January 20, 2009 archive

The White House Has A New Website

Click the image to visit www.whitehouse.gov

It even has a blog: www.whitehouse.gov/blog

Four at Four

PRESIDENT OBAMA

  1. From the NY Times, Obama is sworn in as the 44th president. “Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, and called on Americans to join him in confronting what he described as an economic crisis caused by greed but also ‘our collective failure to make hard choices.'”

    Obama “signaled a clean break from some of the Bush administration’s policies on national security. ‘As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,'” he said.

  2. The Washington Post reports President Barack Obama will dive into foreign policy on his first full day in office. Obama plans to name former senator George Mitchell (D-ME) as his Middle East envoy. “By the end of the week, Obama plans to issue an executive order to eventually shut down the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to lay out a new process for dealing with about 250 detainees remaining at the prison.”

Four at Four continues with China’s reaction to U.S. arm sales, Fiat to buy stake in Chrysler, and Abu Dhabi steps toward renewable energy.

Dr. Joseph Lowery delivers Inauguration Benediction for Barack Obama

A Citizens Oath

“I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.”

From President Obama’s inaugural address:

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains.  They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.  We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.  And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

  For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.  It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.  It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

  Our challenges may be new.  The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old.  These things are true.  They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.  What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

  This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

The Citizens Oath:

“I (insert screen and real name here!) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of Citizen of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I promise to find and support candidates that represent me and my ideals, to support them as they run for election …and to vote.

I promise to then do my best to hold them to their ideals and promises, to hold them accountable to their oaths, and to the Constitution, and to the Rule of Law. I promise to raise my voice in praise…and in criticism.

I promise to educate myself on the complex and critical issues that face us, so that I may be part of an informed and educated electorate, as our Founding Fathers demanded we be. I promise to make my voice heard, and to help my fellow citizens make their voices heard. Heard by the President, my Senators, and my Representative in the House. I promise also to challenge the Fourth Estate, the media, when they are not doing their jobs to fully inform us, the Citizens of the United States.

I acknowledge that in a representative democracy that I am responsible for the government we have, and that my actions and participation, along with those of my fellow Citizens, determine the government that we deserve.

I promise, as a Citizen of the United States, to participate in my government to the best of my ability, in the sure and proven knowledge that if I do not directly make this my government, that other, more nefarious interests, will make it theirs.

Shorter Citizens Oath: I WILL Yell Louder!

And finally….yeah, I KNOW! You guys are freakin free rebels and you ain’t takin no steenkin oath, dammit! I am a fascist for even suggesting it!

Bush is gone. Change is here,

Let the party begin!

Duty Now For The Future

Decades ago – long before I became gray and respectable – I was a big fan of the punk rock band Devo. I found myself remembering their second album just now; specifically, the title of the album: “Duty Now For The Future.” Today, that phrase seems to carry an unexpected weight; it seems pregnant with meaning and promise.

As I write these words, President Obama has just finished his inaugural address. It was an address for the ages, and yet one that was desperately needed at this particular time in our history. It pointed the way forward with resonant themes from a simpler and more honest time. The themes of duty, sacrifice, responsibility, obligation, and service.

To which I can only respond: it’s about time. Long past time, in fact. Long past time for Americans across the entire political spectrum (as well as those who consider themselves apolitical)  to embody these ideas — ideas that have recently been misappropriated by the hard-right fringe of the body politic and used as blunt instruments of political demagoguery.

It’s a funny thing about America: almost no one talked about duties anymore. All we hear from Americans is the endless din about “rights.” The idea that our rights  can exist in a social vacuum, without  a corresponding  set of duties, is a toxic idea that is poisoning America. We have come to believe that we are  nothing more than individuals, and that as such all we need concern ourselves with is rights, and never with obligations.

Let’s talk about obligations for a change, and about duties. A philosophy that proclaims the idea that rights do not have their basis in duty and obligation must inevitably result in  a sick,  narcissistic citizenry, a citizenry from whom the endless, birds-nest cheeps of “Me! Me! Me! Me!” has reached deafening volume. It is time for less talk about our rights as citizens, and more talk about our duties as citizens.

Obama is not calling America to service because such service is “needed” in any practical sense.  He is calling for service, and sacrifice, and a sense of obligation because these are the  rhetorical clarion calls by which one inculcates a sense of shared duties and national solidarity, without which no healthy, committed society can be built or surv

President Obama’s Inaugural Address

   My fellow citizens:

   I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.  I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

   Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.  The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.  Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.  At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

   So it has been.  So it must be with this generation of Americans.

   That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.  Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.  Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.  Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered.  Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

   These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics.  Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.  

   Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.  They are serious and they are many.  They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.  But know this, America –  they will be met.

   On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

   On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

   We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.  The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation:  the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

   In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given.  It must be earned.  Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.  It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.  Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

   For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

   For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

   For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

   Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life.  They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

   This is the journey we continue today.  We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth.  Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began.  Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year.  Our capacity remains undiminished.  But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed.  Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

   For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.  The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.  We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.  We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.  We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.  And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.  All this we can do.  And all this we will do.

   Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans.  Their memories are short.  For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

   What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.  The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.  Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward.  Where the answer is no, programs will end.  And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

   Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill.  Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.  The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

   As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.  Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.  Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.  And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born:  know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

   Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.  They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.  Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

   We are the keepers of this legacy.  Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations.  We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.  With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.  We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

   For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

   To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.  To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.  To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

   To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.  And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.  For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

   As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains.  They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.  We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.  And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

   For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.  It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.  It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

   Our challenges may be new.  The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old.  These things are true.  They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.  What is demanded then is a return to these truths.  What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

   This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

   This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

   This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

   So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.  In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river.  The capital was abandoned.  The enemy was advancing.  The snow was stained with blood.  At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

   “Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

   America.  In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words.  With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.  Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

         

It’s a Beautiful Day

I’ve been watching all of the coverage of the inauguration festivities over the last few days and am feeling at a loss for words for what is happening. The American people are collectively experiencing a healing from the fear that has gripped this country and was so exploited by the out-going administration.

This transcends politics. Its about our national psyche. The best summation that I’ve heard over the last few days was a CNN commentator who said that he’s sensing a “softening of the hearts of Americans.”

The American Way: No Shoes, but

A call has gone out, now Around the World, not only in anticipation of the Incoming Sanity but to cleanse ourselves, sybolicly, of the eight years of the disgusting growth that has taken us from a Leader Amoung Nations to the depth’s of the gutter ready to drain away into the sewers, rapidly!

Docudharma Times Tuesday January 20

Inauguration Day




Tuesday’s Headlines:

In-flight confrontations can lead to terrorism charges

Human rights lawyer murdered in Moscow

Minister tells French carmakers the price of a bailout will be keeping jobs at home

Amid dust and death, a family’s story speaks for the terror of war

Tears and anger among wreckage of Gaza as families return home

Power talks close to collapse as Mugabe refuses to back down

In Obama’s rise, Kenyans see lessons for Africa

Police raid on squatters leaves five dead in building fire in Seoul

N. Korea strident as Obama takes reins

Despite Snarled Traffic and Cold, City Is Already Celebrating

THE CROWD

By Paul Duggan and Lena H. Sun

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, January 20, 2009; Page A01


Tens of thousands of festive visitors crowded the Mall and the city yesterday, counting down the hours to today’s historic inauguration, while authorities prepared to welcome — and control — what could be the largest crowd in Washington’s history.

Today’s the day. The swearing-in of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president on the west steps of the Capitol at noon is expected to draw between 1 million and 3 million spectators. They’ll bundle themselves against below-freezing temperatures, ride crowded Metro trains and buses, and wait at security checkpoints for a chance to witness the inauguration of the nation’s first African American chief executive.

Pennsylvania Avenue paved with pain, progress

The Washington road has been the scene of hate, oppression, possibility and progress. Obama will make the trek past dramatic civil-rights landmarks en route to the White House.

By Faye Fiore

January 20, 2009


Reporting from Washington — When Barack Obama takes his triumphant ride up Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday, he will retrace the path of Ku Klux Klan marches and roll past the ghosts of hotels and movie theaters that used to turn away people like him.

This historic stretch, bookended by the Capitol on one end and the White House on the other, has witnessed many of the milestones that made an Obama presidency possible. The Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were signed here.

But it’s doubtful that even a Harvard-educated wonder can get his arms around the scope of the civil-rights drama that has played out on this 1.2-mile slice of real estate.

There are places more infamous for their scars — Selma, Birmingham — but none captures the sweep of the story the way Pennsylvania Avenue does, where laws were passed to enslave people and laws were passed to free them, and at least a dozen of Obama’s predecessors would sooner have considered him a piece of property than a peer.

Nearly every president has made this ceremonial trek since Thomas Jefferson did it on horseback. But never has the setting been as connected to the nation’s shame as much as its glory.

 

USA

Magical spell that will open a new American era





Jonathan Freedland in Washington

The Guardian, Tuesday 20 January 2009

Today a magic spell will be performed. A man who 12 weeks ago was a mere political candidate will be transformed with the incantation of a few words, before a vast crowd and a television audience in the hundreds of millions if not billions, into the head of state, even the embodiment, of the most powerful nation on earth.

It is an act of political alchemy that happens every time a new president is inaugurated, but rarely has the moment been as anticipated as this one. Washington DC, usually a city of strait-laced, sober-suited types has acquired the atmosphere of a child’s bedroom in the first hours of Christmas morning. There are snow flurries outside, tacky decorations everywhere – and the resolve to wake up early, so as not to miss a moment of the great day.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

A Thread

Tintinnabulation

Can you hear

the beating of the universe?

Have you experienced

the pulse, pulse, pulse of the world?

When was the last time

you put your ear to the planet?

Listen closely now

The hour is getting late

Can you hear

your thoughts

before they become words?

The bell of Truth rings

too thin a tinkle

to be called a peal

Can you hear

how it extols us

to move forward

not back

Can you hear

the vibrating stands

of the Tapestry?

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–May 23, 2008

What America Can Be

During the Great Depression, Woody Guthrie traveled across America and saw the injustice, poverty, and despair of a nation suffering the consequences of Republican misrule.  In the city square, in the shadow of the steeple, by the relief office he saw his people.  They were hungry, out of work, out of hope.  But he never stopped hoping that someday, for their sake, for the sake of their children and grandchildren, America would become a land of economic and social justice.

As he was walking that ribbon of highway,

He saw what America was, but he also saw what America can be.

He saw above him that endless skyway,

He saw below him, that golden valley,

He never lost his faith that this land was made for you and me,

and wrote an anthem that still touches the heart of every American who hears it . . .

 

Late Night Karaoke

Today He Is President Barack Obama

Celebration Kool and the Gang

U2 – Heartland

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