That sound you’re hearing is the collective sighs of relief of the majority of the planet. Perhaps that’s a bit too grandiose a claim, but I’m going for imagery. Yes, I’m talking about the inauguration of our new President, Barack Obama. My whole reason for posting right now was because of this headline.

First Embryonic Stem Cell Study Approved By FDA

OMFG progress at last. But it’s not just the intellectually sound folks out there that are happy to have reason back in the White House.

For one thing, Fox News can go back to shamelessly attacking a President of another party again, so you just know they’re happy. After all, they don’t have to defend the indefensible anymore. Now they can go back to making baseless claims and arguable libel against the President, an act they themselves accused and publicly prosecuted others of doing when Bush was in office.

Jon Stewart did a quick montage last night of the first day of coverage of the Obama Administration as per Fox News. He couldn’t have been more on the mark. And it’s truly what viewers of Fox News can expect to continue now that the Democrats are back in power. All Slime — All The Time.

What I particularly love is Sean Hannity’s new-found love of slander and ignorance. After spending the past eight years with his nose up the ass of Bush and Cheney, Hannity is now seen decrying Obama for not understanding that “socialism has failed”. It might be an interesting point if Obama was in any way follower of socialism. Details, details…

But the interesting part of his insightful analysis is that he parroting the failure of communism without once giving any hint of understanding that the GOP’s Contract With America is just as much of a failure. The American economic system is in the shitter due in large part to Republican ramrod deregulation as per the wishes of his personal heroes. And yet Cuba is still a functional communist country just a few hundred miles south of Florida. Even with a 50-year US embargo it manages to get by. It boggles the mind.

And it would seem that Glenn Beck is nestled comfortably in his new Fox News surroundings. It would seem that conservative commentators often find a friendly outlet for their made-up facts and faux outrage.

Today on his new Fox News show, Glenn Beck panicked about the re-do oath of office President Obama took last night, because Obama did not place his hand on a Bible. “I checked. We have never had a president sworn into office without a Bible,” he intoned dramatically.

*snip*

Beck is simply wrong. As Slate recently reported, official records kept by the Architect of the Capitol show that Teddy Roosevelt did not use a Bible in 1901; and Lyndon Johnson is rumored to have used “a Catholic missal aboard Air Force One after Kennedy’s assassination.” According to his own letters, John Quincy Adams placed his hand on a constitutional law book rather than the Bible.

Damn that John Adams and his communist, atheistic, far-left ways…odd that I’d ever find myself saying such a thing about the man who is often sighted as the father of American conservatism.

Meanwhile the rest of the world seems to be taking the same stance to Obama that the average American is taking: Let’s see what the man can do now that he’s in office. So far I’ve been fairly impressed. He’s had numerous opportunities to take swipes at a very disorganized GOP that is fresh from the pummeling they suffered in the elections and he hasn’t taken them. If anything he appears to be reaching out to the GOP for their ideas and their viewpoint on the most pressing matter of the moment, the economy. But rather than inviting them to the White House and making a bunch of promises he has absolutely no intention of keeping, Obama seems genuinely interested in hearing from all constituencies so they can have a voice in the matter. But he’s also careful to remind the GOP that he won the election, not them.

So with the exception of the GOP, who appears at a loss for identity at this point, everyone seems to be much happier with this arrangement. But we’ll give it the first 100 days and then give it a look-through. It would be intellectually dishonest to judge this administration for good or ill this early on.