Archive for May 6th, 2013
06
May
13
This and That
Photo: Pete Souza
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Six months ago today, we made history. And we’re not done yet. twitter.com/BarackObama/st…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 6, 2013
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Line of the day?
Charles Pierce: Just as Darrell Issa and his merry men are ready to engage in another round of Outrage Kabuki on the subject of Benghazi, BENGHAZI!, BENGHAZI!!, some of the air is going out of the balloon already, and the high-pitched whistling seems to have reached a frequency that can be heard at the dog’s breakfast known as Fox And Friends.
And when you’ve lost a human tack-hammer like Brian Kilmeade, it’s going to be tough to sell anyone smarter, which is, you know, like, everybody.
More here
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Jonathan Bernstein: If you’re not inside the conservative information feedback loop, you might not be aware that within that loop the Benghazi “scandal” is still going at 100 percent strength. Months after the actual incident, which was back in September. Even though no one has ever made clear exactly what terrible secret was the subject of the supposed cover-up; even though a succession of “revelations” have all turned out to be nonsense (here’s one from just last week). Doesn’t matter; discredited accusations are just forgotten and new ones are substituted.
More here
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New post || Open thread – competing claims in Syria | The People’s View: thepeoplesview.net/2013/05/open-t…
— Liberal Librarian (@Lib_Librarian) May 6, 2013
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Dan Rather: “All of these things we’ve said about what the president could do, should do, might have, could have, but the central thing to keep in mind is his opponents — you talk about taking them out to dinner, making nice with them — these people, politically, want to cut his heart out and throw his liver to the dogs.”
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Heritage vs. Heritage: Major immigration report released today directly contradicts its 2006 study thkpr.gs/107cMgE
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) May 6, 2013
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UPDATE: Author of Heritage’s 2006 study on immigration reform blasts Heritage’s 2013 study as brutally dishonest thkpr.gs/107cMgE
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) May 6, 2013
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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on The View today:
06
May
13
Par for the Course
President Obama and Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) talk as Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Mark Udall (D-COL) putt out during a round of golf at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland
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Open letter to President Obama’s haters:
To your distress, for most of the rest of your life, you will bear this: That Barack Obama, will always be President. He will always be the man from a mixed race background that became the President of the US, he and his wife will be welcomed throughout the world by nations and their leaders, the most influential members of the arts and sciences will be their acquaintances and companions. He will be regarded and honored as the President who entered office during a deep recession and two wars and turned the country around.
But you; You will always justify your lack of achievement on the unfairness of every system, your lack of success on the government or regulation, your failure to accomplish anything in a country where impoverished immigrants with limited language skills are succeeding around you on the liberals or the communists or the elites.
The small satisfaction you garner while spouting derisive comments here only exists in your self-delusion and is a pale comfort compared to the reality that exists around you. You can try to salve your bitter existence with theories of international Kenyan plots or document fraud, whatever. But that is your future. Your world will always be limited by your small-mindedness, your associates will always consist of those that are just as poorly adapted to the world around them too. Your accomplishments will be non-existent and your life a bitter existence. It’s time to move on. In your journey into denial, you’ve already sacrificed your conscience and whatever claim to character you had.
Your pretense at a deity derived morality is mocked by your myopic hatred of the ‘other’. Your concept of patriotism is waving a child’s flag on the sidelines as others defend your liberty. Bush 41 and spouse are living into their nineties, the Obama’s will too. You’ll see them at the inaugurals, your TV will tell you of their lives and that of their daughters, of their successes and their trips and the books they write and their accolades.
Make it easy on yourself. Take a deep cleansing breath and just let go, make the best of your situation. He will always be the 44th President of the US, and your children and their children will read of him in their history books, the first black man elected president of the US. And when he leaves office, he will be healthier and wealthier than he is as President, and he will be remembered as a person who was always willing to make sacrifices for you and your children; even though you hated him. Future generations will always love him for his uncanny ability to put up with people like you and your bullshit. But for now, just remember that you still live in a free country made more safe and prosperous by your President, and he, the First Lady and their children will always have you in their prayers.
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Thank you Donna Dem 4 Obama for this gem from Facebook
06
May
13
Rise and Shine
Two years ago: President Obama walks across the tarmac with Vice President Biden prior to departure from Fort Campbell, Ky., May 6, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Today:
The President has no scheduled public events
12:45 Jay Carney’s press briefing
4:0: VP Biden meets with members of the faith community at the White House to discuss gun safety
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Jonathan Chait: State of the Union addresses are wearying rituals, in which stitched-together lists of never-gonna-happen goals are woven into idealistic catchphrases, analyzed as rhetoric by an unqualified panel of poetry-critic-for-a-night political reporters, quickly followed by a hapless opposition-party response, and then, in almost every case, forgotten. This year, plunked into the midst of the tedium was a gigantic revelation, almost surely the most momentous news of President Obama’s second term. “I will direct my Cabinet,” he announced, “to come up with executive actions we can take now and in the future to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
Here was a genuine bombshell. It sounded a little vague, and the president did not explain precisely what he intended to do or how he would pull it off. But a handful of environmental wonks had a fairly strong grasp of the project he had committed himself to, and they understood that it was very, very real and very, very doable. If they were to have summarized the news, the headline would have been OBAMA TO SAVE PLANET…..
More here
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Why Obama Might Actually Be the Environmental President by @jonathanchait is also an indictment of a lazy press corps nym.ag/11MBwZW
— Jay Rosen(@jayrosen_nyu) May 6, 2013
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Glad to see @jonathanchait join my uncrowded Obama-is-enviro-hero bandwagon. (And tnx for book plug!) nymag.com/news/features/…”
— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) May 6, 2013
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USA Today: President Obama is turning back to the jobs issue, launching a series of “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tours” starting Thursday with an appearance in Texas.
Obama will visit growing areas “to learn what has helped them become successful and use these models of growth to encourage Congress to act,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
On Thursday, the president opens the new effort with a tour in Austin, Texas, where he will visit a high school, and speak with leaders of the city’s high-tech industries.
More here
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A summary of the past 4 years, in one image: twitter.com/JasonFebery/st…
— Jason Febery (@JasonFebery) May 5, 2013
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Michael Tomasky: There Are No ‘Absolute’ Rights – Nearly every idea in the Bill of Rights comes with restrictions and limitations. To think that the Second Amendment should be any different is absurd
Every time I write a column on guns, the howl arises that I am talking about a right that is enshrined in the Constitution, buddy, and I better watch myself. The howl then transmutes into an extended harangue that this right is absolute, and no libtard fascist, whether me or the Satanesque Dianne Feinstein, is going to limit the right in any way.
The first soldier to charge across this rhetorical veld is followed by hundreds harrumphing their assent. The only problem is that it’s an ahistorical, afactual, and barbaric argument. No right is absolute. In fact, the Second Amendment arguably has fewer restrictions on it these days than many of the other first ten, and there is and should be no guarantee that things are going to stay that way. In fact, if we’re ever going to be serious about trying to stop this mass butchery that we endure every few months, they cannot.
More here
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REMINDER: Last year 17 Americans died in terrorist attacks; more than 30,000 died at the hands of guns. nationalmemo.com/the-true-terro…
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 4, 2013
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VP Biden: ….. We fell short on our first effort to pass Manchin-Toomey in the Senate, but we will not be deterred by one setback. We have an obligation to make sure that the voices of victims, not the voice of the NRA, ring the loudest in this debate.
For too long, members of Congress have been afraid to vote against the wishes of the NRA, even when the vast majority of their constituents support what the NRA opposes. That fear has become such an article of faith that even in the face of evidence to the contrary, a number of senators voted against basic background checks, against a federal gun trafficking statute and against other common-sense measures because they feared a backlash.
…. In the end, I believe we will prevail. And those who wrote off gun safety legislation last month will come to realize that moment wasn’t the end at all. It was the turning point.
Full editorial here
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Why doesn’t Pres. Obama rush mindlessly in to a war with Syria? Maybe because he understands the consequence of war? twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/…
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) May 6, 2013
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… and when you see the consequences of war, you think twice twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/…
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) May 6, 2013
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The Obama Diary 
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