Critics are calling on US President George W. Bush to scale back the glittering multi-million dollar parties planned this week in honor of his second-term inauguration, saying lavish festivities are unseemly at a time of war.
Bush is to be sworn in on Thursday and feted with four days of pomp and party-going at a pricetag of about US$40 million.
PHOTO: AFP
An unprecedented military presence and other security measures will add another US$100 million to the cost, to pay for everything from police overtime wages to reviewing stands stretching from the US Capitol building to the White House.
But critics insist that with US troops dying daily in Iraq, the tone surrounding this year's celebration should be more modest.
"I would have hoped they would have followed the traditions of President Wilson and President Roosevelt, who at a time of war had a very muted celebration," said Democratic Representative Robert Menendez, speaking on CNN on Sunday.
"I think when young men and women are dying we should think about the reality of how we conduct ourselves here at home," he added.
His comments echoed those of Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner, who, in a letter to Bush earlier this month, urged the president to redirect some of the US$40 million "towards a use more fitting to these somber times -- bonuses or equipment for our troops."
Inauguration committee officials however, point out that the theme of the fete -- "Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service" -- already honors the US military, as well as the president's role as commander-in-chief.
Bush told reporters last week he sees no problem with either how the money is raised or how it is spent, noting that it has all been raised with private donations.
"There's no taxpayer money involved in this," he said, brushing aside calls that some of the funds be channeled to South Asia for tsunami relief.
"A lot of the people who are coming here to the inauguration have given" to tsunami victims, Bush said.
"I think it's important to celebrate a peaceful transfer of power ... I'm looking forward to the celebration," he told reporters.
Critics also noted that donations for the events mostly come from large corporations with enormous regulatory and policy interests in Washington, and say potentially serious conflicts of interest exist.
Dozens of corporate contributors have donated US$250,000 each -- the self-imposed maximum donation accepted by the inauguration planning committee.
Republicans said the entire brouhaha over the cost of the inauguration and the source of the money was the latest example of Democratic sour grapes for having failed to recapture the White House after a hard-fought election campaign.
A slightly more circumspect Republican lawmaker, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said on Sunday that inaugurations are meant to be celebrated in grand style -- whichever party wins the White House.
"I think it's a very important event, whether it's a Republican or Democrat president that's going to be inaugurated, because it's really a celebration of the presidency, of the office," she said.
And while the mood among members of Bush's Republican party will be celebratory, the sobriety of the occasion will perhaps not be forgotten in the revelry, she added.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS