Pete Souza: National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice cleans a stain on VP Joe Biden’s suitcoat today
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Jonathan Bernstein: Hey Reporters! Do Health Insurance Boycott Organizers Carry Insurance Themselves?
conservative activists are organizing boycotts of health insurance within the exchanges. We’ve had great reporting by Sarah Kliff, and today by Christopher Flavelle, who interviewed Twila Brase, an Obamacare boycott organizer with something called the “Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom.” What I really want to know, however, neither Flavelle nor Kliff asked: Are the people organizing these boycotts going without health insurance? Are they going without their own ACA-regulated, government-subsidized health insurance?
Flavelle gets Brase to talk about what a supposedly bad idea health insurance is for her target group. It really doesn’t seem far-fetched to ask whether she subjects herself to the horrors of insurance. Of course, if she does, and if employees of FreedomWorks and the other Obamacare boycott organizers also use health insurance themselves, then we might begin to suspect that this is just a fundraising scam by “political” activists who are willing to raise money off of their irresponsible rhetoric and are actually willing to destroy young conservatives’ lives by encouraging them to make stupid financial choices for the cause.
More here
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Nebraska gubernatorial candidate blames rape of 93-year-old woman on undocumented immigration thkpr.gs/145HyJ4 #icymi
—
ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) August 03, 2013****
President Barack Obama and personal aide Reggie Love stand in a hallway of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House after dropping by an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) meeting, Aug. 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Mike Lillis: Pelosi Predicts No Farm Bill By October Deadline
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday she has little faith in Congress to pass a farm bill by the Oct. 1 deadline.”[I’m] not confident, unfortunately,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. The Democratic leader said the news that Republicans want $40 billion cut from the food stamp program would move the House bill so far to the right that a conference with the Senate bill could prove unworkable.
She urged GOP leaders to take the farm bill they passed earlier in the month, which extends current farm policy but doesn’t include food stamp provisions, and send that to the bargaining table with the Senate. “Let’s just go to the table,” she said. “Even with that bill, as horrible as it was, at least it’s a path to the conference table. But to put their members on record as supporting $40 billion in cuts really makes the path back even harder.”
More here
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President Barack Obama talks with Members of Congress after signing the Fair Sentencing Act in the Oval Office, Aug. 3, 2010. Participants include, from left, Attorney General Eric Holder, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Nicole Flatow: Slashing Racist Crack Sentences Has Already Saved 16K Prison Years And Half A Billion Dollars
In 2010, Congress mitigated a blight on the U.S. justice system by reducing a racist drug sentencing disparity. Before the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act, crack offenses, which disproportionately ensnare African Americans, carried mandatory minimum sentences that were 100 times those for powder cocaine sentences, which are more often doled out to whites. In the compromise measure, Congress reduced that disparity to 18 to 1. While the law initially applied only to future sentences, the U.S. Sentencing Commission opted a year later to apply the new law to sentences retroactively.
Just two years later, the results of the Sentencing Commission’s action have been striking. More than 7,300 inmates convicted of crack offenses have received average 29-month sentence reductions, meaning a total of 16,000 years in prison saved, according to calculations on new U.S. Sentencing Commission data by sentencing expert Doug Berman. These reductions have already saved the Bureau of Prisons half a billion dollars by conservative estimates. That is a big chunk of change for an agency whose total budget is $7 billion, and already exceeds initial Bureau of Prison estimates
More here
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President Barack Obama talks with kids attending a Let’s Move! tennis clinic on the South Lawn of the White House, Aug. 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Tara Culp-Ressler: Plan B Finally Hit Pharmacy Shelves This Week
Women’s health advocates have fought for over-the-counter access to emergency contraception for more than a decade, and their efforts were finally realized this week. Thursday, August 1 marked the day that pharmacies and grocery stories across the country were supposed to begin stocking Plan B on their shelves, available for purchase without a prescription.
The “Healthcare In Our Hands” campaign is celebrating by encouraging Americans to submit photos of Plan B on pharmacy shelves. On the campaign’s Tumblr page, the photos from states around the country are accompanied by captions like, “Thumbs up for emergency contraception over the counter, and increased access!”
More here
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President Barack Obama waits with Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Amir of Kuwait, outside the Oval Office, as they were about to walk to the State Dining Room on Aug. 3, 2009.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Ian Millhiser: Senate Confirms Top Gun Cop For The First Time In American History
By the narrowest of margins — and after a lengthy vote held open due to one senator’s absence — the Senate voted Wednesday evening to break a Republican filibuster of B. Todd Jones to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Mark Kirk (R-IL), John McCain (R-AZ) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) crossed over to vote with all 54 Democrats to break the filibuser. Shortly after this vote, Jones was confirmed 53-42 — the first time in American history that an ATF Director has been confirmed.
Prior to 2006, the ATF Director could be appointed directly by the president without going through the Senate confirmation process. That changed after theNational Rifle Association successfully lobbied to insert a provision into a law reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act requiring Senate approval of any such Director.
More here
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President Barack Obama greets members of the delegation traveling with Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Amir of Kuwait, during a lunch in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, on Aug. 3, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Barack Obama has lunch at Good Stuff Eatery in Washington, D.C., with staff members who worked on the debt negotiations, Aug. 3, 2011. From left are: Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew; National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling; Rob Nabors, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs; and Bruce Reed, Chief of Staff to the Vice President. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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The Obama Diary 
GM TOD!
We have a winner!
Good Morning Sonja!! Congrats on First!! Way to make an entrance! 🙂
Where is everyone?
Good Morning Sonjia and TOD’ers. Congrats on First!
Thanks for the fab Rise and Shine UT!
Ditto on that!
Excellent work UT! You busted out of the gate with your turbo rockets on full blast!!
Methinks many folks are on vacation in this August month.
Hi hopefruit! Looks that way. We get the run of the house. 🙂
This is wonderful.
oh he is a little doll… never seen him before- but too adorable 🙂
Squeeeeeeeeeee! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
My cheeks hurt from grinning so wide!! I want him to hold my hand and give me a hug!
Had to tweet that!
G’morning UT, Chips, TOD, lurkers, everyone and congrats Sonja on #1! 🙂
Thanks ut for another wonderful roundup and trip down memory lane. That second pic is ___. 🙂 🙂 (I Don’t want to get Audrey or Eleroy started this morning.)
What a donkey – that GRIMwald….
But he’s having some effect! Some Emos are all over his shit, they love him and support him more than the President.
Which is why he keeps doing it. Sadly, he’s way to the right of Emos, but they’re Hippies, so…
The “Emos” who are all over Grimwald’s shit are people who never supported the President.
I haven’t seen a single GENUINE former PBO supporter who has turned against PBO because of SnowGrimWald’s BS. If they claim to have lost support for PBO because of these idiots – it tells me that they were NEVER his supporters.
I know if they had to choose over a republican nominee they would pick Barack.
That said, the Emos staying home in 2010 is one of the main reasons America has a broken government.
Maybe that’s what they want? To star over? New system.
They seem to be working hand in hand with the new far right buddies, who totally disagree with them on domestic issues.
It’s an odd couple, but it definitely exists!
Like I said, these emos, like their friend GG, are first and foremost Libertarian Rethugs. They are simply too ashamed to openly admit that they support the GOP, so they pretend to support PBO, while undermining him, bashing him nonstop and teaming up with the T-baggers (Hamsher & Norquist) when necessary.
3 weeks from Today!
I’ll keep reminding you all to continue to share this information.
Have a great productive O’Day everyone.
Donna….the Tweet says MARCH 24th and the march is AUGUST 24th:) You need to change that, darlin’ 🙂
Actually…I see that it doesn’t say that…but at first glance it looks that way….if I thought that, chances are, someone else might too… ?
Huh? Read it again df… had your coffee this morning, honey? 🙂
I’m slugging it down now…I KNOW I need new glasses for these old eyes though:) My kids tease me all the time…You know that commercial that used to be on where the woman lets the raccoon in the house because she thinks she’s letting her dog in? That’s me. 🙂
Ha ha! “… Come snuggles with Mama!” — Cracks me UP every time!!
LOLOL!!!! One of my favorite commercials. Give up girlfriend, time to get the new glasses or you’ll end up driving down the up ramp.
Planning to go and taking my oldest grandson with me….I will be moving slow…but I plan to be there….
Cuteness overload Part 2 (see Kai above for Part 1) 😀
Dudette, how can there be so much utter cuteness in one little creature!
“LOVE”
Cuteness Overload Part 3
She is GORGEOUS! GORGEOUS! Could just squeeze her!
Right after me! 🙂
🙂 Seriously.
That’s what I was trying to retweet when I discovered I’d been suspended. 😦 she’s a gorgeous child, those eyes and that beautiful cherubic mouth! The original tweeter is a great follow. She and I have become twitter friends. Very kind, intelligent and thoughtful person.
Cool. I’m new follower! 🙂
This child is exquisite.
ROFL!!! LOVE THAT!!!! 🙂
HA! I also love the 4:20 clock behind him. :). I think it’s the one he’s standing in front of.
Good Morning all you O’s!!!!! What another great getting up day in the TOD universe!!!
So all morning I’ve been thinking that today was Sunday. I usually loll around in my jammies, drink my favorite coffee, and nibble on coffee cake or bagels or some other cheat day treat, while blasting my Gospels. Imagine the shock as I settled in with coffee and crumpets, log into WordPress to hit up TODville, find my favorite ‘Listen Live’ radio channel on the computer, crank up the speakers, only to hear L’il Wayne rapping at the top of his lungs!!!!
Now I have to change gears and get about the business of Saturday stuffs. Talk about a rude awakening.
Yikes! What a shock to the system waking up to L’il Wayne would be!
Go back to last night’s post and get a good ear cleansing cookemon. 🙂
Little Wayne. Stronger than expresso.
In other news, right now I’m in limbo, waiting for news about my brother. It looks like his funeral will be on Wednesday or Tuesday. I probably will take off a couple of days around that day.
I looked around and realized that I spend so much time in pants that I don’t even have a skirt or a slip. I have one dress that’s too bright for me to wear, and everything else is pants or too big. So I got to do shopping on top of everything else.
I spoke to mom on the phone. Everyone was out at my brothers house and were coping pretty well.
I’m surprised, sad, but not shocked. He’d been ill ever since I had known him, and I knew about the pacemaker (It might have been his second), so I wasn’t totally surprised. Besides, I’ve been grieved out for a while. I lost touch with a close friend, was unable to contact her, and when I finally found out about what had happened, I had read her obituary. She had died about a month before, so I didin’t even get to attend her funeral. A cousin of mine died last December unexpectedly. Another nephew had died in a car crash, one I never even really knew all that well because he wasn’t close to the family. So I’m grieved out for a while.
Prayers to you and your family. ((((hugs)))) & love all around.
Oh Carol, I’m so sorry–so much grief and loss. My heart truly goes out to you. When the funeral is over, can you take some time to recover–get away for a while or indulge yourself a little. Sometimes life brings you just too much to bear. Bless you.
Carol, I’m sorry for your loss. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.
{{{{Carol}}}} I feel your pain…blessings and positive energies to you and your loved ones.
Oh, Carol. I missed the news about your brother. Deepest condolences to you and your family. You are in my thoughts & prayers!
{{{{ CarolDuhart }}}}
Hey, Professor Zinn! Yay!!
Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue, Tried to Ban Howard Zinn’s Books from being used at the college.
That says all you need know, doesn’t it?
I know. Banning books. Who the hell DOES THAT? Never mind….
😀
Help! My twitter account has been suspended and I don’t know why! Will y’all please take a look at my tweets and tell me what I did wrong? I’m @bluetexasmoon. I can’t believe this after some of the a use I see ignored.
Been there Mela! Check your email, they should have sent you a message supposedly explaining. Even so, it won’t make sense. Just send them an apology note and they’ll let you out of jail shortly thereafter. It’s happened to me twice. Reminds me I’ve been meaning to create a backup account like many others have.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8158854_suspended-account-back-twitter.html
Thanks, Dudette. I’ll look into it. I’m in shock! While I may disagree I’m I don’t think I’ve ever been rude. You catch more flies with honey,…
Yep.
Sometimes conservatives band together to spam block liberal tweeters. They have a group name (I forget what it’s called). Contact twitter and find out why you were suspended and what you can do to restore your account.
Thanks, UT. They sent me an email in response to my inquiry asking me to review their guidelines. I replied letting them know that I had done so and still didn’t understand. Guess we will see. They removed all the ppl I was following!
Yep, that’s how it works. Don’t rack your brain trying to figure it out. UT’s has it exactly right.
loving this R & S…..UT…I really appreciate how you remind us of what PBO has done thru the years…
10 Ways Republicans have acted to Undermine the ACA
Click to access Memo-FC-Republican-Obstruction-of-ACA-2013-8-1.pdf
Casting 40 votes to repeal the law
Refusing to expand Medicaid coverage in over 20 states
Refusing to establish state-based health insurance marketplaces
Undermining enrollment in health insurance marketplaces
Refusing to provide funding requested by the Obama Administration to implement
the law.
Attacking efforts to educate the public about the Affordable Care Act.
• Intimidating potential participants in public education efforts about the law.
• Insisting that the Affordable Care Act be defunded as a condition of preventing a
government shutdown.
• Threatening to deny basic, Affordable Care Act-related constituent service requests
from citizens
Misinforming citizens about the impact of health care reform on insurance
premiums
Details at the link
Girl, you need a Twitter account. You find the best stuff out there on the interwebs!
🙂 Just one more darn thing to take my time…I would be addicted….not a good thing:)
🙂
Oh Dudette, the irony of the GOTPs calling it “ObamaCare”….now it will be forever known as ObamaCare, and what president WOULDN’T want that as their legacy.
It’s just such a slap in their face.
“It’s a critical step,” said Phillip Agnew, who heads a group of young demonstrators calling themselves the Dream Defenders who have staged a nearly month-long sit-in outside Governor Rick Scott’s office in a bid to change the law. “We’re excited about having an open debate,” he told Reuters.
Yahoo News…YUCK…but this is very hopeful! So grateful for the Dream Defenders!!
Good Morning everyone, does anyone have a read on the article on Debbie Wasserman-Schultz talking about using eh DNC for furthering her Possible Gov race, Senate race or running against Pelosi for Speaker? I saw it on twitter yesterday and read the article, short memory problem, don’t know who published it. Maybe Politico along with some other supposedly news organization. Jut curious. I checked the last two threads and noting was mentioned. Jut wondering.
Roberta
I certainly will support her if she runs. Compared to the troll running Florida now, she would be a vast improvement. But the real power would be if she could have a Dem legislature to go with a governorship. Because we Dems were so trodden down for so long, we forgot to think about state legislatures and looked to the Federal Government for everything. Now we can make our legislatures blue as well.
California, Minnesota, are doing quite well and advancing pretty fast.
Ohhhh, I hadn’t heard about that. Sounds like a hit piece from haters who want to act there’s wrong with a woman who’s interested in seeking higher office.
She’d be fine in any of those positions, especially compared to Marco Rubio and Rick Scott most certainly. However, personally I’d rather see Nancy Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel back in her hand.
I posted on twitter just now, BertinMn it is a politico article, pretty long read, but very interesting. Should read it. I don’t know how to post the link here, so I will let someone else that knows how to do that, do it the tyrants allow. 🙂
These news orgs are ridiculous. Isn’t the whole point of the DNC to elect more Democrats to do the people’s business? What would be the issue with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz furthering her career by doing a good job at the DNC? They flavour everything with their toxic slant, and make it seem like something is wrong, when it isn’t. If Debbie wants to run for Senate or Governor – or even challenge Nancy Pelosi for the Speakership – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things. She’s been working hard as the head of the DNC.
Let’s look at Reince Preibus – or whatever his name is. The Republicans ousted Michael Steele, after humiliating him by stripping him from any actual authority (even though he won them the 2010 election by spewing lies and misinformation). Then, they re-elected Reince Preibus after his humiliating defeat in 2012, despite his spewing of enormous lies and misinformation. He has done nothing to further the progress of t his country and improve the lives of any Americans outside the top 1%.
Which one is the real scandal that this worthless media should be wasting their ink writing about?
THIS!!!
Exactly theo. And the MSM doesn’t seem to care that Mitch McConnell is not only the most unpopular senator in the entire US, but in his deep red state of Kentucky, is trailing a relative unknown DEM and even his fellow GOPers don’t want to endorse him.
If Harry Reid was in that position – we would not hear the end of it…
The other day Chuckie Toad breathlessly tweeted that PBO’s approval in CA was *only* at 50%. I asked him why was that such an issue when he didn’t seem to even care that Mitch McConnell ( who, unlike PBO, is running for re-election) has been persistently BELOW 45% in the deep red state of Kentucky. I haven’t heard a peep of a response from him, but I got my message out there, I’m sure.
Rinse Pubis….;)
Sorry, Roberta, late to this; UTA has opened another thread.
I’ll check to see if you’re around later.
Cuteness Overload Part 4
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks, UT & TOD family. It’s another overcast day here in Los Angeles – makes one very lazy 🙂
That deWinter tweeter is a genius!
I’ve never seen that Sears Optical commercial – must be a midwest/east coast one – it’s funny!
Thanks UT for the informative R&S.
Isn’t RC deWinter great? Love her!! 🙂
You are pretty great too Dudette!
Thanks GG! So are you! 🙂
Good morning, GG. deWinter is amazing! Love her tweets and that commercial was a hoot!
Good morning Mela & I wish you luck in getting out of twitter jail in TX soon 😀
Thanks! I’ve become one of TODs twitter warriors and have enjoyed spreading the truth. I’ve also engaged with some truly wonderful people. I read somewhere that Facebook is for you to connect with people you’re no longer friends with for a reason but twitter is where you connect with people you should be friends with. Being a Democrat in Texas can be lonely but through twitter I’ve connected with quite a few fellow dem texans. It’s great!
Hey Mela, I’m in Dallas — leaving in a couple weeks to go back east — I’ll be among my peeps!!
Good link…I’m running into a lot of RWNJ’s trying to rewrite history…
http://www.bushtoll.com/
Good stuff there! Thanks df!!
Found this there. It’s from before the 2012 election, but most certainly still applies:
Lots of great information at that link, desertflower! Thank you so much for sharing it
Pleasure:)
df, I call it Bush Embarrassment Projection Syndrome. I think that says it all.
CNN just said Peter King is the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee ……..
The Chairman is Mike McCaul….not Peter King.
Linda, remember this is CNN.
Last night I was in the mood to listen to First Lady Michelle Obama 2012 Democratic Convention speech, and it still put a smile on my face, warms my heart to see her standing there and doing such a great job.
Wow, she did a fantastic job.
She was and always is, quite simply luminous! 🙂
adjective
1.
radiating or reflecting light; shining; bright.
2.
lighted up or illuminated; well-lighted: the luminous ballroom.
3.
brilliant intellectually; enlightened or enlightening, as a writer or a writer’s works: a luminous concept; luminous prose.
4.
clear; readily intelligible: a concise, luminous report.
Please let her know the circumstances of my suspension. I don’t know what but I feel a bit ashamed although I did nothing wrong.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the redwood Forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
Our planet is breathtaking, we should treat her much better than we do.
It’s awful to see all these great tweets and not be able to retweet! I suppose if its as UT & Dudette say that it’s because conservatives spam blocked me then I shall wear it as a badge of honor. Must’ve really gotten under their skin 🙂
That’s the spirit! You’ll be back soon. In the meantime, if you have an alternate email address (create one if you need to), set up your backup account and tweet away. Don’t let ’em keep you down. 🙂
They are scared little babies…and anytime they say, “what’s the matter, you don’t like people disagreeing with you.” Say, I have no problem with people disagreeing with me…I just have a problem with disagreeable people.”
For years I have been saying empowering women in third world countries would bring positive changes to the world, little did I realize women in this country have been second class citizens to the degree they are. Look out Repealicans, we are gathering strength.
Woman was not made to serve man, she was not made to walk in his shadow…woman was made to be his partner and equal. A woman will support her man to the ends of the earth, but he should never take that for granted.
My husband and I are separating for now, and I am making sure in subtle ways he knows what he’ll be missing. He’s caught glimpses of it, but when I’m gone….well…
well, that’s including the first year where president obama inherited an average of 700K job lost PER MONTH for the first several months of his presidency. since his policies have kicked in, i think we’re now almost to 8 million jobs created under president obama (taking out those first few months that in no way can attributed to him).
w. bush’s numbers are that lame even though he didn’t inherit a great recession. in fact, a while back i added all 12 years of bush presidencies, and total jobs created was 1.7M. for comparison, 4 years of president carter had over 8M job created, and the bushes dramatically increased public sector jobs to inflate that still abysmal total, unlike president obama who has done the opposite with public sector jobs…not that that is a good thing of course, he’d like to adding if we didn’t have teabaggers slashing those jobs all over the country.
Robert Reich making a whole lot of sense in his FB update today:
“Regressives have said “no” to every idea for boosting jobs over the last five years because they like high unemployment. (1) It keeps wages down, because workers who are worried about losing their jobs settle for whatever they can get — which is why the median wage is 4% lower than it was at the start of the recovery. This in turn helps boost corporate profits, thereby keeping regressives’ corporate patrons happy. (2) It keeps stock prices up, because the Fed is committed to buying long-term bonds as long as unemployment remains high — which pushes investors into equities rather than bonds. This in turn helps boosts executive pay and Wall Street commissions, thereby keeping regressives’ financial patrons happy. (3) It keeps most average people economically fearful and financially insecure — which sets them up to believe regressive lies that their biggest enemy is “big government” that will tax away the little they have and give it to “undeserving” minorities; that they should support low taxes on corporations and wealthy “job creators;” and that new immigrants threaten their jobs.
Progressives need to hammer home that (1) the real job creators are consumers, and that if average people don’t have jobs or good wages this economy can’t have a vigorous recovery; (2) the rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly-growing economy than their current big share of an economy that’s hardly moving; and therefore everyone would benefit from (3) higher taxes on the wealthy to finance public investments in roads, bridges, public transit, better schools, affordable higher education, and healthcare — all of which will help the middle class and the poor, and generate more and better jobs. (We also need a living wage, a small military, and less casino-capitalism on Wall Street.)”
THIS is the truth.
I see that Obamacare is trending on Twitter. I am just posting a series of summary tweets from BWD on the Obamacare benefits: Please retweet if and whenever you get a chance! 🙂 🙂
Arrrgh! Damnit and I’m suspended. Of course. Wish I could add my support 😦 I can’t figure out how to log out of my account on my iPhone or iPad to create another account.
Not to worry Mela! Hope Twitter releases you soon.
…and there are lots more of good info she has tweeted. So go on Twitter and retweet to your heart’s content. Don’t let the GOP & MSM distort the truth. Let’s help our President and our country by spreading facts.
Hf, thank for posting these. I’ve retweeted them all.
Ditto!!
New post.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/08/03/saturday-funnies-2/
Hey TODers…just a little Mika to get you into the groove for the weekend!