Chat Away

President Obama peers out from Section B, prison cell No. 5, on Robben Island, South Africa, June 30, 2013

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Chat away.

Rise and Shine

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Today:

The President has no public events scheduled.

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BREAKING: Weekly applications for US unemployment aid fell to 343K last week, a sign of steady hiring.

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 3, 2013

BREAKING: ADP says U.S. added 188,000 jobs in June

— Bloomberg News (@BloombergNews) July 3, 2013

U.S. Auto Sales Speed Up: Chrysler, Ford Race To Best June Since Crisis – Forbes http://t.co/leU5oxzPmh

— Jim in Florida (@ongoliard) July 2, 2013

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See Steve Benen on the jobs news here

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Steve Benen: Key ‘Obamacare’ provision delayed until 2015

News from the Obama administration about the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act caused quite a stir last night, but it’s worth pausing to appreciate the extent of the impact …. I think some of the reactions to the one-year delay have been a little excessive. Maybe it’ll be easier to tackle this in Q&A form.

* What’s the employer mandate? In practical terms, the policy name is a bit of misnomer — there is no actual “mandate.” Under the Affordable Care Act, businesses with 50 or more full-time employees are told they need to offer health care coverage to their employees, but those who choose not to pay a fairly modest tax penalty. As of last night, that penalty won’t kick in, at the earliest, before 2015.

* Won’t this mandate discourage those businesses from hiring? It’s been an important part of the criticism, but Obamacare extends all kinds of breaks to these employers to help subsidize the insurance and soften the blow of increased costs.

More here

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Up there with holocaust “@wikileaks: The reported actions of France, Portugal and Spain this night will live in infamy.”

— BWD (@theonlyadult) July 2, 2013

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STOP TEXTING ME SNOWDEN

— KimJongNumberUn (@KimJongNumberUn) July 3, 2013

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Spandan (The People’s View): How the Professional Left’s Blind Obama Hatred Got them Played by a Far-Right Nutjob

Some outlets reported last week that NSA leaker and fugitive Edward Snowden was caught into a bit of hypocrisy: public chat records indicate that back in the ancient times of 2009, he wanted leakers “shot in the balls.” Yeah, he said that. But that’s not all he said. Oh, no. The Technology site Ars Technica posted extensive public chat logs from Snowden, then using the monkier TheTrueHOOHA, that confirms what I had suspected since finding his campaign contributions to Glenn Greenwald’s straight crush Ron Paul.

So let’s talk about this man that has been granted hero status by the Left’s loudest prognosticators and provocateurs….

More here

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GOP’s response when asked about the improving economy: “The economy is … Oh, look! A fetus!” #p2 #p21

— Casey (@pari_passu) July 2, 2013

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Smartypants: The scent of desperation

As we watch the Republicans in states like North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Texas attempt to pass draconian bills affecting things like women’s right to chose and citizen’s access to the ballot, I can’t help but say that I smell a sense of desperation. Its almost as if they know they are a dying beast and are in a hurry to do as much damage as possible prior to their demise.

They’re right….

More here

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In the last few days, I’ve enraged the far left, the t-partiers and the gunners. I must be doing something right.

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 2, 2013

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Business Insider: MSNBC Just Had Its Most Dreadful Ratings Period In 6 Years

Despite a heavy period of news that included the Boston Marathon bombings and the Jodi Arias trial, MSNBC’s second-quarter ratings plunged to their lowest level since 2007.

…. “The Rachel Maddow Show” suffered its lowest-rated quarter in terms of total viewers since 2008. And June alone was the lowest rated month ever for Maddow in both total viewers and in the 25-54 group.

—-> New host Chris Hayes continues to pull in sluggish ratings for “All In With Chris Hayes,” which in its first full quarter on air provided MSNBC with the lowest-rated 8 p.m. hour in the 25-54 demographic since 2006.

More here

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President Obama and daughter Malia talk aboard a ferry traveling to Gorée Island, Senegal (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dance with guests during an official dinner hosted by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and First Lady Thobeka Madiba-Zumaat (Pete Souza)

Sasha Obama unlocks the door to former South African President Nelson Mandela’s cell during a tour of Robben Island Prison (Pete Souza)

See slideshow here

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On this day….

Residents greet President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama upon their arrival at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., July 3, 2010. (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

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MoooOOOooorning! Hadn’t time to do a longer R&S, missing lots of newsie stuff, but will catch up later.

South Africa: The Day in Images

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The message left by President Obama in the Robben Island guestbook today: pic.twitter.com/0xIxg36sJ4

— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) July 1, 2013

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Arriving in Cape Town

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Visiting Robben Island – The rock quarry labor camp where Nelson Mandela was forced to work as a prisoner

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The First Lady: Today, our family visited Robben Island for an experience we will never forget. Robben Island is located off the coast of South Africa, and from the 1960s through the 1990s, this Island housed a maximum security prison. Many of the prisoners there – including the guide for our visit, a man named Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada – were activists who worked to bring down Apartheid, the South African government’s policies that discriminated against people of color.  Under Apartheid, people of different races were separated in nearly every part of South African society.  They were forced to attend separate schools, live in separate neighborhoods, even swim at separate beaches – and in nearly every case, the neighborhoods, schools and other facilities for black people were much worse than the ones for white people.

More here

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… with their tour guide, Ahmed Kathrada, a former prisoner with Nelson Mandela

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Homage

President Obama visits the prison cell at Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his imprisonment

Robben Island

@PeteSouza

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@PeteSouza

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@dougmillsnyt

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President Obama visits the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment

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…. with a tour guide at the Robben Island lime quarry where a rock memorial was started by Nelson Mandela

Rise and Shine

Senator Barack Obama looks out of the window of Nelson Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island, South Africa, August 2006

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Sunday

All times US Eastern

3:45 AM: The President and First Family depart Johannesburg

5:45 AM: Arrive Cape Town

8:20 AM: The First Family tour Robben Island

10:20 AM: The President tours the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre with Archbishop Desmond Tutu

12:15 PM: The President delivers remarks at the University of Cape Town

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Live streaming links:

White House Live * Reuters * CBS (UStream) * CBS (Widget) * eNCA (South Africa)

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More later, this is just a scheduled heads-up for the very early early birds

court sides with wh on stem cell suit

President speaks with former first lady Nancy Reagan after signing the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act, June 2, 2009. Nancy Reagan, an outspoken advocate of stem cell research, praised and thanked President Obama for lifting restrictions on research.

AP: A lawsuit that had threatened to end the Obama administration’s funding of embryonic stem cell research was dismissed Wednesday, allowing the U.S. to continue supporting a search for cures to deadly diseases over protests that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.

The lawsuit claimed that research funded by the National Institutes of Health violated the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo. But the administration policy allows research on embryos that were culled long ago through private funding.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, chief of the federal court in Washington, last year said the lawsuit was likely to succeed and ordered a stop to the research while the case continued. But under swift protest from the Obama administration, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here quickly overturned Lamberth’s injunction and said the case was likely to fail…..

More here

WH: Today, patients suffering from diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and heart disease and their families got good news when a federal judge ruled in favor of the government in a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration’s work to support stem cell research.

While we don’t know exactly what stem cell research will yield, scientists believe this research could treat or cure diseases that affect millions of Americans every year. That’s why President Obama has long fought to support responsible stem cell research.

More here

calling Orrin Hatch