‘an impossible dream’

The Selma Civil Rights March (March 21, 1965) – From left: U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-GA), an unidentified nun, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Bunche, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Rabbi Heschel and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

President Obama presents Rep. John Lewis with the 2010 Medal of Freedom

AP: Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped organize the first sit-ins at lunch counters that refused to serve blacks. In 1965, he led a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., and was nearly beaten to death along with others in what became known as “Bloody Sunday”.

President Obama said Lewis “knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time.” Lewis speaks often and loudly in his booming voice on issues of justice and equality, and is known as the “conscience” of Congress.

He told reporters later that the award was all the more special coming from Obama, the nation’s first black president.

“If someone had told me that one day I would be standing in the White House and an African-American president would be presenting me the Medal of Freedom I would say, ‘Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?'” Lewis said. “It’s just an impossible dream.”

November, 2008:

medal of freedom

hey, big guy!

President Barack Obama reaches up to present a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to basketball hall of fame member, former Boston Celtics coach and captain Bill Russell

Information on all the recipients here

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the caged bird sings

President Barack Obama kisses author and poet Maya Angelou after awarding her the 2010 Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 15

September 2008:

November 2008:

omg, lol

in memory

President Obama with Libby Little, whose husband Tom received a posthumous Medal of Freedom at the White House today.

Dr. Tom Little (Posthumous): Dr. Tom Little was an optometrist who was brutally murdered on August 6, 2010, by the Taliban in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, along with nine other members of a team returning from a humanitarian mission to provide vision care in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan.  Dr. Little and his wife, Libby, lived and worked  in Afghanistan for three decades beginning in 1976, raising three daughters and providing vision, dental and mother/child care to the people of that country through the NOOR program (Noor means “light” in Persian) that Dr. Little ran for the International Assistance Mission.

presser (updated with video)

President Barack Obama answers questions during a news conference on the White House complex in Washington, Feb. 15

a bush barb

President Barack Obama meets with former President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office, Feb. 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Apologies for posting a Bush video, but the last line made me 🙂

‘obama budget escapes liberal backlash, for now’

NYT: The response to President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget from Republicans was predictably negative. But the reaction from what Mr. Obama’s spokesman once called “the professional left” was remarkably muted.

…There was a bit of grumbling … but the griping was relatively minor…In fact, the president is getting much-needed support from his liberal leaders on Capitol Hill. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House budget committee, called Mr. Obama’s proposal a “tough love budget” and aimed his criticism at Republicans and their push to cut even further.

There were very few rants on Twitter by left-leaning bloggers or liberal talk show hosts. And the statements issued by the usual suspects were tame compared with the heated rhetoric that the same groups have aimed at Mr. Obama in the past two years.

…Why would the left be so accepting of the president’s budget? … Liberals might think: if conservatives hate it, maybe it’s not so bad … …some liberals may have also accepted the reality that a Republican-controlled House will require more compromise from Mr. Obama.

And finally, Mr. Obama’s message is now being managed by a new, disciplined team at the White House. The president and his team have been focused on a single message since the State of the Union, even repeating his new catch phrase — “winning the future” — repeatedly at every event. That discipline appears to be filtering down to his liberal supporters on television, radio and the Internet….

Full article here

(Hmm, I read plenty of hysterical responses from self-described ‘progressives’ yesterday, but still, the article is encouraging – maybe most self-described ‘progressives’ have decided to think before they rant?)

coming up (press conference at 11.0 est)

Live here

Information on all The Medal of Freedom recipients here