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My mom was a baby when the Golden Gate Bridge first opened. My Grandparents took her with them and joined the throng of people,...
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Homemade ice cream from Sick Science! A perfect DIY for a long weekend…
The boy in the picture is Jacob Philadelphia of Columbia, Md. Three years ago this month, his father, Carlton, a former Marine, was leaving the White House staff after a two-year stint on the National Security Council that began in the Bush administration. As departing staff members often do, Mr. Philadelphia asked for a family photograph with Mr. Obama.
When the pictures were taken and the family was about to leave, Mr. Philadelphia told Mr. Obama that his sons each had a question. In interviews, he and his wife, Rosean, said they did not know what the boys would ask. The White House photographer, Pete Souza, was surprised too, as the photo’s awkward composition attests: The parents’ heads are cut off, Jacob’s arm obscures his face, and his older brother, Isaac, is blurry.
Jacob spoke first.
“I want to know if my hair is just like yours,” he told Mr. Obama, so quietly that the president asked him to speak again.
Jacob did, and Mr. Obama replied, “Why don’t you touch it and see for yourself?” He brought his head level with Jacob, who hesitated.
“Touch it, dude!” Mr. Obama said.
As Jacob patted the presidential crown, Mr. Souza snapped.
“So, what do you think?” Mr. Obama asked.
“Yes, it does feel the same,” Jacob said.
(Isaac, now 11, asked Mr. Obama why he had eliminated the F-22 fighter jet. Mr. Obama said it cost too much, Isaac and his parents recounted.)
In keeping with a practice of White House photographers back to Gerald R. Ford’s presidency, each week Mr. Souza picks new photos for display. That week, Jacob’s easily made the cut.
“As a photographer, you know when you have a unique moment. But I didn’t realize the extent to which this one would take on a life of its own,” Mr. Souza said. “That one became an instant favorite of the staff. I think people are struck by the fact that the president of the United States was willing to bend down and let a little boy feel his head.”
David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s longtime adviser, has a copy framed in his Chicago office. He said of Jacob, “Really, what he was saying is, ‘Gee, you’re just like me.’ And it doesn’t take a big leap to think that child could be thinking, ‘Maybe I could be here someday.’ This can be such a cynical business, and then there are moments like that that just remind you that it’s worth it.”
The best campaign counter-attack video I HAVE EVER SEEN. Obama 2012
”So we’re going to call their BS when we see it and we need your help to call them on it too and set the record straight. So share this, tweet it, facebook it, I keep hearing about tumblr and whatever that is…please use that too. Thank you.”
-Stephanie Cutter / Deputy Campaign Manager at Obama for America.
And a Tumblr shout-out.
“I keep hearing about Tumblr, whatever that is.” LOL.
One thing I wish she’d do, at least on the YouTube posts, is link to the evidence supporting her assertions. A zoomed map and text is nice, but it’s not great verification.
We’ve been hearing a lot about the war on women, which is real enough. But there’s also a war on the young, which is just as real even if it’s better disguised. And it’s doing immense harm, not just to the young, but to the nation’s future.
Let’s start with some advice Mitt Romney gave to college students during an appearance last week. After denouncing President Obama’s “divisiveness,” the candidate told his audience, “Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.”
The first thing you notice here is, of course, the Romney touch — the distinctive lack of empathy for those who weren’t born into affluent families, who can’t rely on the Bank of Mom and Dad to finance their ambitions. But the rest of the remark is just as bad in its own way.
I mean, “get the education”? And pay for it how? Tuition at public colleges and universities has soared, in part thanks to sharp reductions in state aid. Mr. Romney isn’t proposing anything that would fix that; he is, however, a strong supporter of the Ryan budget plan, which would drastically cut federal student aid, causing roughly a million students to lose their Pell grants.
So how, exactly, are young people from cash-strapped families supposed to “get the education”? Back in March Mr. Romney had the answer: Find the college “that has a little lower price where you can get a good education.” Good luck with that. But I guess it’s divisive to point out that Mr. Romney’s prescriptions are useless for Americans who weren’t born with his advantages.
… What should we do to help America’s young? Basically, the opposite of what Mr. Romney and his friends want. We should be expanding student aid, not slashing it. And we should reverse the de facto austerity policies that are holding back the U.S. economy — the unprecedented cutbacks at the state and local level, which have been hitting education especially hard.
Yes, such a policy reversal would cost money. But refusing to spend that money is foolish and shortsighted even in purely fiscal terms. Remember, the young aren’t just America’s future; they’re the future of the tax base, too.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste; wasting the minds of a whole generation is even more terrible. Let’s stop doing it.
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, “Wasting Our Minds.”
Go read the whole d***ed thing.
(via inothernews)
I feel the same way about local levies that the taxpayers vote against, with a slogan of “Hard Times? Vote No”. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
It all reminds me of Steve Jobs, circa 1998, as he returned to the helm of Apple as “interim” CEO. When asked how Apple was going to handle the public recession and teh company’s own need to become profitable again, he said they were going to invest _more_ in research & development, focus the product line, and put out great products. This is the *exact* opposite of what this nation has done and what we are doing to our educational system.
Get a frickin’ clue, people.
Funny. I wonder what the President’s reaction is?
Chag sameach, everybody.
This from a Muslim Socialist?
(Which reminds me, folks. Look at China and remember the Soviet Union. Socialist states disallow public religious practice and actually persecute religious practitioners of many stripes, even when practiced privately. Oh, and in the Middle East at least, Muslims tend not to be friends with Jews. Obama, besides being neither, can not be both Muslim and Socialist.)
New York Magazine’s JOHN HEILEMANN, about Rick Santorum, on Real Time (via inothernews)
We all know Santorum thinks Obama is a snob because he’s a black man talking about college without a basketball scholarship, right?
Ouch.
Well, DUH! Nobody wants a spineless President. Stand up for something and people will appreciate that, especially in a country has more Independents and Democrats than it does Republicans alone.
![paxamericana:
fearandwar:
What exactly does “Biblically qualified” mean? I’ve read the Bible, and I don’t remember ever seeing a section entitled “Candidate Qualifications.”
It’s buried somewhere in all the “begats.”
Biblically Qualified to be President of the United States
HA!
ROFLMAO.
But seriously…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Ok. [deep breath] I think I’m done now.
{snort]
[chortle]
[snicker]
LOL. I can’t.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx534jEtoo1qhwm08o1_1280.jpg)
What exactly does “Biblically qualified” mean? I’ve read the Bible, and I don’t remember ever seeing a section entitled “Candidate Qualifications.”
It’s buried somewhere in all the “begats.”
Biblically Qualified to be President of the United States
HA!
ROFLMAO.
But seriously…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Ok. [deep breath] I think I’m done now.
{snort]
[chortle]
[snicker]
LOL. I can’t.
(via agirlcalledchris)
