Archive for January 27th, 2014

27
Jan
14

Chat Away

By Chipsticks 85 Comments
Categories: All Photos

@WhiteHouse: With 24 hours to go, the editing continues. #SOTUisComing → http://wh.gov/SOTU

27
Jan
14

A Tweet or Two

By Chipsticks 150 Comments
Categories: All Photos

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Continue reading ‘A Tweet or Two’

27
Jan
14

‘The Young Man In The Photograph’

By Chipsticks 171 Comments
Categories: All Photos and Articles
Tags: , , , , , , ,

@3ChicsPolitico: A large crowd kneels in prayer in Milwaukee on the first anniversary of the assassination of Dr King May 5, 1969.

by jacquelineoboomer (@JOBoomr)

I saw the young man
In the photograph
Three rows in, on the right
After you pointed him out
And he wore a hoodie
On that day of days
And probably into that night
Back in May of 1969
When the people were
Commemorating the
Awful Dr. King assassination
We had all lived through
With them
The year before.

And so it was in so many ways
And so many years since
That another young man
Minding his own business
With his entire life ahead
Walked out onto the street
Away from the protection of his father
Wearing a hoodie into the night
And into the photographs in our minds
Forever.

Rest in Peace, Dr. King
Rest in Peace, Trayvon Martin
Never forgotten in the annals of history
And the depths of the souls
Of good people
Like you, when you thought to point out the likeness
Like us, when we understood the meaning
Good people, coast to coast
And sea to shining sea
All the good people they left behind
To pass the story forward.

© jacquelineoboomer

27
Jan
14

Monday blog roundup

By Liberal Librarian 88 Comments
Categories: Articles
Tags:

A few of the goodies for the start of the week.

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Morning Plum: Inside Obama’s game plan for 2014

In his State of the Union address tomorrow, President Obama will declare his intention to use executive authority to bypass Congress. The Wall Street Journal reports that a host of such policies are being considered on the economy, job training, infrastructure repair, climate change, and education.

Republicans are outraged. Yesterday Rand Paul declared that Obama’s promise of executive action smacks of a “threat,” adding that he should instead be “building consensus.” Senator Roy Blunt similarly argues that “we don’t need more class warfare” and that the President “has a lot of explaining to do.”

{snip}

Along these lines, note this finding from the new Post/ABC News poll:

Presidents have the power in some cases to bypass Congress and take action by executive order to accomplish their administration’s goals. Is this approach something you…

Support: 52

Oppose: 46

Continue reading ‘Monday blog roundup’

27
Jan
14

Rise and Shine

By Chipsticks 132 Comments
Categories: All Photos, All Videos, Articles and Michelle Obama
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

On This Day: President Obama kisses First Lady Michelle Obama in a holding room at the Capitol after delivering his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, Jan. 27, 2010

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Today:

The President has no public events scheduled

1:15 EST: Jay Carney briefs the press

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USA Today: Obama to take two-day post-speech trip

President Obama will hit the road after Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech, selling his ideas during two days of stops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee.

Obama’s first followup to his annual address to Congress comes Wednesday morning in Prince George’s County, Md. … he then travels to the Pittsburgh area for a midafternoon speech before flying on to Milwaukee, where he is scheduled to spend Wednesday night.

The Milwaukee speech is scheduled for Thursday morning, following by another flight and speech in Nashville. Obama is scheduled to return to the White House Thursday evening.

In addition, Obama is scheduled to take a virtual national tour on Friday, when he takes questions from Internet users across the country during a Google+ Hangout.

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WH.gov: The First Lady’s Box Seats at the 2014 State of the Union

For nearly three decades, extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the State of the Union Address have been invited to join the First Lady in her viewing box. Learn more about the remarkable individuals who will join First Lady Michelle Obama for the 2014 State of the Union Address:

Jason Collins (Los Angeles, CA)

12-Year NBA Player

While at Stanford, Jason Collins was selected as an All American, named the NCAA’s “Big Man of the Year,” and earned an appearance in the Final Four. After graduating in 2001, Collins was drafted into the NBA and has since played for six teams including the Celtics, whose then coach Doc Rivers said of Collins: “He’s the best. He literally is one of the best guys I’ve ever had in the locker room, player or coach.” In his 12 years in the league, Collins’ teams earned 9 trips to the playoffs including 2 NBA Finals appearances. In April 2013, Collins became the first male player in major American team sports to come out openly as gay. The President expressed his gratitude to Collins for his courageous announcement through an article Collins penned himself. The President said he “couldn’t be prouder” of Collins, recognizing this as a point of progress for the LGBT community, and one more step in America’s goal to treat everyone fairly and with respect. Collins is 35 and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Carlos Arredondo and Jeff Bauman (Boston, MA)

Survivors of the Boston Marathon Bombing

Carlos Arredondo and Jeff Bauman are forever linked due to the attacks on the 117th Boston Marathon. In what has become an iconic image from the day in April of 2013, Carlos – wearing his white Cowboy hat – was captured rushing a badly injured Jeff away from the bombing to safety, thereby becoming two of the faces of ‘Boston Strong.’ From his intensive care hospital bed, Jeff played a vital role in identifying the bombers. After losing both legs in the attack, he is battling back, describing himself as a quick healer and stronger now than he was before the attack. Jeff, 27, and Carlos, 53 and a Gold Star Father, have become close friends.

More here

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@JamiMLynn

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TPM: GOP Candidates Suddenly Find Love For Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion

The conventional wisdom is that Republicans running in 2014 will be campaigning against Obamacare, attempting to recreate the 2010 magic that saw them make massive gains in Congress and state governments, holding themselves in stark contract to Democrats who are responsible for what the GOP sees as a fatally flawed law.

That’s the narrative, and that’s what Republican strategists would have you believe. But comments — or the lack thereof — from some GOP candidates in state and national elections suggest that opposition might not be as ironclad as previously believed, as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent has documented. In at least one case, in fact, a Republican in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country effectively endorsed the expansion.

It’s a huge shift from the “defund or repeal” mantra during the government shutdown of October, a possible indicator that some conservatives are recognizing that Obamacare is here to stay — and that proposing to knock the newly enrolled off Medicaid is politically perilous.

More here

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Politicususa: Republicans Are In Total Retreat As Obamacare Enrollment Skyrockets Past 3 Million

The defeated Republican anti-Obamacare forces are in full retreat after ACA enrollment in healthcare plans surged past 3 million.

In a blog post, HHS reported that:

Since the beginning of open enrollment, millions of Americans are gaining access to health coverage-many for the very first time—thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The most recent data indicates that approximately 3.0 million people have now enrolled in a private health insurance plan through the Federal and State-based Marketplaces since October 1.

Additionally, between October and December over 6.3 million individuals were determined eligible to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP through state agencies and through state-based Marketplaces…..

The mainstream media isn’t reporting this, but the ACA is turning into a huge victory for President Obama.

Full post here

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Michael Tomasky: Republicans Can’t Remember the World Before Obama

Birth control and data mining used to be things they believed in, now both are Big Government plots to be stopped.

I’m sure you chuckled at this weekend development as much as I did: At its winter meeting, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution condemning the NSA’s data-mining policy….

…. let’s not kid ourselves. The passage of this resolution is mostly about the guy in the White House. If you want to try to tell me this was an act of principle by the RNC, then put Mitt Romney in the White House for a moment. Do you think the RNC would have considered such a resolution? Please. Reince Priebus would have had a stroke. He’d have quashed it in minutes. But with Barack Obama in the White House, the rules are different. The RNC passed this resolution to kick a little extra sand in Obama’s face.

More here

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Brian Beutler (Salon): How the right destroyed itself: History, ideology and strategic blunders

Republicans can’t moderate because their base won’t allow it. Even if they could, Democrats already beat them there

Last week I wrote an article arguing that the impediments to conservative reform are structural — that the idiosyncrasies of the Republican base make appealing to moderate voters a zero-sum game for the party, and thus eliminates the incentive that, for instance, impelled Democrats in the 1980s and 1990s to cater to less-liberal voters.

The article generated some interesting responses, which is fortunate, because they provide a jumping off point to explore the historical and political context of the GOP’s unique predicament.

I think it’s fairly evident that Republicans’ increasing reliance on an older, whiter, more conservative constituency has trapped them into a number of non-negotiable policy dogmas. And I think they they bear most of the blame for their own circumstances. It’s an outgrowth of a conscious political strategy. They began the country and their party down this road, hoping, as Pat Buchanan famously put it, to “split the country in two and…take the bigger half.” They fused the low tax, low regulation agenda of wealthy elites to the worldview of religious conservatives. They birthed the Reagan Revolution, then milked it so vigorously that they’ve become unable to wean themselves from it more than 30 years later.

But there’s more to the story than one losing bet…

More here

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Frederic Poag (The Daily Banter): The Calculus of Hypocrisy: It’s Still a Lie Even If You Believe It

I don’t trust the Republican Party. This goes beyond disagreeing with them on every single policy position they hold. As a party, they’re deceitful, manipulative, and wholly disingenuous. It’s not even a question anymore; it’s verifiable fact. Their brand is badly damaged and is about to become completely unsalvageable.

…. This is the rot within the Republican Party. Thanks to Karl Rove, the Architect, the GOP abandoned notions of objective reality in an effort to win elections. They’ve latched onto their own created delusion and show no signs of changing. If they can’t effectively message whatever reality they’re trying to create, then they simply change their position to be counter to the opposition. They’re not concerned with what’s actual. It’s about how they can bend actual to their will but their grip is weakening.

Though cynical and insidious, this strategy has worked so effectively that it won’t be easily abandoned. It created a path to power for Newt Gingrich to become Speaker of the House and propelled George W. Bush to the Oval Office twice. But like all things, this strategy was based on historical/cultural context that’s no longer relevant.

More here

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ThinkProgress: Congressman’s U.S. Senate Campaign Is Giving Away An Assault Rifle

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has made a career out of appealing to a certain sense of conservative grievance. He once labeled the Civil War the “War of Yankee Aggression.” He offered legislation to defund a key prong of the Voting Rights Act (a goal that the Roberts Court was happy to achieve for him). And he’s warned that a “socialistic elite” that includes President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders are looking for an excuse to declare martial law — “[t]hey’re trying to develop an environment where they can take over,” in Broun’s words.

So it’s probably not that surprising that his campaign views this as a great way to develop a list of supporters…

More here

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On This Day:

President Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office, Jan. 27. 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama leaves the White House with his Legislative Affairs Director Phil Shiliro en route the U.S. Capitol to meet with Republican members of Congress, Jan. 27, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

On Capitol Hill, President Obama listens to a question from a member of the House Republican caucus, Jan. 27, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama greets kitchen staff prior to a lunch at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 27, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama talks on the phone with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in the Oval Office, Jan. 27, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s Ambassador to the U.S., kisses the hand of First Lady Michelle Obama at the U.S. Capitol during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, Jan. 27, 2010 (Photo by Samantha Appleton)

President Obama shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the conclusion of his State of the Union address, Jan. 27, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama walks on stage to deliver a speech about college affordability at the University of Michigan January 27, 2012 in Ann Arbor, Michigan

President Obama looks back as Bo, the Obama family dog, follows him into the Oval Office, Jan. 27, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

27
Jan
14

Early Bird Chat

By Chipsticks 155 Comments
Categories: All Photos and Michelle Obama

Completely Random Old Pic: Then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama walks with his wife, Michelle, and daughter, Malia, age 1 1/2, in Chicago on primary day in March 2000

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MoooOOOooorning Early Birds, Happy Monday!

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