Bernie’s office just called and I got 2 tickets to the inauguration!!!

My aunt and I have been planning to go for a long time, but in the last month I had decided not to go unless I got tickets, so now I’m going again!

I have lots of questions and no answers. LOL.

Who’s going from Vermont? Anyone else from GMD? Are a lot of Vermonters going (hundreds? thousands?)? Will we all be sitting together? Is there a “Vermont” event or ball to attend? Will anyone be blogging the event here on GMD?

How are people getting there? I’d rather not drive, but will if I have to, but what do I do once I get down there? Is there a place to park outside DC and take the Metro in? Is that what we’re supposed to do?

Where are people staying? My aunt was SUPPOSED to book us a hotel room before the election, but never did! She has a friend who lives somewhere in the DC area that we can stay at, but it would be so much better to stay in the city…Is that an option? I’ve heard there’s no hotel rooms left.

Basiclly I’m clueless except that I know I have tickets waiting for me at Bernie’s office in DC. Any additional info would be greatly appreciated!

Many of you are well aware of the notion of “corporate personhood”, namely the idea that corporations have the same rights as us lowly humans. Unfortunately, unlike us peoplefolk, they're not subject to the death penalty, and can live much longer than us people , too. They have the rights, but not the responsibilities. Must be nice, eh?

The real injustice about corporate personhood is it's based on a legal misinterpretation of an 1886 Supreme Court Case. It was in the court clerk's headnotes regarding the case, not in the actual ruling. Essentially, it's bunk (lots of history at the wikipedia entry here).

By now, some of you are aware of the Change.org website (not to be confused with change.gov, the Obama transition website). It's a social entrepreneurship venture set up to help organize and raise money for various progressive causes. Their extensive website is set up sort of like a news/blog hybrid. One of their current projects see what new ideas that people would like to see coming from the Obama administration. There's been several rounds of voting, and in the last round, “Ending corporate personhood” is #9. They've got some sort of media blitz planned right before the inauguration to hopefully draw more attention to the top 10 issues. From the site:

On January 16, Change.org and the Case Foundation are co-hosting an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to announce the top 10 rated ideas and then launch a national campaign behind each idea and mobilize the collective energy of the millions of members of Change.org, MySpace, and partner organizations to ensure that each winning idea gets the full consideration of the Obama Administration and Members of Congress.

Now, of course, one never really knows what effect these things can have, but if you're interested, you can vote for the “end corporate personhood” here. It can't hurt.