12:08 pm: President Barack Obama begins his inaugural speech, expected to last 20 minutes.

The full text of the speech is here.

On challenges: "Know this America, they will be met."

He acknowledges the different religions, including "non-believers." Followed by tough talk against those who need to "unclench their fist."

12:26 p.m. Speech over. We have a new President. What a relief.

This is a thread for your reactions. I'll be back tonight to cover the televised inaugural balls.

Best seats in the house...in front of the tv, watching in HD

10:45 am: The Clintons, Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Dick Cheney (in a wheelchair) are arriving.

President Bush and soon to be President Barack Obama are walking into their car to cheers.

Update 11:01 am: Michelle Obama and Laura Bush just entered, Michelle looking happy. GW and Obama entered next. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the crowd watching, with the Washington Monument in the background. John Roberts is arriving.

Interesting tidbit: Roberts will be swearing in a new president who voted against his confirmation. More updates below:

Grace Slick uttered her most memorable line at Woodstock, coming onstage Saturday at 6:00 am, saying:

Alright Friends, you have seen the heavy groups, now you will see the morning maniac music. Then she walks out to the stage with the music playing louder and she yells, Good Morning People. Believe me, it's a new dawn.

She and the band then launched into "Volunteers" (a theme that fits nicely with Obama's emphasis on service.)

Of course, we're not getting a revolution, just change, which after 8 years of Bush is just fine with most of us. The point being, there never was going to be a revolution in Washington, but I'm thrilled as could be to get even a sea change. And we will get that.[More...]

Soon to be ex-Vice President (how good it feels to write that) Dick Cheney will attend Barack Obama's inauguration in a wheelchair. He injured his back moving boxes into his new home.

I've read a lot of tweets on tonight's parties. Sounds like a lot of long lines, cold weather and traffic. On the other hand, everyone is genuinely enjoying their spot in the front row of history.

Here's an oldie but a goodie: the first time Chevy Chase imitated Gerald Ford falling down to open Saturday Night Live.

This is an open thread.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a decision today rejecting the Justice Department's "constantly shifting arguments" in defense of Dick Cheney's narrow interpretation of the vice president's obligation to comply with the Presidential Records Act. The Justice Department argued that the vice president has complete and unreviewable authority to decide how to comply with the Act, that the Act did not apply to the vice president in any event since the vice president is not part of the executive branch but is an "appendage" of Congress (sort of a cancerous growth, in Cheney's case), and that the historians who sued to seek the law's enforcement lacked standing. Wrong on all counts.

What sounds like a victory may turn out to be hollow when historians finally gain access to Cheney's records. Judge Kollar-Kotelly decided that the promise of Claire O'Donnell, "a Cheney aide who handles record-keeping and other administrative tasks," to transfer Cheney's records to the National Archives in good faith, made court-imposed relief unnecessary.

[more ...]

A Georgetown source forwards over an email from that school's administration, reporting that Professor Marty Lederman's class will be canceled -- because he's joining the Obama administration.

Lederman, another former Clinton Office of Legal Counsel lawyer, is perhaps the most prominent of several high-profile opponents of the Bush Administration's executive power claims joining Obama, a mark that he intends not just to change but to aggressively reverse Bush's moves on subjects like torture. . . . Lederman has been . . . an early and vocal critic of torture, and has suggested Bush Administration officials have committed specific crimes in that regard.

Bob Shrum must be upset about this development. I on the other hand am incredibly pleased.

Speaking for me only

some kvetching tonight. What in the world is Bob Shrum talking about?

[Obama] knows that an inquisition into Bush & Co.’s alleged crimes would divide the public square, suck up political oxygen and constrict his potential base of support in Congress. If there’s a specific allegation that must be pursued, so be it. But better to close Guantanamo, ban torture, and reinvigorate Constitutional guarantees—and yes, move on—than to engage in psychic satisfaction at the price of America’s future.

(Emphasis supplied.) Is Shrum even paying attention? Dick Cheney has bragged about waterboarding. Susan Crawford has told us we can not try Mohammed Al-Qatani because he was tortured. CIA Director Hayden has threatened to stop torturing if a wink and a nod is not given. Newsweek is advocating for continuing torture. Let's face it -- Bob Shrum does not give a sh*t about torture. That makes him pretty despicable frankly, imo, but he would do well to just shut up about it. More. . . .

So many sources of information out there, so little time to read them all. Here's the official Presidential Inauguration Committee and the Joint Congressional Committee on the Inauguration websites .

If you're at work tomorrow, you can watch the actual inauguration online here. All networks of course will broadcast the event, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET It takes place on the National Mall at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. No tickets required, open to the public, starting at 8:00 am.

After President Obama takes the oath of office and delivers his Inaugural address, there will be a departure ceremony for George W. Bush.

Following that, Obama will be escorted to Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol for the traditional Inaugural Luncheon. The menu is here and the recipes for them are here. The herb-roasted pheasant and molasses whipped sweet potatoes look pretty good and easy to make. [More...]

Former boxing champion and writer Jose "Chegui" Torres has passed away:

Former light-heavyweight boxing champion Jose Torres died Monday in Ponce, Puerto Rico, of a heart attack, according to the Associated Press. Torres was 72. Born in Ponce, Torres grew up in the United States, winning a silver medal while representing the country at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Guided by trainer Cus D'Amato, he stopped Willie Pastrano in 1965 to win the light-heavyweight title. He defended the 175-pound title three times before losing a pair of decisions to successor Dick Tiger.

I knew Chegui in New York but had not spoken to him in several years. He was a good man and lived a full life. My thoughts are with his family. May he rest in peace.

Thousands are marching in Denver and across the nation in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. today. Whether marching for peace, for justice or for human rights, there's a unifying feeling and spirit of hope that change has come and will continue.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter From a Birmingham Jail

Let's make this an open thread for your hopes of change in the coming Administration.

As his last act of compassion, President Bush commuted the prison sentences of Border Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean who shot an unarmed drug smuggler and then tried to cover it up. They got ten years and the right wing rallied around them. After all, it was only a drug dealer. And everybody lies. As to the latter, it's true enough in the Bush Administration.

The Court of Appeals had upheld their convictions for assault, discharge of a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence (the assault) and deprivation of civil rights.

If the border agents' 10 year sentences were too long because of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, so are everyone elses'. That's change Obama needs to bring to Congress.

As to pardon totals:

Clinton issued a total of 457 in eight years in office. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, issued 77 in four years. Reagan issued 406 in eight years, and President Carter issued 563 in four years. Since World War II, the largest number of pardons and commutations - 2,031 - came from President Truman, who served 82 days short of eight years.

Jeffrey Harrell, a junior at Morehouse College, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

Today, there are still immigrants and women fighting for rights, there are people who are hungry and others without homes, Harrell said. "Until everyone is able to take part in what's called the American dream, the struggle's not done," he said.

Civil rights are for all of us. Barack Obama on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

"We resolve that as we walk, we must walk together. And as we go forward in the work of renewing the promise of this nation, let's remember King's lesson -- that our separate dreams are really one."