Night Owls: White House Performances: The Blues

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Funnies: The Cure For All

If you download the PRISMBar for your browser, you can play fun loyalty games with your NSA watcher and keep track of your PRISMPoints.

—
  (@pourmecoffee) June 07, 2013

"We welcome this debate. Just email your thoughts to anyone in your contacts list and we'll look at them and respond."

—
  (@pourmecoffee) June 07, 2013

Facts Always Win Over Feigned Outrage

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MUST read piece by David Simon

Fantastic piece in which David Simon uses facts to destroy the nonsense Glenn Greenwald is peddling. davidsimon.com/we-are-shocked…

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Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 07, 2013

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David Simon: Is it just me or does the entire news media  – as well as all the agitators and self-righteous bloviators on both sides of the aisle — not understand even the rudiments of electronic intercepts and the manner in which law enforcement actually uses such intercepts?  It would seem so. Because the national eruption over the rather inevitable and understandable collection of all raw data involving telephonic and internet traffic by Americans would suggest that much of our political commentariat, many of our news gatherers and a lot of average folk are entirely without a clue. You would think that the government was listening in to the secrets of 200 million Americans from the reaction and the hyperbole being tossed about.  And you would think that rather than a legal court order which is an inevitable consequence of legislation that we drafted and passed, something illegal had been discovered to the government’s shame.

It's hilarious when a Glenn Greenwald fan is SHOCKED! that the grifter supported the Iraq war. thisweekinblackness.com/2013/03/19/the… democraticunderground.com/100297462

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Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 07, 2013

When Glenn Greenwald believed a President's national security judgment should be "deferred to": http://t.co/ivQ4Ygv2pR

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TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 07, 2013

Nope.  Nothing of the kind.  Though apparently, the U.K.’s Guardian, which broke this faux-scandal, is unrelenting in its desire to scale the heights of self-congratulatory hyperbole.  Consider this from Glenn Greenwald, the author of the piece:  ”What this court order does that makes it so striking is that it’s not directed at any individual…it’s collecting the phone records of every single customer of Verizon business and finding out every single call they’ve made…it’s indiscriminate and it’s sweeping.”

Friday Funnies

Everything happens for a reason, and the reason is I don't know what I'm doing.

—
God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 02, 2013

People who believe in "traditional marriage" are nostalgic for the days of dowries, aristocratic inbreeding, and war rape.

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God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 02, 2013

There's some we follow because we love their words. Then, there's others; because if we unfollow we fear they'll find us and hack us to bits

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The Psycholyst (@Psycholyst) June 03, 2013

If you want to understand capitalism, don't play Monopoly from the start. Join a game mid-session after all the properties are bought.

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LydAI (@LifeInNeon) June 02, 2013

any ordinary grandma can bless or curse her grandchildren, but the rare grandma that can bless or curse ANY child is known as a witch

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jon hendren (@fart) June 03, 2013

One of the things that makes this country tick is morons. Without a makeup of 60%, a democracy is guaranteed to fail.

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Uncle Dynamite (@UncleDynamite) May 31, 2013

I never understood why people get buried in suits. When I die bury me in my PJ's. If I'm gonna be sleeping that long I wanna be comfortable.

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miss foofoo (@miss_foofoo) June 01, 2013

"I am looking forward to...spending more time...with...my...(sob)...wife..." Marcus Bachmann, quietly and through clenched teeth

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Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 29, 2013

How come old clothes are "vintage" but old people are "nasty over-entitled thugs whose blind selfishness mortgaged America's future"

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Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) June 02, 2013

For those wondering how the GOP lost the youth vote, remember they used their convention primetime to have a 90 year old lecture a chair.

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John Cole (@Johngcole) June 03, 2013

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Chat Away

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Rise and Shine

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Today – all times EST:

11:50 AM: The President delivers a statement to reporters on the Affordable Care Act, Fairmont Hotel, San Jose

White House Live * C-Span * CBS

12:25: Departs San Jose

1:35: Arrives Los Angeles

3:0: Delivers remarks at a DNC Fundraiser, Private Residence, Santa Monica

5:05: Departs Los Angeles

5:55: Arrives Palm Springs

8:0: Participates in a photo opportunity with President Xi Jinping of China, at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, Rancho Mirage, California.

8:05: Holds a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping

11:0: Holds a working dinner with President Xi Jinping

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Steve Benen: … The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, slightly better than expected, though the overall unemployment rate inched higher to 7.6%. As is usually the case, there was a gap between the two major sectors – America’s private sector added 178,000 jobs last month, while spending cuts caused the public sector lose 3,000 jobs.

One key figure to keep in mind, however, was local-government hiring, where 13,000 jobs were created. We’ve grown accustomed to municipalities doing the opposite, and if this holds up (and continues), it will strengthen the overall job market…

More here

We knew you wouldn’t make good on your threat MT @stevebenen I’m off today, but I posted monthly jobs charts anyway on.msnbc.com/17tLPJ6

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 7, 2013

PS Loved this: “Do you folks remember the last time Steve Benen took a day off? Yeah, we had to go back and look, too. I’m happy to report that Steve is taking vacation today and tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.”

But…. “Steve says he’ll be escaping vacation at least long enough to post the new unemployment report – and his famous bikini graph – on Friday morning.”

Yes, he took a break from his two day vacation to post on the jobs’ figures. He’s a hoot.

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Unemployment rate among Latinos was 9.1% in May. One year ago, it was 11%. bls.gov/news.release/e…

— mhugolopez (@mhugolopez) June 7, 2013

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U.S. stocks surge at open after jobs report: on.mktw.net/13KTL3t Dow +70 points, S&P 500 +7 points

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) June 7, 2013

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Some 420,000 people entered labor force in search of work. That pushed up unemployment rate to 7.6%, but it’s not a bad thing.

— Jeffry Bartash (@jbartash) June 7, 2013

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Socialism RT @ryanavent: Since February of 2010, private employers have added 6.9m jobs, government has shed 622k.

— Matt O’Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) June 7, 2013

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BLS needs to add new category: total jobs; non-farm private-sector jobs; and # that would have been created if GOP didn’t exist.

— Michael Tomasky (@mtomasky) June 7, 2013

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Must-read – although, Tomasky makes the mistake of suggesting the deranged hate only comes from the right:

Michael Tomasky: Nothing will stop Republicans from trying to turn the IRS scandal into Watergate. They simply despise Obama too much to settle for anything less ….. That’s all this is really about — their base’s rage at the continued existence of Barack Obama, and their own twisted craving to acknowledge and stoke it.

…. all that is to say nothing of the racist invective that is the constant background music of this presidency …. We in the media never discuss this, but it is a daily diet in this country — yes, daily — and nothing said about any president in history that I can think of comes close to matching its relentless and savage sickness.

…. The liberal base hated George Bush all right, but the hate wasn’t quite as existential, wasn’t quite as drenched in the same kind of suppurated derangement one finds in quarters of the right.

Besides which, Bush discredited himself through his uniform incompetence. Obama, clearly competent, has not done that and is unlikely to do it. So the Republicans have to do it to him. Tarnishing Obama is the only way they can emerge from these eight years not completely humiliated by him, so we’re just going to have to endure it.

Full post here

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