...Friday fun...

Have a great weekend, everyone! ~ Quill

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- $40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.
- $2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945 - about $20,000 in today's dollars.
- $20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.'s Ritz Carlton.
- 200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.
- $10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.
- 400: Pounds of lobster provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.
- 3,000: Number of "Laura Bush Cowboy cookies" provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the Mandarin hotel.
- $1: Amount per guest President Carter spent on snacks for guests at his inaugural parties. To stick to a tight budget, he served pretzels, peanuts, crackers and cheese and had cash bars.
- 22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
- 1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.
- $15,000: The down payment to rent a fur coat paid by one gala attendee who didn't want the hassle of schlepping her own through the airport.
- $200,500: Price of a room package at D.C.'s Mandarin Oriental, including presidential suite, chauffeured Mercedes limo and outfits from Neiman Marcus.
- 2,500: Number of U.S. troops used to stand guard as President Bush takes his oath of office
- 26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.
- $290: Bonus that could go to each American solider serving in Iraq, if inauguration funds were used for that purpose.
- $6.3 million: Amount contributed by the finance and investment industry, which works out to be 25 percent of all the money collected.
- $17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.

Having the way you voted against the Bush administration proven to be the right way FOR A FACT through continuing examples: PRICELESS

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Does Social Security REALLY Face an $11 Trillion Deficit?? - Bush & Cheney's Mislead on Social Security

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Quilled Tunes: "March Of The Pigs" - Nine Inch Nails

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(I posted this on Fran's blog...I wanted to post it here, too.)

Originally posted on Fran's blog 01/21/05:

It's all good, Fran. I'm glad you had a good day over the inaguration.

As for the flip-flopping, well...yeah, he did change his mind a few times. He changed his position in light of new information, which is what "good judgment" requires a GOOD candidate to do. Hey, at least he (Kerry) didn't defend positions and actions that were WRONG as if he was perfect and completely incapable of being at fault for anything (i.e. going to war for the wrong reasons, outright LYING to the American public about the war, further obliterating our already bad economy, destroying forward momentum for better healthcare, ripping apart international relations we've had for decades with the U.N., and helping sexual orientation become the next big civil rights issue riddled with instances of hate-mongering and massive wrongful discrimination; just to name a few). So yes - you're "hero" Mr. Bush DID in fact stand firm in his decisions, I'll give him that. He absolutely defends all of those things that he did. What a moral guy! :)