Interesting Stuff

The official White House website, whitehouse.gov, changed as Barack Obama was taking the oath of office…

From the Pew Research Center:

Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say they plan to watch Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20; not surprisingly, even higher percentages of Democrats, Obama voters and African Americans say they plan to tune in. Fully 85% of Democrats say they plan to watch Obama’s inauguration, compared with 62% of independents and 49% of Republicans. Similarly, 89% of Obama voters say they plan to watch, while just 46% of McCain voters say the same. More than nine-in-ten (92%) African Americans plan to watch the historic inauguration, which is significantly more than the 63% of white respondents who expect to tune in. Slightly more than four-in-ten (43%) say they would attend the inauguration if offered a ticket, while 56% say they would not attend. These results mirror a Fox Opinion Dynamics poll conducted in January 2005 in which 42% said they would attend that year’s Bush inaugural if offered a ticket and 57% said they would not attend.

Count me among that two-thirds. I’m sitting here as I write this watching the early inauguration coverage on TV and streaming on the web, having taken the day off to witness this historic moment.

(Stolen from Andrew Sullivan)

“What is interesting is the fact that he would want to do this. And you see that since his election he has kind of reached out to people that may not be ideological allies, to Rick Warren, the pastor who will be at his inaugural, to John McCain, whom he has treated with a lot of dignity and respect, and to a bunch of right wing columnists last night, in part, because I think he is a guy who is intellectually curious and wants to exchange ideas, but also in part he wants to co-opt the vast right wing conspiracy.

And I’m here to tell you that, speaking for myself, he has succeeded. I am brainwashed entirely. I’m in the tank, and I am a believer of hope and change and, above all, audacity,” - Charles Krauthammer, on Fox.

The New York Times has put together an interesting slideshow of portraits photographed by Nadav Kander of key members of Obama’s new team. Check it out here.

An intriguing bit of news about the soon-to-be vacated junior Senator’s seat…

Another Senator Kennedy?  The crazy speculation about Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat may not be so crazy after all.  A Democrat who would know tells ABC News that New York governor David Paterson has talked to Caroline Kennedy about taking the seat, which was once held by her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy.  It’s not exactly shocking that Paterson would reach out to one of the most highly respected public figures in New York, but this is:  Sources say Kennedy is considering it, and has not ruled out coming to Washington to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

Like Otter, I jumped on Oklahoma Lefty’s bandwagon of taking the political ideology tests and posting them on our blog. And like both, I’ve taken these tests before. The results were posted on my previous political blogs, but I hadn’t shared them here yet. Since others are participating in show-and-tell, I thought I might as well do it as well.

The results will likely not surprise many, especially my (far) right-leaning detractors. To them, these tests confirm that I am a bleeding heart liberal, even though there are bleeding heart liberals who would not see eye-to-eye with many of my views, especially my faith-based beliefs. But ever since college, I’ve been somewhat of an enigma that defies the two-dimensional labels that are so easily tossed about — liberal, conservative, socialist, fascist, religious zealot, immoral heathen, “homo” defender, intolerant Christian, evangelical, false Christian, Republican, Democrat — all of which have been used by others to describe me.

No matter how these tests label me or what their results show, I am an Independent who believes in pragmatic, centrist governance and shuns any political affiliation because of the self-serving corrupt nature of the two key players. I generally do not participate or support in specific, single-issue activist groups; in fact, the only organizations that I actively support are poverty-relief agencies who have a proven track record of meaningful results. I have no allegiance to any political party, ideological movement, people or nation. As I’ve stated on this blog before, my allegiance is to but One. My views, beliefs and political position are all derived from that relationship. If that makes me a liberal or a conservative or a socialist or a religious zealot, so be it.

With that being said, here are the official results Continued