Hey. While everyone's in love with the nation's capital, I thought I'd share some DC news...
Mayor Adrian Fenty has miraculously peeled himself away from President Obama long enough to work! Ben's Chili Bowl isn't going anywhere; annoying tourists from Milwaukee wanting to experience the historic landmark after Obama's "Average Joe" field trip to U Street are holding Fenty's place in line. Thus, between photo ops, he's decided to take the money that was set aside to rebuild historic Eastern Market (too hippie, crunchy granola, elitist for an Obama outing) to comply with "FEMA regulations".
Oh like that's important. Building levees and stuff - for DC?? It is a former swampland, but are we truly in danger of being flooded? I guess that Bethesda water main break has some people nervous. Rather be safe than sorry - but how am I going to get vintage trinkets?? Inside the market??? That's an outrage. I like to buy my cheeses indoors, but my flea market, hand crafted decor outside on a sunny day. What ever happened to Michael Berman, DC's favorite hairy artist-in-residence?? Sadly, Eastern Market is "under new management".
Glenn Beck: "I checked. We have never had a president sworn into office without a Bible."
Here are FACTS:
Franklin Pierce was the only president to use the word affirm rather than swear. Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible when taking the oath in 1901. Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, and Richard Nixon swore the oath on two Bibles. John Quincy Adams swore on a book of law.[3] Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on a Roman Catholic missal on Air Force One. Washington kissed the Bible afterwards, as some later Presidents did, but modern Presidents have not—except for Harry Truman, who bent and kissed the Bible upon taking the oath for the first time, on April 12, 1945, as well as at his second inauguration.[4] Many times the President-elect's name is added after the "I"; for example, "I, George Washington, do . . ." Lyndon B. Johnson did not add his name when swearing his first oath of office; there is evidence that in all other inaugurations since Franklin Roosevelt's first, the name of the president was added to the oath. William R. King is the only president or vice president sworn into office on foreign soil. By special act of Congress, he was allowed to take his oath on March 24, 1853 in Cuba, where he had gone because of his poor health.[5] He died 25 days later. Sarah T. Hughes is the only woman to administer the oath of office (she was a U.S. District Court judge who swore Lyndon Johnson into office on Air Force One after the Kennedy assassination).
And here's another FACT: Article 2 of the the United States Constitution prescribes that the President must take the oath "before he enter on the Execution of his Office".
The 20th Amendment, however, states that the terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
*The second being an AMENDMENT to the US Constitution, which excludes any mention of an oath or swearing in [ceremony], would logically supersede Article 2. Regardless, no president has ever forgone taking the oath of office. Unfortunately for Glenn Beck, nothing in the US Constitution makes any mention of The Bible. The word "Bible" is nowhere in the nation's founding document.
