Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Watching Ana Marie Cox on Rae-Rae's show, she's calling the incoming administration "hot" and "a hip crowd". And the thought in my head is "Oh my god, 20 years from now she's Maureen Dowd."

Looking Back And Looking Ahead

An emotional day for myself and for the country. Personally, the reality of "President Barack Hussein Obama" has set in, and I'm damn proud of our country at this moment. I personally feel like there's a weight off my shoulders, but at the same time I feel like there's even more work ahead for the country.

Allowing ourselves this moment is absolutely necessary. Tomorrow begins the rest of the Obama era, and frankly I see a brutally rough road ahead.

But today I have some hope. Yesterday, I did not.

Looking back, I see Dubya didn't pardon anyone controversial at all, instead choosing to leave with what little dignity he had left in a helicopter, to a crowd screaming "na-na-naaa-naah, na-na-naaa-naah, hey hey, good bye," to me, as iconic as Dick Nixon's overhead twin-Vs. He's out. He's gone. Good riddance.

Obama's speech was uniformly excellent. It wasn't fluffy. It was, dare say it, truthful. "...and we are ready to lead once more." Now, action needs to happen.

Oh, and the White House official web site? Has a blog now. Over on the side there.

We'll see. New tag, Dubya is just Dubya now, not Preznitman.

A new day begins tomorrow.

Reality Injection

Dow under the 8k mark, NASDAQ off nearly 5% at 1,450, S7P 500 off 4.5% to 810 with less than an hour to go.

Reality is a harsh mistress. So is gravity.

[UPDATE] Dow off 300 plus, and Ted Kennedy collapsed at the inauguration luncheon.

Reality sucks.

Dear America:

Peeing In The Punchbowl Edition:

"The last thing Democrats should do is go after Bush and Cheney, because that's not enforcing rule of law, that's political posturing. Rather, Congressional Democrats should strive to provide strict oversight to Obama, which is not political posturing, but enforcing rule of law."

--John Barry, Newsweek

It's Official For 44

Barack Hussein Obama is our 44th President.

Oh, and I'm an uncle today too.

Screw you, The Stupid. I win today.

We all win.

Not Everyone's Happy About Today

Namely, CNN decided to track down some hardcore Republicans in Wyoming and ask them how they are coping with the various stages of grief and disillusion.

While Washington gears up for Inauguration Day, Republicans in Wyoming are taking stock of their future and assessing Barack Obama.

"I'm afraid that so much of the responsibility of individuals is being transferred to Washington," says Jack Mueller, a 67-year-old retired state government worker. "Big Brother is going to be telling us what to do over and over and over again."

Mueller and a handful of other Republicans sit in the coffee shop of the historic Plains Hotel on this windy January morning, chatting about the incoming administration and their mixed feelings.

These are back-to-basic Republicans. They want small government, strong national defense and an emphasis on individual liberties and accountability.

Well, you guys sure voted for the wrong dudes in 2000 and 2004, huh. How quickly Republicans forget Bush added trillions to our debt and flunked 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a host of other things that made the US less safe and flooded our country in red ink.

But here's the real kicker.

"I wish President[-elect] Obama well, but I do not wish him success in the things he is proposing," says Ted Mueller, 57, an insurance salesman.

Ted is not related to Jack, but they share concerns about what they see as a federal government on the brink of a huge expansion.

"I don't want the federal government to give away our individual rights. I don't want them to take over our business. I don't want them to take over our religion."

It's that last one that makes no sense to me. Since when did Barack Obama say he was taking over religion? Where the hell did that come from?

Oh yes...let's not forget the millions of ignorant Americans who have been repeatedly lied to and now believe today we're inaugurating a Muslim sleeper agent named Hussein as our President. Surely his first goal after crushing our economy with godless Socialism is to "take over our religion."

No, this country has a long, long way to go still, even after today.

And One Last Warren Terrah Scare Before You Go

Naturally with all this good Obama news putting the country in a fabulous mood, the grumpy-ass wingnuts are howling at today's Moonie Times story that Al Qaeda in Algeria futzed around with Bubonic Plague and killed themselves.

The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.

He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.

"We don't know if this is biological or chemical," the official said.

The story was first reported by the British tabloid the Sun, which said the al Qaeda operatives died after being infected with a strain of bubonic plague, the disease that killed a third of Europe's population in the 14th century. But the intelligence official dismissed that claim.

Well, it's not like these guys can afford Biohazard Level 4 hot zone labs in Algeria. You would think we're facing an ambitious but fanatically overconfident and genuinely stupid enemy. It's almost like they're too moronic to be an existential threat to the US.

Of course the assumption here by the wingers is with weak, dhimmicrat Obama in the White House, AQ is planning to kill everyone in America with their plague-infected zombie ninjas, or something.

If the worst scenario here turns out to be true, imagine Al-Qaeda releasing a weaponized biological agent in DC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Phoenix all in one afternoon. People would start dying, the disease would spread, whole cities would shut down, and panic would break out across the country.

If that happened, what freedoms might we lose in the effort to prevent something like from happening again? What do you think the reaction towards Muslims in the United States would be? How many lives and dollars would be lost?

I'd argue that 9/11 has already kind of proven that it's the Republicans who are weak on national security, because it certainly wasn't a Democrat in the White House at the time who fucked up, ignored vital intel, and got 3,000 killed and then followed up by making executive orders to wiretap Americans. But hey, let's keep pretending the real accomplishment is only getting attacked on our soil once during your Presidency.

Sanctimonious ass. I can't wait for noon. Seriously.

StupidiNews, Inauguration Day Edition

• Barack Hussein Obama will be sworn in as the nation's 44th President at noon Eastern.
• On the way out, Dick Cheney gets to determine who his official public records will be released to.
• China is eager for Obama to improve relations with the country, promising not to nuke people first.
• Everyone is looking to Obama to help find a way out of the global recession.
• Google plans to capture the view of the inauguration...from space.