So true, buck. Prior to Obama all the inaugurations were performed in private in the White House basement. The only reason Bush had that concert in 2005, was because he was black. In fact, Obama's inauguration costs approximately the same as Bush's in 2005, which is obviously because Bush was black.

You should have voted for Ron Paul, he would have done the inauguration at the local Waffle House and dressed in an old potato sack. (RON PAUL '12!!!)

Most of the festivities are paid for by private donors anyway, so I'm not sure this impotent rage is even being directed in the right direction. QUICK! SHIFT GEARS AND GET PISSED OFF ABOUT UNDUE INFLUENCE!

it's like having a grand wedding vs one at city hall

That's exactly what FDR did, and to an even greater extent what WWII was except a bunch of people got thrown in with the widget.

Well WWII *is* what buck refers to as "sustained growth" because it created a new industry (war machine / manufacturing) and lasted for a long time.

And buck hates FDR and thinks the New Deal was the worst thing ever, if I recall correctly.

If you were president, wouldn't you bring a bunch of your favorite famous people over to party?

Maybe he is just like us. A slacker.

It's not grandiose because it's historic. It's historic for the reason someone else already pointed out - it's a celebration of democracy at work.

Yeah, I agree, I'm just playing devil's advocate so we don't make any broken window fallacies here.

Yeah that was bugging me but I guess it works if you don't pronounced the h like a cockney.

http://www.fresnobeehive.com/archives/2009/01/and_the_headlin.html

why post two links to the same thing?

cuz one is not a link and the link is a source for the picture in case people wanted to peruse it

And Pommy has OCD.

shut up hypnotoad

i watched his inauguration and speach, then switched off bbc i player when the poet came along.

I got pissed off at all the black people n the audience shoutng "OMG YES HES BLACK PRESIDENT", who ****ing cares, his skin colour shouldnt be why he's chosen, he clearly stands for something better than the republicans, focus on that.

and christ, i swear aretha franklin was gonna die of old age half way through the second verse.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

He wasn't chosen because he's black. It's historic because he's black.

The inauguration isn't paid for by tax/government money so quit your whining.

Right?

I couldn't find anything one day, and now I found this.

Apparently TV paid for it. Good.

Yes, the government pays for it to some degree, but it also brings in a ton of money into the city and brings money back (From ticket sales and public transit revenues)

So, I think I'm the only one here that went to the inauguration, and I'm positive I'm the only one that went to the ball.

The city was a mad house, it looked like a scene from War of the Worlds or 28 weeks later. The police presence was insane, the military was out, and everyone was being herded all over the city. The streets were empty, and it just felt really weird. The speech was amazing, even though I was about 3/4 of a mile away from the capital. The best part though was the musical quartet with Yo Yo Ma and others. Getting out was awful, since everyone was trying to leave at once, and they had blocked off some exits, making it impossible for most people to get north. The metro was unusable, but luckily most tourists are afraid of buses, and we were able to get a bus home from Dupont Circle (About 2 miles from the mall, we walked there). The energy of the crowd was just amazing. Yes, we were all cold as hell, couldn't move, couldn't see, were afraid of the police... but we all were really positive about it, and were all just glad to see it happening.

I went to the neighborhood inaugural ball. It was a cheap ball put up by the Obamas to allow the public some access to previously inaccessible events. It was funded by the campaign, as well as ABC, and had some of the biggest names in music and entertainment there. Food was mediocre, and drinks were way too expensive, but we had an awesome time. We were about 20 feet from the main stage, 20 feet from the second stage, and right next to (3 feet) from the secondary stage, where Beyonce sang for the Obamas' first presidential dance. We all got texts from people right after the song, as they saw us on TV right next to Beyonce. Afterwards we went to Ben's Chili Bowl, where Adrian Fenti (The mayor of DC) took the Obamas for lunch 2 days before. Eating chili cheese fries in a suit was the most awesome thing ever.

The day was probably one of the best days of my life. The spirit of everyone in DC was just so positive, and all the events we went to were a blast. I loved every second of it.

PICS, CAUSE IT DID HAPPEN.

Entering the mall, being passed by a group army peoples:



Passing the Washington Monument, trying to find the best spot available:



During the speech, the crowd was going crazy (You can see the capital waaaay in the distance):



Leaving the mall, following the speech (A solid crowd of people for about 10 blocks):



Entering the Inaugural Ball:



Right next to Beyonce:



The Obamas, following their dance:



Joe Biden, with his hot wife, before their "dance":

MOAR PICS:

NICK CANNON SCRATCHIN THEM 1'S AND 2'Szzzzzzzzzzzzzzz IN THE HIZZOUSE



Will.I.Am:



Mary J. Blige:



Mariah Carey:



Obama "dancing":



Jay-Z:



Shakira:



Your's truly (A bad picture of me, but it's the only one on my camera):



More pictures here, if you're interested.

It was only a couple million more than Bush's anyway.

Jenny lives next door to me. And I had a math class with that other girl.

The 4 of us were the RIT college democrats. Small world.

SNAZZY FISH IS SNAZZY

fishstickz, I have no idea who you are, but I have to agree with mb. You are very SNAZZY.

Massassi has people everywhere - Everything is going according to plan.

Actually, you're right.
For some reason, when I'm signed on my account I cannot see the picture as is. I must click on the link to see it. Same goes for attachments.



When I'm not signed on I can see the picture instead of the link ending with .jpg.

Anyway to fix this?

Everytime I see DC I just imagine it in my mind, a wasteland of destruction. The only reason I know the layout of that place is because of fallout haha

The fallout layout is completely and absolutely wrong. Even the mall.

Hey, that looks like something that might take place after HITLER getting elected, only with considerably more black people!

Actually, the fallout layout is pretty close, at least when it comes to the downtown area of DC. The White House is a little out of place, and some of the metro stops are way off (The Farragut stations, especially) But the layout of the mall, georgetown, chevy chase, dupont, all the memorials, is eerily close.

What? Why?

I can't believe how many balls he had to go to, though...we had it on in the background while we were playing some darts and it went on FOREVER. I'd have been getting pissed if I was him.

Hehe, really, so I can learn to navigate DC by playing Fallout 3 a lot? I'm getting pretty good at remembering the metro system in Fallout 3.

The metro system is incredibly inaccurate, especially the actual station layouts. The metro lines in fallout are nothing like the actual lines. They basically took the major metro stations, connected them with theoretical lines, and gave them colors. There is no white line, and the red and blue lines travel in a completely different direction. (There's also no Orange, Green, or yellow lines in the game) That being said, the physical location of some of the stations is close to correct.

And bob, we were afraid of the police because they were everywhere, and they were telling us where we could and couldn't go, blocked off traffic so armored personnel carriers and medic trucks could get through. They weren't letting us move barricades so more people could exit at once (Hundreds of thousands of people were exiting through an area the size of a doorway). They were also on edge, and we were afraid that a minor scuffle or frustration could easily escalate into something huge.

I remember DC from that old genesis game with the attack helicopter.

At least Obama's "party" hasn't lasted 6 years, cost over a million lives, and hundreds of billions of dollars.

Keep in mind that Fallout is set in an alternate universe...