Seven whole days

Lots of my leftist friends have been taken in by the Obama-is-my-savior phenomenon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very excited by President Obama and the promise he brings. But he’s only human, despite what some folks think. He will fall short and he’ll make some mistakes. Soon he’ll have to make dire compromises. It’s how the Washington game is played.

Want to track how he’s doing? Check out the Obameter. It looks fairly nonpartisan to me. The St. Petersburg Times identified about 500 promises Obama made on the campaign trail. They plan to track his completion rate in this handy graphic. My guess is that it’ll be much higher than W’s rate. At this point, it looks pretty bleak, until you remember we’re in Day 4 of the new presidency. At this rate, he’ll have everything done in the first year. Easily.

So let’s all keep an eye on how things are going. The Obameter seems like a good way to do that.

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This could be a good model for preaching. Wonder what it would do to church attendance?

Thanks, Fr. Dr. Canon Rich+ for sending this classic to me.

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The MadPriest has the scoop. Captured on a long telephoto lens, this speech balloon reveals what Obama will be doing right away as President.

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Are you a Christian AND a supporter of Barck Obama? Here are two items you are sure to desire:

The first is a photo by flickr user JoeBenjamin, via The Blingdom of God.

The second photo comes via BoingBoing.

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This is not an idle question. The media are all saying he was president at noon, even before he took the Oath. But that’s not my reading of the Constitution, at least in terms of authority. But I have no real training in these matters. Can someone sort this out for me?

Here are the relevant bits, I think.

Article II, Section 1 says

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:–”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Read more »

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While President Obama (woot!) is eating lunch, television coverage will be less interesting. Here are a couple of links to help you pass the time until the parade.

• Someone over on metafilter has compiled a list of links to video of every inauguration from Teddy Roosvelt until George Bush.
• The Library of Congress has a very interesting list of inaugural firsts from 1789 to the present.
• Bartleby’s has the texts of every inaugural address starting with George Washington.

Enjoy!

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Well, he’s already moved into the whitehouse.gov domain. Impressive! And exciting.

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We are one nation comprising 50 states. Strangemaps has s a great map to show our diversity in unity. “By and by”?

Map is by artist Emily Wick.

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And by “salute” I obviously mean “my final opportunity to mock this current president.” Here are the top 10 Bush moments, from Mr. Top 10 himself. Enjoy!

Tip of the Uncle Sam hat to Est Anima Legis.

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Well, dear reader, I apologize for the great lapse since my last post. What can I say? Parish priests are busy around Christmas, and so this blog suffered a bit of neglect. I have a bunch of stuff queued up, as I always do after these dry spells. For a couple of days, I’ve been paralyzed — wondering how to suitable resume 7WD activity and begin this new year.

This evenings snow storm has provided the inspiration. Rhode Island is gripped by panic. We are getting 4-10″ of snow. Snow! Putting aside my bitterness that the parish Average Sunday Attendance will plummet tomorrow as people cower in their homes, I have decided to approach all this with levity. I bring you the Snow-pacalypse:

I could just as easily recorded tonights evening news from Providence. It would not have been much different. This is all part of our culture of fear — and so we must of course be afraid of frozen falling water. Sigh.

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