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Today:
10:05: President Obama hosts the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress at the White House; VP Biden also attends.
11:30: Jay Carney briefs the press
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AP: The White House says automatic spending reductions set to kick in will be put off until as close to midnight Friday as possible.
The law, passed by Congress on Jan. 2 simply says that “on March 1, 2013, the president shall order a sequestration for fiscal year 2013.” That’s budget talk for an $85 billion reduction in defense and domestic spending between now and Oct. 1.
Obama can issue that order at any point in the day.
And White House press secretary Jay Carney says that means midnight, Friday – or as close to midnight as possible: 11:59 p.m. and 59 seconds.
Because, Carney says, Obama remains “ever hopeful.”
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See here – thanks Desertflower
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And this is what the GOP is trying to destroy, the economic recovery:
Bloomberg: Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded at a faster pace than forecast in February, reaching the highest level since June 2011 as factories boosted production to meet greater demand.
…. The figures exceeded the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey in which the median projection was 52.5. A reading greater than 50 signals expansion.
…. Orders expanded the most in almost two years, the report showed, as manufacturers such as Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) emerged from an industry setback in the second half of 2012….
More here
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Zing:
Paul Krugman: So, after reading the Bob Woodward saga of the alleged “threat” from Gene Sperling, the White House supereconwonk, I went through my own correspondence with Gene, and couldn’t find anything threatening – although I guess you could read his injunction, at one point, to “take care” in an ominous tone of voice.
Hey, don’t I rate some proper intimidation?
But then, Woodward’s story is looking supremely silly too. Can Robert Redford unportray him, or star in a sequel titled “All the president’s crybabies”?
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It’s mighty interesting reading Scheiber’s review now –
Noam Scheiber (October 2012): …. I didn’t find Woodward’s book unusually tedious. In fact, I learned a lot from it. What I found it to be was remarkably slanted.
…. it is relentlessly biased against the president. Woodward argues that the White House and Congress failed to reach a major deficit-reduction deal last summer because Obama didn’t provide the necessary leadership, even though this thesis is untethered from Woodward’s own reporting, to say nothing of reality.
But, in another sense, the book is perfectly in sync with Woodward’s oeuvre. There is a body of respectable Washington opinion that considers Obama unworthy of the presidency: he hadn’t put in his time before running, didn’t grasp the majesty of the office, evinced no respect for the way things were done. He not only won without courting the city’s elders, he had the bad manners to keep his distance even after winning. This is the view Woodward distills.
Woodward telegraphs his contempt from the get-go…..
Full review here
I reckon this line says it all: “There is a body of respectable Washington opinion that considers Obama unworthy of the presidency…..”
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ThinkProgress: Bob Woodward appeared on Fox News’ Hannity on Thursday to complain about Gene Sperling’s email…. During his interview with Sean Hannity, Woodward claimed that he had been “roughed up” by Sperling and agreed with the host’s characterization of the Washington journalists as liberals who are disinterested in challenging the president with Bill Ayers, an education advocate who was part of the group the Weather Underground:
HANNITY: The fact that the president …. wasn’t asked about his association with Bill Ayers was troublesome to me, I think we’ve got a media that’s not as critical as perhaps it once was in, for example, the days of Watergate.
WOODWARD: Well, I agree with that. We need to be very aggressive and it’s one of the judges that said democracies die in darkness and I really think that’s true.
More here
Oh boy.
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Do not miss Charles Pierce
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Todd Purdum (Vanity Fair – Feb 21): With drastic government spending cuts due to kick in, the top job at the Pentagon still vacant, and Congress conveniently out of town for its Presidents’ Day recess, the White House press corps has paused this week to bemoan not the state of the republic but of itself.
…. as a class, they are the world’s biggest whiners. I know because I was once one of them, and a first-class whiner myself. I don’t think their argument holds water. The modern presidency is so sprawling and complex that the reporters best equipped to cover it are the experts in various fields, from defense to transportation, to agriculture, to health care….
What the White House reporters are good at is “gotcha,” at catching a president’s inconsistencies, slipups, and animadversions—at stirring the pot and producing a sharp headline, however fleeting. When The New York Times can ask Obama (with a theoretically straight face) whether he is a “socialist,” then anything can happen. Is it any wonder that he has not given the paper an interview since 2010? What president would? ….
Full article here
Thanks Lovely Plains
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MoooOOOooorning!
The Obama Diary 
Each Share, Like and Stumble adds to your voting total – so get as many people as you can to shout about your entry.
oh wait, what the @#@@$!
Here’s the lost comment. I don’t know what that ^^^^^ is:
Well hey there all you O peeps!! How’s it going on this great getting up day in TODville!!! It amazes me how giddy some people are being over the sequester going into effect. Big or small, someone will be impacted, and as usual, it’ll be the low man on the totem pole who feels it first. Nothing will be done, until it starts to have an affect on the 1%. Pity.
By the way the Axe took the ax to Woodward.
‘Morning Cookem! VERY nice to see you on top…but…standards slipping a bit, are they? Hmmmm. Need a day or two off from the 90-day binge to calm the brain?
ha ha, yep, maybe you’re right. darn that copy and paste feature anyway.
Hi, cookemom! I didn’t read the comments from yesterday and I wanted to know if you spoke to your daughter about how I can vote for her. Thanks.
Morning Cookemom, mooooooorning everyone!
Good Morning. Congrats on número uno.
Congrats on first Cookemom. Happy Friday all. Great roundup Chips, but I must say I am getting sick and tired of Bob Woodward.
Belated Congratulations, Cookemom! BTW how is the voting going… I voted yesterday for your video?
It’s going pretty good. The contest rules says that 5 entries will be picked from the number of votes and 5 entries picked by the contest sponsors for the top 10 finalist. We’re hoping her video and essay is good enough for a sponsor pick, even if she doesn’t get top 5 in votes. The top 10 then go through a interview process from which the winner is chosen. So we’re trying to cover all the bases. Thanks for asking.
GM!
Good morning TOD. Happy Friday.
G’morning Chips, TOD, lurkers and everyone 🙂 Happy Friday!! Excellent round up Chips. Let’s see what more today brings.
Morning Hopefruit! Methinks it could be an eventful day …. well, hopefully.
Yes indeed. Isn’t the jobs report supposed to be out today?
I thought I read here that someone said it was moved to March 8th….
OK – thanks df for the info.
Good morning darlings. How are all of my little ‘CHIPadees’ doing today?
“CHIPadees”
😆 Moooooooorning Ladyhawke!!!
I can’t wait to read it.
When one goes on Hannity to plead faux innocence and play fake victim, one has lost every ounce of credibility one once had. Falling back on the Ayers non-troversy shows just how batcrap crazy Woodward has become. Congratulations Bob.
Obama Derangement Syndrome destroys the afflicted’s mind first. I don’t know whether there’s a cure.
If the Sequester Had Been Obama’s Idea, It Wouldn’t Exist
(By The Pragmatic Pundit)
———————————————–
Washington’s latest episode of finger-pointing is further validation that Americans are being governed by a hodge-podge of brats and immature idiots. What’s worse is the media, who should serve as a touchstone of informed, factual, balanced analysis, is the mascot and cheerleader of this mindless foolishness.
As we lurch from one crisis to another, I’m willing to bet that in the minds of many, they have all fused together. Hopefully, the following will lend some clarity.
The First Debt Ceiling Crisis
This all started with the need to raise the debt ceiling in 2011.
Republicans wanted to use it as a hostage-taking opportunity in which they would agree to an increase only if every dollar of a new borrowing was matched by a dollar in spending cuts.
The dishonesty in this approach is that the debt ceiling is not raised in order to accommodate “new spending”. The debt ceiling is raised to cover the appropriations Congress has already approved. The money has already been committed. It has been spent and the bill has come due.
Remember, it is the Republican House that controls the purse strings. Despite claims that President Obama has increased spending….the truth is, the President only has authority to spend at the direction of and as directed by Congress.
————————————————
Much more here…..
http://www.winningprogressive.org/if-the-sequester-had-been-obamas-idea-it-wouldnt-exist
An amazing decision by him Japa, he truly has mislaid the plot.
The morning after appearing on Hannity Woodward makes a fawning appearance on Morning Joe. The political press is on the verge of becoming irrelevant and nothing but an object of derision.
The Sequester Explained
—By Kevin Drum
———————————-
Where did the whole idea of sequestration originate?
It goes back to 1985. The tax cuts of Ronald’s Reagan early years, combined with his aggressive defense buildup, produced a growing budget deficit that eventually prompted passage of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. GRH set out a series of ambitious deficit reduction targets, and to put teeth into them it specified that if the targets weren’t met, money would automatically be “sequestered,” or held back, by the Treasury Department from the agencies to which it was originally appropriated. The act was declared unconstitutional in 1986, and a new version was passed in 1987.
Sequestration never really worked, though, and it was repealed in 1990 and replaced by a new budget deal. After that, it disappeared down the Washington, DC, memory hole for the next 20 years.
What about the 2013 version? Where did that come from?
In the summer of 2011, Republicans decided to hold the country hostage, insisting that they’d refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless President Obama agreed to substantial deficit reduction.
————————————————————-
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/03/the-sequester-explained
For those wondering why no jobs report has been released, this is the BLS schedule of jobs report dates. February’s job report will be released on March 8th.
Here’s the list for the rest of the year.
http://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/empsit.htm
Thanks UT!
Morning Chipsticks, TOD. Hope everyone is ready for the weekend….
Morning Lovelyplains! Ready as we’ll ever be!
Chips I accidentally posted same thing 2x, if you get a chance will you delete one? Thanks…. p.s. I find out about my CPU today wish me luck!
I’m ready…
Carol, was that a first attempt success?
Yes! And there are more! 😀
I feel symptoms of an unhealthy addiction….. in the near future!
No, it’s a pain, but I don’t want to forget.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/03/01/the-morning-plum-happy-sequester-day-were-still-stuck-in-the-wrong-conversation/
It remains to be seen how damaging the sequester will be and how the politics of it will play out. But one can only hope that it will have one positive effect: Perhaps it will persuade people to rethink the relationship between federal spending and their own economic well being. As Brian Beutler has noted, Obama — through sustained and intense public persuasion — has already fixed the broken link in the public mind between the need for higher taxes and the value of sustaining popular government programs. Maybe the sequester will take this one step further and get folks to reconsider the relationship between government spending and economic recovery. Is there any other cure for the 2011 hangover that continues to dominate our policymaking?
Obama and Democrats appear to hope that some sort of eventual “grand bargain” will lock in a long-term consensus over the safety net and the deficit — over the size and nature of the welfare state and who should pay for it — and liberate policymakers to turn to the economy. One can hope. But for now, we remain trapped in the wrong conversation — one that is doing nothing to alleviate the suffering of untold numbers of Americans.
‘Bob Woodward: Thin Skin, Thinner Argument – What the newspaper scribe doesn’t understand about the sequester’
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112549/bob-woodward-v-gene-sperling-sequester-debate
The GOP’s moral hazard
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2013/03/the-gops-moral-hazard.html
Good Morning, Everyone 🙂
Mooooooorning Rikyrah!
This is the same point I made on the last thread that nobody responded to.
The cover is Propaganda and blame shifting.
Don’t trust Bloomberg.
He’s on the right side of gun legislation. That doesn’t mean that him buying up as much press and media as he is doing is a good thing.
Now, we agree with him on one issue.
What happens when he has the power of Rupert Murdoch and he uses it against the best interests of our country?
Seems like Tina Brown from Newsweek infiltrated Bloomberg….
Good Morning Chips and everybody.
This received little or no media coverage yesterday. It was reported that only about 6 reporters showed up.
Lawmakers Introduce Targeted Wall Street Trading Tax
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) … introduced legislation to place a tax on certain trading activities undertaken by banking and financial firms. If enacted, the measure would not harm ordinary middle-class investors or long-term investing, but instead targets financial trading and complex transactions undertaken by financial and investment firms. In the last Congress, the Congressional Joint Tax Committee scored a similar proposal as raising $352 billion over 10 years. … Joining Harkin and DeFazio in cosponsoring the legislation were Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) along with 19 House cosponsors. …
The measure will place a small tax of three basis points (three pennies on $100 in value) on most non-consumer financial trading including stocks, bonds and other debts, except for their initial issuance… Given the very high volume of financial trading, it will raise considerable funds, badly needed for government services and for reducing deficits. …
Earlier this year, a group of 11 European governments agreed to implement a financial transaction tax. The action allows for a tax of 10 basis points on stocks and one basis point on derivatives on financial transactions by the following countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Estonia. … http://www.albanytribune.com/28022013-lawmakers-introduce-targeted-wall-street-trading-tax/
Rep. DeFazio and Senators Harkin and Whitehouse on the Wall Street Speculators Tax
I would like to see hedge funds taxed out of existence – gambling against progress is all I see in such funds
😆 Love it!
Science and Sensibility (A Must Read on the Passing of the Violence Against Women Act.)
By TIMOTHY EGAN
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In Indian country today, a man with a head full of rage can knock his wife or girlfriend to the ground, kick her, cut her, sexually assault her and expect to walk away untouched by the courts or cops. Among the pathologies that have taken root on the reservations, this particular misery index — in which one in three Native women will be raped in her lifetime — stands out.
Until about, oh, just a few hours ago, the Republican House of Representatives had taken the side of the wife-beaters and cowards with legal immunity. This crop of gerrymander-bred lawmakers governs by putting people at risk to make political points. Most recently, Republicans have long refused to pass renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, on the absurd grounds that it’s unfair for non-Indian assailants to be prosecuted by tribal courts. They also didn’t like the protection it extends to battered gays and lesbians, or undocumented immigrants.
Their position, in the apt phrase of the writer Melissa McEwan, is to “protect the sanctity of traditional domestic violence.”
————————-
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/science-and-sensibility/
h/t pm carpenter
Tim Egan is such a clear writer. Thanks for sharing this, Ladyhawke!
Early GM Chips and friends.
A mighty fine morning to you COS!
Dan Pfeiffer is the best.
I am thinking about why things aren’t getting done, and I know why. It is because of the Republicans. And it just didn’t start with the sequester, it started when the Tea Party and Republicans got control of the House.
It is important to accurately inform the public. Sadly, it is the pathetic reporting that has so many people misinformed. I have to repeat that the other day a group of soldiers told me they finally realize the President isn’t to blame for their issues…it’s Congress. You would think folks never had a civics lesson.
I LOVE Dan Pfeiffer.
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks & TOD family. Friday`s Good 🙂
MoooOOOOoooorning GGail!!!
Keep these jokers in mind when it comes time for the midterms
SINO BOEHNER: THE SEQUESTER WILL BE DEVASTATING. I WILL DO NOTHING TO STOP IT.
The Happiest Man in Washington
By Ed Kilgore
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Today marks the beginning of hard times for a lot of people who are going to be laid off or furloughed, or who won’t be able to do their jobs effectively. But at least one person is very happy: John Boehner. Ashley Parker of the New York Times explains how Boehner’s decision to tie his own hands and refuse to even look at ways out of the drooling idiocy of sequestration has given him back the most precious asset a Republican “leader” can have these days: the admiration of “true conservatives:”
.
.
Boehner has finally figured out there’s nothing like wallowing in mindless destructive inactivity to get your groove back. So as others deplore the sequester as the ultimate product of his party’s inability to do anything other than obstruct, he’ll bellow his atavistic intransigence proudly, since the only people on this earth he cares about are applauding.
——————————————————–
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_03/the_happiest_man_in_washington043279.php
Republicans defended the right to rape and abuse Native American women with such vigor, you gotta wonder if they’re sneaking onto the reservation. While I am pleased that the Act will cover Native Americans, I am still pissed about the limits imposed on punishments. A non Native cannot be sentenced to more than three years…not even for murder. That was just changed last year…it was always one year.
That was probably the reason this took so long to approve. The Republicans are tired of the perpetuation of Native American entitlement.
Okay, so this comment just had a mind of it’s own. Clearly, I was responding to another comment.
Ahh yes our friend from the “Real World”
Greatest VP ever!!!
Goooood morning!
I am not sure if this has already been shared, but here is FLOTUS on Dr. Oz:
http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/michelle-obamas-big-announcement?video=17567
Thank you CTGirl, missed that!
Woodward said he was a Republican during Watergate. He’s in it for himself.
Whatever happened to Carl Bernstein anyway? I seem to recall him going off the rails awhile back but I don’t think I’ve heard anything from him in years and years.
He is still around living in New York. He has written books about the Pope and has been commenting on the current situation on MSNBC.
He has been in Italy covering the Vatican for the last two years. He was on MSNBC and that is what he said, including he wasn’t Catholic. He is the better of the two reporters. Not a camera bomb!
Here is a 7 minute interview w/ Yahoo news from yesterday w/ Mrs.O
Thanks Chips for giving me a shout out this morning. If anybody would like to share the article….I especially like the funny cartoon I found!!
i remember thinking the jeff gannon/guckert scandal was going to be the end of the bush white house, and republicans in general, since there were so many scandals building at that time including the scooter libby stuff.
well, the “news” successfully swept all that under the rug, and now probably 1% or less of the public even remembers that name, convicted felon scooter libby is getting his voting rights re-instated by a republican governor personally, all while the “news” is literally still talking about william ayers last night and supreme court justices are making insane racist arguments to take away voting rights for millions of americans. pretty much it in a nutshell.
this all is enabled by “the news” people of today.
100% on board, I bet 99% of people would have to google him. Thats why I loved the cartoon!
Hey look at the press jackals waiting for the Bonehead and Turtle to enter the principles office.
They bring step stools to stand on ? How funny
I wish something topples those damn stools.
Continuing my World of Propaganda theme this week:
I present the front page NYTimes headline………
“Boehner’s Halt To Fiscal Talks Cheers GOP.”
By implication—-Republicans are winning, Republicans are winning
The MSM framing that POTUS wants to steal $$$ from you and the GOP is protecting you is hateful and wrong.
Closing loopholes fooooor the ultr-rich is not stealing from anybody. Fair share is the truth.
never in our history have the wealthy done so well during bad economic times. The number of millionaires increased 25% in the height of the recession. That’s a lot of money and benefits flowing from the middle class to the wealthy, who did absolutely nothing to create jobs, start businesses or in any way contribute to the health of this nation.
The estate tax alone has kept money in the wealthy class.
It is obscene how well they have done, at the expense of our future. And yet, 30 years of RW radio has effectively changed lies into conventional wisdom. It’s appalling.
Fail. 😦
Oh, not fail.:smile:
Who’s ‘creating havoc’?
By Steve Benen
———————————————
Here’s House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), arguing that sequestration cuts are dangerous:
“The sequester will harm important domestic priorities such as education, medical research, law enforcement, national security, and jobs.”
And here’s House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) yesterday, complaining that it’s irresponsible to say that sequestration cuts are dangerous:
.
.
But even putting that aside, Cantor’s contradiction reinforces a larger point: the GOP has absolutely no idea what it wants to say about sequestration. The Majority Leader offers an extreme example — few have gone quite as far as Cantor to say the sequester is both dangerous and not dangerous at the same time — but he’s not the only one struggling with coherence.
————————————
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/01/17146942-whos-creating-havoc?lite
Schroedinger’s sequester.
My name is japa21 and I am a twitterholic. Can somebody please help me?
There’s no turning back Japa, you’re done for!!! Love your tweets, you’ve mastered the art – I’m still losing my battle with the 140 limit! Tips please?
It is amazing. You know how wordy I normally am. Guess I can be brief as well. Fortunately for my sanity I will be away from computers for a couple days this weekend and I don’t have one of those new fangled phones, so I can have some withdrawal.
You manage to make your point with characters to spare – I DISLIKE you intensely!!! Hope you survive the weeked 🙂
But you still want to marry me, right? If the situation ever came up.
I do, of course – even if you were quite rude about my beautiful dress.
Maybe when he gets back from his “break” he can lead a seminar for us.
Excellent idea, Meta!!!
HHahhahaaaa! Your resistance is futile! Believe me, a break from twitter will only serve to reinforce your addiction.
Thanks for the encouraging words.
A very polite young sounding person in the office of Senator Kay Hagen (D-NC) told me she voted “no” on the sequestration bill vote yesterday because any alternative would have been worse for military and agricultural Interests in the state. The staffer is either clueless or the Senator is instructing her staff to lie to confuse her Democratic constituents. To my knowledge there were no specific alternatives involved in the vote. I am hoping it was a case of the staffer being clueless.
Hagen also claims the keystone pipeline will bring many jobs……she still has not responded to my 4 e-mails requesting proof.
Sometimes I become absolutely speechless and frightened when I learn just how uninformed a lot of the people in Congress are. Just horrifying.
Senator Hagen does not come across as very bright in hearings. Maybe she actually is not bright.
She also voted down having a vote (just a vote!) on the Dream Act couple years ago – she is not a good Dem, but better than Burr…
NC has gone down the tubes
I appreciate having some inside view of Senator Kay Hagen’s office, or staff, or thinking.
I wrote an inflamed comment to her yesterday and it was aborted by an ERROR message.
Too much straight talk, too much inquiry into what the heck she is doing or thinking about?
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR from North Carolina.
I believe that cutting agricultural subsidies was under serious consideration, as it should be. However, Hagen well knows that all of that would be open to negotiation. No reason to condemn the entire economy. The military excuse pushes credibility: there will be worse cuts to those treasured bases under sequestration than a balanced approach that makes those who have profited during this recovery pay something back from what they have stolen from the American people.
Just noticed this on the CNN livestream schedule:
3:00 PM
Ashley Judd goes to Washington
Actress/activist Ashley Judd, who’s contemplating a run for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, will appear at a women’s health rights event in Washington.
HeeeeHaaawww!!
Ah, great spot Meta, thank you!
It’s getting pretty interesting, no?
Awesome. We need some bright new people running for office. like NOW.
Who on TOD would consider running for office?
A reminder while the people who want to destroy the economy enter the WH. This is the Judas we are dealing with.
He LOOKs like Judas, doesn’t he? Unbelieveably rotten face. whew!
OK wake up people!!!! Almost the weekend. The rumors of the demise of the ” Harlem Shake” have been greatly exaggerated!
Ha, ha but Harlem shake videos should only be 30 seconds.
Best one I’ve seen!
The sequester can’t go into effect until the President signs it. What happens if he won’t sign it? Does he have that option? I would think if he doesn’t sign it, government remains on a continuous resolution. Anyone know?
The sequester is different from the CR. That comes up at the end of the month, by the way. The President is obligated to order the sequester to go into effect before Midnight, although he may wait until the last second to do so.
yanno Pax..i was just thinking about this…what happens if the President decided to be the dictator that they all accused him of being….and decided that he was not going to follow an unjust law…that he was not going to harm the American people…
it has been only 3 mos since PBO won re-election…since the American People decided that they agreed with the President’s vision for America…but the GOP, who lost the election has been able to dictate the conversation keeping it on debt and deficit…and not growth…investment and most importantly JOBS….the GOP with help from the MSM takes us from crisis to crisis….tis is their attempt to derail the election…Boehner has called recess after recess to keep from doing anything….Not to mention when Sen Reid had the chance to prevent the GOP from obstructing in the Senate he chose not to….having a majority in the Senate means nothing…we now need 60 votes in order to get anything done…and one Senator can still hold up the nomination process…
on another note…..
Just as there is a campaign in TEXAS to turn that state from red to purple to blue…i wish that it was possible to find allies in those reddest of states to impact upon the direction of those states….if one were to look at the info put out by the WH about the effects of the sequester we would see that the red states receive the most gov aid…have the lowest wages …etc….the impact on them will be great….because of the gerrymandered districts..we have to find allies with the electorate of those districts….
here in blue PA..we face this situation….a GOP Controlled state house..a Gov who will not accept the Medicaid expansion and will not set up state insurance exchanges…we face…gerrymandered districts…onerous voter ID law..(which has been suspended till July when there will be a faceoff between activists who want the law repealed and the state)…and now a bill is pending in the state to gerrymander the electoral college…to minimize the minority vote even more….
sometimes all of this brings me to tears…the injustice of it all….sometimes i get discouraged…feel a lil overwhelmed by the heavy lift that we have to do…
but then this week the SCOTUS takes up the Voting Rights act….a piece of legislation that took courage….blood…and determination to bring about….i hear Congressman Lewis’ passionate words…We SHALL NOT GO BACK……and i am energized….hopeful…determined….
Not Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around….
We have been having some of the same thoughts. Red states will receive the greatest impact. And while I hate for people to suffer and go without on any level, I’m thinking in some ways the sequester will be a blessing in disguise. It seems to me people will finally come to terms with who is really causing them distress; folks who haven’t been paying attention will finally sit up and take notice and if they have any since, they’ll vote the Republicans out.
If he just ignores the sequestration order, they’ll, of course, call for his impeachment. I just want the President to hang tough. It’s sad to say, but the sequestration needs to go all the way to March 27th when we reach the debt ceiling. Solve it all at one time…once and for all.
I don’t know if I can stomach politics today. Does this feel like a really, really long week to you? I’m completely drained. I can’t even fathom how PBO feels.
I am at a tipping point w/ you 57. I already implemented a self-imposed Woodward ban that went into effect as of 12:01a.m. today!
Yes 57, I know that I must re-calibrate myself today and in the next several days,
otherwise I am going to be ~hating~ people; AND I am also going to be grieving for
suffering that will occur for the peoples as a result of the sequester situation. And arthritis
will move right in and be a pain all over. I know exactly where I’m going to
look to “resource myself”, as we say. I’m going to be right here, in this good company.
I’m going to be drawing energy from the universe: it’s right there.
And I will take actions, speaking out, and educating myself, more and more. Like that.
It’s great to speak of this, right here in this committed space of TheObamaDiary.
thank you, Chips. xoxoxoxo. I think it’s useful to be quiet, also. no politics.
The man should return, to under the rock he crawled out from under…..
Didn’t he want to gut the government? Did I miss something?
Oh wait — he wanted to guy SS and Medicare, NOT the military industrial complex. How stupid of me.
On a day when politics is turning my stomach anyway, I didn’t need to see or hear the Romneys.
VA protected from sequester cuts, but veterans will feel the pain
http://www.stripes.com/va-protected-from-sequester-cuts-but-veterans-will-feel-the-pain-1.209686?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+starsandstripes%2Fgeneral+(Stars+and+Stripes
The Sequester Is Stupid. Just Get Rid of It.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_03/the_sequester_is_stupid_just_g043287.php
MSNBC is reporting PBO will be on live at 11:35.
POTUS to speak shortly!!!
Also, Krugman’s column today drawing parallels between the lies that got us into Iraq (WMD,etc) and the lies that are destroying us now…”Spending Problem, Growing deficit”
President Obama is set to make an announcement about the sequester meeting at 11:30
The single best chart on the policies driving our deficits — now updated!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/28/the-single-best-chart-on-the-policies-driving-our-deficits-now-updated/
Chris Matthews on Scalia:
After PBO comes to the podium, for those interested Space X is attempting to launch a rocket (Dragon) to the ISS later today. USTREAM http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_22692050/live-stream-launch-spacex-rocket?source=inthenews
I don’t care for Kristen Welker.
Good Morning/Evening ladies and gentlemen of TODville! It gives me great pleasure to be able to join you for a couple of hours today, tho I’ll be bouncing in and out.
Sending special Friday greetings to those TODobots who haven’t been visible here in a wee while – hope all is going well with you!
Oh! And an ‘EXTRA SPECIALl-y WISH’ to Ms Chips Chica, who despite loads of real-life-personal busy this week, kept the wheels turning in TODville
😆 😆 😆 vcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcv
Not ‘perhaps’ – it IS past time to rethink re WH Press Corps. (Excerpt from Purdum article shared in the post above)
//…
But perhaps it’s time to rethink another feature of modern presidential press coverage: the ubiquitous “protective pool.” How does it really serve the public, or cash-strapped news organizations, for journalists to cool their heels on weekends and vacations, just in case something, anything, happens? Whenever I got stuck in one of those pool vans, I felt quite sure that if anything interesting—especially anything dangerous—ever happened, the president’s limousine and armored S.U.V.’s would speed off, leaving us stranded and in the worst possible place to get any reliable information, much less see the man himself.
The Obama White House has used every available tool of media—new and old—to present itself to the public in the way it finds most useful. Isn’t it time for the White House press corps to do likewise?
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/purdum/2013/02/president-obama-white-house-reporters-access
Heads up:
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/03/01/heads-up-president-obama-statement-on-sequester/
His is FED UP, and so am I. I am DAMN sick and tired of these worthless Republicans and their enablers in the left, right and centrist MEDIA.
I love waking up in the morning and President Barack Hussein Obama is President of the United States.
Wish it worked with Boehner.
Well, it’s official. 47% of the black people in Michigan have had their votes negated. Snyder just declared a financial emergency in Detroit
Hilarious Mary!!! 😆
My pleasure! It was parked in my school’s parking lot, so maybe there’s another Chipsateer in the neighborhood!
Actually I think it deserves top of the next post, don’t you?
hey