I’ve been out having fun, celebrating the transition of power from Bush to Obama with my friends and neighbors, so there won’t be a legitimate, full-fledged post tonight. I did, however, want to get something up, in case one or two of you out there wanted to comment on the day’s events. Following, to get the ball rolling, is one of my favorite parts of Obama’s inaugural address:
…As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more…
Amen.
And goodnight.
Tomorrow the work begins.
24 Comments
Yes! Yes! Yes!
A few notable things:
1. The speech accomplished what it had to. It was serious, but not depressingly so. It made clear that sacrifice was going to be necessary and that difficult times were ahead, but he also stressed that better times were ahead for the nation. It may not be a speech that kids are forced to learn in school, but it was the right speech for the nation at this time.
2. Through phrases like, ‘we are ready to lead once more,’ he made clear to those paying attention what he thought of the Bush administration. It may have been too subtle for some but, given the circumstances, it was probably the only way to handle it.
3. Aretha Franklin’s unfortunate pause after singing the first two syllables of ‘My Country Tis of Thee.’
4. The poet should not have followed Obama.
5. Lowrey: ‘Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around … when yellow will be mellow … when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.’
6: The booing of Bush. Music to my ears.
I still wish he would have brought out Bill Ayers to sing the national anthem.
Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright wiping each others asses with the American Flag would have been preferable to the presence of George Bush.
The all-day and almost-till-midnight neighborhood party at Club Divine, the result of one man’s (Bill’s, with his daughter and son) enormous generosity, along with some stupendous main helpers (Choice, Larry, Leo, and some others) and giant mountains of goodwill, good food, good music . . . oh, it was very wonderful. I wanted so much to make it to another neighborhood party at our beloved local brewery but was too pooped out after the long, fine day of gigantic, very happy feelings.
“Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”
Loved the speech, had mixed feelings of all the religion thrown in, the poet was way cool, the flub of the oath was the judges fault, loved the old preacher at the end, the whole thing was awesome, it was history being made-something I’ll always remember. Watched it while playing with my 15 month old daughter thinking, how cool is it that she’ll grow up with Obama president.
Well, that eternal cynic Tom Brokaw may have guffawed that Cheney looked like Dr. Strangelove in his wheelchair, black coat, hat and gloves yesterday, but when I saw this picture of him leaving the White House, I actually felt sorry for the man.
My bad, here’s the Tom Brokaw link.
Did anyone else catch Jon Stewart’s assessment of Obama’s speech?
Great photos of the inauguration can be found here:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html
Sure is dead around here lately.
Is everyone out in their blue coveralls shovelling other people’s sidewalks and shovelling the snow right back on them again for the next make-work crew, rejoicing at being a mere cell in a collective and beaming with self-righteous political ecstacy?
I kid, I kid. Just trying to stir up some commentary for mark’s sake, for pete’s sake.
Couldn’t help but notice the US military under Commander in Chief Obama shot a missile into Pakistan, a country were not at war with.
Anybody?
The story.
Brackache, just the latest of dozens of similar US missle attacks into Pakistan in the last several months. Is there something special about this one beside the fact that Obama is now officially in office? I doubt he’d change direction on something like that until he’s had plenty of time to review the details.
Good idea. It might be a great way to advance peace, democracy, and the rule of law by illegally violating a nuclear power’s sovereignty by firing rockets at them, even though they’re supposedly our allies. Better take the file folder into the whitehouse crapper for a good thorough once-over.
Brackache, I’m sure there will be significant changes in the way the new administration handles the situation there, and the direction in which they attempt to take things. There’s no question it’s all under review.
Robert, he’s been getting the same intelligence briefings as Bush since the election. He knows the details on this as well as he knows the details on Gitmo, lobbying, and everything else that his change dust has been sprinkled on in the first days of his presidency. Beyond that, he even said that he was willing to do this while he was campaigning. When I complained about this to people before the election, they would say “oh, he just has to say those things to get elected.” So now does he have to do those things to stay elected?
Brackache, I think that may be Jon Stewart’s finest moment. For the problems I have with him, I never stopped enjoying his lampoons of Bush. A few minutes before the show came on that night, I almost threw up watching on of MSNBC’s “journalists” reporting, drunk (seriously, like on alcohol), from an inaugural ball (“Oh, Wyclef’s on! And he’s playing No Woman No Cry! I love this song!”). I was not looking forward to watching Jon Stewart participate in that circle jerk, so that made me really happy. I could tell that it really pained him to have to do it. He really wanted to like Obama, and I think that added a lot of weight to it. When I realized what he was doing, my jaw fell open, and I found myself choked up for the first time that day.
I think I’ll watch it again.
I think it just shows that he’s the anti-christ. Notice that the first thing he did when he came into office was end a ban on subsidies for abortions. Now, he is trying to start WWIII.
I’ll be damned if I can make his name add up to 666, so I guess he might just be a typical American politician.
As Revelations (sic) stated, the anti-christ will be about 40, a muslim, from Hawaii and love basketball.
When was the last time we had a President who wsn’t suspected of being the antichrist? Coolidge?
We just keep electing temporary antichrists and go through them like disposable diapers every 4-8 years.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of hearing that so and so is the anti-christ and it turning out not to be the case. I just wish he’d hurry up and get his ass on this world.