Purple Gate of Doom and Youth Prom from Hell

All Dressed Up with Nowhere to Go has a whole new meaning to me now.

It all began with an historically historic history of historic proportions. Let me just say that it was assume that there would be 2 million people at the inauguration. I heard an estimation of 4 million people coming into DC. It wasn't like the Capitol Police didn't know what they were dealing with.

While at the DNCC in Denver, I was constantly struck with the ease and organization with which we dealt with each security parameter. Whether it was an event, the convention center, the Pepsi Center, or Mile High Stadium it was easy and safe to navigate to all levels of security. Props to the city of Denver.

The Capitol Police... Epic FAILURE.

Its being called PurpleGate.

WashingtonPost

"As it became clearer that thousands of people stuck outside the security barriers would miss seeing the inauguration and the parade, excitement changed to frustration and anger with security organzers.

"This is crazy," said Tonita Davis, 42, of Dayton, Oh. She and her family arrived downtown at 6 a.m., but left D and 7th around 11:35 a.m. They had tickets, but said those were of no use. "It's quite a disappointment."

Masses of people are waving their silver invitations in the air but the line is moving slowly as of 11:30 a.m. The silver line screening point is near Independence Avenue SW and 3rd Street SW.

Oakland native Marcus Alexis says, "it is irresponsible to issue all of these tickets and not let the people in."

Those holding tickets for the purple section of the Capitol grounds are also having a hard time getting in for the swearing-in."

It gets worse. The new facebook group has now sprung up called the Purple Tunnel of Doom because people were funneled into the 395 tunnel and held like cattle only to be turned away in the end. When I first joined the group it was about 300 people - its now up to 2,839 and was featured in Politico and on Rachel Maddow. The facebook group along with its organizers are lobbying the Inaugural Committee for anything but many declare it is too late and their apologies are meaningless.

I heard a few comments that the Texas Congressional Delegation was having trouble getting in. The Mayor of Seattle was turned away, Rep. Jim McDermott’s brother had a ticket but never got through the gates. not to mention a woman who flew in from Ethiopia I talked to in the blue line and countless other people who stood in the 5 degree wind chill for 6 hours or more but received the closed gate. Epic Failure.

In the orange line there was actually someone who I imagine was a producer or someone from the Ellen DeGeneres show. Many people were pushing and shoving and this woman was randomly walking about the people. Some thought she was trying to cut in line and were telling her that it wasn't cool. Finally she just started shouting "I'm from the Ellen DeGeneres Show! I don't want your place in line, I just want to get through!" Another woman shouted back "I'm from Ohio... I don't give a shit!" The Ellen woman then shouted "You people are supposed to be filled with hope!" Evidently, she was talking about the non-DC crowd. Epic Failure.

Apologies were issued the evening after

"In a statement, the committee said it "deeply regrets" the foul-up and will conduct a thorough examination of what went wrong. The Washington Post reported today that at least 4,000 ticket holders, primarily in the Purple and Blue sections, were denied entrance, despite waiting for up to five hours in cold temperatures."

Most interesting is the Senate Sergeant at Arms (who's head will probably roll)

Gainer said the overwhelming majority of ticketholders was able to enjoy the ceremony thanks to the participation and cooperation of security and government agencies."

from ABC:

"Numerous local and federal authorities coordinated security at the event. A spokesman for the ... Read MoreD.C Metro Police said crowd control in the area was handled by the Secret Service.

The Secret Service would not officially comment but said security in the purple area was handled by the Capitol Police.

The Capitol Police did not respond to inquiries by ABC News.com. "

Oops. Additionally, people in the facebook group are saying they don't give a damn about the apology or the promised special program or whatever, its game's over. Epic Failure.

While the insanity of the Inauguration was unbelievable, it continues... and gets worse, particularly for young people.

The Youth Ball

I spent a lot of time making fun of balls but when we found out that there were a number of organizations doing balls that were supposedly promoting youth values but charging an arm and a leg to get in... it became something else. I was so thankful to Norman Lier who had like 10,000 spin offs from was kind enough to let us into his event for a mere $250. That's exactly how much my car payment is each month!! How did they know!? Other events... all too expensive. And while I appreciate that there are events if I pay money for something its not going to be $250 for a party, its going to be treating my friends to dinner. I'm not one of those people who swoons when famous people are around.

So the official youth ball where Barack Obama was actually scheduled to show up...

Much like the PurpleGate of Doom the Youth Prom from Hell was not as bad but nearly - because we actually paid to go. First of all I arrived before it began but still stood in line for an hour in the 5 degree wind chill waiting to get in. I was ok with that because I was not in a ball gown.

Once I got in, it didn't matter because I couldn't get into the ball room. There were 2 of them. One of them Barack came to - the other one was a ball room where people paid to get screwed with their tux pants on because they chose the wrong ball room. Even if you could get down to the bottom floor you were probably not funneled into the ball room. Instead, as 2 youth movement leaders told me, you paid $75 to watch a big TV with the going's on you were missing. The same thing you could catch on MTV at home.... for free.

Further, the pillars of the youth movement weren't there, because they couldn't get in. Jane Flemming Kleeb was shoved out of the ball room, staff for Rock the Vote, including Heather Smith, couldn't get in, our own Mike Connery couldn't get in, nor could Matthew Segal. And me? Not that I'm a pillar in anything, but I was surrounded by police who shouted at a crowd of people I was in the middle of who threatened to riot. (video to come)

Some people in the crowd had been in the Purple Tunnel of Doom earlier.

I'm sure Mike will talk about his opinions on the "service speech" - I haven't even heard it because I was surrounded by police being yelled at and shoved around by a riot-ready crowd for $75.

I received text messages from leaders of youth organizations saying things like "this is bullshit" and "outrageous." We later learned that many of the people at the ball were flukie staffers (a made up word meaning staffers who weren't really staffers but say they are to get free stuff) from the Obama campaign. Not that those people aren't meaningful, but they worked for the campaign for 3 months.

For those of us who have been working in the youth movement for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 years... your efforts were as meaningful as the 3 month staff and interns all across America. Without your dedication this party wouldn't have been the epic failure it was.

While there has been an apology to the people of the Gate Gates, I haven't received an apology or a refund from my disastrous experience at the Youth Ball though it had been requested formally through email to the committee.

(I'm having issues uploading my video on the wifi connection I have in DC I may have to try it from a coffee shop or something but I will try and upload it soon)