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BARACK Obama and his family have been forced to move into a hotel because John Howard is staying at their place. The former prime minister and his wife Janette are booked to stay at Washington’s Blair House on January 12 as he will receive the US Medal of Freedom from outgoing President George W. Bush the following day. Blair House, a 119-room mansion, is the official state guest house of the US president and traditionally where incoming US presidents stay before their inauguration. The Obamas will take up residence there on January 15 but had asked to move in on...

Despite the economic hard times, money keeps pouring in for President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural festivities. The inaugural committee has raised at least $27 million, donor information on its Web site Tuesday showed. Most of that has come in over the past three weeks. If fundraising continues at that pace, Obama's inaugural committee will have no problem reaching or exceeding the roughly $40 million raised for each of President George W. Bush's two inaugural celebrations. More than 2,000 donors are helping to finance Obama's Jan. 20 swearing-in festivities. At least 378 gave the maximum $50,000. Top donors include financier and major...

Sarah Obama, 86, will fly from her native Kenya to attend the inaugural festivities, the Kenyan government announced on Tuesday. Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama isn't actually related to the next president by blood - she was the third wife of Barack Obama's paternal grandfather. The two must speak through an interpreter as she knows only a few words of English. But they formed a close bond when he first visited Kenya in 1988. Sarah Obama will attend a pan-African celebration the night of the inauguration. It's not the first time she's been to Washington: she came in 2004 to celebrate...

Atheists, humanists and others seeking to keep God and religion out of President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony will get their day in court. A D.C. District Court judge announced late Monday afternoon that he will hold a hearing in a lawsuit that seeks to strip all religious elements from the Jan. 20 inaugural festivities. Last week, Michael Newdow, a California lawyer, physician and well-known atheist, led 29 other plaintiffs and 11 organizations in filing a lawsuit to remove the phrase “so help me God” from the presidential oath of office and eliminate the opening and closing prayers from the inaugural...

Cynthia Russell from Newberry, Florida, and her guest (her "life partner") will attend the welcome ceremony, Barack's swearing-in, the Inaugural Parade, and our Neighborhood Inaugural Ball. Cynthia is a builder and has been feeling the impact of the recent economic crunch. She wrote: "I'm a single woman who has been building homes for over 18 years. I've supported myself and have been able to help out my mother from time to time. Now I find myself wondering how much longer I can hold on and be able to pay my bills and keep the doors open for business. Barack gives...

Thanks to you, President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden will take their oaths of office in just 17 days. You helped shape history, and now you can be a part of it. Ten supporters and their guests will be selected to come to Washington, D.C. for several days of inaugural events. You could be chosen to fly to Washington, attend the welcome ceremony, the Inaugural parade, the swearing-in, and an official Inaugural ball. Donate $5 or more now. You could be part of the historic events you made possible. This inauguration will be open to hundreds of thousands of...

Authorities are organizing what appears to be the largest security operation ever for an inauguration, bringing in thousands of extra police, agents and troops to handle crowds as President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in. Security officials are bracing not just for the ceremony and parade Jan. 20 but also for at least 70 concerts, balls and other events surrounding the inauguration. Those include the welcome celebration featuring Obama on Jan. 18 at the Lincoln Memorial, which could draw 500,000 people, according to the D.C. mayor's office. "You've gone from a one-day event to a four-day event," said Joseph Persichini Jr.,...

Scott Andrews / AP Message to you out-of-towners heading to Washington, D.C. for your first presidential inauguration: You will be miserable.January 20 is shaping up to be the inauguration celebration of our lifetimes. Which is fitting, because there’s a dirty little secret about Washington, D.C., and the inaugural balls: if you’ve ever been to one, you’ll never go back. Inaugurals are a miserable experience. This will come as sad news to the Obamaphiles who forked over checks for $50,000 to be granted the title of “finance chair” for the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC). It will probably be even sadder...

Vice President Biden, Madame Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, President Clinton, President Carter, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the...

CLEVELAND - Though the recession is crimping the spending of most Americans, Ohio Democrats plan to live large in the New Year -- at least during this month's four-day inaugural celebration. From elected officials to former office holders to proud volunteers, Ohio Democrats have purchased all of the state party's 150 allotted rooms at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, a historic luxury hotel not far from the White House. Only a handful of Ohio rooms are being held for last-minute VIPs. The price tag for celebrating the election of Democrat Barack Obama rivals the extravagance of the bygone housing boom: A...

HONOLULU | President-elect Barack Obama will have a Commander in Chief's Ball during his inauguration with military personnel, their spouses and those wounded fighting in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as guests. In the announcement Thursday, officials said that tickets for the Jan. 20 military-only ball will be free to guests. The formal event will be at the National Building Museum in Washington. "It is a privilege to honor our men and women in uniform during our inaugural festivities by continuing the tradition of the Commander in Chief's Ball. Our troops represent the best America has to offer,...

email this posting to a friend best of craigslist > washington, DC > Room for Rent -- Inauguration Day/ObamaCon 2009 Originally Posted: Tue, 11 Nov 11:45 EST Room for Rent -- Inauguration Day/ObamaCon 2009 Date: 2008-11-11, 11:45AM EST In a search of a room in DC so that you can spend Jan. 20 standing in the bitter winter cold with thousands of like-minded souls watching the historic transfer of power from one Harvard grad to another? Look no further. Me: Heartless, greedy right-wing oppressive type looking to make a buck. You: Obama's election was Christmas/your first kiss/May Day all wrapped...

President-elect Barack Obama will have a Commander in Chief's Ball during his inauguration with military personnel, their spouses and those wounded fighting in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as guests. In announcing this Thursday, officials said that tickets for the Jan. 20 military-only ball will be free to guests. The formal event will be at the National Building Museum in Washington. "It is a privilege to honor our men and women in uniform during our inaugural festivities by continuing the tradition of the Commander in Chief's Ball. Our troops represent the best America has to offer, and without...

Soon we will have the inauguration of our 44th President. They are preparing a celebration as if our savior had arrived, although most likely it will only be a matter of time before those celebrating will want to nail him on a cross. Our nation’s planned ridiculous inauguration exuberance is in reality nothing more than a New Orleans style funeral procession celebrating the death of our wealth.

Weren't there reports of like 700 million people, give or take, coming to town to see Barry get sworn in? When homeowners in the Washington area read those reports, they grew big parasitic eyes and threw everything from mansions to refrigerator boxes on Craigslist to rent them to all the hope-n-changers. Things are not going well. More . . .

President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation drew one kind of protest. Whether the evangelical pastor offers the prayer in the name of Jesus may draw another. At George W. Bush's 2001 swearing-in, the Revs. Franklin Graham and Kirbyjon Caldwell were criticized for invoking Christ. The distinctly Christian reference at a national civic event offended some, and even prompted a lawsuit. Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Warren would say only that, "I'm a Christian pastor so I...

WASHINGTON -- Peter Hart, the veteran and highly respected Democratic pollster, talks almost reverentially about the political benefits that accrue to politicians from an association with Barack Obama. Nearness to the president elect, he says, is worth at least 5 percentage points to any aspiring candidate. It is an illusion of near Messianic proportions, the therapeutic results of a touching of the hem. Obama himself reinforces this mystical illusion by deciding to travel to his Washington inauguration from Illinois by train, emulating the journey that Abraham Lincoln took to take the oath of office in 1861, expecting huge crowds as...

Mike Massie got his first shotgun at the age of 10. Guns have been in Massie’s life since he was 5 years old and trudging along beside his father carrying an unloaded shotgun. His children know how to handle weapons; he even purchased his nephew’s first shotgun when the boy was just one month old. That’s why the Lynchburg resident is worried about what will happen to gun-control laws when President-elect Barack Obama takes office next month. “I feel that I have the right to bear arms legally to defend myself, my family and my property,” Massie said. “I don’t...

Stars of Hollywood, high-tech open wallets for Obama party Dec 26 05:54 PM US/Eastern Stars of Hollywood including Halle Berry and Steven Spielberg and bosses of high-tech giants like Google and Microsoft are opening their wallets to help fund Barack Obama's inauguration party. Obama, in keeping with his vow to purge US politics of influence peddling, has ordered that the names of all inauguration donors, withheld by previous presidents, be published on the Internet. Lists of those stumping up for the inauguration on January 20 show that Spielberg and his wife, Kate, each gave the maximum 50,000 dollar donation. Actress...

On Friday morning’s The Early Show on CBS, viewers were treated to what almost seemed like a parody of Barack Obama’s mainstream media paparazzi fawning over the Democratic President-elect, as the show ran a report exploring the question of "How cool is Obama?" and co-hosts Harry Smith and Tracy Smith referred to Obama as "the man" and "the epitome of cool," respectively. Audio of the classic rock group the Chiffons singing "He’s So Fine" even played as the piece on Obama’s "coolness" began. Tracy Smith oozed as she plugged the segment: "We’re actually talking about how a lot of people...