In case you need another reason to dislike Bush, now he’s using Pentagon money on ostentatious sets :

White House aides advancing President Bush’s Normandy visit ordered the Pentagon to erect a $100,000 platform for his entry into a U.S. military cemetery, well-placed sources told the Daily News.

American taxpayers picked up the six-figure tab for the red carpet, walkway and artificial island hurriedly built over a memorial pool so that Bush and French President Jacques Chirac could walk in style to the dais for last week’s ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
. . .
The red carpet price tag wasn’t anticipated by Pentagon planners, so the $100,000, which has already been paid out to the civilian contractors who did the work, will have to be scrounged from somewhere else.

“That money will have to come out of some account that otherwise would be spent on soldiers,” according to a source familiar with the situation.
. . .
The expensive choreography was a drop in the bucket compared with the overall cost of the U.S. government’s participation in D-Day celebrations in France – estimated at $30 million by knowledgeable officials.

I wonder how King George would explain something like this to all his buddies in Crawford?