What's wrong with this picture?

U.S. tells D.C. to pay inaugural expenses (emphasis mine):

D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.

Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.

Let's party like it's 2000!

A spokesman for Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which oversees the District, agreed with the mayor's stance. He called the Bush administration's position "simply not acceptable."

'Most odious'
"It's an unfunded mandate of the most odious kind. How can the District be asked to take funds from important homeland security projects to pay for this instead?" said Davis spokesman David Marin.

The region has earmarked federal homeland security funds for such priorities as increasing hospital capacity, equipping firefighters with protective gear and building transit system command centers.

Yeah, let's divert money from far less important items, like hospitals and firefighting, so that a bunch of Republican fat cats can get wasted and rub elbows with Dubya, Darth, and Rummy. I'm sure that the capitol's nurses and firefighters will appreciate the importance of the inaugural over homeland security next time there's a terrorist attack in D.C. At least there appears to be bipartisan outrage towards this egregious misappropriation of homeland security funds.

Speaking of Darth, has anyone heard from, or seen, Cheney since the election? Does he have a pulse? Is he still breathing?