Inauguration Comments (More Hate Mail)

Looks like there are a number of people out there who feel that my comments on the inauguration are out of line. I would encourage like-minded individuals to consider posting directly to the site, but I have made these pleas before, and frankly, I am just happy people are willing to argue with me about this. Here's a sample:

Hippie, Your website is everything that is wrong with freedom of speech.
You use your website to creat misinformation, and it's pretty unoriginal, when
you consider how many anti-Bush websites there are out there. If a bunch
of people who support Bush want to get together and have a party to celebrate
his victory in November, why do you care? Do you have nothing better to
worry about than your hippie, left-wing agenda? Get a life.

echo_doctor raised an interesting point in her comments on a previous post: If my website sucks, then why do these jackholes read it? Another similar person who enjoys leaving Caps Lock on:

HEY DEMOCRAP! Get over yourself. If you DEMOCRAPS weren't such losers, you
would be the ones having a party tomorrow. Too bad you and your war hero
couldn't get the job done in November. Most of the $40 million is there for security anyway. Stop posting your lies and get a real job.

Now, that's what I call intelligent discourse. First off, both of these people, and a number of others with poorer grammar skills and a proclivity for using fuck in their emails, called me a liar. Yet, not a single one of them pointed out something that I had posted that wasn't true or even was presented incorrectly. You'd think if I were such a huge liar, these people would be all over it with facts and research to refute what I wrote. No such luck, not even an opinion, aside from the fact that I suck and my website sucks, of course.

Bush supporters in general seem to be proud of this inauguration party tomorrow. You can read all about what's going on and how much it's going to cost here. The $40 million cost is going to be covered mostly by private donors, mostly companies who have a stake in Bush's second term agenda.

During this whole discussion, this report about the cost of ending poverty and starvation worldwide was released. The report basically says that if rich countries, like those who can afford to throw $40 million away on a victory parade, would increase their aid, we could cut poverty IN HALF in 10 years and end it completely in 20 years. I'm not trying to say that $40 million not spent on a fraternity event would prevent world hunger, but the $40 million reflects a mindset that we have that is harmful to the rest of the world.

Companies like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, who have a lot riding on Bush's success with personal retirement accounts, donated $250,000 to a single day event. And then, these same companies will turn around and complain that they have to pay too much in taxes. If you can afford to drop a quarter million on a single event, and you're charging me $2 every time I use your stupid ATM because it happens to be conveniently located close to the liquor store, I think it's time for you to step up to the plate.

We, as a country, have the power to end world poverty. It sounds like a speech at a beauty contest, but we could do it. The worst part of all of it is that we won't even try. We'll continue to dump billions of dollars into wars that can't ever be won. If we took a quarter of the $68 billion military aid package that Congress approved last year, and applied to it poverty and not to killing people who don't agree with our government, we could end starvation. We could also fund health care for every child in the US under the age of 18 for the same cost as one Trident Nuclear Missile Submarine ($5 billion), but don't even get me started on that.

The Second Inauguration symbolizes our greed, wastefulness, lack of compassion, and a complete lack of awareness of what we could do if we weren't too busy caring about ourselves. I hope it's a great party.