Jim McDermott

Actor Matt Damon drew attention a couple months ago with a scathing tirade about Sarah Palin The thought of her as president he argued was like a really bad Disney movie The hockey mom you know Oh I m just a hockey mom from Alaska and she s the president and she s facing down Vlad

Kevin Rudd Prime Minister of Australia Today January 26th is Australia Day one of the two really major holidays that Australia celebrates 221 years ago today the First Fleet of British ships carrying convicts and soldiers arrived in Sydney Harbor to begin the British penal colony there T

As soon as Obama finishes speaking people begin leaving Seriously it looks like the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium I can t even see or hear poet Elizabeth Alexander at times through the dispersing crowds But the text is a gem A last prayer from the Rev Dr Joseph E Lowery He looks

Obama speaks It begins far lighter on rhetoric than I expected Starts with the now common refrain things are going to be tough Ugh I know but I could recite the section in my sleep I wonder early on if this is going to sound more like a State of the Union or something Clintonian I hope not

Various luminaries appear on the jumbotron Colin Powell gets cheers George H W Bush looks old John McCain talks to a very tall man Joe Lieberman is heartily jeered and at some length There is clearly no love lost for Joe Michelle Obama looks amazing The girls are beautiful Dick Cheney is

6am I m late getting started as usual I don the tight lycra heat-holding undergarments my aunt bought me Looking in the mirror I see an obese Sandy Duncan It s not a good moment On the red line from Dupont Circle to Union Station Our third stop Metro Center looks like a sc

What the online press is offering this morning nbsp Slate has the president s speech as written by various readers nbsp The New York Times online nbsp has a similar feature offering readers hope for the Obama administration as well as readers photos of the events nbsp The New Republ

A 30-something African-American man standing outside the U S Capitol talking to his wife From slavery to this Guard I m sorry you can t check books out of the Library of Congress nbsp nbsp nbsp Visitor But I brought my library card nbsp Guard It s not that kind of library

Barack Obama and many Americans spent today trying to follow the example of Dr Martin Luther King Jr by doing some kind of service work for our fellow human beings nbsp Many in Washington D C including this correspondent spent the day in lines and receptions Everywhere you went today the