the whining here about religion being included in the inauguration

[MADem]

210. No, that's not the case. It does seem that way at first blush, but when you get down in the weeds,

it's not a huge sacrifice by either the taxpayers OR the military participants.

When military commands hand over the personnel who are on loan to the Joint Inaugural Committee (and a military rep who works with them to coordinate all these souls), they usually don't get them back for a few days after the event. They aren't "working" all that time. They also aren't "working" a full day, every day that they're assigned to the committee--it's actually a mini vacation with short hours for most of those people, who are assigned to the Committee from November onward, many of them. It makes for a nice Christmas for those lucky few...they are expected to bust it a little bit on the actual day, but they've been coasting up to that point, so a bit of a push isn't out of line.

The donors, who fund the parade and balls and private parties--and there are a ton of 'em--were capped at a max of fifty grand each this time around. OPEN SECRETS is still irritated that they haven't gotten all the "detes" about the donations, but I promise you--the parties and parade are privately funded.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/obama-inaugural-donors.html

I am no angel, but I have worked on the periphery of an Inauguration, which is how I know about this stuff (Clinton 2).