Daily Archives: January 17, 2009

by | January 17, 2009

Obama rides the rails to DC for inaugural kickoff

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama share a bong hit at the DNC

  • Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama share a bong hit before the Democratic National Convention.


    • What the heck is wrong with the media? Comparing Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy? I guess it hasn’t occurred to any of the “brilliant minds” that write and edit this drivel that both John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln were assassinated. Er . . . . duh .. .. Earth to dumb asses in the media. Come in media! Think before you type! Are you people really buying this crap? “President-elect Barack Obama rolled into the capital city Saturday night pledging to help bring the nation a new Declaration of Independence.” Is there something wrong with the old one? Is Obama out of his mind?

    Don’t get me wrong, I have liked a lot of what Mr. Obama has said regarding the economy, but pledging to help bring the nation a “new declaration of independence?” I don’t know what pixie dust he is using but would someone please throw some my way? Obama has not done anything yet, but until he does I will do what any rational thinking human being would do: wait and see. Oh, and not hold my breath. JD

    The AP Story below

    Invoking hope and history, President-elect Barack Obama rolled into the capital city Saturday night pledging to help bring the nation “a new Declaration of Independence” and promising to rise to the stern challenges of the times. He kicked off a four-day inaugural celebration with a daylong rail trip, retracing the path Abraham Lincoln took in 1861.

    Obama began his day in Philadelphia, where he said the young nation had faced its “first true test” as a fragile democracy. He ended it in Washington, where his own tests await after his inauguration on Tuesday.

    The president-in-waiting drew on a grand heritage of American giants as he appealed “not to our easy instincts but to our better angels,” an echo of Lincoln’s first inaugural address. He took note of the enormous challenges that lie ahead and promised to act with “fierce urgency,” a phrase often used by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Riding a vintage railcar on his whistle-stop trip to Washington, Obama carried with him the hopes of a nation weary of war, frightened of economic chaos and searching for better days. Vice President-elect Joe Biden joined the journey en route, from his home in Delaware, and spoke for many when he said he was excited and ready for Tuesday.

    Then, sobered by the challenges of governing, Biden added: “I think it’s Wednesday we need to be ready.”

    Obama was smiling and confident throughout the day and across the miles, reaching at each stop for history’s lessons. In Philadelphia, he noted the risks taken by the men who declared America independent from Britain. In Wilmington, he applauded the state that first ratified the Constitution. And in Baltimore, he hailed the troops at Fort McHenry who beat back the British navy and inspired the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

    Washington pulsed with anticipation of Obama’s swearing in as the nation’s first black president. The city was aflutter with preparations for four days of parties and pomp, shadowed at every turn by layer upon layer of security. For every banner or piece of bunting that was going up around the city, there was a concrete barrier or metal fence at the ready as well.

    Revelers eager to get a head start on the celebration already were flowing into the city.

    Toni Mateo, 38, arrived on a packed train from Atlanta. It was a quiet ride at first, he said.

    “I just screamed out `Obama,’ and the whole crowd erupted,” he said.

    For all the travelers arriving in Washington, there were plenty headed the opposite direction — fleeing the crowds, the security, and the winter cold.

    For traveler Obama, there was a celebratory air as his train pulled out of the station at Philadelphia.

    “Welcome aboard the 2009 inaugural train to D.C,” the conductor intoned.

    Obama’s blue rail car was tacked onto the back of a 10-car Amtrak train filled with hundreds of guests, reporters and staff for the 137-mile ride to Washington. Along the way, Obama and his wife, Michelle, appeared on the back balcony periodically to wave to shivering crowds bundled up in blankets and parkas who had gathered by the dozens, the hundreds and more along the route.

    One held a sign that read, “Happy Birthday Michelle,” taking note of the future first lady’s 45th birthday. Another, in Delaware, waved a placard that said, “We came from Massachusetts 2 C U.”

    The well-wishers hoped not just for a glimpse of the 44th president-in-waiting but for a cameo role in history.

    Joan Schiff, 47, a small business owner who campaigned for Obama, turned out for his departure from Philadelphia.

    “At some point, you look up and think, ‘I am in a moment,’” she said.

    Carolyn Tyson, 55, came from Medford, N.J. to catch Obama’s stop in Wilmington. She arrived a good seven hours early, at 6:30 a.m., to see the new president. “It’s unreal, it’s surreal,” she said of Obama’s election. Tyson, who is black, said she never thought she’d see a president of color.

    The heady, celebratory air was tempered, however, by the tumult of the times, and Obama was quick to acknowledge them.

    “Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast,” he said. “An economy that is faltering. Two wars, one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely. A planet that is warming from our unsustainable dependence on oil.”

    “There will be false starts and setbacks, frustrations and disappointments,” he said, “and we will be called to show patience even as we act with fierce urgency.”

    While talking about the future, Obama reflected on the past, echoing the words of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln and President John F. Kennedy. He cited the founding fathers who risked everything with no assurance of success in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776:

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    by | January 17, 2009

    US Airways pilot a mix of modesty and professionalism, says Coronado friend

    Chelsey Sullenburger Sully Hero pilot landed in the Hudson River New York plane crash

  • Captain Chelsey Sullenburger III

    Once again I am reading about a man that is a hero every time he gets into the cockpit of an airliner. Mr. Chelsey Sullenburger III is the epitome of American hero. Based on what his wife and friends have said about him, this is probably no big deal. He will want no parade. He will not want any special recognition. He will most likely want to be left alone. Again, we are not talking about a man with the “fire fighter” mentality. Mr. Sullenburger doesn’t strike me as the kind of man that would walk into a bar and brag about the danger and perils of his job. This is the true American hero. JD

    SAN DIEGO — A friend of the pilot who successfully landed a US Airways jet into New York’s Hudson River said Friday that the man who is being hailed across the nation as a hero would give all the credit to his flight crew.

    David Love, 62, of Coronado has known Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III since the 1980s, when they both were pilots for PSA Airlines based out of San Diego.

    Both men stayed on when PSA became US Airways in 1988, and Sullenberger, 57, has flown for the airline ever since. Love retired last year.

    He described his friend as a well-spoken, well-educated, dedicated pilot who takes his job and profession very seriously and is an expert on airline safety.

    He said Sullenberger would brush off the notion that he was a hero.

    “If he were here, he would say that his team functioned flawlessly,” Love said.

    Love said he thinks the most difficult thing for the skilled pilot to do was not the actual landing but making the decision to land his disabled aircraft on water.

    Crash-landing on water, called “ditching,” is a largely untested tactic that is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous things a pilot can do, Love said.

    “No pun intended, but it’s a last-ditch maneuver,” Love said.

    The slightest disruption in air flow can result in catastrophe, the former airline captain said.

    Sullenberger could have tried to return to the airport or he could have looked for some open land, but instead he made the decision to set the disabled Airbus A320 with 155 people aboard onto the river.

    “Of all the things that happened (his decision) was the best thing,” Love said.

    The last time Love saw his friend was three or four years ago in an airport.

    He said the two originally crossed paths when they attended the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the 1970s. Both men later became fighter pilots and flew F-4 Phantoms.

    During that time, Love said, it’s likely that Sullenberger experienced a single-engine failure more than once. But he’s sure the pilot never faced a double-engine failure, as he did Thursday when the jet flew into a flock of birds.

    Still, Love said, Sullenberger would say everyone is making too much of what he did.

    Love said he is going to give his longtime friend a couple of days to decompress before he calls him. He said that when he does, he will probably just joke with him.

    “I think I’d say something like, “Well, Sully, you got your feet wet.”

    James Ray, a spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association, spoke with Sullenberger on Friday and described him as being “in good shape physically, mentally, and in good spirits.”

    Ray said the flight crew was resting and would most likely meet with investigators in the next day or so. In the meantime, the crew has been asked to not talk about the incident until the National Transportation Safety Board investigation is complete.

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    by | January 17, 2009

    In N Out Burger gets Worldwide Recognition

    I was clicking around the news links and stumbled upon an article that caught my eye. It’s called “Breakfast in America” which you may not know, was the title of a Supertramp album that I still have on vinyl. Anyway, it’s a good article by a reporter from the U.K. Times named Giles Coren who travels around California eating and reporting about what he likes and does not like about different restaurants.

    I read with great joy about his trip to one of my favorite burger joints, In N Out Burger. I was blessed as a child to have the third hamburger stand in the In N Out chain to be built about a half a mile (one kilometer) from my house. Back in the 1960′s they were just that. Stands not actual sit down restaurants. It was located on Arrrow Highway in Covina CA.

    I’m telling you that back then the line of cars waiting at the drive through stretched a half a mile down the street as people waited patiently for their burgers and fries. As a boy I used to make the pilgrimage across this rather busy highway for my two hamburger lunch. Back then you could get two hamburgers, an order of fries and a large drink for $1.65. There was and still is no burger joint that makes a finer burger and makes it the same every time.

    They have hundreds of restaurants now. I have been to many of them in my travels and they are all equally as good as the next and they are the cleanest facilities that I have ever had the pleasure to eat in. I recommend it highly to all tourists I meet when I am at Disneyland or any other of the many tourist spots here in Los Angeles. In fact, they open in an hour and I have not had any breakfast. I’m outta here! JD

    Here is an excerpt from the article Breakfast in America.
    In N Out

  • Giles Coren at a local In N Out Burger


    • But the filter is playing strange tricks on me this time. For example, the main reason I went to California was to have dinner at the French Laundry, which was voted best restaurant in the world two years running in 2003 and 2004 and is a close runner-up to El Bulli in the survey in most other years. But none of the 20-odd dishes I ate there (which I may, if you’re good, come back to next week) has stuck in my mind half as well as the burger I had at In-N-Out, when I pulled off the Interstate to get petrol on the way there, or the not-especially-good “breakfast burrito” I had just after dawn the next morning, following a balloon ride down the Napa Valley.

    Man, that was a good burger. In-N-Out is a local, reportedly Mormon-owned chain that operates out of California (and into Nevada, Arizona and Utah) and offers only three choices: hamburger, cheeseburger, and the “double-double”. It’s as clean, rapid and slick as McDonald’s, but the burgers are more evidently handmade, the patties plump and brown and shiny, and each one half-bundled in a greaseproof napkin so that its bright salad and ochre cheese bulge and yabber at the presented edge. The taste is deep and sexy, and the chips are cut from potatoes. It’s been going since 1948, seven years longer than McDonald’s, and the fact that it still caters only to four states, while McDonald’s has taken over the world, is proof, if proof were needed, that the market is bunk.

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    by | January 17, 2009

    Barack Obama channels Lincoln, down to the pre-inaugural train trip

    Obama Christ
    Barack Obama Channels Lincoln? It’s been down right embarrassing reading and watching the national media and their coverage of the in coming Obama administration. Channels Lincoln? I can see the headlines in inauguration day. ” Obama walks on water.”
    I sure hope Obama does a good job because the media has elevated him to near Messiah status. I cannot wait for the day when the rest of America realizes that like all Presidents, Obama is nothing more than an empty suit. JD

    WASHINGTON — As Barack Obama prepared for his arrival in Washington, he embraced the same historical imagery that he used to kick off his presidential campaign: the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.

    Obama was traveling to the capital by retracing the final stages of the train trip Lincoln made to assume the presidency, beginning the fanfare for an inaugural celebration in which the Great Emancipator will be an unmistakable presence. With an official theme for the festivities taken from the Gettysburg Address, Obama will appear at the martyred president’s memorial for a televised concert, take the oath of office on a Bible used by Lincoln and even attend an inaugural luncheon that will feature favorite Lincoln foods.

    Obama’s references to Lincoln go back to his presidential campaign announcement speech on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the site of Lincoln’s famous “house divided” speech.

    During the campaign, the Obama operation invoked Lincoln to respond to criticism that the freshman senator had little national political experience and to reinforce the historic nature of his candidacy without emphasizing his race.

    Now, a political team that has been unusually adept at associating Obama with historic figures—his campaign also invoked John and Robert Kennedy and, more discreetly, Martin Luther King—is again turning to Lincoln as it sets the stage for the Obama presidency.

    The pomp and circumstance of inauguration present a moment when the public is unusually open to placing an incoming president in the broad context of American history, and the Lincoln presidency offers an example of strong presidential leadership seeing the nation through grave challenges.

    The parallel has limits as a political tool but still can help prepare the public for sacrifices and patience through difficult moments ahead as Obama confronts dire economic circumstances, two wars and the threat of terrorism, said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist.

    “They’re trying to get people to focus on the history of the presidency in times of crisis,” Devine said. “If they can make that comparison valid, that will give him the leeway to do the things he needs to do. He’s going to have to do things that are unpopular.”

    The upcoming bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth next month adds resonance to the parallel, with a slew of books on Lincoln pouring out, several television documentaries scheduled and celebrations planned around the country.

    Since his election, Obama also has encouraged analogies to Franklin Roosevelt, who led the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. Obama told reporters he was reading a biography of Roosevelt, and aides said that Obama is studying Roosevelt’s first 100 days, even the words and tone Roosevelt struck.

    But Lincoln is the predecessor that Obama has most consistently and most directly invoked since he began his campaign for the White House. He closed his campaign announcement speech with words from Gettysburg, calling for “a new birth of freedom”—a phrase that has now become the official inaugural theme—and made no fewer than three references to Lincoln in his victory speech at Chicago’s Grant Park.

    When CBS anchor Katie Couric asked Obama last January what book besides the Bible he would find most essential in the Oval Office, he answered with a Lincoln biography: “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

    He turned again to Lincoln during a “60 Minutes” interview shortly after election when asked how he was preparing for office. “I’ve been spending a lot of time reading Lincoln,” Obama responded. “There is a wisdom there, and a humility about his approach to government.”

    But the Obama operation’s sometimes heavy-handed attempts to invoke Lincoln and his supporters’ efforts to compare him to a president that many historians consider the nation’s greatest leader have struck some as anything but humble.

    Princeton historian Sean Wilentz wrote last year that comparisons of Obama to Lincoln are “absurd” and “tortured.”

    “To say that a guy who hasn’t served a day in the presidency is Lincolnian is ridiculous,” Wilentz said in an interview last week. “Lincoln didn’t even become Abraham Lincoln, at least as we know him, until he was president.”

    Obama is not the first incoming president to try to establish connections with celebrated predecessors. Bill Clinton summoned Thomas Jefferson by arriving in Washington for his inaugural via Monticello, Jefferson’s home. Shortly after taking office, Clinton made a pilgrimage to Franklin Roosevelt’s Hyde Park home as he sought to build support for a jobs program.

    Though Obama is the first president to take the oath of office on the Lincoln Bible, several recent presidents have been sworn in on the Bible used by George Washington, among them Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

    Lincoln used the very train trip that Obama is retracing to do the same thing, traveling during a stop in Philadelphia to Independence Hall to give a speech connecting his vision for the country to the principles of the founders. Lincoln often invoked Jefferson, a favorite of his, said David Blight, a Lincoln scholar at Yale University.

    That sense of history and of his predecessors was an important facet of Lincoln’s political genius, Blight said. And it is a trait Blight also sees in Obama’s public speaking, particularly addresses that the president-elect gave in Philadelphia on race relations and in Selma, Ala., on his generation’s relationship to the civil rights leaders of the 1960s.

    “It’s an ability to see historical circumstance,” Blight said. “Presidents always invoke history. Candidates always invoke history. But they often don’t do it in a meaningful way, because they don’t know how. This guy does.”

    If Obama’s interest in the past includes a fascination with Lincoln, so much the better, argues Goodwin, the author, who was invited to Obama’s Senate office to discuss the former president.

    “There’s no better mentor for a president to look to than Lincoln’s leadership,” Goodwin said. “Somehow, Lincoln has gotten into his heart and mind, and that can only be for the good.”

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