JFK Inauguration 50 Years Ago Close and Clear

post from The Washington Note on 20 January 2011 11:00:28 AM. © The Washington Note

(thanks to LIFE.com for permission to reprint this picture; click image for larger version)

I am really enjoying LIFE.com's more frequent releases of never before published nor seen photos of great events and people, and I'm grateful for the permissions from LIFE to share these photos with readers of The Washington Note.

Today, we have never-before-seen photos from JFK's 1961 White House inauguration on the 50th anniversary of his swearing into office.

From the LIFE intro to these fascinating photos:

January 20, 1961, was a bitterly cold day in Washington. And yet, as John and Jackie Kennedy set out on foot from the White House to the Capitol -- where hours later JFK would to be sworn in as America's 35th president -- the overriding sense of cheer and confidence in the old town was palpable.

This, after all, was the symbolic commencement of "Camelot" -- the evocative label, born of the young president's fondness for the Broadway musical of the same name, ever-after associated with Kennedy's administration. To chronicle the heady, historic event, LIFE sent several of its best photographers to D.C. for the inauguration (and for the black-tie parties before and after the swearing-in). While the magazine ran nearly 20 photos from the day in the next week's issue, many, many more pictures were stored away in LIFE's archives, never to be seen -- until now.

Here, on the 50th anniversary of that freezing, exuberant day in D.C., LIFE.com presents rare and previously unpublished photos of JFK's 1961 inauguration.

(to the left and above)

Jackie and John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, and others prepare at the White House for the inauguration. While Jack Kennedy's time in the White House was ultimately cut short in November 1963, his administration's "thousand days" -- the title of Arthur Schlesinger's classic 1965 account of Camelot -- would be rife with drama, crisis, and firsts.

The founding of the Peace Corps; the Bay of Pigs debacle; the Cuban Missile Crisis -- in less than three years, JFK and his circle initiated federal programs and weathered political storms that still resonate five decades on.

(thanks to LIFE.com for permission to reprint this picture; click image for larger version)

In a Leonard McCombe photograph that, five decades later, feels disturbingly familiar, and haunted, a smiling President Kennedy and the First Lady ride through cheering crowds in an open convertible.

(thanks to LIFE.com for permission to reprint this picture; click image for larger version)

In a previously unpublished photo by LIFE's Joe Scherschel, President Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon Johnson take part in Inauguration Day ceremonies, January 20, 1961.

In looking back at these photos and remembering what Kennedy inspired in so many, I can't help but think of President Obama in similar terms. But Presidents can't be only about veneer and hope; they must earn the respect of citizens and other leaders by performing well in times when all of the choices are hard.

I think Kennedy and Obama both inspired on the front end of their presidencies, but the realities of the world -- the Soviets in Kennedy's time and a world without equilibrium in Obama's -- did force in the former and are forcing today hard choices.

-- Steve Clemons

Read The Full Article:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2011/01/jfk_inauguratio/

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Daley sells his 189,190 shares in JP
Morgan/Chase, which just got busted for screwing the troops

post from AMERICAblog News on 20 January 2011 11:00:27 AM. © AMERICAblog News

The new White House Chief of Staff, William Daley, served on the Board of Directors of JP Morgan Chase. He just had to sell his shares for approximately $8.3 million, according to Bloomberg:

William Daley, President Barack Obama?s new chief of staff, filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission today to sell 186,190 shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. that he valued at almost $8.3 million.

The approximate date of sale was listed in the filing as today and comes as Daley, a former JPMorgan executive, divests his holdings to work at the White House.

Daley?s last day as a vice chairman at JPMorgan was Jan. 7. He resigned from the boards of Boeing Co. and Abbott Laboratories the same day.

Yesterday, there was another article about JP Morgan/Chase, which Chris posted, on how that bank overcharged and wrongly foreclosed on military families. Yeah, the mega-bank screwed over 4,000 troops.

[O]ne military family's five-year battle with the mortgage giant, who overcharged them by as much as $900 a month. While Marine Captain Jonathan Rowles was away on active duty, his wife Julia got calls demanding $15,000 they didn't owe. "It's been a nightmare, it's been my living nightmare," Julia Rowles told NBC News.

Chase admitted that 14 military families lost their homes thanks to the mistake, and 4,000 active service members have been wrongly overcharged.

Can someone in the White House press corps ask Daley about this article? Ask if he knows that during his tenure on the Board of JP Morgan/Chase, the bank was screwing over U.S. servicemembers, harassing some while foreclosing on others. Daley was, after all, the Vice Chair of JP Morgan/Chase. And if he didn't know, why not?

There are no repercussions for the bad behavior of our financial institutions, only rich rewards.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/U5sMhSENIz0/daley-sells-his-189190-
shares-in-jp.html

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Some Good News For a Change

post from Crooks and Liars on 20 January 2011 11:00:22 AM. © Crooks and Liars

My sunny optimist self is pushing back against all the sad, bad news lately, so like it or not, I'm going to serve up some very, very good news to break up the flow.

Beginning with the best news of all: Rep. Gabby Giffords stood up on her own yesterday, with help. Not only did she stand up to look at the mountains, but she scrolled through pictures on her husband's iPhone, and may be moved to rehab in Houston as early as Friday.

Ms. Giffords?s husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, a naval officer and astronaut who lives in Houston, said in the statement: ?I am extremely hopeful at the signs of recovery that my wife has made since the shooting. The team of doctors and nurses at U.M.C. has stabilized her to the point of being ready to move to the rehabilitation phase. Their goal ? and our goal ? has been to provide Gabby with the best care possible.?
Captain Kelly said the center in Houston had ?a national reputation for treating serious penetrating brain injuries, and is also in a community where I have family and a strong support network.?

To me, this is nothing short of a miracle. Less than 2 weeks after being shot, to stand on her own, to be nearly ready to move to the rehabilitation phase? Amazing.

In other news, the Chinese pandas get to stay in Washington DC for five more years. This makes me happy. I love pandas.

Joe Lieberman is officially gone in 2012. Let the best liberal win that seat.

In approval ratings-land, the honeymoon is over for congressional Republicans.

Just 25 percent say that the Republicans in Congress will bring ?the right kind of change? to the country. That?s compared with 42 percent who said that after Democrats took over the House in 2007, and 37 percent who said that after Republicans gained control in 1995.
[...]
And attitudes about the Republican Party have declined, with 34 percent viewing the GOP positively and 40 percent negatively ? down from its 38-37 percent favorable/unfavorable rating last month.
By comparison, the Democratic Party?s fav/unfav in the current poll is 39-35 percent, up from its 37-41 percents score from last month.

As the topper, the awesome news that Sarah Palin's approval ratings are at an all-time low. Keep talkin', Sarah.

Here's this wonderful tidbit for dessert. It seems that Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have been dropped from their usual slots on right wing hate radio in Philadelphia.

That's two Philly stations that have dropped Beck. Keep going...

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/some-good-news-change

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Conservative Blogger Calls For Giffords To
Resign, Says Holding Seat Akin To ‘Political Brett Favre’

post from ThinkProgress on 20 January 2011 11:00:04 AM. © ThinkProgress

In an article published on theloop21.com, John Wilson, a “regular contributor to Hip Hop Republican,” mused that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) should resign her seat as she recuperates from her gunshot wounds. Citing media reports about Gifford’s medical condition, Wilson compared Giffords to the late Rep. Gladys Spellman (D-MD), who went into a coma while in office. He then asked, “Should constituents allow members to hold onto their seats like political Brett Favres with no concept of when it is time to go?” FrumForum, the conservative news site managed by former Bush administration official David Frum, promoted the article on its website this afternoon.

Thankfully Rep. Giffords is on the road to recovery. However, it will be long, arduous and unpredictable. There is no doubt her constituents mourn for her and her family. But does that mean they should also go without representation in Congress? Certainly not. [...]
Stepping down from one?s office is nothing to be ashamed of. In actuality, the shame lies in not being honest with one?s own self about the responsibilities that voters have entrusted in one and the expectations they have. Constituents should expect that an official will either be appointed or a special election held within six months, not years. This current Congress should take this issue up immediately and in consultation with Giffords? family and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer come to an appropriate remedy.

Wilson says he is calling for Gifford’s resignation in deference to her constituents who need active representation. However, it seems quite early to make that call. Giffords could be released from the hospital and enter rehab as soon as this week. Since the tragic shooting in Arizona, she only missed one substantive vote. Furthermore, Wilson never voiced a demand for resignation last year when former Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) missed over one hundred votes while campaigning for governor or when former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) missed a crucial vote on unemployment extension.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/20/blogger-giffords-resign/

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This Metal Might Be 2011s Biggest Winner But Its
Not Gold

post from Jutia Group on 20 January 2011 11:00:00 AM. © Jutia Group

Pop Quiz: This versatile metal, which is light enough to float on water and soft enough to be cut with a knife, has commercial applications ranging from pharmaceuticals . . . → Full Story: This Metal Might Be 2011′s Biggest Winner… But It’s Not Gold

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20110120-this-metal-might-be-2011s-biggest-winner-but-its-n
ot-gold/

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Market Update: Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB),
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM)

post from Jutia Group on 20 January 2011 10:56:20 AM. © Jutia Group

Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) were off about 4% in premarket action Thursday after the bank said it plans to raise $1.7 billion in common equity to pay . . . → Full Story: Market Update: Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM)

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20110120-market-update-fifth-third-bancorp-nasdaqfitb-apple
-nasdaqaapl-hewlett-packard-nysehpq-toyota-motor-nysetm/

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Merkley to Obama: Address the Foreclosure Crisis
at the State of the Union

post from Firedoglake on 20 January 2011 10:55:10 AM. © Firedoglake

Among the few people in Washington willing to bring up the inconvenient and much ignored foreclosure crisis is Sen. Jeff Merkley. He unveiled an actual plan for fixing the mortgage market Tuesday, and today he writes a letter to the President, pleading[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/I8oXJMDdpeA/

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Educating Rep. Joe Wilson on how a bill becomes a
law

Dear Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson,

Regarding this:

You might want to watch this:

You're very welcome,

kos

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/h1LDLHQ7ftk/-Educating-Rep.-Joe-Wi
lson-on-how-a-bill-becomes-a-law

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"Taxation is tyranny"--the far reach of Randian
"morality" in perpetuating economic derangement

Last Friday, I wrote a diary, "The moral battle of our age", in which I discussed Paul Krugman's[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenLeft-FrontPage/~3/T4H0dROfbYQ/taxation-is-tyra
nnythe-far-reach-of-randian-morality-in-perpetuating-economic-derangement

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America's Permanent Wars Are Breeding Spiritual
Death

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 20 January 2011 10:16:20 AM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

BOB KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The easy violence of empire washes over everything. It washes into our psyches.

I'm thinking about this in connection with the juxtaposition of anniversaries this week: Martin Luther King Day; President Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation in 1961, in which he sounded the warning about the military-industrial complex; and George H.W. Bush's bombing campaign that launched the Gulf War in 1991, pounding not only Saddam (our kill ratio was 1,000-to-1) but also the so-called "Vietnam Syndrome" and America's post-modernist antipathy to war, thus re-energizing . . . the military-industrial complex.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death," King said in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech a year before his death, sounding a warning that converged with Eisenhower's. Poke any dark corner of American life and a warning will emerge.

One memory I have about that 1991 war - that "easy" war, featuring yellow ribbons on the home front and self-congratulatory victory parades afterwards (and the war was easy only at first, of course; hundreds of thousands of vets have been battling an array of neurotoxic illnesses, known as Gulf War Syndrome, ever since) - was spotting a Xeroxed little racist cartoon posted in the employee break room at the newspaper where I was then working. The cartoon depicted U.S. fighter jets flying over caricatured Arabs riding camels. The caption read: "I'd fly 10,000 miles to smoke a camel."

Read The Full Article:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12240

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