Colin Romesha: Show-Stealer

White House military aides corral Colin Romesha, the son of Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha, after he took the stage behind President Barack Obama’s lectern before a presentation ceremony at the White House, February 11

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All set?

Thanks Dudette 😉

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Link – thanks BWD

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@GeorgeTakei

Thanks again Dudette!

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Thank you Yardarm

This and That

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The Oval: President Obama celebrated working people on this Labor Day, but also blitzed Mitt Romney’s economic plan with football metaphors.

“There’s a flag on the play,” Obama told crowd of auto workers in Toledo, Ohio, at one point.

Riffing on Romney’s weekend claim that the economy needs “a new coach” in the White House, Obama said that “the problem is that everybody’s already seen his economic playbook … we know what’s in it.”

The “first down” is tax cuts for the wealthy that will lead to tax hikes for the middle class, Obama said. “Second down” is an audible” ending financial and environmental regulations. Romney’s “third down” is a “Hail Mary” of cuts that would “end Medicare as we know it.”

Obama’s suggestion for the fourth down of the Romney plan: “Punt it away! … It won’t work! It won’t win the game!

“You don’t need that coach,” he said of Romney. “That’s a losing season!”

More here

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Scott High School in Toledo, September 3

Rise and Shine

Des Moines, September 1 (Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America)

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Today (all times ET)

12:30: President Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at Scott High School in Toledo, Ohio.

3:10: Departs Toledo

5:25: Arrives in New Orleans

6:00: Receives a briefing at Emergency Operations Center, Saint John the Baptist Parish, La.

6:50: Tours damage caused by Hurricane Isaac

7:20: Delivers a statement at Saint John the Baptist Parish, La.

8:15: Departs New Orleans

10:45: Arrives at the White House

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Des Moines, September 1 (Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America)

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Cagle

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Rise and Shine

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Today (all times ET):

11:0: President Obama departs the White House

1:35: Arrives Des Moines, Iowa

2:20: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at Living History Farms, Urbandale, Iowa

4:25: Departs Des Moines

5:10: Arrives Sioux City, Iowa

7:30: Delivers remarks at a campaign event at Morningside College, Sioux City

9:20: Departs Sioux City

10:40: Arrives Denver

(Will double-check the schedule, not 100% sure about the times)

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Des Moines Register: Barack Obama’s election-year effort to rock the vote in Iowa continues this afternoon in Urbandale, where he’ll literally be rockin’ the suburbs.

The president’s second visit to the state this week will resemble a summer music festival, treating an outdoor crowd at Living History Farms not only to a political speech but also performances by indie band the National and alternative-rock hero Chris Cornell.

More here (thanks Dotster)

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NYT: Republicans in Texas and Florida have been in the vanguard of the pernicious, widespread efforts to suppress voting by Hispanics and blacks. Fortunately, federal courts are seeing these efforts for what they are: a variation on the racist laws that disenfranchised millions before those tactics were outlawed by the Voting Rights Act.

A three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday unanimously rejected Texas’s voter ID law, which required court approval to take effect. The court described the law, known as SB 14, as “the most stringent in the country.”

More here

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This and That

Msg from The Obama Diary: Genuine bloggers who create their own posts in support of PBO are welcome to use anything from TOD – rebloggers, who only copy others in an attempt to up their traffic, are not. eg the reblogger who treats women like this – explicit – while copying TOD posts on women’s rights. He belongs in the GOP.

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@jameshaning

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President Obama talks with troops backstage before participating in a roundtable discussion at Fort Bliss in El Paso (Pete Souza)

Fort Bliss, August 31

President Barack Obama bids farewell to Gen. Lloyd Austin III at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, August 31. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Coming up

Coming up:

11:0: VP Biden delivers remarks at a campaign event in Lordstown, Ohio

CBS 1 * CBS 2 * CNN

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2:15: President Obama participates in a roundtable discussion with service-members and military families

3:00: President Obama delivers remarks to troops

White House Live * C-Span * CBS 1 * CBS 2 * CNN

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Hey everyone, I hope to be back in time for PBO’s 3:0 speech, if not then regard this as the earliest heads-up. Ever. Catch ya later 😉

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President Obama waves to visitors as he walks on the South Lawn of the White House before his departure, August 31

Rise and Shine

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NYT Editorial: Mitt Romney wrapped the most important speech of his life around an extraordinary reinvention of history — that his party rallied behind President Obama when he won in 2008, hoping that he would succeed….

The truth, rarely heard this week in Tampa, is that the Republicans charted a course of denial and obstruction from the day Mr. Obama was inaugurated, determined to deny him a second term by denying him any achievement, no matter the cost to the economy or American security — even if it meant holding the nation’s credit rating hostage to a narrow partisan agenda.

Mr. Romney’s big speech, delivered in a treacly tone with a strange misty smile on his face suggesting he was always about to burst into tears, was of a piece with the rest of the convention. Republicans have offered precious little of substance …. but no subjects have received less attention, or been treated with less honesty, than foreign affairs and national security — and Mr. Romney’s banal speech was no exception.

It’s easy to understand why the Republicans have steered clear of these areas. While President Obama is vulnerable on some domestic issues, the Republicans have no purchase on foreign and security policy. In a television interview on Wednesday, Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, could not name an area in which Mr. Obama had failed on foreign policy.

Full editorial here

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Cagle

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EJ Dionne: …. Once again, Romney showed that his campaign will launch attacks with little regard for their veracity. “Unlike President Obama,” he said, “I will not raise taxes on the middle class.” … Obama has in fact asked Congress to retain current tax rates for families earning less than $250,000 a year.

“I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour,” Romney also said. “President Obama began with an apology tour.” There was no apology tour. And Romney suggested that Republicans had been initially eager to work with the president, when in fact the party was determined from the beginning to oppose virtually all of Obama’s initiatives.

…. there will be a jarring contrast between the Romney who spoke of uniting the nation and his exceptionally harsh, relentless and divisive advertising campaign that includes factually-challenged spots on welfare plainly aimed at stirring resentment.

The stark disjunction will inevitably keep alive the question that his convention speech did not answer: Who is the real Romney?

Full article here

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#eastwooding

Jon Voight tries really, really, really, REALLY hard to explain the empty chair: “Uh”

#eastwooding

@delrayser

Half-time in America…..

Msg from The Obama Diary: Genuine bloggers who create their own posts in support of PBO are welcome to use anything from TOD – rebloggers, who only copy others in an attempt to up their traffic, are not. eg the reblogger who treats women like this – explicit – while copying TOD posts on women’s rights. He belongs in the GOP.

Thanks again to Clint for the best ‘Four More Years!’ ad yet produced. The best bit? The last 10 seconds 😉

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Friday:

9:30: President Obama departs the White House

11:0: VP Biden travels to Lordstown, Ohio, to deliver remarks at a campaign event at UAW Local 1714

1:30: President Obama arrives in El Paso, Texas

2:15: Participates in a roundtable discussion with service-members and military families

3:00: Delivers remarks to troops

4:10: Departs El Paso en route Joint Base Andrews

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President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden talk before having lunch on the patio outside the Oval Office, Aug. 30, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Chat away everyone …. and to those who can stomach watching the Tampa hate-fest, I salute your courage!