Think of the children

Red state values at the Bush Youth Inaugural Ball:

You might say the Janet Jackson moment of President Bush's inaugural festivities came Tuesday at a youth concert with hundreds of preteen Hilary Duff fans in the audience.

No nudity was involved, but the Vince Neil-style profanity probably didn't win rock band Fuel any fans at the Federal Communications Commission, nor from the parents at the concert. Now the Pennsylvania band is just hoping the concert, "America's Future Rocks Today," wasn't aired live.

Borrowing a word from Motley Crue's Neil, the lead singer of Fuel proclaimed, "Welcome to the greatest ----ing country in the world." Brett Scallions followed with a quick apology of "excuse my language."

I am appalled and shocked... and laughing.

*UPDATE* More heh:

While the message was positive, the concert's cool quotient was in question.

"I guess it would be a cool concert if you're a 17-year-old girl," said Roy Trakin, senior editor of Hits magazine.

Not really, said Millicent Bolin, 17-year-old from New Orleans. Many in the audience were on school trips, and some weren't thrilled that the concert was on their itinerary.

"We had to come," Millicent said. "I don't like these people ... they're too fake and mainstream."

If the concert fell short on the hip scale, it wasn't for lack of trying. Stephen Baldwin took the stage on a skateboard. "Are you guys rockin' or what?" he enthused.

Fake and mainstream. That's how I describe the Republican party, too. Well, fake to become mainstream. But whatever.