Inaugural Report From Betsy!!

Wow! No arrests for Mom! Just kidding :)

Okay, before everyone asks me how it went ...

Me and Ma rode the subway, stuffed in a train like sardines, to Judiciary Square, a subway stop I'm familiar with. I thought "oh this'll be great. I know where to go." Ma didn't think so, so she asked a 'scout volunteer' for directions. We had "Gold Tickets" (Nose bleed section) so she said 'go down to 7th street.'

So we went down to 7th street, and waited for security. It was a huge group, and we were quickly surrounded by 'ANSWER" protestors. And of course, there we were wearing our "W in 2004" buttons on our hats, surrounded by these people. Well, they were real nasty. One of them said to us 'Republicans don't want a democracy'. This one mean looking lady accused us of cutting in line (as if. There was no 'line', there was a huge blob of people. We were pushed further into the blob by the cops.)

So I gave this mean lady a cold stare, right into her face, and I said "Ma, I think we should go somewhere else. There are lots of hostile people here." Ma said "No, I'm not moving. She wants me to, so I'm not going to give into her." But then they were turning on tv cameras, and I told Ma, in a real loud voice, "Ma, I don't want to be photographed standing around with THESE PEOPLE. I have a CLEAN record. And it would damage my REPUTATION."

So then we hauled off to a 3rd street enterance. There were a number of protestors there too, but also lots of Bush people, and we felt more safe. I saw one buck-toothed lady holding a sign that said "Texas feminists say impeach Bush" or something like that. So, I took a photo so Shannon could ritually burn it later. Most of the protestors were college kids, they were from DC, because they were all shouting "get out of our city!" There weren't lots and lots of them, and I'm guessing they had nothing better to do (all the city colleges were closed for the day.)

They had a variety of chants, many so offensive, I can't repeat them. Others included "Who is the terrorist? Bush is the terrorist!" and "What do we want? peace! When do we want it? Now!" (Vietnam rehash, totally unoriginal.)

Security searched us in the typical 'spread 'em' pattern, and then we walked over to the Capital! The grounds were limited to ticket-holders, and all of these were Republicans. We got there two minutes before the Vice-President took his oath. The best part was hearing Chief Justice Rehnquist swear the President in. His voice was really tired, but he got through it!

As for the speech: I liked it. It was short, and eloquent. It was a little dark, though. It felt kinda like we were troops being rallied to go fight in the Apocalypse or something. Not so much "Hope" but more "All Hail the victorious dead!" (Lord of the Rings, Return of the King quote, when King Theodin is congratulating his people on their victory in Helm's Deep, but while the final battle of Minas Tirith looms ahead, am I not a dork or what)

Some wide-eyed crazy looking lady was weaving through the crowd, waving a foot-long hankercheif with red paint on it, whispering to us 'Bush is lying! He's hypnotizing you!" Ma said "we're trying to listen to a speech!" The guy next to us said ' thats news to me lady' and she ran off.

We didn't stay for the parade. On our way back there was some guy with a placard, and he was screaming, informing us that "George is the Anti-Christ!" . We went home and we watched the parade on t.v. Then we went out for dinner , and when we got back we watched all the coverage of the innagural balls, and Ma gave the thumbs up sign for Laura Bush's gown. Me, personally, I liked her red one last time better. But I thought the white thing she wore in the parade was way better than the blue thing she wore to the parade last time. Okay, now I'm a super dork.

All in all, gooood. Ma only fought with me a few times. It was great, and i have pictures! (Not of anyone famous, but still) Which I will be sending sometime! I just got back from delivering Ma to the airport. TTFN!!!!