On This Day: Bob Dylan shakes President Barack Obama’s hand following his performance at the “In Performance At The White House: A Celebration Of Music From The Civil Rights Movement” concert in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 9, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Today
3:35: The President meets with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Representative Steve Israel
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From yesterday
The Obama Diary 
Good Tuesday, Chipsticks…TOD Family!!!
Gift someone with your smile today. 😀
Mooooooooorning swbluega, mooooooorning everyone!
Love it! Morning to you, swbluega! Morning everyone:)
Good Morning, desertflower! 😀
Morning, sweetness:)
Smiling to all my TOD family, lurkers and friends. Smiles to our Chipsticks & Dannystixs. I read your touching story about the rescued stranger and his short visit. It brought tears to my eyes how he warmed to the person who rescued him. I have rescue, fostered and found wonderful homes to 9 kittens the last two kitten cycle. They new families send pictures and it warms my heart they are in loving homes. I know exactly how you felt, the loss of the visitor leaving your home but the joy that he had someone if his very own. Without you my dear Chipsticks i don’t even want to contemplate his fate just his happy ending. Have you heard from the person who rescued him besides the picture you posted? Does she email progress reports?
{{{{{JoJo}}}}} ❤️ I just got a text from her last night saying ‘the gentleman is settling in beautifully’, but I want pics!!! Don’t want to hassle her for them though, just thrilled things are working out (so far!). You’re such an angel for rescuing those kittens, I just love love love people who show that kindness!
{{{{Chipsticks}}}}} Kindred Spirits who love animals……..
Morning Chips. Congrats, Sw. I’m greeting you with a smile this am.
Morning Jackie, a 🙂 for you! Have you been to the doctor yet?
Yeah and I’ve got other appointments on the docket. The good news is I don’t have a cough anymore. The bad news is I can’t seem to digest anything and there are no obvious reasons why. It’s been close to a year since I’ve been able to eat something without worrying about the consequences. Think of anything you might enjoy eating and I can’t have it. It’s a real drag.
Ah damn it Jackie, that’s awful, I knew you were having trouble but didn’t realize it was going on that long. Why the flippety flip can’t they fix you?!?!
Now that’s what I keep asking.
When I rule the world…..
Jackie, come on over to Mayo, I have a bed ready for you. 2nd opinions are always welcome. That can be really worrisome. I hope your doctors find out exactly what is going on. unsolicited advice. Are you taking probiotics, Prilosec or Digestive Enzymes before meals? I sometimes have the same problem but apparently not as severe. I have a hernia at the end of my esophagus so I have to take Prilosec everyday and I have been taking Digestive Enzymes and Probiotics, especially if you have had to take any kind of antibiotics. (((hugs)))
sending you healing prayers.
Thanks, Roberta. Yes, I do take probiotics and many other digestive aids. I had a pretty bad viral infection last spring that triggered a lot of problems, many of them now solved. What was left in the wake was a lot of “bad bacteria” in my digestive system that no amount of treatment has yet to address. It’s still a work in progress.
Oh my goodness. I am stumped. look up “the Medical Medium” he really is very good with foods, remedies for all sorts of things. If I come across something I will let you know. ((hugs)).
Jackie, I’m so sorry that the doctor’s have yet to figure out what’s causing this, so they can fix it. Sending my thoughts and prayers. I hope they find an answer real soon.
Good Morning, JackieG! 😀
I hope the PBO’s meeting with Democratic leaders is about forcing Republicans to address the President’s budget. The level of utter disrespect this Congress is showing toward the White House in not even looking at or discussing the President’s budget is really unprecedented and ugly. I hope PBO goes around the country talking about this to public groups and local media. People need to know the level of arrogant discourtesy this Congress is demonstrating to a President whose policies people overwhelmingly support. The behavior of the R yahoos in Congress is all of a piece with the boors and ignoramuses running for president of their party. They truly disgust me.
Don’t know how I missed this last year, the most amazing story *ever*
Oh Chips, this was so moving!
I was curious what happened to the girlfriend and son, so I Googled for more info and found this detailed article about the two men’s story. It’s even more amazing than in the documentary film:
http://site.macleans.ca/longform/his-brothers-keeper/
Good morning TOD!
Congrats swbluega 🙂
Almost parity ….
Good Morning, Bobfr. Thanks! 😀
Bob, I can’t tell you how happy this makes me feel. Iran is starting to make use of its greatest untapped resource–women power. If other ME countries woke up to this power, the possibilities for peace, progress and prosperity would be limitless.
So very true, JackieG!
The people and leaders of Iran looking forward to fast progress and some Americans want to go backwards.
This is just heartbreaking. We have FDR and Social Security to thank for preventing scenes like this from happening in the US.
Oppsie!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/09/bernie-sanders-loves-this-1-trillion-war-machine.html
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Sen. Bernie Sanders has railed against big defense corporations at rallies, but he has a more complex history with the military-industrial complex. Most notably, he’s supported a $1.2 trillion stealth fighter that’s considered by many to be one of the bigger boondoggles in Pentagon history.
Sanders has made his opposition to Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness a cornerstone of his campaign. But he hasn’t exactly been anti-war all his career. When it has come time to choose between defense jobs and a dovish defense policy, Sanders has consistently chosen to stand with the arms-makers rather than the peaceniks—leading to tension with some of the most adamant adherents of progressive ideology.
“Last Wednesday’s massacre at the Badshah Khan University in Charsadda, near Peshawar in Pakistan, is the latest in a long list of attacks on the country’s educational institutions and poignantly underscores the ideological polarisation that lies at the heart of the Taliban’s ‘war on education’ and their threats this week of more attacks to come.
Like many westerners, I had never heard of the university’s namesake, Abdel Gaffar Badshah Khan (1890 – 1988), until last July when I published an ‘investigative poem’ about him by Heathcote Williams.
I was to discover that, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Khan is a legendary figure – a Muslim hero of non-violent resistance to British colonialism and, with his friend and comrade Mahatma Gandhi, a vigorous opponent of the sectarian hatred and violence which continues to this day. Khan was to establish a 100,000-strong “unarmed army” of male and female “peace warriors” – a unique event in human history.
Khan was also a great believer in the power of education and, in an improbably progressive gesture, founded a girls’ school in Utmanzai in 1910 when he was only 20 years old. “If you wish to know how civilized a culture is,” Williams reports him as saying, “look at how they treat their women”.”
And, how they treat their children ….
thank you so much for these tweets….thank you
You’re welcome pf58 🙂
Wow, not one vote for Clinton?
I was troubled to hear Hillary complain about Bernie’s followers disrespecting her people online; she has a short memory. In 2008 Sen. Obama and his family were disrespected by Bubba her people and the media. He never complained or took the role of a victim. I guess it’s hard to swallow your own medicine.
…on Monday, Mr. Rubio, the Florida Republican, who has been under relentless criticism for uttering his talking points over and over in Saturday’s presidential debate, had another repetitious lapse.
He begins by complaining about the difficulties of raising children “in the 21st century” in light of “the values they try to ram down our throats.” And then, moments later, the rattled senator said nearly the same thing, complaining once more about how hard it’s becomes to raise children “in the 21st century” because of “the values they try to ram down our throats.”
…Rubio’s bad habits are catching up to him at an inconvenient time. The senator has long struggled with depth of thought, preferring superficial scripts to meaningful analysis. And while that may dazzle some observers for a while, eventually someone is going to expect a candidate to come up with an original thought that wasn’t written on a notecard and handed to a would-be president to memorize.
And on this front, Marco Rubio just isn’t ready for prime time. It’s almost shocking how unimpressive he can be when pressed to think for himself.
hahahaha, I was just going to post that section too. Steve is on a tear this morning.
😀
“And then, moments later, the rattled senator said nearly the same thing”
What rattled him? I don’t understand how such a dumb man can be considered qualified to run for President. His memorized memes aren’t going to go over well with the general electorate who expect our leaders to be sharp like our current President.
Here’s hoping we’ve moved past the entertainment/shiny surface portion of the primaries and people are starting to focus on the quality/substance of the candidates. Please let voters have sense enough to know that there has to be some depth to the person who is POTUS/CIC.
A most excellent, necessary read.
http://margaretandhelen.com/2016/02/08/there-is-a-reason-big-girls-dont-cry-we-havent-the-time/
My mother sometimes talks about a time when she would not be considered for a credit card without my father’s “permission”/co-sign. So the day that she was able to get credit on her own was a big deal for her…something we take for granted today.
Lots of things that women today (especially women) take for granted. They have no idea of the long, hard struggles those of us before them, waged. For all of us. They need to be taught/reminded that it wasn’t that long ago that women were property.
That’s so true df. Even a lot of women in management levels only have token authority…their voices not heard or overshadowed in meetings…unbreakable glass ceilings…not to mention the salary gap.
They talk about HRC yelling. Imagine how well a woman can be heard when a man decides they don’t want to listen and talks over them.
Women couldn’t get mortgages or loans without a “male” signature. We were completely discriminated against by the financial industry and were considered second class citizens.
And there is an entire generation of women walking around that have no idea of this truth….they need to have the urgent need to start caring before we ALL lose everything those before we, and those before us, worked so hard for.
Amen!
These are just some of the things that Hillary should address with young women…can you imagine if she had teamed up with FLOTUS for her LET Girls Learn initiative…in fact how many from the so-called Feminist movement have lent their support to this initiative…or to the President’s STEM program…calling on girls to go into the sciences…
how powerful would Hillary be if she had partnered with the First Lady to empower girls….
this is the true Feminism…
But some new ideas that the administration previewed in recent weeks, including on cancer research, opioid abuse and military projects, could have more life than Republicans care to admit. A $10-a-barrel oil tax for infrastructure and clean transportation projects is certain to be too much for conservatives, but administration officials said some initiatives would prevail in some form.
On Monday, 14 Democrats on the House Budget Committee signed a letter calling the snub “disrespectful to the committee members, the public and the president.”
But some of the president’s spending priorities are shared by key Republicans, including senators seeking re-election in swing states. Those include $1 billion to research cures for cancer and another $1 billion over two years to expand treatment for people addicted to prescription opioids or heroin.
Sw, this is why it’s important for people to KNOW what the president is proposing so that they can pressure their senators and congresspeople. I truly hope there is a full court press on the budget with the President going around our incompetent Congress directly to the American people.
One thing for sure…these past seven years have include many lessons and the President has learned.
I have no doubt that PBO has accounted for GOP (and as is becoming more apparent Democratic) obstruction in making his proposals a reality. There is probably a plan B and maybe a plan C that circumvents the necessity of congressional approval to make progress.
Full court press? Don’t hold your breath. The press is too busy occupying Trump or HRC ‘s latest attacks from her left and from her right.
Good morning TODVille.
FRANKLY…THIS BUDGET NEWS IS NO SURPRISE…THE REPUGNANTS INTEND TO DO NOTHING FOR THIS PRESIDENT BUT SAY GOODBYE…HOWEVER…THEIR FILTH AND SELF-CONSUMPTION WILL LEAVE THEM AS TRASH ON THE CURB!..THIS…WHATEVER IS LEFT OF THIS COUNTRY…WILL MISS PRESIDENT OBAMA!
LOL…there IS truth to this, I’m certain!
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0208-jacobs-republican-debates-scare-children-20160208-story.html
Carly Fiorina is on MSNBC right now. She states that she is more qualified than Hillary to be President because she “has more foreign policy experience”….? Seriously, that’s an exact quote. Not one ounce of push back from the panel listening to this drivel. This might be a clue as to why US electorate is generally clueless.
Grace, Carly is a legend in her own mind, which is a really scary place to be. She is as self-delusional as Trump.
Sure you are more qualified to be President then Hillary. One question Carly, last time you were in the leadership role how did it go?
She must be suffering from some type of mental trauma from her disastrous tenure at HP. She is in denial about that. She is in denial about the PP video not existing. So I suppose she is also in denial about her true abilities.
Dealing HP China sweatshops don’t count.
An observation. Ted Nugent is off his meds or needs to go ON some meds.
G’morning Chips & TOD! Congrats blue on #1 🙂 Happy Tuesday everyone! 🙂
Mooooooooorning Hoooooooooopefruit!!
“You know you are a hit when 112 million viewers watch the Super Bowl, and you only perform in that half hour known as halftime and have 115.5 million people watching you …. ”
https://t.co/0glY5L6xDV
“A banquet of all you can eat crazy”
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/02/samantha-bees-awesome-opening-monologue
Ok…HILARIOUS:)
That *is* hilarious! 😀 😀 😀
Good Morning, Everyone 🙂
Sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
……………………….
Marco Rubio, Lampooned for Repeating Himself, Does It Again
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Maybe it was just the end of a long, tiring day of campaigning. Or maybe Senator Marco Rubio’s opponents have gotten into his head.
But on Monday, Mr. Rubio, the Florida Republican, who has been under relentless criticism for uttering his talking points over and over in Saturday’s presidential debate, had another repetitious lapse.
Speaking to a crowd in Nashua, he was lamenting the decline in American family values.
Then he lamented the decline in American values again.
Coz brain is empty and the drilled material is limited.
Mental illness is covered under Obamacare. 🙂 🙂 🙂
DAMN>>>>
Keeps you explaining over and over again…your reason for Being….YOUR REASON FOR BEING!!!!!!
Not planning to explain any more…
And stay off the hamster wheel. There is no reason that Black people have to justify anything about ourselves. Let racists rot in their own foolishness.
We’d all be able to hear our dogs yelling “Hi, Hey, Hi, Hey, Hi.”
Good Morning BFF and TOD.
You don’t expect to see the childish behavior that you thought you left behind in primary school demonstrated in individuals who are seeking to become the leader of the free world…Bullying, Crying to Mommy, Name Calling, Pouting, Tantrums, Taking my Ball and Going Home, Acting without Thinking…
It’s a shame we’re seeing all this and more in these primaries.
it hurt his heart to write this.
I hope I am not reading too much into the Brooks piece but I see it as devious. I know that President Obama has been treated as a pariah, labeled with hatefilled paranoid and bigoted names by the GOP. By demonizing him they have tried to distract from their utter failure and cruelty. Now we have a new election, so Brooks switches to suggesting that the President is noble (of course Brooks doesn’t agree with his policies and never admits the acts of hatred from his side) but now the candidates “on both sides” are lacking in all the good traits his now assigns to Obama. There is absolutely no comparison between the hate speech and failed Tea Party policies on the GOP side, the weird and dysfunctional individuals they have on their slate and Hillary Clinton. Brooks used the article to suggest that she was not honest, tactful, optimistic, etc. That was, to my mind the whole awful truth that this dissembling show of respect for the President reflects. We need to be very very careful here. Does he think we’ll buy his everyone but Obama does it line. No way. Not true. We are not that dumb to fall for the latest tricks. And to David Brooks and all the GOP supporters. You have so much to be ashamed of but I don’t think you are capable of it so I don’t believe any acknowledgement of the President’s good character. Its like Ted Cruz praising MLK. God, I hate manipulation.
Good catch, catrst. There is no way that our candidates (Sanders and Clinton) are in any way as hateful, divisive, bigoted and nasty as the candidates on the Republican side. Whatever you want to say about Sanders and Clinton, they don’t advocate policies which would severely damage people of color, Muslims, women’s reproductive rights, voter’s rights, gay rights, etc. Both have vocalized policies which would help the majority of Americans.
There is no “both sides” when it comes to American politics. All of the ugliness is coming from only one side and people like Brooks have helped to foster that ugliness among Republican leaders and voters.
President Barack Obama “traits of character and leadership” scared the GOP and their benefactors out of their wits.
That is why 15 seditionists including Ryan met on Inauguration Day in 2009,
and pledged to block every economic measure that would dig us out of the Bush Great Depression.
In the hopes that the new President would take the blame and America would fall down a hole.
This brand of Republicans are the Hollow Men.
Never forget that when the first Black President was being inaugurated, Republicans met to plot how they were going to defeat his agenda. That is what Republicans are all about — obstructing and not leading.
This is how i feel about that article
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks & TOD family.
Is there more to this interview. If so have been unable to find the link. Any info? Thanks.
DT can call someone a pussy now. How low can they go?
Low AND offensive. Shocked I tell you!
He’s so vulgar and filthy and the MSM just eat it up. Imagine a person of color saying those things. NOPE.
OUR FALLEN SOCIETY IS SUCKING WATER FROM THE CURB…BTW…I JUST SENT OVER A GREAT ONE TO MY FB…TED NUGENT KNOCKING JEWS..I APPROPRIATLEY TITLED IT ‘PIGS IN COWBOY HATS!’…DONALD TRUMP NEEDS ONE! ALTHOUGH RUBIO SPENDS HIS TIME KNOCKING PBO..I DO LOVE HIS DEVOTION TO CHRIST..HE IS A CHILD WHO WILL HAVE TO LEARN MUCH BEFORE HE OPENS HIS MOUTH. WE LEARN IN CHRISTIANITY NOT TO BELITTLE EVERYONE…WE LEARN TO ACT HUMBLY AS CHRIST HAS DONE…WE ALL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO TO EVEN COME NEAR THAT CORNER…CHRIST IS PERFECTION AND WE ARE ALL FILTHY RAGS. I’M TIRED OF THE ELECTION TRASH..IT IS ALL IN GOD’S HANDS…NOONE ELSE!
off to work:) have a good day everyone…remember that small act of kindness for someone else….
Sorry, for the double post, I deleted the above by mistake.
Axelrod subtweets Bill and Hillary Clinton after shake-up report
By Jennifer Shutt
02/08/16 04:28 PM EST
David Axelrod took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Hillary Clinton’s political strategy in New Hampshire, following news that her campaign is considering shaking up its staffing after an expected loss there.
“When the exact same problems crop up in separate campaigns, with different staff, at what point do the principals say, ‘Hey, maybe it’s US?’,” the former top aide to President Barack Obama tweeted.
There was a lot of sneering about PBO’s experience as a community organizer, but I bet there are those who wish they had those skills and could run a campaign as he did.
❤
LHM/ This guy looks like death warmed over. I hope he’s not sick. Geesh! 😯
I can’t believe he is still alive. He’s looks extremely unhealthy. And that Trump hairdo – UGH.
Ooooooooooo…nasty…..
No wonder kids are frightened……i am scared too.
I know it is childish to comment about someone’s looks but YIKES!!
Chat on
http://theobamadiary.com/2016/02/09/chat-away-770/
Budget Committee Democrats Unanimously Condemn Republican Refusal to Hold Hearing on President’s Budget
https://vanhollen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/budget-committee-democrats-unanimously-condemn-republican-refusal-to
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Chairman Price:
We are appalled at your decision refusing to hold a hearing where the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) presents the President’s fiscal year 2017 budget. This choice is more than just a rejection of the House Budget Committee’s longstanding, bipartisan tradition; it is disrespectful to the Committee members, the public and the President.
You deem the President’s budget unworthy of review – sight unseen – because past Administration budgets have rejected the Tea Party agenda. Indeed, the President’s budgets embody starkly different priorities than recent Republican budgets that disinvest in America, privatize Medicare, hurt the middle class, slash social safety net programs like Medicaid, threaten retirement security, protect special interest tax loopholes for the ultra-wealthy, and use gimmicky accounting tricks to falsely claim balance.
Every year since 1975, the Budget Committee has held a hearing on the President’s budget with a high-level witness representing OMB. That hearing provides Members of Congress their first opportunity to examine the breadth of the President’s request. While other committees may hold later hearings that focus on specific aspects of the Administration’s request, the Budget Committee is the only one that also looks at its overall budgetary impact.
In fact, at the start of the 114th Congress the Majority of the Committee approved an oversight plan that states its intention to hold hearings with both the OMB Director and the Treasury Secretary on the President’s fiscal year 2017 budget. That oversight plan also states that “In the process of developing the annual concurrent budget resolution, the Committee will hold hearings and receive testimony from Members of Congress, Cabinet-level and other Federal officials, State and local officials, and expert witnesses to review the budget and economic outlook, the President’s budget submissions and other budget proposals.”
We urge you to rethink your choice, and to ensure that the Committee lives up to its responsibilities to our members, this Congress and the American people.
Sincerely,
Chris Van Hollen (MD-08), Ranking Member
John Yarmuth (KY-03)
Bill Pascrell (NJ-09)
Tim Ryan (OH-13)
Gwen Moore (WI-04)
Kathy Castor (FL-11)
Jim McDermott (WA-07)
Barbara Lee (CA-13)
Mark Pocan (WI-02)
Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM-01)
Debbie Dingell (MI-12)
Ted Lieu (CA-33)
Donald Norcross (NJ-01)
Seth Moulton (MA-06)
Issues: Appropriations, Budget
are we there yet?
are we there yet?
are we there yet?
not only but also