Inauguration thoughts we should all be able to agree on

[SportsFan68]

Starting just shy of a year ago, when we had 90 people show up for a precinct caucus that attracted three voters three years ago, events and processes always seemed to be *that* close to veering out of control and into disaster. In more than two decades of active political participation, I've never seen turnout like we had this year to everything.

Y'all can call it unneeded and wasteful spectacle. I call it smart organization and administration, giving unprecedented numbers of people things to do and watch and participate in so that things never veered so far off the road that people got badly hurt. I heard last night about some minor injuries. Y'all criticize what seem to be excesses. I applaud them, because I think those minor injuries would quickly have escalated into major mayhem without the extra planning and yes, money spent.

Can you imagine what you'd be saying if the event had degenerated into mayhem? I can. I like it better this way.

Next time, respond to what I said, as opposed to constructing a straw man and responding to that.

LOL! Often, responding to exactly what you said results in your ignoring me for days. No problem with that, I hasten to add.

I believe I was replying to Toc, I don't know if what I wrote replied to you or not.

[silverscreenselect]

All of that so called "mayhem" could have been avoided if Obama had just said "Look, times are tough. I don't want you all to spend your hard earned money on plane tickets and bus tickets and gasoline and lodging and food and all the other travel expenses that go along with the trip to DC for my inauguration. Stay at home and gather with your friends and watch me get inaugurated from home. Our country needs to learn how to practice some fiscal self control and I want to start by setting the example. Instead of having the normal festivities that accompany an inaguration this time we are going to be more subdued. Give me a chance to turn this economy around and hopefully if I am elected again in another 4 years then we can have an inaugural celebration like no other. But for now it would be in poor taste for me to expect you to make that sort of sacrifice for me."

All he had to do was set the tone and he could have avoided the look of hypocrisy that accompanies him spending 150 million taxpayer dollars on a bunch of big show. I mean what a slap in the face for someone who is out of work and can't pay their heating bill for them to see Obama and his big extravaganza a their expense. Try telling them it's "necessary".

Once that many people planned to show up, police protection and civil defense preparedness were necessary. 15 inaguaral balls, a train ride to Washington, and the concert to end all concerts Sunday night were not necessary. He could even have had the entire event held in the Capitol and televised it rather that giving an outdoor speech. There were a lot of ways that he could have toned down the excess involved in all that but he chose to make it as grandiose as possible, regardless of the cost.

[Tocqueville3]

All he had to do was set the tone and he could have avoided the look of hypocrisy that accompanies him spending 150 million taxpayer dollars on a bunch of big show. I mean what a slap in the face for someone who is out of work and can't pay their heating bill for them to see Obama and his big extravaganza a their expense. Try telling them it's "necessary".

The amount we committed for the TARP could have paid for 4,666 of these excessive extravaganzas. And now we are being told we should spend enough on the Stimilus plan to pay for another 5,000 of these.

A large portion of the $150 million was to pay for security for a crowd that is 5 times what any other inauguration has drawn.

You are one bitter human being.

Wow. I certainly dint expect this from you, tribe.

[ne1410s]

bit:

So Obama will easily achieve my expectation that we suffer another major terriost action on home soil.

Foreign or domestic? Since any American with a pulse can own lethal weapons, I worry more about domestic terrorism.

[gotribego26]

Wow. I certainly dint expect this from you, tribe.

Shame on me.

[peacock2121]

Wow. I certainly dint expect this from you, tribe.

Shame on me.

That was funny!

[Tocqueville3]

Wow. I certainly dint expect this from you, tribe.

Shame on me.

Oh hey...that's mature.

[silverscreenselect]

Our governor decided to cancel his Inaugural Ball this year because "it was inappropriate to spend 90 thousand dollars when so many people are struggling." This made no sense to me. The people who are struggling most, at least in this state, are the ones in service-sector jobs. The very ones losing out when the Ball is cancelled - hotel workers, food service people, sales people. Since that 90K is not tax money, but private sector money - that means (another) 90K that ISN'T going back into stimulating the economy, right? Am I missing something?

I'm a bit confused by this. Was the 90K from the state, did it come from the Governor's political party, or was it paid for with private donations?

[peacock2121]

Wow. I certainly dint expect this from you, tribe.

Shame on me.

Oh hey...that's mature.

That is funny, as well!

You guys are at your best today!

[Jeemie]

Starting just shy of a year ago, when we had 90 people show up for a precinct caucus that attracted three voters three years ago, events and processes always seemed to be *that* close to veering out of control and into disaster. In more than two decades of active political participation, I've never seen turnout like we had this year to everything.

Y'all can call it unneeded and wasteful spectacle. I call it smart organization and administration, giving unprecedented numbers of people things to do and watch and participate in so that things never veered so far off the road that people got badly hurt. I heard last night about some minor injuries. Y'all criticize what seem to be excesses. I applaud them, because I think those minor injuries would quickly have escalated into major mayhem without the extra planning and yes, money spent.

Can you imagine what you'd be saying if the event had degenerated into mayhem? I can. I like it better this way.

Next time, respond to what I said, as opposed to constructing a straw man and responding to that.

LOL! Often, responding to exactly what you said results in your ignoring me for days. No problem with that, I hasten to add.

I believe I was replying to Toc, I don't know if what I wrote replied to you or not.

I said- four days of partying was not necessary.

[Jeemie]

All he had to do was set the tone and he could have avoided the look of hypocrisy that accompanies him spending 150 million taxpayer dollars on a bunch of big show. I mean what a slap in the face for someone who is out of work and can't pay their heating bill for them to see Obama and his big extravaganza a their expense. Try telling them it's "necessary".

The amount we committed for the TARP could have paid for 4,666 of these excessive extravaganzas. And now we are being told we should spend enough on the Stimilus plan to pay for another 5,000 of these.

A large portion of the $150 million was to pay for security for a crowd that is 5 times what any other inauguration has drawn.

You are one bitter human being.

So because we spent so much on TARP, another $150 million is nothing?

Interesting thinking.

[Tocqueville3]

Shame on me.

Oh hey...that's mature.

That is funny, as well!

You guys are at your best today!

I'll be here all week...Try the fish...

[SportsFan68]

All of that so called "mayhem" could have been avoided if Obama had just said "Look, times are tough. I don't want you all to spend your hard earned money on plane tickets and bus tickets and gasoline and lodging and food and all the other travel expenses that go along with the trip to DC for my inauguration. Stay at home and gather with your friends and watch me get inaugurated from home. Our country needs to learn how to practice some fiscal self control and I want to start by setting the example. Instead of having the normal festivities that accompany an inaguration this time we are going to be more subdued. Give me a chance to turn this economy around and hopefully if I am elected again in another 4 years then we can have an inaugural celebration like no other. But for now it would be in poor taste for me to expect you to make that sort of sacrifice for me."

All he had to do was set the tone and he could have avoided the look of hypocrisy that accompanies him spending 150 million taxpayer dollars on a bunch of big show. I mean what a slap in the face for someone who is out of work and can't pay their heating bill for them to see Obama and his big extravaganza a their expense. Try telling them it's "necessary".

It would not have worked. Everyone who went out from Podunkville would not be deterred, not by the speech you would have had President Obama make, not by anything. Some of our Podunkians contributed to the "four day" part because that was the only flight they could get. One group of Coloradans flew in to Harrisburg to get within a couple hours of ground transportation to the Capital ( http://www.demnotes.com/ -- the Jan. 18 entry). Just using Colorado as an example because I know some of those people; I can promise you that millions of people all across the country felt even more invested, more a part of the President's road to the Presidency, more willing to make sacrifices to attend the inauguration than the 800 or so I know about. They were going to be there. The Inauguration Committee could plan for that and deal with it, or they could spend Bushian amounts and watch things spin out of control.

Not that Bushian amounts were any small change, I hasten to add. http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/ ... unked.html

As hypocritical as it looks to you to spend a lot of money on President Obama's inauguration, I believe that it would been even more hypocritical of him to make your proposed speech. Here's what I would have heard: "OK, y'all turned out in unprecedented numbers to get me elected, you talked the talk, you walked the walk, you weren't even registered to vote and you became community leaders, but now I want you to make the choice to stay home and watch on television instead of coming out to DC and being a part of it all because I don't want to face criticism resulting from the expansion to the inauguration you'll create by coming here." I believe that even the people who can't pay their heating bills would have heard it in a similar way and felt slapped.

[Tocqueville3]

All of that so called "mayhem" could have been avoided if Obama had just said "Look, times are tough. I don't want you all to spend your hard earned money on plane tickets and bus tickets and gasoline and lodging and food and all the other travel expenses that go along with the trip to DC for my inauguration. Stay at home and gather with your friends and watch me get inaugurated from home. Our country needs to learn how to practice some fiscal self control and I want to start by setting the example. Instead of having the normal festivities that accompany an inaguration this time we are going to be more subdued. Give me a chance to turn this economy around and hopefully if I am elected again in another 4 years then we can have an inaugural celebration like no other. But for now it would be in poor taste for me to expect you to make that sort of sacrifice for me."

All he had to do was set the tone and he could have avoided the look of hypocrisy that accompanies him spending 150 million taxpayer dollars on a bunch of big show. I mean what a slap in the face for someone who is out of work and can't pay their heating bill for them to see Obama and his big extravaganza a their expense. Try telling them it's "necessary".

It would not have worked. Everyone who went out from Podunkville would not be deterred, not by the speech you would have had President Obama make, not by anything. Some of our Podunkians contributed to the "four day" part because that was the only flight they could get. One group of Coloradans flew in to Harrisburg to get within a couple hours of ground transportation to the Capital ( http://www.demnotes.com/ -- the Jan. 18 entry). Just using Colorado as an example because I know some of those people; I can promise you that millions of people all across the country felt even more invested, more a part of the President's road to the Presidency, more willing to make sacrifices to attend the inauguration than the 800 or so I know about. They were going to be there. The Inauguration Committee could plan for that and deal with it, or they could spend Bushian amounts and watch things spin out of control.

Not that Bushian amounts were any small change, I hasten to add. http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/ ... unked.html

As hypocritical as it looks to you to spend a lot of money on President Obama's inauguration, I believe that it would been even more hypocritical of him to make your proposed speech. Here's what I would have heard: "OK, y'all turned out in unprecedented numbers to get me elected, you talked the talk, you walked the walk, you weren't even registered to vote and you became community leaders, but now I want you to make the choice to stay home and watch on television instead of coming out to DC and being a part of it all because I don't want to face criticism resulting from the expansion to the inauguration you'll create by coming here." I believe that even the people who can't pay their heating bills would have heard it in a similar way and felt slapped.

Oh...I see. They were owed a big party.

[peacock2121]

All of that so called "mayhem" could have been avoided if Obama had just said "Look, times are tough. I don't want you all to spend your hard earned money on plane tickets and bus tickets and gasoline and lodging and food and all the other travel expenses that go along with the trip to DC for my inauguration. Stay at home and gather with your friends and watch me get inaugurated from home. Our country needs to learn how to practice some fiscal self control and I want to start by setting the example. Instead of having the normal festivities that accompany an inaguration this time we are going to be more subdued. Give me a chance to turn this economy around and hopefully if I am elected again in another 4 years then we can have an inaugural celebration like no other. But for now it would be in poor taste for me to expect you to make that sort of sacrifice for me."

All he had to do was set the tone and he could have avoided the look of hypocrisy that accompanies him spending 150 million taxpayer dollars on a bunch of big show. I mean what a slap in the face for someone who is out of work and can't pay their heating bill for them to see Obama and his big extravaganza a their expense. Try telling them it's "necessary".

It would not have worked. Everyone who went out from Podunkville would not be deterred, not by the speech you would have had President Obama make, not by anything. Some of our Podunkians contributed to the "four day" part because that was the only flight they could get. One group of Coloradans flew in to Harrisburg to get within a couple hours of ground transportation to the Capital ( http://www.demnotes.com/ -- the Jan. 18 entry). Just using Colorado as an example because I know some of those people; I can promise you that millions of people all across the country felt even more invested, more a part of the President's road to the Presidency, more willing to make sacrifices to attend the inauguration than the 800 or so I know about. They were going to be there. The Inauguration Committee could plan for that and deal with it, or they could spend Bushian amounts and watch things spin out of control.

Not that Bushian amounts were any small change, I hasten to add. http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/ ... unked.html

As hypocritical as it looks to you to spend a lot of money on President Obama's inauguration, I believe that it would been even more hypocritical of him to make your proposed speech. Here's what I would have heard: "OK, y'all turned out in unprecedented numbers to get me elected, you talked the talk, you walked the walk, you weren't even registered to vote and you became community leaders, but now I want you to make the choice to stay home and watch on television instead of coming out to DC and being a part of it all because I don't want to face criticism resulting from the expansion to the inauguration you'll create by coming here." I believe that even the people who can't pay their heating bills would have heard it in a similar way and felt slapped.

Oh...I see. They were owed a big party.

That wasn't funny.

That was thoughtless.

Meaning giving little thought to sprot's point of view or the point of view of the people for whom, this inauguration, is a culmination of their hard work and a celebration of a vision they had and it came true.

[SportsFan68]

Oh...I see. They were owed a big party.

I wouldn't put it that way, and didn't. You're free to do so.

[gotribego26]

All of that so called "mayhem" could have been avoided if Obama had just said "Look, times are tough. I don't want you all to spend your hard earned money on plane tickets and bus tickets and gasoline and lodging and food and all the other travel expenses that go along with the trip to DC for my inauguration. Stay at home and gather with your friends and watch me get inaugurated from home. Our country needs to learn how to practice some fiscal self control and I want to start by setting the example. Instead of having the normal festivities that accompany an inaguration this time we are going to be more subdued. Give me a chance to turn this economy around and hopefully if I am elected again in another 4 years then we can have an inaugural celebration like no other. But for now it would be in poor taste for me to expect you to make that sort of sacrifice for me."

I think Les Miles should give the same speech next year - until everyone in LA can easily afford their utility bills it is silly that some spend money to travel and cheer on their Tigers when they could stay home and watch it on TV.

[peacock2121]

Oh...I see. They were owed a big party.

I wouldn't put it that way, and didn't. You're free to do so.

I want to be more like you.

that is all

[peacock2121]

All of that so called "mayhem" could have been avoided if Obama had just said "Look, times are tough. I don't want you all to spend your hard earned money on plane tickets and bus tickets and gasoline and lodging and food and all the other travel expenses that go along with the trip to DC for my inauguration. Stay at home and gather with your friends and watch me get inaugurated from home. Our country needs to learn how to practice some fiscal self control and I want to start by setting the example. Instead of having the normal festivities that accompany an inaguration this time we are going to be more subdued. Give me a chance to turn this economy around and hopefully if I am elected again in another 4 years then we can have an inaugural celebration like no other. But for now it would be in poor taste for me to expect you to make that sort of sacrifice for me."

I think Les Miles should give the same speech next year - until everyone in LA can easily afford their utility bills it is silly that some spend money to travel and cheer on their Tigers when they could stay home and watch it on TV.

I take it Les Miles has something to do with LSU.

[gotribego26]

Meaning giving little thought to sprot's point of view or the point of view of the people for whom, this inauguration, is a culmination of their hard work and a celebration of a vision they had and it came true.

And how is her failure to see other points of view a surprise?

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

But what a scene did we witness! The Majesty of the People had disappeared, and a rabble, a mob, of boys, negros [sic], women, children, scrambling fighting, romping. What a pity what a pity! No arrangements had been made no police officers placed on duty and the whole house had been inundated by the rabble mob. We came too late.

The President, after having been literally nearly pressed to death and almost suffocated and torn to pieces by the people in their eagerness to shake hands with Old Hickory, had retreated through the back way or south front and had escaped to his lodgings at Gadsby's.

Cut glass and china to the amount of several thousand dollars had been broken in the struggle to get the refreshments, punch and other articles had been carried out in tubs and buckets, but had it been in hogsheads it would have been insufficient, ice-creams, and cake and lemonade, for 20,000 people, for it is said that number were there, tho' I think the number exaggerated.

Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe, - those who got in could not get out by the door again, but had to scramble out of windows. At one time, the President who had retreated and retreated until he was pressed against the wall, could only be secured by a number of gentleman forming around him and making a kind of barrier of their own bodies, and the pressure was so great that Col. Bomford who was one said that at one time he was afraid they should have been pushed down, or on the President. It was then the windows were thrown open, and the torrent found an outlet, which otherwise might have proved fatal.

This concourse had not been anticipated and therefore not provided against. Ladies and gentlemen, only had been expected at this Levee, not the people en masse. But it was the People's day, and the People's President and the People would rule."

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jack ... ration.htm

[peacock2121]

Meaning giving little thought to sprot's point of view or the point of view of the people for whom, this inauguration, is a culmination of their hard work and a celebration of a vision they had and it came true.

And how is her failure to see other points of view a surprise?

I didn't say it was a surprise, I said it was thoughtless.

matureman

[tlynn78]

I'm a bit confused by this. Was the 90K from the state, did it come from the Governor's political party, or was it paid for with private donations?

Confused me, as well - but it was private funds, not tax dollars.

t.

[mellytu74]

Oh...I see. They were owed a big party.

What would you have proposed to keep joyous people who wanted to celebrate this day from going to DC of their own accord? Martial law?

[andrewjackson]

But what a scene did we witness! The Majesty of the People had disappeared, and a rabble, a mob, of boys, negros [sic], women, children, scrambling fighting, romping. What a pity what a pity! No arrangements had been made no police officers placed on duty and the whole house had been inundated by the rabble mob. We came too late.

The President, after having been literally nearly pressed to death and almost suffocated and torn to pieces by the people in their eagerness to shake hands with Old Hickory, had retreated through the back way or south front and had escaped to his lodgings at Gadsby's.

Cut glass and china to the amount of several thousand dollars had been broken in the struggle to get the refreshments, punch and other articles had been carried out in tubs and buckets, but had it been in hogsheads it would have been insufficient, ice-creams, and cake and lemonade, for 20,000 people, for it is said that number were there, tho' I think the number exaggerated.

Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe, - those who got in could not get out by the door again, but had to scramble out of windows. At one time, the President who had retreated and retreated until he was pressed against the wall, could only be secured by a number of gentleman forming around him and making a kind of barrier of their own bodies, and the pressure was so great that Col. Bomford who was one said that at one time he was afraid they should have been pushed down, or on the President. It was then the windows were thrown open, and the torrent found an outlet, which otherwise might have proved fatal.

This concourse had not been anticipated and therefore not provided against. Ladies and gentlemen, only had been expected at this Levee, not the people en masse. But it was the People's day, and the People's President and the People would rule."

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jack ... ration.htm

Now that was an inauguration!