west wing week: “don’t bump my atoms” (february 25, 2011)

a loving message for tonight’s visiting teabagger….

Andersen? Congratulations on noticing that the President and First Lady are black – yet another eagle-eyed Teabagger genius!

Meanwhile….

Hugs!

motown, take a bow

From left, Jamie Foxx, Nick Jonas, Seal and John Legend perform a medley during a tribute to Motown hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, February 24

Berry Gordy

Seal

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden

See 14:10 – hey, who said the President couldn’t dance?

what’s going on?

First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during a student workshop event, ‘The Sound of Young America: The History of Motown,’ that brings students from across the country to participate in an event with Motown legends in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, February 24. Seated alongside Obama are (L-R): Singer John Legend, singer Smokey Robinson, record producer Berry Gordy and Robert Santelli, the GRAMMY Museums Executive Director.

‘The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House’ is live on the White House site (here) tonight, 7:00 PM EST

Barry Manilow. Oh, wait, sorry – Nick Jonas.

Any excuse to post this …. all together:

And for sherijr….hey, I feel like a DJ!

And, of course:

union is strength

President Barack Obama greets AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka before a meeting with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House on February 24

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

advance guard

thurgood

headway

MSNBC: Fewer people requested unemployment benefits last week, pushing the four-week average of applications to its lowest level in more than two and a half years.

The Labor Department says the number of laid-off workers applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 22,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 391,000. It was the third drop in the past four weeks.

The four-week average of claims, a less volatile figure, fell to 402,000. That’s the lowest level since late July 2008 and a hopeful sign that the job market is slowly improving.

….the average is about 25,000 lower than it was three months ago. The decline in applications reflects fewer layoffs, which have fallen to pre-recession levels…

More

and you thought politico couldn’t get any worse?

Julie Mason with a very good buddy

I’m dumb enough to look at Politico occasionally, but usually just to check breaking news – honest. The last few days I’ve noticed a string of bitchy, sarky articles (most of them on trivial nonsense) by the same reporter on President Obama and his team – even sarkier and bitchier than you usually get from Politico.

So, I looked up this Julie Mason – what a surprise, she joined Politico from right-wing rag The Washington Examiner earlier this month! For those lucky enough never to have come upon the Examiner, it makes Politico read like The Communist Manifesto. Needless to say, it endorsed McCain in 2008 and has, with Mason’s help, been relentlessly attacking President Obama ever since.

Remember the President, ahead of the 2010 mid-terms, said: “It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008, stand together once again. It will be up to each of you to keep our nation moving forward.”

The headline on Mason’s piece in the Examiner? “Obama Disses White Guys.” Yeah, that’s what he was doing alright. 🙄

And Mason, in her shiny new job, is no less obsessed with race. Writing about the former deputy press secretary Bill Burton leaving the White House, she said: “But the departure of Burton, who is black, leaves Obama with an all-white press operation. Will Kevin Lewis re-join lower press?”

I wonder does Mason bring a calculator with her to the White House to count the ‘non-white’ faces? And is the only reason Kevin Lewis (White House director of African American media) might succeed Burton is that he is black?? Okay.

Her other obsession is the President’s “teleprompter dependency”. Seriously. He “relies on it probably more than he relies on Bill Daley”, she told us, treating us to her cutting edge and highly original right-wing wit. Zzzzzz.

Hey, great appointment Politico!

PS Which one interview of her career did she enjoy most? “Tom DeLay was a great interview – charming and a total character.” Too bad he charmed his way to a money laundering conviction, hey Julie?

making the economy worse, on purpose

Steve Benen (Washington Monthly): If federal policymakers want to make the economy worse, on purpose, all they have to do is approve the Republican agenda. The Financial Times has this report today:

“The Republican plan to slash government spending by $61bn in 2011 could reduce US economic growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of the year, a Goldman Sachs economist has warned……”

…Remember, this analysis comes a week after additional research found that the Republican spending cuts could lead to roughly 1 million job losses. (Asked about this, Speaker John Boehner replied last week, “So be it.”)

…We now have independent analyses showing that the Republican spending measure would push the economy back towards a recession and would deliberately make unemployment worse. If Democrats balk, the GOP will shut down the government.

Why this isn’t the lead story in every news outlet in the country remains unclear.

Update: I suppose the next question is why Republicans would pursue a plan they know would slow the economy. Among the possibilities … they have to hurt the country on purpose to undermine President Obama’s re-election chances … I’d love to understand the GOP’s motivations, but just as importantly, I’d love for the media to press the GOP on its motivations.

Read the full article here