Two LDS Church leaders say Obama brings them hope

I took the headline straight from KSL.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Obama Retakes Oath

Now the wingnuts can't complain.

AP, via Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON – After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House — a rare do-over. The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday's much-noticed stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.

Don't worry, the White House says: Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day.

Nevertheless, Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called "an abundance of caution."

This time, the scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters, not the Capitol platform before the whole watching world.

"We decided that because it was so much fun ...," Obama joked to reporters who followed press secretary Robert Gibbs into the room. No TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in. A few of Obama's closest aides were there, along with a White House photographer.

Roberts put on his black robe.

"Are you ready to take the oath?" he said.

"Yes, I am," Obama said. "And we're going to do it very slowly."

Roberts then led Obama through the oath without any missteps.

The president said he did not have his Bible with him, but that the oath was binding anyway.

The original, bungled version on Tuesday caught observers by surprise and then got replayed on cable news shows.

It happened when Obama interrupted Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.

Next in the oath is the phrase " ... that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States." But Roberts rearranged the order of the words, not saying "faithfully" until after "president of the United States."

That appeared to throw Obama off. He stopped abruptly at the word "execute."

Recognizing something was off, Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting "faithfully" in the right place but without repeating "execute."

But Obama then repeated Roberts' original, incorrect version: "... the office of president of the United States faithfully."

Craig, the White House lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday evening: "We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. Yet the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time."

The Constitution is clear about the exact wording of the oath and as a result, some constitutional experts have said that a do-over probably wasn't necessary but also couldn't hurt. Two other previous presidents have repeated the oath because of similar issues, Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur.

Inauguration Day in 100 Seconds

Media Proved Today that Racism is Alive and Well in the US

Was it just me, or did it seem like reporters and camera people were trying to find black people to interview.

I get the history of today's events, but it seems to me that it was a little obsessive.

We don't have a Black President. We have a President of the United States.

-Bob

Where I'll be tonight

Utah Inauguration Night Ball

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 7:00 pm

Location: The Depot
13 N 400 W, Salt Lake City
(The Depot is a private club for members-must be 21 or older to attend)



Dress: Blue Jeans to Ballgowns - we want everyone to join us!



Entertainment includes 2008 State Senate candidate

John Rendell's band - Mean Phoenix

The Saliva Sisters

&


Marc Buckley - former Salt Lake KZQQ DJ



Cash bar will be available
_____

Food will be available for purchase through The Depot


Cost: $50 per person

President Barack Hussein Obama

This land is my land, This land is your land

Utah AG Shurtleff on Obama

Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is in Washington to witness the Inauguration of our 44th President.

And he wrote his feelings on the new President:

In a few days, the former junior Senator from Illinois, following a meteoric rise based on a declaration of hope and optimism and change, will stand beneath that same Lady Liberty and swear an oath on Lincoln’s Bible to become the first African American President of the United States of America. President Obama goes to Washington at a time when the graft and greed of Wall Street have plunged our nation into a downward economic spiral that threatens our very future.

I did not vote for Senator Barack Obama. I supported the man, Senator John McCain, who I believed had, by a lifetime of public service, and tested in the fires of war, isolation and torture, proven himself best suited to lead us through the tough times ahead. But I will support President Barack Obama. I support him with my prayers and my own public service. My Pollyanna optimism and my ideas .While I disagree with many of his social and economic policies and worry about the lasting impact of his judicial appointments, I will give him the chance that so many refused his predecessor.

I am going to the inauguration based on my own audacious hope that Barack Obama truly believes what he wrote a few years ago as he prepared to run for the presidency, and that he will govern this blessed nation accordingly. In writing of the “fundamental decency of the American people,” he sounded very Jefferson Smith-like in declaring:

“[A]t the core of the American experience are a set of ideals that continue to stir our collective conscience; a common set of values that bind us together despite our differences; a running thread of hope that makes our improbable experiment in democracy work. These values and ideals find expression not just in the marble slabs of monuments or in the recitation of history books. They remain alive in the hearts and minds of most Americans – and can inspire us to pride, duty and sacrifice.” - Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on reclaiming the American Dream.

Pessimists and pundits will claim that his is a lost cause, but juar as Jimmy/Jefferson taught his seniors that lost causes were “the only causes worth fighting for,” as long as they were based on “just one plain simple rule: 'Love thy neighbor…'” Mr. Obama taught in The Audacity of Hope, that what we are facing is a “breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.”

Good Luck and God Speed Mr. President!

It's Like Christmas This Morning

I've been up since 4 this morning, in case you couldn't tel from my postings this morning.

I haven't been up this long on purpose. It's been the whole kid-on-Christmas-morning thing.

For the third time in 2.5 months. (Election Day and the real Christmas are the other two times.)

I even posted this on Facebook:

Bob is like a little kid on Christmas morning -- up at 4 and waiting to see my unicorn. 5 more hours..... 4:54am

And someone responded by giving me a link to this cartoon:

-3 hours: Chivalry is not dead

Chivalry is not dead my friends.

I watched President-Elect and Michelle Obama walk from Blair House to his limo, ride the block or two to church, and then walk in.

However, how they did it was what impressed me the most.

They both walked to the driver's side of the car. Michelle got in, and after she was in, Barack walked around the car to get in on his side.

Like a gentleman.

Then, at the church, they waited for the secret service to open the doors. Barack got out on the side facing the church. He could have just stood and waited for his wife. However, being a gentleman, he met her at the back of the car, then walked hand-in-hand to the steps of the church to meet the minister.

Then, after meeting with the minister, he let his wife walk through the door in front of him.

-4 Hours: Keeping my emotions in check

Chance of me crying at some point today: 100%

It's already happened. The moment was about 5 minutes before I took this picture. AT 4:30 this morning.

I cried hanging a damn American Flag from my balcony.

Yes, it's "the flag" that has a lot of meaning to me. But it wasn't the reason I was shedding tears.

I'm sitting here like a little kid on Christmas morning waiting to see what Santa brought me.

F*** You George W Bush

Warning: This video contains language of a very hard PG-13 to an R Rating. You've been warned.



You may be asking why I'm posting such a non-"hope and change" video.

However, I wanted something to send President Bush off with. "Happy Trails" and "Lord Bless You and Keep You" were considered, but they just didn't fit.

You see, I voted for Bush in 2000. I bought in to the whole "restoring honor and dignity to the White House" crap.

It wasn't just one of many reasons to vote for him. It was the only reason I voted for him.

I didn't realize it would take 8 years and electing someone else to even think of starting the process.

-Bob