White House: President Obama observes a moment of silence to honor victims of last year’s Boston Marathon bombing. #BostonStrong
Archive for April 15th, 2014
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Boston Strong
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Tony Lee: Solemn Tributes Mark Anniversary Of Boston Marathon Bombing
An emotional year of recovery from the Boston Marathon bombings culminated with a stirring tribute on Tuesday to the victims, survivors and all those who helped the city overcome the tragic events of April 15, 2013. With the families of the four victims of the bombings and their aftermath sitting in the front row of the event hall at Hynes Convention Center, there were speeches from survivors, dignitaries and elected officials, as well as musical interludes led by the Boston Pops Esplanade and the Boston Children’s Chorus. Later, a ceremony in Copley Square included a moment of silence, a flag-raising at the marathon’s finish line and the toll of church bells at 2:50 p.m., the moment the bombs went off exactly one year ago. The theme was set by the first speaker, Rev. Liz Walker of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, who began by uttering the words, “There is a rising.” The reference, of course, was to the community’s remarkable rise from the ashes, as well as each of the victim’s personal journeys from pain and sadness to triumph and resolve. “There is no way to walk to Boylston Street without being reminded of the evil spilling of precious blood, the hateful strike on a world treasure,” Walker continued. “But we are also reminded of the amazing capacity of the human spirit to rise in heroism, compassion and sacrifice. “An ascension of the human spirit, left to its own devices, its divine design, it will rise, despite anything, despite everything.”
(The Richard family with Mayor Marty Walsh)
Walker was the first to reference the victims by name. She touched on the remarkable qualities of Lingzi Lu, Krystle Campbell, Sean Collier and 8-year-old Martin Richard, qualities their loved ones retain in their memories. “Although the memories still bring tears to our eyes, our heart aches for those who were lost, it still is a comfort to be here with family and friends who got us through that tragic day,” Menino said. “I want you to hear this solemn promise,” he began. “When the lights are dim, know that our support and love for you will never waver. Whatever you have to do to recover and carry on, know that the people of Boston and I are right there by your side.” Others who were injured graced the stage at the convention center, providing some of the more poignant words of the two-hour event.
First up was Patrick Downes, who — along with his wife — lost their left legs in the attack. Downes discussed the “humbling” degree of love that he and fellow survivors have received over the year. He would not wish the trials of recovery on anyone, but sees merit in the triumphs. “We do wish that all of you, at some point in your lives, feel as loved as we have felt over this last year,” Downes said. He also took comfort in knowing, even if only in spirit, the four “guardian angels” that were lost a year ago. “We will carry them in our hearts. To their families, know that you will never be alone. We remember those who died as pieces of us. The intellectual charm of Lingzi. Sean’s commitment to justice. Krystle’s infectious smile. And the childhood charm of Martin. We will choose to think of them not in association with hate, but forever connected to our commitment to peace. “Peace. That will be their lasting message to us.”
As rain fell and wind blew through the Back Bay, hundreds left the convention center and strolled under umbrellas toward the finish line to help reclaim that territory. With law enforcement officials lining Boylston Street and the stands in front of the Boston Public Library packed, relatives of victims emerged — followed by Menino, Biden, Walsh, Patrick and Grilk — and took a spot in front of the finish line. There, they stood at attention in the rain to take in a rendition of “God Bless America” by noted tenor Ronan Tynan. Then came a moment of silence and bells tolled from the Old South Church, steps from the finish line. An American flag was pulled skyward as the crowd sang the national anthem. MBTA transit police officer Richard Donohue Jr. helped raise the flag high above what Menino labeled as “hallowed ground.” Indeed, a year removed from the unthinkable, there was a rising.
More here
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Ukraine crisis in tweets
Shooting war in Ukraine.
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Rise and Shine
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Today (All Times Eastern):
11:30: President Obama meets with faith leaders to discuss ways to promote an immigration bill now pending in the U.S. House.
2:49: Observes a moment of silence to mark the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing
6:30: The President and First Lady host a Passover Seder at the White House
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Happy Passover. pic.twitter.com/sR73wiN5ZI
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 15, 2014
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The Week Ahead:
Wednesday: President Obama and Vice President Biden will travel to Leetsdale, Pennsylvania for an event on the economy.
Thursday: The President will welcome the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride to the White House in celebration of the eighth annual Soldier Ride.
Friday: The President will meet with the National Commander and Executive Director of the American Legion. Later, he will welcome the United States Naval Academy Football Team to the White House to present them with the 2013 Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
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So, let me see if i understand. When the #ACA rolled out, Obama was black, now that it’s successful, he’s white? @TheFix
— Joey (@60th_Street) April 14, 2014
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ThinkProgress: Very Bad News For Obamacare Opponents In The Government’s Latest Report
Premiums for health care insurance in the Affordable Care Act are lower than the federal government had anticipated, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Monday when it revised its cost estimate for the health care law. The nonpartisan office now believes that the ACA will cost the government $5 billion less than projected in 2014 and $104 billion less for the 2015-2024 period. It also found “no clear evidence” that premiums will surge in 2015, noting that “enrollees in the future will be healthier, on average, than the smaller number of people who are obtaining such coverage in 2014.” The agency estimated that the national average premium for individual silver policy plans would increase by $100 that year.
The CBO attributes the additional savings to government, relative to the CBO’s last assessment from February 2014, to lower-than expected premiums, which in turn lowered the cost for exchange subsidies, and higher-than expected revenues from the excise tax on high-premium insurance plans.
More here
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Medicare officials said spending per beneficiary is falling at almost double the rate that they estimated in February <– wow
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 14, 2014
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Steve Benen: CBO: Affordable Care Act getting even more affordable
…. what have we learned of late?
* ACA enrollment through exchanges reached 7.1 million, ahead of early estimates.
* The ACA is quickly reducing the uninsured rate.
* Thanks in part to the ACA, health care spending has slowed dramatically and health care inflation is at its lowest point in 50 years.
* According to the Department of Commerce, the ACA is also having a positive effect on personal incomes.
* And according to the CBO, the system is even more affordable than perviously projected.
… this is a system that’s working. The right can either acknowledge reality or embrace delusions and conspiracies, but the facts are quite evident for those who care to look.
Full post here
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‘I wish we hadn’t tagged it #Obamacare …..’ pic.twitter.com/LTprbxorW4
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) April 14, 2014
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NYT: In New York, Hard Choices on Health Exchange Spell Success
In contrast with the early stumbles in most of the country, New York State, almost from the start, has provided a textbook lesson in how to make the Affordable Care Act work. But it has done so by making some tough decisions.
New York has signed up more than 900,000 people for commercial or government plans, lured 16 insurance companies onto its exchange, provided subsidies for most customers and reduced premiums across the board.
“I have to say that on the whole this is a very savvy bunch of people they have operating the exchange,” Mark P. Scherzer, a lawyer and consumer advocate, said. “It really is a story of something that government could actually do right.”
More here
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.@TheObamaDiary @TheFix By Jan. 2017, POTUS is going to be #EcruOrBust! Maybe even #Linen if Kerry can score a MidEast peace deal.
— Only4RM (@Only4RM) April 14, 2014
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Simon Maloy (Salon): Chris Cillizza, call your office: Buffoonish Obamacare critic gets it all wrong, again
…. The newest offering from the CBO is bad news for Obamacare’s conservative critics. Much of their criticism can be divided into three basic arguments — Obamacare is ineffective, it costs taxpayers too much, and it will send insurance premiums skyrocketing – and the CBO report took the wind out of all three. It found that Obamacare will cover more people than earlier estimates, will cost less money than earlier estimates, and will not preside over a nationwide premium spike.
…. DOWN GOES THE NARRATIVE! Right…?
Not really….
Take Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post as an example. Click over to the Fix or comb through his Twitter feed, as of early Monday evening, and you won’t find a single word written about the CBO’s latest findings. That’s curious, given that when the CBO issued a report in early February on Obamacare’s projected impact on the labor market, Cillizza was all over it.
More here
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Obama administration will release Obamacare enrollment numbers on Thursday, April 17th, Inside Health Policy reports
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 14, 2014
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Brian Beutler: The Right’s New Scam: Feigning Anger on Behalf of People They Encouraged to Skip Obamacare
Beginning last summer, and continuing unabated until a few weeks ago, conservatives undertook a variety of efforts (both subtle and explicit) to discourage people, particularly young people, from enrolling in ACA-compliant health plans.
The idea was to deny state-based insurance markets critical mass, and sound risk pools, and send them into actuarial death spirals. In almost every instance, conservatives were appealing to strangers to undertake considerable personal risk in service of dubious ideological principles.
Though these efforts failed to achieve the larger goal, they almost certainly succeeded at convincing some people to skip Obamacare. And when confronted about the recklessness of their strategy, the most unscrupulous conservatives would say, No biggie! Obamacare allows people to enroll after they get sick or injured. So there’s no risk at all.
This was a lie. And if it weren’t such a dangerous lie, I’d be amused to find that conservatives now want you to be outraged about the fact that the Affordable Care Act creates limited open-enrollment periods each year to prohibit precisely that kind of free riding.
More here
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If you want to see the House take action to fix our broken immigration system, here’s how it could happen: http://t.co/FT9qQGOMGN
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 14, 2014
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NDN: Total Removals, Returns of Unauthorized Immigrants Plummet Under Obama
Over the past several months, NDN/NPI has published a series of analyses which argue that through greater investment, better strategies and deeper cooperation with Mexico, the Obama Administration has made the immigration system better and the border safer while seeing a dramatic expansion of trade with Mexico.
Today we release a simple analysis which sheds new light on the hotly debated issue of deportations. Using a broader, more accurate measure of the number of unauthorized immigrants removed from the country since the first year of the Bush Presidency, we find that in fact the total number of “removals[i]” and “returns[ii]” has actually plummeted during the Obama Presidency. In 2012, the Obama Administration removed and returned almost a million people less than the height of the Bush Presidency. And every year of the Obama Presidency has seen a sizable decline in the total number of unauthorized migrants removed or returned to their countries.
More here
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The deficit is down 60% since 09? And almost everyone’s taxes are down too? President Romney rocks!
— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) April 15, 2014
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ThinkProgress: The Budget Deficit In March Was The Smallest Since 2000
The federal budget deficit for the first half of this year was $413 billion, a decline of $187 billion compared to the same time last year, according to the Treasury Department.
The deficit for the month of March stood at $37 billion, down from $107 billion last year. That figure was the smallest deficit for the month of March since 2000. The deficit is expected to be a about 4.1 percent of gross domestic product this year, a drop from almost 10 percent in 2009. Those falling numbers continue a trend, as the deficit fell faster in 2013 than in any year since the end of World War II, dropping from $1.1 trillion in 2012 to $680 billion.
More here
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Didn’t think Coates would be featuring at TOD any time soon, but here you go:
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Barack Obama’s Challenge to American Morality
If you haven’t yet, it’s work checking out Barack Obama’s address before the National Action Network, last week. I think it’s one of the most significant and morally grounded speeches of his presidency. I think we will eventually regard this current effort to suppress the vote through voter-ID laws, ending early voting, restricting voting hours, etc., in the same way we regard literacy tests and poll taxes.
More here
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So, I wrote a series of error-ridden reports about a legal program & compromised natl security in the process. I can haz my Pulitzer now?
— YeaYouRite (@YeaYouRite) April 14, 2014
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BBC: Ukraine crisis: Obama urges Putin to rein in separatists
US President Barack Obama has urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to use his influence to make separatists in eastern Ukraine stand down.
The phone call between the two leaders came as pro-Russian activists continued to occupy buildings in eastern towns.
…. The White House said the “frank and direct” conversation between the two presidents was made at Russia’s request.
“The president expressed grave concern about Russian government support for the actions of armed, pro-Russian separatists who threaten to undermine and destabilise the government of Ukraine,” a statement said.
“The president emphasised that all irregular forces in the country need to lay down their arms, and he urged President Putin to use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized.”
The statement also threatened Moscow with wider sanctions, saying “the costs Russia already has incurred will increase if those actions persist”.
More here
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Let me guess, Nepalese Sherpas? RT @AP_Politics: Putin to Obama: Russia not behind Ukraine protests http://t.co/lNRgJNSMDW
— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) April 14, 2014
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Charles Pierce: Revisiting Homeland Security’s 2009 Domestic Terrorism Report
I think this is a particularly good day to look back to, say, April of 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano presiding, put out a nine-page report in which the DHS pointed out that veterans were being recruited by rightwing terrorist groups around the country. (This was about when people started noticing that the real crazy had come out of the jar when this particular president had been sworn in.) Oh, the fuss that this raised.
John Boehner said of Napolitano that he wanted an “explanation for why she has abandoned using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe those, such as al Qaeda, who are plotting overseas to kill innocent Americans, while her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation.”
More here
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MilkFoundation.org: USPS Harvey Milk Forever Stamp White House Ceremony
Following the announcement that the United States Postal Service first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony of the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp will take place at the White House on May 22, Harvey Milk’s nephew and co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation Stuart Milk released the following statement:
“A stamp dedication ceremony on May 22 at the White House comes with incredibly special significance for both place and date. President Obama and his administration have provided the nation with steadfast and trend setting leadership in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in the US and abroad….
“The Milk family thanks President Obama and other allies and champions of LGBT inclusive diversity as exemplified by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, all of the LGBT leaders who have stood on uncle Harvey’s shoulders to run for and serve openly in public office, and each and every LGBT individual who go about their daily life with authenticity, refusing to hide who they are and who they love. Together, all of us, continue to move humanity forward, bending that arc of the moral universe ever closer to justice.”
More here
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Black farmers still waiting on $$ from Pigford I & II and I’m ‘posed to ride w/ y’all on this Bundy shit? Man, get the fuck outta here!
— RiPPa (@RippDemUp) April 14, 2014
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Wake-up Call:
AP: Donors return to Crossroads, give $5m in March
After a stretch of anemic fundraising, the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads super PAC raised more cash in March than it did during the previous 14 months combined, according to summaries of campaign filings released Monday.
The GOP establishment’s favorite super PAC raised almost $5.2 million last month and had more than $6.3 million in the bank as of March 31, according to the report summary. That cash will be used as the outside group tries to help Republicans pick up the six seats they need to win control of the Senate. American Crossroads has been running ads supporting establishment GOP candidates in Alaska and North Carolina and is expected to support former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in his bid to unseat Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire.
More here
Do what you can —> link
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On This Day
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President Obama speaks about Tax Day in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, April 15, 2009
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President Obama exits Air Force One with Rep. Suzanne M. Kosmas and Sen. Bill Nelson at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010
President Obama tours the commercial rocket processing facility of Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, along with Elon Musk, SpacdeX CEO at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 15, 2010
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President Obama holds up an Alabama football jersey that was presented to him by Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron during ceremonies honoring the Crimson Tide as the BCS college national championships on the South Lawn of the White House on April 15, 2013
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President Obama speaks during a statement to the press following explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in the briefing room of the White House April 15, 2013
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Early Bird Chat
On This Day – Pete Souza: “Gotta love the reaction of that young face as the President greeted members of the audience following a ceremony honoring the 2012 BCS National Champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team on the South Lawn of the White House.” April 15, 2013
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MoooOOOooorning – Happy Tuesday!
The Obama Diary 
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