The man in the arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910

If one were to read the usual—and not so usual—quarters, one would be led to the conclusion that President Barack Obama orchestrated the entire deal which vacated the sequester on the FAA, while leaving intact the sequester on every other segment of our government. One would be forgiven for thinking that Obama signed legislation which had been passed in the teeth of stern Democratic opposition, siding with Republicans and perhaps a rump of conservative Democrats.

One would not learn from reading in these quarters that the FAA “fix” passed by unanimous consent in the Senate.

Now, this is more Senate Newspeak, so what does it mean? Simply put, the measure was put before the Senate, and not one single Senator voiced an objection to it. Not Bernie Sanders. Not Elizabeth Warren. All the paragons of the Left signed off on the bill.

A word from Don

So John King is apoplectic that people are questioning if he’s a racist or not, too bad, he signed up for it when he went on national t.v. and said the Boston bombing suspects were black….I mean dark skinned. Let me tell you what I didn’t sign up for, I didn’t sign up to be followed around a department store, I didn’t sign up to have women clutch their purses as they walk in my direction, I didn’t sign up to hear the sound of car doors being locked as I crossed the goddamn street with bags of groceries in both arms, I didn’t sign up to walk in a bank to get some money out of my account and have the teller walk in a back room with my I.D. and have me wait for twenty fucking minutes just to get money out of my account, I didn’t sign up to have some white guy ask me I if was from this country just because I knew who Leon Panetta was, I didn’t sign up to have a realtor question me about my credit score and whether or not I’ve ever been arrested before I could finish saying hello, I didn’t sign up to have a waiter tell me the food in the restaurant I was in was expensive before he gave my wife and I the fucking menu. I’m not telling you these things because I’m looking for sympathy, I’m just telling you about the shit that the average black man has to put up with, so when John King gets upset at getting called out for an error he made, he should get on his goddamn knees and pray to his god that he doesn’t have to go through the same bullshit that the average black guy walking down the street does. Am I angry, hell yes, have I given up hope about the idea that a person should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, hell no.

A lovely end to a testing day…..

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After today, depressing and all a read as it was, maybe Charles Pierce was right: President Obama “should have run for president of a better country than this”.

But, there’s always hope:

Deal reached on background checks for gun purchases politicalwire.com/archives/2013/…

— Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) April 10, 2013

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(Almost the) Full concert:

More Complete Randomness

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Wait. Never mind PBO on the cover – “15 Flat-Belly Powerfoods”?? Anyone got a copy of this edition they can lend me? Quite quickly?

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Original post: Stephon stood just a few feet away from Barack Obama. The president, busy shaking hands, looked right at him. “It was like he was waiting for me to say something,” he said later.

So the 26-year-old Prince George’s Community College student took his cue and spoke to President Obama in his first language: American Sign Language. “I am proud of you,” Stephon signed. The president, almost involuntary, instinctively, immediately signed back.

“Thank you,” Obama replied.

This is one of those moments that humanize the office of the presidency…..

More here

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Man to Man

President Barack Obama listens during a B.A.M. (“Becoming a Man”) roundtable at Hyde Park Career Academy in Chicago, Feb. 15 (Photo by Pete Souza)

‘Obama for president: A second term for a serious man’

St Louis Post-Dispatch: Four years ago, in endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, we noted his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure. He was unproven, but we found him to be presidential, in all that that word implies.

In that, we have not been disappointed. This is a serious man. And now he is a proven leader. He has earned a second term.

Mr. Obama sees an America where the common good is as important as the individual good. That is the vision on which the nation was founded. It is the vision that has seen America through its darkest days and illuminated its best days. It is the vision that underlies the president’s greatest achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Twenty years from now, it will be hard to find anyone who remembers being opposed to Obamacare.

He continues to steer the nation through the most perilous economic challenges since the Great Depression. Those who complain that unemployment remains high, or that economic growth is too slow, either do not understand the scope of the catastrophe imposed upon the nation by Wall Street and its enablers, or they are lying about it.

To expect Barack Obama to have repaired, in four years, what took 30 years to undermine, is simply absurd. He might have gotten further had he not been saddled with an opposition party, funded by plutocrats, that sneers at the word compromise. But even if Mr. Obama had had Franklin Roosevelt’s majorities, the economy would still be in peril…..

….. The question for voters is actually very simple. The nation has wrestled with it since its founding: Will this be government for the many or the few?

Choose the many. Choose Barack Obama.

Full editorial here

Thanks to @jidts07

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And then there’s this guy….

“I’ll take a lot of credit for a man landing on the moon”

Ohio today

“this is a man without a core”

December, 2011

“I ran against him in ‘07 and ‘08, I have never seen a guy change his positions on so many things, so fast, on a dime, everything.”

“What will Barack Obama do to that? ….. This is a man (Mitt Romney) without a core, this a man without a substance, this is a man who will say anything to become President of the United States. I think that is a great vulnerability.”

Today?

Guiliani endorsed Romney.

rise and shine

Own up, which one of you wrote this for El Universal?

Eh, with thanks to Google Translate……

Obama, The Man of the Summit

El Universal: If those in the Gethsemane audience could vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama would surely get plenty of votes….

… thunderous applause greeted the president when he made his entrance to the auditorium … which hosted the opening ceremony of the Sixth Summit of the Americas.

Obama has shown in Cartagena what we already knew: that he is a very charismatic person…. elegant…

…. walking down the red carpet to the Convention Center … Barack Obama, the “man of the Summit”, wore a white shirt, trousers and brown shoes and black jacket. In the lapel of his jacket he wore a pin with the flag of his country and the gray in his hair shone in the Cartagena sun….

This style and his permanent real smile make him a very charismatic man and even … attractive.

😎

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Morning everyone 😉 I’ll be back later today – chat away.

sign language

YouTube

Thanks CTGirl