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January 19, 2005

Double Standards and the Belles of the Ball

So GWB is getting ready for his inauguration day and it's turning out to be quite a shindig. The Red Staters hope to raise $40 million in private donations, but the total cost of the whole shebang with the cost of police, additional security, platforms, logistics, etc, etc. could top $140 Million dollars. Alot of people are criticizing the Bush camp for spending so lavishly in a time of war. Add to the fact this war was facilitated by Bush with probably the Biggest Lie in American History, and I can see why some Americans are a little bitter.

The Dems are noting FDR's third inauguration and suggesting Bush should follow that great president's lead. When FDR's inauguration committee wanted to budget $20000 for his third inauguration at a time when the US was still suffering and trudging through WW2, FDR said, "I can do it for $2,000." What a statesman!

Of course when the puffed up Repubs hear this point of view they immediately go on the defense. In googling this issue, I found no less than 5 sites with the exact same article criticizing FDR. Rush Limbaugh pontificates, "Well, anytime you spend money on something it could be spent on something more worthwhile." I tend to agree, Rush. I would have much rather spent the billions of dollars we wasted looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq on something more worthwhile, like funding the No Child Left Behind act that Bush got passed without funding and then abandoned. Some articles even go so far as to excuse that FDR was dealing with a war in which as many soldiers where dying in a week as have died in the two years of the Afghanistan and Iraq war. To the author of that article I challenge: Why don't you send a personal letter and explain that to all of the mothers and wives and children of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan? Tell them that it would matter more if their son/spouse/father died with a hundred thousand other sons/spouses/fathers. Tell them their sacrifice would be more important, more worth Bush and the Repubs making a sacrifice of their own if it were compounded by thousands.

The truth of the matter is that Bush has never had to sacrifice and he probably never will. He's never learned to earn respect, or leadership; it has always been handed to him and because of that he will never look at sending men and women into danger the same way FDR, Lincoln, Clinton, or even Bush Sr. would. Even in his first term, he didn't earn our respect. Osama Bin Laden made sure that we were terrified into giving it to him. Is this why we still haven't been able to find him? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Osama Bin Ladin was the best thing that ever happened to the Bush Jr. presidency.

Even Bush supporter Mark Cuban has expressed concern about the inauguration budget. A most notable quote from this article:

Could there be anything more confusing and shocking than to read that our country was offering $35mm in aid to the areas affected by the Tsunamis, but that the cost of inauguration parties would be about $40mm?

On a final note, I wonder. When the Bush camp finally and quietly calls a halt to the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and confirms that no WMD were found in Iraq despite two years of searching, where are all of the enraged and pious Americans who demand honesty and truth out of our President? Where are the men and women who villified President Clinton for lying about an extra-marital affair in a television press conference? Is it less important to be truthful when it affects the lives and economy of Americans? Is it okay to lie in a State of the Union to the joint Houses of Congress and the American public? Where is Ken Starr to save the day and honesty and truth and justice in the White House?

What I have learned from Republicans is that it is more important to be truthful to other people about something that doesn't involve them than to be truthful about something that does. If it's none of my business, then I have a right to know. If it's something that affects me, it is my statesperson's civic duty to lie. This, above all, is why I am and will always be a Democrat.

Posted by mermu at January 19, 2005 12:40 PM

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Posted by: mom at January 19, 2005 03:44 PM

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