Author: Gareth

– ARETHA. No, let me say that again: A R E T H A. Holy crap.

– John Paul Stevens administering the oath to VP Biden. With that, the man who was truly ruling the country for the last 8 years, Dick Cheney, is deposed.

– Quartet featuring Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma, in a composition arranged by John Williams. “Simple Gifts” is one of my favorite pieces, although I always hear it as “Lord of the Dance.” Very, very well done.

– The crowd is instructed to stand for the oath. Chief Justice Roberts keeps screwing up the oath! WTF? Didn’t you study? Way to throw a wrench into a historical moment, numb-nuts.

– Barack Hussein Obama is now the 44th President of the United States.

Speech reaction in a moment.

– The crowd is so damn huge that MSNBC’s cameras can’t give us an overview shot without panning. From the Capitol all the way out now, past the Washington Monument, stretching up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Shots of people in the crowd, smiling, crying.

– They just announced Obama, and he’s come out onto the platform. The million-plus crowd waves small American flags — almost everybody has them, and it looks like a field of flowers. I’m trying to find a word that isn’t “amazing”, and I really can’t.

– Opening remarks from Diane Feinstein. Standard Civics 101 summation of how great the renewal of democracy is, etc. We’re not here to listen to you, Diane. Wrap it up.

– Invocation from Rick Warren. I understand why Obama asked him to do this — and yet again, Obama proves that he’s a better man than I am. No way in hell would I have reached out to the evangelical nut-job community. I’ve had enough of them.

More to come.

Figured that I’ll mark the events as they happen, for my own memory if nothing else.

-Over a million people on The Mall. It’s an amazing sight.

-The Obama kids come out — and Malia’s got her digital camera out.

-OUCH. Bush comes out, and you can clearly hear chants of “No More Bush” and “Na-na-na-na, Hey hey hey, Good-bye.” from the million-plus crowd.

-First shot of Obama in the hallway. The crowd goes completely APESHIT. You can’t hear anything else.

More to come.