Official schedule for Barack H. Obama's inauguration ceremony

The Official Inauguration Coverage Committee of The Top of the Ticket cordially invites you and one guest to print this item out and put it by your TV for the morning of Jan. 20, when way too many try to get to Capitol Hill to witness the official swearing-in of the 44th president of the United States.

For people who try to attend the ceremony, if they are very early and very lucky, the above photo is about as good as what they're going to see.

You, on the other cheek, will be all comfy in your front-row chair and, with this Ticket item in hand, able to predict with pinpoint accuracy what's coming next on the televised program and when you can program in bathroom breaks.

This is the official order just announced this afternoon by a bunch of very important Congress people we're going to leave out.

The order of the program will be as follows:

Musical selections, the United States Marine Band

Musical selections, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus

Call to order and welcoming remarks, the Honorable Dianne Feinstein (which explains the aforementioned San Francisco choirs)

Invocation: Dr. Rick Warren, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.

Musical selection, Aretha Franklin

Oath of office administered to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
by associate justice of the Supreme Court, the Honorable John Paul Stevens

Musical selection, John Williams, composer/arranger
Itzhak Perlman, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Gabriela Montero, piano; Anthony McGill, clarinet

Oath of office administered to President-elect Barack Hussein Obama
by the chief justice of the United States, the Honorable John G. Roberts Jr.

Inaugural address: the president of the United States, the Honorable Barack Hussein Obama

Poem: Elizabeth Alexander

Benediction: The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

The national anthem, the United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters.”

For a historical perspective, here's what Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural looked like. When this photo was taken on March 4, 1865, the 16th president had less than six weeks to live. He's the tall, hatless fellow almost exactly in the center holding his speech.

-- Andrew Malcolm

If Obama and Biden registered here for cellphone alerts to each new Ticket item, they wouldn't be late for their own swearing-in ceremony come Jan. 20. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle now too.

Official Schedule for the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama, Jan. 20, 2009:

The ceremony will commence at 7 a.m. Pacific on the west front of the U.S. Capitol and will include:

• Musical Selections: The United States Marine Band, followed by The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

• Call to Order and Welcoming Remarks: Senator Dianne Feinstein.

• Invocation: Dr. Rick Warren.

• Musical Selection: Aretha Franklin.

• Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will be sworn into office by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the Honorable John Paul Stevens.

• Musical Selection: John Williams, composer/arranger with Itzhak Perlman, (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet).

• President-elect Barack Hussein Obama will take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by the Chief Justice of the United States, the Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr.

• Inaugural Address.

• Poem: Elizabeth Alexander.

• Benediction: The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery.

• The National Anthem: The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters”

After President Obama gives his 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 with groups traveling from all over the country to participate.

Later that day, the Presidential Inaugural Committee will host 10 official Inaugural Balls. More details about those affairs will be released at a later date.

source :
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/12/obama-inaugur-3.html

US and Israel agree Gaza deal

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and her US counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, have signed an agreement aimed at preventing arms smuggling into Gaza for the Palestinian group Hamas.

Livni, who travelled to Washington DC, the US capital, on Friday for the signing, said both sides had agreed on a "series of actions" in the memorandum of understanding to halt weapons smuggling.

Rice said at the signing ceremony that the move, coupled with other current international diplomatic efforts, would "contribute to a durable ceasefire".

Livni said that the memorandum was "a vital component for the cessation of hostilities" and that Israel had shown restraint for years under Hamas
rocket attacks.

However, she said Hamas had held "Gaza hostage" and had to pay "a high price for terror".

More than 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have died since Israel began an offensive on the Gaza Strip on December 27.

Ceasefire efforts

Rice said Israel was planning to pursue similar bilateral agreements over arms smuggling with "our European colleagues".

She also insisted that the US was continuing to work on "as quick a timeline as we possibly can" to support Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza.

However she told journalists that a US timeline for the ceasefire "is not important" when asked if a ceasefire could be achieved before Barack Obama, the US president-elect, takes over power from George Bush next Tuesday.

Senior officials from the US and Israel have been in repeated contact in recent days over the Gaza crisis, including a phone conversation between Rice and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, on Thursday.

Riad Kahwaji, director at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, points out that, as Obama is set to enter the White House, "this agreement commits the coming administration to further collaboration with the Israelis on the Gaza issue".

However, he said the success of the deal still depends on the level of US involvement.

"We could see this deal being more a sharing of intelligence, giving Israel more access to US satellite imagery on the borders, providing more censors," he said. "And you have the sea front, where the US could possibly play a bigger role."

But while the deal would give Israel more leverage at the negotiating table with the Palestinians, without more engagement from Egypt, it would not be a practical solution, he said.


source :
Al Jazeera and agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/2009116164457134763.html

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source :
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