christmas lights

President Obama jokes with his daughter Sasha as they sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

afternoon all

The Capital Area Foodbank, Washington DC, Nov 23

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A gazillion thanks to those of you who provide links to posts on other blogs, really appreciate it, it makes it so easy for all of us to keep up with what’s worth reading.

Just a very, very polite request: please only include a few short extracts from the posts and then provide the link to the full piece. eg If it’s, say, a piece by Steve Benen that runs to about 10 paragraphs, just include about 2 or 3 paragraphs, or parts of 3 or 4, and then the link.

If we post most or all of the piece here then there’ll be no need for us to visit the blog itself, which isn’t fair on the author of the post in question. Thanks everyone.

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Mediaite

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Jon Hopwood (Yahoo): …. Barack Obama visited New Hampshire two days after Mitt Romney …. the events illustrated a substantial difference in style between two politicians….

… Obama’s appearance, in which the President displayed a fire-in-the-belly that was perfect for prime time and showed him in full campaign mode, was in sharp contrast to the more subdued political pitch made by Romney in Nashua. While Obama is cool, he can turn up the heat. The laid-back Romney, in contrast, comes across as cold….

Obama roused an enthusiastic crowd with his rhetoric. He was back at being the master of the campaign trail. Romney, in contrast, was rather flat …. Romney’s appearance brought to mind Clint Eastwood’s recent remarks about him: That if a movie-maker was looking for an actor to play the President, central casting would send over Mitt. Just what he stood for, Clint said, is anybody’s guess.

…. Romney was paired with the tall and also good-looking Kelly Ayotte. But there was something uncanny about the pair, something not quite human. Rather than fashion models, they struck me as two mannequins that had miraculously come to life and had escaped from Macy’s. There was a plastic quality about both, and for a candidate for President of the United States going up against one of the great campaigners of modern times, Barack Obama, this could prove fatal.

Full article here

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Thanks amk 😉

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ThinkProgress: Romney in Des Moines, Iowa today said that he isn’t “trying to put money in people’s pockets. That’s the other party.”

Thanks desertflower

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see you tomorrow ;-)

marion, nc

At the Countryside Barbecue in Marion, N.C.

*** a must read ***

Marion (Addicting Info):  ….If you’re on FireDogLake’s Jane Hamsher and Bold Progressives’ Adam Green e-mail list ….  you’ve probably received e-mails from them telling you in breathless terms, urgent terms that time’s running out for this cause or that cause, the latest dastardly deed of betrayal that Barack Obama’s about to level on Left. Cleverly inserted inside these fear e-missives is the kind request that if the recipient just clicks on a link to sign a petition and donate at least $5.00 to the cause au courant, of course, Jane or Adam or whoever will be able to fight just that much more securely to ensure that your rights are preserved….

….Meanwhile, we’ve seen Hamsher and her cronies on the FDL site refer to the President as “the Affirmative Action President,” “Bugaloo Bush,” and even “the house n****r.”

…. some of the remarks and the attitudes … had a particular whiff of subtle racism about them. Joan Walsh, two months ago, uttered an inadvertently racist remark in a Twitter feed … Did she apologise for the way she worded her sentence? No. Show remorse? Never.

…. Some of these remarks have been foolishly inane, like Chris Matthews getting over-excited and blurting out that he sometimes forgets Obama is a black man. Others are blatantly ignorant and provocative, such as Bill Maher’s referring to the President as “President Sanford and Son” or wondering why we didn’t elect a “real” black man, one who embodied all the characteristics Bill ascribes to ‘ghetto gangstas’, including carrying a gun concealed on his person.

…more and more African-Americans are recognising the subtle form of patronising racism amongst the Progressive Left and are calling them out about it…

….Bullying … I think we saw a fair amount of this recently, especially at NetRoots Nation 11, when Lt Dan Choi, the latest Hamsher tool, ostentatiously confronted the bisexual OFA volunteer in a humiliating fashion for all to see. It happens when someone disagrees online with the Alpha man likes of Glenn Greenwald, David Sirota or John Aravosis (he, who’s pronounced on Twitter that “all blacks are insane”)….

…Favourite tactic of Greenwald and Olbermann: When in doubt, tell the person who disagrees with you how stupid they are and that they simply cannot follow your logic. Greenwald’s a particularly bad sock puppet, who trolls websites where he’s mentioned, often under the guise of someone else, to bait and bother.

…. the plebiscite of the Left is often led by the short and curlies by professional hacks who masquerade as Leftwing pundits – Huffington comes to mind, and she’s anything but. Yet consider that Hamsher owns a public relations firm who represents and advises Republican candidates, that Greenwald has been connected with the Cato Institute and the Koch brothers and that several of these celebrity talking heads have a past history of being neocon Republicans, themselves. Even Bill Maher, who repeatedly and incorrectly labels himself a Progressive, is far too cosy with the likes of Darrell Issa and Andrew Breitbart…..

…please, don’t patronise me by pushing the old chestnut of the President abandoning his base. His base abandoned him the minute they ceded their capacity for critical thinking to those who profit from dividing and conquering. Or maybe it’s just more comfortable being morally right in Opposition with no responsibility to govern?

Full post here

The most brilliant piece I’ve ever read on the professional left – these are just a few extracts, make sure you read the full post

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Just a suggestion for a tweet:

The truth about the professional left (at Addicting Info): http://tiny.cc/oaqoi

(The link goes direct to Marion’s post at Addicting Info)

zandspruit, south africa

First lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia visit the Emthonjeni Community Center in Zandspruit Township, Johannesburg, June 21

Marian Robinson, mother of first lady Michelle Obama, takes a bow after dancing with children during a visit to the Emthonjeni Community Center

Michelle Obama and her daughters reading The Cat in the Hat to children at Emthonjeni Community Center

new white house videos

special guests

I hope your Portguese is better than mine 😕

WFP: First lady Michelle Obama met with about 50 Brazilian youth ambassadors, took in a martial arts-dance presentation and was wowed by a group of female samba drummers during the first day of her and President Barack Obama’s five-day tour of Latin America.

Waving and smiling as she entered an open-air space in a restaurant shaded by palm tress, Michelle Obama electrified the crowd of youngsters, many of whom have taken part in a State Department program that sends them to the U.S. for cultural exchanges.

“Bom dia! Is that it? That’s all I have, unfortunately,” Obama said as she greeted the group with the Portuguese phrase for “good morning,” drawing applause and laughter as she confessed her poor knowledge of the language.

Obama, accompanied by daughters Sasha and Malia, and her mother Marian Robinson, then drilled home a message she has repeated to youngsters around the world: Education and trying to understand other cultures is one of the best cures for some of the globe’s ills.

…Icaro Soares Alves, 19, from the jungle city of Manaus, met Michelle Obama last year in Washington when he took part in the exchange program.

“This is one of the most important moments of my life, to meet her again,” he said. “She breaks all the stereotypes that American people are cold. With her smile and embrace she is so welcoming. I think she must have a little Brazilian in her.”

More here

First lady Michelle Obama with youths at Oca da Tribo restaurant in Brasilia. Michelle Obama, her two daughters Sasha and Malia, her mother Marian Robinson, the girls’ godmother, Eleanor Kaye Wilson, and Guisela Shannon, wife of U.S. Ambassador Thomas Shannon attended cultural performances with young Brazilians, many from disadvantaged backgrounds who have participated in a range of U.S. sponsored exchange and leadership development programs.

brazil bound

President Barack Obama with first lady Michelle Obama waves before their departure from Andrews Air Force Base, March 18. The President is traveling to Latin America and will be visiting Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.

south side girl