night everyone

President Obama recites the Pledge of Allegence at the commencement ceremony at Miami Dade College, April 29

Hello people. Before I say goodnight, just a couple of things (and sorry for rambling on):

First up, I didn’t get a chance to reply to lots of emails and comments today – I’d like to claim I was insanely busy….but I can hear my boss laughing out loud at that suggestion. 😕

I will, definitely, reply to you all tomorrow – thank you for your links, suggestions, comments and kind words, I appreciate them so much and feel horrible when I don’t reply quickly.

Secondly, I owe a big apology to our good friend Jessica.

I made a complete mess of a thread this morning, I was in a rush because I had to go out and saw that there was a bit of a disagreement over a comment that had been made, but instead of treating you like grown-ups and just letting you work it out between yourselves, I very stupidly deleted part of the exchange because I didn’t want any ‘bad blood’ developing.

(I know lots of you come here from supposedly pro-Dem sites where there is endless ‘bad blood’, so I really just want this place to be one where you can relax and be assured you won’t be abused simply because you support the President).

But deleting only some of the exchange was unfair to Jessica and, I think, left the impression that the comment she made was objectionable – just my opinion: there was nothing offensive about it, she just made a light-hearted remark about the Obama children that meant no harm at all.

I do completely understand, though, why some of you are sensitive about any comments made about the Obama children, I think we all agree that they should never, ever be subjected to any kind of scrutiny, no matter how well-meaning, and I have deleted comments before about the girls which, while well intended, were, I think, inappropriate.

So, when the Obama girls make public appearances with their parents – like today – and I post photos and videos that feature them, let’s just be mindful of how young they are, and be careful with our comments. That doesn’t mean we can’t note that they are wonderful young girls who are a credit to their parents, but, again, just keep their ages in mind.

Finally, to Alyse the (After)Birther – thank you for the laughs! You’ve been trying for weeks now to post racist comments on this site – I just happened upon your latest bile in the blog’s trash today…. you do know that’s where your bigotry automatically ends up?! Your insane comments will never, ever appear on this site, so you’re wasting your energy – maybe you should reserve it for your next KKK rally. 😉

Night everyone – see you tomorrow.

miami dade – the speech

my president

President Barack Obama greets a child after he stepped off Air Force One in Miami, Friday, April 29

miami dade

This is what might be called a warm welcome:

President Barack Obama takes the stage at the Miami Dade College North and West Campus graduation, April 29

cape canaveral

President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, their daughters Sasha and Malia, and Astronaut Janet Kavandi, walk under the landing gear from beneath the nose of Space Shuttle Atlantis as they visit Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral

Pool report: Potus met with Rep. Giffords for approx 10 minutes before he came down to meet the full crew. Prior to going in to see her, Potus greeted Mark Kelly in a corridor. “I bet you were hoping to see a rocket launch today,” Mr. Kelly said. Replied Potus: “We were hoping to see you.” They shook hands and embraced. Mr. Kelly updated the President and First Lady on Rep. Giffords’ condition, and then they went down the corridor to see her.

Terry White, a tile technician on the Shuttle Atlantis, talks about the space shuttle tiles with the Obama family

alabama

President Obama and the First Lady comfort people at Holt Elementary School in Holt, Ala. (Photo by Pete Souza)

Text of remarks here

President Obama hugs a resident as he surveys damage caused by devastating severe storms and tornadoes in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Reggie Love takes video using his iPad of damage caused by devastating severe storms and tornadoes in the Tuscaloosa

President Barack Obama hugs Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., as first lady Michelle Obama and Birmingham, Ala. Mayor William Bell look on

see ya later

Hey people, unfortunately I have to go out for a few hours so I’ll miss a lot of what’s going on today ….. including the shuttle launch 😦

But I’ll catch up with everything later and will post pics and video – and I’ll answer your comments and emails.

Have a great day everyone 😉

Today:

11:10 AM President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama view the damage in Alabama, as well as meeting with Governor Bentley, state and local officials and families affected by the storms

12:45 PM The first family departs Alabama

2:10 PM: Arrive in Cape Canaveral, Florida

2:45 PM The first family tours the orbiter processing facility

3:30 PM: …view the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour (the launch is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. Eastern Time)

(There is live coverage of the launch on the White House website – here – from 3:30)

5:40 PM President Obama arrives in Miami, Florida

6:55 PM: ….delivers the Miami Dade College commencement address

9:05 PM … departs Miami

11:30 PM … arrives at the White House

‘show me your papers’

Eugene Robinson (Washington Post): …. Two ugly forces had to combine to produce the birth certificate sideshow, which can only be described as a national disgrace. One is a calculated attempt by Obama’s political opponents to de-legitimize his presidency.

It seems obvious to me that this campaign to paint the president as some sort of usurper – this insistence that despite winning the popular vote by a healthy margin and the electoral vote by a landslide, he wasn’t really elected – has everything to do with race.

Does anyone disagree? Well, just imagine what the birthers would be saying if Obama – like his Republican opponent in 2008, John McCain – had been born in the Panama Canal Zone. Or think of the uproar if Obama – like George W. Bush in 2000 – had lost the popular vote but won the electoral college.

Look, I’m not surprised that the first black president faces unprecedented scrutiny about his origins, and I hope Obama’s not surprised, either. This sort of thing comes with being a historic “first,” and there’s no way around it. To those deniers who can’t come to terms with the fact of the Obama presidency, I have nothing to offer but this: Yes, he’s smarter, richer, luckier and better looking than you, and he’s your president. Yours, mine and ours. And he’s black. Get over it.

Full article here

The Atlantic: After President Obama blamed the media for making the birther conspiracy the “dominant” story, ABC News’s Jake Tapper shot back that the president had told an “untruth” and pointed to the Project for Excellence in Journalism statistics on the news agenda. “The ridiculous claims about the president’s birth certificate actually was the No. 4 story for the week – receiving about one tenth of the coverage devoted to stories about the economy,” Tapper wrote.

That may be true, but …according to the PEJ’s statistics covering April 11-24, when CNN, MSNBC and Fox News did cover the Obama Administration (which was just about 7% of total coverage) the vast majority – 76 percent – was about rumors concerning his “citizenship and religion.”

But here’s the curious thing, of those three networks, CNN and MSNBC devoted a far higher percentage of their Obama coverage to birthers than Fox News.

When CNN covered the White House, 89 percent of the time they were covering rumors, while at MSNBC it was even higher at 93%. Fox News was downright moderate by comparison: birther coverage made up 48% of its Administration coverage. It’s worth noting that Trump coverage, even if it related to his accusations about Obama’s citizenship, was not included in this category by the PEJ.

Full article here

heading south

The First Family depart the White House, April 29. They are traveling to Alabama to survey damage from tornados before heading for Florida for a space shuttle launch.

morning everyone

(The song is ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ by Train)

Today:

8:00 AM The President meets with participants of the * 1968 ‘Memphis Sanitation Strike’ at the White House

8:30 AM The first family departs the White House

10:50 AM Arrives in Alabama

11:10 AM President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama view the damage in Alabama, as well as meeting with Governor Bentley, state and local officials and families affected by the storms

12:45 PM The first family departs Alabama

2:10 PM: Arrive in Cape Canaveral, Florida

2:45 PM The first family tours the orbiter processing facility

3:30 PM: …view the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour (the launch is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. Eastern Time)

(There is live coverage of the launch on the White House website – here – from 3:30)

5:40 PM President Obama arrives in Miami, Florida

6:55 PM: ….delivers the Miami Dade College commencement address

9:05 PM … departs Miami

11:30 PM … arrives at the White House

* The 1968 strike is a symbolic piece of civil rights history, in which hundreds of black sanitation workers demanded from Memphis higher wages and better working conditions. The last public remarks of Martin Luther King Jr. were to the striking workers, the night before his assassination.

****