture a little of that, but in a larger sense."

The topping-out ceremony marked completion of the library's structural phase and signifies that the library is about 35 percent done, library officials say.

Also at the ceremony, officials announced a $4 million donation from the Sturgis Family Foundation to help renovate the 1899 Choctaw Railroad Station. Work will begin this summer to transform the station into the Clinton School of Public Service, which will be affiliated with the University of Arkansas System. "We have to believe in the importance and integrity and nobility of public service, and we have to encourage good people to get into it," Clinton said. "I hope this graduate program will accomplish that."

Ground was broken on the library site in December 2001, and work began last year after resolution of a dispute over the number of union workers allowed on the project.

The $160 million library is to open Nov. 18, 2004, amid a week of scheduled activities, said officials with the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation.

By the time it opens next year, more than 300 people will have worked on the steel-and glass edifice.

At Friday's ceremony, Clinton was joined on stage by two dozen of those workers, including Thomas and Kenneth Bolton, brothers who are cement masons on the project. "I've been to plenty of topping-out ceremonies, but this is the first where I've got to meet a president," Thomas Bolton said. "You really feel that this is going to be something big."

Clinton's signature joins that of donors who paid $35 or more to have their names on the 650-pound beam.

Sean Sonta, a senior at Lyon College in Batesville, spent the past two weeks signing each name onto the beam. "My hand doesn't hurt so bad anymore," said Sonta, an intern for the Clinton foundation. "I need to find some more work to do now."

More than 80,000 people have donated at least $100 each to the library, Clinton said, thanking them during the ceremony. "We're in a race to the finish line now," Clinton said of fundraising efforts.

Last year, the library project made Little Rock history when the Clinton foundation doled out the final payment on a $185,000 building permit, believed to be the largest ever for the city.

Design plans will soon be unveiled for transforming the Rock Island railroad bridge into a pedestrian walkway across the Arkansas River, connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock.

Meanwhile, in a former car dealership on the edge of downtown Little Rock, an army of archivists continue to sift through more than 80 million pages of documents and nearly 80,000 artifacts from Clinton's presidency.

The papers and items will be taken to the library and museum next summer.

Archivists are gearing up for the initial release of Clinton's papers in 2006. "I hope [the library] will capture America's transformation into the 21 st century, what it was like when we started, what it was like when we finished," Clinton said.

Clinton foundation officials also are stepping up library publicity and fund-raising efforts. Billboards depicting the library have been placed around the state, and an information kiosk has opened in Little Rock's River Market District.

A cookbook featuring recipes by Clinton and other celebrities will be released this summer.

One book Clinton hyped during the event were the memoirs of his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was not at the event. He also said he is hard at work at his memoirs, which will be released sometime next year. "It's really, really good," Clinton said of his wife's book, which will be released next month. "Arkansas comes out well in it."

The library has been a labor of love for Clinton and for the city for several years. After Clinton chose the library's warehouse site in 1997, Little Rock fought and won two court battles over the city's funding for the project and seizure of the land.

Little Rock leaders, however, say the library is transforming the city. "New businesses are coming here, and the city is attracting a great deal of attention because of the library," Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey said. "We're just now beginning to see the effects that this is going to have on our city."



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barfalert; bent; bj; clinton; clintonlibrary; cookbook; doublewide; fatchick; impeached; liar; library; mendacity; perjury; putsomeiceonit; rapist; stain; trailerpark; whitetrash
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A cookbook featuring recipes by Clinton and other celebrities will be released this summer.

Yuck. Clinton Meatloaf Surprise. Barf.

1 posted on 05/24/2003 8:28:19 AM PDT by HAL9000
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To: carlo3b
Looks like some competition on the cookbook front.
2 posted on 05/24/2003 8:31:18 AM PDT by Aquamarine
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To: HAL9000
Cookbook title: To Serve Man.
3 posted on 05/24/2003 8:32:54 AM PDT by Spruce (The eUSSR is evil)
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To: HAL9000
Clinton signs library's last beam into place

I wonder if he nailed that too!

4 posted on 05/24/2003 8:35:45 AM PDT by evolved_rage (Davis is a POS!!!)
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To: HAL9000
I didn't know they let rapists out for such trivial activities. He must have bribed the guards with smokes.
5 posted on 05/24/2003 8:38:56 AM PDT by Hank Rearden (Dick Gephardt. Before he dicks you.)
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To: HAL9000
Oh great, just great....
A cookbook full of beanie weanie and pigs in blankets recipes.
6 posted on 05/24/2003 8:39:23 AM PDT by najida (Yes I have a truck, and no, I won't help you move.)
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To: HAL9000
I wonder if the cookbook will have bubba's famous "Intern Goulash served over red chinese sellout rice".
7 posted on 05/24/2003 8:42:19 AM PDT by arly
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To: HAL9000
A Clintoon cookbook is sure to leave a BAD TASTE in everyone's mouth!

Maybe Algore can add his famous ICED TEA recipe to it!
8 posted on 05/24/2003 8:45:57 AM PDT by buffyt (Can you say President Hillary, Mistress of Darkness? Me Neither!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: HAL9000
What is going on with the Clinton Lie-brary?

I hope it is still going up. Last I heard it was in walking distance of the clinton spermbrary,,, I mean library.

Does anyone have and update. I would like to donate more money to it, if there is a problem.

We cannot allow clinton's library to go up without this
9 posted on 05/24/2003 8:46:41 AM PDT by hapy
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To: najida
I was watching a Mexican station last night and they had a book cover with Monica's face on it, the title in Spanish was something like, (rough translation), THE DIRTY DRESS NEVER WASHED IN THE HOUSE. They are STILL making fun of Clinton. He IS a joke. SO is his evil wife.
10 posted on 05/24/2003 8:47:39 AM PDT by buffyt (Can you say President Hillary, Mistress of Darkness? Me Neither!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: HAL9000
We've already written his cookbook.

The Clinton Legacy Cookbook...Is here!!!! ^

More threads in the archives.
11 posted on 05/24/2003 8:56:12 AM PDT by Bars4Bill
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To: HAL9000
"Clinton School of Public Service"


"How to take the Lincoln Bedroom and sell it to the highest bidder!" or

"Women enjoy sex with a governor with best sex at the presidential level! or

"Showing White House interns what to do with a cigar!
12 posted on 05/24/2003 8:57:29 AM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: HAL9000
Well, I've been waiting for YEARS to get Hillary's cookie recipe. I mean, when I saw her on Rosie she was just SO much one of us!!!

Signed,

A Soccer Mom
13 posted on 05/24/2003 9:26:54 AM PDT by I still care
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To: All
If life is fair -- and rewards true hard work and overcoming obstacles, my cookbook will outsell Clintoon's.
14 posted on 05/24/2003 9:40:20 AM PDT by Fawnn (I think therefore I'm halfway there....)
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To: HAL9000
I thought Hillary! was the expert on cooking the books.
15 posted on 05/24/2003 10:12:54 AM PDT by Nachoman
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To: HAL9000
How much demand could there be for Smoked Poontang..

Personally, I'd buy a video showing the bastard
burning at the stake....with folks that can get there in time --- pissing on him in a false attempt to put out the fire...

Naaah, I don't hate Clinton.......I deeply despise him.

Semper Fi
16 posted on 05/24/2003 10:26:32 AM PDT by river rat (War works......It brings Peace... Give war a chance to destroy Jihadists...)
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To: HAL9000
Clinton signs library's last beam into place


17 posted on 05/24/2003 10:38:38 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: HAL9000

18 posted on 05/24/2003 10:41:02 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Paul Atreides
When will this IDIOT learn that the only people that care about him live in either New Dork, or Californication.
19 posted on 05/24/2003 10:48:48 AM PDT by Lockbar
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To: Paul Atreides
You forgot the obligatory "KNOWN SEX OFFENDER" sign underneath the name of the criminal ex-President formerly from Arkansas.
20 posted on 05/24/2003 10:50:05 AM PDT by dufekin (Peace HAS COME AT LONG LAST to the tortured people of Iraq!)
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