ireland live

Two Irish television channels will have live online coverage of the President and First Lady’s visit tomorrow, RTE and TV3

Sometimes their live online stuff isn’t available for viewing outside Ireland, but hopefully everyone willl be able to watch tomorrow.

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All times US Eastern – and very approximate!

4:30 AM (9:30 AM Irish time) President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at Dublin airport

They will travel from there to the Phoenix Park, Dublin, where their first stop will be Aras an Uachtarain for a meeting with President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin

Mr Obama will then visit Farmleigh, also in the Phoenix Park, where he will be greeted by Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny and his wife Fionnuala. Mr Kenny and Tanaiste (deputy Prime Minister) Eamon Gilmore will then have a bilateral meeting with Mr Obama

Following the meeting, Mr Obama is expected to visit US ambassador Dan Rooney at his Phoenix Park residence

9:0 AM (2:0 PM Irish time) The President and first lady are due to leave Dublin for Moneygall. If weather conditions are not favourable, they may travel by road instead of helicopter (Moneygall is one hour, 40 minutes from Dublin by road)

Mr Obama will then return to Dublin. He may stop off at the US embassy in Dublin to greet staff

12:30 PM (5:30 PM Irish time): Mr Obama is expected to arrive at Dublin’s College Green for an open-air concert and speech

The President and first lady will stay overnight in Dublin before leaving for London on Tuesday morning

(Irish Times)

You can see the full week’s schedule here

yet another gremlins update

Grr …. WordPress still can’t figure out why so many of you are having trouble with this site. They say they’ve tested it with all  the major browsers and it’s working fine. (But it’s not!)

Here are some tips from the WordPress support page if you want to try them – sorry again for all the problems.

WordPress support: Some issues that you encounter with your WordPress.com blog or account can be solved by changing your browser settings, refreshing the page, or clearing the browser cache and cookies.

Note: We recommend that you use Firefox for optimal performance with WordPress.com.

A force refresh or reload will cause the browser to re-check with the web server to make sure it has the latest copy of the web page you are viewing:

Windows: Ctrl + F5
Mac/Apple: Apple + R or Cmd + R

Clear Your Cache and Cookies: Each time you access a web page, your web browser stores a temporary copy of the files needed to display the web page to you. Those temporary files are called the browser cache. If your cache is not updating properly or if it’s stuck, you could be viewing an older version of some of the supporting files.

If you are experiencing problems displaying WordPress.com pages, clearing the browser cache is a good first step to try to resolve the issue. If that doesn’t help, you should also try clearing the browser cookies. Instructions for clearing cache and cookies are different for each browser and version. Google has outlined the steps for all major browsers – see here

More Troubleshooting: If you are still having trouble, here are a few more things you can try –

Upgrade your browser and Flash Player to the latest version available….

Try an alternate browser. If it works, then the issue is with the browser settings.

whoo hooooo, new white house photos!

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in the “Pit Crew Challenge” during an event with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition on the South Lawn of the White House, May 9, 2011. The First Lady visited seven activity stations during the event, which helped promote both the Let’s Move! and Joining Forces initiatives. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

First Lady Michelle Obama dances during a Flash Mob Dance at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C., May 3, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden head towards the Oval Office Private Dining Room for lunch, May 4, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama walks across the tarmac with Vice President Joe Biden prior to departure from Fort Campbell, Ky., May 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with people in the crowd following his remarks on immigration reform at Chamizal National Memorial Park in El Paso, Texas, May 10, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama talks with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker John Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during a dinner with chairmen and ranking Members of Congress in the East Room of the White House, May 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

First Lady Michelle Obama greets students following a Flash Mob Dance at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C., May 3, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

President Barack Obama disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, following his trip to Fort Campbell, Ky., May 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Lots of new White House photos here

parish news

This is from the Irish news tonight. The video quality is terrible, but you have to hear the priest at the start, he completely cracked me up. When he reads out the parish news every week it’s usually filled with announcements like “cake sale at Mary Mac’s in the morning”.

😆

the aipac speech

President Barack Obama arrives to speak at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention in Washington, May 22

White House video:

*** Text of address here ***

Jeffrey Goldberg (The Atlantic): President Obama gave a very good speech to AIPAC: Tough on Hamas, tough on Iran, but also somewhat tough on Israeli procrastination.

He understands Israel’s dilemma in the same way Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin understood their country’s dilemma. Israel needs to find a way to maintain its democratic nature and its Jewish majority.

Only compromise on the West Bank — yes, a return to 1967 borders, with some obvious adjustments (and the President was much more clear today than he was on Thursday on what the term “land-swap” means) will help Israel maintain itself as a Jewish democracy, and will protect it from becoming an international pariah.

And by the way, Israel’s biggest and most effective defender on the international stage in the coming months will be… Barack Obama. He made that crystal-clear. He opposes the unilateral bid for Palestinian independence in a very forthright way. Now it is up to Prime Minister Netanyahu to listen to Israel’s friend in the White House.

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‘A Proud Day For Obama’

Josh Marshall (TPM): Sticks to commitment to policies that will secure Israel’s future, even at the expense of opportunistic attacks and political controversy.

Obliquely and with respect to his audience, in his speech to AIPAC today, President Obama also responded to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s repeated lies about what President Obama said only the day before.

Just as no man is an island, no country can be either. On its present course Israel is on its way to becoming a pariah state, a status in which it cannot indefinitely or even perhaps long survive…..

….Netanyahu believes that US power is forever and that the US political consensus to support Israel in almost any policy choice it makes will never change. So he can simply ignore the currents of history and international affairs and thumb his nose at every other country in the world. But neither is true.

…The occupation itself represents the true existential threat to Israel. Most who don’t have a profound and over-riding ideological commitment to maintaining a state in all of historic Palestine get this. That’s why even someone like Tzipi Livni, a former member of the Likud and someone from a Revisionist family, realized that partition is the only viable path forward.

For me this is the key issue. Justice, peace … you don’t even need to get to those agenda items. The simple reality is that Israel needs partition for its survival, more really than any of the other parties to the controversy.

Full post here

morning

The White House coverage is audio only, but C-Span (here) will be showing it live (Thanks TeamObama)

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Video of the President’s interview with the BBC here

Transcript of the interview here

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You can see video of the First Lady’s West Point address here

Thank you Lisa

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A painting of U.S. President Barack Obama stands next to a replica pint of Guinness in a shop in Moneygall

There’s better news for Moneygall today! (There was talk yesterday that the weather would prevent the President from visiting there):

RTE: On arrival, Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle, will travel to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet President Mary McAleese and afterwards he will meet Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Farmleigh.

Mr Obama is then expected to fly by helicopter to his ancestral home in Moneygall in Co Offaly.

If the weather does not allow for helicopter travel, there are alternative plans to transport Mr Obama to Moneygall, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said. Met Éireann has forecast that tomorrow will be extremely windy or stormy, especially in Connacht and Ulster.

Tomorrow evening, he will return to Dublin to make a public address after a free open air concert on College Green.

** Thank you TeamObama **

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Catch you all later – have a blissful Sunday 😉

running ….. for the hills

AP: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said early Sunday that he won’t run for president because of family considerations, narrowing the field in the race for the GOP nomination.

“In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one,” the Republican said, disclosing his decision in an e-mail to supporters. “The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry.”