http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.price18jan18,1,1378800.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines&ctrack=3&cset=true(registration required, sorry)
Excerpt:
GEORGE W. BUSH will be inaugurated to his second term as president of the United States on Thursday. The holy-rollers and high-rollers who got him elected will be full of glee.
The inaugural will be celebrated expensively and ostentatiously, full of pomp and pomposity. The other day I learned from National Public Radio that the Ritz-Carlton in Washington is offering a $150,000 package for the event that includes charter jet (from Texas, probably) to Washington, the most expensive suite in the house, and an endless supply of caviar and Dom Perignon for the two- or three-day visit.
Thus America will be on show to the world, and the degree of gluttony and glitz the leader of the free world and his supporters are capable of indulging in will be there for everyone to see.sw