Friday’s Good

Artist In Chief

6 years ago today, Obama revealed his singing voice to the world pic.twitter.com/Scq8zf4drb

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 19, 2018

Good Memories

The Obamas: A True Meaning Of Family Values

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Annie Gabillet: How the Obamas Taught Us What Family Values Really Mean

I came of political age during an era of “family values.” I cast my first vote for president of the United States in 2004, the year so-called values voters helped pass laws banning same-sex marriage in 11 states. In the political language of the time, family values meant opposing gay marriage, opposing abortion, opposing stem cell research. Many politicians publicly position themselves as respectable public servants who put God and the traditional family first — especially after President Bill Clinton’s sex scandal in the late ’90s. But over the last seven years, we’ve witnessed a president who showed us what family values really look like, rather than tell us in campaign commercials. In President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, we’ve witnessed a consistent example of mutual love and respect that’s both practical and inspiring.

Both Barack and Michelle have worked hard to strengthen other American families with initiatives that focus on families and children. With Let’s Move!, Michelle Obama put herself and her dance moves out there to encourage parents to make good choices about family health and nutrition. With My Brother’s Keeper, a program launched in 2014, the president made efforts to encourage responsible fatherhood and close opportunity gaps faced by young men of color. And with Let Girls Learn, Michelle took the cause global, stressing that girls’ education is about more than gender equality: it’s essential to economic development. Again, the first couple is putting family values into action. We don’t hear much about family values anymore, but we have seen them on display during the Obama White House. I credit the Obamas and their actions for reminding us what family values really look like.

More here

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Smile Into The Night

 

Rise and Shine

President Barack Obama on Marine One en route to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England following the NATO Summit in Wales, Sept. 5, 2014 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Instagrams from the President’s trip to Estonia and Wales: http://t.co/kxVVwRUlzV

— petesouza (@petesouza) September 6, 2014

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In case you missed it, love this:

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“He was really a sweetie. He asked us all our names… (his) photographer took a photo for us” http://t.co/O8U4rKoM2F pic.twitter.com/hDJdckUgP5

— Richard Hine (@richardhine) September 6, 2014

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How a British ‘Bee’ Met @BarackObama at Stonehenge http://t.co/0UWhuaph0x http://t.co/eLnaElRq9s via @WSJPolitics pic.twitter.com/twsEqIfTPt

— The Lovely Plains (@DaRiverZkind) September 5, 2014

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@AFP

At Stonehenge yesterday

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So this is how it felt to live in John McCain’s time?! pic.twitter.com/yp6bHs3NwV

— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) September 6, 2014

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A legend who rocks visits a legend in rocks. (Pic via @TheObamaDiary) #Obama #Stonehenge #p2 pic.twitter.com/GAP5GgbKVp

— Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) September 5, 2014

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@TheObamaDiary Drill for oil!!! #UniteBlue

— Michael Terry (@michaelterry337) September 6, 2014

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President Barack Obama bids farewell to National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice before boarding Marine One at the Boscomb Down Airbase landing zone for departure from Wiltshire en route to Fairford, England, Sept. 5, 2014 (Photo by Pete Souza)

More Pete Souza photos from the trip here

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Welcome home Mr President, yet another foreign trip where you did us all proud. pic.twitter.com/Dax9PlSi7T

— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) September 6, 2014

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On This Day

While the President was waiting anxiously backstage before his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., daughters Malia and Sasha came in to wish him well.” Sept. 6, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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The Obama and Biden families joined together onstage following the President’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.” Sept. 6, 2012 (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

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First Lady Michelle Obama participates in musical activities with students during a back to school “Let’s Move!” Active Schools event at Orr Elementary School in Washington, D.C., Sept. 6, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

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Early Bird Chat

On This (Yester)Day: First Lady Michelle Obama in London, during the 2012 Olympics, with David Beckham.

*Cough* Red arrow.

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MoooOOOooorning – Happy Monday!

Happy Father’s Day, 44!

Happy Father’s Day also, to the men of TOD – be you biological, adopted, step, father figure. Thank you for having our backs, thank you for the smiles, thank you for the encouragement, thank you for your bad dad jokes, thank you for the embarrassment, thank you for the hi-5’s, thank you for letting us know that as long as we give it our best shot, we are more than good enough; thank you for the foundation that allows us to lift our heads high as we venture out into the world. Thanks for being great dads!

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#HappyFathersDay, Barack! Our girls are lucky to have such a great Dad. -mo pic.twitter.com/mZjefIHaWz

— First Lady- Archived (@FLOTUS44) June 15, 2014

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Hugs for Dad: Happy Father's Day. pic.twitter.com/sfN0c39tHv

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 15, 2014

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Happy Father's Day! pic.twitter.com/kUsXpDDL8U

— VP Biden (Archived) (@VP44) June 15, 2014

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Chat Away

Elections Matter

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Washington Post: Obama Judges Tip Appeals Court To Democrats

When President Bush II left the White House in 2009, the 13 U.S. courts of appeal were firmly under Republican appointees’ control. Ten appeals courts had majority GOP judges, two were evenly split and only one had a majority of Democrats. President Obama’s 49 appeals court appointees have dramatically altered the landscape. As of the Senate’s recess on May 23, nine of those courts had majority Democratic appointees and four had Republican majorities.

(There are 10 vacancies in the circuit courts. One Obama nominee is awaiting a Senate vote and three nominees pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.) The change, much feared by Republicans, is not necessarily shocking. But the transformation, in just 5 1/2 years, said University of Pittsburgh law professor Arthur D. Hellman, an authority on the federal circuit courts, marks ”a huge shift in a very short period of time.” And it means that Democratic appointed judges “have the ability to control every important case if they wish to” in those nine circuits, he said.

More here

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Timothy B. Lee: Obama Has Secured Democratic Majorities On Most Federal Appeals Courts

A president’s Supreme Court nominees get a lot of attention, but presidents shape less visible parts of the judiciary too. Barack Obama is no exception. The Washington Post has a chart showing how the president has changed the composition of the nation’s appeals courts over the last five and a half years: Now, it’s important to say that courts are not supposed to be partisan institutions.

Still, Democratic judicial nominees tend to be more liberal than Republican nominees. And so the growing number of Democrat-appointed judges in our appeals courts will push American jurisprudence to the left on a wide range of issues. And because Obama’s nominees will stay on the bench long after Obama leaves office, these nominations will be one of his most durable legacies.

More here

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