****
MoooOOOooorning – Happy Saturday!
31
May
14
88 Responses to “Early Bird Chat”
Comments are currently closed.
Obama White House.gov
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
WH Tumblr
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
The People’s View
- Follow me at my new venture: Reclaim the Fight
- Ignore the bait: Why itās the right strategy for Democrats to focus SCOTUS fight on health care
- BIG: Judge halts Trump administration attempt to shortcut the census
- Trump doesn't want peaceful transition of power. Legally, it doesnāt matter.
- Fauci goes off on Rand Paul
- Rule 44: Why Obamacare is not lost even in a deadlocked Supreme Court, but only if Biden wins
- Time to suit up. This is war.
- BREAKING: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed
- Bothsidesism comes to fact-checking: CNN's āfact-checkā calling Biden ad 'misleading' proves the opposite
- Pardon me: How Donald Trump's stooges conspired with Julian Assange to exonerate Russia and undermine US Intlligence
Smartypants
- Durham to Right Wingers: "Blame Hillary"
- That Time When Refusing to Negotiate With Hostage-Takers Worked
- The Other Christian Nationalists: Leonard Leo and Opus Dei
- Hawley Demonstrates That He's an Ignorant Liar
- DeSantis Board Votes to Counter-Sue Disney Over Something...Anything
- Hunter Biden's Laptop Is a Total Nothingburger
- What DeSantis Couldn't Say in Response to Disney's Lawsuit
- Disney Skewers DeSantis With His Own Words
- Populism Without Civil Rights Is Fascism
- Glenn Greenwald gets triggered by smart competent women like Rep. Stacey Plaskett
Steve Benen
- What to look for if Trump is indicted by the DOJ
- Writer who left day job and traveled the country details experience in 'America the Beautiful?'
- Army Secretary: 'Woke military' criticisms are undermining our recruiting
- Everyone in the golf world caught off guard by merger, says writer
- The impact of big tech rolling back misinformation measures
- Steve Rattner breaks down what's driving America's sour mood
- Joe: Gov. Newsom is calling out 'abhorrent' moves by DeSantis
- Richard Haass: PGA/LIV Golf merger a question of 'when' and not 'if'
- Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, testifies before grand jury
- Christie enters race, blasts Trump as 'lonely, self-consumed...mirror hog'
The Obama Diary 
š
Good Morning Chips and all of my little CHIPadees.
Well, good morning Ladyhawke – I’m glad to see someone is up early on this Saturday morning. The rest of them are shameful lazy bones. Have a perfect Saturday Ladyhawke!
Good Saturday Chipsticks, Ladyhawke ā¦TODers!!!
Iāve been doing a lot of lurking over the past few weeks, but I must say that recent events ā especially those of this past week ā have been overwhelming, eliciting a wide range of emotions. But as usually, being able to come to TOD village provides a venue to express those emotions as well as for getting the facts and rationality that is sometimes needed to keep some emotions in check.
Chipsticks, BT’s, TODers…you are appreciated!
Great to see you swbluega, I hope all’s good? Have a perfect weekend!
All’s good… š
Excellent to hear! š
I guess I shouldn’t have paused to make that mug of chamomile tea! O well, that’s life!
Morning Ms Chips, LadyH, & SW!
A fine sunny morning it is too in my corner, which means I’ll soon have to go cut the lawn and water the grass seeds recently added.
Gooooooood mooooooorning VeeeeeeCeeeeeee!
MooooOOOoooorrnnniiing, Honey bun! Would you like a cup of chamomile too? The kettle is still hot so it won’t take long to get it boiling again.
Well, that’s a very kind offer VC, boil her up!!!
Coming right up! /grinning widely that you accepted/ š
Here you go, HoneyB!
http://yellowrosesgarden.com/2008/03/17/a-spot-of-tea-me/
š
Figured you’re used to huuuuuge pets. š
Chipsticks,
I was looking at the āIf facial expressions could speakā tweet that you posted in the previous postā¦
I often think to myself that *sometimes* itās not the questions that the WHPC āelitistsā asks (although most of the questions are moronic at best, usually not based in fact). Itās the vitriol that is in their voices when they ask the question; itās the air of haughtiness, condescension, smugness, and self-exaltation that they convey as they attempt to bully the President and his staff when they ask questions, supported by the bobble heads that surround them. Theyāre practically manic in their badgering as they repeat questions in hopes of getting a āgotchaā response. They are irrational in their hypocritical expectations of their access to the President, supposedly in the name of transparency. [Their over-the-top reactions to not having notice or access to the Presidentās *PRIVATE* lunch with HRC, or not being able to follow him around when he is golfing with his friends are just a couple of examples.]
President Obama and his staff have had to put up with this pretty much from day one of his administration. Normally, he exhibits an enormous degree of patience and self-control in his dealings with them. Lately, it seems that herculean patience is starting to wan and his disdain becomes visible every now and then.
They’re contemptible, swbluega. I hardly watch these press briefings any more, but watched yesterday – it was utterly pathetic. Like you said, the stuff about PBO’s lunch with Hillary was something else, like it was the *big* issue of the day. And all the sneering and cackling from the lot of them, just a collection of vile shilling smart asses.
Mark Knoller cackling about the over-arching issue of transparency was especially rich. Jay could barely contain his laughter.
You know Meta, I felt Jay was very close to calling out the shills yesterday, like Knoller – maybe he will on his last day š
I felt that, too! After all he’s put up with, it almost seemed as though he really was struggling to keep from breaking out in hysterical guffaws and just telling them to STFU. But he is a consummate professional and he really does love his job.
I think Jay’s going to land a very good gig when he’s ready. I bet he’s got a lot of offers on the table as we speak.
Can’t wait to see what he does next Meta, it’ll be really interesting to see what direction he takes.
Hi, SW! I agree that it is MOST often not the questions the WHPC ask, but their manner and tone. It’s as if *they* have determined they know better than the electorate and **they* are going to make his time in office as unpleasant as possible. The good thing in all this to me is that PBO is assured, self-confident, and mature enough to watch them in disdain while doing the job he signed on for.
How are ya VC!!!
“The good thing in all this to me is that PBO is assured, self-confident, and mature enough to watch them in disdain while doing the job he signed on for.”
That PBO does not react to their antics — at least not in the way that they would like — is just added confirmation (and comfort) that, in this time of national and international complexity and with the extremism to which we are being subjected, the right person is in office.
I am absolutely fine, SW! Life is good, and our president is better! š
Morning Chips and TODers. I’ve been stealing minutes to pick up tidbits of news as we’ve entertained family and other visitors. Sometimes the tidbits get me down, as SW says, and sometimes (more often) they inspire me. I think our president is a tower of strength in the face of more crap than anyone should have to endure. But what he hates most of all is seeing people hurt, like Shinseki, or seeing good people leave, like Carney. Yesterday was a hard day for him, so it’s doubly important for us to keep expressing our love and support. The best support we can give him is to work for a Democratic Congress. He can’t do this alone, it’s up to us. Have a great Saturday as we wish May goodbye and say hello to June.
Morning Jackie. “what he hates most of all is seeing people hurt, like Shinseki” – exactly. That photo from yesterday just breaks my heart:
The constant drum-beat calling for resignation/fire was already a downer. The announcement of the resignation added to the feeling of sadness. This picture truly depicts the sorrow felt by those support Sec Shinseki and feel that his treatment was unfair.
Still really wish Sec Shinseki hadn’t resigned, and that his offer wasn’t accepted, he didn’t deserve this.
I’ve learned in life you have to pick your battles. And while I agree that Sec Shinseki maintaining his position would have been a battle worth fighting, I believe that Sec. Shinseki, in his wisdom (a characteristic that seems to be prevalent within the Obama administration) looked beyond the injustice of his treatment and considered the big picture. As long as the yammering continued and was amplified by the MSM (as if a resignation/firing would solve all the problems of the VA), any progress that could be made would have been lost in the distractions. GOP Congressional members (and apparently some Democrats as well) would have been given a reason not to cooperate in funding the solutions that would have helped to turn the VA/VHA around. I’m sure that it was a difficult decision for him — especially because the improvements that had already been made were being discounted, knowing that he was being held to a different standard than his predecessors, and especially knowing that he could have turned things around if he had been given the opportunity.
Sec. Shinseki’s actions took away the critics’ ability to accuse him of being self-serving. His action is a continuation of service to this country and his fellow veterans, and highlights why he is so well thought of.
” Itās the vitriol that is in their voices when they ask the question; itās the air of haughtiness, condescension, smugness, and self-exaltation that they convey as they attempt to bully the President and his staff when they ask questions, supported by the bobble heads that surround them. Theyāre practically manic in their badgering as they repeat questions in hopes of getting a āgotchaā response.”
Swbluega your observations are spot-on! But ironically, this behavior reflects the WHPC’s deep feelings of inferiority relative to our President. They KNOW that they are sub-par (to put it mildly) and his Presidency has allowed the PUBLIC TO KNOW it as well. And they hate him for it. They KNOW they cannot really bully him into doing anything he doesn’t want to do and despite their nonstop clamoring to destroy him with their ugliness, in the words of Maya Angelou, “…still he rises…”
‘this behavior reflects the WHPCās deep feelings of inferiority relative to our President.’
A-men!
Morning, Hopefruit! I actually can feel sorry for them (not in a contrite way, mind you; more like pityingly) because they are so repeatedly embarrassing in their derangement, AND can’t seem to realize it (it’s been over FIVE years for heaven’s sake), or to control themselves.
EXACTLY vc! š Hope you have a great Saturday š
“…this behavior reflects the WHPCās deep feelings of inferiority relative to our President…”
… and there’s no way they can show *any* type of inferiority in relation to this President. They come across as being desperate in their ineffective quest to prove otherwise.
I think you’re right about this. Remember they had W Bush and his band of idiots to deal with before, ALL of them sheer idiots and emotional lightweights, bullies and cronies and absolutely unsuited to the task of governance. The whole lot of them a complete farce. So when the WHPC faces President Obama or anyone in his administration, they are absolutely beside themselves and unprepared to engage on any meaningful level. It’s horrendous to watch them scrape their shag rugs for any sign of lint.
Well-said meta.
G’morning Chips & TOD!!!
Goooooooood morning Hopefruit!
You know, Eddie says she’s not a Democrat but I could swear sometimes she’s an OBOT. Love her coverage of FLOTUS and all things White House.
Good Morning Ms Chips! Good Morning/Day everyone
Moooooooorning Linda!!
Good morning USA – hope your Saturday is good. Last day of Autumn in my world today & just a hint of a chill.
Good evening 99ts! That’s another thing I’m going to change when I rule the world, along with only having one time-zone: the seasons. Way too confusing for me when people are chilly and I’m roasting. So, I’ll fiddle about with the sun, moon and stars and make it all the one.
I would love someone to explain to me why our seasons change on the 1st of the month – yet those in the Northern hemisphere change at the equinox/longest/shortest days. Weird. If I ruled the world I would make ’em all the same.
We should be joint rulers, 99ts – we could work one day on, one day off, so we don’t get exhausted. Are you up for it?
We could really do some mixing up here – should make a mess of the climate skeptics š
Hello, TS! Want to borrow my snow tires? š š I won’t need them for a while yet…… I hope.
hahahahaha – what is this thing you call snow?
I’m cold when the temps get below 70F – now if we get that white stuff – it really would be climate change
š š Just trying to be neighbourly – sharing my blessings, you know. š š
You have my full permission to keep the snow š
Aw, shucks! This neighbourly business doesn’t seem to work for me; west coast TOD-ers also turned me down earlier in the year. š¦
Forgot my manners – good morning vc
Good night to you, my dear! Have a good night’s sleep when you decide to put Saturday to rest. š
GM, TODville, GE 99ts, even AMK.
What an eventful week, just astounding — from Afghanistan (surprise!) to the unexpected and sad farewells to men of honor, discipline and integrity (Secretary Shinseki and Spokesman Carney) and of course the loss of a tower of American culture, Maya Angelou.
Chips or NerdyW will really cover a lot of ground with this week’s greatly anticipated retrospective.
PBO always looks great, but I think he looked particularly animated and passionate in this video statement.
Makes me wish even more for an objective MSM. Solar increased 10 fold!
As an example, I was at Dollar Tree (every item is $1 or less) yesterday where they were selling Solar Stakes (outdoor path lighting). I was shocked that these could be so inexpensive, and said so to an employee who happened to be standing next to me. She said they worked great, too!
We’re living on the cusp of a renewable energy revolution, led by our incomparable CIC warrior against those who pollute the air that we breathe and the water that sustains all life.
Courtesy of Mighty Pamela, inspired by Jovie’s post about President Obama’s guidelines for US power plants earlier this week (posted to YouTube on May 18, over 10 million views now):
Forgot to say that I think PBOs passion in this video was spurred by his proximity to children.
I think his greatest capacity for passion and compassion is inspired by children, just like Nelson Mandela. (Someone who knew Madiba personally commented to upChuck Todd on his passing that Mandela ALWAYS lighted up when he saw children… just like our beloved PBO). One of the many things that these two great men and leaders had in common.
Good morning arapaho415! Ah, so true, so much in common, and smiles that light up any room!
Hey bt. Remove the black background theme. Make it white background just like every other friggin’ website.
And a good morning to you too, Grumpy. What black background theme? On the comments page??
This page. As an experiment, I disabled my page background color customization and went with each website’s own color. They all have white bg except yours.
That background comes with the theme I chose for the blog, I’d have to customize it to change it – and last time I made it lighter, there was a revolution at TOD.
Screw the toddys. Make it white.
So you want me to go fiddling with the settings again? /EvilChuckle
Yes. I want you to do egg.sack.lee that.
Okay, we’ll go with pink. Have to find my instructions first, Danny might have eaten them so I’ll wait til he poos.
NO, *I* do not want you to go FIDDLING WITH THE SETTINGS! Just ignore you-know-who’s advice. PLEEEEASSSE!
‘They all have white bg except yours.’ This is evidence of the ‘karmic’ rightness of TOD’s choice. We are unique so we have a uni- q background. Perfectly as it should be!
Don’t mess with a good thing!
Geez louise, I hope I’m not too late! I leave for an hour and a bit and *he* walks in trying to disturb the villagers! š /sum min! /
Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.
Ouch! Ooooo! My eyes! O my poor eyes!
š Okay, I’ll keep fiddling.
Don’t! Don’t you love *me* anymore?
Grrr. Trust Amk to try to damage a perfectly functioning relationship!
I love your first ever tweet, VC š
Where’d you find this? I’ve often wanted to access some of my earlier tweets (cause GOP, Boehner & WHPC haven’t changed one whit), but gave up trying to scroll backwards to find ’em. I’m always impressed when you and Bobfr pull up an older tweet so easily.
BTW, I miss ChristiMtl from time to time, but appreciated that she let me trail her into the twitterverse. š
I can’t remember which TODer gave us the link VC, but here it is:
https://discover.twitter.com/first-tweet#sonamie
Mine was sad:
Nerdy’s was sweet š
So you and Nerdy joined up the same day? You two were meant to be, eh? š
Oh crikey, I didn’t even notice that!!!
Karma working behind the scenes. š I’m going to consider Nerdy’s first tweet as her job application to TOD. š
GE, amk.
Saw your post yesterday (on one of the few threads I’ve managed to read this week) on the new phone for your daughter’s birthday (happy BD, mini-amk!).
Here in the US, I’m a big fan of T-Mobile — you can purchase a (non-smart) phone for as little as $20 bucks and pay $100 for over a 1,000 minutes of air time for a year. For someone like me that uses her cell phone only for convenience (or for emergencies) this is the perfect plan. If you need to add additional minutes before the year is up, your 1-year expiration gets moved to the date of refill.
Another interesting tidbit — it looks like T-Mobile is trying to put the “Too Big to Fail” banks out of business. Yay!
They offer a VISA prepaid debit card that offers the following, with this tagline: “Checking account fees keep going up.* We’re knocking them down. *Rise in checking account fees based on Bank Rate’s 2012 Checking Survey.)
. $0 withdrawal fees at in-network ATMS (will find out what network they are on, but their brochure says over 42,000 ATMs)
. $0 retail purchase fee
. $0 monthly maintenance fee
. $0 reload fee in T-Mobile stores ((Walmart, Green Dot, Netbank, etc. prepaid debit cards cards charge users to add money to the card, for $3 – $5 each time)
. Get your paycheck earlier than with traditional banks when you sign up for direct deposit
. Deposit checks via smartphone app
I think I’m gonna purchase one to use to make online purchases, since I don’t use credit cards and prefer not to have the debit card linked to my bank account floating in cyberspace.
I just glanced up and saw this very tiny white blob standing still in the shade like a lawn ornament! Quite a nice touch on the green, green grass. Had to do a double take, and a couple of quick blinks to verify what exactly it was.
.
Neighbour across the street is packing stuff in a moving van, cars, etc and they have a fluffy little white dog tied to an outdoor tree to keep him/her out of the way, I guess. š
Good morning
Morning Luci!
I don’t want to forget my weekly task of sharing what’s happened during the past week @Interior. Though I have never been to any of these places, I’m interested that the Interior Secretary has her own version of ‘West Wing Week’ – a way to briefly show what her department is doing.
Heeeere is your This Week at Interior, May 30, 2014!
I like that Sec. Yellin is always out and about obviously enjoying the outdoors and interacting with ‘real’ people. I love the great outdoors…from inside. š
This good.
This bad.
Since I haven’t been here much this week (I have missed so much, and plan to catch up this weekend because next week will be so historic and eventful, with all global eyes directed to PBO) here’s a couple of items on the weasel Snowden.
I will need something huge to help pick up my spirits from this week’s events – still sad and mad (a dangerous combination)
Good Morning! Everyone. Way to go on getting first and doing the Eary Bird chat! It’s magical. I looked at the time and though Wow I’m on early bird but then realized you have all been here a couple hours. š
R&S!
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/05/31/rise-and-shine-the-week-at-tod-13/
Chips my puppy is out of food can I borrow some of your puppy chow?
š
No problem Jovie, this is what Danny eats, happy to share!