JT Allen

The Presidential Inauguration to be held on January 20, 2009, has been designated a National Special Security Event. This designation is also extended to the Swearing-in Ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, the Inaugural Parade, the official reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Inaugural Balls. More security information can be found here >>> Personally, I think it's a great idea: who, after all, has better logistics than the United States Secret Service?

Because of road closures and restricted access around the U.S. Capitol, ticket holders should use Metro. Metrorail will operate rush hour service for 15 consecutive hours (4 a.m. to 7 p.m.), will stay open for two extra hours (until 2 a.m.), offer free parking at its facilities and will be one important transportation alternative for people who are planning to attend the Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Metrorail Information >>>

I heard the bleacher seating for Obama's inauguration parade was being cut from 20,000 to 8,700 seats. Crowd control?

Aside from the line that "separates" the Northern and Southern U.S. (which runs through mid-Atlantic states) what does "Mason-Dixon have to do with Obama in FL?

Super Genuis that Burress is ...

Keep those posts and dates coming - pleeeeeze???

Whod'a thunk it???

Anyone care to guess the last time the District of Columbia's buget wasn't operating "in the Red"?

Metrorail will operate rush hour service for 15 consecutive hours (4 a.m. to 7 p.m.), will stay open for two extra hours (until 2 a.m.), offer free parking at its facilities and will be one important transportation alternative for people who are planning to attend the Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Metro officials expect extremely crowded conditions on Inauguration Day. Metrorail stations and trains will be packed as people head to the Inauguration, and expect to see even tighter conditions afterward. Expect the crowds to be huge with hundreds of thousands of people expected to be in the nation's capital not only for Inauguration Day, but for the days preceding it as well. The U.S. Secret Service has deemed the Inauguration as a special national security event and due to security measures, the Archives-Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter Metrorail station on Metro’s Green and Yellow Lines, will be closed all day on Inauguration Day, Tuesday, January 20. In addition one of two entrances to the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue and Orange Lines will also be closed. The Smithsonian station entrance on the National Mall will be closed. The Independence Ave SW entrance will remain open. For more information call: 202/962-1234

At the risk of being a "location snob" why does the 'red-state/blue state' map read to me like a map of places (red) where NOT to live? Just my opinion. I used to live in SC: beautiful place but most of the people were Duuuumb.

T. Boone Pickens is a self-made billionaire oil-man from Texas, and he's betting BIG ($10,000,000,000.00) on wind power to help us escape the vise-like grip held on Americans by countries like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Here's his plan: (note: I couldn't decide where to post this [science and Technology?] but it's such a massive problem in scope I think politics is the right choice.) America is addicted to foreign oil. It's an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people. The addiction has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis. In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil. Today it's nearly 70% and growing. As imports grow and world prices rise, the amount of money we send to foreign nations every year is soaring. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. <script src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js?appId=2c69e4e0-3049-4791-9d8c-addb88f6c798" type=text/javascript> In 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.America uses a lot of oil. Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States. That's 25% of the world's oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world's population. Can't we just produce more oil? World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand. The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone. What's the good news? The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power. Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains States are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far. The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country. Today's wind turbines stand up to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. The blades collect the wind's kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil. Wind power currently accounts for 48 billion kWh of electricity a year in the United States — enough to serve more than 4.5 million households. That is still only about 1% of current demand, but the potential of wind is much greater. A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured. Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain. An economic revival for rural America. Developing wind power is an investment in rural America. To witness the economic promise of wind energy, look no further than Sweetwater, Texas. Sweetwater was typical of many small towns in middle-America. With a shortage of good jobs, the youth of Sweetwater were leaving in search of greater opportunities. And the town's population dropped from 12,000 to under 10,000. When a large wind power facility was built outside of town, Sweetwater experienced a revival. New economic opportunity brought the town back to life and the population has grown back up to 12,000. In the Texas panhandle, just north of Sweetwater, is the town of Pampa, where T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world. In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture the turbines and blades. These are high skill jobs that pay on a scale comparable to aerospace jobs. Plus, wind turbines don't interfere with farming and grazing, so they don't threaten food production or existing local economies. A cheap new replacement for foreign oil. The Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Vehicle is the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle in the world according to the EPA. Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation. Cleaner Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today. According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline. Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. The natural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world. According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States. The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one-third of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles. Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of the new vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas. Cheaper Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. To see fueling stations and costs in your area, check out cngprices.com. Domestic Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations. Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially and industrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow. Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoing development of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves. While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation. The Mechanics We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third. How do we get it done? The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies. Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership. On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability. You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan.

One word: Outsourcing. The sad fact of the matter is it's damn hard to find something nowadays that says "Made With Pride In The USA" and if you go into Wal-Mart "damn near hard" becomes "damn near impossible" as everything is made in China. Why even as far back as 1978 my Ford Fairmont was made in Canada (along with my 1991 supercharged Mustang)! No metric sockets/wreches, no luck. Nowadays foreign cars are made in America and vice-versa ... this is a MONSTER of a topic ...

Nah. That's weak: I'm not buying it and you shouldn't be selling it. If by "...hardworking family who strives to achieve the American Dream" you mean people who make over 250k a year, you are correct; they DO have to decide which candidate to elect but you know what? I don't think Obama is worried about the five percent of Americans you're referencing, I think he is counting on the votes of the other ninety-five percent of families/people who do not earn 250 k or above. Just my opinion.

My Dear "Always Red" and "A Friend of Dusty's": What's it gonna be guys? Is there or is there not a connection between two said Wurzelbachers'? This isn't a sliding scale; it's like pregnancy: either you ARE pregnant or you are NOT pregnant. Which is it?

You forgot to mention in Ohio, people were told if they even had a PARKING TICKET they were not allowed to vote or they would be subject to arrest. Personally, I would laugh in someone's face if they told me that but to less knowledgeable voters that would be a damn good reason not to vote.

Charming. George Bush wants taxpayers to give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a $700 billion blank check - $2,333 for every man, woman, and child - to bail out Wall Street for its reckless speculation and greed. That's on top of $1.1 trillion for Bush's other recent bailouts, including A.I.G., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Stearns. The Paulson Plan is a total outrage with no restrictions, no accountability, and no repair of the underlying problem of foreclosures on fraudulent mortgages. Each of Bush's previous bailouts was sold as a cure for the financial crisis, but each had little effect. The Paulson Plan achieves only one goal with certainty: stealing from the middle class to protect the rich. The current financial crisis is the direct result of 28 years of rightwing Republican deregulation, corruption, and greed, which became fatally toxic under Bush-Cheney and the Republican Congress. When George Bush stole the White House in 2001, President Clinton handed him a projected 10-year surplus of $5 trillion. But Bush immediately gave $2 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, then wasted $1-3 trillion invading Iraq on the basis of lies. Now Bush demands Congress increase the national debt to $11 trillion.

Interesting indeed. After some due-diligence research, I've found everything I looked up about Cindy McCain true re. this email. To digress, after watching Obama's and McCain's respective interviews on 60 Minutes last night (and being an admitted 'Lefty') I think I agree with the author of this email: Cindy McCain would be a better president than either Barack or John. While, imho, McCain skirted the issues a bit during the interview and Obama struck me as more reasonable, progressive, articulate and, well, 'sharper', I must say I was shocked by the humility and kindness Senator McCain exuded during his interview in Phoenix; "salt of the earth" as 'they' say. Too, I don't think it was an act. Although I'll be voting for Obama, I have a brand-new, immense respect for Sen. McCain ... and thanks to this email I'm responding to, for Mrs. McCain as well. I'm truly and duly impressed: good article/email about Mrs. McCain ... along with being very heart-felt. /JT Allen

YES!!! If you want to laugh so hard your face and stomach hurt, go see Greg Geraldo! A trained attorney, this guy is whip-smart. I've had the pleasure of seeing him live only once, but ya better believe I'll be there for at least one of his shows. Imho, he is one of the top five stand-ups alive today. Hold on though if you decide to go; he's WAY over the top. Definitely not one for the faint of heart, but whatever the ticket costs, it's worth every hay-penny. /JT!

"'don't want a colored man in office"? Methinks that smacks of racism but I'm uncertain of your point. Has anyone any idea what a black man in office would do to the world of comedy?? The mind boggles. Alaskan beauty queen? How come Obama couldn't get her to switch sides and be his running mate?? A black man and a beauty queen ... if I may borrow a line from The Jam "That's Entertainment". Still, I can't help but wonder what a woman on the ticket is going to do for McCain: turn voters away because of her gender, or lure them in because of said gender ... probably a break-even proposal I suppose ... JT