Teary Eyed Meeting President Obama

Fast forward to 1:05:33 (p.s. you should also watch the entire roundtable. Good conversation)

Did Christians apologize for Timothy McVeigh?

Here’s a bio on Dr. Seema Jilani:

Seema Jilani is a physician who specializes in Pediatrics, and concentrates on International Health Care. She has worked in Israel, Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon, Egypt and the Balkans. She has been a freelance journalist for Pacifica Radio for eight years. Her radio documentary, Israel and Palestine: The Human Cost of The Occupation, was nominated for The Peabody Award. Dr. Jilani’s work has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, Newsweek, The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers.

Dr. Jilani also blogs on Huffington Post, and yesterday posted the most extraordinary piece, detailing the unmasked bigotry she suffered at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Left without keys to her room, she tried to get into the ballroom to find her husband and retrieve her keys. Security staff disdainfully told her “no”, saying she had no ticket—something which didn’t seem to preclude Caucasian attendees easily passing through the security cordon.

Finally, the truth came out:

When I asked why the security representatives offered to personally escort white women without tickets downstairs while they watched me flounder, why they threatened to call the Secret Service on me, I was told, “We have to be extra careful with you all after the Boston bombings.”

Chat away

President Obama walks from the Treasury building to the White House after a farewell party for Secretary Tim Geithner on January 16

catching up (again)

Paris Match

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Harold Pollack (Washington Monthly): ….. Many progressives – me, for instance – worry that OWS will promote destructive alienation from the hard and sustained work of conventional politics. If a sizeable chunk of progressive youth are passive in 2012, that is the functional equivalent of a Nader candidacy.

The best way to prevent this is to find an aspect of conventional politics that can genuinely excite and move these protesters into positive action that serves their own values and long-term goals …. Perhaps earnest substantive emails about health reform should do that – given the Affordable Care Act’s impact on millions of low-income people….

Ari Berman’s fantastic reporting describes Republican efforts across the country to establish subtle (or not-so-subtle) roadblocks to hinder voting among minorities, poor people, ex-felons, and the young … This is an obvious effort to turn the 2012 electorate into an older and whiter group that resembles the 2010 electorate rather than the 2008 electorate that brought Barack Obama to the White House.

…. Occupy Wall Street organizers: I believe you should resonate with this issue. GOP officials are trying to disenfranchise people like you: college students with university IDs not gun permits, young people and minority urban residents who don’t drive, and so on.

Full post here

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Original video here

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President Barack Obama talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during a break at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France, Nov. 4. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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The Week

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funniest. comment. ever.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao arrive for a State Dinner honoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House

yardarm756: “Oh LORD, Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell just walked in the dinner with an Oriental lady. Is that legal in Kentucky?”

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his wife Carole Geithner

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi with her husband Paul

Singer James Taylor with his wife Caroline

U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey and his wife Deanie Dempsey

Chief Justice John Roberts with his wife Jane

Austan Goolsbee, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and his wife Robin

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her husband Steven Schultz

ABC News host Diane Sawyer

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks with US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao

in defense of ‘dithering’

Timothy Egan (New York Times): Five years ago a young politician who seemed wise beyond his years was asked by Tim Russert what makes a great president … he took a thought breath before proceeding: “Obviously, most of the time it seems that the president has maybe 10 percent of his agenda set by himself, and 90 percent of it set by circumstance.”

Barack Obama: meet your 90 percent. The senator who so accurately predicted how events make the leader now finds himself a president trying to lead through those events.

….Libya ….In his deliberative fashion, Obama ultimately saved countless lives in the short term, and will allow the rebels in Libya to own their revolution in the long term, if they can push ahead….

What Obama wanted to avoid … was the “messianic certainty” that led President George W. Bush to start a disastrous, trillion-dollar occupation of Iraq. In putting together an international coalition, backed by a United Nations resolution and the Arab League — all in record time — Obama also pulled off a nice bit of statecraft…

Still, Republicans can’t cope with a president who tries to think before he leaps. Mitt Romney, who wakes most mornings in a groggy scramble to find his principles, faults Obama for the nuance of his Libya policy. How dare the president see shades of gray instead of black and white!

Newt Gingrich first criticized Obama for not imposing a no-fly zone, but now hits him for imposing a no-fly zone. You read that right…. Obama’s least-thoughtful critics attack him for thinking….

….His 90 percent of circumstances started on Inauguration Day, when Bush handed him the worse recession since the Great Depression, and continued through an oil spill that nearly poisoned an entire ecosystem.

During the spill, it was liberal cable pundits who wanted a president who could shout, emote and point fingers. Instead, he quickly negotiated a $20 billion escrow fund from BP that attempts to make whole those hurt by the spill. Similar success followed with the auto bailout, which saved General Motors, but cost Obama much of his early political capital.

…A poll just published by Reuters/Ipsos found 48 percent of respondents describing Obama’s military leadership as “cautious and consultative.” Another 36 percent chose “indecisive and dithering.”

I would argue that the combined 84 percent are basically saying the same thing — that this president is anything but impulsive. And next year, with an improving economy in a world where the United States is held in much higher regard, most people will probably choose a president who takes time to get it right, rather than one who is afraid to dither for a good outcome.

Full article here

patrick’s party

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🙂

green party (updated)

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, his wife Fionnuala, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at a St Patrick’s Day reception at the White House, March 17

President Obama: “Okay Joe, that’s enough. Joe? Joe? JOOOOOOOOOOE?!?!?”

Irish singer Glen Hansard sings The Auld Triangle with Timothy Shriver, chairman and chief executive officer of the Special Olympics, at St Patrick’s Day celebration in the White House

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For some reason this video doesn’t start working until about 10 seconds in – so, be patient! It’s from the Irish news tonight.

state of the union

Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

“Don’t cry – again.”

A seat sits empty for recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

…with John, Dallas and Roxanna Green, family of the late Christina Taylor Green of Tucson

…with Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)

with Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill, right, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., center, and Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa

Read the text of the address here

President Obama’s arrival:

The official White House video:

Here’s the C-Span version:

Enhanced White House version:

a trip to the treasury

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…at the Treasury Department July 7, 2010 in Washington, DC