on cloud nine

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You unfortunate people must dread when the blog hits the next million because it usually means you being pinned against a wall and threatened, in a particularly menacing kind of way, unless you mark the occasion by donating $$s to Obama/Biden 2012…. when $$s are in short enough supply and you donate already.

But …… and it’s a HUGE but ….. if you can – and if you’d like – maybe you could donate $9 today, just to kick-start our all-night celebrations? (UTAustinLiberal will bring the champagne later, and amk has promised tasty treats. VC will sing, but don’t let that put you off).

Anyone who donates more than $9 will get a photo of Newt in his mankini sent to them by email.

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This is the link

Again, if I show up as a lady called Barb, or as an employee of a chap in Alabama, that’s not me (I’ve never even been to Alabama) …. the gremlins are still playing with my OFA account, they’re probably Willard supporters.

Absolutely no worries if you can’t donate right now, or if you already donate to another fundraiser – the $$s are all going to the same place.

Nine million thanks everyone 😉

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PS I am actually being a bit presumptuous – we’re only on 8,995,887 hits as we speak, and it could be that we won’t hit 9 million until Malia is being sworn in as President. But just in case we hit the mark in the next hour or three…..

evening all

….. with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon ahead of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit working dinner in Seoul on March 26

… with Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard

…. with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

… with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev after their bilateral meeting in Seoul on March 26

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President Barack Obama is briefed by Lt. Col. Yoon Bong-hee, left, as he views the DMZ from Observation Post Ouellette at Camp Bonifas, Republic of Korea, March 25, 2012. A translator assists during the briefing. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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People rally on the sidewalk as legal arguments over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act take place at the Supreme Court in Washington, March 26

Medical students show their support for President Obama’s healthcare law

Linda Door protests against President Obama’s health care plan 🙄

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ESPN

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First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to children at the White House’s garden on March 26. The First Lady welcomed school children from across the country to join her for the fourth annual White House Kitchen Garden spring planting.

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Caroline Kennedy speaking to volunteers in a field office in Florida, March 23

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Hi everyone, just a few pics and videos for now, I’ll try and catch up properly with all the news tomorrow – I’m way behind!

emmitt thunderpaws!

Mediaite: …. it’s probably impossible to have a military homecoming video that isn’t wonderful, but this one’s a little different. In it, the returning soldier is greeted by his enormous dog who welcomes him with all the excitement one would normally expect from the more human members of the family.

… the family describes the video like so: “After a long 9 months apart, our dog, Emmitt Thunderpaws, is REALLY HAPPY to see his favorite person again! He smelled him in the house and then ran outside to greet him. Dogs are awesome :)”

up 9

Pew Research

‘girl’s death hits home for obama’

Helene Cooper (New York Times): President Obama is not known for showing a surplus of emotion in public, but toward the end of his speech at the University of Arizona, he paused for 51 seconds and appeared to gather himself.

….9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green’s death was an emotional punch to the gut for so many people across the country. Among them … is the president himself, whose younger daughter, Sasha, was born three months before Christina.

“I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it,” Mr. Obama had just said. “All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.”

And then he stopped. After 10 seconds, he looked to his right. After 20 seconds, he took a deep breath. After 30 seconds, he started blinking. Then his jaw tightened. Finally, after 51 seconds of silence, he began to speak again, describing a book published after Sept. 11, 2001 – the day Christina was born – that included her picture and simple wishes for a child’s life, including one inscription that read “I hope you jump in rain puddles.”

It was a stark moment for Mr. Obama, both as a president and as a father … he made no explicit mention of either Sasha or her older sister, Malia. But they have been on his mind as he has grappled with how to respond to the shootings…. the president, friends said, was initially hesitant about calling Christina’s parents after the shootings, saying that if it had happened to his daughters, he would not be capable of talking to anyone. He eventually did call the Greens … and then met with them before his speech.

..on Wednesday night, Mr. Obama’s perspective as a parent came through, propelling him to what is likely to be remembered as the one of the most soaring moments of his presidency.

Full article here

‘i hope you see rainbows’

Philadelphia Inquirer: Her smiling infant photo in a 2002 book about 9-11 babies is now, like the terrible irony of her short life’s span, almost too painful to contemplate.

Christina-Taylor Green, the energetic granddaughter of former Phillies manager Dallas Green, existed in the brief interlude between two great American tragedies.

Born just hours after the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the 9-year-old was killed Saturday in an Arizona massacre in which a Congresswoman was critically injured and five others, including a federal judge, slain.

…In “Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9-11”, a book by Pennsylvanian Christine Pisana Naman that spotlighted one child from each state, a wishful quote accompanied the black-and-white photo of the then-tiny girl. “I hope,” it read, “you see rainbows.”

The youngest of two children of Green’s son, John, she was among 20 people shot by a lone gunman during a Tucson shopping-center meeting sponsored by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The third-grader at Mesa Verde Elementary School had gone to the event with a neighbor because she had recently been elected to the student council and already had an interest in politics. The neighbor, Tucson authorities said, was shot four times but survived.

“She was a good speaker,” her father told the Arizona Star Saturday. “I could have easily seen her as a politician.”

…The death of the 9-year-old who was born in Maryland also resonated in the baseball community. Her grandfather, still a senior adviser for the Phillies, guided the Phillies to their first world championship in 1980. Her father, meanwhile, is a Los Angeles Dodgers scout.