‘night everyone

hey, you can’t win ’em all

grateful

President Obama pauses as he speaks at a DNC fundraiser at the Studio Museum in Harlem, March 29

“This is also a challenging time. I could not do what I do…if I didn’t know that I have a lot of people rooting for me, a lot of people supporting me. I want each of you to know that I’m very, very grateful for your friendship.”

birther busters (update)

Hiya people,

I was always determined to just ignore the birther dimwits because their stupidity is intensely boring, but ‘Mary-T’ contacted me recently and convinced me that we have to fight back against these nutjobs with plain old facts.

Sane Americans dismiss these idiots and find them acutely embarrassing, but there are still plenty of independents who are curious about this racist crap.

So, I’ve added a birther-busting links section in the panel on the right, direct your ‘independent’ pals to any one of these truly brilliant sites and all their questions will be answered.

In other words, let’s fight the hate with facts. I know, it might be hard to believe, but a black man can be an American.

😉

pawlenty the pure

Today was a traumatic day in my life: I found myself believing a Freeper/Nutjob/Birther/Wingnut/Fruitloop theory. 😯

The theory? Tim Pawlenty is distancing himself from the birther wing of his party to make himself look semi-smart and respectable….

(Note: Pawlenty doesn’t take the President’s word for it, only CNN’s)

…. but Donald Chump – who is as serious about actually running for the Presidency as Bo Obama – is doing the dirty birther work for the party, while getting himself some desperately needed publicity at the same time.

You know, as 2012 approaches, stir up the racist birther stuff again, get it in the news, fan the hate-filled flames. And all the time Pawlenty keeps his distance – and, so, isn’t dismissed as a nutjob by independents – but reaps the ‘benefits’.

For once, I think a Freeper/Nutjob/Birther/Wingnut/Fruitloop theory makes sense. Although, there are plenty of non-nutjobs drawing the same conclusion.

Classy, eh?

do we use the term ‘squirmish’? well?

Squeamish: easily made to feel sick, faint, or disgusted, esp. by unpleasant images, such as the sight of blood.

Squirm: wriggle or twist the body from side to side, esp. as a result of nervousness or discomfort

Skirmish: an episode of irregular or unpremeditated fighting, esp. between small or outlying parts of armies or fleets.

Mix them together and you get, well, ‘squirmish’ …. true, it’s not in any official dictionary yet, and has absolutely no meaning, but hey, this is the Half-termer speaking.

😆

count your blessings

Joshua Greenman (New York Daily News): …Barack Obama isn’t an all-or-nothing kind of commander in chief or an all-or-nothing kind of man. He gambled in pushing health care reform, but in his bones he’s a cautious leader who overcomplicates where others oversimplify. He turns bumper stickers into dissertations, not the other way around.

Those who are grousing about that fact now should count their blessings – and remember the alternative. This is what we said we wanted just two years ago, after eight years of Bush foreign policy impulsiveness, when offered a McCain-Palin ticket that promised more gut-driven decision-making. We wanted more candid discussion of risks and benefits. More sharing of responsibilities with allies. We wanted a President to think twice before playing Braveheart. Didn’t we?

But now, in the first major test of a crisis rearing its head on his watch, many have derided Obama’s approach as the professor’s way of war. So the pundits were craving clarity Monday night when he took the stage at the National Defense University in Washington, clamoring for something like an Obama Doctrine, a few snappy sentences that encapsulate his foreign policy, a formula where you plug in the variables and get your answer each and every time.

It didn’t happen. It was never going to happen. Nor should it have happened.

In typically Obamastic fashion, he rejected the arguments of those who suggested we should have allowed a humanitarian disaster to unfold while the world watched (that would have “been a betrayal of who we are”), and similarly dismantled the arguments of those who want a more aggressive, expansive, expensive campaign.

….To a skeptic like me, Obama made an effective and principled case … …This isn’t necessarily a brilliant war. But don’t criticize the President because he’s failed some facile and arbitrary standard of perfect clarity. That would be, to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, the hobgoblin of a nation that hasn’t learned its lesson.

Read full article here

on the right side of history

Full transcript here

Transcript of today’s ABC interview with Diane Sawyer here – thank you StR

tribute

Bill Clinton told President Obama that Ron Brown would be “very proud” of his intervention in Libya: “He would be very proud that Barack Obama became president of the United States, and very proud, Mr. President, of what you’re doing in Libya with the international community.”

President Obama and former President Clinton at the dedication of the Ronald H. Brown United States Mission to the United Nations Building in New York

Ronald Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was the United States Secretary of Commerce, serving during the first term of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African American to hold this position. He was killed, along with 34 others, in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia.

President Obama presents a flag to the family of the late Ronald H. Brown. From left to right, son Michael Brown, daughter Tracy Brown, and widow Alma Brown.

hands up

President Obama greets participants at the New York City Science and Engineering Fair at the American Museum of Natural History

A U.S. Secret Service agent provides security for President Obama at the New York City Science and Engineering Fair