What?!

Link

Thanks ChristiMTL

good afternoon

ABC: President Obama has crossed off 60 percent of his 2008 campaign promises from his to-do list, he told supporters in Los Angeles Monday as he asked them to help him check off the remaining items.

“I keep a checklist in my desk, and I kind of see, all right, I made a bunch of these promises during the campaign and let me see, yes, I got that done and that one, yes. No, that one’s not done yet. So we’ve got about 60 percent done in three years”….

The president listed health care reform, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and passing consumer protections among the promises that he has fulfilled.

“A lot of the things that we promised we’d do, we’ve done… we’ve made great progress, but we’ve got so much more work to do” …. Items left on the president’s agenda include comprehensive immigration reform, passing energy policy “that makes sense” and, of course, fixing the economy.

To check off the remaining 40 percent, the president said lawmakers will have to put politics aside. “Obviously, in Washington, the politics that I think people are hoping for is not what they’re getting. It’s still dysfunctional, it’s still perversely partisan. You still have folks who seem to be more interested in the short term and the party and elections than they are in the long term and the future and the next generation”….

Read full post here – thanks Marlz

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From yesterday:

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Today:

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Thank you Tally 😉

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OFA

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Loop 21: Even though they can barely hear over the echo from their empty wallets, unemployed people are still shouting “Yes We Can!” apparently.

The Associated Press has found that President Obama still receives tons of support from the jobless, even as Republicans attempt to blame him for high unemployment and after blocking his jobs bill.

A study conducted by the AP shows that people living in the most economically distraught areas with the highest unemployment rates are still donating money to Obama’s re-election campaign. In fact, they are actually donating more than they were in 2008 during Obama’s first presidential campaign and right before the recession hit.

Detroit for example, even with a 14% unemployment rate, wrote more checks to the campaign than it did in 2007. Even though the amounts are smaller (Obama’s website allows people to donate as low as $10), they all still add up eventually.

Thanks Gobrooklyn

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Michael Tomasky (Daily Beast): Perry’s Ridiculous Tax Plan

….. his plan, like all flat-tax plans, is a gussied-up way of stealing money from the working and middle classes and handing it to the rich…..

…. whether Perry revives his candidacy or not, the real issue here is that a flat tax or something like it is getting ever so closer to becoming GOP dogma. Some years ago, it was just the messianic loons: Steve Forbes. Now the flat tax is mainstreaming within the GOP. Mitt Romney, who used to hate it, has recently opened up to the idea. It’s getting … respectable.

Simplicity is for simpletons: a handy slogan for the ruling class that wants more of your money. Don’t be that simple.

Full post here

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The Obama Administration is announcing two new initiatives to help create jobs for veterans – read more here

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New CBS/NYT poll

Wait til they see this, um, extraordinary ad, Herb will go up another 10 points:

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I thought at first this was a kitten watching a GOP debate on TV:

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More soon 😉

rise and shine

President Obama will record an interview with Jay Leno this morning – it won’t be shown until late night but NBC will release some excerpts in the afternoon

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President Obama leaves Air Force One upon his arrival in Los Angeles on Monday

LA Times: President Obama opened an aggressive Western fundraising swing Monday, closing out the day in Los Angeles with an appeal to supporters to prepare for a grueling reelection effort.

At an intimate fundraising dinner in Hancock Park, Obama spoke softly to a few dozen supporters who had paid $35,800 each to greet him.

“I’ve said this before — this election will not be as sexy as the first one,” the president said. “Back then it was still fresh and new. I didn’t have any gray hair. Everybody loved the ‘Hope’ posters and all that. This time it’s — we’ve got to grind it out a little bit. We’ve got to grind it out. But the cause is the same. And my passion is the same. And my commitment is the same.”

The gathering, at the home of movie producer James Lassiter and his wife, Mai, was one of six events Obama had planned in three days of stops in Nevada, California and Colorado, as he kept up a torrid fundraising pace that is far surpassing that of the GOP presidential field.

Two Los Angeles gatherings Monday were celebrity-flecked, with the first including actor Will Smith and former Laker Magic Johnson. The second and larger event was at the home of actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, with per-seat tickets starting at $5,000.

Full article here

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Thanks Marlz

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The First Lady’s day:

12:55 Delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee reception in Detroit

3:45 Discusses access to healthy food with mayors from around the country in Chicago

4:50 Delivers remarks at a Walgreens in Chicago and visits Iron Street Urban Farms with Mayor Rahm Emanuel

6:40 Delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee reception in Chicago

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Today the administration will announce plans to create jobs for veterans continuing on President Barack Obama’s efforts to boost the economy through a series of executive actions.

“While we will continue to work with Congress to bring up the American Jobs Act piece-by-piece, we will increase our focus on taking executive actions that fight for the middle class because the American people simply can’t wait for the Republican Congress to act. … Today, we are announcing two new initiatives that will help create jobs for veterans at community health centers and expand opportunities for veterans to become physician assistants,” a White House official said.

The initiatives will be announced during a conference call with reporters at 10 a.m. today with Matt Flavin, director of the White House Veterans, Military Families and Wounded Warrior Task Force; HRSA administrator Mary Wakefield; and president of the National Association of Community Health Centers, Tom Van Coverden.

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Steve Benen: …. Yesterday, President Obama unveiled a new, and almost certainly better, initiative as part of the White House’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign. The point to provide assistance to 1 million households, helping them refinance at today’s strikingly-low interest rates and lowering their mortgage payments.

There are, of course, concerns about the scope of the effort. It’s a modest program that won’t directly affect most of those underwater…. Still, Brian Beutler reports there are some experts who see cause for cautious optimism:

“Under the restrung HARP, I expect an additional 1.05 million [refinancings] through the end of 2012 and 1.6 million [refinancings] through the end of 2013 when the program ends,” said Moody’s top economist Mark Zandi in an email. “While HARP won’t live up to the initial expectations of 4-5 million in refinancings, the program will ultimately provide a meaningful boost to the broader economy as financially stressed households will benefit from much lower mortgage payments. It will also provide a bit of help to the housing market by forestalling some mortgage defaults.”

…. It’s a modest step, but at least it’s in the right direction. Coupled with other steps, we might even start to see some larger progress. It certainly beats watching Congress implode into an obstructionist mess.

Full post here

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The first part of the video is about Condaleeza Rice’s new book, but if you forward to three minutes in there’s good stuff on the madness of Herman Cain.

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The GOP: Screwed

The Week

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Eugene Robinson: For the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it’s getting awfully cold out there.

The latest icy blast of reality comes from an eminent scientist whom the climate-change skeptics once lauded as one of their own. Richard Muller, a respected physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, used to dismiss alarmist climate research as being “polluted by political and activist frenzy.” Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight. Instead, the record set him straight.

“Global warming is real,” Muller wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal.

Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the neo-Luddites who are turning the GOP into the anti-science party should pay attention.

…… It is the know-nothing politicians – not scientists – who are committing an unforgivable fraud.

Full article here

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OMG! GG will on Maddow tonight! OMG!

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mmmm…..chicken and waffles

President Obama orders a snack on a stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles, Oct. 24

Pool report: Pool had to enter from the rear, to see booths full of early-dining families stretching and craning their necks excitedly to watch POTUS, who already was at the counter ordering for himself and nearby aides, including Valerie Jarrett, Jay Carney, David Plouffe and Marvin Nicholson.

According to photo, Obama ordered the No. 9, “Country Boy,” which includes wings with a choice of waffle, potato salad or french fries.

POTUS, coatless and shirt sleeves rolled, then walked to one side of the restaurant and greeted the diners in each vinyl-covered booth. After he’d shaken hands and chatted with a young African-American boy who looked to be about 10, and moved on, the boy turned to the white man he was dining with and said, “I’m never going to wash my hand again.”

For minutes afterward he continued to hold his left hand aloft, fingers spread, as his eyes followed POTUS around the room as if in wonder.

The president posed for cellphone photos and made the rounds of the room, greeting patrons.

One man with a woman and two children said to them, “He sounds just like he does on TV!”

President Obama leaves Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles with Rep. Karen Bass

burgers, milkshakes, wings, cookies, cakes, still skinny. grrrrrr.

err, hottie-in-chief

President Barack Obama hugs Luann Haley at Duff’s Famous Wings Restaurant in Buffalo, New York, May 13, 2010. Haley said to Obama “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body”.

The New York Times’ Sheryl Stolberg provided one of the better White House pool reports in recent memory Thursday while covering President Obama’s jobs-and-the-economy tour of upstate New York. Here’s how Stolberg opens the recap of their lunch stop at Duff’s Famous Wings in the Buffalo-adjacent town of Cheektowaga:

“You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.”

Yes indeed, some people will say just about anything to get a hug from Barack Obama. Those words were spoken by Luann Haley, 45, to the president, during his unannounced visit to this local landmark. He replied by giving her a big hug. (“He gave me a squeeze,”‘ she said afterward.) She swooned and he said Michelle would be watching on television. “That’s all right,”‘ Ms. Haley said as the cameras rolled. “Hi Michelle, eat your heart out.”

Huffington Post

🙂

Breaking, Err, News: Hottie Lady Speaks Out :

And here

West Wing Week (“Hang on to Your Hats” May 14, 2010)

White House YouTube Channel: The President speaks to the nation about job numbers, monitors the oil leak in the gulf of Mexico, says goodbye to the spring interns, gives the commencement address at Hampton University, swears in his Intelligence Advisory Board, welcomes the President of Afghanistan, congratulates PM David Cameron, visits Buffalo NY and much more.

Wing Commander-in-chief

President Barack Obama at Duff’s Famous Wings in Buffalo, New York, May 13, 2010

Hail to the Hottie-in-Chief

lunchtime….don’t tell michelle

During his “White House to Main Street” tour today in Savannah Georgia, President Obama makes a surprise lunch stop at the famous Mrs. Wilke’s Boarding House restaurant. Turns out, he prefers wings to drumsticks.

hmm, i loooooooove cholesterol

President Barack Obama is served fried chicken as he visits Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room in Savannah, Georgia March 2