The State Visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron - Part 2

The President and First Lady hosted a State Dinner for the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron and his wife, Samantha.



U.S. President Barack Obama steps on First Lady Michelle Obama's dress as they walk out to receive Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha as they arrive for an official dinner in their honor at the White House in Washington, March 14, 2012.
--- REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst








WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama (R), First Lady Michelle Obama (2nd L), British Prime Minister David Cameron (3rd L) and his wife Samantha Cameron (L) pose for an official photo at the Grand Staircase of the White House March 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. Prime Minister Cameron was on a three-day visit in the U.S. and he had talks with President Obama earlier the day.
---Alex Wong/Getty Images

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The State Visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron - Part 1

hat tips-The Obama Diary, 3CHICS:

More from the visit of the British Prime Minister and his wife.



WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and British Prime Minister David Cameron review the U.S. Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps during an official arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House March 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. Cameron is on a three-day visit to the U.S. and he is expected to have talks with Obama on the situations in Afghanistan, Syria and Iran.
-----Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Why are Obama's Poll Numbers Slipping?

A recent survey of British scholars shows that our esteemed cousins on the other side of the Atlantic would rate President Obama as the eigth top President of all time. That’s if his second term were to take place today. For the sake of comparison, drum roll please, George W. Bush comes in at #31 – but, did you not see that coming? What’s funnier is that ranking is also the worst president since Warren Harding presided over the Teapot Dome Scandal.

Read the rest here.

The GOP has a WAR ON WOMEN

Say it again with me, people.

The GOP has a WAR ON WOMEN.
EXAMPLE ONE:



From Balloon Juice:

Arizona Senate Passes Bill Permitting Doctors to Withhold Prenatal Information From Women
by ABL 2.0

The Arizona Senate passed a bill this week that allows doctors to withhold from pregnant women information regarding prenatal problems because disclosing that information might lead to an abortion.

Seriously.

From Addicting Info:

It’s called a “wrongful birth” bill and it’s all about preventing women from having an abortion, even if it kills them. The Arizona Senate passed a bill this week that gives doctors a free pass to not inform pregnant women of prenatal problems because such information could lead to an abortion.


In other words, doctors can intentionally keep critical health information from pregnant women and can’t be sued for it. According to the Arizona Capitol Times, “the bill’s sponsor is Republican Nancy Barto of Phoenix. She says allowing the medical malpractice lawsuits endorses the idea that if a child is born with a disability, someone is to blame.” So Republicans are banning lawsuits against doctors who keep information from pregnant women so as to prevent them from choosing to have an abortion.

YES, YOU READ RIGHT.

is this where we are as a country? We’re withholding medical information from women because that information might lead to abortions while simultaneously passing bills in state after state with such pithy names as “Right to Know” or “Right to Know and See” or “Informed Consent” the claimed purpose of which is to make sure women are fully informed? And not only are we withholding information, but we’re immunizing doctors from liability?

What the hell?

The one person in the media who has been on this story from the beginning was Rachel Maddow.

Frank Rich, writer-at-large for New York Magazine, talks with Rachel Maddow about the effectiveness with which Democrats have held Republicans to account on women's health issues

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Super Tuesday Results for the GOP Clown Car

Willard Romney won:

Massachusetts
Vermont (right there in New England
Virginia (where he and Ron Paul were the only two on the ballot)
Wyoming
Idaho
Alaska
Ohio*** The asterisk is because I think the following as lamh35:

I'm beginning to think that the last OH vote numbers are taking so long because they are trying to "find" enough votes to put Romney over the top.

How can they give vote totals to reporters, but not the state elections dept?

Just call us cynical, but after the ' 8 vote win in Iowa 'for Willard that wasn't.

And, the ' let's not count 3 COUNTIES in Maine' because Willard was winning.

to the ' We'll just turn away 1,500 people in Washingston state' - just cause.

Color me cynical about anything ' close' for Willard.

Bottom line: Willard outspent Little Ricky 5-1, and this was the best he could do- a dubious and questionable 1% point win.

Newt Gingrich won:
Georgia (his home state)

Rick Santorum won:
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Tennessee

. The evangelical problem is deep, as tonight demonstrates. Ryan Lizza notes:

Romney has lost evangelicals in every contest—and by an average of fifteen points. His best showing came in New Hampshire, where he lost the evangelical vote by nine points, and his worst came in Iowa, where he lost it by twenty-four points. Romney has been running for President for six years, and yet his share of the evangelical vote has declined in most states, compared with his showing in 2008.

It dropped by ten points in Iowa, eight points in South Carolina, seventeen points in Florida, ten points in Arizona, and five points in Michigan. In New Hampshire, there was modest improvement (one point), and in the low-attendance contest in Nevada, some significant improvement (eight points).

How many times folks gotta say it:

The Evangelicals ain't having no parts of the Mormon.

It's the elephant in the room that the MSM refuses to acknowledge.

The next contests for the GOP are:

Kansas - So backwards they wrote a book about them - What's the matter with Kansas? - you see them going for Willard?
Alabama- You see these folks going for Willard?
Hawaii- eh
Mississippi- you see these folks going for Willard?
Missouri - where Santorum whooped Willard already

And, who was the REAL winner of Super Tuesday?


President Barack Obama laughs during a meeting in the Oval Office, Jan. 24, 2011.
---White House Photo by Pete Souza

The President Speaks at AIPAC-2012

hat tip-3CHICS:




From The Daily Dish:

Obama At AIPAC

The bottom line:


Iran's leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon .... Already, there is too much loose talk of war. Over the last few weeks, such talk has only benefited the Iranian government, by driving up the price of oil, which they depend upon to fund their nuclear program. For the sake of Israel's security, America's security, and the peace and security of the world, now is not the time for bluster; now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition that we have built. Now is the time to heed that timeless advice from Teddy Roosevelt: speak softly, but carry a big stick.



I agree with Ackerman that Obama basically repeated his Goldberg assurance, reminded the Bomb-Iran-Now crowd of how substantively pro-Israel is administration has been, and refused to take the Israeli/Greater Israel lobby bait:


Israel wanted Obama to give Iran a red line not to cross. I would argue he did. “I made a commitment to the American people, and said that we would use all elements of American power to pressure Iran and prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” That isn’t what Netanyahu wants to hear. As Noah Pollak incisively tweeted — yes, yes, snicker to yourselves, but he’s right — the Israelis want Iran not to be able to produce a nuclear weapon. Obama did not liquidate the disagreement.



Basically, Obama has refused to have the Greater Israel Lobby move the red lines to rendering Iran incapable of producing a nuclear weapon, rather than deciding to make one or actually making one. And this will be where the Greater Israel lobby shifts its support to the Christianist GOP, already committed to the Netanyahu-Lieberman position on Iran and the settlements, and now financed by Greater Israel fanatics, like Sheldon Adelson. (Here's a response to the Atlantic interview in an Adelson newspaper in Israel.) So no surprise to hear Liz Cheney was on a panel with this kind of reception:

 

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National Museum of African American History and Culture Groundbreaking Ceremony

hat tips-The Obama Diary, 3CHICS:


US President Barack Obama speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC, February 22, 2012. Scheduled to open in 2015, the museum will be the only national museum to be entirely devoted to African American life, art, history and culture.
----SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

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Lost My Grandmother This Week

She left us on Valentine's day of all days. I don't think I have ever written about her before... but this is the woman who basically raised me. She only stood about 4'11, but was a giant of a woman to us. Greatest woman I have ever known. She was the most important single person in my life....surpassing all 3 parents. She was also my last and only true grandparent. I will try to write about her at some point.

 I was hoping that before she left I would be able to show her that I made something out of myself...that her work wasn't in vain. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that. That disappointment will follow me to my grave. Or haunt me into the grave.

"Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive" - aka, why the GOP KNOWS THEY ARE IN TROUBLE

"Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

I've made no secret that I think the President's campaign should put it on t-shirts, bumper stickers and mugs.


How good is this slogan, and the simpleness cuts to the heart of the GOP?

Well, remember, when Osama was first killed, the GOP tried saying that it wasn't that important. That somehow George ' I don't think about him very much' Bush should get the credit.

ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to deny this President the respect for having the guts to make the call.

That call could have easily turned out like Iran in 1979, or Somalia (Blackhawk Down). But, it didn't, and it kills them. They then had the clown car come out with the 'President is an appeaser' meme, but POTUS cut that down, but quick.

" Ask Osama Bin Laden and Al Qeda if I'm an appeaser. Contact them...whoever's left."

KAPOW!!

President Barack Obama has gutted and ripped away from them the whole ' Democrats can't keep us safe', and they can't stand it.

So, instead of it not being important that Bin Laden is dead.....the right was testing out a new meme last week.

From The Maddow Blog:

The depths of Hannity's imagination
By Steve Benen
Wed Feb 8, 2012 1:16 PM EST

On his program last night, Fox News' Sean Hannity talked with Republican pollster Frank Luntz about President Obama's re-election prospects, and as part of the discussion, the host shared a unique insight into the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May.


"I think they have a foreign policy that has shown a lot of weakness," Hannity said. "I know the president will say, 'We got Bin Laden,' putting that aside. The public does give him credit for it, but it wouldn't have happened if he had his way and I think that could be proven as well on tape."

Hannity didn't elaborate about this taped evidence, which is a shame. It's quite a provocative charge and I'm sure many Americans would love to hear about it.

The argument seems to be that if Obama "had his way," the strike on the al Qaeda leader "wouldn't have happened." Reality suggests Hannity has no idea what he's talking about.

Whereas the Bush/Cheney administration made a conscious, deliberate decision to deemphasize capturing the al Qaeda leader, Obama chose to shift the emphasis back.

[F]rom early in his administration Obama was focused on killing Osama Bin Laden and that he was involved in the process throughout. In June 2009, Obama directed his CIA director to "provide me within 30 days a detailed operation plan for locating and bringing to justice" Osama Bin Laden. By August 2010 intelligence officials had identified the suspicious compound where Osama lived.

It was Obama who instructed the CIA to make targeting bin Laden a top priority, breaking with his predecessor. It was Obama who oversaw five national security meetings to oversee plans for this operation. It was Obama who chose this mission, made final preparations, and gave the order.

If Hannity has proof to the contrary "on tape," it's unclear why he hasn't aired it.

Hannity's LIE.



Now, the rest of the MSM has let this LIE go unchallenged...except for Ed Schultz. He's confronted it head on.

Schultz challenging Hannity's LIE - DAY ONE

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