How sad is this?

Senator Ted Kennedy laughs ahead of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President on the West Front of the Capitol. (UPI Photo/Win McNamee/Pool)

U.S. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., collapsed and was taken from the luncheon at the Capitol marking the inauguration of Barack Obama as president.

ABC News reported Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WVa., was so upset he was removed form the luncheon as well.

The incident came before Congress presented Obama and Vice President Joe Biden crystal balls and photographs of the inauguration commemorating their ascension to office.

ABC initially said Kennedy, who has been battling brain cancer, suffered convulsions.

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Thank you for standing up.

I simply love the Think Progress list of those who stood up to speak truth to power during the last eight years of Bush’s era of deceit and deception.

The best part.

It was so nice to see Pete Seeger, at age 89, make it to perform at the inaugural performance this weekend. And, unbelievably, he was spry enough to jog off the stage with his fellow performers. That part simply blew me away. We should all be so fit. But, it was his smiling face on that stage that said it all.

Pete’s voice is basically gone at this point and his wife will tell you he’s lost without his hearing aid, but he still performs, so enlisting the help of his incredibly talented grandson, Tao Rodríguez-Seeger. When he was sixteen, in 1986, he began performing with his grandfather. He sings in English and Spanish and it is his vibrant voice that you hear in the rendition above.

Here is Pete from earlier days: