The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal Review

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The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal ReviewIf you want a good reminder of Barack Obama's inauguration, this handsome hardcover is it. It brings back all the goosebump moments. It's the result of the Washington Post's exhaustive coverage of the event, which employed over 100 photographers and reporters.
It makes a nice bookend with the new New York Times book Obama: The Historic Journey as well as, of course, The Audacity of Hope.
Big and beautiful enough to be a coffee table book, The Inauguration of Barack Obama is more than a collection of photos. Also included is a stirring foreword by Washington Post Editor-at-Large Ben Bradlee, who recalls the first inauguration he attended, of John F. Kennedy, and writes: "This shift of power is orderly, but it's always exciting. It's the essence of democracy." Though the coverage of it isn't as thorough as in the Times book, Obama's story is detailed, too, from childhood through young adulthood -- when he, in his own words, burned inwardly with a "knotted, howling assertion of self" -- through his marriage and family life. At the back of the book is the full text of the Inaugural Address.
I like the variety of photos. One spread shows the thousands gathered for the ceremony itself, another simply Obama's hand encircling his wife's waist on the Day of Service. A sober tribute from Obama and Biden at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is followed by a sweet portrait of Biden holding his young grandson. My favorites are the more candid, silly shots: First lady Michelle Obama getting her gown stepped on by her husband while dancing; daughter Sasha playfully holding her hand in front of her sister Malia's camera, ruining her photo; bundled-up fans at 4 a.m. on the National Mall looking like mummies in their sleeping bags.
The presidential seal on the dust jacket is embossed into the glossy paper. Underneath, the cover of the book looks exactly like the dust jacket, front cover and back.
Here's the chapter list:
Foreword by Ben Bradlee
1. Road to the Presidency
2. Inauguration Weekend: Day 1, Destination: Washington, D.C.
3. Inauguration Weekend: Day 2, Honoring the Dead, Raising a Chorus
4. Inauguration Weekend: Day 3, Answering a Call to Service
5. Inauguration Day: All Eyes on the Moment
6. Text of Inaugural Address
7. AfterwordThe Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Photographic Journal Overview

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Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights Review

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Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights Review"Was you ever bit by a dead bee?" is the question Eddie (Walter Brennan) likes to ask in the Bogart-Bacall movie To Have and Have Not. The answer is "Yes Indeed!" as Molly Ivins shows in her posthumous book. But I don't really think of her as a bee, but maybe a Texas-size horsefly biting the backsides of those who would erode our freedoms, or perhaps a vigilant bulldog protecting the tree of liberty. Perhaps also "The wronging of rights and the righting of wrongs" might be appropriate here.
This is a book of episodes, stories about instances of where the Bill of Rights comes under assault. Many of the basic tales are familiar, but many are not, and putting these stories together helps give a better picture of the whole: we've been seeing a piecemeal erosion of freedoms done in the name of freedom. There has been no sudden assault on the tree of liberty by a dozen men with chainsaws, but rather more subtle attacks--slashes with hatchets done in the night. But Molly was never willing to accept any kind of assault. When you read the stories you realize that many of the instances didn't seem like such a big deal at the time--but they were to Molly. She quotes Niemoller's comment about Hitler: Hitler went after the communists, then the Jews, then the Catholics, and each time he didn't speak up because he wasn't one of them. Then when they came for him there was no one left to speak up for him. The same thing, of course, occurred under Stalin, and Molly reminds us that when we watch others having freedoms eroded and do nothing, we are in danger ourselves--that was her passionate concern, and it's one of her primary concerns in this book.
Molly is outraged by a lot of the things that are happening, but she has always been a writer of charm and humor. She writes of how war protesters in Crawford, Texas, were (are) regarded as essentially being terrorists, and how the police chief said that if someone walked down the street alone with a political button on his or her shirt that he didn't agree with, then he could arrest them for illegal protest. There is also a lengthy piece about a reporter in San Francisco who spent 199 days in jail for refusing to testify and turn over video footage. (This is not a tale I recall ever hearing of). During a disturbance, a taillight on a police cruiser was broken. Police departments get federal grants, and so the Feds got involved. The Feds insisted that the reporter testify about what he had seen and turn over all video footage. It sounds nonsensical, trivial, and a supremely idiotic waste of time for the Feds to get involved over a taillight, but the reporter still spent 6 months in jail, and Molly was outraged.
"We had to destroy it in order to save it" is a phrase we sometimes hear in wars, but even though it isn't being phrased quite that bluntly, it is being said about freedoms. Molly's book is about this: she's been our champion and stalwart defender, our watchdog. We'll miss her insights, her humor, and her outrage at wronged rights.Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights Overview

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