rise and shine

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NYT Editorial: President Obama’s fruitless three-year search for compromise with the Republicans ended in a thunderclap of a speech on Tuesday, as he denounced the party and its presidential candidates for cruelty and extremism. He accused his opponents of imposing on the country a “radical vision” that “is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity.”

….The speech was the first time that Mr. Obama linked Mr. Romney, by name, to his party’s dishonest budget and discredited trickle-down policies. As Mr. Obama pointed out, Mr. Romney described as “marvelous” a budget that would drastically cut student financial aid, medical research, Head Start classrooms and environmental protections. Mr. Obama further ridiculed the budget’s deficit-cutting goal as “laughable” because it refuses to acknowledge the need for new revenues.

…. Mr. Obama provided a powerful signal on Tuesday that he intends to make this election about the Republican Party’s failure to confront, what he called, “the defining issue of our time”: restoring a sense of economic security while giving everyone a fair shot, rather than enabling only a shrinking number of people to do exceedingly well. His remarks promise a tough-minded campaign that will call extremism and dishonesty by name.

Full editorial here

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Gov Martin O’Malley appears from 7:30 in the video

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Bloomberg: Companies in the U.S. expanded payrolls in March, showing the labor market is strengthening, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.

Employment increased by 209,000 for the month after a revised 230,000 gain in February, figures from ADP Employer Services showed today…

….. Businesses added 215,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate held at 8.3 percent, economists project a Labor Department report will show in two days.

More here

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The Week

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Hadley Freeman (The Guardian): And so, as widely dreaded, the Republican primaries have dragged on into April. Well played, everyone! In a country so ruthless that TV shows can get cancelled after just one episode, maintaining such a long-running entertainment programme is an achievement. Admittedly, this is largely due to the fact that all of its featured stars are so uninspiringly bad….

…. one must not underestimate the impulse of Romney’s own party towards the ABR tactic – Anyone But Romney – one that has led to a sex-obsessed homophobe in a sweater vest and the Pillsbury Doughboy, AKA Newt Gingrich, being touted as sorta serious contenders for a presidential election …. Rick Santorum is predictably digging his heels in, like a toddler refusing to go to bed even though it’s at least two hours after his bed time, showing the deluded tenacity one would expect of a grown man who believes that restricting access to contraception reduces unwanted pregnancies….

Nevertheless, it does increasingly look as if, after all the bloodletting and financial expenditure of the past months, the Republicans will end up with the nominee who was always going to be the nominee. Hasn’t this been an excellent use of everyone’s time and energy?

But if you think this signifies the end of the bursts of crazy fun Santorum and Gingrich provided, don’t worry! Despite the vice-presidency being the most high-profile and pointless job outside the royal family, the Republicans have a knack for picking some doozies as running mates. There was Ken doll Dan Quayle, who thought he was JFK and couldn’t spell potato; Dick Cheney, the human Heart of Darkness; and of course, Sarah Palin, who needs no elaboration…..

More here

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Laughingsquid: Star Trek original television series actress Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura on the USS Enterprise) recently visited the White House for Black History Month. She was given a photo opportunity with President Obama and they both posed with their hands firmly giving the Vulcan salute.

Nichelle Nichols: On Feb 29, 2012 I was honored to have the chance to meet with President Obama in the Oval Office. I always knew that there was a reason that I liked him so much! Live Long & Prosper!

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11:30 AM: Michelle Obama holds a conference call with reporters in the week leading up to the one-year anniversary of Joining Forces

2:00 PM: Michelle Obama will visit the Fisher House located at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

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Morning everyone 😉

evening all

President Obama at the Associated Press Luncheon in Washington, D.C., April 3

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Steve Benen: This was, as advertised, an aggressive, unapologetic condemnation of the Paul Ryan/Mitt Romney budget agenda, and the ideology that led to its creation. Indeed, Obama practically mocked Republicans for having tested their trickle-down philosophy, failing spectacularly, and then becoming even more right wing as a consequence.

….. Of particular interest, though, was Obama’s take, not only on the GOP’s right-wing budget plan, but also on the GOP’s right-wing trajectory in general….the Republican Party in 2012 bears no resemblance to the Republican Party of years past.

… Republican leaders issued some press releases this afternoon, complaining that the president’s remarks were “tired” and “partisan.” None, however, could point to anything Obama got wrong in this speech.

More here

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James Downie (Washington Post): “This is not conjecture. I am not exaggerating,” President Obama declared in a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors Tuesday afternoon. “These are facts.”

Those lines sum up what was best about a strong speech …. The president peppered it with facts…. Compare Obama’s words with Paul Ryan’s budget speech two weeks ago. The moment nonpartisan groups looked at the numbers Ryan and the Heritage Foundation had cooked up, Ryan’s claims collapsed ….the nonpartisan vetting exposed Ryan’s program, to put it in the president’s terms, as “laughable.”

More here

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President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden talk as they walk up a staircase in the West Wing of the White House, April 3. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Joe Klein (Time): …. here’s what Mitt Romney had to say about immigration on Monday:

“This has always been a priority for the president he chooses to do nothing about,” Romney said. “Let the immigrant community not forget that while he uses this as a political weapon, he has not taken responsibility for fixing the problems we have.”

This is hilarious on several grounds….

More here

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Washington Post: A survey from the Public Religion Research Institute finds that most Jewish voters are sticking with President Obama despite concerted efforts from Republicans to woo this voting bloc. Sixty-two percent of Jewish voters would like to see Obama reelected, about the same as at this point in the 2008 campaign. Only 7 percent of those who backed him in 2008 would like to see a Republican win.

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LA Times: President Obama will introduce a new restoration of the 1962 courtroom drama “To Kill a Mockingbird” on April 7 on the USA Network.

…. “I’m deeply honored that President Obama will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by introducing it to a national audience,” Harper Lee said in a statement. “I believe it remains the best translation of a book to film ever made, and I’m proud to know that Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch lives on – in a world that needs him now more than ever.”

USA is broadcasting “To Kill a Mockingbird” as part of its “Characters Unite” public-service campaign, a bid to combat discrimination through on-air programming, digital content and events….

Thanks Jovie

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Andrew Cohen (The Atlantic): ….. Who wins? It all depends upon Justice Kennedy’s conscience, Chief Justice Roberts’ sense of history, and whatever powers of persuasion the Court’s liberal wing has upon those two conservatives. Me? If I were explaining it to my son, I would say, “The Constitution is what the justices say it is, nothing more and nothing less. But this law is clearly within Congress’ power. And if the Court strikes it down, it will mean that five unelected judges will have blocked a good faith effort by elected officials to fix a problem that everyone acknowledges exists in this country.” If the Roberts Court strikes down this law, in other words, it ought to end any reasonable political debate about the source of “judicial activism” in America.

More here

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Liberal Librarian: But Both Parties Are The Same

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The Week

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Flickr

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Wednesday

9:30 AM: PBO hosts an Easter Prayer Breakfast; VP Biden also delivers remarks.

11:30 AM: Michelle Obama holds a conference call with reporters in the week leading up to the one-year anniversary of Joining Forces.

11:55 AM: PBO signs the STOCK Act; VP Biden also attends.

1:30 PM: Jay Carney briefs the press.

2:00 PM: Michelle Obama will visit the Fisher House located at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

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Cagle

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Thank you 4morefor44 😉

“marvelous”

Text of President’s remarks here

Video at C-Span

“I can’t remember a time when the choice between two competing visions of our future has been so unambiguously clear ….. In the months ahead I will be fighting as hard as I know how for this truer vision of what the USA is all about.”

President Obama speaks during the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) Convention on April 3

morning!

In case anyone missed it, I added the video of the President’s speech in Austin here last night

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President Obama will take questions at a CBS News town hall Wednesday afternoon, but we won’t get to hear any of his answers until Thursday morning. The forum, which will be taped at the Newseum, is embargoed until it’s shown on the “Early Show” at 8 a.m. Thursday.

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Time: President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years — 60 percent — and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

In worrisome signs for Republicans, the president’s standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans — a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election — caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years.

Comfortable majorities of the public now call Obama a strong leader who will keep America safe. Nearly three-fourths — 73 percent — also now say they are confident that Obama can effectively handle terrorist threats. And he improved his standing on Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States’ relationships with other countries.

Despite a sluggish recovery from the Great Recession, 52 percent of Americans now approve of Obama’s stewardship of the economy, giving him his best rating on that issue since the early days of his presidency; 52 percent also now like how he’s handling the nation’s stubbornly high 9 percent unemployment.

Full article here

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PPP

i’m your man

President Barack Obama during his interview with The Associated Press, April 15, in Chicago

AP: “I think the economy’s going to continue to improve, and I think that I can make an effective case … that not only have I been able to yank this economy out of that hole” but also that he has been able to start making wise fundamental changes. He pointed to overhauling the health care system, investing in clean energy and making college more affordable.

“I’m the person who is best prepared for us to finish the job so that we’re on track to succeed in the 21st century,” Obama said.

President Obama waves from the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, April 15

oh, nearly forgot….

A new poll out tonight – you probably won’t see it mentioned in the media. 53%? 11 points higher than Quinnipiac! (But close to recent polls by CBS, CNN, Fox (!), ABC, Bloomberg and Reuters). Despite gas prices and worries over Libya?!

AP poll

Note the ‘strongly disapprove’ figure (29%) – the same as it’s always been for President Obama, even on his first day in office. Funny, it’s close to the ‘strongly approve’ figure the Tea Party usually gets. Just saying’.

😉

“do-nothing congress? not by a long shot”

Do-nothing Congress? Not by a long shot

By Jim Abrams (Associated Press)

Extracts…..

The public panned it. Republicans obstructed it. Many Democrats fled from it. Even so, the session of Congress now drawing to a close was the most productive in nearly half a century….

….In terms of legislative successes, the current session of Congress is “at least on a par with the 89th Congress” of 1965-66, said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

But, he added, Republicans have done all they could to discredit Congress, and Democrats have failed to sell their agenda. Moreover, it will take years to fully feel the effects of the health-care law and financial regulation.

“A world dominated by bickering and epithet-throwing and bomb-tossing in Washington obscures accomplishments,” Ornstein said.

Congress passed an $814 billion economic-stimulus package soon after President Obama took office, tapping a staggering sum of money to avoid a full-blown depression. ….The two other landmark acts of this session were the health-care overhaul, a giant step toward universal coverage that had eluded presidents back to Franklin Roosevelt if not Teddy Roosevelt, and the Wall Street accountability act.

Obama has also signed into law at least a dozen other pieces of legislation of significance. They include:

Making college loans more affordable.

The Cash for Clunkers program to help the auto industry.

New consumer protections for credit-card users.

Making it easier for women to challenge pay discrimination.

Increasing federal regulation of tobacco products.

Cracking down on waste in Pentagon weapons acquisition.

Making attacks based on sexual orientation a federal hate crime.

Giving businesses tax incentives to hire unemployed workers.

Tax credits for first-time homeowners.

Full article

Thanks Kelly