Witnessing History from the Nosebleed Section

Do you know what the true Audacity of Hope is? It’s deciding around the middle of January that you’re going to the Obama inauguration and thinking you’re going to find a flight and a hotel. Yet during one break I looked over at my co-worker, and announced, “I think I should go to the inauguration,” in about the same manner I usually say, “I think I’ll have Chinese food for lunch.”

But really, I had to go the inauguration---it was on my life to do list, sandwiched between #5. Buy a house and #7. Marry a “qualified” hot rich guy. Though I plan to attend the 2012 inauguration in style---flying to D.C. in my corporate jet and attending balls in designer gowns---something awful might happen to prevent me from going, and then I would have missed not just the historic swearing in of the first black president, but a really great party the second time around. Thus I made (hastily threw together) arrangements, and when I arrived at SFO I found out I was not the only wishful thinker…

There were fifty standby passengers.

Only about half made it onto the flight.

The trip was totally awesome.

So much happened that day, I can’t even begin to describe it. And I really don’t need to---I took tons of pictures yet still not enough. However, I do have one request for President Obama for the next swearing in ceremony:

Can we have the 2012 inauguration in Hawaii? It was freakin’ cold!!!

RINCON LATINO: LAS ELECCIONES 2008

Mañana el 4 de Noviembre será una fecha histórica porque por primera vez en la historia de los Estados Unidos un ciudadano de raza africana tendrá una gran oportunidad a ascender al puesto más poderoso del país.

Love Her or Not So Much...Meet Sarah Palin Through A Number of Sources at Your Local Library

In case you hadn't noticed, a self-described 'pit-bull' jumped through your TV screen last night and into the national consciousness. Sarah Palin, the new Queen of the GOP ball, has arrived; gritted teeth, intense eyes, and fabulously coiffed hair.

She's new - new as the day - and I can assure you that for a while the library will have no books on Mrs. Palin. We do, however, offer alternatives until the biographies (and there will be many) start to roll in.

Biography is the art of collecting the essence of a person and delivering that essence in readable prose, whether long or short. The Sacramento Public Library's compliment of Biographical resources are strong. If you have access to the Internet, you can read many of them that way.

The Biography Resource Center Online and Who's Who in American Politics are subscription databases possessing information on Governor Palin. What else? America's News Magazines is a recent addition to our compliment of electronic periodicals. Search Slate, Time, Newsweek, Foreign Affairs, U.S. News and World Report.

You can also take a look at partisan political items like the Nation and the New Republic by going into SPL's EBSCOHost database. And a foray into political reading wouldn't be complete without a look at Newsbank, which enables one to view the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Los Angles Times.

To access these options, go to http://www.saclibrary.org/, and choose your "Database/Article Searching." Once locating, then clicking on the desired database/index, enter your library card number and PIN when prompted.

JUST IN: For the next few months, SPL patrons will have access to a trial database called ABC-Clio's Election Resources: http://www.abc-clio.com/page/election/index.html. The database is less geared to names and faces and aligned more to electoral and campaigning processes. After choosing a topic from the tabbed index at the top of the homepage, you'll be prompted to end a username and password. They are:

username: SacLibPatron

password: research

Stay with the Sacramento Public Library over the next few months for updates to our collection regarding this historic Prsidential election.

For a portion of Governor Palin's acceptance speech, click on the image below: