Tuesday, January 20, 2009

New whitehouse.gov

Whitehouse.gov has an RSS feed!!!

Crowd estimate: 2 million

As we watch Bush circle the city, Chris Matthews says Bush may be looking down on the crowd with dismay - I think that gives Bush too much credit for self awareness.

Crowd chants Bush away

"Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye..."

Liftoff

George Bush has left the building - and Washington DC - let's hope we don't see him again for a long, long time - at least if it's not in a court of law.

Joseph Lowery rocks

The end of the benediction may have been the best part of the whole ceremony...

No more tears

The inauguration and the speech didn't make me cry - I wonder why.

Facebook feed better than I thought

Maybe all the party poopers are being overwhelmed, or maybe they got tired of swimming upstream, but the feed has actually been pretty cool.

Speech

It's going to take me a while to evaluate that speech - it wasn't exactly what I expected, especially at the beginning, but the one thing I take away first and foremost is Obama's acknowledgment of our common humanity - not just our unity as Americans, but our unity as humans. This is the only way to make things better, and I don't know when I've heard a politician speak this way. It's a breath of fresh air.

Then Chris says things like this...

As Obama appears, Chris Matthews says, "I think he knows that crowd's here for him." Ya think?

Cheney in a wheelchair

They're wheeling Cheney out to the dais... As Chris Matthews said, what a metaphor.

They're booing Bush

I almost feel bad for him - almost.

First laughter

Chris Matthews just compared the crowd on the National Mall to a Chia pet... He cracks me up. :)

Moving Trucks!!!!

There are moving trucks at the White House!!! I know they've been moving back and forth for a few days, but this is the first I've seen them. It's exciting!

Facebook live feed a double-edged sword

I finally got the Facebook feed from CNN working - I almost wish I hadn't. Some of the comments are great, but others are asinine.

Obamaman

MSNBC just showed a woman in the crowd with a picture of Obama ripping his shirt open to show a Superman-like "O" underneath. This is the most interesting thing I've seen so far - it's so emblematic of what we need from this man now. He's not a superhero, but we can only hope that he is, as he seems, better, stronger, and faster than the rest of us.

First tears

Seeing the motorcade pull out of the White House on the way to the Capitol drew my first tears at 10:52 a.m. - I'm sure they won't be the last.

It's really starting

The Congressional delegation is filing onto the dais.

Drinking Game

If you really want to get falling-down drunk, drink every time the talking heads say "history." If you start now, you may not make it to the inauguration itself.

Children are excited

A crowd of children screaming, "Obama! Obama" at the top of their lungs - I don't think I ever saw a crowd of children screaming a president's name before.

Silly crowd coverage

Ok, the reporter on MSNBC is interviewing a guy because he's planning on painting his face red, white, and blue. "You're really going to paint your face red, white, and blue?" she asked him. Has this woman never seen a football game? And can't they think of more interesting things to talk to the crowd about?