I think we're mostly just going to go about our business. Might get together with friends later in the evening. I do intend to watch at least some of the ceremony, for the same reason I wanted to watch the moon landing.

I remember reading Clinton's inauguration speech (there's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what is right with America) during a lecture on American culture and history and being strangely touched by it even though it was so very recent. What with Obama's track record in speeches so far I expect even better tonight.

And should I get in a celebratory bottle of Tusker as I did on your election night?

Ah, but the *really* important question of the day is "how do you say the words 'inaugurate' and 'inauguration'?" They aren't words I say aloud very often (if at all) and my gut feeling goes for the full four or five syllable version (with a schwa in that last syllable):

in-AW-gyoo-raet
in-AW-gyoo-ray-shn

But my ear for the language tells me that I bet people who say it a lot and Americans say it faster:

in-AW-graet
in-AW-gray-shn

Inquiring minds want to know!

in-aw-GRAY-shn

Tusker starts to seem ever more desirable :-)

But if not, I'm sure I can still listen.

Dunno what British coverage will be like - BBC1 is giving it two hours, but ITV has Jon Snow over there so may give him more air time.

Hátkor Barack Obama elnök lesz.

There are a lot of reasons to celebrate the inauguration; I'd be listening to the inaugural speech if nothing else, because Obama has a very good speechwriter, and gives really fine oratory.** But beyond that, this is a historic day; the result of the hopes, dreams, work, and sacrifices of a lot of people over the last half century and more, and it deserves to be marked and celebrated as a major step in the road to making America a just and sane society. I put a little bit into that myself back in the day, and I want to watch and cheer as a black man becomes a member of the most exclusive club of all.

* Why can't I have some really romantic disease, that lets me slowly waste away in a garret while coughing discreetly into a lace handkerchief? The way people are designed seems to make aging more like being nibbled to death by ducks than falling off a cliff.
** Nice to again have a President who sounds literate; he's a lot more than that, but the last 8 years have lowered my expectations somewhat.

BBC News 24 and Sky both started at 8am GMT (as did I) and have been non-stop since. Lots of coverage from around the world of celebrations - Kenya has been partying for the last 24 hours apparently, and still going.

It's amazing how much this matters to the rest of the world - the shrub's real achievement has been to unite the world in hatred of him.

(From Casablanca)

To America!

Yes we can. Yes we did. It feels ridiculously wonderful.

The TV in the utility room is on; we can watch it when it's time.

(1 hour 20 minutes)

For the last 8 years, I never stopped celebrating the Fourth because there was no way I'd let the thugs steal my country away from me. This morning though, when the radio played "Star & Stripes Forever" as I was driving to work, I realized it was the first time in a long time where I could freely give in.

Seventy more minutes.

Ken Brown @ 4: I'm a midwestern American and I pronounce it in-AW-grr-ate, in-AW-grr-ation, etc; sometimes in-AW-guh-rate, etc. The third syllable is still there, just not given the same value I think you give it. (If I had a schwa, I'd use it in my representation of how I pronounce that third syllable.)

Here's to the honeymoon.

A little over an hour to go.

Also much joy and a deep sense of relief.

And hey! There goes Dan Quayle! Remember when he was the worst thing to happen to American democracy? Oy.

Keith ended up not going to work. Snow day and Inauguration! Or as one of my friends texted me, "Snowbama!"

I say "in-aw-gyer-ate" or when speaking fast, "in-awg'y'rate."

As a woman—as a wife—I am not about to pretend that the groom is the only agent in a marriage.

'Zat a problem?

(And seeing the people on the mall about to break out in tears.)

That's John Yoo's old job.

My BigCompany is streaming Fox's version on the corporate network and trying to stop everyone from streaming it from the internet. I know some people are doing that anyway. (I wish it hadn't been Fox but the part I really wanted to see was delivered without commentary, so I'm satisfied.)

Lots of us were there; at several points, there was laughter or applause. It was much better to watch together.

And the place was packed.

And people even clapped at some of the things he said.

Of course, being cynical Brits and having seen it all before, some of them also sniggered, giggled, or occasionally laughed out loud - at least one line got both a small clap and a laugh

Christopher Davis - They played Fox in the cafeteria and said repeatedly not to stream it at our desks ("accessing external video via the internet is prohibited"), then provided a streaming feed from our corporate intranet. Not the best job of specifying what was allowed and what wasn't.

*Since it is Fox we're talking about, I feel the urge to specify - teary in a good way. He was moved.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes. Whose shade is smiling today.

Now I need to find a way to keep it from wrapping around the flagpole.

I was mildly disappointed that the helicopter did not pass over our house; I'd wanted to give Shrub one last "salute" on his way to Andrews.

Back to Inauguration (which I pronounce "in-AUWG-yr-AYshun"): that was a fun ceremony, for the first time in more than 8 years. The poet, though, overcompensated for the PA system.

Did anyone else see the two kids dancing as everyone left the platform? They were in the back of the seating area of the platform, so they were clearly children of VIPs. If I hadn't been supporting a sleeping cat, I would have been dancing too.

At work, the pie is a hit.

As the helicopter flew away, I had a brief fantasy of Obama having given orders for an arrest squad to be awaiting Shrub at his destination, to carry him off to the Hague...

Wiped my butt with a picture of Bush before work. "Good day to you sir!" {flush}.

Also am microwaving a pizza. And the usual worry/work cycle.

I got misty-eyed, and knitted, but not something hard that I had to pay attention to.

I am wearing a pin with the Twin Towers on it, and an American flag, for the first time in 8 years. I wish I could have found my red, white, and blue ribbon, but this will have to do.

There I start bawling again.

Lizzy, thanks for that poem.

"There must be security for all, or no one is secure."

I am such a happy, happy person today.

We listened to most of the (surprisingly short, quite good) speech by Obama on the radio. It struck me that his applause lines required a bit too much thought for a lot of the audience, and thus his timing was a little messed up. (Probably that was also because of sound propogation delay from the enormous crowd he was dealing with.) But it was a good speech, and I felt sorry for the ....poet with...the odd CAdence...that...FOLLowED...Obama's speech.... (We turned the radio off pretty early into her poem, so maybe she got better later.)

I'm not sure whether things will get better from here. The damage done these last eight years was immense, and we needed to be fixing existing problems (the demographics and medical inflation that make Medicare into an oncoming budget nightmare, global warming, nuclear proliferation) instead of creating new ones. But I have some real hope.

so maybe she got better later

Unfortunately, not. I think the poem was reasonably good, but I also was thrown considerably off by her reading. It helped a little that I always leave close-captioning turned on, so I got to read the poem as well. To be fair, that was a fairly canonical use of a common style of reading, popular among academics IIRC*. I'm not sure where it got started, but I'm tempted to explain it as a practical joke played by e. e. cummings.

* I haven't had a lot to do with academia in recent decades.

It's amusing to me that I've been near EX-President Shrub three times, for two motorcades and one surprise! visit to a local high school that is across the street from the family's church. Each time I was in putative sight, I was polite and waved. Had I but known! I would have shown him my shoes, years ago.

One of the primary effects of Obama's administration is a return to hope. Finally, for the first time in years, I feel better about the job in front of us.

Punahou High School has marched past the reviewing stand.

The gutter guy got done halfway through the poetry; it was a reading which made full use of the rough and smooth qualities of words, which went along with what I was getting out of the poem before I had to stop listening.

The cleaner informed us that he was indeed recording the ceremony.

We went back inside to watch some more and admired the people that had somehow managed to get together into a large circle on the frozen-over reflecting pool and do a sort of dance.

Later in the afternoon, we went over to the credit union, and the part-time associate who helped us told us how her journalism class spent the first half of the period watching the ceremony over the campus network.

A great and glorious day.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2009_01_01_archive.asp#5898857331914888454

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
…
     Sail on, sail on
     O mighty Ship of State!
     To the Shores of Need
     Past the Reefs of Greed
     Through the Squalls of Hate
     Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

… [end of last verse]
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

— from ‘Democracy’, Leonard Cohen

I hope I remember to set off the fireworks tonight.

We need to switch the inaugurations back to April.

Mmm, FireBrick lager from the August Schell brewery in New Ulm, MN. I thought about breaking out the good whiskey, but figured a local brew would be more fitting. I stuck the bottlecap in my bag, it's going up on my shelf at work next to the little devil duckie and the bige plushie Peep. I've no Obama pins or signs or anything - the bottle cap will be enough for me. (And obscure, which I like.)

Haven't been posting for a while. Not posting from work, limiting my 'net usage at work to lunchtime only. Got sucked in too much due to all the political threadiness all over the place - not a good thing for someone who's an info junkie and is somewhat bored with his current project. A one hour lunch is barely enough time to skim the headlines and a comment thread or two on BoingBoing, much less keep up on ML, especially since I need to eat, too.

Hopeful for the new Presidency. Hope that health care gets sorted out - IMHO if health care wasn't so hog-tied to one's current employer, there'd be a ton more entrepreneurial endeavors. I've a ton and a half of ideas, a few of which may be winners, none of which will ever be businesses that can make jobs and make good things without readily available affordable health care that isn't tied to a big corporate job.

Having a new President is good. It'll take a while to shake off the FUD that I've been marinated in over the last 8 years, though...

Wish I could have a slice of the various pies and cakes y'all are mentioning. I'm just glad I finally got the bit of wall around the 3 month old new shower tile painted with a single coat of primer... projects go slow here.

Take care all, be safe, maybe I'll catch up a bit more some time.
<lurk>

I like Patrick's idea of moving the inauguration to just after the election. Maybe a week or two after, not the next day. For one thing, it would give the lame ducks far less time to shred evidence and screw things up.

Obama's speech was wonderful.

We protested the choice of Rick Warren as invocation giver by holding up rainbow flags during his prayer. I wouldn't say I disagreed with anything he said but I certainly disagree with his ideas of how it translates to real life action.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

Military judges were expected to rule on the request on Wednesday at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official involved in the trials said.
...

I'm assuming that the halt is the first step towards shutting down the tribunals and replacing them with either trying or freeing the prisoners under a proper legal system. But halting the sham trials at once, as one of his first acts in office? A very good sign.

Two blogs I've found really helpful in understanding the screwed-up healthcare system in the US are The Covert Rationing Blog (but you have to enjoy sarcasm and irony to like the blog, I think), and Rural Doctoring, particularly the discussion of why she got out of normal family practice and her stuff on "me-conomics." I also enjoy reading a lot of other medical blogs, much more because of what I learn about people and this important part of the world I don't deal with much than for what I learn about medicine. (A lot of the discussion of specific medical stuff would probably make sense to Ginger or Jim, but not so much to me.)

I'm not at all connected to the healthcare system, so I may be misunderstanding how well these describe reality, but the parts I know anything about track quite well with these two. However, I'm curious whether others here who are involved in healthcare find that these blogs are describing something close to what they see, too.

I loved the way Obama's speech lambasted the previous administration in a compact seven or eight minutes, without naming any names, and the rest was suitably eloquent without unneccessary fancy flourishes.

I also watched some of the "Neighborhood" inaugural ball where several decades of popular entertainers sang, and the president and first lady danced. That was another "never thought I'd see it in my lifetime!" moment, despite occasional cheesiness from the performers. Great fun.

Now, alas, it's back to grim reality, but with a much better man at the helm (and Dr. Strangelove has trundled off the stage).

[1] though nothing like it would have been if I didn't have insurance, again thanks to my marriage

If you go to whitehouse.gov and scroll to the bottom, you'll find a screenful of links. The third column from the left lists "The Administration". The first four links, those above "The Cabinet" are:

  President Barack Obama
  Vice President Joe Biden
  First Lady Michelle Obama
  Dr. Jill Biden

It makes me very happy to see the First Lady and the Vice President's wife (should she be called the "Second Lady"?), whose jobs are usually deprecated even when they're acknowledged at all, given the honor of position they deserve.

I was amusing myself listening to the speech wondering if Bush was catching what Obama was saying about him and his adminstration or not. Either way is rather delightful to think about.

President Obama. That has such a nice ring to it right now.

Originally (or at least since Amendment 12 was ratified in 1804) the Presidential term began on March 4. After the Hoover-FDR transition there was apparently a consensus that this was too long a delay and an amendment was passed moving the start date to January 20.

...and thus did yesterday also mark the 20th anniversary of my arriving in America and Bush Sr's Inauguration. (Strictly speaking, we left Toronto on Jan 16 and crossed the border later that day, but we arrived in California on Jan 20, after seeing many billboards across the country advertising the town of Winnemucca.)

One major reason for the delay between election and inauguration is the two-stage Presidential election process. After the electors are chosen in early November (and any associated recounts or other squabbles settled), they still have to make that long journey to their respective state capitols, there to cast their votes for Pres and VP. Once the actual electoral votes are cast, it takes still longer for those votes to be forwarded (presumably by stagecoach or fast post-horse) to Congress at its seat in the Federal District, where they are opened and counted. When the accumulated suspense has thus been broken, there is also the small matter of formally notifying the victorious candidate, who has been pacing on his front porch awaiting the news . . .

(Even though the latest revision of this electoral timetable post-dates the addition of communication tools like those new-fangled radio waves, the traditionally deliberate nature of the process, like the agricultural rhythms upon which it was originally based, has been maintained.)

I've been jeering at people with NØBAMA stickers, but only inside the car with the windows shut. The temptation to lean my head out and call "LOOO-ZERRRR!" at them is strong, but so far I've resisted it.

Personally, I want to see how many of the offenders' careers get destroyed over this....

Water broke in a store at 2:40, we made it to hospital parking garage at 3:10, baby arrived at 5:17pm.

Change happens fast, in many instances.

(8lbs 13 oz., no epidural. My wife is fearsome.)

May your child grow up in the world we all hope for!

How wonderful! Congratulations to all three of you! (Boy? Girl?)

There's also some amount of lead time needed to put together a cabinet, right? I think this is a bit different in a parliamentary system, where (if I understand correctly) the ministers are already MPs who stay in parliament--they already live in London, don't have to quit their jobs as senators or governors or whatever and find replacements, etc.

Didn't the 9/11 commission put at least some of the blame of our vulerability to the attacks on the fact that the Bush administration was not real prepared to take power? The contested election was probably one major part of that, though I wouldn't want to rule out incompetence or malfeasance, given what happened later.

The confirmation process seems to be the big constraint. In the British system, the Cabinet is just named by the new prime minister and that's it - they start work that day. Even non-MP cabinet members don't need to be confirmed - they normally get a life peerage so they can sit in the Lords, which takes a few days to put through. In fact, I don't think even that's necessary - I think ministers don't have to be in either House, but I'm not sure about that. (The PM, however, does.)

I'm pretty sure Cabinet Ministers need to be in either the commons or the lords, although that might be in the unwritten part of the constitution. This table on the parliament site seems to think that all the ministers are in one house or the other; on the other hand this might be because the official government is made up of MPs and Lords so anyone else doesn't count. It may be a definitional thing.

Earl Cooley @118 It seems much more comforting to know that major elections will be held at regularly scheduled intervals...

Comforting for who? In general I'd rather be a bit more uncomfortable if it kept politicians minds on the job in hand. Not that there aren't many, many flaws in this system. Nevertheless, if anyone tried to take adantage in a national emergency, they'd be promptly punished, probably by their own party, parliament in general, the monarch and the elctorate at the next election and following while it's in living memory. As an example of what actually happens, you might take a look at what happened in Parliament during May 1940; briefly Chamblain narrowly won the Norway Debate on 8 May, but the German invasion of Belgium and the Netherlands on 10 May made his position untenable, so he resigned; Churchill formed an all-party government (with ministers from all 3 major parties).

Meanwhile, this Reality feels as if the Master had thrown History off course in 2000, and 2008 feels as if the Doctor had finally managed to send things back down their proper path.

"We are not amused."

Nowadays, the PM has to be a member of the Commons. Other ministers do not have to be a member of either house, but by convention are because of their responsibility to Parliament.

No, cabinet ministers who aren't already MPs get made life peers. I guess I could have phrased that better...

If we could call for a vote of no-confidence mid-term, we'd have been rid of Bush (and his crooks in Justice, and completely useless SEC, and all of the political censors in sciency departments) by at least 2006.

But also we would have been rid of Bill Clinton sometime between 1994 and 1998. There are plusses and minuses here. And some parts of our government, such as the supreme court and the fed, are designed to be relatively insulated from day-to-day political pressures. That, again, has both plusses and minuses attached....

Congress could pass a law changing the election date; as far as I know, the only way the executive branch could do that would be by suspending the Constitution via executive order.

Of course, if you believe the apocalyptic whackjobs, the use of gold fringe on the US flag in federal courts symbolizes that the Constitution is already suspended, and has been for quite some time.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, trying to make a serious point about the economic stimulus bill after meeting with President Obama today, quickly found himself in "that's what she said" territory:

You know, I'm concerned about the size of the package, and I'm concerned about some of the spending that's in there. How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives, how does that stimulate the economy?

I'm so glad I'm not the kind of person who'd stoop to making crude jokes about this.

(Googled: fringe flag constitution)

There are a whole pack of variously explained claims that a gold fringe denotes a military flag or an admiralty flag, and that therefore the presence of gold fringe on flags in government offices is a secret sign that the government is being run by the military, or the gold fringe on the flag in a court is a sign that it's an admiralty court and therefore has no lawful jurisdiction over Americans, hence this must mean that the Constitution has been suspended and (optionally) the government is run by Reptoids.

I have usually seen this group of arguments from the "there is no law requiring payment of income tax" tax evasion crowd or the "paper money is not real money and the only legal tender is gold or silver" crowd. If you fear your are facing jail for tax evasion, threatening and harassing IRS employees, or various forms of fraud, then perhaps it is comforting to believe that the court which is about to send you to prison has no legal authority and you're a hapless victim of the Vast Conspiracy.

Wife was asking if I had thoughts on the middle name while we were in the hospital room pre-birth. I was watching Firefly on Hulu.

Specifically, I was watching the episode 'The Train Job':
Sheriff Bourne: But a man learns all the details of a situation like ours... well... then he has a choice.
Mal: I don't believe he does.

I believe strongly that even in the most dire circumstances, if it's the Right Thing to Do, you do it, without thinking twice-- and I sincerely hope to instill that in my son. Plus, I want to be able to call him Mal. :)

That's an improvement over the last 8 years of Graboid govt.

Sterilize your keyboard and mouse in an autoclave, then wash your hands with the strongest antiseptic soap you can get. The brain scrub, however, will require OxyClean and a wire brush.

In assembling his list of Cabinet selections, Obama seems to have moved much faster than most of his recent predecessors. To me, it was interesting to note that the Senate actually began hearings on several of the nominees before Obama was sworn in as President, so the confirmation votes could be held very shortly (within 24 hours, in some instances) thereafter.

Technically, this appears to have been a case of "Senatorial courtesy" toward a new President, even though he was not yet President (with the actual authority to make those appointments) at the time he announced those Cabinet selections. After all, it's not as if there was a whole lot of suspense remaining, about who would be sworn in at noon last Tuesday in DC . . .

The practical effect of this accelerated process is that formal policy guidance, emanating from the political appointee layers of the bureaucracy, begins to disseminate more quickly to the lower, implementing layers of each agency involved. Thus, any change in priorities or emphasis within an agency, as desired by the new administration, is likely to get accomplished both faster and more consistently, than if the agency were left on autopilot, being run by the senior non-political [1] career staff.

[1] In the sense that specific positions are officially career civil service slots, as distinct from overtly political appointments. One useful guideline is that a position subject to Presidential appointment [2] is probably political in nature, and any such position which requires Senate confirmation of an individual appointee is almost always political.

[2] Except those of commissioned officers in the uniformed services.

It looks like this might be starting to happen--Talking Points Memo has received emails from people in the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education who feel that the atmosphere in their departments has already improved.

For the rest of his life, he'll be haunted by this thought: "My dad almost had me christened Jayne. Or Mingo. Or Badger."