fired up, ready to go

President Obama at a campaign rally at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, September 26

Reuters: President Barack Obama topped up his re-election war chest with a string of successful West Coast fundraisers that ended Monday and showed soft poll numbers had not dented his ability to raise big money.

Despite tough economic times, supporters shelled out for events from Seattle to San Diego that likely raised upward of $5 million in two days, paying up to the legal limit of $35,800 to hear Obama speak.

…. His campaign team also said it was close to racking up a million donors, recalling his massive grass-roots fundraising push that helped him win the White House in 2008.

Tour events have been crammed with guests, who applauded loud and long in response to his intensified criticism of Republicans and his oft-repeated call for Congress to pass his $447 billion jobs bill.

… Later Monday, he spoke before a group of Hollywood celebrities, including actor Danny DeVito, who took pictures of the president from his seat, producer/director Judd Apatow and actress Eva Longoria. “I think Hollywood is very positive. I think they’re very excited about what is going to happen next year,” film producer Jon Landau told reporters.

…. Obama’s campaign team said he was on track to have drawn 1 million donors by October, hitting that goal in half the time it took in 2008.

Full article here

business as usual…

President Obama meets with, from left; Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, Benin President Boni Yayi, Guinea President Alpha Conde, and Cote d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, July 29, in the Cabinet Room of the White House

u.s. coast guard academy commencement

Finally posted on YouTube

coast guard academy

Text of the President’s address here

President Barack Obama makes the traditional Hawaiian “shaka” greeting sign with Ensign Parish Martin Keoni Kaleiwahea and his father Parish after he received his diploma and commission at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation in New London, Conn., May 18

he’s so focused on 2012 he’s forgotten his duties!

President Barack Obama talks with advisors in the Oval Office before a phone call with President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon to discuss the situation in Cote d’Ivoire, April 4, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

democracy. now.

WH: In video-taped remarks, President Obama sent an important and very clear message today to President Alassane Ouattara, Laurent Gbagbo, and the people of Cote d’Ivoire:  the United States recognizes President Ouattara as the rightful leader of Cote d’Ivoire and calls on Laurent Gbagbo to step aside in the best interests of the country and its people…

The United States is not alone in standing by the people of Cote d’Ivoire.  The international community is united in recognizing President Ouattara as its duly elected leader…

***

AFP: Hundreds of Liberian “mercenaries” have gone on a rampage of rape, murder and looting in the western Ivory Coast region of Guiglo, a virtual lawless zone, the UN refugee agency says.

Spokesman Jacques Franquin told AFP on Friday the mercenaries are an opportunistic “third force” taking advantage of post-election clashes between troops loyal to strongman Laurent Gbagbo and those supporting internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara.

“They loot, they rape, they kill,” said Franquin, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Abidjan.

‘a place of profound sadness’

The UK Independent: The ocean views are stunning, but it’s the tragic past of Ghana’s rugged coast that is also drawing in visitors, thanks in part to America’s first black president.

Perched on the windswept edge of West Africa, the imposing whitewashed former slave trading fort known as Cape Coast Castle has seen a steady increase in visitors since US President Barack Obama and his family toured here in 2009.

The dark dungeons where untold numbers of people were kept before being shipped off as slaves serve as stark reminders of the brutality they endured – a point of view perhaps too often overlooked in the Western world.

….Obama, whose wife Michelle traces her ancestry to slaves, chose Ghana for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president in July 2009, and he and his family made sure to stop at Cape Coast Castle … A tour of the fort was “a moving moment”, Obama said then.

He added that “there is a special sense that on one hand this place was a place of profound sadness, on the other hand it is where the journey of much of African-American experience began.”

“Following President Obama’s visit we are seeing a consistent increase in international arrivals,” deputy Tourism Minister Kobby Akyeampong told AFP. Current arrivals are averaging 748,000 per year from 587,000 two years before and the aim is to hit a million thanks in part to the so-called “Obama effect”.

Full article here

recovery

President Obama makes a statement before he and First Lady Michelle Obama hold a roundtable meeting on the Gulf Coast recovery in Panama City, FL. August 14

hey dc, i’m home!

Bo, the pet dog of U.S. President Barack Obama and his family, steps off Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, August 15, 2010. The first family and Bo returned to Washington after spending the weekend in Panama City Beach, Florida.

family lunch

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President Barack Obama, First lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha lunch at Lime’s Bayside Bar and Grill in Panama City Beach, Fla