President Barack Obama talks with Katerina Rodgaard of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, in the Blue Room of the White House, before making a statement on gun safety, March 28, 2013. Vice President Joe Biden hugs another event participant in the background. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
****
Friday:
10:30: President Obama departs Joint Base Andrews
12:50: Arrives in Miami, Florida
1:20: Tours a tunnel project at PortMiami
2:0: Delivers remarks on the economy
3:0: Departs Miami
5:15: Arrives at Joint Base Andrews
****
****
Greg Sargent: With red state Democratic Senators remaining skittish about embracing Obama’s gun proposals, at least two top Democratic donors are stepping forward and vowing to withhold any and all future financial contributions from any Democrats who don’t support the centerpiece of Obama’s plan: Expanded background checks.
Kenneth Lerer, a New York businessman who is chairman of Buzzfeed.com, and David Bohnett, a technology entrepreneur and philanthopist based in Los Angeles, are both major financial supporters of Democratic candidates, having each given scores of large contributions over the years….
Neither will give another dime to any Senate Democrat who does not support expanded background checks….
More here
****
President Obama embraces an attendee during an event in the East Room of the White House, March 28. The President, with families of victims of the Connecticut school shooting tragedy at his side, pressed the Senate to pass gun-control legislation next month and urged lawmakers to resist any weakening of resolve
****
More at ThinkProgress
****
Steve Benen: …. John Boehner sent a memo to all House Republicans today, telling them what a great job they’re doing. Of particular interest, though, was the Speaker arguing how “noble” he and his party are for trying to balance the budget. From the memo:
“The book Congressman Lincoln by Chris DeRose, which I recently read, includes a chapter focused on Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to help craft a new national agenda. At one point in the book, young Lincoln warns that government debt is “growing with a rapidity fearful to contemplate.” ….. Lincoln’s words ring true today….”
Oops….
Lincoln, however, while warning of debt, also said that the debt had been created by the unwillingness to consider new revenue…..
Oh how I love this story….
More here
****
****
Washington Post: The Environmental Protection Agency will move ahead Friday with a rule requiring cleaner gasoline and lower-pollution vehicles nationwide, amounting to one of President Obama’s most significant air pollution initiatives, according to people briefed on the decision.
The proposed standards would add less than a penny a gallon to the cost of gasoline while delivering an environmental benefit akin to taking 33 million cars off the road, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made yet.
More here
****
****
Will catch up with more news in the morning, I’m waaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind.
The Obama Diary 
Howdy
Howdy CM
I have been looking at all your lovely pics. Some of them take my breath away.
Thank you Almablanca. 🙂
Hi everyone, it’s been a long day and it’s not over yet. The day of Action is only the beginning. We can do this.
It’s his right to have those assault weapons, but it’s not a woman’s right to do as she please with her body. Wow, that makes lots of sense, none.
Here is the entire text of the 2nd Amendment that has become “holly grail” for gun nuts:
” A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms,
shall not be infringed.”
My question to the gun nuts is: Why did the framers condition “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” on the necessity of ” A well regulated militia”? Who was to do the regulating? Why is this opening part of the 2nd Amendment totally ignored by gun enthusiasts?
As far as I am concerned the 2nd Amendment says nothing about owning guns for hunting, or spots, or family protection, etc., etc. There is also no historical evidence that when Bill of rights was approved, Individuals had total and unlimited freedom to own guns and ammunitions. My final question: If individuals have a constitutionally protected right to own military assault weapons and high capacity magazines, do they also have the right to own chemical, biological and nuclear weapons?
For Chips and her great posts today. Sorry I posted so much twice.
Hiya Carol, Twitter has broken down! Anyone else having the same problem ….. or is it just me? 😕
Of course, it’s you. Can always trust you on that front.
Thank you for your comforting words, scoundrel 😆
Look, it was working fine until the moment you stepped on it.
jus’ saying.
A mere coincidence, mister. Well, I hope so 😕
QED: coincidence = whenever I break the twitter.
😆 You are soooooooooooooo suspicious. I iz innocent! Maybe.
It seems to be working, but very slow.
Ah, phew, just came back for me Carol, needed to send a DM and it wouldn’t work – until now. Does seem to be glitchy tonight, though.
🙂
Good night, Ms Chips! How are you this fine Holy Thursday evening? You know, maybe if you entered in less of a mad flurry (using calm and sweet precision for example) the twitter wouldn’t be thrown off kilter. Just saying.
Oi! Look at your teaming up with the Amk person accusing me of breaking Twitter – on a Holy Thursday too! Any way, I got out my tool box and fixed it, so there.
Think everyone is jealous they’re not getting the DM. 😆
No teams – too late/early in the day! Attempting to hint you into a less hurried pace, is all.
.
.
.
.
Although teaming up with you-know-who might reduce my fabricated bill. Hmmmm. Have to think about that one
Reposts
Niiiiiiiiice Chiparoo.
Tyrant! DM’ed ya!
Wayne Rooney’s girlfriend? I DM’d you back! 😀
Helloooooo Mrs Lampard, just DM’ed YOU back!!!
Helloooooooo Mrs. Rooney. Just responded. 😀
And the EPA is just starting, this is the very first this term, of climate change initiatives.
He should just go crazy with Executive orders and actions.
🙂
I love the bright colors on the table with the President and leaders from Africa.
Congrats Carol, you did it again ❗ At Number one, Yeah 😉
Woot! Woot! 😀
SOoooo pleased you have become familiar with this specific look! Keep it up and we’ll be able to grow old together you and I, each on the opposite side of the fence.
Scold.
What friends? 🙄
From the tail end of last tread.
The level of hatred of wingers is mind boggling. I am looking at apartheid america down the road.
Amk, just DMed you with super fab WP tweet-posting instructions.
I hope Malia and Sasha had a wonderful vacation. And any one with any sense know exactly what is behind all this, it’s the right wing hatred expressing itself again. Racists bastards.
Malia and Sasha were do you want to go next? Where ever it is I hope you enjoy yourself. If those two girls were white and Republicans they wouldn’t have a dam thing to say.
Some would like it that way but it ain’t gonna happen. The natives here have guns too.
I can’t even think about this for too long, because it infuriates me. Karma will make this right.
I’m the same Theo, half-read something about it and could take no more, I hate these people so, so, so much.
My loathing knows no bounds.
I pray so.
If I had the opportunity to talk to Steve King, face to face, this what I would say to him:
” I am tax payer. I prefer my tax dollars being spent on the President’s daughters vacation instead of being spent paying vile and idiotic members of Congress like you, Michelle Bachman, Ted Cruz, James Inhoffe Rand Paul and the rest of of other tea baggers in Congress. I am absolutely certain that the United States would be much better off if we stopped paying the salaries of all Republican members of Congress and their staffs, and sent them all home. The government will not only save money, but it will also begin to solve problems affecting the majority of Americans without having to deal with idiotic obstructions.”
Bravo!!
AMEN!
Whatever his faults are, as any human, this act means something. I keep coming back to this tweet, and I find it really touching.
Indeed it does. And it more accurately reflects Christ and Christianity than any kind of rejection, negations, or condemnation of others.
HOLY BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! Tonight’s Scandal was freaking insane! Shonda Rhimes and her team are a-fucking fantastic!
Next week is going to kill it.
Building on the success of its existing National Park Service projects, Clean Cities is now partnering with five additional parks to implement specific projects that improve the parks’ environment and increase the sustainability of their operations. Most of the projects focus on shifting many of the parks’ vehicles to run on alternative fuels, such as propane, biodiesel and electricity — a transition that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality and minimize fuel costs.
The projects will also educate park visitors on improving the sustainability of their own driving habits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during park visits and when they return home. For example, parks such as Yellowstone and Grand Teton are educating visitors on the benefits of reducing the amount of time they idle their cars or providing information on how to visit sites in the parks by biking, walking or using park shuttles. If just 25 percent of visitors at the 13 parks in the Clean Cities National Parks Initiative reduce their idling by five minutes, it would save 192,000 gallons of gasoline and more than 2,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
http://energy.gov/articles/national-parks-move-transportation-forward-america-s-great-outdoors
Yeah, WY leading the pack (in something besides coal) 😉
Hi all. Been a while. Saw on Twitter that Piers Morgan is having a girl on that was raped by George Zimmerman’s brother. Did anyone watch it. The tweet said the family is very racist!
Hiya Proud, great to see ya! Missed Morgan tonight, but read the brother’s tweets the other day – a truly vile racist piece of crap. Never heard the rape story, good God.
Glad to see you too Chips! Your stand-ins did a great job. I work late afternoon until 10″30 every night and miss everything going on.
Repeat of Piers comes on at 12am, I will check it out. And it doesn’t shock me that Zimmermann and his family is racists. George Zimmermann need to rot in prison for killing Trayvon Martin.
Yup.
I read your post and had to look see. Not sure she is on. But watching and looked at website. He had his brother on last night and here is a link to a clip. It’s disgusting to be forewarned. It’s his brother Robert.
http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html#/video/us/2013/03/28/pmt-robert-zimmerman-defends-tweet.cnn
Racism is alive and well inside this Republican party….. He owes people an apology. At the very least.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/alaska-republican-congressman-my-father-used-to-have-wetback
Should have refreshed before posting tweet below…
Oh boy. And it was the casual, comfortable way he used the term. Sometimes it feels like it’s 1913, instead of 2013.
Had a former councilman use that slur in a public meeting — NO ONE said a word. He’s running again for council this year…
Alaska been voting for this man for years – he “brings home the bacon”
This is the party which want to reach out to Latinos , Blacks, women. Good luck.
Looks like Indiana is about to lose, I believe Indiana were POTUS pick to win it all.
And in other news…as of 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time….I AM ON EASTER BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 !!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 !! 🙂
Yippy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
I already can’t remember what day it is 😉
Have fun Mary!
I went to the spinning group (fiber, not exercise) with my friend this morning- and I never get to do that. Then we had lunch, went back to her house, hung out knitting and chatting, then out to dinner. It was a great, relaxing start to the break 🙂
Do you actually spin your own wool or cotton? My friend is an art teacher and she bought a spinning wheel and wool from local ranchers. I helped her clean the wool once. Good for your hands. 🙂 So glad you got to do something you enjoy. I knitted hubby a scarf, but crochet is my relaxant. Enjoy what’s left. 😀
I have had the spinning wheel for about a year and I’m getting better at it. Before that I had a spindle. I have made a couple of things from yarn that I spun, but most of it is sitting there, waiting for the right project to come along. I almost always knit with yarn I buy for a project. It would take me a very long time to spin enough yarn for something like a sweater. But the other women in the spinning group knit with their handspun a lot. We have been doing a fiber study where we get fleece from different, less usual breeds, wash it, card or comb it – do all the prep in other words. It’s been interested but I’ve found out that I am really not interested in all that. I’d rather just buy the fiber ready to spin!
Thanks for sharing Mary. I couldn’t do it. Happy Easter. 🙂
After watching the Indiana gun protest I had to look up the regulations for deer hunting in Indiana. They are allowed to use a .450 Bushmaster rifle, but not in URBAN setting. He was clearly in urban setting. But the regulations weren’t detailed and the gun shown in their pic was with a ten round clip. I’ve looked up the deer hunting regulations in WY. They are so detailed they get down to the size of the barrel you can use and the size of bullets. You can’t have more than three in your rifle if I remember right. I could be wrong, but it isn’t very many. Yes, anybody can carry a concealed weapon in WY, even me! 😯 Well, I don’t think I’d be first ever again. 😕 No semi-automatic rifles can be used for hunting any game in WY. Game Wardens in WY are tough. Hubby and I hiked five miles straight up in the Big Horns 5 miles; about 8 km. to about 9,500 ft. or 2,900 m. I was sunbathing, hubby fishing and I got checked. Warden told me it was easy to burn in the thin air after he realized I had no fishing license or intention to fish. 🙄 The lakes were Seven Brothers if you want to browse the google. 😉 Unfortunately hubby caught no fish and we ate raisen sandwiches; very good when you are hiking and hungry.
A gun protest in Newtown today:
Lawrence O had a great rewrite tonight. I don’t have that video now, I’ll post it after this one. This one concerns the Newtown Sandy Hook shooting. The second is the debate in both house and senate in 1996 over DOMA. Wisc. Republican Rep will surprise you. They may not both show on same post. Bear with me please.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45755883/ns/msnbc-the_last_word/vp/51366806
President in 2045?
🙂
😌
No kidding, saw it a couple days ago. Maybe it was yesterday. The days are getting longer….
Stardust, see the movie, it’s funny. 🙂
https://twitter.com/earth_pics/status/317401735830319104
“A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?” Pointless, really… “Do the stars gaze back?” Now *that’s* a question.”
Beware Cuteness Overload
And have they pro created? No!
Go ahead and tell the TRUTH, CarolMae! Right wing hypocrisy is nauseating!
Extremely. Gags me.
“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank.
Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.”
~William Shakespeare
https://twitter.com/earth_pics/status/317039973012471808
Pres. Obama packed more into one week than W did in a month. You will enjoy West Wing Wing Week. A snippet of video of live camels. 🙂
https://twitter.com/earth_pics/status/317599951574138880
Have a beautiful Day.
New Post.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/03/29/rise-and-shine-468/