Obama said, "I'm a lefty."

a-HA!

Please do not contribute to the inane implication that the market's performance today has anything to do with Obama's inauguration, which of course the market has known about for months.

This is a very frequent error in reporting about the market that is based on a misunderstanding of basic economics. This blog is too smart to participate in that.

It's incredible, but Bush really has left...

Longest. Copter taxi. Ever.
Seemed like those blades would never whirl up to speed...

Ouch! One parade band just played the tune from the "Viva Viagra" ads. What do you wave when that happens?

ut King is refusing, citing his "philosophical" problems with the new president. - BULL - the bottom line is the color of OUR president's skin is a problem for him.
I hope the rest of Iowa is not that ignorant.

God Bushed America!

Now it's time for an Obamanation to clean up the mess(es).

Man, I miss George misunderestimating the importance of eloquence

I hope the rest of Iowa is not that ignorant.
Iowa has been behind Obama all the way.

Please do not contribute to the inane implication that the market's performance ...

Steve does a link for the stock market every day. Saying that it had a bad day on an otherwise celebratory occasion should certainly not be interpreted as analysis. In fact, Steve has frequently made the same argument you do about these simplistic coincidences. Lighten up.

I hope is a lefty and stays a lefty in more ways than one.

The president's new limo includes some pretty amazing features.

Cue the wingnuts calling Obama a hypocrite for riding in a car that gets 8 mpg, in 3...2...1...

There's supposed to be a welcome-home celebration for Bush this afternoon in Midland, Texas. Good seats are still available.

In contrast, if you've ever wondered what a million people look like gathered in one place, check out this slide from the NYT. Has there ever been an inauguration crowd like this? Stunning!

This is a very frequent error in reporting about the market that is based on a misunderstanding of basic economics.

I don't know. It seems to me that the market often makes frequent errors based upon misunderstandings of basic economics. So it's not such a bad idea to use similar misunderstandings to decipher what they're doing (not that anyone here was doing that.)

Seriously, I remember all the fancy stuff they taught us about how stocks should be picked in a finance class I once took, but too often, it's all based upon a herd-like game of "What's Hot, What's Not." And so blaming the ups-and-downs of the markets on daily news stories isn't such a sketchy proposition. Once one of the cows gets panicked by a story, the rest start stampeding right behind it.

Obama turned awhile walking in the very frigid D.C. air, slowed and joked with Al Roker (America's favorite weather guy)-- a guy who has been awaiting a Presidential acknowledgment for 12 years now.. and here's what Obama exclaimed to Roker:

"It's Warm!"
Only a man who knows pain can be humorous when it matters most.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Obama is somber and serious and he should be.
Wake up Wall Street--He's a realist, not a bullshit artist.

I have two close friends who lost their good jobs today. Unbelievable.

Brace yourself, everyone. We are in for a bumpy ride.

ut King is refusing, citing his "philosophical" problems with the new president. - BULL - the bottom line is the color of OUR president's skin is a problem for him.

I hope the rest of Iowa is not that ignorant.

i don't know that king is ignorant. insane, definitely. i'm sure he was greatly missed at the reception.

Four years...

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth.

Money quote:

Hansen - head of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies and winner of the WWF's top conservation award - first warned Earth was in danger from climate change in 1988 and has been the victim of several unsuccessful attempts by the White House administration of George Bush to silence his views.

Like I wrote up above:
Longest. Copter taxi. Ever.

* The president's new limo includes some pretty amazing features. -- Steve Benen

Is Christian Science Monitor Brit? First, I noticed "boot" (y'all cal it "trunk" here, I think), after which it was one thing after another: armour, aluminium, defence... All those words and spellings that my 'puter loves to underline as being "wrong". I can understand the price being given in GBP instead of $ - it looks a hell of a lot less that way :)

As he signed his name, Obama said, "I'm a lefty. Get used to it." (For the record, Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Clinton were also left-handed.) -- Steve Benen

Ah, but there's only one South-Side South-Paw :) Long live 44!

"It's incredible, but Bush really has left."

Yeah, but they took him to the wrong place. He should be going to The Hague instead of Texas.

I second The Hague destination for Bush.

There really have been a lot of left-handers lately. And I though GWB was also left-handed, but evidently not. Is John McCain?

Sad that CNN distorts the figures so..for goodness sake, he's even keeping that god awful oval office sunshine rug...and I'd bet if you keep looking at Michelle and Barack's expenses, you'll find huge decreases in personal spending...

When was the last time Laura Bush quoted she was adorned in: J.Crew????
_____________________

And yet their coverage was stellar, it was full of good historical facts and photos and it was offered in HD on my tube (unlike MSNBC). And I do appreciate that the commentators sticked much more to the script rather than going off on very long tangents about Kennedy's seizure...

Ouch! One parade band just played the tune from the "Viva Viagra" ads.

You might be interested to know that "the tune" of which you speak has a title: "Viva Las Vegas." It is also the title of an Elvis movie, one of the few worth watching, actually, as it features a young, scorching hot Ann-Margret. If a man can watch her in that film without feeling a stirring in his loins, Viagra ain't gonna do it for him, either.

OMG - Bush is getting raves on his "Welcome Back" on Fox. They're broadcasting the speech rather than the Obama parade (which is rather boring). I've never watched Fox before but I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Arlington, and they only get CNN and NOT MSNBC! I was flipping through the channels and caught - God help us - George Bush!

Awful. By the way, I saw Keith Olbermann walking along Constitution Ave this morning. Either he was walking with really tall guys or he's not really 6'4". Very good looking, though.

According to wikipedia:

Though constituting less than 10 percent of the general population, five of the last seven U.S presidents have been left-handed: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. John McCain, Barack Obama's opponent in the 2008 election is also left-handed.[10]

Again from wikipedia:

Out of the 44 presidents of the United States, 8 have been left-handed (Garfield, Truman, Ford, Hoover, Reagan, George HW Bush, Clinton and Obama). This is 18% as compared to the 7-10% of the regular population. (There is some controversy over Reagan's left-handedness; forced in school to use his right-hand for writing, he often used his left-hand for many other things.)

That is roughly double the statistical average for the general population. Interesting.

I really feel for the Presidential Party now.

Chris Mathews says he's already feeling punchy. And note that he doesn't have 8 or 10 balls to dance through after this parade is over.

Sheez--and Obama is supposed to get up early tomorrow for something else?

This is ridiculous. The balls should be spread out more. He should be able to just go home and sleep now! Our dear new President needs his rest...

Mama Mia! Oy Kavult!

I say sleep in tomorrow! (But maybe that's why I'm not the President!).

This would be a perfect use of CNN's hologram. Send IT to the parties and balls and let the Obamas get some sleep. Tomorrow's a BUSY day.

First, I noticed "boot" (y'all cal it "trunk" here, I think)

Some of us still call it a "boot", even when they give us strange looks.

OT, someone I didn't see there was Condi Rice. Wonder what was up with that? Then again, I don't really give a rat's ass.

So, AP had this bit in their report on the Bushes landing in Texas, where about 20K folk welcomed them to Texas:
"It's a special day, but it's a sad day," said Dudley Winn, a cotton farmer who drove two hours from Lubbock to greet Bush on his first stop after leaving office. "He did the job we asked him to do. He kept our values safe."

And I couldn't help but reflect that, in fact, Bush kept *neither* our values *nor* our valuables, safe... The poor, deluded farmer from Lubbock might have been better off staying home.

@18:53 (Oy Kavult and Mama Mima--this is nonsense!)

That would be "oy, gevalt!", I think. "Gevalt" is the Yiddish version of the Polish word "gwalt" (pron: gvalt), which means "rape" but is also used to denote other forcible and damaging actions (like pogroms).

Give it the Boot

'Some of us still call it a "boot"...'

My VW calls it a boot - as in the "Boot lid open" message when you pop the trunk with the engine running.

Re: the inaugural cost.

Why the millions, record or not? We're inaugurating a president -- not crowning a king.

It should be a simple televised five minute ceremony in the Oval Office, then the President could get to work, doing what he was elected to do.

Time to dismantle the Imperial Presidency, once and for all.

i went over to look at the story about bush welcome home tickets still being available.

how pathetic is george bush?

two people have bothered to post comments.

not even his friends care.

i thought it was odd but comforting the way the tv station ran a crawl at the bottom of the screen every fifteen minutes to let everyone know that, yes, george bush was officially out of washington dc.

what a day!

congratulations, one and all.

Why the millions, record or not? We're inaugurating a president -- not crowning a king.

A President, who is both of chief of state and head of government, is more important than most modern monarchs, who are the former but not the latter.

Obama explicitly included "non-believers" in his address.

A true, welcomed first for us secularists.

Thank you BO. I mean, Pres.BO.

The tickets for Bush in Midlands are still available because they, like every other Bush appearance, are being vetted for supporters only. A dwindling number to be sure.

"Why the millions, record or not? "

Worth twice the price just to get the Bush Crime Family out of town.

You might be interested to know that "the tune" of which you speak has a title: "Viva Las Vegas." It is also the title of an Elvis movie, one of the few worth watching

It is shameful, isn't it? A profit seeking company buys the right to associate their product with a well known tune. And the result is that their product becomes bound to something loved for non-commercial reasons. The tune is ruined! Who can listen to it and not think of the associated product? Shame on those who sold the tune. And... Viva Las Vegas!

"Who can listen to it and not think of the associated product?"

Lesbians?

It appears that the Wall Street *is* reacting. Not to Obama's inauguration -- they knew, for months, it was coming -- but to financial news.

On Friday afternoon (when else?), Citi and Bank of America, both, announced that they were in dire straits. Citi, you might remember, considered itself so well off, that it put up a big fight about not acquiring Wachovia, when it lost the bidding war to Wells Fargo. BoA was, supposedly, so well off that it actually snapped up Merril Lynch...

On Friday afternoon, it turned out that the Colossus -- actually both Colossi -- had clay underpinnings and crumbled into the sea. Today was the first day Wall Street was able to express its opinion of that, with yesterday being MLK's Day, when all govt-related life is suspended...

Poor baby Bush. No one left to mangle the English language in front of. No more little brown people to torture. No more taxes to cut. No more Constitution to wipe his baby bottom with.

Poor baby Bush.

Forcefully telling America it is time to grow up...

Just heard Barack's inaugural speech again.
My initial reaction is reinforced: This is his best to date.

Ah, the little Texas village is getting it's idiot back, good for them. But do us a favor, keep him under wraps.

Wall Street tumbling? Imagine that. The cat has been out of the house since Reaganomics plagued our country, and the rats have been dancing. America just hired the Orkin man. Too bad they're depressed. Fuck em.

Who say's the prez's caddy is ugly? I'll take one!

Look forward to Republican obstructionism. Let's just hope we've moved past their petty 'ideological' squabbles. They had their chance, they failed miserably, so step aside. In the end though, it's going to take the dems to start feeling their oats. We won, to the victors go the spoils. As for Cornyn or whatever, he had to have the most ridiculously self effacing political add of all times, so his 'stand' against Hillary is almost as much a sham as he. same goes for King.

My own thoughts about today? I'm happy, hopeful, but realistic. Obama asked us to grow up. Let's try. First thing to rid ourselves of? Immediate gratification. Give the man a chance. He's a sly customer; I trust he quietly and steadily laying the groundwork for the progressive change we want to see.

January 20th, 2009: America enters adulthood.

Thanks exlibra--for the correction of the Yiddish spelling of Oy Gavelt!

Oy, the shame is all mine, believe you me...I'm a bad Jew, through and through...but I'll bet ya I heard this more than you growing up...Which is why I will likely now kvetch on end--and get all verklempt about this--how embarrassing mishap!

i wonder how many repubs are crying today...

I like citizen_pain's quote.

The cat has been out of the house since Reaganomics plagued our country, and the rats have been dancing. America just hired the Orkin man. Too bad they're depressed.

And that isn't just applicable to Wall Street, but the entire Republican establishment: GOP, conservative think thanks, Republican Senators and Congress critters, Conservative pundits and columnists, and some of the voters.

I don't know if you all caught it, but as Boy George II was coptering out on Executive One (what they call the thing when a REAL president isn't in it) the crowd was singing:

Obama, Obama, Hey hey hey, GoodBye!

Oh, sweet schaudenfreud...

I guess, now that Cheney is gone, Cornyn saw his chance to claim the title of Dickiest Dick in DC. What a douchebag.

Longest. Copter taxi. Ever.
Posted by: koreyel on January 20, 2009 at 6:22 PM

Well, of course it was the longest copter taxi ever. They renamed the blasted machine "Executive One," didn't they? And given the speed-of-molasses that "the Unitary Executive" demonstrated in his presidency---not to mention the "desperate speed" exhibited by the nation's golden-parachute executives at fixing the financial apocalypse that they themselves wrought upon not only upon the United States, but likewise the entire world---I'm surprised the damned bird isn't still parked outside the Capitol building!

Just heard Barack's inaugural speech again.

Koreyel, we just watched it again too! Think I was too overwhelmed to really listen the first time.

Listening to the Commander-in-Chief speech now. Awesomeness!!

When Bush got on the helicopter and faded away, all I could think of was "mission accomplished!"

What a great day! I've been humming "Oh Happy Day" since this morning. The Obamas look so happy and gorgeous at the balls. Won't it be nice to have some style and class in the White House! I have to say I got a big kick out of Michael Gerson on Fox-TV today (my employer had it on until I convinced her to switch to MSNBC). Gee, what a surprise that Gerson said he thought the speech was "very ordinary"--unlike HIS magnificent awe-inspiring rhetoric no doubt. The wingers will be indulging in some big-time self-delusion for the next few years. Well boo hoo for them. This is such a happy and promising moment. Actually I don't really care WHAT Gerson or any of them say--it just doesn't matter!

In case anyone still worries that dextronuts will try to ride the Oath "fiasco", here's some talking points I've generated or heard:

1. BHO signed a written form of the Oath anyway, before the public ceremony. The former displays the exact original wording from the Constitution and is a binding expression of the Constitutional requirement. Furthermore, Amendment 20 says the PE become President at noon on the last day of the former Administration.
2. Roberts flubbed it up for BHO so blame him (notwithstanding "Al"'s point that the USC doesn't allow for excuses! ;-)
3. Sure, the wording got slightly rearranged. But the original wording does not have "so help me God" at the end. Since adulteration can come by addition and not just rearrangement, omission etc., should all the previous Presidents who said "so help me God" be disqualified?
4. Go to hell, asshole!

And now the good news:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/20/obama-chief-of-staff-puts-a-stop-to-pending-bush-regulations/

You know, I'm getting a lot of flack from some cohorts about being so tough on Bu$h. Something about respecting the presidency and all that.

Well, let me tell you this. The shrub betrayed core American values; he violated his oath and called the Constitution a 'Goddamned piece of paper'. His buffoonery made a laughing stock of our country and labeled us all as shoot from the hip hicks.

To me that is worse than anything he did. He made a fool of us all.

And so begins the Obama Era,

and so ends the Bush Error.

Obama, Obama, Hey hey hey, GoodBye!

It seemed to be running through the crowd all day. I suspect it was started by some White Sox fans and was picked up by other people -- "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" is considered the unofficial White Sox anthem.

It's incredible, but Bush really has left.

Incredible? I never doubted for a minute that he'd leave right on time.

Now it's Obama's turn, and I personally am rooting for his success. It's a happy day for the U.S.

After the party's over, I'll go back to trashing his policies. For now, I am happy that he praised the creativity of markets and included us secularists among the belief systems.

The president will have to pay tolls?? Why don't they just have one of those electronic transmitter gizmos like you get for the freeways? Too high tech?

Re: Na Na Hey Hey. We were singing that in 1971 when my high school basketball team went to the states. Loong before the White Sox were even heard of.

Re "I'm a lefty. Get used to it.":

Very revealing of the real Obama: a man with chips on his shoulders; and clearly someone with limited sense of the importance of self-restraint when in a position of power.

He is a closet demagogue and I'm convinced he's going to manipulate the levers of power to rub non-black America's nose in the dirt.

CORNYN FORCES DELAY ON CLINTON CONFIRMATION

Senator John Cornyn refused to permit a voice vote confirming Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State. thus preventing her from joining other appointees confirmed on inauguration
day.

A bush league move by a sleasy Senator from Texas - doesn't he realize that Hillary Clinton is ready on day one?

homer www.altara.blogspot.com

MatthewRMarler wrote: After the party's over, I'll go back to dishonestly trashing his policies.

Fixed for accuracy.

After eight long years of bad faith arguing in defense of the Bush Administration's mendacity, incompetence, and corruption -- the record of which is preserved hear, though you like forget that -- no one mistakes you for an honest commentator, and no one gives a damn about your expression of goodwill. As Obama indicated, this Administration, like the election before it, will mark a repudiation of the kind of rancid politics you embrace in the name of sweet, sweet tax cuts.

Shame on you, Marler.