I am watching the HBO Inaugural Celebration. There is a lot of quoting going on, Lincoln, authors, poets, singers. Good vibes. While it is by no means any where near the adulation that surrounded Bush’s first inauguration, it got me to wondering what the hell it was that he said to us 8 years ago that at least, on that day, made us think the future was going to better than it turned out to be. After reading it a couple of times, I was amazed at how hollow and shallow it was. It was not even particularly good BS, more like the sermon you hear at a church homecoming from a visiting pastor that has no idea the congregation is going to get rid of the pastor next week. Words, just words! True in many respects, but empty in context.

I voted for Bush in ‘00. God, forgive me. His speech may not go down in history as the most boring, but it sure should go down as the most hypocritical. I started to edit it, but instead decided to include it in its entirety for those who may wish to reflect before Obama gives his first inaugural address.

So, do words matter? The answer is simply, no. Words can be hollow or sincere. Words can be spoken and followed by silence or they can be the spring board for action. If actions speak louder than words, Bush’s first inaugural should simply be deleted from the pages of books, in hope that even this small act will speed his departure from our memory.

Here is what we were told 8 years ago (I have highlighted the unfulfilled promises and what I consider to be his empty rhetoric:

President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings.

As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our nation.

And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace.

I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America’s leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.

We have a place, all of us, in a long story–a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

It is the American story–a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.

The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born.

Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course.

Through much of the last century, America’s faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.

Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after nearly 225 years, we have a long way yet to travel.

While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their birth. And sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we share a continent, but not a country.

We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.

I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His image.

And we are confident in principles that unite and lead us onward.

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.

Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation’s promise through civility, courage, compassion and character.

America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness.

Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small.

But the stakes for America are never small. If our country does not lead the cause of freedom, it will not be led. If we do not turn the hearts of children toward knowledge and character, we will lose their gifts and undermine their idealism. If we permit our economy to drift and decline, the vulnerable will suffer most.

We must live up to the calling we share. Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment.

America, at its best, is also courageous.

Our national courage has been clear in times of depression and war, when defending common dangers defined our common good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.

Together, we will reclaim America’s schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives.

We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our children from struggles we have the power to prevent. And we will reduce taxes, to recover the momentum of our economy and reward the effort and enterprise of working Americans.

We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite challenge.

We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is spared new horrors.

The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake: America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom. We will defend our allies and our interests. We will show purpose without arrogance. We will meet aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength. And to all nations, we will speak for the values that gave our nation birth.

America, at its best, is compassionate. In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation’s promise.

And whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God, they are failures of love.

And the proliferation of prisons, however necessary, is no substitute for hope and order in our souls.

Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of us are diminished when any are hopeless.

Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government.

And some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a mentor’s touch or a pastor’s prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws.

Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do.

And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.

America, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility is valued and expected.

Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience. And though it requires sacrifice, it brings a deeper fulfillment. We find the fullness of life not only in options, but in commitments. And we find that children and community are the commitments that set us free.

Our public interest depends on private character, on civic duty and family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted, unhonored acts of decency which give direction to our freedom.

Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with great love. The most important tasks of a democracy are done by everyone.

I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to live it as well.

In all these ways, I will bring the values of our history to the care of our times.

What you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character.

Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?”

Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day he would know: our nation’s grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity.

We are not this story’s author, who fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.

Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.

This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.

God bless you all, and God bless America.

Once again I feel guilty. It’s the new year, same as it was this time last year. I still need to lose a few pounds. I still have not won the lottery. Those are my two main gripes, so I have to admit that I don’t have anything to complain about. I just get older and a little more inclined to do what I want to do, rather than what I need to do. But, there are a lot of people out there whose lives have been significantly impacted by the failure of leadership in Washington and on Wall Street over the last few decades. One thing, about Americans. We rarely avoid catastrophe, we thrive on it. Sad, but true.

Thus, my apologies to all the people I have interviewed in the last month and did not take the time to post their interviews. There are several dozen. Worse than that, some of them are pretty good interviews. A few are now out of date and will not get posted, but I have a January 5th resolution to post at least one each day for the next day or so. If I stick to it, I should be caught up this time next new year.

A few thoughts about what is in store in 2009. I can hardly wait until January 20 and I can say President Obama instead of Bushit. I believe President Obama is going to prove himself a leader, the likes of which we may not have seen is decades. I do not expect miracles, but I do expect something we have not had for the last 8 years in the White House, integrity and leadership. I hope he continues to send the Left and the Right the message that America is in the middle.

Al Fraken has just been declared the winner in the Minnesota Senate race. Wasn’t he a radio talk show host at one time? Air America I think it was. Hmmm!!! Do you think……?

When I began this radio show in November 2005, I did so with the express purpose of opposing what I saw as a perverted and misguided Republican Party, State and National, that was bloated on power and void of any understanding as to the legitimate purpose of government. At that time they were expected to rule for at least a generation. Thankfully, I have lived to see the National Republican Party in its death throws. I hope something better, much better, arises from the ashes.

I did do one thing during the holidays that I always wanted to do, watch all the Planet of the Ape movies, back to back. For the first time, I understand what those movies were about. An oversimplification of the theme of those movies is that those with the power have generally deceived themselves as to the worth and nature of those who oppose them and seek only to protect themselves and their positions, even if the ultimate outcome is the destruction of the very society that they strive to maintain. Hmmm. Sounds familiar!

The battle is now going to be on the state level. The National Republican Party orchestrated catastrophe in less than two decades (1994 - 2008). The Georgia Republican Party has been in power only 4 years. Since they don’t have the power to mobilize the military, the road they have chosen to destruction may take longer, but make no mistake about it: Georgia will pay a price for leadership that neglects the people, favors unrestrained business and seeks to destroy and punish all opposition.

In case you have not noticed it, the Republican Party of Georgia is patterned after Rotary International. You can tell who will be Governor and Lt. Governor and President Pro Tempore for at least the next 6 to 8, maybe 20 years, absent death or disease. In Rotary you get in good with the movers and shakers and they make you treasurer, then secretary, then vice president, then president, then ex-president. Once you make the list, you know the future for the next 5 years. All you have to do is obey the guys ahead of you on the ladder. That, in essence, is what the Republican Party in this state has become. The people won’t chose the next governor or lt. governor. That choice will be effectively made and controlled under the gold dome.

And that may be the only hope the Democratic Party of Georgia has to capture the governorship or the lt. governorship. Some of those guys on the ladder aren’t governor material. Some have already surpassed the Peter Principle. Rather than tolerating competition for the high positions, the Republicans are propagating by in-breeding. Sooner or later, they will have the wrong guy on the ladder and a Democrat will knock him off.

It is going to be interesting to see how the Republicans handle the budget shortfalls for the current and next fiscal year. Snip, snip here. Snip, snip there. Here a little snip, there a little snip. These guys are probably the only people in the state who are secretly happy at the economic downturn because it gives them the perfect storm with which to cut programs they don’t like. You know, the kind that help people, rather than business. They might cut taxes even more, or they might grant businesses even more tax breaks, even though government revenues are sucking air. And they will sell to the trusting citizens of this state that the cuts spur the economy, even if your kid is in a classroom with 40 other kids. They will appropriate more money to put marijuana smokers in prison, but they damn sure won’t raise your taxes. They’ll just make sure your kid or your neighbor’s kid grows up stupid, commits a crime and goes to jail. The benefits of living in a cheap state are benefits of the rich, not the working middle class.

I do not know how long it will take, but I am confident that the lack of leadership to solve the problems of this state will continue to haunt us and our children.

My advice for the new year. Pay attention Georgians. All is not as it seems.