Pajiba

I would like to think that, if nothing else, this presidency means that we will all start expecting more of ourselves, now that we know exactly how much we can accomplish.

...it's finally here...the Gathering..

Why oh whyyyy do I have Art+Politics class at 11:30? It's politics, not to mention only the first class! They should just hand us a syllabus and let us get the fuck outta there!

As a Québécois, I can only envy this beautiful political spectacle you guys are livign through right now.

Congratulations America, you got yourselves some hope!

I'm hoping I can watch some of this while at work.

I am not expecting Obama to change the world, but it's great to finally have that hope back again, to be able to look at him and see a leader and not some idiot you're just expecting to mess up. He can string a sentence together, bloody powerful sentences too! Very happy.

Congratulations to America for having a leader that has the ability to inspire people all over the world. I truly hope that he can turn things around both in the U.S. and the world as a whole.

I am very intersted in some of the changes he has stated that he will make but, while hopeful, my typical pessimism and critical nature remains.

Goofus makes a wreck of things, picks fights with people and doesn't clean up messes at home.

Gallant is polite to his neighbors, thinks before he speaks and tidies up after himself.

Anyone have a suggestion for the best site to stream the coverage? My internet at work is crappy...

How vapid are these commentators?
Also, can we all pray that the Freedom of Information Act lets us see what that Note that Bush left in the Oval Office says?

This is really exciting, and we're watching it in our office! Cool, but having all the scenes of politicians has really upped the commentary from the loudmouths. If I hear about Clinton's affair one more time, I might have cut someone.

The only feed that I can get to work smoothly is ABC...is it just me, or is Sam Donaldson clearly drunk?

Rick Warren, need I say more?

Am I the only one that kinda wishes Aretha would sing "Respect" instead of "My Country tis of thee?"

Secret Service may want to keep an eye on Aretha... she looks hungry!

Sorry, obligatory joke on her obvious girth.

Sign it Aretha!

Now that is a hat....

As jealous as I am of my grandma for being there, I'm more than a little happy that I'm sitting in my warm living room!

I can not get it to play, I can only listen on NPR, any suggestions.

Admit it - you're all crying right now.

Um, couldn't John Roberts have practiced that shit?

BARRY BETTER DOA GOOD JOB I KNOW HIS NAME IS HUSSEIN MAYBE THAT WILL HELP HIM FIND OSAMA

...Sorry, I just figured somebody should speak up for the dumbshit population. Those idiots need a voice!

Barack is handing out the classiest ass-whuppings in the history of EVER.

Nicole I'm pleasantly surprised at how many very obvious digs he's getting in at Bush. Hee!

Earlier Bush was all happy and laughing like he just heard a good fart joke. Maybe he's just now catching up to what's going on? In education we would refer to him as a "slow processor."

W. just got served.

And the dumbshit population has a voice, but he's out of a job now. ZING!

Ahh man my cold robot heart just melted. Wish Gordon Brown could make a speech with that much ambition or worth.

*sigh* in love

Im with AvB, PMS + YoYo Ma and Itzhak Perlman + Obama = MG cries like a tiny bitch.

That was an impressive address.

Lovely speech. We just adjourned the empty office...sorry poet lady.

DAMN, I honestly don't recall ever listening to an Inaugural Address before, are they normally this moving? I just awesomed all over the place!

Excellent speech, Mr. President.

[Deleted] (No. Not today, Pookie. -- DR)

Granted, I'm a little slow on current events, and it's no secret that I pay virtually no attention to the major news networks. Due to the nature of my work and personal life, I've only heard little snippets here and there on the news of recent events...

That being said, I was more than a little surprised when I decided to turn into the Inauguration...

He's black?!

I just had to walk away from my desk at work because of the tears. Oh what a great day!! I work in a state government office in a VERY Republican state, and at least 95% of the people in the office were watching.

I just sent a text to my boyfriend to remind him that I have hugged and kissed THE PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!

Now everybody GET DA FUCK outta D.C.

you don't have to go home but you CAN'T stay here!

I did like the poem, but I agree, Nicole, the reading could have been better. Call me a .... whatever... but I don't believe that poetry should be read like you're just learning English.

Loved Joseph Lowery.

Congrats US, the world is celebrating with you :)

Does anyone know who that cute little old man was who said that amazing prayer at the end? I missed that bit.

Amen! Haha! Here's celebrating Sunday Morning Sermon Couture taking over America! Humility in a bitchin' hat, son!

Would it be rude for Obama to kick Bush down the Capitol steps?

Mona, that was Joseph Lowery. He's a minister and he was a big player in the civil rights movement.

Was anyone else disappointed that we didn't see Cornel West? That cat is awesome.

Oooh, buh-bye Georgie. Enjoy all that brush clearing you have to get back to.

I thought the Williams piece was incredible. As to the poem, I loved it, but it may be one of those poems better read in print to oneself than read aloud. As for poetic justice, I must give that award to Cheney in the damn wheelchair. What a withered, wretched man (not that one's withered/wretched merely from being a wheelchair - seeing him laid low just made it better).

Nicely done. We've got us a real president again.

I haven't been able to watch everything at work, but I saw the swearing in and all but the very end of his speech (stupid vendors calling me!).

Am I the only one who is reminded of Jed Bartlett?

I mean that in the best way possible, just so you know.

Love the crowd singing "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!" as Bush flies off into the history books.

I am so filled with hope right now, if I were to explode, I think rainbows and unicorns would fly out of me.

Cindy, I'm glad I'm not the only one concerned about that.

Sofia
You would think so, right? No, apparently the class is more about "political philosophy." We did last semester with Plato, Socrates, Machiavelli, Alfarabi, etc. My professor actually (he refrains from saying it outright because he wants to keep his own opinions out of the class,)is not a fan of Obama AT ALL. Or that may be modern politics in general. So of course he didn't let us out early, so I'm just tuning in to the "after party." Who's the guy with leaves around his neck?

Weren't they supposed to practice the oath?

It reminds me of my wedding. The whole service was in English, and then the rabbi turns to my non-Jewish soon to be husband and says, "Repeat after me, Baruch attah . . . etc. etc." Hubby faked Hebrew nicely, but he still has no clue what our vows were.

Jumpin' Jehosaphats that man is one eloquent speaker.

I'm pretty sure I was permanently scarred Gabs.

YAY! I love my new President!

mmmmmm...love that new president smell

I watched what I could of it on the interwebs, then listened to Obama's speech in the car on the way home.

My dad, who like me is british and living in the UK, doesn't think Obama is all that but even he stayed silent as we drove home.

Congrats, America, I'm so happy for you

... A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds. Nothin' but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy.
You're worth more dead than alive!

(said to the American worker)

eppendork, will you marry me? That was brilliant!!!

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AJ150_SCANDA_20080718173530.jpg

I'm so happy for you people, and for the whole world (even if it's full of people I hate). And I hate the CNN feed, I ended up watching the cool parts on TV, like cavemen. That poem, though? Ughhh... I think it was prepared just to provide contrast to Barry's own eloquence.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Barack REALLY was evil. Like, tonight after all the parties were over, on a dark parking lot the Presidential limo rolls up and there he is, meeting with Osama Bin Laden, Hitler's cousin and Zombie Lenin, laughing maniacally!?!?!?!

Flipped between ABC and BBC America. I stood up for the oath, sat down for the speech, stood up for the national anthem and probably cried through 90% of it (except when I held my breath while Bush was leaving).

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me - feelin' good!

I've played that song a dozen time today...

After all the inspiration, after all the pomp...

It was so nice to hear that beautiful phrase, "former President Bush."

Stipe42: Nah, I told darling hubby that he had promised to do the dishes for life, and he has upheld his end of the bargain.

Neodiogenes: Aretha didn't sing the Star Spangled Banner. The Marines did. Aretha sang My Country Tis Of Thee, I think.

So glad I was able to catch that. They projected it on a wall in our office.

On the three occasions that the phone rang, I couldn't help but think, "What kind of bad American are you? Don't you know an amazing historical moment is happening?!" Glad I wasn't the one covering the phones.

And the ideals vs. safety statement was my favorite.

So very happy we have a new president--one I am not ashamed of! Whoohooo!

I love me some Ted Kennedy, but I wanted to hear Obama's speech at the luncheon and they just talked over it. Now they've completely shifted the focus.

That said, I hope Uncle Teddy is okay. (JFK is considered a saint in my family.)

LOL eppendork!!!

The inauguration was awesome. I totally started crying when he messed up the oath.

I love that he said PEACE over and over again, and that he's not afriad to embrace our enemies instead of resisting with hatred and fear. I'm lovin' me some 2009!

Good Stuff.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

This is EXACTLY why I hate that stupid-ass John Mayer song about waiting for the world to change. NOT THE FUCKING POINT, DOUCHEBAG. WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING THE CHANGING.

On that note, huzzah! I get to watch this all tonight in reruns.

You just knew he was going to get out and walk. You just knew he'd be OK. And you just knew that one of the folks doing security - even the ones who didn't vote for President Obama - would take a bullet to keep him safe because he's the president now.

The President / The Vice President '12
"The genius of the American system is the peaceful transfer of power."

Oh, you youngsters.

Lowery's benediction opened with lines from Lift Every Voice and Sing, penned by James Weldon Johnson, lines that were used often during the civil rights movement and called in common parlance "The Negro National Anthem."

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.

Whatever your race, Johnson should be treasured alongside Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, and Eliot.

His closing lines were a play on popular slogans from the civil rights movement. Both were beautifully placed.

Half the blogs discussing the speech are written by people, like me, who didn't live through the civil rights movement--as a consequence there are folks out there comparing Rev. Lowery to Rev. Wright, just as though Lowery isn't a man who should be a revered public hero. People of my own benighted generation, out there calling him a racist because of the closing lines, out of their own ignorance and refusal to countenance the sacrifices of the generations that came before. White people, like me, of my age, seem to think that we've somehow transcended race now, and that all the generations before us should be swept away. That a black man born into the Depression, who was forbidden to vote but soon enough asked to serve, should grow old, fighting the good fight along the way, at the real risk of being lynched or shot, and then somehow, in his old age be asked to STAND DOWN and SHUT UP about race.

...

Today is a proud day but I hope we don't get too self-satisfied. We're so afraid to mention a racial characterization (or maybe our schools are just so bad) that people our age seem to have forgotten how it was just a generation ago. White people of younger generations feel justified in saying that Black people who talk about race are the racists.

You're glad Obama's President now? You like to call yourself colorblind? You think racism is a thing of the past? If all those are true you should be laying thanks at the feet of Rev. Lowery, because if it hadn't been for men like him you would have no cause for this kind of joy today.

*sigh*

The first 100 minutes of the Obama presidency are history, and what's he accomplished? HUH?

OK, seriously: I'm not ALL the way to the other side of the political spectrum (I'm approxmiately green, with indigo being extreme right and yellow, of course, being extreme left), but I am the loyal opposition, so I'll be watching what Mr. Obama does (as opposed to what he says) very closely.

Nevertheless, the man has inherited a hell of a mess (or, for the optimists, opportunity) and I wish him well in trying to straighten it out. Like all of us, I have a vested interest in seeing him get things right. But I've lived long enough to hear a lot of high-falutin' talk from politicians of all stripes that didn't pan out, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade or deny the history that took place today. There's no denying it. Just saying, as my grandmother used to: We shall see what we shall see.

Oh, pull the stick from you ass, C.J., and read Codger's post.

Thank you, C.J., for proving my point so clearly.

Slavery happened. Slavery happened, and then Jim Crow happened. Lynchings happened, and beating of Black men and women happened, and depriving them of their rights happened, and infecting them with diseases for experimental purposes happened, and forced sterilizations happened, and poverty has happened, and depriving Black men and women of equal education has happened, and subjecting them to imprisonment from early youth onward when White people are not subjected to the same at nearly the same rate happened, and sentencing Black people, especially Black men, to death far more often than white people, happened. And after all of this happened and was happening, the Civil Rights Movement happened. And that was not so very long ago.

Are you really so threatened by a Civil Rights slogan invoking color names? Cause if you want to hear threatening words for people of various races, there are others out there. But most of them don't refer to White people. And most of them signify an intent to hurt or murder, rather than a reference to the inequalities and injustices that few sane people could argue do not exist.

And the fact of your denial of this fictional thing you call a "race card," which you call anything that you find frightening that involves oppressed people asking for equal recognition and rights, does not wipe away the arc of history that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of. It is, in fact, long. Longer than one generation and one election can obscure, however keen you might be to absolve yourself and our race of blame.

Your ridiculous little game ("If a White minister said that, blah blah blah....") is a transparent and empty little straw man. How many things for how many years were Black people prevented from saying? Are White people the better ones, you think, to speak the truth about what Black people have lived through?

The truth is that racism exists, and your words are proof. So if you want Black people to put away whatever this thing is you call the race card, you better shut the hell up. Just shut up altogether. Shut up with your ignorance and your racist invective. I'm talking to all the CJs out there. Your logic leaves you only two choices. Shut up, on the one hand, or else shut up. You are the proof against your own assertion, so shut up. There is no room for you in this world, or in this time, so shut up. Stand down, shut up, and let the Reverend Lowery speak.

Need.More.Codgers. Thank you.

Colombo well, "My Country Tis of Thee" is set to the same tune as "God Save the Queen," so yeah, that would make sense. Also, Amen Codger.

No, no, I say, let CJ blather on. It's important to keep stuff like that around, drooling from the mouth and cooking from the Old Dixie Cookbook. I wonder what would come bubbling up if Borat got him intoxicated on a bus.

It's like that ole backward uncle everybody got who can't stop talking about Clinton's blowjobs and photoshopping Sarah Palin's head onto bikini snaps.

Sympathy yes. Fake no. Self-righteous no. I'm trying to be honest about the world we all live in and the history we share.

My point is this: calling a civil rights hero a racist for using racial terms is idiotic. Obviously most of use would not express ourselves in the same way that he did, but to call him a racist? Betrays a clear lack of understanding of what that movement meant, what it entailed, and what it was fighting against. You're an ignorant fool to levy that word against that man.

I tried to express myself with the poignancy I feel this moment in history demands.

Clearly you feel no such call, but that's your deal.

Obviously "Do unto others, what you would have done to you." isn't in the good reverend's core of Christian ideology. - C.J.

Uh, that's not obvious at all actually.

Codger, you said it all when you wrote: "You are the proof against your own assertion."