Laura The Good Christian

"In politics, absurdity is not a handicap." Napoleon Bonaparte

From The New York Times>Laura Bush Defends Gala in Time of War and Disaster

With less than a week to go until her husband's second inauguration, Laura Bush on Friday defended the decision to hold the $40 million celebration as planned despite a war abroad and the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

Inaugurations, Mrs. Bush said, are "an important part of our history. They're a ceremony of our history; they're a ritual of our government," she said. "And I think it's really important to have the inauguration every time. I think it's also good for Washington's economy, for people to come in from around the country, for the hotels to be full, and the restaurants to be full, and the caterers to be busy. I think that's important."

She added: "I think there's a symbolic aspect of the inauguration that - and because of that, the symbol of the inauguration, you never want to - for any reason - cancel it or not have it."

Well, that tears it. Do these people ever THINK before they speak? The First Lady wants to preserve the "symbol of the inauguration." For this administration, that symbol is greed, a paean to wealth and privilege and power -- not to mention religious hubris and an appalling lack of humanity. Does she imagine our soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and all the other foreign war zones will watch the inauguration from their unprotected foxholes and inadequate tanks in order to take heart and comfort in its historic significance?

Makes you want to use the old expression, "Christ on toast!" One can picture such a dish being served on the groaning buffet tables at the Inaugural Balls For Good Christians and Token Minorities, while people around the globe -and right here at home- go needlessly hungry.

And speaking of balls... it takes some serious brass ones to claim that the 40 million dollar Republican Inaugural budget will have a meaningful impact on Washington's economy. Will the criminally crumbling inner city school system get a boost from that money? Will the jobless, the homeless, the hopeless of Washington benefit in any way from this wretched excess of corporate spending?

No matter how much we bleed for the victims of the recent tsunami on the other side of the world, what about the tsunami of poverty and crime that's been swirling through the streets of Washington -and other American inner cities- for decades, decimating the lives of countless citizens? What will the inauguration, and the Bush administration, for all its prayers and promises do about that? A great big zero.

So please, Mrs. Bush, as you don one of your costly inaugural outfits, take a minute to look in the mirror at a Good Christian who will hold a bible and say a prayer -- and then dance without a care while millions of your fellow human beings cry.. and die.