Don’t look. Don’t tell.

We are at war. Every penny counts.

Homeland security is drawing on all our economic resources.

Profligate government spending is on the administration hit list, as it tries to cut taxes and thus government expenditures.

The workers at Enron have lost their life savings. They desperately need money to pay the mortgage, the rent, utilities.

There are people hungry in this country. People hurt. People who need help, clinics to help them get off drugs, doctors to cure their illness.

Money. There are so many places that we need to spend it, save it, apply it with wisdom and compassion and commitment.

Then why the flying flimflam is our nitwitted US Attorney General spending over eight thousand dollars buying draperies to cover up the huge art deco statues in the Great Hall of the Justice Department?

Was it because …

… one of the statues, “The Spirit of Justice,” is of a woman wearing a toga, one breast (gasp!) exposed? While the other, “The Majesty of Law,” is a man weaing a loin cloth?

… Ashcroft, a staunch religious conservative, found the statues offensive?

… particularly when reporters photographed him in front of them?

… because he’s got money to burn in the DoJ budget, and he thought having the statues destroyed would seem too Taliban-like?

Well we now know that he’s not only a religious conservative (which is not, per se, a bad thing), but he’s a nut about it (which is). And petty. And, based on the ongoing false stories fed to the press, denying any plans to buy the draperies, willing to lie about it.

Oh, and we know that the Spirit of Justice and the Majesty of Law will be under wraps for the rest of this administration.

(Via Sekimori)