I have to admit that I caught the actual swearing-in then had to miss a bit while I made some appointments, but I'm catching up now and BOY HOWDY! is Shepard Smith from Fox News having fun. I've heard him make about 6 good-natured and fun quips about the scene and really appreciate that they've been having fun with this too. CNN seems to be much more somber in their reporting, almost "hurt." C-SPAN is it's normal droll self with very little personality. I can only sum up Chris Matthews over on MS-NBC with one word, annoying.

I do think it's important that I mention how the big boys are playing this, CBS seems to be still a little shell shocked from Rathergate and they're being quite tame. NBC's coverage seems to be fair and pretty impartial today.

HOWEVER, and this is a BIG "HOWEVER", ABC has now officially become my new hated media outlet. It appears as though yesterday, ABC put out a call to their affiliates to look for a military funeral of an American killed in Iraq to juxtapose against the inaugural ceremonies. They've asked their affiliates to go out and find a family suffering what can only be the greatest loss so that they can exploit it for what can only be considered partisan purposes. THIS IS SIMPLY DEPLORABLE. I cannot understand how some editor/producer can sit in a newsroom and think "Ok, we're going to have this great national event, one that only rolls around every 4 years and I've got the perfect way too ruin it. Let's go exploit some poor family in their moment of loss."

I just can't understand how a person can live with themselves in that sort of mindset. I can understand if some reporter were to cover the story on their own and then ABC made the connection, but to go out and look for the connection, is simply beyond the pale.

As with what has become usual though, the Blogosphere has responded. Captain's Quarters grabbed a screenshot of the request and posted it. ABC responded to the bloggers by pulling the page down off their affiliate network web and now they're ducking for cover as the fingers fly across keyboards across the world.

Damn you ABC for taking what should be a great celebration of freedom and democracy and ruining it. You've sunk to a new low in American discourse. You've shown once again that your colors are not Red, White and Blue but rather just plain sickly yellow.

Deplorable. Truely deplorable. Luckily though I can spend the rest of the afternoon watching the rest of the ceremony and parade. Democracy really is remarkable sometimes, I tell you. I hope you agree.

Here are some photos from the inauguration. . . . .

Fly Boy and the Clown!

National Security

Honorable Sacrifice

Ok, so, I think the twins are hotties!

What can I say, I LOST!!!

I'll add more as I come across them, for now though, duty calls, and I'm off.
--Jason