Rise and Shine

President Barack Obama on the White House colonnade passing by members of the military, who were about to visit the Oval Office, July 22,2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Presidential Daily Schedule (All Times Eastern)

10:45AM: Pres. Obama meets with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

11:45AM: Press Secretary Jay Carney briefs the press

12:30PM: First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks about the problem of childhood obesity at the 2013 NCLR  Annual Conference in New Orleans

2:10PM: Pres. Obama honors the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions, the Louisville Cardinals

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President Obama’s OFA remarks last night:

OFA

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President Barack Obama talks on the phone with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in the Oval Office, Saturday, July 23, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Nedra Pickler: President Barack Obama is enrolling some star power to promote health care. Obama stopped by a private White House meeting Monday with celebrities including singer Jennifer Hudson and actors Amy Poehler, Michael Cera and Kal Penn. The White House says the artists expressed interest in helping spread the word about the health insurance marketplaces opening Oct. 1.

The White House says Obama told the artists they could help reach young uninsured Americans who will be vital to his signature law’s success. Insurers need healthy young customers to help offset the costs of older, sicker consumers. The group also included representatives for Oprah Winfrey, Alicia Keys and Bon Jovi. Also in attendance were officials with internet video makers YouTube and Funny or Die, which are teaming up on promotions featuring comedians.

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News! Oprah, Amy Poehler, Funny or Die, the Grammys and others in talks with the White House to promote Obamacare. http://t.co/hLybPmkvym

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) July 22, 2013

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Washington Post: Oprah, Funny or Die and the Grammys want to promote Obamacare

What do Oprah, Funny or Die and the Grammys have in common? All three, it turns out, have volunteered to promote Obamacare.

Senior advisor Valerie Jarrett hosted a meeting Monday with a star-studded group of actors, musicians, writers and producers who have “expressed a personal interest in educating young people about the Affordable Care Act,” according to a White House official.

Young people are crucial to the Affordable Care Act’s success, and the White House estimates it needs 2.7 million of them to sign up for health coverage in 2014. With typically low health costs, it’s this demographic that Obama administration is relying on to keep premiums low on the new marketplaces.

More here

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David Rogers: Like an army that’s outrun its supply line, the Republican budget strategy in Congress shows almost daily signs of coming apart. The central premise, as sold by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, was that Washington could wipe out deficits in 10 years and protect defense spending, all while embracing the lower appropriations caps dictated by sequestration.

Four months later, it’s proving to be a bridge too far. Only three of the 12 annual spending bills have even been debated — by far the worst record since the GOP took over the House. Republicans are peeling off in protest — setting up a crucial procedural vote at noon Tuesday on the transportation and housing budget.Time is running short. After the August recess just nine legislative days remain on the House calendar before the next shutdown crisis Oct. 1. Already there are discussions of retreating into a stopgap continuing resolution calibrated to the post-sequester appropriations level of $988 billion.

More here

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In 2005, Senator Barack Obama gave an important speech on his economic philosophy at Knox College that gave a clear idea of what his values are. That a country doesn’t rise to greatness from the top-down; but from the middle-out and the bottom-up. Eight years later, he’s going back with factual examples of success but as he says, there’s still much to be done. Join him on Wednesday, July 24, 2013.

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Watch his 2005 speech

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James Braxton Peterson: The president made history Friday, in a nearly 18 minute address, delivered off-prompter, and from the gut, where he deliberately connected his experiences with racial profiling to the tragic outcome of Trayvon Martin’s last walk home. His words surprised the media, galvanized his supporters and emboldened his critics from the left and from the right of America’s diametrically opposed political spectrum.

The timing of POTUS’ most profound remarks on race in America  — from the perspective of being black in America, is remarkable.  In the immediate aftermath of the verdict in the Zimmerman case, juror B37 unveiled the problems of racial representation in the jury process and racial bias in the deliberation processes; the national response to the verdict manifested in public discourse and civic unrest; and the coda: the release of a not-to-be-missed dramatic rendering of the last 24 hours of Oscar Grant’s life – Fruitvale Station.

Last week was this nation’s most emotionally charged week since the Newtown massacre and this time, race was center-stage.  So it should come as no surprise then that a spate of comments and responses by black men would stand out amongst the usual right wing hysteria and the progressive desire to keep communities focused on the long hard work ahead in addressing racial inequities in our criminal justice system.

More here

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Greg Sargent: Here’s a question to keep an eye on when the Obamacare exchanges go live later this year: How many Republican lawmakers will take the most basic of steps a lawmaker can take, and help their constituents benefit from — or even understand — the law? Take GOP Rep. Lee Terry of Omaha, Nebraska. He is as diehard an Obamacare opponent as many of his colleagues. But it was recently revealed by the Nation that he requested under the law — and received — a federal grant of $2.5 million to the local health department designed to reduce deaths and disability by cardiovascular and lung disease, obesity, and other health problems.

It turns out some House Republicans disagree with this approach. For instance, GOP Reps. Tim Huelskamp and Jason Chaffetz have flatly declared that they will not help constituents who call their offices looking for assistance with the law. However, some Republican officials, such as Senators Ron Johnson and Mike Johanns, have said they will assist constituents with the law, and some Republican Congressional staffers have been participating in calls with Obama administration officials to get guidance on how to do that.

More here

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Fernando Espuelas: We’re now almost a decade into the immigration “debate” and the rising antagonism toward non-white Americans is hitting a fever pitch. As an immigrant to the U.S., I was a kid growing up in Connecticut where I was the target of years of “spic” slurs and ugly moments — both my mother and I were humiliated in public more than once. Racism is complicated. And making believe it does not exist — or that it is some sort of left-wing plot to give out “free-stuff’ to disadvantaged folks – blinds us to its corrosive reality. Calling President Obama the “racist in chief” as some conservative commentators have done since his remarks last week, when he asked Americans to consider the lingering damage of racism, is deeply wrong. It is a pernicious denial of reality that prevents us from solving this national nightmare once and for all.

For the sake of argument, let's say Speaker Boehner should be judged on how many laws he repeals -- how's that track record going?

— Bill Burton (@billburton) July 22, 2013

In the immigration debate, we’re also seeing horrible racist attacks mount. Perhaps emboldened by the acrid assertions of certain Tea Party members of Congress who revel in fostering racial divisions as a way to cement their shrinking power base, the temperature is rising and the rhetoric is crude. One has to wonder whether Marc Anthony would have been so savagely attacked if feelings about immigration were not so raw. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” So what can John Boehner do about this festering wound? Simple: Allow an open vote of the House to pass immigration reform.

The reasons to implement immigration reform are many, and are primarily driven by a national security need, an economic-efficiency imperative and the political urgency of moving our national focus to other, equally pressing issues such as middle-class economic growth, world-class education and the future of the American empire.

More here

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Steve Benen: When we talk about efforts to “sabotage” Obamacare, what are we referring to? Several — by my count, seven — specific efforts. First, congressional Republicans are actively trying to undermine the federal health care system by refusing to help their own constituents navigate the system. Second, there’s systemic lying to the public. In recent weeks, officials in states like New York and California have boasted about lower premiums for residents thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

But on Friday, Indiana, where Republican officials dominate, announced the law would force a premium increase of 72%. How it that possible? As Sarah Kliff, Jonathan Cohn, and others explained over the weekend, GOP policymakers in the state arrived at the figure by cooking the books and jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information. There is no precedent in American history for Congress approving a massive new public benefit, a president signing it into law, the Supreme Court endorsing the benefit’s legality, and then having an entire political party actively and shamelessly working to sabotage the law.

More here

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Suzy Khimm: Walter Fortson is a young man with impressive credentials: He graduated with honors from Rutgers University this year and is headed to the University of Cambridge on a prestigious Truman scholarship. But on a typical job application, the first thing an employer might notice about Fortson is that he’s an ex-felon. Fortson, 28, served two years in prison for dealing crack cocaine: He got out in March 2010 and has been clean since. Though he’s successfully turned his life around, he says discrimination against those with a criminal record is very real. Fortson is now backing a campaign to make employers remove questions about criminal history from job applications, postponing such queries until a later stage of the hiring process–an initiative widely known as “Ban the Box.”

A growing number of states are coming on board. This week, Rhode Island became the eighth state in the country to pass a statewide Ban the Box law, and it’s one of the most expansive versions out there: The state will require all private and public employers to delay questions about criminal history, following Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Hawaii. Four other states and 51 municipalities have already passed similar measures for hiring public employees, according to the National Employment Law Project. Ban the Box bills are now being considered in New Jersey and California, which passed an executive measure covering public employees in 2010.

More here

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Susan A. Cohen: This year will see the second-highest number of state-level abortion restrictions ever. Prominent among restrictions so far in 2013 are so-called targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) requirements, a regulatory thicket designed not to benefit patients but to make it impossible for many providers to come into compliance. While not a new tactic, the scope of some of these new TRAP laws is unprecedented, as is the blunt focus by anti-abortion state legislators on driving abortion providers out of business.

As is often the case with other efforts to make abortion care more difficult to access, the reasons offered in support of specific TRAP requirements—which are usually marketed under the guise of protecting women’s health—do not stand up to close scrutiny: At the most general level, TRAP requirements are a solution in search of a problem. Abortion care in the United States is already very safe, and fewer than 0.3 percent of all abortion patients experience complications that require hospitalization. The risk of dying from a legal abortion in the first trimester—when almost nine in ten abortions are performed—is no more than four in a million (see Safety of Abortion here).

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President Barack Obama signs books and photos at a fundraiser in Chicago, Illinois on July 23, 2009 (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Bravo to the Obama Coalition. Keep sending them help; they can’t make progress without the needed funds.

Reid Epstein: They send checks, a hundred dollars at a time, to President Barack Obama’s reelection bid — and they’re not stopping just because the election is over. William Russell James, an 84-year-old priest in Robertsdale, Ala., said he’s a lifelong Democrat who last voted for a Republican when Dwight D. Eisenhower first ran for president. He said he mailed Obama a $200 contribution in April because he was frustrated by congressional gridlock. Jewel Buford, 93, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., sent Obama’s campaign $100 in April. “I figured they have as much need for money after the election than they did before. It’s not a whole lot. I don’t have that much to give,” Buford said. “I’ve known Mr. Obama for years, and he is a good man, and I would like to give to him, and I try to when I can.”

"Thank you very much, OFA. I love you guys. Keep it up!" —President Obama. Stay fired up with #ActionAugust: http://t.co/TuMYbHtF3b

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 23, 2013

Stearns, along with her husband, Peter, who is retired from the Army, has given Obama more than $5,000 since his 2008 campaign, according to FEC records. She called Obama “my hero” and “the best thing that’s happened to our world in a long time.” She said they would continue to be financially supportive of Obama’s agenda. And then there is James Wickliffe of Las Vegas. In May, Wickliffe sent a check to the joint Obama-Democratic National Committee Victory Fund for $379.60 — a figure that he said is exactly double his annual subscription to his local newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s a very conservative newspaper,” said Wickliffe, 64. “I’m a liberal, so every time I pay my yearly subscription fee now, for every dollar I send them, I send two dollars to the Democratic Party.”

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USA Today: President Obama will mark the 60th anniversary of the Korean War with a speech Saturday at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, the White House announced Monday.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will join Obama for a program that includes “wreath laying ceremonies, special tributes, and recognize the United Nations Allies that provided combat troops, medical teams, and other support,” said the announcement.

More here

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First Lady Michelle Obama christens the USCGC Stratton with a bottle of champagne, during a ceremony at the Port of Pascagoula, in Pascagoula, Miss., July 23, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

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Darlene Superville: It’s a second term for Michelle Obama, too, and she’s shifting her social-issues emphasis to kids and gun violence after spending four years stressing better physical fitness for the young. A meeting with high school students from a poor, gang-infested neighborhood in Chicago, her hometown, led Mrs. Obama to put a new spin on the stalled legislative debate over whether to ban firearms or impose new background checks on people who want to buy guns.

A mother to a teen and a tween, Mrs. Obama argues that the debate also is about the country’s obligation to help kids like these grow up and become adults. Several of the school’s current and former students were killed by gunfire within the past year.The first lady faces the issue of immigration Tuesday when she gives the keynote speech at the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. Immigration is one of President Barack Obama’s top second-term priorities. Aides say the first lady isn’t making gun violence a new and distinct issue, but is folding it into her work encouraging youth to focus on getting an education.

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President Barack Obama talks with members of the Girls National American Legion in the East Room of the White House, July 23, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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