Another momentous day. Time for some music.

Kool & the Gang – Celebration

Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day

Rise and Shine

A year ago …… July 16, 2012: President Obama kisses First Lady Michelle Obama for the “Kiss Cam” while attending the U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team’s game against Brazil at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

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Today (All times Eastern):

10:0 Vice President Biden will swear in Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) as the freshman Massachusetts senator at the U.S. Capitol

11:0: President Obama is interviewed by Spanish language news anchors

12:45: Press Briefing by Jay Carney

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On Thursday, the First Lady, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Amy Rule, will visit Urban Alliance Chicago, a year-long career education and employment program for underserved high school seniors which enriches students’ lives through paid internships, formal training, and mentoring. The visit is part of the First Lady’s focus on youth empowerment and providing more opportunities for young people to achieve their full potential.

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George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush present President Obama with a pair of socks, July 15 (Photo by Pete Souza)

‏@ObamaFoodorama

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Steve Benen: For three-and-a-half hours last night, nearly every member of the Senate met behind closed doors in the Old Senate Chamber to discuss a political crisis of sorts: whether the minority would continue to block President Obama’s executive-branch nominees and what the majority intended to do about it.

The meeting itself was rather odd. Senators already have a forum in which they can hold a debate — it’s called the Senate. But their usual chamber has cameras and public seating, and last night, for whatever reason, members wanted to debate in private for a candid conversation.

By all accounts, it was a constructive conversation, but there was no resolution. As I type, there are some back-channel talks underway, but barring a breakthrough, the Senate Democratic leadership intended to move forward with its “nuclear option” plans.

More here

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OFA

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Nobody seems to care that Obama is hurting small businesses! pic.twitter.com/V7lvQMyN #WhiteRage

— Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) July 15, 2013

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Eugene Robinson: Justice failed Trayvon Martin the night he was killed. We should be appalled and outraged, but perhaps not surprised, that it failed him again Saturday night, with a verdict setting his killer free. Our society considers young black men to be dangerous, interchangeable, expendable, guilty until proven innocent. This is the conversation about race that we desperately need to have — but probably, as in the past, will try our best to avoid. Jurors knew that Zimmerman was an overeager would-be cop, a self-appointed guardian of the neighborhood who carried a loaded gun. They were told that he profiled Martin — young, black, hooded sweatshirt — as a criminal. They heard that he stalked Martin despite the advice of a 911 operator; that the stalking led to a confrontation; and that, in the confrontation, Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.

If anyone wonders why African Americans feel so passionately about this case, it’s because we know that our 17-year-old sons are boys, not men. It’s because we know their adolescent bravura is just that — an imitation of manhood, not the real thing. We know how frightened our sons would be, walking home alone on a rainy night and realizing they were being followed. We know how torn they would be between a child’s fear and a child’s immature idea of manly behavior. We know how they would struggle to decide the right course of action, flight or fight. And we know that a skinny boy armed only with candy, no matter how big and bad he tries to seem, does not pose a mortal threat to a healthy adult man who outweighs him by 50 pounds and has had martial arts training (even if the lessons were mostly a waste of money). We know that the boy may well have threatened the man’s pride but likely not his life. How many murders-by-sidewalk have you heard of recently? Or ever?

More here

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night owl chat – ode to joy

Probably the greatest musical expression of unbridled joy is the “Ode to Joy”, the fourth movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. It’s been a hell of a couple of weeks, so some versions of the Ode to take you soaring and lift your spirits.

Flash Mob “Ode to Joy”

NY

The View, Sept 24

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JFK

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New York

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Meanwhile….

harry hammers herb

‘the only adult in the room’

Not only is Martin Sheen a genius, a supporter of the President – he’s obviously a Blackwaterdog fan too. The man is perfect. 😉

Original video here – thank you LOL

night everyone

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President Barack Obama takes the stage during the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, May 12. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

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on view

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President Obama during an appearance on the ABC daytime television talk show, ‘The View’ in New York, July 28

nothing’s impossible

Election Night, 2008

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