night everyone

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama mark the beginning of Passover with a Seder in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, April 18, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

stay classy, brad watson

This a clip of the interview the President did yesterday with WFAA-TV of Texas

Does this Brad Watson creature usually treat Presidents with that much disrespect and contempt, if he’s ever interviewed one before, or might he have a particular problem with President Obama?

In his (written) report on the interview (here), Watson said: “After the interview, Obama pointed out that he doesn’t like an interviewer challenging his comments. “Let me finish my answers the next time we do an interview, all right?” he said.”

You can hear the exchange at the end of the interview – where does the President say “he doesn’t like an interviewer challenging his comments”? He doesn’t. Watson speaks over the start of the exchange, in which the President says “… let me finish my… questions”, then says: “Let me finish my answers the next time we do an interview, all right?”

So, Watson lied. The President did not object to his comments being challenged, only to not being extended the courtesy of the chance to finish his answers.

But Watson lies to give the impression that the President cannot handle being ‘challenged’ by hard-hitting, truth-seeking reporters of his magnificent quality. And, as we all know, the President has soooooo little experience of being challenged. 🙄

I’m just surprised Watson didn’t ask: “Where’s your birth certificate, boy?”

You can contact the channel here or at feedback@wfaa.com or on 214-748-9631

There’s also an email address on the site for Watson (bwatson@wfaa.com) but I’m not sure there’s much point in contacting him directly – it would probably get lost in the avalanche of congratulations from Teabaggers.

***

The President also did interviews yesterday with WRAL Raleigh (see here – thank you Donna), WTHR Indianapolis and KCNC Denver.

repost: in context…..

Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico

With thanks to the legend that is Blackwaterdog 😉

tweet of the day

😉

Follow msbellows here – and Retweet!!

the charlie rose interviews

November, 2004

October, 2006

‘obama is now and will be a great president’

Frank Schaeffer: The “disappointed” left says president Obama sold out. The racist-laced Medicaid-mugging, billionaire-codling right staggers under the weight of terminal “birther” mythology … Meanwhile president Obama continues to bide his time and looks down the road to the post-2012 reality when his patience with an impatient country, his thoughtfulness in the context of a sound-bite-entertain-ourselves-to-death era of short attention spans and historical amnesia will be vindicated.

…President Obama has met the vile far right (and religious right lynch mob) and also met the disappointment of the shrill impatient left with a calm smile and good humor … he has also played chicken with each new crisis and – invariably – pulled last moment hair raising victory from what critics said would be defeat…

….Before he’d served a year president Obama lost the support of the easily distracted (bitter?) left of the Left and also became the target for the white hot rage of the hate-filled right of the Right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds are sticking with our president.

….The disappointment on the left has apparently led some folks to concoct an alternate reality in which – in a mirror image of the loony embittered far right… no matter what president Obama does they dismiss it….

For instance here’s how blogger media personality and professional Obama-hater Glenn Greenwald describes president Obama:

“[Obama will] pay lip service to some Democratic economic dogma and defend some financially inconsequential culture war positions: that’s how he will signal to the base that he’s still on their side. But the direction will be the same as the GOP desires and, most importantly, how the most powerful economic factions demand: not because he can’t figure out how to change that dynamic, but because that’s what benefits him and thus what he wants.”

Think about Greenwald’s claim that what president Obama really wants is the same thing that the Republican leaders in congress want. He dismisses president Obama’s defense of stem cell research, a woman’s right to choose, gay rights, gays’ right to serve in the military et al as “inconsequential culture war positions.” Parkinson’s disease suffers waiting for a cure, women with unwanted pregnancies and gay men and women in the military might disagree that the costly stand the president has taken is inconsequential.

…Maybe there are some on the left who (besides selling anti-Obama screeds) suffer from some sort of psychological problem of denial and are unable to deal with the reality of what America has become and actually is: A place where progressive ideas are routinely crushed beneath the weight of the corporate state and entrenched bigotry. But THAT reality is where president Obama must function.

…We Americans are very lucky people. A sane and compassionate president is in charge. Over an 8 year period he will change American history for the better. Only president Obama’s dimwitted and/or hate-filled opponents are unlucky: they are betting against a political genius who also happens to be a very good human being.

Read the full magnificent post here

****

There’s a brilliant post too at Alternet about “professional Obama-hater Greenwald” – see here (Thank you Dorothy)

aw….

Fox: 476,537 Tea Party patriots rally in Columbia

Fitsnews: Politicians, political operatives and members of the media came close to outnumbering attendees at a much-hyped Columbia, S.C. Tea Party rally starring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday.

Only 300 people (including a horde of Palmetto political operatives) attended the event in downtown Columbia, S.C. – which is a generous estimate in our book. That attendance figure – confirmed by other media outlets – amounts to less than one-tenth the size of multiple crowds that have gathered at the S.C. State House in recent years in support of parental choice. It’s also roughly a tenth the size of the crowd that attended this same event in 2009.

😳

Well, at least this guy enjoyed himself (although he looks a little lonely):

Hold on: I’ve just noticed this guy has a ‘McCain/Palin’ badge on his hat … will I tell him or will you? 😕

I thought maybe it was an old photo used for today’s article ….. but, eh, no:

Gov. Nikki Haley addresses a crowd gathered at the State House during a Tea Party rally, April 18

At least he found two over-taxed friends to sit with, so that was nice.

Meanwhile, you have to love the caption under this photo on The State website:

,

So, 300 is a “large” Tea Party crowd these days? 😆

on the ball (video added)

President Obama looks at a football presented to him during a ceremony presenting the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the Air Force Academy football team in the Rose Garden at the White House, April 18

President Obama takes a hand off from Air Force Academy running back Jared Tew

on view

Thank you anniebella 😉

a gift from the past….

From the President and First Lady’s tax returns, released today

Wiki: The Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund, is the operating name of an annuity fund of the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Trust, benefiting first ladies of the United States. It began in 1912, as part of the will of Henry G. Freeman Jr., a prominent Philadelphia real estate developer.

Freeman believed that the U.S president was paid a “miserable pittance”, and that a way of increasing his income while avoiding the appearance of political gifts was to institute an annuity to be paid “to the lady termed the first lady in the land; that is, the President of the United States [sic] wife, or anyone representing the president as such, should he not be married or should she die during his administration”.

Freeman’s will specified that the money be for the first lady’s “own and absolute use” and the payments “shall continue in force as long as this glorious government exists.”

The fund became active in November 1989 during the administration of George H.W. Bush, but due to a court dispute the first payments were not made until December 1992.

Barbara Bush received US $36,000.00 retroactively and donated a portion to her charity work, and spent an unspecified amount doing “something nice for my grandchildren”. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and First Lady Laura Bush have donated the payments to charity. The income is taxable, and the fund is overseen by Wachovia Trust Services.

****

There’s another article here on the Pin Money Fund (MSNBC)

Mr Freeman sounded like a pretty cool guy 😉