President Barack Obama makes a toast before the 2014 Governors’ Dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House
President Barack Obama and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (R) toast after their remarks
President Barack Obama toasts Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) and Inslee’s wife Trudi Inslee
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Indiana Governor Mike Pence react to remarks by President Barack Obama
The Obama Diary 
Vote for Meta’s Pastry Studio. Down to the wire. Make your voices heard. 😀
http://www.thekitchn.com/nominate-for-your-favorite-sweets-baking-cooking-blog-for-the-homies-awards-the-homies-2014-200246
Congrats NW.
Voted the second time for Meta. I hope she wins. We need about 10 more people for her to tie for 1st place.
Delurking to let you know I voted. Thanks for the reminder.
Also, great work NW. Thank you and congratulations on your #1.
Thanks.
Hey You!! Master lurker! Really you must de-lurk more.. I know you have a lot to offer the rest of us ~ we’ve had only a glimpse of your brilliance, not easily forgotten once read! Very good to ‘see’ you, lmrj!
Hi
I see bt’s nemesis, joy, is back again.
Had just posted on the bottom of the previous thread ….
““Staunton, February 23 – Viktor Yanukovich was “100 percent” responsible for the rise of the popular movement that overthrew him, Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov says, and unless the Kremlin learns the lessons from what has taken place in Ukraine, “a Russian Maidan is inevitable” and it will be the fault of no one but the Kremlin.
In a blog post on Ekho Moskvy yesterday, Nemtsov lists six reasons for the rise and ultimate victory of the Maidan and considers the ways in which the current Russian regime of Vladimir Putin is behaving on each point in much the same, ultimately self-destructive way (echo.msk.ru/blog/nemtsov_boris/1264336-echo/).
First, Nemtsov says, in Ukraine, there was boundless deception in which Yanukovich promised to pursue Euro-integration and then turned away at the last minute. In Moscow, he suggests, “the deception is still more vile and cynical” not only about Ukraine but about Russia itself.
Second, Yanukovich stole from his people in an unprecedented way. Indeed, it appears that the president of Ukraine may have “surpassed even Putin’s Russia.” But it is a near thing, and of the amount of theft and corruption under Putin, Nemtsov says, he will not even on this occasion begin to speak.”
More at the link in the tweet.
bbl … time to prepare some dinner ….
If you are not watching True Detective, you need to get on it, ASAP! My jaw is on the ground!!!! McConaughey (bravo sir!) and Harrelson are acting dynamos. This first season has only 8 episodes and they’ve already accomplished what most shows can’t do in 3 seasons. How good is True Detective? So good that it can go head to head with Breaking Bad and The Wire. The music, acting, scenery, dialogue, the mannerisms of McConaughey, the way Harrelson gives in to his weaknesses over and over again, the complex relationship between McConaughey and Harrelson, the way their personal lives or lack of personal lives affect them and their cases, the way the hunt for the serial killer or killers is so intertwined yet set apart from dynamics of McConaughey and Harrelson….wow….wow…WOW!
The actors replacing them in season 2 (it’s an anthology series) have their work cut out for them because McConaughey and Harrelson have set the bar high. Very high. I’d recommend this show to any and everyone. It is that good.
Mind blown. Mind….Freaking…BLOWN. And there’s only two episodes left. This is one of the few shows where I have no clue how it’s going to end and I’m on the edge of my seat. It is a fantastic thrill ride.
I have been recording all of the episodes but I have not watched any of them yet. Wow, looking forward to watching. I have one more episode of House of Cards to watch.
NW, I agree with every word of your comment about True Detective. Mind blowing is a perfect way to describe everything about this HBO series. I am so bummed that there are only two episodes left. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are perfect together. I thought you would get a kick out of the write-up below. It provides fascinating insight into the relationship between Matthew McConaughey and writer Nic Pizzolatto and how MM was drawn to Rustin Cohle.
Matthew McConaughey on ‘True Detective’: ‘I Wanted to Get In That Dude’s Head’
http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/dark-character-draws-mcconaughey-to-hbos-noir-miniseries-1201105443/
Thanks so much, LadyHawke. It was a fantastic and fascinating behind the scenes article to read. I loved this paragraph of Nic Pizzolatto describing McConaughey:
“The guy just has a very clear focus, and his head is screwed on as right as any man I’ve ever known,” Pizzolatto says. “He presents a kind of American masculinity that we don’t see as much anymore. He’s in a great place in his life and I’m grateful our show got to be a part of that. As a fan I’m glad he’s now being allowed to be the kind of star that people always said he was going to be.”
His recent runs of The Lincoln Lawyer, Mud, Killer Joe, Dallas Buyers Club, The Paper Boy, and now True Detective have been great. I’ve always felt that he had those kinds of acting chops in him, after seeing A Time To Kill and finally a broader audience is recognizing that.
The character of Rustin Cohle is disturbing, puzzling, yet draws the audience in, every episode. It’s been a great thrill ride. HBO got it right with True Detective.
This show is as good as Nerdy W says.
Anybody notice that the slimeball named Tuttle, played by Jay O. Sanders, gave a speech on school vouchers and “choice” that could have been written by Paul Ryan? The scheme they were running sought to divert public education money into private conservative hands. Nothing new there.
I noticed that too. The look Matthew McConaughey aka Rustin Cohle gave him was perfect.
Pretending to care for the poor amongst us while lining their pockets with money and looking the other way while destruction and havoc are being visited on the community; especially the children.
I don’t get HBO 😦
Just had to post this before heading to the kitchen ….
… brilliant WH strategy, just as it was last year by plunking #ThugChristie next to our brilliant, charming First Lady.
FLOTUS is seated between a coupla snakes!
I tend to think of Nikki Haley as a TOMICINA. I assume the Ind Gov is a member of the KKK because beginning in the thirties pretty much every white person in Indiana was a member of the KLAN.
Sorry but Nikki ain’t from any “tribe” in the US She and Bobby Jindal sit horses though.
🙂
IT TAKES GREAT STRENGTH,DISCIPLINE AND COURAGE FOR THE FIRST COUPLE TO BE IN THAT ROOM…INDEED IT IS…FILLED WITH SNAKES AND TURNCOATS….HOWEVER…THE SNAKES WILL EVENTUALLY MEET WITH THEIR OWN DEMISE…CHASING THEIR OWN TAILS IN THE PROCESS….ETC.,ETC……………..:)
THE FIRST LADY IS AWESOME…IF I SAT NEXT TO MIKE PENCE…I WOULD NEED AN AIRLINE DEPOSITORY! WE THE PEOPLE IN INDIANA ARE NOT HAPPY CAMPERS! SOMEBODY PASS THE SALT!
Good evening TODers. I’m hoping it’s safe for us Canadians to post here again. 🙂 I will never ever catch up with all of your wonderful posts here, but I have spent the past three hours reading much of it. Such a nice place to come and read some positive stuff about your President. Anyway, I have something nice and shallow to contribute. My PM’s websites have a bunch of really wonderful photos from the North American Leaders’ Summit. I thought the setting for some of these photos was really gorgeous! The ones on flickr can be enlarged quite a bit. Enjoy! I believe the photog for most of these was Deb Ransom.
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media/pm-attends-north-american-leaders-summit-mexico
keltuc…..yes it’s safe. I wrote on the previous post of having lunch today with a dear friend who is Canadian and other family members, and that we congratulated her on Canada’s hockey and curling wins. She explained a little about curling to us and told us she had participated in school. She said what got to her was listening to the people sing “O Canada”……So…..congratulations to you and your fellow Canadians on those important wins. I believe what your Prime Minister said covers it. “We ARE winter!”
🙂 Aw, thanks Carolyn. But I have to say that I’ve had enough of this particular winter already. It’s been a brutal one for much of Canada and the US, and it’s still only February!
Nice links keltuc. I hope your PM enjoys the beer. 😀
And I was willing to head down to the US and accept that beer on our PM’s behalf. And there would have been no issues with taking it back across the border, because, well, it wouldn’t actually have made it that far. 😀
Har-de-har-har! Take that up with your PM, eh. Bet he wouldn’t go for that.
LOL
darn that joy!! gotv todville! http://www.thekitchn.com/vote-for-your-favorite-sweets-baking-cooking-blog-in-the-homies-awards-the-homies-2014-200246
Just sent the link to my son to vote! Joy’s taking all the joy out of that contest for “us” – and our dear meta!
i thought it might be related to ‘joy of cooking’ but the site is gruesomely twee. can’t understand the appeal. our meta’s site is like her: intelligent, tasteful, respectful, delightful. and i want to immediately eat everything she bakes!
Worth pondering ….
… rest well TOD …
#TrustBarack …. or GET ROLLED ….
BTW, I disagree with the ‘least hopeful item’ comment in that tweet … but wanted all of you to see the nature of the infrastructure spanning Ukraine. From my perspective, if you are a Ukrainian leader who is not a megalomaniac, avaricious oligarch but someone genuinely dedicated to the sovereign & societal well-being of the people you represent then you’d leverage both supply and demand sides of that infrastructure, wisely and robustly. No one in Ukraine would be impoverished, in any way, if that type of leadership prevailed.
Wanted to add this before departing ….
… when you look at the map in the previous tweet it’s not hard to understand why. All Ukraine needs are a few non-avaricious leaders.
Piers Morgan’s prime-time talk show on US TV network CNN is to end.
The former Daily Mirror editor told The New York Times it had been “a painful period” for the show, which has suffered lacklustre ratings.
CNN’s audience had tired of hearing a Briton weigh in on American cultural issues, he said.
Mr Morgan said he was in discussions with CNN about a new role at the channel following the end of the show, probably in March.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26318965
Hi Everybody! It’s been a crazy busy weekend. I’m totally behind on all things POTUS and FLOTUS. So grateful I can count on TOD to catch up, if not on everything, at least a little. 🙂
Don’t know why the heck I’m up. I’m about to go hit the sack. Have been haunted this evening by the beautiful music played at the end of the Olympics Opening Ceremony to images from the games. It clip was masterfully put together. I knew the music was a from a movie soundtrack, but at first I couldn’t place it right away. Finally it hit me, it’s from Trevor Rabin’s gorgeous soundtrack for National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Thought I’d share it here:
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. See you soon.
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Pongiant photo – police asking for apology for actions against the people;
Moooooorning Early Birds!
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/02/24/early-bird-chat-166/