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.
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant