Obama Inauguration to Cost $150 Million

The incoming Obama Administration has vowed that it will represent all the American people and not just "the rich." It appears that he has kept that promise, provided that America is a nation of tax evaders such as Timothy Geithner or underemployed Clintonistas that are savoring their return to power. However, the President-elect's supposed commitment to saving the environment and to renewable energy seems questionable.

The Washington, DC-based Institute for Liberty, using formulas and other data that the Environmental Protection Agency has used in the past as core components in its never-ending pursuit of saving the world (and Al Gore) from the consequences of global warming, has determined that the four-day block party surrounding Inauguration Day will produce the following amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂):

25,320,000 pounds generated by the estimated 600 private jet armada that will fly "dignitaries" to and from the DC area,

262,483,200 pounds (from non-alternative energy) personal vehicles

400 hundred pounds courtesy of the horses used during the ceremonies.

Should you think that I'm making all this up, you can read the original report at the Institute for Liberty's web site, a copy posted at chillingeffect.org, or a summary at Sam Dealy's US News & World Report blog.

So much for the "protect the environment" nonsense we've been hearing. Again, it seems like the rules that the average citizen has to live by don't apply to Barak Obama and his Merry Band of Quislings.

There is yet another news item that has caused this writer to suspect that President-elect Obama's promises are nothing more than warm greenhouse gas.

According to The Guardian (UK, January 14, 2009), the Obama inauguration will cost an estimated $150 million of someone's money. As The Guardian notes, this "dwarfs the $42.3 million spent on George Bush's inauguration in 2005 and the $33 million spent on Bill Clinton's in 1993."

My memory may not be as sharp as it once was, but I seem to recall that it wasn't that long ago that Barak Obama, Joe Bide and Ted Kennedy, among others, were spending days on end whining about those "insensitive" Republicans having a multi-million dollar national convention while the economy was in such horrible shape, with "millions" of the homeless or "millions" being threatened by a hurricane or "millions" being threatened by some calamity or another. I guess things really went to Hell in the month between the $100 million + Democratic Convention and the Republican show.

If the economy is in even worse shape now, six months later, "insensitive" doesn't seem to be strong enough a word to describe a four-day, 150 million dollar party that just happens to be "invitation only."

Forgive me, I forgot that Barak Obama, Tim Geithner, and friends have two sets of rules: the ones that they expect you and me to follow, and the ones that apply only to the anointed elites such as themselves. There might also be another, much simpler, explanation.

I call it plain, old fashioned hypocrisy.