President Barack Obama meets with a group of business, law enforcement, faith, and current and former elected leaders to discuss immigration, in the State Dining Room of the White House, April 19, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
10:05 – The President leaves the White House
10:40 – Leaves Andrews Air Base for San Francisco
4:30 – Arrives in San Francisco
4:45 – Participates in a townhall hosted by Facebook
9:15 – Delivers remarks at a DNC event
President Barack Obama is introduced during a town hall meeting at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., where he spoke about his vision for reducing the debt and bringing down the deficit, April 19. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
“William Tell, Circa 2012” by Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jesse Jackson (in the Chicago Sun-Times): Donald Trump has risen to the top of the Republican presidential candidate ratings while campaigning on the nutty charge that President Obama isn’t American, that he is not legally qualified to be president.
The Trump effect has led others, like Sarah Palin, to start hedging their dismissal of these absurdities. If this continues, the Republican race could turn into a race for the muck.
…he’s riding a toxic wave by emitting poisonous charges he must know are not true. This nonsense about Obama’s birth is one of various efforts to label him as un-American, as alien. Some say he’s not a Christian, but a Muslim. Mike Huckabee muses on the Kenyan socialism Obama must have imbibed while growing up in Kenya, where he never lived.
This is an old and tawdry game. When Dr. King was challenging segregation, Southerners knew they couldn’t win the argument with him on equal rights or the right to vote. So they labeled him a communist. They said he was an outside agitator, even though his church was in Georgia. When he spoke out against Vietnam, they debated not his views, but his qualification even to have an opinion. He was a preacher, they scorned, not a foreign-policy expert, even though the experts got us into the debacle. For King, as for Obama, all this was simply a diversion, a way not to debate his ideas or his positions, but to dismiss them from consideration by slurring the messenger.
…We now know Donald Trump is happy to peddle a lie about America’s president. We know virtually nothing about his views on America’s course forward … Voters shouldn’t honor or reward him – or anyone – for that.
Full article here
USA Today: The unemployment rate dropped in 34 states in March from February, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s the largest number of states to record a decline since June. The rate rose in seven states and was unchanged in nine and Washington, D.C.
Employers hired more workers in 38 states. A government survey of employer payrolls found only 12 states plus Washington, D.C. lost jobs last month, the fewest since October.
….Nationally, the unemployment rate fell in March to a two-year low of 8.8%, and private employers added more than 200,000 jobs for the second consecutive month.
New Mexico reported the biggest monthly drop in unemployment among all states, falling from 8.7% in February to 8.1% in March. Florida, Oklahoma, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio posted the next biggest monthly declines.
Texas added 37,200 net jobs in March, the most of any state. It was followed by Missouri and Florida, both of which reported strong gains. California lost 11,600 net jobs – the most of any state. Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland and Maine all had large job losses, too.
White House: Today, we’re announcing two new developments for the White House’s mobile apps.
Now, with the newly upgraded White House iPhone app, you can get an alert that President Obama is about to speak, then watch it live, right in the palm of your hand…
That’s not all. When we first released the iPhone app, we heard from a lot of Android owners who wanted something for their devices, too. So we’re excited to announce the White House’s new official mobile app for the Android operating system.
With both of these mobile apps, Americans can get alerts directly from the White House, check out behind-the-scenes photos and videos, and read the latest news from the blog or the Briefing Room.
As a reminder, WhiteHouse.gov is also optimized for any mobile phone’s browser. Take a look at http://m.whitehouse.gov/ to check it out.
Obama White House.gov WH Tumblr The People’s View Smartypants Steve Benen
The Obama Diary 
what can you say?
Tags: athletic, Barack, bigot, blog, Central, club, comment, committee, county, de, hate, Jefferson, linda, missouri, Obama, party, President, racism, racist, republican, riet, right, tea, teabagger, teabaggers, van, wing
A comment left on the blog today, in response to that Texas interview with the President, by a Linda Van de Riet from Missouri.
There’s also, coincidentally, a Linda Van de Riet on the Missouri Jefferson County Republican Central Committee. A relation, maybe?
You know, these people will be consumed by their own hate one day. Hopefully.
PS Another coincidence! There’s a Linda Van de Riet from Missouri on Facebook:
I see she’s ‘interested’ in God. But not in His teachings, it seems.
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Blackman reminded me of this rally in the comments – wow, that day must really have pained Ms Van de Riet:
Sen. Barack Obama waves as he arrives at a rally of 100,000 supporters in St. Louis, Mo., Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
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Theo67: I’m grateful to see this nonsense from these types, because it reminds me how desperate this fight is for those who seek goodness and light. There are many who are wallowing in darkness, consumed by hate, and deceiving themselves that they are somehow fighting a “godly” fight – yet, as evidenced by this woman, the hate just spews forth from them – telling us the real story. We can never let these creatures win. This is not just a political fight. It’s much more than that, and I think it’s a battle that’s been raging for a long time.
I’m encouraged when I think of those who had to put their very lives in harm’s way, and those who still do in places far away, simply to gain the rights of being treated like human beings. Watching clips from the Civil Rights struggle, the clips from those fighting for their freedom now in the Middle East… if all we have to do is read nasty words from these lost individuals, then we have it so much easier. It does take a little away from your spirit each time you’re confronted with this stuff, but we can replenish our spirits quite easily because of … the many billions of people around the world who are not consumed by hate.
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Thank you Theo