First Door on the Left

Remember a couple of days ago when I wondered whether WhiteHouse.gov would be updated when our new president was sworn in? It turns out I need not have been concerned. The website was updated at 12:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. It definitely has a new face:

You can click on the image to make it bigger or click here to go to the new WhiteHouse.gov website. It’s looking good!
 

The day for which we all have been patiently awaiting for so long has finally arrived. Today, Barack H. Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States of America. We are approaching another one of those “Do you remember where you were when…?” moments.

The ceremonies have begun. We are now listening to the prelude by the United States Marine Band. I hope you are able to watch and enjoy them from wherever you are…

Just over 18 hours to go…

Our long national nightmare is almost at an end.
 

37 hours. That is all that remain until Chief Justice Roberts administers the oath of office to Barack Obama. (Probably less by the time you read this.) I still have not managed to convince myself that it is really going to happen. I’m afraid that I am going to wake up from this dream at any moment.

I’m going to be a mess on Tuesday.

One thing I’ve kind of been wondering about… Are the new pages for WhiteHouse.gov all made up and ready to go? Are they set to automatically update at 12:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, January 20? If the new pages are not yet ready, I’d be more than willing to lend a hand in getting them ready. Just saying.

UPDATE @ 3:45 p.m. 01/19/09: I just deleted a comment to this post. It was a knee-jerk reaction and I apologize. I would restore it if I could. It was from “Paul – Political Conservatives” and it repeated the myth being put forth by some in the media and some right wing blogs that President-elect Obama’s inauguration is costing over four times what George W. Bush’s did four years ago. For the facts, see: “The media myth about the cost of Obama’s inauguration” by Eric Boehlert.
 

Though you did not see it during the HBO broadcast today, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, gave the invocation preceding the concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Here is his prayer:

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

Video:

Though I could not attend and was unable to watch the entire program on HBO, I did manage to snag a few snapshots of this afternoon’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s all part of the celebration of the inauguration of our 44th president…

From what I was able to see of it, quite a show. Sure beat the heck out of Hank Williams Jr. didn’t it? (You won’t get that last reference unless you were paying attention to Sarah Palin’s campaign.)

Just a little over 43 hours to go.

(Click on any of the snapshots to make it bigger or to start a manually operated slide show.)

Earlier in the day, President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery and then both families attended church services.

Did you catch George W. Bush’s farewell address to the nation tonight? I didn’t. I couldn’t. I was on the road between Dallas and Fort Worth. I don’t know that I’d have watched it if I had been able to do so. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had just about as much of that smirk as I can stand.

In case you didn’t watch and for some reason are of a mind to…

Honestly, can Tuesday get here quickly enough?
 

It has been a long time coming and I have to confess that I am savoring every moment. Ann Compton of ABC News reports:

Over the next 36 hours, White House staffers will go through the behind-the-scenes business of turning in their hard passes, coded lapel pins, “flip-top” fancy White House IDs in leather folders, blackberries, cellphones, and security clearances.

At 9:00 p.m. Friday, the highest-level staffers will turn in their gear; and the West Wing will become a ghost town.

Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Counselor Ed Gillespie, and Press Secy Dana Perino are the senior staffers who will remain here, on standby. Monday is a federal holiday so the White House would be closed anyway. On Tuesday, Special Agent Donald White of the U.S. Secret Service will shadow President Bush, sit in the customary front “shotgun” seat of the limousine, and guard the President until noon. At 12:01, Agent White steps over to a position behind Barack Obama.

[Former] President and Mrs. Bush will helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base after the swearing-in (they do not remain on Capitol Hill for the luncheon); the Cheneys drive to Andrews. At 1:20 pm, the former President will speak (no cameras) to hundreds of loyal friends invited to come out to a hangar at Andrews for the send-off. A handful of these friends have been invited to fly on what can can no longer be called Air Force One (it’s only Air Force One when it ferries the President) to Midland, Texas.

Why Midland? If the Bushes were going to their “ranch” in Crawford, the airplane would be landing in Waco as it usually does. Midland is nowhere near Crawford. Of course, now that the “Texas cowboy” image is no longer politically expedient (it got him elected twice), George W. Bush is abandoning it anyway. He and Laura are moving into their mini-mansion in the exclusive Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas (just a few miles, yet a world away from the neighborhood your humble editor calls home). The local news reported today that an 8,000 square foot office in a high-rise office building in Dallas is being prepared for Mr. Bush’s use. What use will he possibly have for an 8,000 square foot office? (Ten year lease, $311,000 per year. Paid for, by the way, with our tax dollars.)

Why can’t he just go to Alaska and keep Sarah company? The two of them would get along magnificently. You would be hard pressed to find two people better matched intellectually.
 

Congress officially declares Obama next president

WASHINGTON (AP) – Barack Obama is officially the next president of the United States, Congress declared Thursday in fulfilling its centuries-old constitutional duty to certify and tally the electoral college vote from each state.

Republicans joined Democrats in a standing ovation as Vice President Dick Cheney, in his role as speaker of the Senate, announced from the podium that Obama had achieved a majority of votes and would be the 44th president on Jan. 20.

Speaking before a joint session of the House and Senate, Cheney confirmed the results of the Nov. 4 election, that Obama and next Vice President Joe Biden had received 365 electoral votes while the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin garnered 173 votes.

President-Elect Barack Obama left his home in Chicago yesterday and flew to Washington, D.C. — his new home for at least the next four years. The military dispatched a government-owned Boeing 757 (of the type used by vice presidents and first ladies) to transport their future Commander in Chief. This, of course, upset the righties to no end… which is just one of the reasons I enjoy this photo spread so much…

The third and fourth pictures in the series show the future president greeting Air Force Colonel Scott Turner, who will be Mr. Obama’s pilot of Air Force One.

(Click on any of the pictures to view it full size or to start a slide show.)