People try to take pictures of President Obama leaving in his car after a private dinner with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant in Tokyo
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Coming up Tonight (Thursday in Japan – 13 hours ahead of EDT)
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Live streaming here(CBS), here(LiveStation) and (occasionally) here (NHK, Japan’s national public broadcaster)
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In the morning, President Obama meets with Emperor Akihito of Japan at the Imperial Palace
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The President meets with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at Akasaka Palace
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11:15 PM EDT: President Obama Holds a Joint Press Conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr Jill Biden and Sgt Aron Wanless acknowledge soldiers during a jobs fair for military members and spouses, April 23, at Fort Campbell, Ky. To help veterans leaving the military as it downsizes, the government on Wednesday started a one-stop job-shopping website for them to create resumes, connect with employers and become part of a database for companies to mine.
President Obama views the scene of the mudslide in Oso, Wash., from Marine One, April 22 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Today
Japan Standard Time is 13 hours ahead of US Eastern, so while we’re up and about, the President will, presumably, be sleeping.
Will post his Thursday schedule asap.
First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr Jill Biden will speak today to soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky. – need to get a time for the event.
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Crowds wait for the arrival of President Obama at Ginza shopping district in Tokyo
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BBC: Obama pledges Japan islands support as Asian tour begins
US President Barack Obama has assured Japan that islands at the centre of its territorial dispute with China are covered by a bilateral defence treaty.
In an interview ahead of his Asian tour, Mr Obama said the US would oppose any attempt to undermine Japan’s control over the islands.
US officials have made such comments in the past, but this is the first time Mr Obama has given such explicit support.
He arrived in Japan on Wednesday ahead of stops in three other Asian nations.
…. Mr Obama is not going to Beijing, but relations with China are expected to dominate his meetings with regional leaders.
President Obama is welcomed to Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before dinner in Tokyo
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Steve Benen: Supreme Court upholds Michigan’s affirmative action ban
The ruling on affirmative action in Michigan did not come as too great a surprise, but it’s nevertheless one of the year’s big cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.
…. The ruling will be especially relevant in states that have chosen to ban affirmative action – the policies have been curtailed in Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and the state of Washington – while also signaling to other states that they can now do the same without fear of judicial intervention.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a stinging dissent.
The entirety of the ruling is online here (pdf), but this excerpt helps capture the extent to which she disagreed with the majority.
….. “Today’s decision eviscerates an important strand of our equal protection jurisprudence. For members of historically marginalized groups, which rely on the federal courts to protect their constitutional rights, the decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government.”
Charles Pierce: The Wonderful World Where Justices Dwell
The Day of Jubilee, declared by Chief Justice John Roberts in his decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, and celebrated in another venue with the McCutcheon decision, in which we learned that the only real form of political corruption is a direct quid pro quo, and that influence peddled is not influence at all, goes on and on at the Supreme Court, where today yet another decision was handed down that was not About Race, because nothing is ever About Race.
…. The decision was written by Anthony Kennedy, who lives in that wonderful world where the law is a pure crystal stream running through green meadows, unsullied by the grit and silt that piles up in the actual lives of actual human beings. It must be a wonderful world in which Anthony Kennedy lives.
…. This is pure majoritarianism – grotesquely so, if you consider the ongoing shenanigans at the state level regarding ballot access and voter suppression. There will be a real impact on real people – just as there will be with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and with the cascade of money that this Court has unleashed on the political system….
From the bench, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up in the real world and apparently still lives there, was having none of Kennedy’s rainbows and unicorns.
Steve Benen: Dems Doing The Unexpected: Embracing The ACA
At a press conference last week, a reporter asked President Obama whether “it’s time for Democrats to start campaigning loudly and positively on the benefits” of the Affordable Care Act. The president suggested the larger political discussion should start to include other issues, but he nevertheless gave Dems some direction. “I think that Democrats should forcefully defend and be proud” of the Americans benefiting from the ACA, he said, “I don’t think we should apologize for it, and I don’t think we should be defensive about it. I think there is a strong, good, right story to tell.” And with increasing frequency, Democrats have become eager to tell this strong, good, right story.
In Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D) launched this new spot today. We talked two weeks ago, for example, about a very impressive independent-expenditure ad in Alaska, touting Sen. Mark Begich’s (D) support for the health care reform law. In Louisiana, meanwhile, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) is touting the importance of Medicaid expansion and pushing to allow voters to decide its fate in November. And in states like Michigan, North Carolina, and Arkansas, groups aligned with Democrats are airing pretty hard-hitting ads criticizing Republicans who don’t support health care reform.
Times Record: Arkansas DHS: 155,000 Applications Approved For Private Option
More than 155,000 Arkansas have applied and been found eligible for the so-called private option, or about 70 percent of the 225,000 Arkansans estimated to qualify for the program, the state Department of Human Services said Monday. The agency also estimated that 82 percent of those Arkansans had incomes too low to qualify for federal subsidies to buy insurance through the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace. The subsidies are available to families with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. “We now know that an overwhelming majority of Arkansans in the program would have likely gone without health insurance had the Legislature not passed the private option,”
DHS Director John Selig stated in a news release. “Clearly there was a real need in a lot of these families.” The private option, signed into law last April, allows the state to use federal Medicaid money to pay the private health insurance premiums for people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,105 for a household of one. Statewide, 61 percent of Arkansans in the program are women and 64 percent are ages 19-44, a somewhat younger population than those getting coverage through the federal insurance marketplaces, said Arkansas Medicaid Director Andy Allison.
Maggie Fox: Most Support Birth Control Mandate, Survey Shows
Most Americans — 69 percent — support the requirement that health insurance plans pay for birth control, a new survey shows. The 2010 Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to pay for contraception as part of 10 essential benefits, including vaccines and cancer screenings. It’s the most controversial requirement, with religious groups,
some conservative commentators and some employers objecting. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by June on one appeal by two employers who say paying for certain forms of birth control interferes with their religious beliefs. Free coverage of contraception for most health plans started in 2012.
Dylan Scott: Red States Hatch Plans To Block Obamacare Even If Dems Take Over
Republicans are taking no chances when it comes to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. They’re closing every possible door. Under bills passed in Georgia and Kansas recently, even if a Democratic candidate were to pull off an upset and take the governor’s seat, they would not be able to expand the program without the consent of the state legislature — which will almost certainly remain Republican. In other words, GOP lawmakers have taken steps to guarantee that many of their poorest residents will remain uninsured under the health care reform law, no matter what happens in the gubernatorial election.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) both oppose Medicaid expansion. They both look likely — if not quite certain — to win re-election in November. That should make the bills passed by their respective state lawmakers unnecessary, but they seem intent on guarding against even the remote possibility of a Democratic governor. Georgia and Kansas have left a combined 487,000 residents uncovered under Obamacare because they refused to expand Medicaid. And, though the law remains unpopular, a recent poll found that majorities of Georgians (54 percent) and Kansans (55 percent) support Medicaid expansion.
Adam Beam: Beshear: 413,000 People Signed Up For Health Care In KY
Beth Moore left her job – and her health insurance – to start her own company in January. In March, while visiting Texas, she had an emergency appendectomy followed by a nasty bout with pneumonia that added up to more than $30,000 in medical bills. But Moore was one of 413,410 Kentuckians who signed up for free or subsidized health insurance through kynect, Kentucky’s state-run health insurance marketplace made possible by the federal Affordable Care Act. So far, the most she has paid for her treatment is $150. “If I had not had insurance (it) would have been catastrophic for me,” Moore said. “I’m very grateful that I am a resident of Kentucky and that this was an option for me.”
Moore told her story alongside Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and other state officials Tuesday who were celebrating the end of the open-enrollment period of Kentucky’s health insurance marketplace. While signups on the federal website were delayed by numerous technical glitches, Kentucky’s system worked smoothly. At its peak, Beshear said, the state’s website processed more than 7,000 applications per day. The final number is likely to grow because workers are still processing paper applications. Kynect’s next open enrollment period begins Nov. 15. “We’re going to keep enrolling people until everybody in Kentucky who needs health coverage has it,” Beshear said.
Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill on Tuesday to further restrict the use of abortion-inducing drugs in Oklahoma, despite objections from opponents who say it will force more women to have surgical abortions. The bill was written in response to a recent Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that ruled a similar bill signed by Ms. Fallin in 2011 was unconstitutional.
The measure would prohibit off-label uses of certain abortion-inducing drugs by requiring that doctors administer them only in accordance with Food and Drug Administration protocol. That protocol calls for the drugs to be given in higher doses than is customary today, and only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. It takes effect on Nov. 1.
NYT: The American Middle Class Is No Longer The World’s Richest
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction. While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades. After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans. The numbers, based on surveys conducted over the past 35 years, offer some of the most detailed publicly available comparisons for different income groups in different countries over time.
They suggest that most American families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality. Although economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several — including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden — is much smaller than it was a decade ago.
Defunct factories around the country are in high demand as U.S. production once again revs up.
The past two decades have been brutal for American manufacturing as companies shifted production overseas and introduced high-tech systems that eliminated jobs.
Many of these once-thriving hubs have been idle for years, but that’s starting to change.
“Demand for closed factories has picked up since the recession,” said Stuart Lichter, president of Industrial Realty Group, which works with defunct commercial property.
This resurgence is largely triggered by U.S. companies bringing production back home. There has also been a boom in international firms, especially from China, shifting production to the U.S. as a way to grow their business and cut costs.
AP: First Lady announcing one-stop job site for vets
Aiming to streamline employment resources for people leaving the military, the government is creating an integrated website that can help job-seekers create resumes, connect with employers and become part of a database of veterans and their spouses for companies to mine for skills and talents.
First lady Michelle Obama was announcing the launch of the new Veterans Employment Center on Wednesday at Fort Campbell, Ky., during a special veterans’ jobs summit organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Pentagon and the departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor.
“Our service members haven’t always had the time or information they needed to prepare their resumes, to plot their career goals, to meet with employers and get the jobs they deserve,” the first lady said in her prepared remarks. Mrs. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, have long been focused on the needs of veterans.
Breakups are rough — regrets, pain and bitter memories. As Republicans in the House block immigration reform time after time, American Latinos get the message: It’s over, don’t call me. Have a good life. What remains are the weekly flip-flops by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the yelps of “amnesty” coming from a seemingly frightened Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the tiny fig leaf provided by Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) seven bills he’s been talking about for a year and the shameful action to deport all Dreamers through the recently unanimous vote of the House Republican caucus’s fantasy bill, the Enforce Act. On my radio show every day, and on social media 24/7, I am part of a conversation where responsibility for both the failure of comprehensive reform, and the acrid discourse surrounding it, is laid at the feet of Republicans exclusively.
New to American politics, organic groups of American Latinos have formed online with the express purpose of increasing Latino turnout in November and dealing the GOP a blow. No longer tied to the traditional activist organizations, still espousing 1960s tactics and attitudes, these new groups are savvy Facebookers and Tweeters that can spread a political message across the country with the click of the mouse – reaching tens of thousands of people in an instant, hundreds of thousands per day. This political battle is now personal. Just like the Tea Party fervor of 2010, driven by a single-minded focus to oppose President Obama, these online Latino groups share a similar obsession with throwing Republicans out of office. Come this November 4, Republicans may just wake up to the ugly reality that breaking up with American Latinos over immigration was an easily avoidable and ultimately very costly divorce.
The folded hands of President Obama are seen, second from left, at the U.S. Capitol Holocaust Memorial event April 23, 2009, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Pete Souza)
The President throws a football to one of his aides before a meeting in the Oval Office. April 23, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama talks with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the Outer Oval Office, April 23, 2010. Brian Mosteller, left, and Terry Szuplat work nearby (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama watches as active duty service members take the United States Oath of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 23, 2010.(Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
President Obama salutes an active duty service member following a naturalization ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 23, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk with patrons at 12 Bones restaurant in Asheville, N.C., April 23, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have a chance encounter with other hikers while walking along a trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville, N.C., April 23, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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On this Day: President Obama strikes the Heisman pose after accepting a football from quarterback Tim Jefferson, left, during the Commander-in-Chief Trophy presentation to the United States Air Force Academy football team in the East Room of the White House, April 23, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama tours the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., with Sara Bloomfield, museum director, and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor, April 23, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama tours the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., with Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor, and Sara Bloomfield, museum director, April 23, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
… with Elie Wiesel
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First Lady Michelle Obama poses with a “Flat Stanley” cutout as Kelly McMahon takes her picture backstage at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., April 23, 2013. Watching nearby, from left, are: Danielle Gray, Cabinet Secretary; Tina Tchen, the First Lady’s Chief of Staff; Kristen Jarvis, Deputy Director of Advance & Traveling Aide for the First Lady; and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
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MoooOOOooorning everyone! A gazillion thanks to Nerdy for adding a bunch of great news stories to the post while I was snoring last night – Legend.
The Obama Diary 
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