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Capital Area Food Bank, Washington, November 21
Archive for November 21st, 2012
21
Nov
12
Making History
21
Nov
12
At your service
21
Nov
12
Rise and Shine
President Obama returns from a trip to Thailand, Burma and Cambodia, Nov. 21
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Today:
2:0: The President pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey
4:20: The First Family participates in a service event
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NYT: In the fractious relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the shoe may have just shifted to the other foot.
After more than a year of Mr. Obama needing – and not getting – much support from his Israeli counterpart in his efforts to woo American Jewish voters at home ahead of his re-election, it is now Mr. Netanyahu, Israel experts say, who needs Mr. Obama to help shore up his support at home.
The Israeli leader is facing an election in January, and if there is one thing that Israeli voters do not like, scholars say, it is any kind of daylight between their prime minister and the American president in times of strife.
After a year in which Mr. Netanyahu made no secret of his support for Mitt Romney, now might seem a perfect time for Mr. Obama to return the favor. And yet, as Israel and Hamas — and their proxies, the United States and Egypt — struggle to agree on a cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza, he has not done so.
…. All of this, Middle East experts say, means that Mr. Obama may have buttressed his own standing with the Israeli public, and is now in a far better position to start pressing Mr. Netanyahu on issues from the Israeli siege of Gaza to Iran to the dormant Middle East peace process, where he has had little leverage.
Full article here
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Charles Pierce: …. I would like to have an opinion on this continual bloodletting that didn’t sound banal but, goddammit, I’m out of them. I am thoroughly sick of both sides here. Opportunistic cutthroats poke a stick at the region’s most powerful military, knowing full well that said military will overreact and that the overreaction will fall most heavily on the civilian population on whose behalf the cutthroats are allegedly acting. Said military reacts right on cue, with all the modern military hardware against which the cutthroats know that they and the people they allegedly represent have no possible defense. Innocent people die. Then more innocent people die…..
…. there is no side worth taking in this. Not any more. It’s just tangled slaughter and bloody ambivalence and blind, unending fury. There is nothing but madness at its center, implacable as gravity, and drawing everything toward it.
Stop killing each other. Just stop, you know.
Full post here
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NYT: The Obama administration took a big step on Tuesday to carry out the new health care law by defining “essential health benefits” that must be offered to most Americans and by allowing employers to offer much bigger financial rewards to employees who quit smoking or adopt other healthy behaviors.
…. Insurance companies are rushing to devise health benefit plans that comply with the federal standards. Starting in October, people can enroll in the new plans, for coverage that begins on Jan. 1, 2014.
The rules translate the broad promises of the 2010 law into detailed standards that can be enforced by state and federal officials. Under the rules, insurers cannot deny coverage or charge higher premiums to people because they are sick or have been ill. They also cannot charge women more than men, as many now do.
More here
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Madame Tussauds, London marks President Barrack Obama’s fourth Thanksgiving in office with a grouping of his waxwork figure alongside waxworks of Rihanna, George Clooney and Morgan Freeman
Whatever about the other three ….. Morgan looks spookily real 😯
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PBO’s first turkey pardoning in 2009 …. a whole lot of growing has gone on:
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Morning everyone, that was a short Rise and Shine, will have more later. And, I’ve fallen waaaaaaaay behind again with emails, will catch up soon-ish.
The Obama Diary 
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