President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host an Independence Day celebration on the South Lawn at the White House
****
****
****
Yahoo: Obama Lauds Service Members At July Fourth Picnic
President Barack Obama says the extraordinary sacrifices by U.S. service members are keeping America safe and free. And he says there’s no other group of people that he and first lady Michelle Obama would rather spend time with on the Fourth of July than America’s men and women in uniform.
Obama addressed a crowd of hundreds of military families gathered Friday on the White House South Lawn for an all-American barbecue and concert sponsored by the USO. Music will be provided by the rapper Pitbull. The families will also get to see the fireworks on the National Mall.
A general view of the Independence Day celebration for military families on the South Lawn hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House
Spandan Chakrabarti: Not Just A Bull Market, Obama Recovery Points To A Strong Bull Economy
After employment data for June showed Barack Obama besting Bill Clinton’s record on sustained private sector job creation and June’s employment numbers crushing estimates, the DOW rallied to a historical high of over 17,000. To put it in perspective, the day Barack Obama took office in the midst of the greatest recession in (most of) living memory, the DOW lost over 330 points and closed at 7,949. the DOW wasn’t the only stock index to more than double its value over Obama’s presidency. In fact, all three stock indexes economists observe did. The NASDAQ more than tripled its value, going from 1,441 to 4486, and the S&P 500 closed at 1985 on Thursday, nearly 2.5 times its value at closing on January 20, 2009.
Our businesses have added: 9.7 million jobs over 52 months ✔ More than 1.4 million this year ✔ 262,000 in June ✔ → pic.twitter.com/yqb4kdD2fF
— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) July 3, 2014
Consider a quick summary of yesterday’s jobs report: The economy has now gained private sector jobs for 52 months in a row, the longest ever on record, besting even Bill Clinton’s previous record of 51 months of sustained private sector job growth. In those 52 months, the economy has added 9.7 million private sector jobs. Adding 288,000 jobs, June not only blew past estimates, it marked 5 consecutive months of over-200,000 job additions for the first time since 1999. In the past year, the stubbornly high long-term unemployment rate has finally begun to drop. The last 12 months saw a 1.4 percentage point drop in unemployment, with fully half of that coming from the previously long-term unemployed finding work. The truth – and I know I keep repeating it – is that if any white president had accomplished Obama’s record on the stock market alone, let alone the rest of the recovery, they would be well on their way to be canonized as a bona fide American saint.
President Obama hugs Army Sgt. Stephanie Van Ausdall after she had trouble leading the Pledge of Allegiance following a naturalization ceremony for active duty service members and civilians, July 4
****
****
Poignant reaction from 1 of the naturalization candidates greeting Pres Obama prior to being sworn in as Amer citizen pic.twitter.com/LSI2LdkAdH
On This Day: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama watch the fireworks over the National Mall from the roof of the White House, July 4, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
Today (All Times Eastern)
11:0: The President speaks at a naturalization ceremony for active-duty service members and civilians
****
6:0: The President and First Lady attend the “Salute to the Military” July 4th celebration at the White House; the President delivers remarks
****
8:10: USO concert for troops and military families featuring recording artist Pitbull
****
9:10: Fireworks show on the National Mall
****
****
****
David Horsey: Unsung Civil Rights Heroes Fought And Died For Our Freedom
On the Fourth of July, as on all national holidays, we are encouraged to think about the men and women who have fought and died for our freedoms; the likes of Washington, Lincoln and all the soldiers who have fought in our wars. This standard roster of heroes is venerable, but it is far from complete. … in 1955, a weary black woman refused to give up the seat she had taken in the white section of a bus in Montgomery, Ala. In 1957, one lone black girl walked into Little Rock’s Central High School amid the jeers of a furious mob.
In 1958, a few young blacks sat down at the whites-only counter at the Dockum Drug Store in Wichita, Kan., and refused to leave. In 1961…. …. Rosa Parks, John Lewis, James Meredith, Fannie Lou Hamer, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, Medgar Evers and so many others showed bravery as great as that of any soldier. They stood firm, sacrificed and, in many cases, died for our freedom. This Independence Day, think of them and stand in awe.
Eugene Robinson: This July 4, Governing In The Spirit Of Revenge
As we celebrate the Fourth of July, who can argue that our democracy is working the way the Founders intended? And who can deny that most of the blame for dysfunction must fall to the Republican Party? … Whatever the motivation, Republicans have paralyzed our government in a way that would have shocked and depressed the Founders. Compounding the outrage, Republicans have the temerity to criticize Obama for using his executive powers in the national interest. This is dangerously close to nihilism.
Think about this for a moment. Urgently needed legislation has been passed by the Senate, is supported by the president and has enough votes in the House. Yet it goes nowhere, as chaos on the border worsens and thousands of children remain in limbo. Is this what the Founders had in mind? Today’s Republican Party opposes the Affordable Care Act, so it refuses to work with the Obama administration in legislating technical fixes that would make the law work more smoothly. Is this in any sense patriotic? the GOP cares more about ideology, reelection and opposing Obama’s every initiative than about the well-being of the nation. It is scant comfort, on Independence Day, to remember that the republic has survived worse.
Danny Vinik: Recovery Summer May Finally Have Arrived Finally, A Jobs Report Routs Expectations
For the past few years, it was like clockwork: A disappointing summer of job growth would give way to a much stronger winter. Economists would hesitantly forecast that the economy was about to kick into second gear. Then the summer would come and the disappointing data would return. But finally, it looks like we are ready to break that trend: The economy added 288,000 jobs in June, soundly beating economists’ expectations of 211,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent.
… Consumers, businesses and investors are all showing renewed confidence in the economy. On Monday, pending home sales hit a four-year high. Automakers also reported surprisingly high sales. Many economists even expect wage growth in the second half of the year. The June jobs report only adds further support for the recovery summer. … There are few commentators on Twitter who parse the jobs report better than economist Justin Wolfers. In recent years, it was often him who urged caution as the economy picked up in the winter and would shoot down any reporters showing too much optimism. But even he couldn’t find anything to be pessimistic about in this jobs report:
There is simply no bad news in this jobs report. Go on, dig into the detail, and see if you can find it. I dare you.
NYT: Hiring Is Strong And Jobless Rate Declines To 6.1%
American companies are finally getting comfortable enough with the economy’s prospects to add new workers at a very healthy pace, after years of saying they lacked the confidence to hire people aggressively during a fitful recovery. Employers added 288,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said Thursday, the fifth month in a row that hiring has topped the 200,000 mark. The unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 percent last month, the best reading since September 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers turned what had been a mild recession into an economic rout. Factoring in June’s increase and upward revisions for estimated hiring in April and May, employers added an average of 231,000 workers a month in the first half of 2014, the best six-month run since the spring of 2006. “We’re clicking on all cylinders in terms of job growth,” said Dean Maki, chief United States economist at Barclays. Just as significant as the headline figures,
Mr. Maki said, is that June’s hiring was broad-based, as industries as varied as health care, manufacturing, financial services and retailing all added workers. “Every major sector showed job growth in June, including the private service sector, where the bulk of jobs in the U.S. are created,” Mr. Maki said. In an important turnabout, there were encouraging gains not just in well-paid white-collar professions, or in low-wage sectors like retail and restaurants, but also in the vast middle tier of jobs that enable workers to gain a foothold in the middle class. For example, manufacturers hired 16,000 workers, while transportation companies added 17,000 employees and the long-dormant public sector saw an addition of 26,000 positions.
Sally Kohn: Hobby Lobby: Sex, Lies, And Craft Supplies
“Birth control is cheap.” Hobby Lobby was about four forms of contraception that are not cheap (PDF). Plan B costs $35 to $60. Ella costs around $55. An IUD costs anywhere from $500 to $1,000. As the Notorious RBG (known to some as Ruth Bader Ginsburg) pointed out in her scathing 35-page dissent, “the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month’s full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage.” Similarly, for someone making $7 an hour — even if she’s lucky enough to get 40 hours of shifts in a week, which is rare — the cost of Plan B or Ella is roughly 10 percent of her take-home pay before taxes.
“Whatever, Hobby Lobby still covers 14 other kinds of contraception.” Funny thing, it actually provided all 20 until the lawyers behind the Hobby Lobby case contacted the company to see if they wanted to file suit. It was only then that the company discovered its insurance plan covered Plan B, and the two IUDs at issue—and then stopped covering them. And then Hobby Lobby sued the government for making it do something that up until that moment it had been doing on its own. Even today, Hobby Lobby’s 401(k) plan still invests not only in the manufacturers of these forms of birth control but also companies that make drugs used in medical abortions.
Irin Carmon: Female Justices Issue Searing Dissent Over New Contraceptive Case
The fierce disagreements dividing the Supreme Court over this week’s Hobby Lobby decision were laid bare Thursday in a searing dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the Justices’ decision in a separate contraceptive case “undermines confidence in this institution.” The dissent was signed by all three female Justices. The dissent was in an order to grant an emergency request from Wheaton College, an evangelical college in Illinois. At issue is the “accommodation” the Obama administration worked out for religiously-identified non-profits: Sign a form certifying your objection, and the insurer will provide the coverage directly, without the objecting organization having to pay.
As of now, 122 non-profits have sued, claiming that signing the opt-out form for someone to get contraception violates their religious liberty. “Let me be absolutely clear: I do not doubt that Wheaton genuinely believes that signing the self-certification form is contrary to its religious beliefs,” Sotomayor wrote. “But thinking one’s religious beliefs are substantially burdened … does not make it so.” She added, “Not every sincerely felt ‘burden’ is a ‘substantial’ one, and it is for courts, not litigants, to identify which are.”
Not bad for a President who inherited 2 wars & worst financial crisis in 80 years & got zero fucking help from @GOPpic.twitter.com/3Xd3TPlCGB
— Subscribe to Unprecedented on Ghost - no paywall! (@TheDailyEdge) July 3, 2014
****
Jeanna Smialek: Trade Gap In U.S. Shrinks More Than Forecast On Record Exports
The trade deficit in the U.S. narrowed more than forecast in May on record exports, signaling a pickup in global growth that will boost American manufacturers. The gap shrank by 5.6 percent, the biggest drop since November, to $44.4 billion from the prior month’s $47 billion, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 69 economists called for a contraction to $45 billion.
Sales to foreign customers climbed 1 percent on growing demand for autos and parts, petroleum products and aircraft engines. Economic expansions abroad that are gaining traction will probably continue to invigorate demand for American goods. A narrowing deficit would mean trade becomes less of a drag on gross domestic product in the second quarter after the world’s largest economy contracted in the first three months of 2014.
Lucia Graves: One Big Thing Everyone Is Missing In Hobby Lobby
The ruling is not just about sex, it’s about health. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her scathing dissent of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in the Hobby Lobby case this week, made an important point about women’s health that’s been almost entirely overlooked elsewhere: For many American women, the birth-control pill has nothing to do with controlling births. It’s a life-saving medicine. “The coverage helps safeguard the health of women for whom pregnancy may be hazardous, even life-threatening,” wrote Ginsburg. “And the mandate secures benefits wholly unrelated to pregnancy, preventing certain cancers, menstrual disorders, and pelvic pain.”
The decision, which found that closely held corporations may refuse for religious reasons to cover contraceptives in their health plans, may affect millions of women who suffer from a variety of medical conditions. These women depend on the pill to regulate their hormones and do everything from ease pain to reduce the risk of cancer. These medical benefits have nothing to do with sex or the prevention of pregnancy, which have become the sole focus of political debate around the decision. Even if these women never have sex once in their lives, they need to be on birth control.
ThinkProgress: Missouri Governor Vetoes 72-Hour Abortion Waiting Period: ‘This Is Insulting To Women’
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) rejected a measure on Wednesday that would have required women to wait three full days before being allowed to have an abortion procedure. His veto prevents Missouri from joining Utah and South Dakota, which are the only two states in the nation that currently have a 72-hour abortion waiting period on the books. But on Wednesday, Nixon explained that he couldn’t approve the bill because it’s unnecessary in light of his state’s existing 24-hour waiting period. “Lengthening the already extensive waiting period serves no demonstrable purpose other than to create emotional and financial hardships for women who have undoubtedly already spent considerable time wrestling with perhaps the most difficult decision they may ever have to make,” the governor said in a statement.
“Expanding the mandatory waiting period presupposes that women are unable to make up their own minds without further government intervention. This is insulting to women, particularly in light of what the law already requires.” Nixon also pointed out the measure demonstrates a “callous disregard” for women’s well being by failing to include an exception for victims of rape and incest — which means that women who become pregnant through those crimes would be put through a potentially emotionally damaging wait before they’re allowed to end the pregnancy. “It victimizes these women by prolonging their grief and their nightmare,” the governor noted.
Yahoo: Putin Tells Obama He Wants Better Ties, Equal Treatment
President Vladimir Putin called for an improvement in ties between Russia and the United States on Friday in an Independence Day message to Barack Obama, urging Washington to treat Moscow as an equal partner. Relations between the two presidents and countries are at a low ebb following disagreements over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and over human rights, democracy and defence matters.
“The head of the Russian state expressed hope that … ties between the two countries will develop successfully on the basis of pragmatism and equality despite difficulties and disagreements,” the Kremlin said in a statement, outlining a telegram sent to Obama on the July 4 holiday. “Vladimir Putin also highlighted that Russia and the United States, as countries carrying exceptional responsibility for safeguarding international stability and security, should cooperate not only in the interests of their own nations but also the whole world.”
Good Morning, my fellow Americans. Today, we laugh at the Brits and people who spell words using the letter “u!” 🙂
You threw. Our tea. In the harbour. And then you changed the spelling of harbour. We do not. Forget.
— Erren Michaels 🐇🌹🌱📚📖🐰 (@ErrenMichaels) July 4, 2014
****
On This Day
Senator Obama laughs with Sasha before speaking at a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa on July 4, 2007
****
Senator Obama hugs Malia as they watch a Fourth of July parade in Butte, Mont., July 4, 2008
****
President Obama kisses a baby while greeting military families at the White House on July 4, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet military families at the White House on July 4, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama watch the fireworks over the National Mall from the White House on July 4, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama pretend to march to music in the Blue Room of the White House, July 4, 2010, before delivering remarks to military families during a Fourth of July celebration (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama greets military families gathered for July 4th festivities on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2010
President Obama greets guests during the Fourth of July celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, July 4, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
A young girl salutes President Obama as he shakes hands along a ropeline with members of the military and their families during the Fourth of July celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, July 4, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama watch fireworks from the roof of the White House, July 4, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
President Obama holds a baby while greeting guests during an Independence Day celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, July 4, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
****
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama watch from the White House roof as fireworks erupt over the National Mall, July 4, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
President Obama holds a baby as he greets members of the military and their families during a Fourth of July celebration on the White House’s South Lawn, July 4, 2013
The Obama Diary 
You must be logged in to post a comment.