Inauguration 2009

Print-your-own: President Obama! sign

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:27:23 EST

Print-your-own: President Obama! sign
http://tinyurl.com/PresidentObamaSign
8 1/2 by 11 inch, horizontal, color

AP: Aretha Franklin to sing at Obama inauguration

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:06:29 EST

Aretha Franklin to sing at Obama inauguration
By Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek
42 mins ago [Dec 17th, 2008 at 6:24 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_on_el_pr/inauguration_program

WASHINGTON -- Aretha Franklin will sing, the Rev. Rick Warren will pray and more than 11,000 U.S. troops will be watching over inauguration ceremonies in case of an attack during President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in on Jan. 20.

As many as 4 million visitors are expected to be on hand when Obama takes the noontime oath from Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the Capitol. ...

Also Wednesday, officials announced the list of participants for the inauguration.

The program is to feature poet Elizabeth Alexander; the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a veteran civil rights leader; the U.S. Marine and Navy bands; and the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. ...

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill will perform a new work composed by John Williams, who also provided music for Obama's election night rally in Chicago's Grant Park. The committee did not release a title for the work by Williams, who is best known for his film scores such as "Star Wars" and "Jaws."

Vice President-elect Joe Biden will take his oath from Justice John Paul Stevens.

Others on the schedule were a nod to Obama's election as the country's first black president.

Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Jr., was scheduled to offer the event's benediction.

Franklin, a living legend with 21 Grammies, performed for President Bill Clinton in 1993, but this would be her first Inauguration. During a Labor Day weekend rally in Detroit, Obama sang a bit of Franklin's "Chain of Fools" to her.

Alexander, a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist and Yale University professor, centers her poems and essays on race relations and social movements.

She is only the fourth poet to have a speaking role at a presidential Inauguration. Robert Frost, who was 86 at the time, wrote a poem for Kennedy's inaugural in 1961 but couldn't make out the words of the poem in the sun's glare. Instead, he recited an earlier work. Clinton chose Maya Angelou to write a poem for his first inaugural in 1993, and Miller Williams read "Of History and Hope" at his second inaugural. ...

2009 Inauguration: Renewing America's Promise

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:26:37 EST

PIC Announces Theme and Preliminary Information about Schedule of Official Inaugural Events
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
http://www.pic2009.org/pressroom/entry/theme_and_preliminary_information

The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) today unveiled the official theme for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, "Renewing America's Promise," a vision that underscores the President-elect and Vice President-elect’s commitment to restoring opportunity and possibility for all and re-establishing America’s standing as a beacon of hope around the world.

“At this moment of great challenge and great change, renewing the promise of America begins with renewing the idea that in America, we rise or fall as one nation and one people,“ said President-elect Obama. “That sense of unity and shared purpose is what this Inauguration will reflect.“

The PIC also outlined a preliminary schedule of official inaugural events that underscores a commitment to organizing activities that are inclusive and open to the public. The following events will take place in the nation’s capital between Sunday, January 18th and Wednesday, January 21st:

AP: For a mere 50K, you get a 4-day inauguration trip

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:03:22 EST

For a mere 50K, you get a 4-day inauguration trip
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 42 mins ago [Dec 12th, 2008 at 7:38 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/selling_the_inaugural

WASHINGTON -- The inauguration committee of President-elect Barack Obama, who ran on a platform to change the way business is done in Washington, is selling four-day packages of four tickets to his historic swearing-in ceremony and parade plus some extras in exchange for $50,000.

The deal does represent a change. President Bush charged $250,000, selling his supporters a much bigger menu of inaugural goodies that featured candlelight dinners.

On Friday, members of the Obama National Finance Committee were spreading the word about their package to friends and associates around the country.

Obama-Biden Transition Project

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:21:44 EST

President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden set up the Obama-Biden Transition Project to make sure their new administration is ready to hit the ground running on Inauguration Day, January 20th.

The Transition will work to develop details of the President-elect's policy agenda, help him choose senior administration staff, and review the current functioning of government agencies.

Barack Obama is committed to running the most open and transparent transition in history, and we hope you’ll visit our website often. For more information, please refer to the following links:

For updates from Obama-Biden Transition Project, including video of President-elect Obama’s weekly address, please click here: http://www.change.gov/newsroom/blog

To learn details about the Obama-Biden policy agenda and share your ideas, please click here: http://www.change.gov/agenda

For the latest news about the President-elect’s and Vice-President elect’s preparations to take office, please click here: http://www.change.gov/newsroom

We appreciate hearing from you and hope you will visit and share your thoughts. Although we may not be able to address each message individually, your input and the input of millions of other Americans will continue to guide President-elect Obama.

Again, thank you and we hope you will continue visiting our website.

Sincerely,

The Obama-Biden Transition Project

The Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:11:01 EST

The Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/inaug.asp

New website: Presidential Inaugural Committee

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:37:54 EST

Presidential Inaugural Committee [2009]

http://www.pic2009.org/content/home

The Presidential Inaugural Committee, at the direction of President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, will organize an inclusive and accessible inauguration that reflects the new Administration's commitment to leadership that sets aside partisanship and unites the nation around our shared values and ideals.

Overview of the Inauguration

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:49:10 EST

Overview of the Inauguration
http://change.gov/learn/inauguration

The presidential inauguration is the official day that the President of the United States is sworn into office. The purpose of this inauguration is to honor the incoming president with formal ceremonies, including: a Presidential Swearing-in Ceremony, an Inaugural Address, and an Inaugural Parade.

The inauguration will take place on January 20, 2009 in Washington D.C. on the steps of the United States Capitol. President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office, which states the following:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Vice President-elect Joe Biden will have already taken a similar oath.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee is in charge of planning and executing the inauguration of our 44th president, Barack Obama. If you want to participate in inauguration day events, check back here often for more details

The state exists because of the rivalries within society.

Rob-33704 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:21:19 EDT

The state exists BECAUSE of the rivalries within society.

If the state maintains order - which is its true function - then rhetoric doesn't matter and pluralism can flourish.

If order is maintained then the heated rhetoric of the right may even beneficial by allowing people to vent or to enjoy the illusion that someone - anyone - is listening to them and championing their cause.

It is only when order cannot be maintained and rhetoric becomes action that you have to worry.

That is the true historic lesson of the brownshirts. Their behavior was only possable because the German state could not maintain order.

When Hitler came to power he established a "new order" which as a demonstration of its control liquidated the leadership of the SA - mostly accomplished by the new "good puppies" of the party, the SS.

Nobel Prize winning economist characterized Obama supporters as 'cult like.'

Rob-33704 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:02:13 EDT

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has characterized Obama supporters as 'cult-like', and has complained that the media has not given Obama sufficient scrutiny.

Krugman, considered to be a neo-Keynesian economist, taught at the London School of Economics before joining the faculty of Princeton University, in 2000. He also served as a consultant for an advisory board for Enron in 1999 prior to joining the New York Times as a columnist in 2000.

Krugman is a member of The Group of Thirty (G30) which was founded in 1978 by the Rockefeller Foundation which also provided initial funding for the body. Its first chairman was Johannes Witteveen, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Its current chairman of trustees is Paul Volcker.

The Actual Purposes Which are Served by the Separation of Church and State.

Rob-33704 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:24:44 EDT

We have separation of church and state in the United States of America because the state - all states - exalt themselves above all other groupings of people.

When we ask ourselves, ‘what is the state?’ We quickly realize that we must first ask, ‘ what are people?’ Human beings are individual organisms. Long age, however, these individuals came to realize that they could accomplish a great deal more as members of groups than as individuals.

The individuals formed families, clans, tribes, and eventually states. At first city-states, then groups of city- states which became nation-states. The state is itself, however, a group of people.

So, the answer to our question - ‘What is the state’ - is that the state is an organization - a group of individuals. These individuals may originally be a tribe, a clan, or a family which has become capable of influencing - exerting power over - the other groups within that particular state.

Organizations exercise power through control. To effectively exercise control the state has to be the focus of the individual’s loyalty. The state must, therefore, eliminate the other organizations within the state which are capable of competing with it for the loyalty of the individual.

We can now understand that the chief proponents of the rise of a state are, themselves, a group and that they are the dominant group within the state. It doesn’t matter whether this dominant group is an aristocracy, or a group of businessmen. Whatever it’s composition the group’s continued dominance is dependent upon control. The state must, therefore, eliminate the tribal leader, the clan chief, and the family patriarch through assimilation, or execution.

In the context of a struggle for dominance the priesthood is as great a rival of the state for the loyalty of the individual as are the tribe, the clan, and the family. Like the tribal leader, the clan chief, and the family patriarch the chief of high priest can be assimilated or executed but not the entire priesthood.

Assimilation of the high priesthood is not practical because the head of the state must also become the state religion’s high priest or another individual must be invested with that power. State religions run the risk of undermining the loyalty of those who practice a different faith. Power sharing with a high priest might result in a rivalry for control of the state.

The question then becomes how best to dominate the priesthood without turning them into rivals or martyrs. When the question is posed in this fashion the obvious solution is the "separation" of church and state. Being separate from the state the priesthood can be dominated by the state through the "rule of law" as easily as any other group of individuals within the state.

Separation of church and state is, therefore, a method of control and dominance by the state. That is why the state extends tax free status to those religious organizations which do not meddle in "politics." That is, those religious organizations who do not concern themselves with whether the state is actually managed in a fair and equitable manner.

What Most of You People are Not Understanding

Rob-33704 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:08:18 EDT

What most of you aren't understanding is the depth of the anger on the right and left of the electorate in this country.

That is what John McCain is hearing at his rallies and you are seeing on CNN. Democrats don't hear it at their rallies because the left long ago discarded the democratic party.

This anger is not something that will somehow evaporate and just go away. The right is just now discovering how much they have been misled and betrayed.

Taking care of the needs of the citizens is not PANDERING - it is what ruling classes do to stay in power.

You Are Giving Socialism a Bad Name.

Rob-33704 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:33:40 EDT

Could some of you PLEASE talk to your friends in the news media and get them to stop referring to this as a "Socialist" bailout?

You know, I know, and they know that is not true.

Thanks for you help.

The United States of America should declare a Year of Jubilee - the "forgiveness of all debts."

Rob-33704 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:51:54 EDT

The United States of America should declare a "Year of Jubilee" - the "forgiveness of all debts." The requirement for a Year of Jubilee is clearly established in chapter 25, verse 10 of the of the Old Testament/Torah Book of Leviticus. Verses 28, 40, 50, 54, of the 25th chapter and verse 24 of the 27th chapter clearly require the forgiveness of all debts by all believers every 50 years.

This is a requirement, it is not an option. This is why in Chapter 6, verse 12, of the New Testament Book of Matthew (The Lord’s Prayer) Jesus prayed, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

QUESTION RE: Austan Goolsbee

Rob-33704 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:40:59 EDT

Do we know where Mr Goolsbee studied as a Fulbrigth scholar?????

From Mr Goolsbee's CV:

HONORS AND AWARDS

Fulbright Scholar, 2006-2007

Named one of the Young Global Leaders, World Economic Forum, Switzerland, 2005

Named one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow, World Economic Forum, Switzerland, 2002

Lumina Award for Pioneering Research in E-Commerce (with co-author Jeffrey Brown), Global Reinsurance, Monte Carlo, 2001

Bill Gates Lecture on "Creative Capitalism" at the World Economic Forum.

Rob-33704 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:22:29 EDT

Bill's basic idea:

"....innovative ways to solve major problems for one billion of the world's poorest people, who don't get enough food or don't have drinking water or reliable access to mediication, which the rest of us take for granted, he said.

Bill apparently doesn't understand:

"As of September 2008, the world's population is estimated to be about 6.7 billion (6,700,000,000). In line with population projections, this figure continues to grow at rates that were unprecedented before the 20th century, although the rate of growth has almost halved since its peak of 2.2% per year, which was reached in 1963. The world's population, on its current growth trajectory, is expected to reach nearly 9 billion by the year 2042"

What about the 6,700,900,000 thousand of us???????????

Goldman Sachs Fined $43.5 Million

Rob-33704 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:15:47 EDT

The New York Times reports:

"Goldman Sachs spokesman, Ed Canaday, said that the firm was pleased to put the matter behind it, and that it would continue to expand its compliance training and oversight. Spear, Leeds & Kellogg will pay $43.5 million. "

5 firms were charged with violating

"....laws by executing their own orders for the shares they managed ahead of customers' orders, depriving clients of fair trades and possibly better prices, the regulators said. "

NYT reports that the five firms which paid $241 million are:

"....a Bear Stearns subsidiary, Bear Wagner Specialists; a FleetBoston subsidiary, Fleet Specialist; LaBranche & Company; Van der Moolen Specialists; and a Goldman Sachs subsidiary, Spear, Leeds & Kellogg. "

Dow Jones Down - 160

Rob-33704 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:56:51 EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks recovered after a sharp drop at the open Wednesday, following the announcement of emergency rate cuts by global central banks.

Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, L.P. - Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P - Fined $1 Million Dollars

Rob-33704 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:31:58 EDT

FINRA reports:

Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, L.P. (now known as Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P.) was fined, "$1 million for creating and implementing an internal system to conceal sales of securities allocated in initial public offerings (IPOs) from the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC)."

14:35 ET Dow -156.27 at 9796.05, Nasdaq -41.59 at 1821.37, S&P -18.96 at 1037.93:

Rob-33704 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:48:27 EDT

From Market Report:

Stocks recovers some losses, but still post a sharp decline. The Dow was down as much as 362 points, compared to its current decline of 156 points.

[BRIEFING.COM] Morgan Stanley (MS 17.91, -5.64) pares some losses on reports that the company said the investment it is receiving from Mitsubishi will close imminently, according to Reuters.