Posted on 01/22/2005 6:55:01 AM PST by kristinn
The Free Republic W2 Inaugural Ball was a wonderful, but exhausting time. I'm still wiped out. But, I know folks are waiting for pics and stories. I'll add my observations later, but I wanted to share one thing before I head back to the hotel to see 'Governor' Robinson and his family off.
We received a phone call from the White House yesterday. The Office of Presidential Scheduling called to pass along President Bush's regrets for not being able to attend our ball (we had mailed a formal invitation to him and his family.) We were told, "He hopes it went well."
As it turns out, the ball went really well after a late start.
Governor Huckabee and Capitol Offense rocked the house well past midnight. Impressionist Billy Finch did a wonderful job as Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful. Sauropod's video presentaion was stunning. The speeches by the Iraqis were very moving. WMAL's Michael Graham did a great job opening the show. Nick Danger was excellent emceeing the Eagle Awards. The St. John's College High School JROTC were magnificent presenting the colors. Richard Poe was busy all night signing copies of Hillary's Secret War. Seeking the Truth and his wife, Darlie, couldn't take a break--their 0Cents.com merchandise was very popular.
Thanks to all for their hard work making sure the ball went so well. And a special thanks to the active duty service members from Walter Reed and the Pentagon, as well as the veterans, who accepted our invitations as honored guests to the ball.
Please post your reports and photos or links here. I know alot of folks are traveling home, so check back over the next few day as folks check back in on FR.
Si!
I had the same problem.
You can see all of them here without disable your computer safety:
http://rfny.us/2005/
Hey David,
Here's a good picture for you - thanks for putting me on the air. I think Robert Spencer is terrific.
Capitol Offense, led by Gov. Mike Huckabee (Rocker - Arkansas), was great. They rocked out. THey played "Fortunate Son," by the way, and Gov. Mike said "John Kerry stole this song, and we like it, so we're stealing it back."
Kevin Martin, Fox news contributor (FReeper Trueblackman) was there. AND I also met Gene Burns' old producer, Lindley Smith, there by chance. He is back East now and was there with a media pass. Nice guy.
It was a GREAT event. I will try to find out who the Iraq candidate was. Pretty amazing story.
HeyLady gives an interview.
Kristinn interviewed by New York Times reporter
FReeperettes having a blast at the Ball: HeyLady, Brenda*, Jen and Susan* (*don't remember their screennames)
JensMr (real FReeper name coming soon) enjoys his first FR event!
SpookBrat and kids with Governor Huckabee
Two Lurkers at the Ball. What a cute couple!
Loonie Lefties encountered on the way to the parade:
Bob Marley?
Dyed his hair with TyDBowl?
LOL. We be jammin.....
Thanks for sharing your pictures! Looks like everyone had a real good time. About how many FReepers were there, do you think?
I' ll give a few words of flavor..... of the kids. There were quite a few and almost all seemed into the event.
Of special note were two groups of 4 girls who made new friends were literally having a ball.
The youngest group of 4, under 11 I think and one of which was the daughter of Chick With a Brain, went right down front and danced and danced and danced. They were barefoot I think, and had pretty long dresses.
The second group were older, teens. I didn't learn their names or parents and two were probably sisters. They were having a wonderful time dancing with themselves. They discovered a young man..... They descended on him in mass , asking him to come join them .He was shy and reluctant, but finally relented. I mean, what do you do when you are the only eligible and the girls are bugging you to dance. The result was he sort of stood around while the four girls danced arouind him. I mean what an opportunity.....
He did get with the program and did dance one on one, proving he could actually dance and was able to take advantage of a wonderful opportunity.
The FReeper ball was therefore different than the others. It was not stuffy, it was fun.
Much thanks to the DC Chapter hosts. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
Sadly, I'm with you on that. I'd love to see the pics, but am not up for disabling Norton or Zone Alarm. Maybe at some point someone will copy them to another server.
Yeepee!! I'm so glad to see signs of our presence in such a memorable event!!
I spoke to him and he said he does some work as a Chuck Norris Look Alike. Was very conservative in his conversations and seemed like a good dude???
Hi Gunrunner2!
So nice to meet you ... I really enjoyed talking with you.
I've been trying to discover the name of the Iraqi candidate who was there ... anyone know?
I missed Chuck, though... :-)
Glad you liked the Pictures, I may post more tomorrow if I have time. Thanks for the Pings.....
How are ya? How's Lil Freeper? It was great meeting you guys! I am glad to see you got home safely after the ball.
We have been watching the blizzard all day! Tom decided it is a good weekend to do spring cleaning! LOL
It was a pleasure meeting you and Tom also. We had a great time, but it all went so fast. Will have some pictures to post soon. I threw together a little video that I will post also.
try using firefox as your browser instead of netscape or explorer
you can download it here
To download Firefox, go to getfirefox.com and select "Free Download"
It was good to see you again.
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