Hide on January 20^th - and DO NOT turn on your television -

From MSNBC -

… The inaugural ceremony will include performances by the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club, the U.S. Marine Band and mezzo sopranos Denyce Graves and Susan Graham.

Guy Hovis, a vocalist from Tupelo, Miss., who performed on the Lawrence Welk show, will sing, “Let the Eagle Soar,” a song written by Attorney General John Ashcroft.  …

Run for your lives!  The Lawrence Welk Show?

Well, no word on Wayne Newton.  (See December 12, 2004 - The Environment and Wayne Newton)

From Dick in Rochester, New York -

Do you think if this were televised at Gitmo or Abu Ghraib it would fall into category of torture?

Maybe so.  (For Ashcroft himself singing go here.  And for him singing this particular number – “Let the Eagle Soar” - go here to hear the man himself sing it.)

From Vince, also in Rochester, New York –

Speaking of ceremony and parades (and torture)...

Did people see the Rose Parade this year...  They had a fly over of a stealth bomber to begin the proceedings....

EXCUSE ME!???!!   An attack weapon of mass destruction who's SOLE design purpose is to penetrate into enemy territory with massive high altitude smart bombs - that's how we prelude Disney floats and flowers and Kodak moments...

I turned it off at that early point - switched to good old fashioned gridiron violence where you can see all eleven opponents and the blood that gets spilled on an even playing field!

From Rick, the News Guy in Atlanta –

Seems to me, in these times of huge federal budget deficits, flying an expensive aircraft over a parade would be an extravagance we really can't afford. Wouldn't it have been more economical, given that "stealth" means nobody knows it's there, to just not do the flyover at all but say we did?

From Dick in Rochester, New York –

I have often muttered about this in terms of Blue Angels and other "elite", tight formation precision flying teams.  Whether or not petroleum is reason for war, it, in any event, is a limited resource so why the hell are we wasting it on this crap. (Along with auto races, AOL free software, ad nausea....)

From Rick, the News Guy in Atlanta –

Good point!  So we could do the same thing with those guys!

How?  About the time of the flyover, the announcer could just ask everyone to look up if they want to see the Blue Angels in the famous "Missing Men" formation!

From Vince, also in Rochester, New York –

The reason we waste those valued resources is that if we didn't expend them, certain people wouldn't be wealthy.

Of course we waste resources.  You don't believe those PR save energy campaigns (really!) do you?

Ya know - I don't mind the elite and the precision or even the public show of force... especially in this day and age...

Now abuse of force is another issue.

But the stealth thing that riled me is the OFFENSIVE nature of the beast!  Defense and deterrence and last resort I can live with - but hey that's for another white house and another era, eh?

Those days are long gone.