Rise and Shine

The front pages, five years ago today

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Today:

10:30: The President delivers a statement, The Rose Garden

11:10: The President and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera hold a bilateral meeting; the VP also attends

1:0: Press Briefing by Jay Carney

2:20: The President departs the White House

2:30: Arrives Bethesda, Maryland

2:50: Visits the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

4:35: Departs Bethesda

4:45: Arrives at the White House

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From left: Cornelia Pillard, Patricia Millett and Robert L. Wilkins

NYT: President Obama will nominate a slate of three candidates on Tuesday to fill the remaining vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a White House official said Monday.

The president will name Cornelia T. L. Pillard, a law professor; Patricia Ann Millett, an appellate lawyer; and Robert L. Wilkins, a federal district judge, to fill out the appeals court, which is often described as the second most powerful court in the country because it decides major cases and often serves as a launching pad for future Supreme Court justices.

By making his choices in a group, the president and his strategists are hoping to put pressure on Senate Republicans to confirm them.

More here

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Steve Benen: …. At the outset, let’s emphasize how uncontroversial this is – there are vacancies on an important federal bench, so the president is sending qualified nominees to the Senate for consideration. Republicans are characterizing this as a scandalous power-grab, while many political reporters are describing this as Obama thumbing his nose at his political rivals. In reality, it’s neither – presidents filling judicial vacancies is basic American governance. It’s Civics 101. That today’s announcement is seen as somehow remarkable is evidence of just how broken the process has become.

…. This is far more consequential than much of the public realizes …. the D.C. Circuit is likely to have considerable influence over the future of the Affordable Care Act, Wall Street reform, immigration reform, and perhaps most importantly, efforts to combat the climate crisis.

This is, in other words, a fight worth having, and the outcome will have a lasting impact for many years to come.

More here

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last 30 days: car sales way up. home prices way up. Dow way up, consumer confidence way up. so yeah, makes sensecable obsesses over IRS

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) June 4, 2013

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Michael Tomasky: Obama’s Economic Triumph

It’s increasingly clear that the president has steered the country back from the brink – and, in the process, exposed (yet again) the central lie of conservative economics…..

More here

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If Romney were president and the Dow were up 20 days in a row, would today be a national holiday or would we all just get Mitt tattoos?

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) June 4, 2013

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Greg Sargent: As I’ve been saying here for some time, behind all the GOP noise and hoopla about Beltway scandal-palooza is a stark reality that can’t be obscured. House Republicans are confronting two major challenges – what to do about the debt limit and about immigration reform, both of which will require cooperation from House conservatives that they aren’t prepared to give — and they don’t have an answer to either one.

This is driven home in fresh and vivid detail by today’s big Post story on the deep divisions within the House GOP caucus.

More here

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Steve Benen: We talked yesterday about the new report from the College National Republican Committee, detailing their party’s difficulties in connecting with younger voters. As the College Republicans explained, it’s a “dismal present situation” with focus groups, led by GOP pollsters, finding that voters under 30 consider the party “closed-minded, racist, rigid, [and] old-fashioned”…..

….     In focus groups in January, the report said, young voters were asked to list leaders of the Democratic Party. “They named prominent former or currently elected officials: Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Kennedy, Gore. When those same respondents were asked to name Republican leaders, they focused heavily on media personalities and commentators: Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.”

More here

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This — in 1 powerful photo — is why wingnuts are losing it. The browning of America. Giddy up. (h/t @nerdywonka) #TFY twitter.com/AngryBlackLady…

— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) June 4, 2013

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As long as we’re listing Eric Holder’s accomplishments at DOJ, let’s not forget this one immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/06/as-lon…

— Smartypants (@Smartypants32) June 4, 2013

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the message

A man holds a portrait of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak reading ‘No You Can’t (copying Barack Obama’s famous ‘Yes We Can’) during a protest against Mubarak’s regime, following Friday prayers at the Beyazit square in Istanbul on February 4

Egyptian anti-government protesters gather at Cairo’s Tahrir Square on February 4 during ‘departure day’ demonstrations to force President Hosni Mubarak to quit

An anti-government protester, near Tahrir Square in Cairo February 4, celebrates after hearing a rumor that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will resign

“suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away”

Ryan Witt (Examiner): On June 9th 2009 President Obama gave a speech in Cairo calling for, among other things, democratic reforms in the Arab world … no one at the time dreamed that 18 months later the people of Egypt would be demonstrating in the streets of Cairo to demand the end of an autocratic regime.

Below one can see the relevant portion of President Obama’s Cairo speech, which can be read in an entirely different light given the events of the last week. In many ways the Egyptian people seemed to have answered President Obama’s call.

“ … I have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.

…this much is clear: governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful and secure. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away … we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments – provided they govern with respect for all their people.

….no matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.”

The Cairo Speech (October 2009):

Check BWD’s The Only Adult In The Room, she has a link to a video of Lawrence O’Donnell & Brian Williams discussing this connection: here

The BBC and Salon have useful ‘Questions and Answers’ features on Egypt – worth a look

peace offering

Caption: How Egyptians handled military

As seen by tigerfists88 on Twitter

Memories….

Tiananmen Square, 1989

‘obama’s handling egypt pretty well’

President Barack Obama is briefed on the events in Egypt during a meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room of the White House, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Marc Lynch (Foreign Policy): After President Obama spoke last night about the situation in Egypt, my Twitter feed and inbox filled up with angry denunciations, with lots of people complaining bitterly that he had endorsed Mubarak’s grim struggle to hold on to power, missed an historic opportunity, and risked sparking a wave of anti-Americanism.

….I think the instant analysis badly misread his comments and the thrust of the administration’s policy. His speech was actually pretty good, as is the rapidly evolving American policy. The administration, it seems to me, is trying hard to protect the protestors from an escalation of violent repression, giving Mubarak just enough rope to hang himself, while carefully preparing to ensure that a transition will go in the direction of a more democratic successor.

….What they do need, if they think about it, is for Obama to help broker an endgame from the top down … and that’s what the administration is doing. The administration’s public statements and private actions have to be understood as not only offering moral and rhetorical support to the protestors, or as throwing bones to the Washington echo chamber, but as working pragmatically to deliver a positive ending to a still extremely tense and fluid situation.

…anything short of Obama gripping the podium and shouting “Down With Mubarak!” probably would have disappointed activists. But that wasn’t going to happen, and shouldn’t have. If Obama had abandoned a major ally of the United States such as Hosni Mubarak without even making a phone call, it would have been irresponsible and would have sent a very dangerous message to every other U.S. ally. That doesn’t mean, as some would have it, that Obama has to stick with Mubarak over the long term – or even the weekend – but he simply had to make a show of trying to give a long-term ally one last chance to change.

Marc Lynch is associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University

Fascinating article – read it all here

Thank you so much for the link Carole

Protesters at a demonstration in Cairo January 29

Robert Fisk (UK Independent): A people defies its dictator, and a nation’s future is in the balance …. It might be the end. It is certainly the beginning of the end. Across Egypt, tens of thousands of Arabs braved tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and live fire yesterday to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak after more than 30 years of dictatorship.

Read the full article here

a year ago today … “that looks like me, look at those ears!”

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President Barack Obama tours the Pyramids in Egypt, June 4, 2009

flashback…..egypt

June, 2009

one pyramid, two obamas

President Barack Obama ducks his head to get through an entrance-way on a tour of the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, June 4, 2009. At center-right is the hieroglyphic that the President commented on, saying it looked like him. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

hats off

President Barack Obama jokingly shows off the hat he was given during his tour of the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt on June 4, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

the cairo speech

“A New Beginning” The President gives a speech in Cairo, Egypt, outlining his personal commitment to engagement with the Muslim world, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, and discusses how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them. June 4, 2009.