Inauguration Day Fast Approaching

I live near Washington, so with the impending inauguration of our newly reelected president, the city is a-twitter with bustling security officers, mirrors on long handles, and bleachers as far as the eye can see.

A recent tidbit from the Washington Post is that, unlike every other previous predisent, Bush isn't going to pay for his own ceremony, even though it's the most expensive in history (the story is here). Supposedly, the DC city government has enough money in their homeland security appropriation. But, how are they supposed to deal with real improvements in the city's security when unplanned expenses like this pop up?

More pertinent to my own life is that I put my apartment up for rent over the inauguration on craigslist, and so far have only received one response. It was from a Washington Post staff writer who's doing a story on people who are renting out their houses for the inauguration! Is this how the Post gets its leads? Trolling the random classifieds on craigslist? The problem, of course, is that the people who don't have anyone staying in their houses have ads up, and those that have already rented their homes will have deleted their postings...so this staff writer is doomed to interview people who hope to rent their places, but have thusfar been unsuccessful. Doesn't sound like a very interesting article, does it?