AddieStan

Your blogstress is pleased to inform her readers that she has received a copy of the GOP playbook, signed by Sen. Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum , for looting the Social Security program. Alas, she is still struggling with the technology that would allow her to place this 120-plus-page book in the Breakaway Republic. (She will figure it soon, she promises. Or, rather, one of those very smart geeks in her thrall will.) In the meantime, should you wish to have a copy, please e-mail the Webwench , and she will happily send it your way.

Though your cybertrix has a torrent of bon mots to offer on this inaugural occasion, she has suffered such daunting technical difficulties while blogging the festivities, that she is giving up until later. Do check in later, though, for some amusing anecdotes.

Whoa--some benediction, huh? When's the last time you heard a political benediction that asks the Creator for deliverance from the "Evil One"? (Who we talkin' 'bout here? Satan? Osama bin Laden?) Rev. Kirby John Caldwell also offered an act of confession in an appeal for forgiveness "for being ensnarled in petty partisan politics." Your Webwench suspects that Tom DeLay has purchased an indulgence on that count. And how comforting to find the eschatological subtext continued in this celebration of freedom with the reverend's reference to the "latter days" of Americans, which he said would be better than our "former days." In the words of Robert Anton Wilson in The Illuminatus Trilogy , let's hope the administration fails in what could be viewed as a plan to "immanentize the eschaton."

Your blogstress is having a hard time discerning which lines in the president's speech were the creepiest: his reference to "a day of fire," which reads like the Book of Revelations, or his invocation of "a new order for the ages," which invokes the Illuminati. (Must be a Skull & Bones thing.)

Were the president's second inaugural speech not delivered with a tongue planted firmly in cheek, it might actually be an uplifting speech--at least at this juncture, to quote his dad. But as this administration chips away at the Bill of Rights, what does one make of a line like: "Rights must be more than the grudging consent of dictators."?

The rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, apparently thinks a 19th Century Christian Socialist named Francis Bellamy was among them. He's the one who wrote the words: "one nation [under God], indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" that the good reverend attributed to the Founding Fathers.

Okay, so Cheney's veep again, having just been sworn in by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Let's make a toast to the president's health.

Well, Lott's address, which seemed to feature the word "freedom" quite a lot, was so forgettable that your Webwench has already forgotten what he said.

Your blogstress is pleased to report that she is yet to see a sniper on her roof, living, as she does, several blocks away from the U.S. Capitol Building. Her television, however, is turned up to the level customary in nursing homes in order to overcome the drone of helicopters overhead. His Smugness, the president of the United States, has just taken his place in the inaugural viewing stand, awaiting his call to the podium. Note to readers: Is you cybertrix the only one who finds irony in the fact that the nation's capital is in virtual lockdown for something called "A Celebration of Freedom?" Lott has just assumed the podium. Let's listen, shall we?

Thanks to a well-placed friend, below you will find the original White House e-mail on Social Security reform that is currently kicking up some dust in the media: -----Original Message----- From: Wehner, Peter H. Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 2:57 PM Subject: Some Thoughts on Social Security I wanted to provide to you our latest thinking (not for attribution) on Social Security reform. I don't need to tell you that this will be one of the most important conservative undertakings of modern times. If we succeed in reforming Social Security, it will rank as one of the most significant conservative governing achievements ever. The scope and scale of this endeavor are hard to overestimate. Let me tell you first what our plans are in terms of sequencing and political strategy. We will focus on Social Security immediately in this new year. Our strategy will probably include speeches early this month to establish an important premise: the current system is heading for an ic...