In Other News...

Hey, Aretha! Queen Elizabeth called. She wants to know where you got that hat, and if there's a matching purse!

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Hillary Clinton was sworn in as Secretary of State in a private ceremony last night. This morning, she greeted about 1,000 State Department employees. There will be a renewed emphasis on diplomacy, and she assured the employees that she wants their feedback, which was met with applause and a big sigh of relief.

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President Obama signed four Executive Orders this morning, making it official that the detention center at Guantanamo will be closed within a year. One of the orders did away with the torture and abuse of the detainees.

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If you want to know what President Obama has planned for other areas of interest, I urge you to go to http://www.whitehouse.gov the official website. I think you might be impressed, as I was, with how user-friendly it is, and the openness with which he sets out his plans.

No mumbo-jumbo on this site, any more. Let the sunshine in!

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Caroline Kennedy has taken her name out of consideration for Hillary Clinton's replacement in the Senate. This clears the way for Governor Patterson to appoint Andrew Cuomo to the seat, if he chooses to do so. Of course, there are other names on the short list, but by appointing Cuomo, he effectively rids himself of a powerful gubernatorial candidate in the next New York election. We'll be interested to see what he decides.

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I hope everyone is satisfied that President Obama has properly taken the Oath of Office, now. I guess I can always hope, but there will be those who will find little things to nitpick, no doubt. This afternoon, in a press conference, the Press Secretary was asked by Chuck Todd, of NBC, who should know better, if President Obama would now have to re-sign the exuctive orders that he signed before repeating the oath.

ooooh-oooh-oooh (hand in the air) Let me answer to that question. President Obama automatically and officially became the President at high noon on January 20, as set out in the Constitution. The Oath of Office is a formality, the words of which are provided in the Constitution and the do-over was an attempt to satisfy the media and those who were nattering away, mindlessly, about the snafu made by the Chief Justice.

By the way, don't you think it's odd that some people would be such sticklers about the mis-placement of a word, and yet those same people never utter a sound about the addition of four words, "so help me God" that are not present in the Constitution's version? I'm just sayin'.

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President Obama will be allowed to keep his precious blackberry, but with some rather stringent restrictions. Another little problem solved.


Stay tuned.