night everyone

The song, ‘God damn you’re beautiful’, is by Chester See – you can see his own video here – I posted this video on YouTube in early 2009 … one of the comments read: “I am Chester See and I approve this message.” 😉

Hey people, don’t let the haters get you down – almost 70 million people voted for this good man in 2008, and they will again in 2012. Remember, for every Teabagger and Glenn Greenwald there are thousands of decent people not consumed with hate.

See you tomorrow.

flashback …. 1998

Thank you Collegekay, I never saw this before – he looks about 12! 🙂

flashback …. open book

A young Barack Obama discusses his memoir “Dreams from My Father” in this 1995 interview.

flashback …. prying eyes

CNN (April, 2010): On the driveway right outside the White House briefing room, a place where President Barack Obama rarely strolls during public hours, CNN caught a rare and personal exchange between the first couple.

Flanked by Secret Service agents and personal aide Reggie Love, Obama spotted his wife near the West Wing entrance and tried to get her attention. “Hey FLOTUS,” he shouted, then added, “I was just looking for you.”

The president joked, “Stop it guys, I haven’t seen my wife in a while.”

The first lady, who seemed poised to deliver an affectionate greeting, was thwarted when the president said, “Let’s not do this in front of the cameras.”

Instead they held hands and walked together into the West Wing like a married couple that had not seen each other since one of them made a quick jaunt to Prague to sign a new nuclear arms treaty.

Thank you Dia 😉

flashback …. 1991

October, 2008

Thank you ‘theboysisters’ 😉

‘the emotional, intellectual nourishment we’ve been craving’

Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker): One of the mysteries of the Obama Presidency has been Obama’s inability – or disinclination, I’m not sure which – to give sustained emotional sustenance to a certain slice of his supporters. I don’t mean the “Democratic base” … I don’t mean the disillusioned left, which is easily, almost perpetually disillusioned because it has such an ample supply of illusions.

(A lot of lefties, notwithstanding their scorn for “the system”, seem to have an implicit naive faith in the workability of the mechanisms of American governance. Hence their readiness to blame the disappointments of the Administration’s first two years mainly on Obama’s alleged moral or character failings – cowardice, spinelessness, insincerity, duplicity, what have you.)

Mainly, I guess, the slice I’m talking about is of people like me: liberals who continue to respect and admire Obama; who fully appreciate the disaster he inherited and the horrendous difficulty of enacting a coherent agenda even when your own party “controls” both Houses of Congress; who think his substantive record is pretty good under the circumstances; who dislike some of the distasteful compromises he has made but aren’t sure we wouldn’t have done the same in his shoes … but who are puzzled that our eloquent, writerly President seems to have done so little to educate the public about his own vision and to contrast it with that of the Republican right – which is to say, the Republicans.

I don’t know how many people watched Obama’s speech (on Wednesday) but those who did, and who share my general outlook, got a dose of the emotional (and intellectual) nourishment we’ve been craving.

…Obama spoke powerful words, and spoke them with real feeling. As we all know by now, our President doesn’t “do” anger … (on Wednesday), though, he did sternness; he did dignified exasperation; best of all, he did argument.

…By the time the President got to his own four-step proposal, which calls for higher taxes on the rich … the Republican alternative was a smoking ruin. Given the position his own reluctance, until now, to stake out a clear ideological divide had left him in, Obama succeeded in constructing a reasonably solid fortification for the fiscal battles to come. Even Paul Krugman was pleased. Me, too.

Full article here

where’s the hairline?!

Full interview here

next week

Tuesday: President Obama holds a town hall meeting in northern Virginia to discuss his deficit-reducing plans.

Wednesday: The President travels to San Francisco to participate in a Shared Responsibility and Shared Prosperity town hall hosted by Facebook. In the evening, the President will attend a DNC event.

Thursday: The President will leave San Francisco for Reno where he will hold another town hall meeting on his deficit-reduction plans.

are you in?

Download your ‘I’m In’ sign here – and send OFA your ‘I’m In’ photo

hey

As requested by Anonymous in the ‘Night Everyone’ thread – and for all our new visitors this week 😉