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Obama shakes hands with Hugo Chavez

post from Obama Blog on 17 April 2009 02:00:00 PM. © Obama Blog

Hehe, great shot of President Barack Obama shaking hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas.

Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez shaking hands

(HO/AFP/Getty Images)

Pictures of the handshake were quickly distributed by Venezuelan media

According to Chavez, Obama initiated the handshake. The Venezuelan president said that he told Obama that he wanted to reset relations with America.

"With this same hand I greeted Bush eight years ago. I want to be your friend," Chavez reportedly said.

Times Online

Obama, Chavez shake hands at summit

msnbc.com - ?21 minutes ago? Photos released by the Venezuelan government show the two smiling and Obama touching Chavez on the shoulder. The Venezuelan presidency says Obama initiated ... White House: No meeting set between Obama, Chavez The Associated Press Obama, Chavez shake hands at summit-Venezuela govt Reuters UK

Paul Kekai Manansala is a freelance author and blogger from Sacramento, California.

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Wisconsin Listening Tours: "The job is not done"

post from Obama HQ on 17 April 2009 12:29:53 PM. © Obama HQ

From the Wisconsin Daily Cardinal:

OFA kicked off a series of Wisconsin meetings Tuesday night with a town-hall-style discussion in Sun Prairie.

According to OFA State Director Dan Grandone, the two purposes of OFA are to build on the grassroots organization and activism that developed during the campaign and to promote Obama’s agenda on health care, education and energy. Tuesday’s listening session was the first of 20 stops Grandone will make throughout the state.

“We’re very excited of course about winning the election and President Obama becoming president … but people I think by and large realize the job is not done and now it’s time and an opportunity for us to try to pass the policies that were at the root of his platform during the campaign.” Grandone said.

He said since the campaign, the enthusiasm for Obama has not died out and OFA has received “thousands” of calls from people wanting to get involved in the organization.

After attendees shared stories about why they became involved in the Obama campaign, Grandone asked them to share their visions for OFA in Wisconsin, which is still in the process of defining itself.

“We are building this plane as we fly it,” Grandone said, adding he hopes to take attendees’ comments and incorporate them into OFA’s structure.

Some suggestions from supporters included keeping the statewide organization in contact through e-mail and encouraging involvement from youth and minority citizens.

Many agreed volunteer training will be essential for the organization, citing the need for volunteers to adapt to the idea of governing as opposed to campaigning and the hope that the organization can attract Democrats, Republicans and independents.

“Electing President Obama was not enough,” Grandone said. “Now we have got to take this to the next step … so we can move these issues that we care about forward.”

Listening Tours have already begun in Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, and Texas.

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DOJ Statement on Torture Memos

post from Barack Oblogger on 17 April 2009 12:05:11 PM. © Barack Oblogger

From the Department of Justice: In connection with ongoing litigation, the Department of Justice today released four previously undisclosed Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC") opinions ? one that OLC...

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Special Envoy George Mitchell in Israel

post from Barack Oblogger on 17 April 2009 11:51:01 AM. © Barack Oblogger

He meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.Mitchell's statement: U.S. policy favors in respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a two-state solution which will have a Palestinian...

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-mitchell-in-israel.html

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Hillary Clinton Meets with Haitian President Rene
Preval

post from Barack Oblogger on 17 April 2009 11:42:32 AM. © Barack Oblogger

Secretary of State Clinton met with President Preval in Port-au-Prince. Click here to read the full text of the remarks.

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Michelle Bachmann Vulnerable in 2010

post from Barack Oblogger on 17 April 2009 11:34:09 AM. © Barack Oblogger

Is there a possibility that Michelle "politically correct re-education camps" Bachmann can be unseated in the 2010 election? Keep your fingers crossed.

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Do Teabaggers Hate Obama Because He Is Black

post from Barack Oblogger on 17 April 2009 10:55:23 AM. © Barack Oblogger

From an Daily Kos piece:They hated President Clinton, and tried to destroy him. But one of their elected governors didn't talk secession. They didn't talk revolution. They didn't attempt (and...

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Anger over CIA torture memos

Many groups and former victims have expressed dismay at the Obama administration's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used interrogation methods on detainees, including American citizens, that are in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

However, Washington officials who authorized such methods will not be protected from prosecution although it would likely be Congress and not the White House that carry out such actions.

Secret CIA memos released Thursday told of interrogation techniques that included waterboarding, splashing detainees with water and exposing them to the cold, placing insects in their small, dark cells, allowing interrogators to punch and slap detainees, and threatening detainee families.

Times Online

Disappointment with US not prosecuting CIA

The Associated Press - ?19 minutes ago? CAIRO (AP) - Human rights groups and former detainees in US custody expressed disappointment Friday with the decision by President Barack Obama not to prosecute CIA operatives who used interrogation practices described by many as torture. Video: USA: Release of CIA interrogation memos France 24

video details and more

video details and more

CIA 'amnesty' dismays campaigners BBC News

Paul Kekai Manansala is a freelance author and blogger from Sacramento, California.

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Cuba ready to talk with Obama

Raúl Castro today said the was ready 'to discuss everything' with the U.S.

Some analysts feel that Latin American leaders at the 5th Summit of the Americas will ask President Barack Obama to lift the embargo on Cuba.

"We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Castro said Thursday at a summit in Venezuela.

President Obama removed restrictions on Cuban Americans ability to visit relatives in Cuba and to send money to the country. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent remain in place.

The U.S. government has enforced an embargo on Cuban beginning three years after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

Many experts on the region and a growing segment of the Cuban American population feel America's Cuba policy has accomplished little and has become detached from its original goals.

Voice of America

Raúl Castro: Cuba ready 'to discuss everything' with US

CNN - ?54 minutes ago? (CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a US economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said. Video: Bloggers focus on 5th Summit of the Americas France 24