Inauguration Day

 
Today is the day I have been waiting for. My excitement is not so much to see Obama in as it is to see King George out.
 
I am feeling a fatherly relief, as though I am finally getting my idiot son out from behind the wheel of the family car. Sure, it's a bit dinged up. Well ... massively damaged actually. But, it's in the driveway. Whew! The nightmare is over. Maybe.
 
"Please, son," I'm pleading. "Get out of the car. Give the nice man the keys."
 
I'm trying not to look too angry.
 
I'm hoping this Obama guy is an excellent mechanic.
 
I'm suspecting the family car will never be the same.
 

Good-bye George - hopefully

Today is the 13th and there only a week to go before George W. Bush Jr. steps down from the office of the presidency. Not much time to get up to new mischief, but ... who knows. Right?
 
Right now I am listening to a Helen Thomas interview by Amy Goodman on her DemocracyNow web broadcast. Unlike myself, Helen Thomas does not seem to share my lingering paranoia King George will use the imaginary powers of his imperial presidency to NOT step down. However; like myself, Helen does seem to share my doubts Barack Obama will be ushering a new era in American politics.
 
You should check it out.
 
and this brings me to what is the real issue I am concerned about today - the current Israeli assault on Gaza. An assault it seems George Bush appears to have green lighted. An issue also being addressed on DemocracyNow today as Amy Goodman covers protests both for and against the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
 
It seems to me I already see in Obama's silence his weakness and in his quiet acquiescence his servitude to power and money and influences he wrongly believes got him elected.
 
Again I say ... the new boss seems like the old boss.
 
Shame on you Obama.
Where is change we can believe in?

4 Days before Christmas

 
I Was upstairs a while ago and heard a report on MSNBC announcing holiday retail sales down. Another estimating The value of IRAs in general down 59%. Then I hear the already known.: Unemployment is up. People still getting evicted.
 
The bad news makes me think about Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving it to the poor. And I wonder if Obama can be a Robin Hood? Could he be planning to take the extravagant wealth of the rich and give to the poor just as Sara Palin accused? And then I shake my head to dislodge the unlikely.
 
What the poor can probably expect from Obama and the democrats is a raise in food stamps, an extension of their unemployment benefits and maybe ( although in doubt ) slightly better health care on the margins.
 
4 Days before Christmas and I hope Santa is better to the children than the run of republican rule has been for the poor. btw. Good luck Barack.