I see a countdown timer from the UK. A good sign?

According to the NYT, Bush officially leaves at 12:32 pm EST.  Wahoo!  Happy inauguration day, everyone!

I see a countdown timer from Northern Ireland. I guess we’ll know for sure in 00:55:05

Good Morning!

OMG less than 5 minutes to go! WHEEE!!! *is so excited*

I’m watching it right now, from Spain. No problem as for now.

It’s working from the Netherlands.

It’s working from Ontario, Canada.

FOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX?

A good timing and links guide from the Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/571818

Is there any way to turn off the autoplay?  The “Paul Blarth, Mall Cop” ads….oy.

I’m enjoying the hell out of this, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think Fox understands that other countries have successfully had elections.

The day is here at last, and nothing can ruin it for me.

Imagine being in a terrible accident, struggling through depression and demoralisation for years to recover, suffering indignity and loss. And then, another terrible (but this time avoidable) accident. More pain, more lost money, more lost reputation and—worst of all—more lost opportunites when you can least afford them. But it’s only a matter of time until you heal up. And then, the day comes, and you find that not only have you recovered, ready to begin anew, but you have developed an unexpected superpower in the process.

That last part is Obama. Go ahead and criticise him—too left-wing, too right-wing, too centrist, what have you ... for me he’s just the unexpected bonus. Far from perfect, to be sure. But a young, vigorous, scholarly, intellectual, cool-as-a-cucumber guy; a smart politician who doesn’t let the game overshadow the service; a real man who treats his wife as a life partner instead a prop or chattel. Oh, and he’s African-American/bi-racial, which all by itself drives the Know-Nothings mad—a bonus on top of a bonus (I wish Steve Gilliard were alive to see this).

And go ahead and talk about the hard times to come—Obama certainly is, and his solution isn’t “clap harder, go to the mall, wear a flag pin.” The only people who’ll really be caught off guard by hard times are the right-wing ignorami and morons who believed Bush in the first place, the Joe The Plumbers spending money they didn’t have.

So go ahead and try to put a damper on this day, because I wasn’t waiting for Obama for 8 years, and I don’t live my life in fear of adversity like so many Republicans. Go ahead, because what I was waiting for all these years was this:

Prince Bush, his Regent, and his court of sycophants, toadies, poltroons, mediocrities and morons are gone, finished, history; and I am confident that even Clio will not smile upon them. After 8 miserable years of incompetence, ideological and religious fantasism, psychopathy, proud and willful ignorance, and greed occupying the White House, he’s gone. Even now, Bush may be furiously signing the last of his pardons (in crayon, of course), but his final outrages cannot match: ignoring warnings of an impending terrorist attack; an invasion built on a false casus belli, and the occupation of a tribal and priest-ridden pesthole that no-one beyond the oil companies wants; the subtractive measures applied to our Constitution; the extension of the surveillance state; the abandonment of an American city; the corporate welfare and crony capitalism; the dog-whistle appeals to the worst of American racism, sexism, anti-intellectualism, and selfishness; the economic and environmental negligence that contributed to our current predicament.

But understand today that, whatever damage the neoCons and their Know-Nothing marks do over the next few years, they will not be doing it aided from a position of power (and no, Xtian fundies, Jeebus and the Invisible Bearded Sky Man™ have no power—they’re imaginary). The grown-ups and the reality-based community are back in charge.

The Know-Nothings will still be around, as Prop 8 demonstrates. They’ll be undermining Obama at every turn, even (perhaps especially) cutting off their noses to spite their faces. This is what they are, behind the slickest smiling masks: bitter, hateful, selfish fantasists and opportunists, desperate to preserve a worldview that fortunately dies a little more in America with every year.

They’ll be aided and abetted by the MSM, who’ll be waken miraculously from its 8 year slumber by a Democratic President and Congress, and realise that they don’t have to issue free passes anymore. Fox News, of course, will not change, focused as they are on ideology rather than government. But the rest of the MSM will wake up—only to find that their blow-dried anchors, their pundits, their lowest-common-denominator coverage, even their business models have a fraction of the relevance they did a decade ago.

And as liberals or progressives we’ll still need to keep on top of Obama, to keep him on track every time he tries, in the name of genuine or cynical comity, to make peace with or appease people who live by the sword. It will happen, and every time he does, we have to push back.

But that’s for to-morrow. Prince Bush is gone. Today. Now. Finally.

I’ll be off for the rest of day, watching the inauguration with friends and toasting the end of 8 miserable years with them tonight. To-morrow the hard work of rebuilding from disaster begins—for all of us. Enjoy this wonderful and historic day.

Yeah I’m not watching Fox. I’m watching Sky News and CNN. Is there going to be a live blogging thing? That would be better for those of us who want to talk about it but not watch the Fox Feed.

MAJeff, Prixovy blocks Hulu ads. It makes the Hulu people very sad, but you get nothing but a silent black screen with some guilt-inducing text. www.privoxy.org.

All systems go from Australia. *camps out for a while*

FWIW, the video is auto launching as soon as I arrived at Pandagon just now and again when I came to the thread - starting with an ad for “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” both times.

Auto launching is probably NOT a good thing.

My $.02

I’ll turn the sound down on this and watch CNN.  Right now, I need to run to the grocery store for champagne.  Heh.

I don’t have cable, so this is pretty cool for me. Thanks, Auguste!

Boy, that mall cop movie looks like it’s going to be good, huh?

I just saw the Obamas arrive at the White House on CNN. Michelle Obama had a present for the Bushes. Classy.

Another note: if you go to the website of most big NPR stations (example: wunc.org) you have the option to listen to NPR coverage streaming while you watch the nice camera work on Fox. That’s what I’m doing, because I like majestic pans of the flag-draped Capitol and get nothing from listening to news anchors.

Aha.  CNNHD.  Just saw Paul Begala.  I had such a crush on him in high school.  Literally.  He was a year ahead of me.

>>Michelle Obama had a present for the Bushes.

I would also like to give a present to Bush. But I don’t like shopping for new shoes.

Obama is in a black limo with the presidential seal on the side.  This is real.

LoL @ The teen fangirl screaming when Obama and Bush got into the Limo.

Champagne?  Check.
Pepperidge Farm cookies?  Check.
Laptop?  Check.
Mr. Obama on his way to be sworn in?  Check.

Don’t forget C-SPAN—all of the pretty pictures with no idiot commentary except from people who call in.  I think the C-SPAN host is getting really tired of high school civics classes calling in.

I’m feeling a little sorry for the Supreme Court justices—sure, they probably managed to fit their winter coats under their robes, but those poor bastards must be freezing.

My partner reports this automatically plays an ad for “Paul Blart” on her LJ friends page.

I am an enormous geek—I’m wearing red, white and blue to work today.

A quick metaphor for our trollish friends:  say you have a friend who was dating a guy who was really bad for her, but she wouldn’t listen to you.  He bounced checks on her bank account, trashed her house, and then turned around to blame her for everything.  Then finally, after 8 years, she dumps him for a guy who actually seems to respect her.

Happy, happy day.

Okay… Obama is president now.

IT’S ALL HIS FAULT!  EVERYTHING!  THE RECESSION!  THE WARS!  9-11!  HIM AND THAT WHORE CLINTON! ALL THEIR FAULT!  IF WE HAD A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!

More of this for at least the next four years.  Stay tuned!

Seems, Mnem. This new guy lets his buddies’ nasty remarks about her gay brother go unchallenged.

That said, my sister, who’s technically no longer a teenager, calls Obama “Bush painted black,” and I certainly wouldn’t go that far