Ok, so the first tier cabinet picks sucked donkey dick. And depending on what you thought Obama was gonna do or who he "really" is, they were either predictable or disappointing. More of the same. An economy run by the clowns who got us here in the first place, and a war run by clowns who love the war. Now if you had read Obama's proposals closely you'd know that he didn't plan to end the war, but many people didn't and he certainly sold himself on that basis. Whatever, that's a different post.

The second tier was mixed, although as John Caruso points out the very latest is more crap.

So whatever. As expected, more corporate authoritarian dreck. For anyone who bothered to look at the receipt, or read the print, they knew what was being bought and by whom.

But this...this is absolutely bonkers:

Democrats...have chosen celebrity preacher and best-selling author Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration.

Warren vocally opposes gay marriage, does not believe in evolution, has compared abortion to the Holocaust and backed the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Now, I understand that the people who invest in you expect to see a return. You've got to work the quid pro quo on that front.

But what kind of sense does this symbol make really? The very people you don't have to pay attention to, the liberals who'll vote for you no matter what with no strings attached and the wingnuts who'll never vote for you ever, are...well, the very people to whom you need not pay attention. So why are you paying attention to them? To appear bipartisan? For whose benefit? What's the upside here? Cuz I'm not seeing it.

Why go out of your way to piss people off for no obvious benefit? Why not just pick someone bland and uncontroversial? It's not like anyone pays any goddamn attention to who gives the invocation unless its someone totally insane. What. the. fuck?

UPDATE:

Apparently he's chosen the homophile Joseph Lowry to do the benediction, so I guess it all evens out. Are benedictions as important as invocations?

Also, Bush had some progressive dude give the invocation at his inauguration. I guess this is too big a job to leave without symbolism and is customarily laden with meanings. Shows what I know about our civic rituals.