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Open Thread * The Media Need an Editor * What’s the Big Deal with This New Senator? Why the Cameras? The Fuss?

What in the hell? MSNBC is advertising about its coverage of Inauguration Day, saying:

In the nation’s capitol, on the brink of history, the hour approaches …

If January 20th marks the “brink of history,” what have we been living in so far? And won’t the Visigoths, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians be just a little bit ticked off to be left out of history, particularly by Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, and David Shuster?

Another favorite of mine is “new beginnings.” If it’s a “beginning,” it’s necessarily new. I.e., the phrase is ridiculously redundant.

Okay, that out of my system, here’s a video about a nice, sweet man from Illinois about whom a great fuss was made and for whom police were called, until today when, all of a sudden, he was before the Vice President of the United States, being sworn in as a U.S. Senator:


Just kidding. It was sweet today to see him touch his name plate next to the door to his new Senate office. And the excitement in the faces of his family. PEBO erred on that, but Harry Reid paid the price. But, at least in the end, it came out the way it should have for U.S. Senator Roland Burris (D-Ill.).

And what else is going on in the world? And Illinois? Any new scandals?

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Comment by trist | 2009-01-16 02:25:44

Give ‘em hell Brother Burris!

 

Comment by Hillary or Bust | 2009-01-16 03:06:35

I’m meeting with some PUMAs for an anti-inaguration party (or should we call it a wake) on Tuesday. We will have a media blackout and not watch any channel covering the inauguration or the parties afterwards.

I do have a friend who has a bad feeling something bad might happen at the inauguration, like a bomb or something. I am just glad I am not in DC.

Comment by DisenfranchisedVoter | 2009-01-16 04:13:33

Are there a lot of PUMAs in your area? Where do you live?

Comment by Hillary or Bust | 2009-01-16 04:31:26

LA…this is going to be a small get-together with a few PUMA friends…

 
 
 

Comment by CG | 2009-01-16 06:22:25

“brink of history,” and “new beginnings”

This refers to the new world holiday, the crowning of the new messiah, and the end of Christmas as we knew it.

Fo’get aboud Christmas — Hallmark, Madison Avenue, and street promoters alike recognize the opportunity of our new saviour and lord almighty and we shall come to celebrate this the greatest gift to mankind. Act now, supplies are running out…

After riding the rails, our saviour will walk across the Potomac, and then he will wash Chris Matthew’s feet, and as he rises he will lift his left arm, and in that effort he will have paid your mortgage, filled your gas tank, and open your cupboards, you will no longer find them bare. Merry Obamas one and all. Praise him at this new beginning on the brink of history. Amen.

Comment by tek | 2009-01-16 10:59:12

This is the craziest post I’ve ever seen. The end of Christmas as we know it? I’m sure the Obama’s will have the biggest Christmas tree anyone has ever seen and they’ll take a Christmas vacation to Hawaii.

Comment by foxyladi14 | 2009-01-16 17:41:06

and EASTER and all the religious holidays.

 

Comment by CG | 2009-01-16 18:30:06

come on tek, I was teasing… don’t you remember this: “Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) tells People magazine in the issue out Friday that he and his wife, Michelle, do not give Christmas or birthday presents to their two young daughters. Obama tells the magazine’s Sandra Sobieraj Westfall in a seven-page cover story that he and his wife follow the unusual practice because they “want to teach some limits.”

As this is the most expensive inauguration ever, and I think the Democratic Convention nomination acceptance greek theatre show was the most expensive ever, and a $9 million vacation in Hawaii, doesn’t it slay you that the Obamas “want to teach some limits.”

Have you ever seen so much inaugural stuff being hawked as this, and have you ever seen anyone adulated as if a saviour? a phenom… and for the ladies there is even a new Obama ahem toy, I mean how creepy is all this marketing of Obama stuff going to get?

Comment by oowawa | 2009-01-16 18:48:13

Well, please. We should not condemn the prudent practice of withholding a few tawdry gifts from impressionable young children in order to teach them “some limits.” And as for criticizing spending a few dollars in a righteous cause, I’m sure Moses was a frugal and austerely devout man, but when it came time to glorify him and his story in a movie epic, Cecil B. DeMille didn’t balk at laying out the cash. Divinity deserves to be presented on the proper spectacular scale, and true glory isn’t cheap!

 
 
 
 

Comment by getfitnow | 2009-01-16 06:38:08

I made plans when BO won that I would not watch any of the inauguration festivities. I refuse to celebrate the bought-and -paid-for election of a man unqualified and unaccomplished who ran a sexist,race baiting campaign and stands for nothing. As an AA woman I would have loved to celebrate this election, but I refuse to pretend that everything is ok. I hope this country gets back to putting value and premium on certain things in life.

Comment by bert | 2009-01-16 10:03:34

I’m with you getfitnow. I am not watching any of it. It is so over-hyped as to be ridiculous. Only thing I will read is what is posted here. And I will probably gloss over that too. The cult of celebrity has reached a new low with Obama’s election or coronation, no, his buying of the office of President.

 

Comment by Alamiss | 2009-01-16 12:54:47

My sentiments exactly. I have nothing to be proud of. I will never celebrate the success of a liar and a cheat. Hillary was robbed. As an independent AA female voter, I felt that Hillary was the most qualified and the best person for the job of President. Obama supporters are going to be more and more disappointed as he slowly turns into a republican before their very eyes. He is running for reelection now. His goal is to get as many white votes and republican votes as possible since he knows that the small percentage of AA and hispanic voters in the country cannot put him over the top again. He is already trying to turn into John McCain with his talk of earmarks and pork barrel spending just like he turned into Hillary and stole her ideas.

 
 

Comment by Jackarooty | 2009-01-16 07:40:20

I am an ardent Hillary supporter and my heart is still broken especially after listening to her speak at her Senate hearing. She is such a brilliant and accomplished woman. It should be her being sworn in next Tuesday. But life does go on and Hillary has taught us that lesson. She is a woman who looks forward and that should provide inspiration to all of us.
I plan to watch the inauguration. It is part of our history and the foundation of our country that we can change the person at the helm every 4 or 8 years. I will watch it on CSPAN so I don’t have to listen to any network blather.
I don’t trust Barry but seriously for the sake of this country I wish him well.

I want to see Hillary and the Big Dawg anyway! Bill will somehow manage to get into the frame as Barry is sworn in. Bubba did it 8 years ago when Dubya was sworn in. Since that day I have referred to him as President Zelig!

 

Comment by C.S. | 2009-01-16 08:19:15

Now Illinois has a real African American Senator and that is historic! The crooked politician promoted by the Ayers/Rezko political machine and Democratic vote stealing is not.

The only unused claim to “making history” is the unanswered question: is he, or is he not? And, according to recent unearthed historical research, #21 (Chester A. Arthur) beat him there, too.

I will not be watching the state funeral for our democracy being held January 21 either. At least attendance for Bush’s swearing in was sparse and they hustled Bush through the parade route so you couldn’t see the empty gaps and the people turning their backs on him.

I’ve never seen Barry Soertoro, aka Barack Obama, as anything other than an opportunist. He’s an emotionally vacant man hiding behind a mask that occasionally allows his real self to slip our (like his autocratic dictate that his two daughters could not have a “girlie dog” - how cold is that?)

The big change for Soertoro/Obama’s coronation is setting a record for most money spent to crown an impostor. My father always said “You get what you pay for”. Well, our government bought a very expensive bauble for We the People to look at and we’re going to be paying for him the rest of our lives. He wasn’t chosen to do anything except keep the status quo and as long as he’s well paid I’m sure he will. ($750 million is a whopping payment for pretending to be a messiah.)

Comment by tek | 2009-01-16 10:44:16

C. S.: IL had a “real” African American senator before Obama, Carol Mosley Braun who was charges with mismanagement of public funds for spending tax dollars to take her boyfriend on official state trips. We have a long traditon in IL…

 
 

Comment by KintheNorthwest | 2009-01-16 08:47:47

Since this is an open thread I’ll put this here.
I was fairly shocked to see this head line from a newspaper. “First lady fashion
Michelle brings new style | Gallery”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fashion/396258_obamafashion16.html

Comment by Nellie | 2009-01-16 09:49:49

Does anyone not recognize that the blood red and black are the predominant colors of “The New Black Panther Party”?

http://www.newblackpanther.com/

Wonder what message Meechelle is sending to them!

Comment by oowawa | 2009-01-16 10:16:46

3 months ago, a neighbor had a “classic” 1958 Edsel hauled into his front yard on the back of a truck. It still doesn’t run, just sits there stylishly like the one-legged lamp in A Christmas Story, a gaudy spectacle for passers-by. It is two-tone red and black. I wish I were making this up. The connection to Michelle’s wardrobe didn’t hit me until just this moment.

Comment by tek | 2009-01-16 10:56:29

black and red are the colors of UGA, I don’t want to see them denigrated.

 
 

Comment by tek | 2009-01-16 10:54:06

I went to the panther website and read their 10 point platform. What a crock. they demand a bunch of stuff they already have and don’t excercise. Jobs for every African American? Education for every African American? These things are available to them if they want it. Tried by only black juries and judges–of course they’d all be acquitted of whatever crime they commit. Exemption of taxes? Well, we all want that.

This country is so messed up because of all the various disparate groups who want free money and no responsibility. Why don’t they make a pledge to give up crime and then they wouldn’t have to worry about trials?

White people are also discriminated against, unfairly tried, excluded from jobs for various reasons including Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action.

Next, Obama will amnesty all the illegal hispanics and we’ll have the same demands from all of those people.

 
 
 

Comment by Sassy | 2009-01-16 09:52:28

Susan, I disagreed with NQ on the interim nomination, but certainly not because of Senator Burris.
At the time of Senator Tim Johnson’s stroke the Senate was a very close 51 to 49, with Lieberman in the democratic caucus.
If Johnson had been unable to continue to serve, the Republican governor of South Dakota could have placed a republican in that seat, creating a 50/50 tie and placing Cheney at the helm.
An interim appointment should be just that, until another person can be elected.
Any state could face this during a death or total incapacitation.

 

Comment by Sassy | 2009-01-16 10:16:07

Like the other PUMAs above, for the first time I will boycott the inauguration.
I watched President Bush sworn in after the debacle of 2000.
This time I take a stand…the party I supported for 40 years betrayed me!

 

Comment by tek | 2009-01-16 10:40:34

The whole situation is nearly bizarre. First they won’t let him enter the chamber, then yesterday he gets a standing ovation. What a ruse. I’m sure the Democrats never had any intention of turning away another Democratic senator, and a black at that.

 

Comment by Sonic Ninja Kitty | 2009-01-16 12:56:20

Good God, that Burris seems like an honest man! How odd for a guy like that to become a senator {snark}.

Comment by Wisewoman | 2009-01-16 16:44:05

Sonic. He is the rare, honest Illinois politician who did not grow up in Chicago. That is why the Obama crowd did not want him. He was not into “pay for play”. Remember he started his career in the 70s. His wife is a true feminist of the real type and she has a pHD. These are real people. He will not be re-elected in my opinion because he is not a Daily corrupt machine politician like Obama who hates him.

 
 

Comment by Lisa Hinman | 2009-01-16 13:58:42

I’m also not watching the inauguration.

One thing that I don’t understand from most of the posts on Blagojevich What kind of proof do they have against him other than a few quotes? Nothing has been realesed by Fitzgerald. This is not the American way. We are innocent until proven guilty. What is Illinois and the Democrats so afraid of? I think that Blagojevich deserves a fair trial.

I’m also glad that Burris got the Senate seat.

 

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