WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Based on their latest estimates, congressional officials organizing next week's presidential inaugural expect 2 million people to brave extra-long security lines in the bitter cold to witness Barack Obama being sworn in as the first African-American U.S. president.
"Hopefully, people will be of good temper and willing to go through the lines it will take," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who chairs the congressional committee organizing inaugural events on Capitol Hill. "Because they are going to have to go through magnetometers and they are going to be wanded. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the time."
Forecasts show the high temperature on Inauguration Day will be 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius).
Speaking with other officials at a news conference Friday previewing the inaugural festivities, Feinstein warned that people will have to walk long distances to get to the event and should plan to arrive early.
"Most people will be standing for a substantial period of time, and be sure you can do it," she said. "People have to be prepared to handle very cold weather, especially if the wind comes up."
She suggested people not bring infants or children unless they are of an "age and durability" to withstand the cold over a long period of time.
"Be very careful if you're planning to bring your children, cause it's not going to be easy," she said, speaking as a mother and grandmother.
Contingency plans exist to move the swearing-in inside the Capitol if the cold becomes "life-endangering," according to Howard Gantman, who works for Feinstein. "But in view of the large number of people, there's a strong intent to do this outside," he said.
Crowd estimates are down from an original prediction from District of Columbia officials that as many as 4 million people would crowd the Capitol grounds and the National Mall to see the event. The new figures, based on fresh surveys of charter bus companies, show far fewer are coming than initially thought.
Feinstein ticked through other facts and figures about the event:
# More than two dozen construction workers hammered together 22,000 sheets of plywood to build the dramatic inaugural platform on the West Front of the Capitol where Obama will take the oath of office.
# While 2 million people will attend the event, many will see it best on one of two dozen jumbo televisions placed along the Mall. Only 240,000 people will get official inaugural tickets, and most of them will have to stand. A mere 28,000 seats are available on the Capitol grounds. Video Watch the frenzy for inaugural tickets »
# Five thousand portable bathrooms will be set up for ticketed guests on the Capitol grounds. Feinstein didn't know how many toilets would be available along the Mall for people without tickets.
# It cost $3.5 million to build the inaugural platform and rent the chairs and fencing on the Capitol grounds, according to Stephan Ayers, the acting architect of the Capitol.
# Almost 2 million people have visited the inaugural.senate.gov Web site, with most of the attention going to the page featuring the menu for the inaugural luncheon that will immediately follow the swearing-in in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.
The elite few who are invited to that lunch will enjoy a three-course meal featuring wines from Feinstein's home state of California, she said.
The first course will be "seafood stew served with Duckhorn Vineyards, 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley." That will be followed by "a brace of American birds (pheasant and duck), served with sour cherry chutney and molasses sweet potatoes; served with Goldeneye, 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley."
And finally, "apple cinnamon sponge cake and sweet cream glace served with Korbel Natural 'Special Inaugural Cuvee,' California Champagne."
Feinstein said she and a small group of senators' wives, and Nancy Erickson, the secretary of the Senate, chose the menu after a competition of the "very best that the Washington catering establishment has to offer."
Over the head table at the lunch will hang an 1865 painting, "View of the Yosemite Valley," by American artist Thomas Hill. The picture is on loan from the New York Historical Society.
The swearing-in ceremony itself won't change from previous inaugurals, Feinstein said. She and her staff studied DVDs of past ceremonies "so everything is according to historical procedure."
She said the ceremony is "scripted, and it is concise and it moves quickly."
Feinstein's Senate office received more than 60,000 requests for inaugural tickets. But, as a senator, she was allotted just under 300 to give out. House members get just under 200.
She said everyone she is giving a ticket to must pledge not to sell the ticket for a profit.
As chairman of the inaugural committee, Feinstein will make "very formal and very brief" introductions for all the speakers at the inauguration.
Asked if she would have trouble introducing Pastor Rick Warren -- who will deliver the invocation -- with whom she disagrees politically on some issues such as gay rights, she said no.
"This is not a political event," she said.
Feinstein was also asked to sum up her feelings about the first African-American being sworn in as president.
"For me, that's going to be the most amazing part," she said. "I'm going to look out at the Lincoln Memorial as Barack Obama takes the oath of office. I'm going to think back into our history 200 years and what America was like at that time, especially for African-Americans. And then to realize that we've gone from the monument to the White House in that 200 years. And the doors are open. And we have a bright, young, energetic president who happens to be African-American, and the American people are rejoicing."
Source: CNN NEWS
How to watch Obama's inauguration online
(CNET) -- More than 2 million Americans lost their jobs last year, the stock market fell by almost 45 percent from its peak, and comparisons with the Great Depression are becoming disturbingly commonplace.
But that isn't stopping Washington from throwing a $160 million party, the most lavish ever, for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration on Tuesday.
Technology companies are joining the festivities by hosting a number of inaugural parties, and a collection of news and other Web sites are aiming to let anyone who can't be in the nation's capital--or who doesn't want to brave probably-freezing temperatures--follow along online.
Here's a partial list:
• The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is in charge of all the inaugural activities at the Capitol, will stream the entire event at its Web site, complete with closed captioning. The site has a wealth of information about what happens on Inauguration Day, including a handful of inaugural videos dating back to President Dwight Eisenhower's 1957 swearing-in ceremony, as well as videos of presidential luncheons dating back to the inauguration of John Kennedy. (It also reveals, for those interested, the recipe for Obama's luncheon meal, which features a main course of pheasant and duck served with sour cherry chutney.)
• Our sister site CBS News will have day-long live coverage January 20 on TV and the Web, starting at 7 a.m. EDT. Katie Couric will also host a special Webcast that night with reporters and punditry, for which viewers can submit questions.
• CBS streaming coverage will also be Webcast on Joost's Everything Obama page, which also features interviews, campaign highlights, and satire clips.
• MSNBC will be live streaming the event on its home page and politics section, and visitors can embed the video into their own sites. Its inauguration page also features videos of inaugurations from decades past.
• Fox News will provide live streaming coverage via Hulu beginning at noon for about two hours. After the live stream, Hulu will provide on-demand access to the ceremony. The live stream is embeddable, as is an inauguration countdown from Hulu. The video site's Obama Presidency page also features related content like speeches, commentary, satire, and past inaugural speeches.
• C-SPAN will debut its Inauguration Hub on January 20, featuring an online "control room"--a multichannel grid designed by Mogulus with Webcasts of inauguration activities. Visitors will be able to choose from one of four live feeds featuring events like the swearing in at the Capitol, the parade, and a number of inaugural balls.
• CNN is partnering with Facebook to provide live streaming of the swearing in and Obama's speech. Viewers can "RSVP" for the event on Facebook, and as they watch, they will be able to provide status updates with their thoughts on the events. A Facebook window on the CNN.com Live channel will show viewers their friends' relevant status updates.
• Current TV and Twitter are teaming up, as they did during the election, to add real-time tweets to Current's broadcast and Webcast of the swearing in, which starts at 11:30 a.m. EDT and will be replayed throughout the day.
• The New York Times, the AP's online video network, and the Online NewsHour will also live stream inauguration coverage.
Once Obama is sworn in, he'll be party hopping through Washington that night. The Presidential Inauguration Committee has promised to Webcast some of the official inaugural balls--though there are plenty of unofficial parties, including some hosted by tech companies.
The Recording Industry Association of America is hosting a charity ball featuring the recording artist Rihanna and the actors David Arquette and Courteney Cox. The ball benefits the nonprofit Feeding America and is co-sponsored by Yahoo, Comcast, Oracle, AT&T, SoundExchange, Time Warner, News Corp., and a number of other companies.
Google is partnering with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to host "a break from traditional inaugural balls." Guests are encouraged to make donations--which Google will match--to organizations including the LCCR Education Fund, One Economy, the Sunlight Foundation, D.C. Central Kitchen, and Green For All.
The Huffington Post, the news aggregation and commentary site, is hosting a pre-inaugural ball Monday night with the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Musk Foundation, which supports research on renewable energy, human space exploration, and pediatrics. The event is also receiving sponsorship from MySpace, Comcast, the wind power company Vestas, and the nonprofit Global Green USA, among others.
The party, they say, is "to celebrate change in Washington, the rise of new media, and a renewed commitment to service and the environment," and features a performance by Will.i.am.
Plenty of other parties will be celebrating a renewed commitment to the environment, including the Green Inaugural Ball, chaired by Al Gore and hosted by a number of organizations like the American Council on Renewable Energy, the Energy Action Coalition, and the Vote Solar Initiative.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.
Source: CNN
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
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"Hopefully, people will be of good temper and willing to go through the lines it will take," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who chairs the congressional committee organizing inaugural events on Capitol Hill. "Because they are going to have to go through magnetometers and they are going to be wanded. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the time."
Forecasts show the high temperature on Inauguration Day will be 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius).
Speaking with other officials at a news conference Friday previewing the inaugural festivities, Feinstein warned that people will have to walk long distances to get to the event and should plan to arrive early.
"Most people will be standing for a substantial period of time, and be sure you can do it," she said. "People have to be prepared to handle very cold weather, especially if the wind comes up."
She suggested people not bring infants or children unless they are of an "age and durability" to withstand the cold over a long period of time.
"Be very careful if you're planning to bring your children, cause it's not going to be easy," she said, speaking as a mother and grandmother.
Contingency plans exist to move the swearing-in inside the Capitol if the cold becomes "life-endangering," according to Howard Gantman, who works for Feinstein. "But in view of the large number of people, there's a strong intent to do this outside," he said.
Crowd estimates are down from an original prediction from District of Columbia officials that as many as 4 million people would crowd the Capitol grounds and the National Mall to see the event. The new figures, based on fresh surveys of charter bus companies, show far fewer are coming than initially thought.
Feinstein ticked through other facts and figures about the event:
# More than two dozen construction workers hammered together 22,000 sheets of plywood to build the dramatic inaugural platform on the West Front of the Capitol where Obama will take the oath of office.
# While 2 million people will attend the event, many will see it best on one of two dozen jumbo televisions placed along the Mall. Only 240,000 people will get official inaugural tickets, and most of them will have to stand. A mere 28,000 seats are available on the Capitol grounds. Video Watch the frenzy for inaugural tickets »
# Five thousand portable bathrooms will be set up for ticketed guests on the Capitol grounds. Feinstein didn't know how many toilets would be available along the Mall for people without tickets.
# It cost $3.5 million to build the inaugural platform and rent the chairs and fencing on the Capitol grounds, according to Stephan Ayers, the acting architect of the Capitol.
# Almost 2 million people have visited the inaugural.senate.gov Web site, with most of the attention going to the page featuring the menu for the inaugural luncheon that will immediately follow the swearing-in in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.
The elite few who are invited to that lunch will enjoy a three-course meal featuring wines from Feinstein's home state of California, she said.
The first course will be "seafood stew served with Duckhorn Vineyards, 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley." That will be followed by "a brace of American birds (pheasant and duck), served with sour cherry chutney and molasses sweet potatoes; served with Goldeneye, 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley."
And finally, "apple cinnamon sponge cake and sweet cream glace served with Korbel Natural 'Special Inaugural Cuvee,' California Champagne."
Feinstein said she and a small group of senators' wives, and Nancy Erickson, the secretary of the Senate, chose the menu after a competition of the "very best that the Washington catering establishment has to offer."
Over the head table at the lunch will hang an 1865 painting, "View of the Yosemite Valley," by American artist Thomas Hill. The picture is on loan from the New York Historical Society.
The swearing-in ceremony itself won't change from previous inaugurals, Feinstein said. She and her staff studied DVDs of past ceremonies "so everything is according to historical procedure."
She said the ceremony is "scripted, and it is concise and it moves quickly."
Feinstein's Senate office received more than 60,000 requests for inaugural tickets. But, as a senator, she was allotted just under 300 to give out. House members get just under 200.
She said everyone she is giving a ticket to must pledge not to sell the ticket for a profit.
As chairman of the inaugural committee, Feinstein will make "very formal and very brief" introductions for all the speakers at the inauguration.
Asked if she would have trouble introducing Pastor Rick Warren -- who will deliver the invocation -- with whom she disagrees politically on some issues such as gay rights, she said no.
"This is not a political event," she said.
Feinstein was also asked to sum up her feelings about the first African-American being sworn in as president.
"For me, that's going to be the most amazing part," she said. "I'm going to look out at the Lincoln Memorial as Barack Obama takes the oath of office. I'm going to think back into our history 200 years and what America was like at that time, especially for African-Americans. And then to realize that we've gone from the monument to the White House in that 200 years. And the doors are open. And we have a bright, young, energetic president who happens to be African-American, and the American people are rejoicing."
Source: CNN NEWS
How to watch Obama's inauguration online
(CNET) -- More than 2 million Americans lost their jobs last year, the stock market fell by almost 45 percent from its peak, and comparisons with the Great Depression are becoming disturbingly commonplace.
But that isn't stopping Washington from throwing a $160 million party, the most lavish ever, for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration on Tuesday.
Technology companies are joining the festivities by hosting a number of inaugural parties, and a collection of news and other Web sites are aiming to let anyone who can't be in the nation's capital--or who doesn't want to brave probably-freezing temperatures--follow along online.
Here's a partial list:
• The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is in charge of all the inaugural activities at the Capitol, will stream the entire event at its Web site, complete with closed captioning. The site has a wealth of information about what happens on Inauguration Day, including a handful of inaugural videos dating back to President Dwight Eisenhower's 1957 swearing-in ceremony, as well as videos of presidential luncheons dating back to the inauguration of John Kennedy. (It also reveals, for those interested, the recipe for Obama's luncheon meal, which features a main course of pheasant and duck served with sour cherry chutney.)
• Our sister site CBS News will have day-long live coverage January 20 on TV and the Web, starting at 7 a.m. EDT. Katie Couric will also host a special Webcast that night with reporters and punditry, for which viewers can submit questions.
• CBS streaming coverage will also be Webcast on Joost's Everything Obama page, which also features interviews, campaign highlights, and satire clips.
• MSNBC will be live streaming the event on its home page and politics section, and visitors can embed the video into their own sites. Its inauguration page also features videos of inaugurations from decades past.
• Fox News will provide live streaming coverage via Hulu beginning at noon for about two hours. After the live stream, Hulu will provide on-demand access to the ceremony. The live stream is embeddable, as is an inauguration countdown from Hulu. The video site's Obama Presidency page also features related content like speeches, commentary, satire, and past inaugural speeches.
• C-SPAN will debut its Inauguration Hub on January 20, featuring an online "control room"--a multichannel grid designed by Mogulus with Webcasts of inauguration activities. Visitors will be able to choose from one of four live feeds featuring events like the swearing in at the Capitol, the parade, and a number of inaugural balls.
• CNN is partnering with Facebook to provide live streaming of the swearing in and Obama's speech. Viewers can "RSVP" for the event on Facebook, and as they watch, they will be able to provide status updates with their thoughts on the events. A Facebook window on the CNN.com Live channel will show viewers their friends' relevant status updates.
• Current TV and Twitter are teaming up, as they did during the election, to add real-time tweets to Current's broadcast and Webcast of the swearing in, which starts at 11:30 a.m. EDT and will be replayed throughout the day.
• The New York Times, the AP's online video network, and the Online NewsHour will also live stream inauguration coverage.
Once Obama is sworn in, he'll be party hopping through Washington that night. The Presidential Inauguration Committee has promised to Webcast some of the official inaugural balls--though there are plenty of unofficial parties, including some hosted by tech companies.
The Recording Industry Association of America is hosting a charity ball featuring the recording artist Rihanna and the actors David Arquette and Courteney Cox. The ball benefits the nonprofit Feeding America and is co-sponsored by Yahoo, Comcast, Oracle, AT&T, SoundExchange, Time Warner, News Corp., and a number of other companies.
Google is partnering with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to host "a break from traditional inaugural balls." Guests are encouraged to make donations--which Google will match--to organizations including the LCCR Education Fund, One Economy, the Sunlight Foundation, D.C. Central Kitchen, and Green For All.
The Huffington Post, the news aggregation and commentary site, is hosting a pre-inaugural ball Monday night with the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Musk Foundation, which supports research on renewable energy, human space exploration, and pediatrics. The event is also receiving sponsorship from MySpace, Comcast, the wind power company Vestas, and the nonprofit Global Green USA, among others.
The party, they say, is "to celebrate change in Washington, the rise of new media, and a renewed commitment to service and the environment," and features a performance by Will.i.am.
Plenty of other parties will be celebrating a renewed commitment to the environment, including the Green Inaugural Ball, chaired by Al Gore and hosted by a number of organizations like the American Council on Renewable Energy, the Energy Action Coalition, and the Vote Solar Initiative.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.
Source: CNN
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
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