A Tweet Or Two

President Obama greets Pope Francis as he arrives in the US for historic visit: http://t.co/N803BV5zaOhttps://t.co/EszD1qN0kj

— ABC News (@ABC) September 22, 2015

Welcome to America, Pope Francis! http://t.co/XvcysgCB6b #PopeInDC pic.twitter.com/a8B8uHAW4Y

— People (@people) September 22, 2015

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Millions of families are more secure thanks to the ACA. Join them and #GetCovered on Nov 1: http://t.co/PJ7xIL6FjY https://t.co/GF6yS0aHol

— President Obama (@POTUS44) September 22, 2015

News → about 17.6M Americans have gained coverage as #ACA provisions have taken effect. #ACAToday #ACAisWorking pic.twitter.com/wB9HAcfUyP

— Sylvia Burwell (@SecBurwell) September 22, 2015

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Our right to vote is sacred. It's the foundation of our democracy. You can find out how to register to vote at http://t.co/8kaqY0U3fn.

— President Obama (@POTUS44) September 22, 2015

Who was Thurgood Marshall before he became a judge? http://t.co/QFhNv4OyTj pic.twitter.com/0YbQT2EjbN

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 20, 2015

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I was beaten, my skull was fractured, & I was arrested more than 40 times so each & every one of us can register to vote. Do your part #NVRD

— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) September 22, 2015

This was Louisiana literacy test that black voters had to pass in 1964 to register before VRA #CelebrateNVRD pic.twitter.com/KXMpJ522lX

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) September 22, 2015

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In a first for US history, Obama has now filled 53% of top gov posts w/ women or minorities.

Clinton was 37%; W 26% http://t.co/KGwovaLjrS

— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) September 21, 2015

Fired gay Montgomery County teacher invited to White House to welcome pope http://t.co/vTJl9yvEz9 pic.twitter.com/L1fjSiv5XC

— Action News on 6abc (@6abc) September 22, 2015

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Go get registered and bring others with you

Happy National Voter Registration Day! Map shows where to register online: http://t.co/7x084iXzv2 #NVRD pic.twitter.com/pxzVbCpJMN

— The Pew Trusts (@pewtrusts) September 22, 2015

Texas jail safety review begins without #SandraBland family http://t.co/uRDitwYqgu pic.twitter.com/p80f3foYxf

— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) September 22, 2015

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50 million Americans who are eligible to vote aren't registered, @WhiteHouse says. http://t.co/n0tWAEzvPm #CelebrateNVRD

— 7News DC (@7NewsDC) September 22, 2015

Study shows recent US immigrants healthier, commit fewer crimes than US citizens http://t.co/8BRPR0hsZl pic.twitter.com/u2iQANat28

— Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) September 22, 2015

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#BlackExcellence - Congrats to the @Morehouse debate team on winning an IPDA tournament in Kentucky! @justinlamar__ pic.twitter.com/DJCV6Nq3y3

— EBONY MAGAZINE (@EBONY) September 22, 2015

Love this.😌😌😌🙇🏽 pic.twitter.com/JDSHEfsKVE

— ReallyRandom Brandon (@RRandomBrandon) September 21, 2015

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A 10 Year Old Mogul Signs a Multi-Million Dollar Deal with Whole Foods for Her Lemonadehttp://t.co/Y6EqDwRt9E#BLM pic.twitter.com/bCav3SIqeC

— All Black Everything (@BlackHolistic) September 18, 2015

Meet "Captain Kate," the first American female to command a cruise ship http://t.co/pwkFybqlEa pic.twitter.com/0yVIPEfnyX

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 22, 2015

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Overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support shown to me over the past 24 hours. I'm so grateful. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/RnT6NOdFWC

— Viola Davis (@violadavis) September 22, 2015

Lead Actress, Drama winner is @ViolaDavis, @HowToGetAwayABC beaming in the #Emmys photo lounge! Sponsored b... https://t.co/ar6yZcIhIr

— Television Academy (@TelevisionAcad) September 21, 2015

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to sum up the #Emmys2015
Viola Davis, Regina King, and Uzo Aduba 🙌👑 pic.twitter.com/xEgKk4g2Xb

— Spylight (@Spylight) September 21, 2015

.@ViolaDavis on historic #Emmys win: 'My story doesn't end here': http://t.co/rimZ6lITwm pic.twitter.com/vMPbBJ2cy6

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 21, 2015

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Don’t come for Viola if she didn’t send for you

https://twitter.com/BasicBlaecGirl/status/645872544449323008

Ta-Nehisi Coates geeks out, will write newest "Black Panther" comic http://t.co/yxcDn3OmQL pic.twitter.com/qmtaxmWcYQ

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) September 22, 2015

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 Scumbag

The CEO who raised a cancer drug’s price by 5,000% is firing back at his haters on Twitter http://t.co/GMzkzC4IIv pic.twitter.com/MGtPpNJ4sr

— Splinter (@splinter_news) September 22, 2015

CEO of drug company that hiked prices was accused of serious 'harassment' » http://t.co/HZz1KiOUBJ pic.twitter.com/KJJHNVTl6Y

— CNBC (@CNBC) September 22, 2015

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President Obama: Changing The Face Of Government For The Better

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Juliet Eilperin: Obama Has Vastly Changed The Face Of The Federal Bureaucracy

Friday afternoon announcements in Washington are usually aimed at attracting as little attention as possible, but last Friday was different. President Obama’s decision to nominate Eric Fanning — an openly gay man — to head a branch of the military which only four years ago did not allow gays and lesbians to serve openly, was both historic and attention-grabbing. And it underscored an often-overlooked feature of the Obama presidency: Obama has presided over the most demographically diverse administration in history, according to a new analysis of his top appointments. The majority of top policy appointments within the executive branch are held by women and minorities for the first time in history. The shifts are significant enough, experts say, that they may have forever transformed the face of government. The Obama White House, by contrast, has established specific programs to boost diversity among appointees.

For the 1st time ever the majority of top exec branch posts aren't held by white men. Here's how @POTUS @vj44 did it http://t.co/1TneWmUYEZ

— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) September 21, 2015

The Presidential Personnel Office targets historically black colleges and universities, as well as minority-serving institutions, as part of a new campus recruitment program. It has a liaison to identify candidates by working with leaders from underrepresented groups, including those who are LGBT or have disabilities. The impact of Obama’s diversity efforts could reverberate for decades in people such as Michael Blake, a son of Jamaican immigrants who was homeless as a child but worked on Obama’s two presidential campaigns and in the White House as associate director of public engagement. Last year, Blake won election to the New York State Assembly, with the help of a lot of other Obama alumni, including Marlon Marshall, who is now Hillary Rodham Clinton’s director of state campaigns and political engagement. Blake’s campaign slogan was about his transformation: “No House to the White House.”  Obama, Blake said, has helped create a new network of people of color now climbing the ranks of government. “He did that,” Blake said. “He grew that.”

More here

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President Obama admin: 53.5% women and minorities
W: 25.6%
Bill Clinton: 37.5%http://t.co/R6aUl6RVXL pic.twitter.com/dkoA5knQj3

— meta (@metaquest) September 21, 2015

Where did @POTUS actually deliver on change? For the 1st time ever white men are a minority of top exec branch posts http://t.co/0j4V8cFDMG

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) September 21, 2015

Misogynist!

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, President Obama’s Supreme Court appointments, with Justice Ruth Bader, Oct, 2010

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Surrounded by members of Congress, signing the Lilly Ledbetter Bill, Jan, 2009

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….. at a Homeland Security Council meeting with Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

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Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President

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Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, 2009-2013

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Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, 2009-2013

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Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary

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Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations

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Dr Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General

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evening all

King of Bain – the 60 second version

And the 30 second version:

Greg Sargent: There seems to be widespread agreement that the half-hour documentary attacking Mitt Romney’s Bain years that was released yesterday by the pro-Gingrich Super PAC was a very effective piece of political communication. Ed Kilgore, for instance, described it as a “heat seaking missle aimed directly at the white working class id”.

But what will South Carolina voters themselves see? Will this attack translate well in the 30-second and 60-second ads based on this documentary that the Newt Super PAC ad will run in the state?

…. Rick Tyler, the GOP operative who works for Winning The Future, says the ads are part of a $3.4 million buy that includes other media. We should obviously treat that figure with serious skepticism until the money is actually spent, but if that’s true, that’s a significant buy for South Carolina.

More here

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The Week

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Robert Shrum: … what he spoke on election night in New Hampshire puts the presumptive Republican nominee at odds with the essential character of America. In a well-coiffed gentrification of the racist-tinged attack on Barack Obama as “the other” – a somehow alien and illegitimate president – Flip Romney, in full pander mode to the paranoia of the far right, arraigned the president for “tak[ing] his inspiration from the capitals of Europe” — and seeking “to turn America into a European-style entitlement society.”

…. In reality, Obama has been defending and extending the nation’s long march toward fulfilling its founding ideals. It’s Romney who, on critical economic issues, takes his inspiration from the capitals of Europe….

…. I doubt Romney will give up the xenophobia anytime soon. It plays well among primary voters who are suspicious that he’s not reliably reactionary; it’s a code-coated formula to depict Barack Obama as someone from another country, another continent, another tradition. In that sense, it’s a modulated form of “birtherism.”

Romney’s right when he says this election is about “the soul of America”. With his hostility to economic justice and the social safety net, his record in business, his desertion of the American quest for equal rights, and his embrace of floundering European economics, he would, if he ever got there, be the president of a very different and lesser United States…..

Full article here

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TPM: If a speech Thursday morning by one of his top economists is any indication, President Barack Obama is going all in with the 2012 re-election message of stemming the rise in income inequality and reforming a system that’s increasingly perceived to be rigged in favor of the rich.

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan Krueger rattled off a flurry of statistics illustrating the rise of inequality and its connection to the shrinking middle class. He blamed it on economic policies tilted to favor top earners – including income tax reforms (presumably during the Bush era) and the “drastic cut in the estate tax.”

He also argued that implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans are eager to repeal, will help reduce the disparities.

It’s a message that bore an uncanny resemblance to the “Teddy Roosevelt” speech President Obama delivered in early December, which was interpreted by many as laying out the grounds for his re-election campaign …. Romney has taken to decrying this message as the “politics of envy” and “class warfare” …. Krueger’s speech Thursday makes clear that that’s a fight the White House is happy to have.

Full post here

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The Week

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Our old GOPolitico friend Byron Tau got very excited today about the date on that DoJ memo on recess appointments. Read and learn Byron:

Mother Jones: ….. The opinion itself is dated January 6, two days after the appointments were announced – but that doesn’t mean the opinion was sought retroactively. “It is common, especially where time is of the essence, to give legal advice prior to a formal written opinion,” says Marty Lederman, a former attorney with the Office of Legal Counsel. “It takes time to produce an opinion with this level of detail.”

Young Byron then updated his post with this: White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters in the briefing that the DoJ memo was based on advice given by the president’s Office of Legal Counsel. “The opinion was rendered verbally prior to the date of the opinion itself,” Carney said, explaining the discrepancy. “The opinion was based on the advice provided by OLC”

Discrepancy? 😆 Byron? Quit while you’re that far behind behind.

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Full video here

“This is typical Barack, saying something he shouldn’t”:

ooops

Eric Cantor’s website today.

But, but, but: he said Congress is in session!

Looks like President Obama’s recess appointments were ……… legal. 😳

Jesse Lee

afternoon all

Thanks defytheodds

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The Hill: Justice expands definition of rape – Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, said the administration supported the update and worked with DOJ on the matter. The Department of Justice has broadened its definition of rape to lead to more comprehensive statistical reporting of the crime nationwide. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday announced the changes to the Uniform Crime Report’s definition of rape, which the Justice Department said better reflect state criminal codes….

More here

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President Obama speaks with four campaign supporters during lunch at Scion restaurant in Washington

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Thanks Esmerelda!

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Mediaite

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CBS

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Steve Benen: GOP refuses to let House Dems speak….. When President Obama wants to raise the debt ceiling, congressional Republicans respond, “You can’t do that; we’re not in session.” When the White House wants to make recess appointments, congressional Republicans respond, “You can’t do that; we are in session.” And when James Clyburn wants to say a few words from the House floor, congressional Republicans respond, “You can’t do that; we’re not in session.”

Full post here

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The Week

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Buy it at the OFA store

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rise and shine

Marketwatch: The U.S. economy gained 200,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5%, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast the U.S. would add 150,000 jobs last month, with the jobless rate edging up to 8.7% from an initially reported 8.6% in November.

Subtracting another decline in government jobs, the private sector boosted payrolls by 212,000. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% last month to $23.24 and hours worked edged up to 34.4. Job gains for November and October were little changed. The U.S. created 1.64 million jobs in 2011.

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Steve Benen: Mitt Romney will probably find today’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics very discouraging. The rest of us, though, have reason to smile.

…. when monthly job growth reaches 200,000, that’s genuinely good news, and the drop in the overall unemployment to 8.5% puts the figure at nearly a three-year low, which is also encouraging. Under the circumstances, this is one of the best jobs reports since the recession began four years ago.

Full post here

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It’s a bad day for Rusty 😥

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TPM

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Reuters: The young men in business suits, gingerly picking their way among the millwrights, machinists and pipefitters at Kansas City’s Worldwide Grinding Systems steel mill…. “They looked like a bunch of high school kids to me. A bunch of Wall Street preppies,” says Jim Linson, an electronics repairman who worked at the plant for 40 years….

Apparently they liked what they saw. Soon after, in October 1993, Bain Capital, co-founded by Mitt Romney, became majority shareholder in a steel mill that had been operating since 1888.

…. Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they’d been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month…..

Full article here

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Paul Krugman: ….. Mr. Romney claims that Mr. Obama has been a job destroyer, while he was a job-creating businessman …. his claims about the Obama record border on dishonesty, and his claims about his own record are well across that border.

….. the president inherited an economy in free fall, and can’t be held responsible for job losses during his first few months, before any of his own policies had time to take effect. So how much of that Obama job loss took place in, say, the first half of 2009?

The answer is: more than all of it. The economy lost 3.1 million jobs between January 2009 and June 2009 and has since gained 1.2 million jobs. That’s not enough, but it’s nothing like Mr. Romney’s portrait of job destruction.

Incidentally, the previous administration’s claims of job growth always started not from Inauguration Day but from August 2003, when Bush-era employment hit its low point. By that standard, Mr. Obama could say that he has created 2.5 million jobs since February 2010.

Full article here

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Washington Post editorial: ….. Republicans may well be correct that Mr. Obama is playing politics with these appointments …. But so what? Both the consumer bureau and the labor relations board are agencies of the U.S. government, created by Congress, and it is inexcusable that congressional obstructionism would leave them unable to function. If Republicans don’t like the structure or purpose of either agency, they should try to alter them through legislation. Meanwhile their filibustering against qualified nominees to make political points or extort concessions from the White House cripples government and discourages good people from serving. That is the real poisonous practice, in which both parties have engaged. Until there is a de-escalation, the country will continue to pay a high price.

Full article here

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New York Times: Obama administration officials announced on Friday that they will propose a fix to a notorious snag in immigration law that will spare hundreds of thousands of American citizens from prolonged separations from immigrant spouses and children.

The change that immigration officials are offering would benefit United States citizens who are married to or have children who are illegal immigrants. It would correct a bureaucratic Catch-22 that those Americans now confront when their spouses or children apply to become legal permanent residents.

Full article here

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evening all (updated, a whole bunch of times)

Yesterday in Ohio

President Barack Obama greets neighbors outside the home of William and Endia Eason in Cleveland, Ohio, Jan. 4, 2012

(Despite having the latest version, I can’t see these Videopress videos with Firefox any more, but I can with Safari. What’s up with Firefox?!)

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NYT: For the first time in many years, manufacturing stands out as an area of strength in the American economy.

When the Labor Department reports December employment numbers on Friday, it is expected that manufacturing companies will have added jobs in two consecutive years. Until last year, there had not been a single year when manufacturing employment rose since 1997.

More here

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Thanks John McCain!!

Thanks Loriah

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David Rothkopf (Foreign Policy): …. the Obama track record on many fronts is much better than the administration gives itself credit for. They could be doing much, much more to tout what is an impressive litany of successes.

While the list of those successes is long and compelling-defeating Bin Laden, getting out of Iraq, helping to oust Qaddafi, restoring our reputation internationally, resetting our international priorities to better coincide with our long term interests (the “pivot” to a focus on Asia), producing meaningful healthcare reform, producing significant financial services reforms, stopping the downward spiral in the economy and laying the foundations of recovery, etc. – let me focus on three areas that deserve much more attention and appreciation ….. ** See article **

…. the president is actually doing remarkably well in the world’s toughest job right now, and he is and has been doing so under truly extraordinarily adverse circumstances. This is one of those circumstances in which the substance is better than the PR – and it’s time for the White House’s political and communications brain trust to get out a clean sheet of paper and begin to make new and better plans for claiming the credit the Obama team deserves.

Full article here

Thanks cat48

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Friday:

11:40: PBO delivers brief remarks at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

12:15: PBO has lunch with winners of a campaign contest.

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The Hill

Thanks Liberal Librarian

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Thanks Meta

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Jonathan Cohn: Should President Obama use the recess appointment power when Republicans in Congress refuse even to consider his nominees? You better believe it.

Not only are Republicans blocking Obama’s nominations at a record rate. They are doing so in order to impose their own ideological agenda and, in some cases, to undermine duly passed laws they don’t like but can’t repeal.

That’s a modern-day form of nullification … Obama would be derelict in his duties if he did not use every inch of executive branch authority to overcome it.

…. based on a series of conversations today, I think Obama was within his rights after all.

Full post here

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TPM: Mitt Romney’s tax plan is more complex than those of his current and erstwhile primary competitors. But in broad effect it accomplishes the conservative goal of dramatically lowering taxes on the wealthy at the expense of the lower and middle classes.

Full post here

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Thanks Hopefruit

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Thanks nintendowii10

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You can buy this screenprint at the OFA store – here

Thanks GoBrooklyn

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Chicago HQ

afternoon all

Iowa Democratic Party

Last week at Firebaggerlake:

😳

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USA Today: President Obama announced a new military strategy on Thursday that will cut the Pentagon budget by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

Speaking from the Pentagon, Obama said the plan is “smart, strategic” and sets priorities.

…. The new military strategy includes $487 billion in cuts over the next decade. An additional $500 billion in cuts could be coming if Congress follows through on plans for deeper reductions. The announcement comes weeks after the U.S. officially ended the Iraq War and after a decade of increased defense spending in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

More here

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President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta after the president spoke on the Defense Strategic Review at the Pentagon

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Washington Post

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Dana Milbank: If this is Mitt Romney’s idea of a victory rally, one shudders to think what would have happened if he had lost the Iowa caucuses. The day after his impossibly thin eight-vote victory …. he flew here for a town hall meeting at Manchester Central High School, where he was to bask in the endorsement of his 2008 arch rival, John McCain.

But the senator grimaced when he was introduced, and as Romney delivered his own stump speech, an increasingly impatient McCain pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch. McCain gave his endorsement address without mentioning Romney’s Iowa win until the end. “By the way, we forgot to congratulate him on his landslide victory last night,” he said, laughing. Romney ignored him.

….. Romney continued to wrestle with words when he took the stage … “What a, uh, big night we had last night, or what a big morning we had, uh, last morning, this morning, in, uh, Iowa,” he began…..

Full article here

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Randall Enos

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Ah, the Firebaggers just keep on embarrassing themselves …. from Firebaggerlake:

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Raw Story

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Washington Monthly: What If Obama Loses? … there’s a widespread assumption that extreme positions taken in the (GOP) primaries will fade in the general election as candidates “move to the center,” and will disappear entirely once the serious business of governing begins. Surely President Newt Gingrich would not get rid of child labor laws. Surely President Perry would not seek to eliminate three cabinet departments.

We don’t think that this year, with this GOP, those assumptions are warranted. And so we asked a distinguished group of reporters and scholars to think through the hitherto unthinkable: What if one of these people actually wins?

Full post here

Thanks BWD

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Chart of the Century:

Steve Benen (thanks Meta)

rise and shine

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Reuters: New claims for unemployment benefits fell by 15,000 last week in the latest sign the labor market was improving and could help the country resist the effects of a likely euro zone recession.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 372,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s claims data was revised up to 387,000 from the previously reported 381,000.

…. Claims have now fallen in four of the last five weeks, and the four-week moving average – a better measure of trends – fell 3,250 to 376,500, the lowest level since June 2008.

Full article here

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The Hill: President Obama on Thursday will unveil a summer-jobs initiative that the White House says is already on track to create 180,000 “work opportunities” in the private sector in 2012.

That is the number of opportunities, which includes mentoring and unpaid internships, that companies have told the administration they are willing to create. Some 70,000 jobs are paid, the White House says.

…. “Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of executive actions the Obama administration is taking to strengthen the economy and move the country forward because we can’t wait for Congress to act,” a White House statement reads.

Full post here

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TPM

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Vanity Fair – The Dark Side of Mitt Romney (Thanks LOL)

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Chicago Tribune

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Morning everyone 😉