So Team Bush is flogging an initiative that allegedly promotes "healthy marriages". This election-year pandering to the fundamentalist religious right would cost tax payers $1.5 billion (yes, billion). Of course, the theme of this is "protecting the sanctity of marriage". Which means only "traditional" (man/woman) couples may apply. You know, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Because gay marriage is an abomination, dont'cha know!

Now wait just a rock-pickin' minute!

Recently, Britney Spears went on a drunken binge in Vegas, married her childhood buddy (and they went to a great deal of trouble for this so-called spontaneous "joke" because they needed to get the paperwork sorted). Then immediately had the marriage anulled. Does that not fly in the face of the most solemn institution of marriage? Britney Spears and her little buddy treat marriage as a joke, and yet, the religious right is silent on the subject. Where is their moral outrage over this blatant disrespect for the institution of marriage?

And, don't look to prime time TV to show us how to respect marriage! Not when we have shows like, "The Bachelor", "The Bachelorette", "Joe Millionaire", "Who Wants to Marry A Millionaire" and on and on and on. Respecting the sanctity of marriage? They've turned marriage into a bloody game show! Where is the respect for the sanctity of marriage?!? And again, where is the outrage from the religious right?

And Team Bush? They give flap-all about this particularly demeaning treatment of the holy institution of marriage. FCC Chairman Michael Powell (a Bush appointee) is too busy trying to get the FCC to punish NBC for not bleeping out Bono's naughty word. It boggles the mind that letting the "f-word" slip out is considered obscene, but some totally lame show where a bunch of women whore themselves for a million dollars and a televised wedding is not?

The primary purposes of this $1.5 billion initiative (-cough-boondoggle-cough) are to find yet another way to remove single parents (primarily mothers) from the welfare rolls and to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry (or form legally-recognized unions). Team Bush gives flap-all about whether or not Americans live in "healthy marriages"...other than the fact that more marriages might help broaden the tax base (don't forget that "marriage penalty" that the IRS imposes). If Team Bush really had any interest whatsoever in healthy marriages/healthy families, that $1.5 billion would be invested in parenting education/support.