Anyone going to the INAUGURATION...
 

Wold love to hear a first hand account of the experience from a Cellarite. Should be awesome, and cold. Dress warm!

http://www.accuweather.com/us/dc/was...Chg=1&metric=0

Hey, Glatt works down there and Pie isn't too far - either of you going?
I think my sister is going without tickets - that should be interesting! She is only about 15 minutes away.

I'd love to go! But I can't, so I hope someone posts about it, too.

I tried to get tickets from 4 different sources, but struck out each time. They claim it's a lottery, but I think the truth is you have to know somebody well to get tickets. Everyone I know who has tickets also has a close connection to some congress kritter. I wouldn't want to go unless I had a good view. Watching the event from a mile away on a jumbotron is not my idea of fun. That's how it would be without tickets.

It's going to be easier for people from far away to get there than for locals to. Chartered tour busses will be allowed downtown, but local traffic will be blocked. They are closing all the bridges from VA to DC. All the officials are saying you should walk because the expected visitors will be about 2-3 times the capacity that public transportation can handle.

I'm actually a little relieved that I got no tickets because it means I don't have to figure out how to get down there. A 4 hour walk there and a 4 hour walk back would be the most likely result, and I'm not up for that with kids.

It's going to be a freaking zoo. I'll watch it on tv from my warm living room. We get the day off at least, because the streets around my building are closed. And metro will be unusable.

I intend to stay as far as away from DC as I can.

Well, as far away as Pennsylvania, anyway.

My husband and I are carefully avoiding it. It's going to be awful in person -- I'll watch it on tv. We briefly thought about attending, but realized we weren't crazy enough to survive the crowds.

My friends (the two J's) are flying out to Washington DC on Sunday. They will be in the area and partaking of the general celebrations and watching on the big screens.

:eek:Here's what the road closures are expected to look like:

I don't really understand the draw. If he turns out to be a completely legendary miracle worker or gets a double tap to the skull you can tell the grandkids, "I was there when Obama was sworn in..." but otherwise inauguration day just doesn't seem that big a deal to me.

A friend who lives outside of Washington said some of their neighbors rented their houses out for the inauguration at $15,000. Even hotels in Lancaster County PA (about 100 miles away?) are profitting from the overflow.

I've heard the same and seen a lot of that on the news - insane I say! The people who rent from farther away are gonna have serous issues getting to the inauguration with all the road closures.

At the time, I thought 20 Jan was on the weekend. Did not ask him if that was $15K for two days, also including the weekend, or a whole week.

Wow forgot that - Either way thats some serious cash for a few days or a week.

I may go. I'm not sure yet. It depends on some business travel plans that are up in the air. It should be a spectacle, though.

Alot of people were doing that in Denver during the DNC. most of them were renting for the week at 10-30k. I actually thought about subleasing our house for the week, since we were gone, anyway. People were renting houses in outer suburbs for almost as much.

Looks like I'm traveling after all. Mixed feelings. It would be cool to witness, but I'm not entirely unhappy to have a good excuse to avoid it.

Not going, but all us history/poli-sci majors are going to watch it during class time. I can't wait to see how many of the campus fundy neo-cons show up.

Can't make it so I'm sending a few million people in my place.:rolleyes:

They're having a big to-do on campus...which I think will be very exciting.

Man charged with threatening Obama on website

http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...50G07920090117

I wonder how many wackos out there have made dumbassed statements like this in the last month? And how the heck is this guy a greater threat? From a UFO site? Pleaseeeee.

Since the threats were posted on a website about UFOs and aliens, they know he's probably nuts. :haha:
But more likely because he badmouthed the Israelis.

edit: Obama's train is passing by close by, but being 2.7 degrees F and the likelyhood of being shot by a government sniper, I think I'll pass on waving.

:lol2: good one. Why is that? It must be the whole Illuminati thing that goes hand in hand with tin-foil hat people. Rarely are those two thoughts far apart.

And the beat goes on, change my ass....


Lobbyists Find Detour Around Latest Ethics Rules

Lobbyists and corporations have found an opening in the latest congressional-ethics law that allows them to pay for special access to lawmakers and members of the incoming Obama administration during next week's inaugural festivities.

President-elect Barack Obama was a vocal champion of rules enacted last year that prohibit companies and lobbyists from buying anything worth more than $10 for lawmakers. But well-heeled interests have found a way to circumvent the ban by partnering with "state societies" that are throwing parties to celebrate Mr. Obama's inauguration.

These Washington-based nonprofits, whose members include lawmakers, congressional aides, lobbyists and executives from a given state, aren't subject to the ethics law -- even though their social and charitable activities are paid for with corporate money.

Mr. Obama's home state of Illinois, for example, is holding its own inaugural ball on Monday, the night before Mr. Obama is sworn in. It is offering executives of Motorola Inc., Exelon Corp., and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association a chance to pay big money to dine and pose for photos with Illinois lawmakers and incoming Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who recently retired as congressman from the state. The price: $5,000 to $55,000, event organizers said.

Hawaii, Mr. Obama's birthplace, has invited companies and lobbyists who pay as much as $25,000 into a roped-off VIP lounge at its Tuesday night affair, where they can mingle with influential policy makers. Among the drawing cards: Hawaii Sen. Dan Inouye, the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Gen. Eric Shinseki, a Hawaiian tapped to lead the Veterans Affairs Department.

Takers so far include Lockheed Martin Corp., which gave $25,000 for access to the party. Jeff Adams, a spokesman for Lockheed, said: "I can confirm that Lockheed Martin is co-sponsoring some of the unofficial inaugural events."

Gen. Shinseki and Mr. LaHood canceled their appearances at the galas after The Wall Street Journal contacted the transition team about them. Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment on the balls.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123215275270792215.html

I'm ashamed of my former company. I thought they were better than that.
:headshake

I know what you mean, mine embarrassed me by;

Sponsoring the official launch of the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier.

Sponsoring the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange project that it brings dancers, choreographers, scientists, and faith leaders together—both to create dance and to use it as a way to spur conversation among seemingly disparate
groups about a compelling question, such as “What is the origin of the universe?”

I called my boss this morning because there was a big emergency at work (water pipe broke in a document storage area) and she mentioned that I didn't need to go into work to take care of things. She was planning to go in anyway with all her camping supplies because she and a bunch of guests from out of town are spending the night before inauguration in our building. They will sleep on conference room floors. She just wanted to pre-position all the camping supplies while the streets were still open around the building. It's about a mile away from the events.

There are people coming from Australia too. They had a group of indigenous people on the news last week and their trip is being funded by a philanthropic businessman.

There's not that much hype about the swearing in of a new head of state here. There was a lot of fuss when Rudd was sworn in, but that was mainly because he also did the famous apology on the same day, but it was still nothing like what's going on in the US at the moment.

So Ali, give us your take on the whole Obama thing. What is the pulse of our good friends the Aussies saying about it all?

Well, since we have a left wing government at the moment, the general concensus is pretty positive. A lot of people don't think he'll survive his presidency, or if he does, it'll be a matter of luck (or good security).

A lot of us are asking ourselves when we'll have a non-white or indigenous leader.

I think it's very much the same sort of thinking over here as there and that is mainly that anyone would be better than Bush, and Obama is an excellent speaker, so hopefully he will be an excellent president.

Interesting take on it. You really think he won't finish his term?
That would suck - totally!

Yea, I am not hoping for any of that badness happening.

I hope he turns out to be everything he's been hyped up to be. The world needs it, aside from the dire position the US is in at the moment. I hope he completes this term and the next and everything he's promised comes true. I hope he doesn't turn out to be a fraud.

I think people will try remorselessly to end his life because of what he represents to them. I hope they fail.

Newsflash: he will not live up to the hype. It's impossible.

SAY IT ISN"T SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All those promises, which I will be repeating for everyone who supported his bullshit, are not twuweeeee? No WAY?

Just bin watching the pre-inaugeration "festivities" on the BBC.
I know 24 hour news channels have to drag every last atom out of a story, but it was quite draining.

I had it on because I was eating a late lunch, and because - well, y'know - I know some Americans! But it was dire. The two presenters were just wandering through the crowds and talking to people, and complaining how cold it was. I think the temperature was mentioned about once every five seconds.

The only vaguely amusing thing was when the black reporter got a double take for his accent - one lady actually saying to him, "Ooh, you're British!!" and looked like she wanted to snog him. She giggled through the rest of the interview, making cows eyes at him. Not the height of political reporting, but far more interesting than the oft repeated, "We're here to see history being made" yawn. yawn, yawn.

Please don't think this is anti-American - the British general public are just as inane. That is why people on television are generally actors or presenters with scripted lines.

Oh, SG...yeah the coverage is crazy. Too much, imho.

I hope for less hype. Let's just let the guy get in there and see what he can do.

The hype just feeds the crap-spouters.

Seriously I can't listen to the inauguration emcee without hearing lines from How the Grinch Stole Christmas in my head.

Just watched the speech. Very stirring. I understand why many pundits worried he was "too European" to be elected.

I really appreciate him noting that there are Muslim Americans, and unbelieving Americans in his speech. One of the things I find odd about your country is this opting out of people. Even the lunatic fringe here rarely try to claim people are anti-British.

Good for him. And good for you. I'm a fan.

It was a great ceremony. Even though he flubbed the oath it was a historic day. I wish him the best.

I did not know there was such bad blood between the Clintons and Carter.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalra...-snubs-cl.html

I was hoping for a lot more than that for Obama. His speeches while campaigning were excellent . I was just, well less than "in awe" with it. I thought it was good, ok, positive... not amazing or as inspirational as I expected. OH well. I wanna see it again either way. Circumstances here were not he best either.

Whoo hoo. House marathon on USA, don't have to watch the inauguration crap any more.

Ted Kennedy just collapsed at the post party.

I thought it was lizard people and psychosis? Wouldn't that be a funny twist to that theory.

YES WE CA......errrr......COULD!

Some bipartisan-sounding Senator on Fox just said right out that "Democrats made Iraq Bush's war," and now he hopes they'd treat Obama much differently. Yeah, sure, now that the responsiblity is their party's. They own it, and they better do a better job of winning it than any Republican did, or else.

Though what I think will happen is that Bush set up the favorable strategy and conditions -- no successful attacks on our soil after 9/11 despite sundry tries -- and Obama will take credit for the victory, if the GWOT is visibly winding down and the terrorist murderers/antiglobalists/abusers of women and their asswipe supporters with the mental acuity of donkeys are being run out of every country they've slipped into -- or dropped through gallows traps on a regular basis. Taking the credit will be, of course, with incomplete justification.

But foreign policy goals that are actually seen to be shared by all members of the parties' senior leadership would be a fine show of bipartisan goodness.

There's a difference between his campaign promises and ideas, and the "hype" imposed by Ouija people and the media.

...of course planes were flying into buildings all the time before that. One could argue that 9/11 was Bush's fault since nobody had hated America enough to do that before he was president....

DING DING DING DING! We have a winner!

I watched from the lobby of an arts center with about 50 others via choppy internet feed with no audio that kept kicking out, NPR via boom box and an old TV someone found and managed to get the local fox channel via rabbit ears. None of it was in sync.

The quartet choked me up. The scale of the crowd was mind blowing. There was a site of Bush hugging Obama that got me, too. Peaceful transfer and all that. The line about science got big applause in our lobby.

Oh, and Judge Roberts was the one who flubbed the line! That's ok. It worked.

For me, it was a day of smiles, and reserve, not cynicism. A good day.

Inaugural Address wordle

Just making sure this is noted. It is a tiny thing but we have a habit of rewriting history in the first draft.

I thought he hit that sweet spot between hope and hard work.

Apathy?

Well, after the numerous replays, I see that actually Chief Justice Roberts fucked up the quote after Obama's pregnant pause and Obama actually nailed the quote as stated to him. Well done to our first half AA and half white President.

Come to think of it he is more AA than the majority of blacks living in the US.....

Well, I wasn't able to get any reception at work. I got home and just now watched the Youtube along with a printed copy of the speech.

Obama nailed it. I'm almost willing to bet that even Obama's critics here will concede that.

As an orator, based on his DNC speech and this, I'm putting him up there with Reagan.

Obama did take a pause, but Roberts really choked. Didn't they practice this?

I finally got to watch & listen to it in its entirety. It was a very good speech better than I first thought. He touched on a lot of things that the majority wanted to here. Definitely a good start. Lets get it done.

WTF? I thought you socialists thought Reagan was the devil incarnate? no? seriously.

okay, I'm feeling kind of sorry for the Obamas tonight. Having to do all those "appearances" at all those different balls. Short speech, tiny little dance, wave to the crowd, on to the next. Lotta hard work.

I understand it's a reward for their supporters at the various venues, but still . . . seems like they ought to get to party for themselves, too.

Thought Miss Michelle's dress was ugly, though. The yellow daytime one. The ball gown is okay. Although I can't imagine the nightmare choosing both dresses was either. And she had to be warm outside today--but I didn't like the color and I kept getting distracted by the little bow or whatever it was in the middle.

Nope, no more party for them, just long hours, bullshit and exasperation, for years. Don't envy them a bit. :headshake

Rich didn't say he liked or admired the man (though he may). He was talking about his ability as a public speaker -- which even his adversaries conceded.

Well that's totally not unusual.

Okay, so the reason's different from what it used to be, but you know the saying in Washington ... It's not a party until Teddy collapses or leaves his date to die in his car in a canal.