Inaugural Uglies

THE INAUGURATION: PART II–Obamanians Rip Our President


Heaps of stories will be forthcoming about this inauguration, its aftermath and its repercussions.

News reports will be filled with hyperbole such as one WABC reporter’s reference to Obama’s inaugural speech as “stirring,” when in fact it was anything but stirring and was punctuated by a frequent pauses as the new president seemed waiting for applause, and none came.

The massive crowd missed its applause lines until the end when screams and howls filled the air but the day is far from over. The applause will continue and swell tonight at the ten inaugural balls being held around the capital as Obama supporters continue their revelry throughout the night.

Presidential inaugurations are somewhat like college commencements when speakers extol the graduates and extend fatuous encouragement for their futures before all head out to commence their careers, filled with infused courage and optimism.

One difference is that the swearing in of a new president and his first address as America’s leader, along with the attendant invocation, prayer, poetry and song, represent an opportunity to fill the American citizenry with hope and confidence as we embark with the president on the next four years.

Inauguration Day 2009 accomplished little of that. The invocation was worthy of the occasion but, following that, the prayer, poetry, song, and Obama’s speech were filled less with hope and good thoughts than they brimmed with insulting rhetoric, uninspiring verse, and failed pretensions to greatness.

Reverend Lowery’s line verbally spanking white people, almost half of whom had voted for a black man was the worst of the lot, although Alexander’s lame effort at an inspiring poem and Obama’s disappointing attempt to be a new Lincoln or JFK weren’t far behind. His speech was devoid of a single memorable phrase and he even fumbled his “oaf” of office, Senator Dianne Feinstein’s word.

Wall Street caught the word about the future by going into a freefall. The Dow lost 332 points, the worst Inaugural Day performance in history.

Behind the public scene, there were health scares with Ted Kennedy’s post-luncheon seizures and Robert Byrd’s premature exit. Earlier, Hillary Clinton and Senator John Cornyn had a heated, gesticulated “discussion” beneath a statue of George Washington, http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0109/Clinton_and_Cornyn_wrangle_in_Rotunda.html.

Not to be outdone in the inappropriate department,...

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GWB, Waterboarding, and America's Future

GWB, WATERBOARDING, AND AMERICA’S FUTURE

And so the end is near for George W. Bush’s two terms as President of the United States, after eight years of uneasy peace and bloody war, of unprecedented economic success and financial meltdown, of consolations and controversies, of applause and derision.

All in all, and regardless of distorted and biased reports from the liberal mass media, Bush 2 hasn’t had all that bad a run.

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard listed Bush’s ten greatest achievements, citing as his first accomplishment his refusal to buy into the Kyoto Accords on the man-made global warming fraud, a policy which our new president will no doubt reverse to the great detriment of the United States. That Bush decision must be considered a very notable if only temporary accomplishment because of that anticipated reversal.

However, Bush’s second great success, according to Barnes’ estimation, should be at the top of any list of GWB’s great deeds.

As Barnes writes of Bush’s second great achievement, ”Second, enhanced interrogation of terrorists. Along with use of secret prisons and wireless eavesdropping, this saved American lives. How many thousands of lives? We’ll never know. But, as Charles Krauthammer said recently, ‘Those are precisely the elements which kept us safe and which have prevented a second attack.’ " (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/986rockt.asp).

One of the few who were subjected to waterboarding was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, “mastermind” of 9/11, . . .

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