Thanks for today’s posts, Chips Chica – yu az don a fines job, even with Danny-walks thrown in! I’m paying more attention than usual to the pictures to see if I can spot any decoration ideas that seem simple on the surface, yet beautiful. It seems I’ll have to put a wee bit more effort in decorations this year as I’ll be hosting on Christmas Day, so your research is very helpful. 😉
And, the funny thing about the racial divide is that it was fostered so as to keep poor blacks and poor whites from banding together. Never forget that. There was no logical reason why poor Southern whites should have fought to preserve slavery for rich plantation owners. It was the stoking of racial animus which was done deliberately to blind poor whites as to the common cause they had with black slaves.
And he should thus know that war and death are serious issues. Talking about using nuclear weapons against a state which has no nuclear weapons should not even cross his mind.
He would never have been elected if his father, Duncan Hunter, also an Ex-Marine, had not held that Congressional seat for more than two dozen years. Duncan Hunter Sr. was a right winger but he had some brains. Duncan Hunter Jr. is an idiot!
Duncan Jr has twisted the legacy of the WWII vets who lived there when I was growing up (the father of everyone in school that I knew was a WWII vet, including my own father, our teachers were often vets on a second career).
He’s too young to know the horrors of nuclear attack, of radiation sickness. So different from my childhood, when Atomic bomb drills, monthly air raid siren tests and popular literature and TV (think “Twilight Zone”) were focused on that subject.
Please, CA-50 honor the legacy of the veterans who lived in your community and kick this idiot’s ass out of Congress.
Totally agree with you Arapaho! I am not sure this idiot will be easily defeated. Duncan Jr.’s district is one of the most right wing District in San Diego County. It’s even more right wing than Darrell Issa’s district.
I arrived at Town Hall Education Recreation Campus very early this morning. My friend the director was able to get me in because I was (cough, cough) helping our IT specialist (who I also know very well) to setup for the event. My employer sponsors this non-profit which is where I first saw then Senator Obama speak in the summer of 2007 on Urban Development. Needless to say security was tight as can be today. The D.C. elite started to arrive around 11:00. The mayor of DC as well as many board members and a few from Congress were there as well. I was in the loft area in the back of the theater with the IT guy and all the audio equipment ( and a couple of SS agents) but I could see everything pretty well. The camera on my phone didn’t have the zoom ability to get any good shots but the Director promised me pictures later today.
The crowd erupted and jumped to their feet for President Obama after being introduced by the President of The Center for American Progress who was actually hosting this event. I am convinced that they would have stood and applauded and cheered for him for 10 minutes if he hadn’t asked everyone to have a seat. This speech was a powerful message on income equality. People were transfixed on his every word. No one moved (other than to take an occasional picture). He looks very well rested and handsome and his voice resonated so beautifully through that small hall. At one point I closed my eyes and just soaked up every word.
This was another one of those speeches that exhibits what a kind, generous soul he is because he really wants his legacy to be that his time in office was spent trying to implement policies that gives everyone a real chance at success in life.
When I get pictures I’ll share them but for now I had better get some work done 😉
how wonderful it must be to be in PBOs presence when he gives a speech…esp this one on income inequality….these are the issues that prompted him to run for public office….the images that have haunted him for a long…come from the faces of the folks he worked with on streets of Chi Town so long ago…i have seen some of the tweets from @whitehouse…one stays with me…and that is the issue of unions…this is a pivotal group that must be strengthened if the working class/Middle class is to progress…
Income Equality is not just about class…it is also race and gender….i look forward to learning what is PBOs plan to address this…
another piviotal issue is Voter Suppression…for our part we have to motivate ..organize…and bring folks out to vote…but there is a sinister plot to take away the votes of black & brown & asian folks…women..seniors & students..thru Voter Suppression and gerrymandering….we must to address this…
We have to changed the HOUSE in 2014….we have to maintain and strengthen our hand in the Senate….
Thank you for this fantastic report. It was a magnificent speech and he put his heart forward. I’m so thrilled that you go to be there to soak it all up.
Perhaps, Phyllis Deller……as the character she portrayed should be the name for “Kathleen Parker”? This wicked idiot, KP, That is not her real name for she claims she uses the name not to expose her family. Those who have her on TV, Cable and employ her know her name. So she should be outed in this Social Media Climate.
But since she brought up Baghdad Bob, the better comparison to that propagandist is Lara Logan’s husband. That was his job description when he was a contractor for the Pentagon PsyOps unit.
The speech on inequality that President Obama delivered just now will mostly pass unnoticed by the political world, with Republicans dismissing it as “class warfare” and an effort to distract from Obamacare, and pundits describing it more judiciously as an effort to “pivot” away from the law.
But experts who see inequality as one of the most urgent moral, political and economic long term challenges facing the country will see it as one of the most important speeches of the Obama presidency – more ambitious than his similar 2011 speech in Kansas.
“This is a major speech on a topic that American presidents normally stay away from,” Tim Smeeding, an expert on inequality at the University of Wisconsin, tells me, adding that it compares in some ways to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s addresses. “The fact that a sitting president faced with a crowded agenda had the courage to discuss this overarching problem is historic.”
A Major Speech at a time of Synchronicity: Pope Francis, Progressive victory in NYC Mayoral race, where not incidentally, the theme was how to recalibrate inequality.
I used to be a faithful reader and sometimes poster, but work and life have made my visits far to infrequent. I was reading my hometown newspaper on line and said “I have to send this to The Obama Diary!” To give you some context, Albany, GA is in Southwest GA. While the city of Albany voted for Obama and there is a Democratic Congressman (Sanford Bishop) from the area, don’t let that fool you. It is VERY RED. This is also the place that MLK calls one of his few failures of the Civil Rights Movement.
Anyway, so I am sure you understand why I wanted to come here when I read this:
This governor (Nathan Deal) has refused to expand Medicaid in the state, and to me that is absolutely idiotic,” Mendenhall, a native of Williamsport, Pa., who has been practicing medicine in Albany since 1983, said. “He’s so out of touch on this issue, he needs to go and see some of the patients with advanced cancers that could have been picked up if they’d been screened earlier. More and more diagnoses are being made in emergency rooms — when it’s often too late — and that’s just wrong.”
Mendenhall’s just getting warmed up.
“To me, if a person has cancer, getting treatment is a basic human right, not a privilege,” he said. “I’ve always voted Republican in the past, but that may change. The Republicans in this state appear to be out of touch with reality. There’s no concept of what the poor must go through to receive health care here.
UT, just had to jump in real quick then jump out. But thank you so much for these fabulous tweets! I couldn’t listen in to the speech, but could sneak a quick peak at the awesome Nerdy Wonka Tweet Goddess! Gotta dash …
UT, you are a treasure! Without your tweets that you post here I would miss out on President Obama’s important speeches. Thank you for all you do for us.
And Linda that is the ONLY way that we stop their propaganda. Joe has had some of the most outrageous things said on his show by both him and his guest and they are still there everyday spewing their nonsense. It will only stop when Dems and or supporters of this President stop driving his ratings.
It will only stop when Dems and or supporters of this President stop driving his ratings.THIS, THIS and THIS Donna!!!!!!!!! It cannot be said often enough!!!!!!
I am also sorry Martin is gone from MSNBC. He had seemed increasingly uncomfortable with the Corporate guests and viewpoint, didn’t he?
The speech that got him off the network was less about Sarah Palin and more about the hideous treatment and disgusting punishments of slaves. The images involved feces and citus acids being applied to wounds. Martin had to know that he was going to a place he could not come back from. Only my speculation, but I think he wanted to be done with the show as he was forced to do it.
What a precious little rose bud getting a big hug from FLOTUS. She’s too cute for words. It was a few weeks ago where President Obama said Sunny had only pounced on one child (something like that -paraphrasing). It looks like Sunny is getting a reputation for being a bit too frisky with the whippersnappers.
She’s pretty wonderful on a great many levels. If all Dem’s were more like Elizabeth Warren, we would all be happy campers.
That being said, PBO has been talking about income inequality his entire life. Elizabeth Warren did not invent the topic or the issue so yes, the tweet is offensive.
Remarks by the President on Economic Mobility (12/4/13)
——————————————
And that’s why, even as I will keep on offering my own ideas for expanding opportunity, I’ll also keep challenging and welcoming those who oppose my ideas to offer their own. If Republicans have concrete plans that will actually reduce inequality, build the middle class, provide more ladders of opportunity to the poor, let’s hear them. I want to know what they are. If you don’t think we should raise the minimum wage, let’s hear your idea to increase people’s earnings. If you don’t think every child should have access to preschool, tell us what you’d do differently to give them a better shot.
If you still don’t like Obamacare — and I know you don’t — (laughter) — even though it’s built on market-based ideas of choice and competition in the private sector, then you should explain how, exactly, you’d cut costs, and cover more people, and make insurance more secure. You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against. (Applause.) That way we can have a vigorous and meaningful debate. That’s what the American people deserve. That’s what the times demand. It’s not enough anymore to just say we should just get our government out of the way and let the unfettered market take care of it — for our experience tells us that’s just not true. (Applause.)
.
.
But government can’t stand on the sidelines in our efforts. Because government is us. It can and should reflect our deepest values and commitments. And if we refocus our energies on building an economy that grows for everybody, and gives every child in this country a fair chance at success, then I remain confident that the future still looks brighter than the past, and that the best days for this country we love are still ahead. (Applause.)
The Obama Diary 
Hidey ho!
Hidey ho, back!
LL!!!
LL!!!!
VC!!!
😀 Conversation over! 😀
😆 😆 😆
Somebody must have been looking over my shoulder today!
Congrats on 1st LL — you nearly made it, VC!!
You got that right Bob!
I assume there’s a transcript somewhere. I think I’ll write an essay on the speech,but I need the text.
Was just looking for it LL, not on WH site yet but should be soon.
Just found where it should be on the WH site as well. Awaiting its posting.
Here you go LL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/running-transcript-president-obamas-december-4-remarks-on-the-economy/2013/12/04/7cec31ba-5cff-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html
Bookmarked!
It’ll be posted at this link – http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/Speeches-and-Remarks/2013/12
Trending on Twitter: “Today is National Cookie Day.” Mark your calendars.
I fully expect the RW to start howling after PBO’s excellent anaqlysis of the growing inequalityy gap.
Thanks for today’s posts, Chips Chica – yu az don a fines job, even with Danny-walks thrown in! I’m paying more attention than usual to the pictures to see if I can spot any decoration ideas that seem simple on the surface, yet beautiful. It seems I’ll have to put a wee bit more effort in decorations this year as I’ll be hosting on Christmas Day, so your research is very helpful. 😉
Can we all come to your house on Christmas Day, VC?
By all means! You can bring the drinks.
I owe her a visit. Since she’s hosting and decorating….hmmmm……
Hmmmm.
Come a couple days early, GGail, and you can be mistress of decorations.
You’re trying to trick me – translated that sounds like work! 😆
/puzzled/ I don’t understand – do you think it was ‘work’ to all those people who happily decorated the WH?
You’re trying to trip me up…just before lunchtime, when my facilities are diminished from hunger.
/palms facing inward, hands raised to shoulder level in all innocence/ I haven’t a clue what you are talking about, GGail.
BTW, sign right here ____________________
hahahahaha!
/head hung/ Now you are laughing at me. 😦
My friend, I’m laughing With You – you know you’re laughing too (I see you!) 😆
Get away! 😀 😀
Grateful that the President robustly clarified the fact that the divide is no longer ‘racial,’ it is ‘class’ and it is getting wider, daily.
And, the funny thing about the racial divide is that it was fostered so as to keep poor blacks and poor whites from banding together. Never forget that. There was no logical reason why poor Southern whites should have fought to preserve slavery for rich plantation owners. It was the stoking of racial animus which was done deliberately to blind poor whites as to the common cause they had with black slaves.
Well said LL. And these are the same poor whites (generations later) who are still being bamboozled.
Yes, well aware, LL.
I still think its racial…i think that it will always be a factor….
There is our beautiful First Lady. There is no color that looks bad on her!
I can’t look at that pic of Pelosi & Boehner without laughing out loud!
Satan must be salivating in anticipation for when he finally gets a crack at Dick Cheney. Dick is siding with Liz over Mary in the family dispute.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dick-cheney-we-were-surprised-by-attack-on-liz-cheney-over-gay-marriage
Can’t see what the kids are doing because of all the camera & photographers
Love the chef’s Hats….FLOTUS is sooooooooo gracious…..i Love Flotus
Mrs. Obama is a wonderful hostess! These kids take to her like a favorite auntie
People who speak so cavalierly about nuking anyone should not be allowed to be dogcatchers, much less members of Congress.
He is a Marine……2001-2007
And he should thus know that war and death are serious issues. Talking about using nuclear weapons against a state which has no nuclear weapons should not even cross his mind.
He is Duncan Hunter, Jr., an imbecile, basking in his father’s name and popularity!
Folks speak so cavalierily about war…death …and destruction….
And not so casually about healthcare and food for those in need. /smh
He’s a hot dog! Someone who does not deserve our respect – even though he served in Iraq & Afghanistan.
He looks young enough to join the Army…..is this fool going to sign up?
Would he go to any Iranian American and say such nonsense?
Would he take the responsibility of the Blood of killed Iranians?
Nena – he did serve. See my comment above.
Oh….I was typing and then posted without seeing your comments. So sorry.
No problem
He would never have been elected if his father, Duncan Hunter, also an Ex-Marine, had not held that Congressional seat for more than two dozen years. Duncan Hunter Sr. was a right winger but he had some brains. Duncan Hunter Jr. is an idiot!
Grew up in Duncan Hunter (Jr and Sr’s) CD.
Duncan Jr has twisted the legacy of the WWII vets who lived there when I was growing up (the father of everyone in school that I knew was a WWII vet, including my own father, our teachers were often vets on a second career).
He’s too young to know the horrors of nuclear attack, of radiation sickness. So different from my childhood, when Atomic bomb drills, monthly air raid siren tests and popular literature and TV (think “Twilight Zone”) were focused on that subject.
Please, CA-50 honor the legacy of the veterans who lived in your community and kick this idiot’s ass out of Congress.
Araphaho – I agree with you!! I too remember the air raid drills vividly.
You guys, please make sure this tweet/email gets circulated here in Southern California. If it lands in my inbox, I’ll certainly do my part!
I used the TPM article for my email !
Totally agree with you Arapaho! I am not sure this idiot will be easily defeated. Duncan Jr.’s district is one of the most right wing District in San Diego County. It’s even more right wing than Darrell Issa’s district.
Ohh, look there’s Bo & Sunny!
Yippee I got to see PBO today!
I arrived at Town Hall Education Recreation Campus very early this morning. My friend the director was able to get me in because I was (cough, cough) helping our IT specialist (who I also know very well) to setup for the event. My employer sponsors this non-profit which is where I first saw then Senator Obama speak in the summer of 2007 on Urban Development. Needless to say security was tight as can be today. The D.C. elite started to arrive around 11:00. The mayor of DC as well as many board members and a few from Congress were there as well. I was in the loft area in the back of the theater with the IT guy and all the audio equipment ( and a couple of SS agents) but I could see everything pretty well. The camera on my phone didn’t have the zoom ability to get any good shots but the Director promised me pictures later today.
The crowd erupted and jumped to their feet for President Obama after being introduced by the President of The Center for American Progress who was actually hosting this event. I am convinced that they would have stood and applauded and cheered for him for 10 minutes if he hadn’t asked everyone to have a seat. This speech was a powerful message on income equality. People were transfixed on his every word. No one moved (other than to take an occasional picture). He looks very well rested and handsome and his voice resonated so beautifully through that small hall. At one point I closed my eyes and just soaked up every word.
This was another one of those speeches that exhibits what a kind, generous soul he is because he really wants his legacy to be that his time in office was spent trying to implement policies that gives everyone a real chance at success in life.
When I get pictures I’ll share them but for now I had better get some work done 😉
Later.
Great Afternoon you had Donna. Wow!
TOD know people, who know people, who are robing elbows with POTUS.
Wow. This is awesome Donna. Congrats 🙂
Donna, Donna, Donna!!!!!! I am so happy for you!!!
🙂 : Yeah! Thanks for filling us in.
hello Donna…
how wonderful it must be to be in PBOs presence when he gives a speech…esp this one on income inequality….these are the issues that prompted him to run for public office….the images that have haunted him for a long…come from the faces of the folks he worked with on streets of Chi Town so long ago…i have seen some of the tweets from @whitehouse…one stays with me…and that is the issue of unions…this is a pivotal group that must be strengthened if the working class/Middle class is to progress…
Income Equality is not just about class…it is also race and gender….i look forward to learning what is PBOs plan to address this…
another piviotal issue is Voter Suppression…for our part we have to motivate ..organize…and bring folks out to vote…but there is a sinister plot to take away the votes of black & brown & asian folks…women..seniors & students..thru Voter Suppression and gerrymandering….we must to address this…
We have to changed the HOUSE in 2014….we have to maintain and strengthen our hand in the Senate….
Yes We Must!
Awesome, Donna!! You got to hear one of our President’s most powerful speeches. The arc of justice is indeed bending. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Thank you very, very much, DD!
Fabulous Donna! Sigh!
Ditto Judith Fardig. Awesome.
Wonderful to hear this report. The President’s speech was actually carried by MSNBC. Pass the smelling salts, please.
Thank you for this fantastic report. It was a magnificent speech and he put his heart forward. I’m so thrilled that you go to be there to soak it all up.
I am so happy for you Donna! I know of no one who has passionately supported President Obama more than you.
Someone PLEASE take this twit down!
The insults never stops.
Perhaps, Phyllis Deller……as the character she portrayed should be the name for “Kathleen Parker”? This wicked idiot, KP, That is not her real name for she claims she uses the name not to expose her family. Those who have her on TV, Cable and employ her know her name. So she should be outed in this Social Media Climate.
Refuse to click on Kathleen Parker’s nonsense.
But since she brought up Baghdad Bob, the better comparison to that propagandist is Lara Logan’s husband. That was his job description when he was a contractor for the Pentagon PsyOps unit.
This snarky useless Mark Knoller. Instead of just fixing it he decides to be a smart ass.
He’s such a ridiculous dick.
It’s really not fair of the WH to put FLOTUS and POTUS on at the same time.
Oops! They solved the problem; one’s over, at least for us viewers.
President Obama is speaking now. http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/president-obama-delivers-remarks-white-house-youth-summit
The speech on inequality that President Obama delivered just now will mostly pass unnoticed by the political world, with Republicans dismissing it as “class warfare” and an effort to distract from Obamacare, and pundits describing it more judiciously as an effort to “pivot” away from the law.
But experts who see inequality as one of the most urgent moral, political and economic long term challenges facing the country will see it as one of the most important speeches of the Obama presidency – more ambitious than his similar 2011 speech in Kansas.
“This is a major speech on a topic that American presidents normally stay away from,” Tim Smeeding, an expert on inequality at the University of Wisconsin, tells me, adding that it compares in some ways to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s addresses. “The fact that a sitting president faced with a crowded agenda had the courage to discuss this overarching problem is historic.”
A Major Speech at a time of Synchronicity: Pope Francis, Progressive victory in NYC Mayoral race, where not incidentally, the theme was how to recalibrate inequality.
I used to be a faithful reader and sometimes poster, but work and life have made my visits far to infrequent. I was reading my hometown newspaper on line and said “I have to send this to The Obama Diary!” To give you some context, Albany, GA is in Southwest GA. While the city of Albany voted for Obama and there is a Democratic Congressman (Sanford Bishop) from the area, don’t let that fool you. It is VERY RED. This is also the place that MLK calls one of his few failures of the Civil Rights Movement.
Anyway, so I am sure you understand why I wanted to come here when I read this:
This governor (Nathan Deal) has refused to expand Medicaid in the state, and to me that is absolutely idiotic,” Mendenhall, a native of Williamsport, Pa., who has been practicing medicine in Albany since 1983, said. “He’s so out of touch on this issue, he needs to go and see some of the patients with advanced cancers that could have been picked up if they’d been screened earlier. More and more diagnoses are being made in emergency rooms — when it’s often too late — and that’s just wrong.”
Mendenhall’s just getting warmed up.
“To me, if a person has cancer, getting treatment is a basic human right, not a privilege,” he said. “I’ve always voted Republican in the past, but that may change. The Republicans in this state appear to be out of touch with reality. There’s no concept of what the poor must go through to receive health care here.
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/nov/30/radiation-oncologist-chuck-mendenhall-georgia/
And that folks is why they are working so hard to get rid of ObamaCare.
For those who missed it.
UT, just had to jump in real quick then jump out. But thank you so much for these fabulous tweets! I couldn’t listen in to the speech, but could sneak a quick peak at the awesome Nerdy Wonka Tweet Goddess! Gotta dash …
UT, you are a treasure! Without your tweets that you post here I would miss out on President Obama’s important speeches. Thank you for all you do for us.
Martin Bashir Resigns From MSNBC
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/martin-bashir-resigns-from-msnbc/
I blame Morning Joke and will NEVER watch him again.
AJAM would do well to pick him up. But, then again, that sort of opinion programming isn’t what AJAM is trying to do.
Sorry to see him go. Hopefully, they’ll give his slot to Joy Reid.
And Linda that is the ONLY way that we stop their propaganda. Joe has had some of the most outrageous things said on his show by both him and his guest and they are still there everyday spewing their nonsense. It will only stop when Dems and or supporters of this President stop driving his ratings.
It will only stop when Dems and or supporters of this President stop driving his ratings.THIS, THIS and THIS Donna!!!!!!!!! It cannot be said often enough!!!!!!
Very well said, Donna!
I am also sorry Martin is gone from MSNBC. He had seemed increasingly uncomfortable with the Corporate guests and viewpoint, didn’t he?
The speech that got him off the network was less about Sarah Palin and more about the hideous treatment and disgusting punishments of slaves. The images involved feces and citus acids being applied to wounds. Martin had to know that he was going to a place he could not come back from. Only my speculation, but I think he wanted to be done with the show as he was forced to do it.
I have been watching Fusion at 6 AM alot with Jorge Ramos……
I wish DirecTV had Fusion. AJAM has proved not to be as they had promised.
Ok, Bo needs to teach Sunny some manners 🙂
What a precious little rose bud getting a big hug from FLOTUS. She’s too cute for words. It was a few weeks ago where President Obama said Sunny had only pounced on one child (something like that -paraphrasing). It looks like Sunny is getting a reputation for being a bit too frisky with the whippersnappers.
This gets my goat.
What is with the constant cheerleading of Warren ?
She’s pretty wonderful on a great many levels. If all Dem’s were more like Elizabeth Warren, we would all be happy campers.
That being said, PBO has been talking about income inequality his entire life. Elizabeth Warren did not invent the topic or the issue so yes, the tweet is offensive.
Jesus take the wheel.
OMG………
Is anyone else following the youth summit? I have been finding it pretty low-key and quite informative.
BECAUSE GOVERNMENT IS US
Remarks by the President on Economic Mobility (12/4/13)
——————————————
And that’s why, even as I will keep on offering my own ideas for expanding opportunity, I’ll also keep challenging and welcoming those who oppose my ideas to offer their own. If Republicans have concrete plans that will actually reduce inequality, build the middle class, provide more ladders of opportunity to the poor, let’s hear them. I want to know what they are. If you don’t think we should raise the minimum wage, let’s hear your idea to increase people’s earnings. If you don’t think every child should have access to preschool, tell us what you’d do differently to give them a better shot.
If you still don’t like Obamacare — and I know you don’t — (laughter) — even though it’s built on market-based ideas of choice and competition in the private sector, then you should explain how, exactly, you’d cut costs, and cover more people, and make insurance more secure. You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against. (Applause.) That way we can have a vigorous and meaningful debate. That’s what the American people deserve. That’s what the times demand. It’s not enough anymore to just say we should just get our government out of the way and let the unfettered market take care of it — for our experience tells us that’s just not true. (Applause.)
.
.
But government can’t stand on the sidelines in our efforts. Because government is us. It can and should reflect our deepest values and commitments. And if we refocus our energies on building an economy that grows for everybody, and gives every child in this country a fair chance at success, then I remain confident that the future still looks brighter than the past, and that the best days for this country we love are still ahead. (Applause.)
———————————–
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/12/04/remarks-president-economic-mobility
New post!
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/12/04/inequality-is-the-defining-issue-of-our-time/