BOO WHOM?

Amazingly, my Stage Band instructor, who attended the inauguration on Tuesday, showed up on time for our Wednesday afternoon class, none the worse for wear.

Lenny's enthusiasm still brimmed. He even said something about "a new era." And further cliche.

Lenny told us, regarding the weather in Washington, "We in the Bay Area don't appreciate our great weather!"

I'm thinking: I didn't go to Washington in January.

And he repeated the canned reaction, "It's too bad that the crowd booed George Bush."

I'm thinking: If George Bush didn't want to get booed he could have stayed in his hole.

There is no constitututional or statutory obligation for the outgoing president to attend the swearing-in of his successor--this is obvious when the succession is occasioned by death-in-office.

This was one time when Bush appeared in front of a crowd the makeup of which he couldn't control, the one time the public could express themselves directly to a man whose salary they've been paying for eight years.

And the booed the son of a bitch.

"Son of a bitch," is particularly appropriate in this case.

I think it's impolite to start wars of aggression based on deliberate lies. I think it's impolite to tap everyone's phones.  I think it's impolite to torture people and hold them indefinitely without charges.  It's even impolite to enable the crooks at Enron to rip off employees pension plans and millions of energy ratepayers.

You want impolite? Try the execution of Saddam Hussein.  You want impolite? Try waterboarding.

The problem with booing is that it's not nearly enough.  Bush belongs in prison pending war crimes prosecution.

Anyway, on the way to class I had to sit near the back of the bus, which in San Francisco public transit is considered thug turf.

As I sat there I imagined how I would respond to the intimidating misbehavior of poor black teenagers, I thought I might ask them:

"What would Barack think of that?"

As the nation's chief law enforcer, Barack Obama is now "the man."

Weird!  "The man," is now a black man.

If I ever come within earshot of George Bush, I'll  shout invective at him, including impolite words.

Boo indeed!

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