Beau Biden Suffers Stroke

According to reports, Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, has suffered a mild stroke.

From CNN:

Biden “was admitted this morning to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware after having what we believe to be a mild stroke, according to a written statement from Dr. Timothy Gardner, medical director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Surgery at Christiana Care Health System in Delaware.

“He is in good spirits and talking with his family at the hospital. He is fully alert, in stable condition and has full motor and speech skills. We expect him to make a complete recovery.”

Dick Cheney Hospitalized

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been hospitalized with chest pains, this according to CNN.

First Bill Clinton, now Cheney. Not a good time to be a politician with a bad heart!

From CNN:

His doctors are evaluating the situation, and Cheney, 69, is resting comfortably at George Washington University Hospital, the staff said in a statement.

From WPTV:

Cheney was admitted Monday afternoon after experiencing chest paints. Two doctors say tonight that Cheney is stable, but may have additional treatment tomorrow. Cheney had an angiogram to allow doctors to look in his coronary arteries. What they saw raises the possibility of additional treatment.

Dick Cheney has had four heart attacks–the first when he was just 37.

Barack Obama Inauguration Schedule

For those looking for it, the Associated Press has a full schedule of Barack Obama’s inaugural events and it can be found below.

From the article:

MONDAY, JAN. 19

• National Day of Community Service event: To honor Dr. King’s legacy, Obama, Biden and their families, joined by Americans across the country, will participate in activities dedicated to serving others in communities across the Washington, D.C. area.
• Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball, sponsored by the Texas State Society, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
• Green Inaugural Ball at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Ball hosted by former Vice President Al Gore.
• Huffington Post preinaugural ball at the Newseum.
• Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts. Hosted by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Russell Simmons, LL Cool J, among others.
• A children’s evening concert at the Verizon Center honoring military families. Event hosted by Michelle Obama, who will attend. Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers are among the entertainers.
• Obama to attend three private dinners to honor former secretary of State Colin Powell, Biden and Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for their public service. Dinners at the Hilton Washington, National Building Museum and Union Station.

TUESDAY, JAN. 20 (INAUGURATION DAY)

• Gates to the Inaugural Ceremony open at 8 a.m. The inaugural festivities are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. They will include:
• Musical selections of The United States Marine Band, followed by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein provides call to order and welcoming remarks.
• Invocation by the Rev. Rick Warren.
• Musical selection of Aretha Franklin.
• Biden will be sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
• Musical selection of John Williams, composer/arranger with Itzhak Perlman, (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet).
• Obama will take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. Scheduled around noon.
• Obama gives the inaugural address.
• Poem by Elizabeth Alexander.
• Benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery.
• The National Anthem by The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters.”

After Obama gives inaugural address, he will escort outgoing President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony before attending a luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

The 56th Inaugural Parade will then make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

Later that day, the Presidential Inaugural Committee will host 10 official inaugural balls:

• Neighborhood Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
• Obama Home States (Illinois and Hawaii) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
• Biden Home States (Pennsylvania and Delaware) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
• Midwest Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
• Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
• Western Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
• Commander in Chief’s Ball at the National Building Museum.
• Southern Inaugural Ball at the National Guard Armory.
• Eastern Inaugural Ball at Union Station.
• Youth Inaugural Ball at the Washington Hilton.

Unofficial balls include:

• Congressional Black Caucus Inaugural Ball at the Capitol Hilton.
• Creative Coalition Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts.
• Recording Industry Association of America’s ball for Feeding America.
• BET’s Inaugural Ball at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
• Africa on the Potomac inaugural celebration at Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.
• American Music Inaugural Ball at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
• Inaugural Purple Ball at the Fairmont Hotel.
• Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Ball at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.
• Inaugural Peace Ball at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
• Impact Film Fund ball.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21

• The president, vice president and their families will participate in a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.

Newsday also has an in depth look at the festivities.

From the article:

With Barack Obama set to be inaugurated Tuesday as the nation’s 44th president, the day figures to be one of the most-covered live events ever — on television, radio or online.

Estimates put the potential worldwide audience for Obama’s swearing-in in the billions, a figure that could dwarf viewership numbers for the Super Bowl and Academy Awards and reach heights ordinarily seen only by the Olympics and the World Cup.

Following is an hour-by-hour account of what to look for as you keep up with the day’s proceedings:

5 a.m.

CNN kicks off the day’s live event coverage from Capitol Hill. C-Span and the other broadcast and cable networks begin their day at 6 a.m., so expect to see a lot of talking heads doing a lot of talking. There will also be copious live shots of empty stages and digital maps of the parade route as the anchors and correspondents fill hours talking about what their viewers are about to see.

8 a.m.
Security gates open for ticketholders for the swearing in and the National Mall. Expect to see shots of cold, but excited attendees slowly making their way through security gates at entrances to the swearing-in viewing areas and on the National Mall. Inauguration officials have advised anyone with tickets to arrive no later than 9 a.m. to get through security. Nonetheless, expect to see people in lines well before and after the official program starts.

10 a.m.
Now the show starts for real. The swearing-in ceremony begins with music from the Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will issue the call to order and make brief welcoming remarks before making way for probably the day’s most controversial figure, Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

Obama infuriated gay and lesbian groups when he announced earlier this month that Warren, a conservative evangelical megachurch minister, would deliver the invocation. The Obama camp attempted to defuse the situation by naming Gene Robinson, an openly-gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, to give the invocation at Sunday’s inauguration opening ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial.

Warren, 54, has a long record of staunchly opposing same-sex marriage, though he most certainly will deliver a nondenominational prayer today.

10:30 a.m.
After a song by Aretha Franklin, who also sang at President Bill Clinton‘s first inauguration, Joe Biden will be sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens, 88, is the court’s oldest and most liberal justice and, to put it gently, since the justices have lifetime appointments, the most likely to be replaced during Obama’s term.

This will be Biden’s second swearing-in ceremony in as many weeks. He took the oath for his seventh term in the Senate Jan. 6, then officially resigned the seat Jan. 15.

11 a.m. The third musical interlude features composer and Floral Park native John Williams (noted for his “Star Wars” scores, among other accomplishments), violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill.

Once Williams and the foursome are through playing, Obama and John Roberts, the Supreme Court’s chief justice, will take center stage.

The swearing-in duties will be Roberts’ first, making him the 14th chief justice to swear in a president.

Every elected president since John Adams has been sworn in by the chief justice. (In 1789, George Washington was sworn in by Robert Livingston, the New York state chancellor, and William Cushing, an associate justice, in 1793.)

When presidents have died in office, the oath has been administered by an available judge or, in Calvin Coolidge‘s case, by his father, a notary public.

Obama, placing his hand on Abraham Lincoln‘s inaugural Bible, will recite the same oath as his 43 predecessors, as prescribed by the Constitution: “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.”

Noon
Obama’s inaugural address is perhaps one of the most anticipated political speeches in modern American history. It will be televised on scores of television networks worldwide, giving Obama an unprecedented platform to deliver his message to the world. Expectations for the speech are understandably enormous, so look for Obama to give a speech heavy on soaring language, and light on specifics.

The address will be followed by a poem composed and read by New York-born poet Elizabeth Alexander. The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery will follow with a benediction and the program concludes with a playing of the national anthem by the U.S. Navy band Sea Chanters.

12:30 p.m. After Obama, now President Obama, finishes his inaugural address, he will accompany now-former President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony at the Capitol and then attend a luncheon at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. The three-course meal featuring stewed and scalloped oysters and an apple desert, is inspired by Lincoln’s culinary favorites. Obama, Biden and their families, the Supreme Court justices, cabinet designees and the congressional leadership are expected to attend.

At 1:25 p.m., Bush will make “brief remarks” at a departure ceremony.

2:30 p.m.
The 56th Inaugural Parade will make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, with groups including the Mobile Azalea Trail Maids, from Alabama, and the University of Delaware Fightin Blue Hen Marching Band, having traveled from all over the country to participate.

Despite the predicted cold weather — forecasts are calling for highs near 30 and chance of snow — expect Obama to emerge from his limousine to walk a stretch of the route.

In doing so, he would follow a tradition established by Jimmy Carter that now seems ingrained in presidential inauguration. Carter’s 1.5-mile walk, which he made with his wife, Rosalynn, was designed to show that the country had emerged from the stain of the Watergate scandal. The symbolism struck home, and President Bill Clinton and both Presidents Bush also walked a stretch of the parade route.

6 p.m. The parade marks the end of the inauguration ceremonies, but Washington parties begin at 6 p.m., when the inaugural balls begin with the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball and the Eastern States Ball.

There’s also a ball that touts itself as “the largest gathering of peace activists without a protest” (Harry Belafonte and Joan Baez are attending), a Funk 4 Peace ball and a ball thrown by the D.C. municipal government to highlight the capital’s lack of representation in the federal government.

The Obamas are expected to attend 10 official inaugural balls: The Commander-in-Chief’s Ball, the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, a Youth Ball, five official regional balls — including the Mid-Atlantic ball at the Washington Convention Center, for invitees from New York and four other states and the District of Columbia — and Home States Balls thrown by Hawaii and Illinois for Obama and Delaware and Pennsylvania for Biden.

Economic Meltdown Leads Couples to Think Twice About Divorce

The economic crisis may be doing what pastors, family therapists and matrimonial counselors have long struggled to accomplish: keeping troubled marriages together. I guess that’s a good thing, unless they really don’t belong together. I’m all for staying together, but sometimes, it just doesn’t work and these tough economic times aren’t going to save all marriages.

From MSNBC:

Marriage counselors and divorce lawyers nationwide say more distressed couples are putting off divorce because the cost of splitting up is prohibitive in a time of stagnant salaries, plummeting home values and rising unemployment.

While the stress of economic uncertainty often worsens already shaky unions, it also can make couples more financially dependent on each other, said Pamela Smock, a researcher at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

“Anything of this magnitude that’s going to affect millions of people does not bode well for all sorts of families,” she said. “It could keep unhappy couples together.”

Obama Transition Team Names Tech Advisers

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has named three leaders to a group that will work on the new government’s technology policies. Heading the working group are Julius Genachowski and Blair Levin, two former Federal Communications Commission staff members, and Google.org head Sonal Shah.

From CNET:

The purpose of the policy working group is to “develop the priority policy proposals and plans from the Obama campaign for action during the Obama-Biden administration,” according to the transition team. Obama has promised to put more emphasis on technological issues as president and has even said he will appoint a chief technology officer.

Genachowski is a former IAC executive and the founder of start-up incubator LaunchBox Digital. He served as an adviser to two FCC chairmen during the Clinton administration. Genachowski also chaired the group that helped shape the Obama campaign’s Tech and Innovation Plan, and is considered by some in Washington to be a contender for the position of CTO.

Shah is the head of Google’s philanthropy division and previously served as a vice president at Goldman Sachs. Both Shah and Genachowski are also on the Obama-Biden transition project advisory board.

Levin, a managing director at the firm Stifel Nicolaus, previously served as chief of staff to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt from 1993 to 1997.

Mayor Apologizes For Kids “Assassinate Obama” Chant

The mayor Rexburg, Idaho, where second- and third-grade students on a school bus chanted “assassinate Obama!” after the election, has publicly apologized, saying there’s no excuse for such behavior.

The Associated Press article below explains that Idaho voters overwhelmingly favored Republican John McCain in the presidential election and in Madison County, where Rexburg is located, 85 percent of voters chose McCain over Barack Obama. It is also believed by many to be the “reddest county” in America.

Still…why are second and third graders chanting this in the first place???

From the Associated Press:

Rexburg Mayor Shawn Larsen wrote in a guest editorial sent Tuesday to local newspapers that he was saddened by the notoriety his community had received over the incident, both across the United States and abroad.

Larsen told The Associated Press that a formal response to the incident in his city was sorely needed.

“When people don’t stand up and say, ‘That’s not appropriate, that’s wrong, and those are hateful remarks,’ it’s almost like they are saying that it’s an OK thing to do. And it’s not,” he said. “The mayor doesn’t have any authority over the school system, but I do think it reflects upon the community.”

In his editorial, Larsen recounted seeing Barack Obama speak in Washington, D.C., in early 2006 about his faith and how his upbringing had influenced his policies and his priorities. Larsen said he left the event inspired.

“I am extremely sorry that this incident occurred, and I do not believe that it reflects the values which make our community a great place to live and raise a family,” Larsen wrote. “Parents must realize that things said in anger or even in jest can have lasting repercussions not only damaging young hearts and minds, but a city’s reputation.”