The corona inauguration: lifestyles of the rich and heartless
The boy king celebrates freedom an' democracy by acting like selfish, petulant spoiled brat.
A look at this week's festivities by the numbers:
$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.
$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.
400: Pounds of lobster provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.
26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.
22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.
$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.
400: Pounds of lobster provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.
26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.
22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
- more here.
'Like a modern Marie Antoinette, the Bush administration in 2005 gaily throws a glittering party and says "Let them dance."'
Others, not far from the festivities in Washington, at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir, and in military and civilian hospitals across the country and in Germany, won't be having the same happy New Year.
The 25,000 mentally or physically injured who have been returned from what we now understand as the unnecessary but politically-demanded recreational fields of battle in Iraq are not dancing on air. The over 11,000 seriously injured are spending their time learning how to adapt to crippling, blinding and disfiguring injuries, and how to use their new prosthetics instead of perfecting their waltz, rumba, and line-dance technique. The almost 1,500 soldiers and marines who have died in Iraq, like the 100,000 dead Iraqis, are blessedly unaware of the gala celebrations in Washington.
The 25,000 mentally or physically injured who have been returned from what we now understand as the unnecessary but politically-demanded recreational fields of battle in Iraq are not dancing on air. The over 11,000 seriously injured are spending their time learning how to adapt to crippling, blinding and disfiguring injuries, and how to use their new prosthetics instead of perfecting their waltz, rumba, and line-dance technique. The almost 1,500 soldiers and marines who have died in Iraq, like the 100,000 dead Iraqis, are blessedly unaware of the gala celebrations in Washington.
America's shame.
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