chat away

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AP: Some of the money from President Barack Obama’s health care law is flowing to places you might not expect.

Two Texas public employee programs are among the top 25 beneficiaries of a $5-billion fund to shore up employer coverage for early retirees, despite Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s vow to repeal what Republicans derisively call “Obamacare.”

And records show the Huntsman family business, where GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman was once a top executive, received about $1 million.

Some see a gap between dire Republican rhetoric about the health care overhaul and the pragmatic impulse to cash in on a new government benefit.

“Lots of Texans are already benefiting from health care reform,” said Anne Dunkelberg, a health care expert at the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities. “Other than for political theater, there would not be the kind of opposition there is.” The nonpartisan center advocates for the poor.

Full article here

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The Week

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Uggh, he’s at it again:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

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…. with Spain’s PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

… with Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff

…. with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

… with International Labor Organization Director-General Juan Somavia

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CNN: President Barack Obama leads all of his potential Republican challengers in hypothetical 2012 matchups among Pennsylvania adults, according to a new poll.

The Franklin and Marshall College poll released Thursday in the battleground state, shows Obama ahead of potential rivals Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum, but the results are closest when the president is paired with Romney.

Obama leads the former Massachusetts governor 35% to 26% and Cain, the former pizza executive, 38% to 24%. He enjoys a 20% lead over Texas Gov. Perry, 40% to 20% and a 13% advantage over former two-term Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum, 38% to 25%.

Full post here

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McClatchy

Thanks amk

berlusconi …. bonkers

I have only two words of Italian – Paolo Maldini – so I have no clue what’s been said in this video. 😳

But read below, and watch the ‘WTF’ body language of the President!

Reuters: Silvio Berlusconi’s latest international gaffe, when he complained to a bemused President Barack Obama about his problems with magistrates, was met with mockery, embarrassment and scorn at home on Friday.

Obama looked baffled when television cameras picked up the Italian prime minister buttonholing him at a Group of Eight meeting in France and treating him to one of his trade mark tirades about magistrates who have hauled him into court for four concurrent trials.

Microphones picked up Berlusconi telling Obama during a pause in the G8 meeting: “We have presented a justice reform that is fundamental to us. In Italy we have almost a dictatorship of leftist judges.”

“The prime minister has clearly lost his head,” said left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper in a front page editorial.

Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the largest opposition party, quipped that Berlusconi was probably asking Obama for NATO military action against the judges…..

(Berlusconi, 74, is currently on trial for having sex with an underage prostitute)

there may be trouble ahead…

NY Mag: From the Time Capsule: Dominique Strauss-Kahn Meets Barack and Michelle Obama at a dinner during the G-20 conference in September 2009. Some pictures say a thousand words. This one just says two: No Touching.

Thank you Proud 😉

Although Michelle knows how to handle creeps …. remember her keeping Berlusconi at arm’s length?

😉

well, o….kay

A visitor walks at the Great Roman Empire sand sculpture exhibition in Moscow’s Kolomenskoye open-air museum, on May 12. According to the sculptures’ creators the statues depict G8 leaders in Roman togas, (R-L) Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, US President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper looks more like Rosie O’Donnell 😕

special gifts. hundreds of them.

President Obama waves goodbye from the steps of Air Force One as he departs Saudi Arabia on his way to Egypt, June, 2009

AP: ..Foreign leaders showered President Obama and his family with hundreds of thousands of dollars in art, jewelry, rare books and other presents during their first year in the White House.

Saudi Arabia’s king was the most generous gift-giver, according to documents released by the State Department on Tuesday. Saudi King Abdullah gave Obama, his wife and daughters nearly $190,000 in luxury baubles in 2009, including the single most valuable gift reported to have been given to U.S. officials that year: a ruby and diamond jewelry set, including earrings, a ring, a bracelet and necklace, for the first lady worth $132,000.

…By law, most gifts to U.S. officials must be turned over to the government and the jewelry has already been sent to the National Archives.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was a distant runner up to King Abdullah, with gifts for the first family worth a little under $33,000. The Italian haul included silk ties, a gold watch, a crystal table and candlesticks…….the Saudi monarch also presented Michelle Obama with a $14,200 pearl necklace. He gave the president a marble clock adorned with miniature gold palm trees and camels valued at $34,500. He sent first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama diamond earrings and necklaces worth more than $7,000.

Chinese President Hu Jintao gave Obama a $20,000 silk embroidery of the first family….French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife sent perfume and a $4,500 black Christian Dior handbag …Some leaders chose more modest gifts. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth presented Obama with framed portraits of herself and her husband, Prince Philip, worth $775….Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered the U.S. leader $521 in gifts, including the least expensive item listed by the State Department: a $75 bottle of olive oil.

Full article here

The only gift in that list that I’d have liked is the olive oil 😐

o canada

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…at the G8 summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, June 25, 2010