$1.6 BILLION FOR BUSH PROPAGANDA

Now this is ridiculous, criminal.

How much is good press worth? To the Bush administration, about $1.6 billion.

That's how much seven federal departments spent from 2003 through the second quarter of 2005 on 343 contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, media organizations and individuals, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

This reminds me of a scene from the Kevin Kline film Dave, where the substitute president is asking his cabinet to help him find ways to trim the budget so he can rescue a federal program for homeless children. He discovers that millions of dollars are being spent on public relations efforts to reassure owners of American cars that their purchase was a good one. Dave says: "I don't want to tell some eight-year-old kid he's gotta sleep in the street because we want people to feel better about their car. Do you want to tell them that?"

Oh, Dave, Dave. Would that we had a man of your values sitting in the White House.

Tags: Bush, public relations spending, GAO