And I loved this shot–“Good bye! Good luck! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!”

Photos from the NY Times. You can read the complete Inaugural Address on their site, too.

UPDATE: Just saw this headline–Obama Orders Halt To Prosecutions At Guantanamo. He’s not wasting any time!

Boing Boing pointed me towards the online portion of the Harper’s Index for this month–it’s all about Bush. And while I appreciate that he didn’t bring about a Dr. Strangelove-like “nucular” winter–which I fully expected when the war(s) started–these just reminded me alll over again how really and truly bad the last eight years have been:

• Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0
• Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
• Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
• Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4
• Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35
• Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4
• Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8
• Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
• Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000
• Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000
• Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1
• Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
• Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

There’s more online, if you want to get worked up even more. But guess what? Tomorrow will have happy news!

From yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune:

The West Jordan Republican is sponsoring a resolution encouraging retailers to embrace Christmas in their promotions rather than the generic “holidays.”

“It would encourage the use of ‘Merry Christmas,’ ” Buttars said of the non-binding statement that is still being drafted. “I’m sick of the Christmas wars–we’re a Christian nation and ought to use the word.”

I know this is rhetorical at this point, but is anyone else concerned that a member of the state legislature seems so blissfully unaware of the First Amendment? We’re a Christian nation? No we’re not, jackass: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”

And here’s another point: He’s encouraging retailers to use “Christmas” in their promotions, as if a “Christmas Sale” is more righteous than a “Holiday Sale,” but if he’s that devout, shouldn’t he be objecting to using the Birth of Our Lord to sell crass material items?

Why do you waste our time like this, Buttars? Why?!

Newly-elected Utah House speaker Dave Clark made this mystifying analogy in yesterday’s paper. About the need for ethics reform, he said:

“It was like we had a car in the barn that had been sitting there for 10 years. We fired it up and ran it around the track and parts of it weren’t working as well as we thought. Until we took it for a test drive, we didn’t know, so it caught us off guard, but that’s why we’re proposing that we put these items up for discussion.”

Wow, I just can’t wait until January!