Bush’s visit costs far too much

Christopher Mark Wood Charlottesville
Published: August 3, 2008

Thanks for informing us (on July 15) that Albemarle County taxpayers will be billed roughly $23,000 for the recent visit of George W. Bush.

And thanks to all those who protested it (I wasn’t there). To me, that was just plain American. 

How fitting that right be-side that article is a report of Mr. Bush exhorting Congress to lift a ban on oil drilling because “every dollar that families must spend on gas is one they could be using to put food on their table or to send a child to school.”

In my view, that’s a clear example of the self-serving hypocrisy that has been the hallmark of this presidency. How much food and/or school supplies could that money have paid for?

Besides, Monticello already had a speaker for the Fourth of July naturalization ceremonies — one who appears to be both intelligent and patriotic.
To sum it all up with an old quote from my stepfather, it “really burns me.”