(Bush will spend more on inauguration festivities than we as a country will send to aid the tsunami victims.)

Soldiers will dance free of charge at President Bush's second inauguration, a record $40 million-plus celebration for "a nation at war" financed by some of the same big donors who bankrolled Bush's re-election campaign.

The president's private inaugural committee, calling on corporate and individual donors to contribute as much as $250,000 apiece, has struck a military-minded theme for a three-day series of events leading to the swearing-in on Jan. 20.

"Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service" is the slogan for a festival that will start with a ceremony at an indoor Washington arena "saluting those who serve," and close with a collection of nine formal balls. The dances will include a Commander-in-Chief Ball open, admission free, to invited members of the military…

(Invited members only???!!!  I don’t call that “soldiers” dancing free of charge.  Those will be “officers” dancing free of charge, and they’ll be officers who lick George Bush’s boots, at that.)

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