The good news is that Inauguration Day is forecast to be almost bearable--high of 32 but breezy with period of clouds and sun. This is much, much better than a high of 17 degrees.
We probably should remind folks about things more than the proverbial "layers." You want gloves, you want hats (even a baseball cap is better than nothing), you want scarves (gay men already know that) and you want wool socks or thermal socks. You're going to be standing for hours and the ground/pavement is already very cold so you will be freezing from the ground up!
Alcohol is great for celebrating but terrible for keeping warm, put off the alcohol till later. You should be drinking hot coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate, or hot broth to start out.
Rab
· 10 months ago
This last week in Minnesota it got down to -25 (-45 windchill) what D.C. will have for weather, its tropical.
Dave of the Jungle
· 10 months ago
The Era of Counterfactual Decidering is almost over.
tlsintx
· 10 months ago
countdown to the End of an Error...
grandma
· 10 months ago
When the costs incurred by the federal government and the District of Columbia are factored in, the total cost of Bush's 2005 inauguration was reportedly around $157 million,
from Digby:... The Internet and cable news were filled with chatter about the jaw-dropping (and unsubstantiated) number suddenly attached to Obama's swearing-in. But the sloppy reporting and online gossip about the price tag illustrated what happens when journalists don't do their job and online partisans take advantage of that kind of work.
It also highlighted the type of news you can generate when making blatantly false comparisons. In this case, it was the cost of the Obama and Bush inaugurations. The connection was unfair because the Obama figure of $160 million that got repeated in the press included security costs associated with the massive event. But the Bush tab of $42 million left out those enormous costs. Talk about stacking the deck.
For instance, here's The Washington Post from January 20, 2005, addressing the Bush bash:
The $40 million does not include the cost of a web of security, including everything from 7,000 troops to volunteer police officers from far away, to some of the most sophisticated detection and protection equipment.
Unbelievable! Check out this story from WABC - The Army is charging soldier's if their uniforms get lost or damaged in Iraq! One soldier got charged cuz his uniform was bloody!
Bush may have had lots of security to keep people from throwing tomatoes at him, but probably nothing like the 42,500 law enforcement types for both site and crowd control required for the massive numbers coming to celebrate this historic event.
Meanwhile, rightwing nuts calling CSPAN to try to take the magic from the confluence of Martin Luther King and Obama's inauguration. Of course these racist nuts will never get any of what's going on in the Obama era.
I'm thrilled beyond words, however, that I am seeing a president of color, whether male or female, before my demise.
triple7s
· 10 months ago
Come on now, really, who cares how much the whole inauguration costs. Look at how MANY people have been employed to bring this thing together. American people doing GOOD WORK to show the WHOLE COUNTRY that we are truly in for a HUGE CHANGE. Money WELL spent! GOD BLESS AMERICA, and OUR NEW PRESIDENT.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Key point:
The Obamas and the Bidens appeared yesterday AFTER Robinson's invocation (which went unheard by the crowd).
Will they appear tomorrow AFTER Warren delivers his?
Hmmmmm?
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Haiku for the Obama Administration (#42):
The Wingnuts complain-- Why not just chicken dinner? They hate the Excess
ShirleyGoodnessanMercy
· 10 months ago
As Kate Clinton said, "the bombing has stopped."
tlsintx
· 10 months ago
i love Kate Clinton!
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Haiku for the Obama Administration (#43):
Don't tell him he's bad! Chopper "drivers" saved black folks He gave them trailers!
dad
· 10 months ago
is also E A Poe's 200th Bday
grandma
· 10 months ago
So many on the Right praise Bush for the Surge and it's supposed success.....if not for the Democratic wins in Nov. 2006....Rumsfeld would not have been fired and there would have been no Surge.
Liberal Bishop
· 10 months ago
Yesterday, HBO claimed that the sole microphone malfunction during Bishop Robinson's prayer - and the malfunction of the video printer to identify the DC Gay and Lesbian Choir was simply that....imagine that everything else was "loud and clear".
The decision to totally omit the prayer on the HBO was the decision of the Obama Pre-Inaugural Committee. This was ironic since most social theocratic neocons who hate gays and lesbians do NOT buy HBO because of its soft pornographic content.
It might behoove the LGBT committee to make themselves very comfortable under the bus. The neocons who hate us have a bedfellow in the neolib who are closet or overt homophobes, too.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Shame on Diane Feinstein! She should be cut from "Milk."
Indigo
· 10 months ago
You can't cut Diane out of Harvey's story without changing the facts. She was a player in those days. Sadly, she's mutated into a template of Political Barbie.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
At least Rosa Parks got ON the bus before they threw her off it.
Lolis
· 10 months ago
what is your sourcing? can you provide links please?
I watched the event and only saw one choir identified, all the others were not.
ShirleyGoodnessanMercy
· 10 months ago
HBO = homophobic bastards organization
Am I the only one who is pissed that there was not one single classical musician at the concert yesterday?? Not ONE.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Yo-Yo Ma was supposed to be there--maybe he was part of the pre-show, like Robinson. In a tight two hours, we had to have at least half an hour of Bono.
Classical music lovers just had to make do with Renee Fleming's "look at me" rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
ShirleyGoodnessanMercy
· 10 months ago
And I'd rather poke needles thru my eardrums than listen to Bono.
Lolis
· 10 months ago
I think he is saving them for the actual inauguration. That is when Yo Yo Ma and Perlman will perform.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Yep--you're right; I got myself confused about the various entertainment events that the gays were being marginalized at.
Fidelio
· 10 months ago
I don't have cable so I couldn't see the program but it's upsetting to me as well that no classical musicians were there. One or two would have added so much to the occasion. There are many of us (classical musicians) who support Mr. Obama. He does have some classical musicians scheduled for Tuesday, however.
Divine intervention seems to coincide all too often with incopetent technicians, overt malice, or deliberate sabotage. This "God" the Fundies chatter about is obviously a reactionary bigot.
lillieannerose
· 10 months ago
Yeah, this American Jesus has become quite the cross to bear!
Indigo
· 10 months ago
L.O.L. !
davespicer
· 10 months ago
Maybe the sound board operator (or supervisor?) simply refused to facilitate the audience hearing something "against his beliefs". You know, like s/he was "the pharmacist of prayer" and declined to fill the Bishop's prescription...
Indigo
· 10 months ago
That thought crossed my mind too. I don't know enough about the tech to say more.
tlsintx
· 10 months ago
fundies can suck it!
chris
· 10 months ago
Happy Lee-Jackson-King Day.
Now before you all go crazy on me I used the old name for several reasons. First, all three men espoused virtues that we can strive to achieve. Now, I must explain that comment as well. Yes Lee and Jackson were generals in the Confederate Army but Jackson did not own slaves, he was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute and an extremely devout Christian, Lee was asked to command the Union Army. Both men fought not to preserve slavery but because at that time the loyalty fell more to a person's state than the US. The reason why Lee turned down the appointment in the Union Army is because he accurately guessed that it was going to be used to aggressively invade a sovereign country. Let me explain the last comment. The confederacy was a sovereign country with a head of state, currency, constitution and elected officials. We celebrate the independence of the United States as of 1776 and not when we won the Revolutionary War several years later. And while I am on the Civil War thing let me also mention that Lincoln did not free the slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation. If you read the wording it freed the slaves in the rebelling states where a presidential edict had no standing. Notice that it did not free the slaves in the non-rebelling states. Also, Lincoln was the first modern Republican president. So I think it is ironic that tomorrow Obama is going to use the bible of a man who did not free slaves and was a Republican.
But seeing as how it is MLK day, I would like to spend a few minutes on MLK and his legacy. I think MLK was a great man and embarked on a courageous and noble effort to bring about civil rights. It is sad that today we have people left with his nobility. However, I do not believe that his dream is fulfilled today and nor will it be filled tomorrow with Obama's inaugaration. The following passage comes from the I have a dream speech:
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Can we honestly say that this dream has come to pass. No it has not. Are there still racist white people in this nation, yes. But is the current racial problem all white man's fault? No. How can it be. How can his dream be fulfilled when college award points on applications based on the color of a person's skin. How can it be when a less qualified person is picked for a position than a more qualified one because a quota must be met. How can it be when there are people that have asked for reparations for slavery. How can it be when there are those people that view everything as a slight and injustice and publicly damn those of another race. How can it be when a derivation of a racial slur is acceptable for one group to use as a term of endearment but not so for a person not of the same skin color,a racial slur is a racial slur no matter who utters it and if the last two letters are substituted by another. How can it be when people look to the past and are trapped by that instead of looking to the future, of looking at what might be and not viewing current events with the lens of what has been. So to echo MLK I too have a dream. I have a dream that one day black people and white people can sit down together and truthfully and honestly say to one another that we live in a post-racial America where everyone is indeed judged by their deeds and character and not their skin color. I have a dream that I do not have to explain to my children why they are blamed for events of yesteryear. I have a dream that I do not have to witness another Jena 9 and I have a dream that I can live to see the day when MLK's dream can be fulfilled and there be no need for civil rights leaders who no longer follow MLK's beacon of hope but march to their own tune. This I dream. I will do my part by pledging to fulfill the aforementioned things that I can as a individual be done. And if injustice persists I will courageously stand with the righteous as many blacks and whites have done in the past and boldly say that this is wrong.
Having had my annual rant for this day, I would like to close in wishing Obama the best of luck and that he can execute the change he promised.
chris
· 10 months ago
In the second paragraph of my comment it should read: It is sad we have few people left today of his nobility.
sorry for the oversight and i guess i should have proofread.
nana
· 10 months ago
MLK day continues and continues. Obama's presidency will not end the inequities of our country. The poor black man, well just because their so many. What about the poor caucasian folks? The illegal hispanics have filled up our charity hospitals giving birth to now legal citizens. Free.
nana
· 10 months ago
yes i voted for Obama. Because he was the best to lead our country.
tlsintx
· 10 months ago
my favorite words of MLK, Jr.--
"Even though the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice."
Greg Jones
· 10 months ago
OBAMA PROVES WHITES NOT AS PREJUDICED AS WE THOUGHT !
By Greg Jones (originally written/released March 24, 2008)
" There's no way America would vote for a black president !.....America's not ready for a black president." That has historically been the sentiment and attitude shared by the majority of blacks in America due in part to the fact that we have always been under the assumption that most whites are so prejudiced that a black president in America would just never happen. But one of the most incredible things that has arisen through Barack Obamas campaign has been the vision of mass numbers of white people at each of the Obama rallys showing great love and support for this credible, intelligent, gifted, strong leader....who happens to also be black. It has been incredibly eye-opening and uplifting, and it, for the first time, shows us blacks that we have actually been wrong in our assumption that most whites are prejudiced toward us. Guess what ? Although you do have the exceptions to the rule, the fact is....most whites ARE NOT racist toward blacks. This is a very important revelation. VERY !!!
We, as blacks have held on to our injured history, which we rightfully feel was caused by whites, to such a degree that we have never had the opportunity to see or learn that the prejudiced attitudes of whites does not exist today like it had in the past. We just didn't know. We knew that a lot of whites like black music. We knew that millions of white women love Oprah, but we thought that was just a 'woman thing'. But in all honesty, we had no idea, until now, that white people of all ages....even older ones...could be as supportive of a black candidate as they have shown in great mass. We, as blacks have been wrong !
And now, to my black brothers and sisters....It's time for us to acknowledge this extremely important revelation...In other words....all whites are not prejudiced !!! In fact, MOST whites aren't ! I know, it's hard to believe because of our lifetime of thinking differently....but these are the facts. Just look in the eyes of the whites at Obama's rallys. You see a true warmth, compassion and true support for this man....who is black. What this means is that most whites have risen above the racism of old. Now, it is time for us, as blacks, to rise up as well. Of course, we as blacks will have the specific cases of injustice and prejudice as displayed through examples like Jena 6, Genarlow Wilson, Katrina and the like....and specific cases like those should be dealt with accordingly. In regards to economic, educational and criminal injustices and institutional racism....we still have a long way to go. But we must not continue to allow certain negative occurances to misdirect our minds toward thinking that these negative examples speak for the entire white race. The majority of whites of today are actually on our side !
Obama's campaign has already won by proving that whites and blacks can not only get along....but can work TOGETHER....toward a better tomorrow...for us all. And guess what my black family....America IS ready !!! (originally written March 24, 2008)
Update: YES WE DID ! p.s. Special Thanks to the great folks of IOWA !
Mario Pires
· 10 months ago
Is it possible that people cannot see past the color of his skin? Barak is a PERSON first of all, and at the moment he seems to be (and we all hope so) the PERSON that this country and the world need, please look at that first. He was clearly the best of the choices presented to the American people and won this election by merit not because of his skin (look at the alternatives!). The American people voted for him not because of his skin but because he looked not to represent the "establishment" and the "same old politicians" that have ruled this country in recent past. I only wish him health, and luck because he has proven that he is intelligent and he has surrounded himself of a great roster of people to work together to solve the huge amount of issues that the disastrous Bush administration left unsolved.
All Comments
Glory Hallelujah!....chords that were broken can sing once more !
A new day dawns....
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/19/bush-steven...
We probably should remind folks about things more than the proverbial "layers." You want gloves, you want hats (even a baseball cap is better than nothing), you want scarves (gay men already know that) and you want wool socks or thermal socks. You're going to be standing for hours and the ground/pavement is already very cold so you will be freezing from the ground up!
Alcohol is great for celebrating but terrible for keeping warm, put off the alcohol till later. You should be drinking hot coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate, or hot broth to start out.
http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200901180004...
The Internet and cable news were filled with chatter about the jaw-dropping (and unsubstantiated) number suddenly attached to Obama's swearing-in. But the sloppy reporting and online gossip about the price tag illustrated what happens when journalists don't do their job and online partisans take advantage of that kind of work.
It also highlighted the type of news you can generate when making blatantly false comparisons. In this case, it was the cost of the Obama and Bush inaugurations. The connection was unfair because the Obama figure of $160 million that got repeated in the press included security costs associated with the massive event. But the Bush tab of $42 million left out those enormous costs. Talk about stacking the deck.
For instance, here's The Washington Post from January 20, 2005, addressing the Bush bash:
The $40 million does not include the cost of a web of security, including everything from 7,000 troops to volunteer police officers from far away, to some of the most sophisticated detection and protection equipment.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-big...
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/...
Meanwhile, rightwing nuts calling CSPAN to try to take the magic from the confluence of Martin Luther King and Obama's inauguration. Of course these racist nuts will never get any of what's going on in the Obama era.
I'm thrilled beyond words, however, that I am seeing a president of color, whether male or female, before my demise.
The Obamas and the Bidens appeared yesterday AFTER Robinson's invocation (which went unheard by the crowd).
Will they appear tomorrow AFTER Warren delivers his?
Hmmmmm?
The Wingnuts complain--
Why not just chicken dinner?
They hate the Excess
Don't tell him he's bad!
Chopper "drivers" saved black folks
He gave them trailers!
The decision to totally omit the prayer on the HBO was the decision of the Obama Pre-Inaugural Committee. This was ironic since most social theocratic neocons who hate gays and lesbians do NOT buy HBO because of its soft pornographic content.
It might behoove the LGBT committee to make themselves very comfortable under the bus. The neocons who hate us have a bedfellow in the neolib who are closet or overt homophobes, too.
I watched the event and only saw one choir identified, all the others were not.
Am I the only one who is pissed that there was not one single classical musician at the concert yesterday?? Not ONE.
Classical music lovers just had to make do with Renee Fleming's "look at me" rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Now before you all go crazy on me I used the old name for several reasons. First, all three men espoused virtues that we can strive to achieve. Now, I must explain that comment as well. Yes Lee and Jackson were generals in the Confederate Army but Jackson did not own slaves, he was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute and an extremely devout Christian, Lee was asked to command the Union Army. Both men fought not to preserve slavery but because at that time the loyalty fell more to a person's state than the US. The reason why Lee turned down the appointment in the Union Army is because he accurately guessed that it was going to be used to aggressively invade a sovereign country. Let me explain the last comment. The confederacy was a sovereign country with a head of state, currency, constitution and elected officials. We celebrate the independence of the United States as of 1776 and not when we won the Revolutionary War several years later. And while I am on the Civil War thing let me also mention that Lincoln did not free the slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation. If you read the wording it freed the slaves in the rebelling states where a presidential edict had no standing. Notice that it did not free the slaves in the non-rebelling states. Also, Lincoln was the first modern Republican president. So I think it is ironic that tomorrow Obama is going to use the bible of a man who did not free slaves and was a Republican.
But seeing as how it is MLK day, I would like to spend a few minutes on MLK and his legacy. I think MLK was a great man and embarked on a courageous and noble effort to bring about civil rights. It is sad that today we have people left with his nobility. However, I do not believe that his dream is fulfilled today and nor will it be filled tomorrow with Obama's inaugaration. The following passage comes from the I have a dream speech:
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Can we honestly say that this dream has come to pass. No it has not. Are there still racist white people in this nation, yes. But is the current racial problem all white man's fault? No. How can it be. How can his dream be fulfilled when college award points on applications based on the color of a person's skin. How can it be when a less qualified person is picked for a position than a more qualified one because a quota must be met. How can it be when there are people that have asked for reparations for slavery. How can it be when there are those people that view everything as a slight and injustice and publicly damn those of another race. How can it be when a derivation of a racial slur is acceptable for one group to use as a term of endearment but not so for a person not of the same skin color,a racial slur is a racial slur no matter who utters it and if the last two letters are substituted by another. How can it be when people look to the past and are trapped by that instead of looking to the future, of looking at what might be and not viewing current events with the lens of what has been. So to echo MLK I too have a dream. I have a dream that one day black people and white people can sit down together and truthfully and honestly say to one another that we live in a post-racial America where everyone is indeed judged by their deeds and character and not their skin color. I have a dream that I do not have to explain to my children why they are blamed for events of yesteryear. I have a dream that I do not have to witness another Jena 9 and I have a dream that I can live to see the day when MLK's dream can be fulfilled and there be no need for civil rights leaders who no longer follow MLK's beacon of hope but march to their own tune. This I dream. I will do my part by pledging to fulfill the aforementioned things that I can as a individual be done. And if injustice persists I will courageously stand with the righteous as many blacks and whites have done in the past and boldly say that this is wrong.
Having had my annual rant for this day, I would like to close in wishing Obama the best of luck and that he can execute the change he promised.
sorry for the oversight and i guess i should have proofread.
"Even though the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice."
NOT AS PREJUDICED AS WE THOUGHT !
By Greg Jones
(originally written/released March 24, 2008)
" There's no way America would vote for a black president !.....America's not ready for a black president." That has historically been the sentiment and attitude shared by the majority of blacks in America due in part to the fact that we have always been under the assumption that most whites are so prejudiced that a black president in America would just never happen. But one of the most incredible things that has arisen through Barack Obamas campaign has been the vision of mass numbers of white people at each of the Obama rallys showing great love and support for this credible, intelligent, gifted, strong leader....who happens to also be black. It has been incredibly eye-opening and uplifting, and it, for the first time, shows us blacks that we have actually been wrong in our assumption that most whites are prejudiced toward us. Guess what ? Although you do have the exceptions to the rule, the fact is....most whites ARE NOT racist toward blacks. This is a very important revelation. VERY !!!
We, as blacks have held on to our injured history, which we rightfully feel was caused by whites, to such a degree that we have never had the opportunity to see or learn that the prejudiced attitudes of whites does not exist today like it had in the past. We just didn't know. We knew that a lot of whites like black music. We knew that millions of white women love Oprah, but we thought that was just a 'woman thing'. But in all honesty, we had no idea, until now, that white people of all ages....even older ones...could be as supportive of a black candidate as they have shown in great mass. We, as blacks have been wrong !
And now, to my black brothers and sisters....It's time for us to acknowledge this extremely important revelation...In other words....all whites are not prejudiced !!! In fact, MOST whites aren't ! I know, it's hard to believe because of our lifetime of thinking differently....but these are the facts. Just look in the eyes of the whites at Obama's rallys. You see a true warmth, compassion and true support for this man....who is black. What this means is that most whites have risen above the racism of old. Now, it is time for us, as blacks, to rise up as well. Of course, we as blacks will have the specific cases of injustice and prejudice as displayed through examples like Jena 6, Genarlow Wilson, Katrina and the like....and specific cases like those should be dealt with accordingly. In regards to economic, educational and criminal injustices and institutional racism....we still have a long way to go. But we must not continue to allow certain negative occurances to misdirect our minds toward thinking that these negative examples speak for the entire white race. The majority of whites of today are actually on our side !
Obama's campaign has already won by proving that whites and blacks can not only get along....but can work TOGETHER....toward a better tomorrow...for us all. And guess what my black family....America IS ready !!! (originally written March 24, 2008)
Greg Jones
National Director
Blacks4Barack.org
Blacks4Barack (at) yahoo.com
Update: YES WE DID !
p.s. Special Thanks to the great folks of IOWA !
He was clearly the best of the choices presented to the American people and won this election by merit not because of his skin (look at the alternatives!).
The American people voted for him not because of his skin but because he looked not to represent the "establishment" and the "same old politicians" that have ruled this country in recent past. I only wish him health, and luck because he has proven that he is intelligent and he has surrounded himself of a great roster of people to work together to solve the huge amount of issues that the disastrous Bush administration left unsolved.