[...] crisis our country is in, did Salon also think to criticize President Obama’s lavish inaugural spending? No. But their side rallied around the defense of [...]

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It’ll be interesting to see what the final cost is on the inauguration given the clean up costs

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@Saul Rosenberg:

Mr. Rosenberg,

Thank you for your service to our nation.

Perhaps it’s your newness to this site or some other misjudgment of what FA is all about, but I sincerely hope that you don’t think the quote below will go unchallenged:

As a former Republican, I still find it hard to believe that the McCain camp had the audacity to call Barack Obama, a sitting United States Senator, a terrorist.

Please point me to where anyone in the McCain camp, whether the candidates, or their staff members referred to Senator Obama as a “terrorist”.

If you are unable to support that claim, you need to retract your false accusation.

Finally, the Inauguration celebration could have been significantly scaled back to a point that would have made it more fiscally responsible without losing its’ value to the American culture.

The reality of the extravagance we saw, and paid for, yesterday flies in the face of claims that this country is on the precipice of some sort of economic collapse.

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Greetings. I am a former United States Navy Ceremonial Guardsman. I marched in President Clinton’s first Inaugural. I have the background to chime in on this.

It is important to realize that the Inauguration is not really a national holiday about President Obama. The Inauguration is a celebration of our American identity, the Democratic, peaceful, transition of power, to a leader, elected, and representative of the American people. In the process we honor both the outgoing President, as we honor the incoming President, in addition to the very core of what a Democracy is about. This celebration should be as visible as possible, as we should offer the world our example, to let people that do not understand the concept of freedom, as those living under the oppressed thumb of dictatorships. People should not fear their governments, governments should fear their people.

This ideal must be protected at all costs. This means improved security against those who are less tolerant of our American identity. It also means joining as Americans behind the current President and heal some of the divisions created during the Presidential Elections. (As a former Republican, I still find it hard to believe that the McCain camp had the audacity to call Barack Obama, a sitting United States Senator, a terrorist. Especially when Sarah Palin’s husband belonged to an organization – the Alaska Independence Party – that desires to this day to secede from the USA and become it’s own country. I digress.)

So there may be a number of bitter Republicans that say that the Presidential Inauguration cost too much. In doing so, they fail to recognize the true purpose of the celebration itself and rob us of our identity. It is there to say that we are proud to be Americans, this is who we are. It needs to be shouted it from the rooftops. Two Million braving the cold to shouted it on the National Mall, 10,000 made their statement marching in the parade, and many more behind the scenes to make it happen. The pride of this event rippled through our country as many more watched it on TV at a time when we really need to feel better about ourselves. Revitalization of our National Spirit is exactly what we needed, and what we did. Let the rest of the world pay attention. This is who we are!

Money well spent!

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Of course, this extravagance was also helped along by a last bit of budgetary fecklessness from Bush. He declared a federal disaster in DC in order to get some FEMA money for the inauguration (link. Was it really a disaster? Was this FEMA’s mission? No one in government cares, after all it’s not their money that’s being pissed away. I imagine Bush was worried that underfunding the festivities would have resulted in some serious problems (what with two million people showing up), but rather than asking the responsible parties to pony up enough money to cover expenses he just reached for a few tens of millions of taxpayer money that was handy. Sadly, this will probably look fiscally conservative in four years’ time.

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I have too many wankathon jokes left to leave now.

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@Fit fit:

The door is right over there =====>

Feel free to see yourself out.

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5x as many people, and only 12% more in cost? That doesn’t make sense.

“Plus, MSNBC suggested the $160 million tab just covered parties and activities, not the larger security costs.

“The District of Columbia alone spent more than $15 million in 2005 and says costs this year will triple.”-NYT article that MM linked to

The Media Matters piece is just a piece of DNC propaganda
5x as many people, but not 5x the cost? That requires a willing suspension of disbelief

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I liked this community better before it had standards.

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Are you sure your handle isn’t DOH? Anyone who can’t express themselves without using 4 letter words is pretty stupid. Silly little boy…feeling inadequate?

But then, expressing one’s most hateful side is a trait of liberals right DOH?

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