The Inquisitr » obama inauguration

VIDEO: Obama’s Inaugural Address

JR — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:56:42 +0000

Below is video from the Barack Obama inauguration, including the presidential swearing in and Obama’s inaugural address. You can also find a full transcript of Obama’s inauguration speech here.

VIDEO: Obama’s Inaugural Address is a post from: The Inquisitr

WhiteHouse.gov Gets Obama Makeover

JR — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:33:42 +0000

The official White House Web site, WhiteHouse.gov, has been relaunched to coincide with Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.

The updated and modernized design features rotating news stories at the top with a blog, a current agenda, and other information related to the White House.

And fittingly, matching the main headline of “Change Has Come To America” is a smaller headline, attached to the new site’s first blog entry: “Change Has Come To WhiteHouse.gov.”

The previous WhiteHouse.gov design from the Bush Administration is below.

WhiteHouse.gov Gets Obama Makeover is a post from: The Inquisitr

Watch the Obama Inauguration Live Online

JR — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:30:23 +0000

Looking to watch the Barack Obama inauguration live online? You’ve come to the right place.

[UPDATE: Video of the inauguration now available here]

Below, you’ll find a live Webcast of the Obama inauguration, along with numerous other resources to stream the event and interact from your own computer.

Obama Inauguration Live Webcast

The following Obama inauguration live Webcast will begin at approximately 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, January 20. The Webcast is accessible from both within the United States and internationally.

Obama Inauguration Live Resources

Here are some other resources to watch the Obama inauguration live online:

Obama Girl’s Live Coverage
Amber Ettinger, the woman made famous as “Obama Girl,” is streaming live coverage of the inauguration.
Joint Congressional Committee Webcast
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is offering its own stream of the event with closed captioning Tuesday.
Joost Inauguration Stream
Joost will have a stream of the inaugural events beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.
CNN/Facebook Inauguration Live
CNN and Facebook have teamed up to create an interactive inauguration center where you can watch live video feeds and then comment with your Facebook friends about the happenings — all from one site. The coverage begins at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday.
The Official Twitter Inauguration Group
The Obama team has set up an official Twitter group for updates from and about the inauguration.
Twitter at Current.tv
Twitter has teamed up with Current.tv to offer a live video stream of the inauguration with real-time tweets broadcast on-screen.
Text Message Updates
The Obama team has set up a text messaging service for inauguration-related updates. Text OPEN to 56333 to get started.

Obama Inauguration Video

For videos related to the 2009 Barack Obama inauguration, you can visit the official inauguration channel at YouTube or the official ChangeDotGov channel. MSNBC also has a slew of inauguration-related clips, including video from past inaugurations and a look inside the setup for this year’s event.

Watch the Obama Inauguration Live Online is a post from: The Inquisitr

Inaugural History: A Tale For The Ages

Duncan Riley — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:00:39 +0000

Today, the son of a black Kenyan man and a white Hawaiian will be sworn in as President of the most powerful empire in the history of the world.

Some celebrate the ideal behind a “black” man becoming the President of the Unites States, and that’s not an unfair celebration.

But bigger than that is the celebration of the human story that Obama embodies.

He may be the first black President, but he comes to the job without a blood line tracing back to the slave era. That his skin color is black is a given but his picture is much greater.

Here is a man who didn’t naturally fit in to the conformity of race. His mother, having left Barack’s father took up with an Indonesian man, and Barack spent many years studying in Indonesia. He may not be Asian himself, but he has a half-sister who is, and a history that shares partially an Asian experience.

He is, in many ways, an obvious candidate for outcast. Never quite fitting in with his mixed bloodline, and mixed education. And yet he never let that hold him back. He embraced his African-American side while never forgetting his family, both black, white and Asian.

That he thrived, going on to Harvard, then later as a community worker then State politician is a testament to his tenacity.

This is a story of triumph. A true story based on the fairy tale that anyone can achieve should they work hard. Obama claims that his is uniquely an American story; it isn’t, but only to a point: only he has achieved the highest office on the planet.

Obama offers hope to many, and although he may disappoint, the story to this point remains sound: anyone can achieve anything.

May humanity bless the 44th President of the United States of America. I may believe there is no god, but I do believe that what we see today is something in the history of man that is quite unique, no matter how the next 8 years pans out.

Inaugural History: A Tale For The Ages is a post from: The Inquisitr

Obama Inauguration in Lego

Duncan Riley — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:00:34 +0000

Legoland California is celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama the only way they know how: with a Lego recreation of the Obama Inauguration.

The Lego Inauguration includes everything from the crowd, motorcade, and the swearing in ceremony, all down in miniature. The display is open now is will remain in place until May.

Obama Inauguration in Lego is a post from: The Inquisitr

Obama Inauguration: Tickets, Hotels, and Everything Else

JR — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:34:56 +0000

With the election over, America’s attention now turns to Inauguration Day. President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration will occur on January 20, 2009 — and the planning starts right now.

Inauguration Day 2009 Tickets

Want to attend? You do need a ticket, and it won’t be easy to get one. About 240,000 Inauguration Day 2009 tickets are being printed for the public, but you can’t get these puppies through Ticketmaster. The public passes are handed out through senators and representatives, so the only way you can get your hands on one is to beg your local lawmaker.

The inauguration tickets are expected to be pretty close to forge-proof, too. In fact, officials in charge of the planning won’t even say what they look like because of “security precautions.”

The general public can still take a chance without tickets — but with all the security, odds are you’ll end up watching from a TV screen from quite a distance away if you don’t have those credentials. The inauguration parade, though, is open to anyone.

Inaugural Ball Hotels

There’s also the issue of where to stay. Even before the election ended, hotels in and around Washington, D.C. were booking up in advance of the inaugural ball. The Ritz-Carlton hotels and the Four Seasons had sold more than half of their rooms by midday Tuesday, according to the Washington Business Journal, and the Willard Hotel along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route was more than 90 percent booked. As for the remaining rooms, many of the hotels also have wait lists, and those people will get first grabs starting Wednesday morning. The potential guests wanted to wait to see who won the race before committing.

Wondering how much people are willing to pay for such an excursion? The Ritz-Carlton’s high-end inauguration package — which includes a four-night stay; two seats at the inaugural parade; two tickets to one of the official balls; a specially commissioned 18k white gold “Heart of the Nation” pendant with white diamonds, rubies, and blue sapphires; a 24-hour on-call chauffeur, and a personal outfitter from Saks Fifth Avenue — runs $50,000.

Smaller hotels offer more modest options, and some reported still having open rooms as of Tuesday evening.

The Obama Inauguration

The Obama inauguration itself promises to be a monumental event. Unofficial estimations predict a record turnout, with attendance in the range of 500,000 to 1 million. President Bush, in comparison, had about 300,000 at each of his inaugurations. Planners are preparing 30,000 “front-row” chairs to set up around the U.S. Capitol, where the swearing in takes place. They’re also readying scores of blankets and ponchos in case of rain, as umbrellas are not allowed because of security reasons.

Traditionally, the inauguration begins with a religious service, followed by a meeting with the outgoing president. The vice president is then sworn in, after which the new president takes his oath. The inaugural address follows, then lunch, the parade, and the inaugural balls begin.

Parties aside, though, the most significant moment of all is likely the simple utterance of the constitutional phrase that’s been said dozens of times before:

“I 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.”

Obama Inauguration: Tickets, Hotels, and Everything Else is a post from: The Inquisitr