yikes … newt gets glitterized

Meanwhile….

….and:

night everyone

You can also see the full interview here

****

Monday

President Obama visits families & local officials dealing with the Mississippi River flooding in Memphis

….delivers the commencement speech at Booker T Washington High School, Memphis

…back at the White House in the afternoon, hosts an event to honor NCAA Champion men’s basketball team Univ of Connecticut

****

Is President Obama visiting Ireland soon, by any chance?

Oh, yes, he is….

Note: Not everyone in Ireland has a really horrific yellow perm, red nose, rotten teeth and is armed with a banjo or tin whistle. And many Irish people would rather drink pigeon wee than Guinness. 😕

Thanks Donna! 😉

gates

Katie Couric’s interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates airs this Sunday, May 15 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Thanks Meta 😉

‘an ugly strain of racism’

****

There’s a great post at The Atlantic here about the issue – thank you Hank.

***

The day America took leave of its senses

Rupert Cornwell (UK Independent): Has there ever been a more absurdly surreal moment, even in US politics, that unchallengeable theatre of the absurd and the surreal? One moment, we were watching a property magnate, with one eye on the presidency, the other on his reality TV show ratings, and puffed up like a bullfrog, rejoicing on an airport tarmac in New Hampshire that America’s President of two years had finally made public his birth certificate.

The next, America’s TV networks interrupted their schedules to cut to the White House, where that self-same President appeared to confirm the momentous fact: not that Barack Obama had indeed been born, but that the happy event indeed took place, as no sane person has ever doubted, on the unimpeachably American soil of Hawaii, one August evening in 1961…..

…..Of late, however, America has seemed to be taking leave of its senses … At moments like yesterday, you could believe that everyone’s gone nutty.

Full article here

endeavour

(The President and first family will travel to Florida on Friday to view the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour)

history-maker

CBS: As the Senate began a new term Wednesday, there was 100 percent agreement on its first order of business, approving a resolution honoring Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who just set a record for longevity.

They call her Senator Barb. At just 4-foot-11, she sometimes gets lost in photos, but on the Senate floor there’s no way to miss her.

…With her victory in 1986, Mikulski became the first female Democrat elected to the Senate in her own right.

…She broke boundaries, and as she entered her fifth term Wednesday, she broke a record. Republican Margaret Chase Smith was the longest serving woman in the Senate at 24 years, but a lot has changed since 1973.

…”Now we’re 17 percent; we’re no longer a novelty,” said Mikulski. “We’re here to stay and there’s more of us to come.”

faces in the crowd

Helen Thomas

West Wing actor Richard Schiff

Dennis Quaid and Wolf Blitzer

Scarlett Johansson

Ashley Judd

Arianna Huffington and Joy Behar

Larry King and Michael Douglas

Julianna Margolis and her husband Keith Lieberthal

Colin Powell

Bill Maher and Cara Santa Maria

Senator Chris Dodd and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Wolf Blitzer and Queen Latifah

Rupert ‘Teabagger’ Murdoch and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich

The Jonas Brothers

Justin Bieber and Marlon Wayans

Al Sharpton shakes hands with Jon Bon Jovi’s wife Dorothea

The Daily Show’s John Oliver

Steven Weber

Kim Kardashian

Sanjay Gupta

Katie Couric

The 2010 White House Correspondents’ Dinner