Archive for May 30th, 2014
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May
14
The Week In Toons
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May
14
Chat Away
@petesouza: Pres Obama walks w Veterans Affairs Sec. Eric Shinseki on the WH south grounds this morning
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May
14
The President’s Day
President Obama announces that he has accepted the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki during a press conference in the Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington
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Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson leaves the White House after being named by President Barack Obama to run the Veterans Affairs Department on an interim basis while President Obama searches for a replacement for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki who resigned Friday.
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President Barack Obama gives White House press secretary Jay Carney a hug after announcing that Carney will step down later next month, during a surprise visit to the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. The president announced Carney’s departure in a surprise appearance at in the White House press briefing room Friday. He said principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest will take over the job
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Will miss my friend Jay Carney shown here on Air Force One this week. http://t.co/SNnPaAmUc4
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(@petesouza) May 30, 2014****
Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, share the stage and a laugh during the daily briefing at the White House
President Barack Obama, flanked by Attorney Holder Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan,and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker; speaks about a report from “My Brother’s Keeper,” an initiative to expand opportunity for young men and boys of color
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President Barack Obama attends a hurricane preparedness meeting at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, DC
President Barack Obama gives White House press secretary Jay Carney a hug after announcing that Carney will step down later next month, during a surprise visit to the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. The president announced Carney’s departure in a surprise appearance at in the White House press briefing room Friday. He said principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest will take over the job
Pete Souza: Pres Obama reacts after seeing Jay Carney’s new beard
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NBC News: Podium Shuffle: Carney Resigns As White House Press Secretary
President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance Friday to announce that his chief spokesman Jay Carney is leaving his post behind the podium. Obama called Carney one of his closest advisers and friends at the White House in remarks to the press in the White House briefing room. “In April, Jay came to me in the Oval Office and said that he was thinking of moving on, and I was not thrilled, to say the least,” he said. “But Jay has had to wrestle with this decision for quite some time.”
“I will continue to rely on him as a friend and an adviser after he leaves to spend as much of his summer as he can with his kids before he decides what’s next for him,” he added. “Whatever it is, I know he’s going to be outstanding at it.” Carney called holding the job “an honor and a joy for me.” Obama announced that communications deputy Josh Earnest will take over the job as the president’s press secretary.
More here
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.@PressSec is a great friend, a trusted advisor and an incredible asset for the President and the White House. We'll miss you. -VP
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Vice President Biden (@VP) May 30, 2014Will miss @PressSec who has been an incredible colleague and friend for 5 and a half years, leads by example, and is truly a class act
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Ben Rhodes (@rhodes44) May 30, 2014****
So proud of @PressSec, and so excited for @jearnest44 - no one deserves the job more, or will do it better
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Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) May 30, 2014Thanks for everything, Jay Carney! And congrats to our next White House @PressSec, @JEarnest44. http://t.co/TYq3E50iG6
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2014****
Carney to be replaced by @jearnest44 RT @tamarakeithNPR: Pres. Obama says "Jay has become one of my closest friends." http://t.co/3a2cCnn6cy
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NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) May 30, 2014****
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President Barack Obama shares a laugh as he makes a surprise visit into the Brady Press Briefing Room to announce that White House press secretary Jay Carney, right, will be stepping down later next month.
Continue reading ‘Thank You Press Secretary Jay ‘Clark Kent’ Carney!’
The President’s statement on the resignation of Secretary Shinseki
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Look at the worthless shills, Shinseki did more for his country in a day than they’ll do combined in a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/S5eFz92ilY
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) May 30, 2014
One of the greatest advocates for veterans in this country has been hounded out of office by media and unworthy politicians. It is a sad day
— john miller (@deaconmill) May 30, 2014
30
May
14
Rise and Shine
On This Day:
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Today (all times Eastern)
* President Obama appears on Kelly and Michael – check your local listings here
10:15: President Obama meets with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, Oval Office
11:0: The President meets with the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force
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11:15 EDT: President Obama Makes a Statement
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1:0: Jay Carney briefs the press
2:15: The President attends a hurricane preparedness meeting, FEMA Headquarters
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O.B.A.M.A – Obviously Better At Managing Adorables. pic.twitter.com/2oIA1RH1nL
— amk4obama (@amk4obama) May 30, 2014
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Fareed Zakaria: Obama’s leadership is right for today
…. Obama is battling a knee-jerk sentiment in Washington in which the only kind of international leadership that means anything is the use of military force. “Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail,” he said in his speech Wednesday at West Point.
A similar sentiment was expressed in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a strong leader who refused to intervene in the Suez crisis, the French collapse in Vietnam, two Taiwan Strait confrontations and the Hungarian uprising of 1956.
At the time, many critics blasted the president for his passivity and wished that he would be more interventionist. A Democratic Advisory Council committee headed by Acheson called Eisenhower’s foreign policy “weak, vacillating, and tardy.” But Eisenhower kept his powder dry, confident that force was not the only way to show strength. “I’ll tell you what leadership is,” he told his speechwriter. “It’s persuasion — and conciliation — and education — and patience . It’s long, slow, tough work. That’s the only kind of leadership I know — or believe in — or will practice.”
Maybe that’s the Obama Doctrine.
Full article here
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Fred Kaplan: Obama Lays Siege to His Critics
President Obama’s speech at West Point on Wednesday morning could be called a tribute to common sense, except that the sense it made is so uncommon. The ensuing cable pundits’ complaints—that it was insufficiently “muscular” or “robust”—only proved how necessary this speech was.
Obama’s point was not (contrary to some commentators’ claims) to draw a “middle-of-the-road” line between isolationism and unilateralism. That’s a line so broad almost anyone could walk it.
The president’s main point was to emphasize that not every problem has a military solution; that the proper measure of strength and leadership is not merely the eagerness to deploy military power; that, in fact, America’s costliest mistakes have stemmed not from restraint but from rushing to armed adventures “without thinking through the consequences, without building international support and legitimacy for our action, without leveling with the American people about the sacrifice required.”
More here
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Graduating cadets listen to President Obama deliver the commencement address at West Point, May 28, 2014 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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NPR: Transcript And Audio: President Obama’s Full NPR Interview
NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed President Obama on Wednesday about foreign policy, including his approaches to Syria, Ukraine and China, as well as his remaining White House priorities and his effort to close Guantanamo Bay prison. A full transcript of the interview follows:
STEVE INSKEEP: I want to begin this way. You’re here at this historic place, trying to speak with a sense of history. And I was thinking of past presidents that I know you have studied and commented on. And a couple came to mind who were able to express what they were trying to do in the world in about a sentence. Reagan wanted to roll back communism by whatever means. Lincoln has a famous letter in which he says, I would save the union by the shortest means under the Constitution. As you look at the moment of history that you occupy, do you think you can put into a sentence what you are trying to accomplish in the world?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I’m not sure I can do it in a sentence because we’re fortunate in many ways. We don’t face an existential crisis. We don’t face a civil war. We don’t face a Soviet Union that is trying to rally a bloc of countries and that could threaten our way of life. Instead, what we have is, as I say in the speech, this moment in which we are incredibly fortunate to have a strong economy that is getting stronger, no military peer that threatens us, no nation-state that anytime soon intends to go to war with us. But we have a world order that is changing very rapidly and that can generate diffuse threats, all of which we have to deal with.
More here
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My Brother’s Keeper Task Force Report to the President – PDF
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Greg Sargent: GOP retreat on Obamacare continues apace
A new report this morning confirms that House Republicans are likely to delay plans to offer an alternative to Obamacare until after the elections; that multiple Republican candidates are retreating from repeal; and that they are increasingly mouthing support for the law’s general goals. Once again: There’s no real policy space for a meaningful alternative, but the base still sees repeal as its lodestar, yet everyone else opposes repeal, forcing Republicans to claim they’d scrap it and replace it with something or other doing all the popular things in it, without saying what.
More here
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Why is it that most of the people calling for Shinseki’s head have never had to deal with VA, while those that have dealt with VA aren’t?
— john miller (@deaconmill) May 30, 2014
McCain is right. Treatment of veterans in Arizona is disgraceful. If only there were a prominent veteran in Arizona who could have helped
— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) May 30, 2014
#maddow I think John McCain should resign. This VA thing happened in his state. Where was he? On the Sunday talkies
— Pat Fuller (@bannerite) May 29, 2014
Huge standing ovation and applause for VASec Shinseki at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans here at the Hyatt. These guys love him — philewing (@philewing) May 30, 2014
Reporters follow VA Secretary Eric Shinseki after his remarks to The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans pic.twitter.com/6cuFPBSbem — Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) May 30, 2014
Today’s speech: Secretary Shinseki on Homelessness Among Veterans http://t.co/wB1zRH2dTK — meta (@metaquest) May 30, 2014
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Justin Wolfers (NYT): Deceptive Dip in G.D.P. Points to Perils of Election Forecasting
An economic report issued [yesterday] provides a good example of the hazards facing election forecasters. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that in the first quarter of this year, Gross Domestic Product, a broad indicator of the health of the economy, shrank at an annual rate of 1 percent. Even worse, an alternative and more accurate measure, called Gross Domestic Income, shrank at an annual rate of 2.3 percent. If that persisted, we’d call it a sharp recession.
But no one is using the R-word. Nor should they. Markets have taken the news in their stride, and few economists have changed their view that the economy is growing and will continue to through 2014. Likewise, consumers remain confident about their economic prospects. Their confidence rests partly on other indicators that suggested far better growth throughout the quarter, such as nonfarm payrolls, which grew by 569,000 over the same period.
More here
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The 16 questions @NBCNews should have asked Edward Snowden but didn’t. http://t.co/MMFIslVJhY — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 29, 2014
MLK and Marlon Brando pic.twitter.com/ng8S25mzFZ — Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) May 29, 2014
Guys steals 1.7 million documents. Forgets to print out e-mails he exchanged w/NSA officials expressing concerns abt NSA programs #oops — Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) May 30, 2014
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National Journal: Lies, Damn Lies, and Global-Warming Rules
The president is about to take a major step to fight global warming. Here’s what you need to know.
President Obama promised to take action on global warming with or without Congress’s permission. Next week, he’ll tell the world how he plans to do it.
The administration is preparing to release the central pillar of Obama’s climate-change agenda: a proposal for far-reaching rules that will require power companies to cut carbon emissions.
The rules will mark the most significant federal action on climate change since Democrats’ cap-and-trade bill died in the Senate four years ago, and they’re Obama’s best shot at adding broad action on global warming to his legacy.
The rules will also touch off a political war of the first order, offering battleground for environmentalists, industry groups, and politicians to fight over the nation’s energy future.
Here’s what to watch for when the administration pulls back the curtain.
More here
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Must Read: Sandy Hook principal’s daughter on Joe the Plumber’s ‘Dead Kid’ callousness: http://t.co/2XjQfDmdBX #notonemore
— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) May 29, 2014
#gunsense pic.twitter.com/upIaEOb9cq — Pedro (@gabino_58) May 29, 2014
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ThinkProgress: Redskins’ Twitter Campaign To Defend Their Name Goes About As Well As You’d Expect
The Washington Redskins — desperate to defend the name that Native Americans, members of Congress, a majority of the United States Senate, religious leaders, civil rights groups, several current and former NFL players, United Nations Human Rights representatives, and even President Obama have said should be changed because it is a “dictionary-defined” racial slur — started a Twitter campaign to rally support Thursday afternoon.
It started with this tweet asking fans to tell Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has made a habit of chiding the team over its name, how they felt:
More here
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“I’d rather be born black, American, female, in the 20th century, and I was. What luck I have!” —Maya Angelou: http://t.co/uhtdTQ3f33
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 28, 2014
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USA Today: Biden to attend U.S. World Cup soccer match
The United States men’s World Cup soccer team will have a particularly vocal fan when it takes on Ghana next month: Joe Biden.
The vice president will attend the U.S.-Ghana match on June 16 in Natal, Brazil, as part of a trip that will also take him to Colombia and the Dominican Republic as well as Brazil.
More here
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The #Clippers are being purchased by the ex-head of Microsoft, so count on next year’s team being slow, error-prone and full of viruses.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) May 29, 2014
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I’m not sure whether to love this video, or be freaked out by it:
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I shouldn’t laugh, but:
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On This Day
Sen Obama attends a rally in Great Falls, Montana, whilst campaining in the race for the White House. May 30, 2008
Sen. Obama addresses a rally at The Four Seasons Arena May 30, 2008 in Great Falls, Montana
30
May
14
Early Bird Chat
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MoooOOOooorning – Happy Friday!
The Obama Diary 
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