As many hard-working middle class Americans write out checks to the IRS this week, I cannot help but ponder some of the events of this April 11. I experienced firsthand a full week of logistical planning leading up to the hoopla surrounding Vice President Dick Cheney’s two-hour lunch break in Grand Junction. The folks of the Grand Valley would be wise to question their conservative GOP friends concerning the following:

1. The actual amount of money donated to the Bob Schaffer campaign and the donor’s names;
2. The total costs incurred by the scores of Secret Service personnel who descended on Grand Junction for five days of advanced planning and coordination for the Vice Presidential visit;
3. The cost per hour of the KC-130 aircraft that delivered the limousines and massive amount of logistical support for the Vice President’s transportation around the area;
4. The total “man hours” associated with the local, and state law enforcement agencies, including the bomb squad, hazardous materials experts, as well as Grand Junction Regional Airport personnel and equipment, and snipers at the Grand Junction Regional Airport, and other selected sites surrounding the area and the associated costs;
5. Total cost for Qwest employees to retrofit the Sky Adventures building’s telephone system;
6. The cost of the Ryder rental truck to transport massive communications equipment, which experts were, required to install, and then remove, once the Vice President departed.
7. Salaries of the scores of Secret Service agents who accompany the Vice Presidential entourage; and
8. The cost per hour for Air Force 2 to transport the Vice President and his lovely wife on these campaign junkets?

Are the good folks of the Grand Valley aware that after another stop in California that same afternoon, Air Force 2 whisked the Vice President and Lynn Cheney away to Jackson Hole for a little R & R at their Teton Pines estate? Surely, the Tetons provide the necessary backdrop for the Vice President to relax and renew his spirit while he discusses strategy with his GOP handlers concerning new and innovative ways to save more taxpayer dollars. That IS the GOP way, right?

VINCE PROCTOR
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.