bonjour – rise and shine

…. with French President Nicolas Sarkozy

…… with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France

….with Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard

….. greeting Canada PM Stephen Harper as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono looks on

…. with British PM David Cameron

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If, like me, you’re struggling to understand exactly what’s going with Greece, Kevin Drum has a brilliant post about it all at Mother Jones (here) – as recommended by Steve Benen

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Gallup

Thanks Desertflower

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AP: Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a hopeful sign that the job market might be picking up.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 397,000, the lowest level in five weeks. It’s only the third time since April that applications have fallen below 400,000.

Economists were encouraged by the drop, though they cautioned that the trend would have to persist to signal real improvement.

More here