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President Barack Obama smiles as he walks down the steps of the Capitol with Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny after attending a “Friends of Ireland” luncheon
President Barack Obama holds a book of poetry given to him by Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny during their meeting in the Oval Office
Vice President Joe Biden listens during a meeting between President Barack Obama and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, on St. Patrick’s Day in the Oval Office
The Obama Diary 
Hi
Congrats, NCLB!
President Obama is looking very good in those pics [as usual] – he’s definitely got a lot more patience than I. I would have tried to trip Boehner down those steps…
theo67, you read my thoughts. Or gave him a hearty back slap and Pete King looks like he would rather be in the building nursing whatever is in his butt. Sour puss.
well you’re better than I, Theo, I’d have pushed him down- with force 😉
Ha!
I know, he always looks so relaxed and sexy. I love his smile because it shows he aint letting dumb shit get to him.
Why does Boehner always look like he’s trying to pass gas without anyone noticing?
Yeah, Pres. Obama is a way better person than I. I’d want to help him down those steps – with a slight push.
“Why does Boehner always look like he’s trying to pass gas without anyone noticing?”
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OMG! That made me laugh so hard! I’ve thought the same thing more than once.
Hello, first placer NCLB!
You are really good NCLB. Congrats on all three Gold, Silver & Bronze today. Wooot!
Thanks a milllllllllllllion Nerdy!
🙂
Nerdy Wonka,
You’re awesome, NCLB. 🙂
Afternoon, all!
Thanks for the new thread Nerdy. I stopped by to say hi to every one on my way out. Have a Massage & then chiro appt and then get something to eat to build my strength back up. 🙂 Boner doesn’t look happy in these pictures. And POTUS is just a smiling away. I think he loves this stuff. LOL.
Have a great day.
Aaron Schock, “[T]he constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself,” Schock said in a surprise statement on Tuesday. “I have always sought to do what’s best for my constituents and I thank them for the opportunity to serve.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/aaron-schock-resigns-116153.html#ixzz3UfnAs7Gl
Translation: I wouldn’t be resigning if you people would stop interfering into my dealings and just mind your own business! Especially you, Karma!
“Translation: I wouldn’t be resigning if you people would stop interfering into my dealings and just mind your own business! Especially you, Karma!” – BOOM! Nailed it!
The nerve of him to pretend he was being hounded instead of owning up to the fact that his hand was caught in the cookie jar.
INORITE?!!!!
Hello again TOD.
30 minutes to go until Israeli polls close and the coverage from AJE and BBC is discouraging. “Too close to call,” and long spiels about Bibi while referring to Herzog more by “the opposition” than by his name.
The exit polls will be announced by the same biased media so it is a tossup whether the 4 point lead the left had yesterday will still be reported on even if it exists.
In 1996 the media is reminding us that “we went to sleep with a Labor lead and woke up with Bibi.” They are exactly like Rove and Fox, etcetera.
If Labor wins the legitimacy arguments will start.
I am hoping for a big enough lead for Herzog so that it cannot be denied.
Vicki, how do AJE and BBC know it’s too close to call if the polls aren’t closed? You’re right about there being FOX clones all over the world.
CBS radio news reported that Bibi’s party won 27 seats, the opposition 26, enough to keep Bibi at the helm. 😦
I had the biggest smile on my face when I heard he is resigning. Finally it is just not Dems that are resigning office, or should I say “pushed out of office” by the MSM. Twitter played a roll in this also. Whoooppeeee!!.
Oh what a day it has been already. People are not here for the BS.
NW, you made me smile with this. I bet Schock will go over to Cantor’s home where they both can cry into their green beer tonight 😀
The preliminaries out of Israel look worrisome. Likud and Labour neck and neck from the early reporting.
Damn it, if all this hate talk from Bibi pays off, gaaaaaawd help us all. But it probably will.
My thoughts exactly, Chips, especially since Netanyahu claims to speak for all Jewish people.
Hiya Theo, I didn’t dare believe all the hopeful talk about him being beaten, he’s the expert in the politics of fear, so sad that people fall for it.
Yup. That’s why I’m not raising my expectations and just observing what’s going on. We’ll know when the results are in.
good sign, for sure, but as LL said, the media chit chat is negative.
Also, they are reporting Ouright Lies. For one, repeating that the Arab List won’t join any gov’t.
FALSE. The Arab List leader, Ayman Odeh has indicated an interest in talking to Herzog but Not Bibi.
This is why I don’t usually follow the play by play; it’s too stressful. I like to get the verdict then deal with it – swallow my tears or get into my dancing shoes.
Lots of quick movement there, NC. Keep it going!
He can go join the cast of the Downton Abbey.
He’s only 33 years old. How do you blow up your career at such a young age and so very quickly? Does Obamacare cover his illness?
Good afternoon Nerdy, Chips & TOD! Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone 🙂
Good afternooooooooon globetrotter – I sincerely hope you’re in Ireland today?
^5, Ms Traveler! And take it easy on the Paddy Day drinking! 🙂
Good afternoon, HF. Hope your travels are going well? 🙂
Boner looks all lit up, again.
When doesn’t he? Therapy/training went well today?
Boehner is looking at PBO and thinking “gosh, why are you so nice when I’ve been such a shithead”
Endangered: Three Israeli political parties fight to stay alive
It’s a battle for survival for left-wing Meretz, right-wing Yisrael Beitanu and far-right Yahad. Will they make the cut?
By Allison Kaplan Sommer | Mar. 16, 2015 | 4:32 PM
Israel votes Tuesday and pundits are bemoaning the fact that the new political map is likely to reflect old patterns instead of dynamic change.
But the 2015 race is necessarily different from previous races in one key way: Because of a law passed last March, the parties face a higher election threshold to gain seats in the Knesset.
To enter the Knesset this year, parties must receive at least 3.25 percent of the vote. The previous threshold was 2 percent.
This means that to make it into the 2015 parliament, a party must win enough votes for four seats – enough to tip the balance in the ability of either Benjamin Netanyahu or Isaac Herzog to build a coalition.
So the fate of the nation may ride on the fate of these parties.
The law was designed to keep tiny marginal parties out of the parliament, in hopes of stabilizing the fractured Israeli government.
But if the polls are accurate, some established names and faces who were not expected to be affected by the change may be out of the Knesset this year – including, ironically, the very politician who was the driving force behind the law.
…………………………………. //
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/routine-emergencies/.premium-1.647194
Thank you for your very lovely Twitter greetings, Mr LL!!!
Mon plaisir, mademoiselle.
That should have been “tá fáilte romhat, mo stór” (thank you Google Translate)
what does this even mean? If you go to the courthouse to get married, it’s not legal?
From what I gather, yes. No more civil marriage. Certificates to be handed out by clergy.
How do people without a belief in religion get married then?
Wonder how that’ll hold up in a court of law…
From what I have read, anyone can declare themselves “clergy” in many states – so could be some interesting new chaplains – does the bill define religion as Christian only?
UGH!
Oh for **** sake
I feel sick…….
I can understand the politics of fear working with Israelis when they’re being told their very existence is at stake if they don’t vote for this piece of shit, but we were just clinging to the hope they’d see what damage this man is doing to them. So, so, so friggin’ depressing.
He ran a freakin’ campaign of DESPAIR. I can’t imagine voting for even more lies, killing, displacement and isolation. UGH.
Despair and hate, Meta, that’s the most awful thing of all, that it might have worked.
“I can understand the politics of fear working with Israelis when they’re being told their very existence is at stake”
I can’t.
Not justifying it Nospin, but I can understand the psychology of it all – if you already fear for you, your family and nation’s safety (partly out of paranoia, partly because Israel is pretty damn isolated in that region), then the likes of Netanyahu will play on those fears and you’ll more than likely succumb. The way of the ugly world.
VC, they should but it entirely, VC. Let them see how they like hanging out in the ME with no support at all.
You knew I meant ‘cut,’ not but.
The political climate here won’t allow a complete cut, however I’d like to think a convincing argument could be made for diminished support. After all, hasn’t Bibi bragged in recent past that he can do things on his own (even while begging for more dollars)? There is so much that Israel has done in the immediate that has been reprehensible and IMO it’s embarrassing for the USA to *have* to stand behind them all the time. Bibi’s Israel has struck me like a problem sibling who is always stirring up trouble because he knows big brother will protect him. Let him feel a good bump and maybe he’ll smarten up, or be more reasonable.
Here’s what gets me: when it comes down to it, Israelis vote their fears. Do they honestly think that a more progressive party wouldn’t strongly defend Israel when necessary? And maybe there would be less fear if decades-long problems were at least on a path to some sort of resolution.
57F, what gets me is that so many can be fooled over and over again by the same unconscionable politician! I give up hoping for peace for a people who, en masse, don’t want peace.
Believe me, I understand the complexity. I am one of the vast majority of American Jews who wants to see more equitable solutions. At my age (65 in May), born to parents a generation older than my contemporaries, I understand the fears from WW II, and the symbol that Israel is. I also know that the way Israel has behaved is not the way I was taught that Jews should behave. But Jews who choose live in Israel live in constant fear and have given up the ability to reason that there are alternatives. It’s just horrific.
And the leader they choose to protect them is himself a perpetuater of that fear. I can’t think offhand of one thing Bibi has done that would show he is really interested in Israel’s future beyond war and strife. I don’t know much about Israel’s government other than the repeated failed attempts to broker peace over the decades garnered from the media, and the fact that I have a deep seated resentment of Bibi which originated from the way he has reacted to PBO’s presidency. IMO PBO has more love for Israel and a better understanding of how to help them to a more peaceful path than ever Bibi has had in his little finger!
“what gets me is that so many can be fooled over and over again by the same unconscionable politician!”
<—This
Here is what happens next: The Israeli President offers the first try at forming a govenrment to one of the winning parties. Not necessarily the winner if the margin is one or two seats.
I am disappointed that Labor didn’t do significantly better than Bibi but it is possible that the Zionist Union will be offered the first chance to form gov’t. They got the chance in 2013 but failed.
This time, given the opportunity—they will succeed.
or not. and for me it may be my moment to understand that nothing can stop the RW anyplace.
Thank you for that Vicki, it’s just beyond depressing.
You know what, Chips, I’m not depressed, I’m angry. I’m sick of the US putting its neck on the line for Israel, sick of the assumption that we have to be on their side no matter how heinously they act, sick of our continual support of their moral outrages in the UN and sick of their aggression and bigotry. I don’t want my tax dollars going for their support and I don’t want to keep supplying them with military equipment that they use to kill Palestinians. I’m sick of anyone who tells me what good friends the US and Israel are and I’m sick of the kowtowing to pro-Israeli pacs. To hell with them all from now on. I will only support, work for and vote for politicians who call out the the Israeli government for the oppressors they truly are.
Oh, I’m with you Jackie, 100% – the blind support and funding of them, no matter how outrageous the behavior of their governments, including crimes against humanity, is obscene. And still even raising their behavior, like the slaughter in Gaza last year, seems to be a career killer in the US. What a world.
Thank you. I’m just dumbfounded.
Vicki, I’m deeply disappointed in the Israeli people. At this point, I feel they deserve anything they get in the way of less support from the west and more international disapprobation for their inhumane treatment of Palestinians. It’s time for the US to cut the cord and let Israel stew in the juices of its own creation. The next time a vote comes up in the UN against the Israeli policy of Palestinian apartheid I want the US to vote against Israel. They’re are making a nasty bed of hatred, oppression and violence and they can lie in it forever as far as I’m concerned. And as far as their opinion of an Iran deal, who cares? They have nothing to offer and nothing to say that is any longer relevant to the issue.
Vicki – against opinion polls and massive odds – the RW were defeated in my last state election – mainly because of the arrogance and RWNJ prejudices of the Premier and his Ministers – never give up
No comments
By AHIZA GARCIA PublishedMARCH 17, 2015, 3:59 PM EDT
A vendor at a gun show this weekend in Sioux Falls, S.D. was spotted selling shooting targets with a cartoonish depiction of a black man and bearing the words “Official Runnin’ N****r Target,” television station KSFY reported on Sunday.
While a crew from KSFY was reporting on the “Collector’s Classic Gun Show,” one of the station’s photographers noticed the targets showing the cartoonish silhouette. The KSFY photographer confronted the unidentified vendor who was selling the targets for 10 cents each and who was unfazed by the photographer’s questions.
“Why are those on there?” KSFY’s photographer asked.
“Why aren’t they?” the vendor said. “They’re just targets.”
“Aren’t they offensive in nature?” the photographer asked.
“To who? Are you a negro?” the vendor said. “You know there’s some black people and then there’s some negroes.”
The unidentified vendor also added that he’d “sold 500 of them this weekend so what difference does it make?”
………………………… //
We won’t know for a while just what the results are in Israel but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bibi pulls it off. Time and time again, all around the world, you are seeing fanatical right wingers winning elections because of one thing: fear.
Let’s face it, the world is a scarey place right now and not just because of the threat of terrorists. Climate change has people worried, even those that deny its existance. The economy for many people is still bad and they worry about what is going to happen to them. People’s priorities are being changed for them, and they don’t like it.
Resolving those things is not an easy thing. It requires a lot of thinking and sacrifice and putting oneself second. And it isn’t easy to explain solutions as they are complex.
So the right wingers around the world prey on that uncertainty and fear, and then ramp it up a notch by creating enemies for people to hate. All the problems are due to “THEM”.
And the they offer the simplest solution possible: Trust us, we’ll protect you. It doesn’t matter if they can or not. People are too ready and willing to accept those promises of protection that they don’t look behind the veneer.
And here’s the worst part. It doesn’t even take a majority of people to select those who use fear. But even if the right wingers barely squeak out a victory, they will always act as if it is a resounding mandate. Actually, they have to, because if they don’t, if they show one second of weakness, they lose face, so to speak.
It is the very arrogance of declaring a mandate (and acting like it) that then discourages those that opposed them which makes it easier for the RW to win again and again. It becomes a vicious cycle which does end, somewhere in the future (maybe now). But we can only hope it ends before too much damage is done.
“So the right wingers around the world prey on that uncertainty and fear, and then ramp it up a notch by creating enemies for people to hate. All the problems are due to “THEM”.”
The story of time Japa, it never friggin’ changes – the likes of Netanyahu have perfected the politics of fear, the Front National in France too, and everywhere, it seems parties are prospering from stoking up fear/hate of Muslims (eg UKIP in Britain). It’s just so depressing.
Heads up
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/03/17/president-obama-hosts-a-st-patricks-day-reception/
I’m wondering if anyone else is thinking what I’m thinking—Boehner and KIng’s faces make them look like they’re constipated and having a hard time passing the huge logs stuck in their intestinal tracts.
Someone needs to hand them some Exlax pills quick!