Chat Away….Barack-Biden Style

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Chat…chat…chat…

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Chat away….Being Biden & CIC Trophy

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The White House has created a series w/ VP Biden telling stories in his own words of pictures recently taken

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Intro

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Vol. 1: The Sportsman’s Ethic

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Vol. 2: A Good Omen

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Vol. 3: My Alma Mater

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Vol. 4: Vital Voices

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Vol. 5: Two Vice Presidents

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If you want to sign up for email updates on the *Being Biden* series here is the link

Picture Perfect

….. with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on the Colonnade of the White House, March 15

Bo waits for First Lady Michelle Obama on the South Lawn driveway before departing the White House, March 20. Bo accompanied Mrs. Obama during her visit to Maryland Fisher House IV at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda

President Obama and Dr. Suleiman A.D. Al Farajat, a University of Jordan tourism professor, jump from a ledge of the Nabataean Amphitheater during a walking tour of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, March 23

…. with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel before a Cabinet meeting, March 4

….. on their way to attend an Easter service at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., March 31

All photos by Pete Souza, except the one of Bo – taken by Lawrence Jackson

More new White House photos here

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Next up:

2:05: President Obama presents the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the United States Naval Academy Football Team

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Chat away.

Rise and Shine

President Obama talks on the phone with Nicole Hockley and families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn., in the Oval Office, April 11 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Today:

12:0: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney

2:05: The President presents the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the United States Naval Academy football team

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NBC: For former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, gun violence is personal — so she’s going to begin her own in-person push for a new compromise to expand background checks for gun sales when she returns to Capitol Hill next week, NBC News has learned.

And the gun safety group she founded with husband, Mark Kelly, will begin making robocalls Thursday in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, looking to support the two senators who crafted the deal — an attempt to demonstrate that the organization is committed to challenging the gun lobby’s political infrastructure.

More here

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Greg Sargent: What will John Boehner say to Gabrielle Giffords?

This has the potential to create a bit of an awkward moment for Speaker John Boehner, as he weighs whether to allow a House vote on whatever gun legislation clears the Senate.

In a few days, on April 16th, Boehner and Nancy Pelosi will be presiding over a ceremony dedicating the creation of the Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room in the U.S. Capitol, according to an invitation to the event that’s making the rounds. Zimmerman was the community outreach director to Giffords when he was killed in the January 2011 shooting in Arizona that almost claimed Giffords’ life.

Giffords will be attending the event….

More here

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NYT: The Rugged Road for Gun Control

As families of the victims of the Newtown, Conn., massacre watched from the Senate gallery on Thursday, 68 senators, including 16 Republicans, voted to break a conservative filibuster to allow debate to begin on a bill that would expand background checks for most gun sales.

That a procedural vote was considered a breakthrough demonstrated how hard it has been to get even the most fundamental, common-sense reform of the nation’s inadequate gun laws past the gun lobby.

More here

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The People’s View: Surprise! President’s Budget Has Way More New Revenue Than New Cuts

Bet you haven’t heard that one in the national media yet – certainly not on the Left’s media world still in a fit over Chained CPI. I bet here’s what you’ve heard: Obama’s revenue raisers are not enough, his spending cuts are too much, and it’s not ‘balanced’ in terms of revenues and cuts. What you’re hearing is that the president is proposing $1 trillion in cuts! Here’s what they’re not telling you: the president is merely replacing the sequester….

More here

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Greg Sargent: The GOP’s policy nihilism

Mark April 11th, 2013, down on your calendars as the day that the GOP’s fiscal ruse was finally unmasked with total clarity: Republicans don’t actually want entitlement cuts. Or, to put it another way, they say they want entitlement cuts, but they want Dems to own them.

A few of us have been pointing this out for some time, but now it’s breaking through to the neutral press, thanks to the ongoing shenanigans between John Boehner and NRCC chair Greg Walden….

More here

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ThinkProgress: In the first quarter of 2013, states have proposed 694 provisions related to a woman’s body, how she gets pregnant, or how she chooses to end that pregnancy.

A new report released on Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute takes a comprehensive look at how the War on Women has continued past the election cycle and into 2013. It shows that the new legislatures across the country are still very much dedicated to restricting sex education, availability of medication, and abortion access for women. Indeed, 47 percent of the 694 provisions were directly related to abortion….

More here

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President Obama waits for a heavy rain to pass before crossing West Executive Avenue from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to the West Wing of the White House, March 12 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Lots more new photos here

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MooooOOOOooorning!