2014: 50 Most Memorable Moments

Mainly a smile or two – 50 to 11 in no particular order, but top 10 = top 10!

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50 TODers All Through 2014

Too many Memorable Moments to mention. The Muhammad Ali of bloggy people: The Greatest 🙂

(Although, Amk’s wimmin jokes float like a bee, and sting like a butterfly)

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49 Dead

Doug Mills’ photo prompted a gazillion captions, but some pics just say it all 🙂

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48 Making Special New Friends on Twitter

@ericwolfson @Maggyw519 @TheObamaDiary BARACK NO NUKES FH2012 LOOSER666 WHO HUMAN SHIELD MY 18.990 EUROS EMPEACH OFFER MY DIME MY CHURCH

—
DIARRA (@Nimrod38) February 10, 2014

@TheObamaDiary @MykaDean DUMP ALL CURES FOR THIS AND CURES FIR THAT!!!

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KEITH AUGUSTO (@koontz205) October 27, 2014

@theobamadiary @theyellowdogdem poud us world ctz take care are we are us marines completly creazy wfemal nakersxox

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MADANI TALL (@cdtdantall_usmc) November 23, 2014

@TheObamaDiary My Country has Sovereignty Secrets in N.Korea Kaesong industrial area. Seems to be accepted as a Communist Unity Attack!!

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Bell Chime (@skollbuddy51) December 28, 2014

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47 The President Making New Friends Around The World

‘Welcome Mr. President – PS In Netherlands, we give three kisses’

😕

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46 Genius Gifs

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45 Babies

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44 Joy

President Obama greets patrons at Canter’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles, Calif., July 24, 2014 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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43 Beauty

Carolina Garcia Delfin, 94, a Filipina nurse who fought in the resistance against Japanese forces during World War II, kisses President Obama after he mentioned her in his remarks to American and Philippine troops at Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines (Photo by Pete Souza)

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42 ‘Gov. Christie Traffic Jam’

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41 OMG! It’s him!1!1!

First Lady Michelle Obama and student performers react to seeing President Obama as he drops by the White House Talent Show (Photo by Pete Souza)

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40 The New White House Videographer

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39 Danny Hating On His Attention-Rival: TOD

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38 Funniest. Vine. Ever.

I was so excited about the President's visit, I took this crowd video sideways. But it's still cool. vine.co/v/OOwzzzdZvLY

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Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) November 02, 2014

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37 Cracking Up The President

Still have no clue what Lily Tomlin said, but it must have been a complete hoot 🙂

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36 Turnip For What?

Hey, @Alphacat. The First Lady wants to know… #TurnipForWhat? vine.co/v/OqJKZVQami9 #AskTheFirstLady #TD4W

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The First Lady (@FLOTUS) October 15, 2014

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2013: Eric Wolfson’s Most Memorable Moments

by Eric Wolfson

(Chips: Eric is one of my very, very, very, very favorite people on the Twitter machine, so I DM’ed him and said ‘Oi, you! Would you like to put together a post for TOD on your most memorable moments from 2013?’

If he’d any sense he’d have replied: ‘Go away, it’s holiday time, I’m chillin’, shoo’, but he didn’t, he said he’d love to. See? That’s why he’s Exceptional Excellent Eric.

Also posted on Eric’s Tumblr page

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1. Obama unknowingly poses for his greatest portrait while giving his speech for the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March On Washington.

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2. Obama visits the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, just months before his hero’s passing.

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3. Obama’s quote of the year, even if nobody realized it at the time.

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4. Obama becomes the first president in American History to not hold his own umbrella…

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5. …and put his feet up on the desk.

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6. Obama shuts down the GOP shutdowners.

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7. Obama’s Second Inaugural Address in three words or less: Selma, Seneca, Stonewall.

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8. Obama awards the Congressional Gold Medal to the victims of the 1963 Birmingham Church bombing.

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9. Obama explains what constitutes a jobs plan.

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10. Obama becomes the worst socialist EVER.

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😆

I’m famous! Tomorrow I quit my job. RT @TheObamaDiary: 2013: @ericwolfson‘s Most Memorable Moments http://t.co/nAhuWrCJqR

— Eric Wolfson (@ericwolfson) December 30, 2013

2013: SmartyPants’ Most Memorable Moments

by a very special guest: SmartyPants

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10 Big Sis

As someone who has a big sister and knows how trying that relationship can be at this age, I LOVED this one.

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9 A Wise and Empathetic Latina on the Supreme Court

This year Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor published her book “My Beloved World.” I read it immediately. It moved me beyond words to think that we have someone on the Supreme Court who has lived her life. During her book promotion tour, this happened (see here):

“At her Wednesday night book talk here, Justice Sonia Sotomayor glided through her audience of 700, dispensing homespun wisdom through a cordless microphone, interrupted by impromptu applause.

When the moderator read a question from Tabbie Major, age 7, about which books Justice Sotomayor loved as a child, she found the girl, locked her in an embrace, held on while reminiscing about Nancy Drew mysteries and then called out for a photographer to capture the moment. “

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8 The Evolution of Mom-Dancing

Nuff said. FLOTUS pulls off the comedy gold of the year!

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7 Marriage equality spreads like wildfire

This is how we celebrated in Minnesota.

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6. Those red shoes!

We all know what happened that day. Wendy Davis showed us how its done. We’ll all love her forever for that!

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5 The day Antoinette Tuff “stood up, spoke out, and got in the way.”

2013: Amk’s Most Memorable Moments

by @Amk

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10. Auto industry rebounding (hate to see any engineering industry shut down)

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9. Wingnutz losing their collective shit over two-term Obama

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8. Making Syria cry uncle without firing a gun

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7. Iran Deal amidst all the neocon hand wringing and nut n yahoo’s sweet tears

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6. His addressing the Newtown victims’ families and passionate advocating for gun control

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5. Repeal of filibuster (too late imo)

2013: CollegeKay’s Most Memorable Moments

by CollegeKay

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10. President Obama explains the lipstick on his collar at a White House reception for Asian American Heritage Month. Don’t worry Mrs O, the culprit was auntie of Jessica Sanchez.

“Look at this!”

“Look at this!”

“I do not want to be in trouble with Michelle. That’s why I’m calling you out right in front of everybody.”

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9. The adorable Kid President receives a personal tour of the Oval office from President Obama.

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8. Malia photobombs Sasha trying to get a picture of their mom and dad kissing because she’s awesome.

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7. Sunny Obama, the diva puppy, is welcomed into the Obama family! I’m sure she is the source of much of President Obama’s new gray hairs.

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6. President Obama speaks directly with Iranian President Rouhani. It was the first direct contact between U.S. and Iranian presidents since 1979. Yeah, I’d say that was a BFD.

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5. During his commencement speech at Morehouse College, President Obama went off-script to acknowledge gay Morehouse men. As a recent graduate of a prominent HBCU, I found this moment to be of great significance.

Full speech:

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4. After George Zimmerman was found “not guilty” for murdering Trayvon Martin, many of us in the African-American community expressed pain, doubt, and an overall sense of hopelessness.

‘Barack Obama’s Coolest Presidential Moments’

Thank you Dudette!

so, who’s watching the debate?

Live feed here (Political Carnival) and here

Political Carnival’s GottaLaff will be live tweeting here

Live blog at ThinkProgress

Eating each other alive:

😆 ——>

AP: When Mitt Romney and Rick Perry thumped their chests over their job-creation records as governor during the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night, they left the bad parts out.

Yes, employment has grown by more than 1 million since Perry took office in Texas. But a lot of those jobs are not well paid.

True, unemployment dropped to 4.7 percent when Romney was Massachusetts governor. But the state’s employment growth was among the nation’s worst.

A look at some of the claims in the debate, and how they compare with the facts:

PERRY: “Ninety-five percent of all the jobs that we’ve created have been above minimum wage.”

THE FACTS: To support the claim, the Perry campaign provided federal statistics for December 2010 showing only 5.3 percent of all jobs in Texas pay the minimum wage.

But those figures represent all workers, not just the new jobs, for which data in unavailable. And that does not account for low-wage jobs that may be above the minimum wage. According to the Texas Workforce Commission, 51 percent of all Texas workers make less than $33,000 a year. Only 30 percent make more than $50,000 a year. Nationally, Texas ranked 34th in median household income from 2007 to 2009.

About 9.5 percent of Texas hourly workers, excluding those who are paid salaries, earn the minimum wage or less, tying Mississippi for the highest percentage in the nation.

ROMNEY: “At the end of four years, we had our unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent. That’s a record I think the president would like to see. As a matter of fact, we created more jobs in Massachusetts than this president has created in the entire country.”

THE FACTS: To be sure, 4.7 percent unemployment would be a welcome figure nationally. But Romney started from a much better position than President Barack Obama did. Unemployment was only 5.6 percent when Romney took office in 2003, meaning it came down by less than 1 percentage point when he left office in 2007. Obama inherited a national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent.

‘we are better than this’

Scott and Mark Kelly

BBC: The crew on board the International Space Station (ISS) have paused in silence for six people killed in a shooting in Arizona which left US congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, seriously wounded.

The ISS Commander, Scott Kelly, who is Ms Giffords’ brother-in-law led a tribute to the victims. Ms Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, is also an astronaut.

Commander Kelly:

“As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not. These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions but also with our irresponsible words. We are better than this. We must do better.”

a moment of silence

President Obama has released a statement calling on a national moment of silence tomorrow at 11 a.m., and signed a proclamation ordering flags be flown at half-staff as a mark of respect for the victims of the “senseless act of violence” committed yesterday morning.

The President’s statement:

“Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern standard time, I call on Americans to observe a moment of silence to honor the innocent victims of the senseless tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, including those still fighting for their lives. It will be a time for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the victims and their families closely at heart.”

The President will observe the moment of silence with White House staff on the South Lawn.

The signed proclamation ordering flags be flown at half-staff reads:

“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on Saturday, January 8, 2011, in Tucson, Arizona, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, January 14, 2011. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

A portrait of Gabrielle Giffords is placed at a memorial outside the hospital where she and other victims of Saturday’s shootings are recovering in Tucson, Arizona January 9

A portrait of slain federal judge John Roll sits at a makeshift memorial on January 9, in Tucson, Arizona

silence

President Barack Obama pauses during a moment of silence in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House at 8:46AM, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010, in remembrance of the time that the first plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)