evening all

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk in the Green Room of the White House before hosting a Smithsonian Museum of African American History reception in the East Room, Feb. 22, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Barack Obama listens during the groundbreaking ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, February 22

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Don’t miss Liberal Librarian’s latest post at The People’s View

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Business Week

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The Hill: The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package continues to have a significant effect.

The bill raised fourth-quarter 2011 gross domestic product by as much as 1.5 percent, it states, and lowered the unemployment rate by as much as 1.1 percentage points.

The package reduced the rolls of the jobless by up to 2 million people in the last three months of 2011.

More here

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LA Times: Sales of previously owned homes rose 4.3% in January and inventories fell to nearly seven-year lows as lower prices, unusually warm weather and an improving economy lifted demand.

….. January sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million …. Sales rose in all four major regions, including an 8.8% pop in the West.

Job creation, mild weather, rising rents and increased household formation contributed to the sales gains, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the Realtors group. “Things are genuinely improving,” Yun said.

More here

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Slate

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Link

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One photo, two cool cats.

Thank you Pam!

(You can buy the PBO poster here – thank you Donna Dem)

‘political whiplash’

Steve Benen: Jon Huntsman is no doubt aware of his predicament. He’s running for president, as a Republican, despite having been a member of the Obama administration. He also has to impress a far-right GOP base, despite taking center-left positions on a range of issues – climate, gays, immigration, economic stimulus, health care, the TARP bank bailout – important to his party.

What’s his solution? In effect, Huntsman has two choices. He can (a) run as a moderate statesman, hope centrist Republicans still exist, and watch the rest of the GOP field to knock each other out competing for the same right-wing votes; or (b) Huntsman can abandon his moderation and scurry to the right just as fast as he can.

As of this morning, Huntsman appears to prefer the latter.

In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” the former U.S. ambassador to China maintained a level-headed tone, but nevertheless moved sharply to the right on a range of domestic issues.

(See the breakdown of the issues in Benen’s post)

….To his credit, Huntsman was less willing to flip on civil unions and immigration, but on everything else, Huntsman was moving to the right so quickly, I’m surprised it didn’t cause whiplash.

For that matter, his willingness to explicitly endorse the Ryan agenda – including Medicare privatization – would prove to be wildly problematic in the general election, should he get that far.

Full  post here

‘running from his record’

Excellent, they’re eating each other alive:

Rick Santorum: “I greatly respect Governor Romney and admire many of his personal and professional accomplishments, but his work to institute the precursor to national socialized medicine is not one of them. Both Romneycare and Obamacare infringe upon individual freedom and exponentially increase the government’s healthcare cost burden.  Romneycare has, in fact, not made healthcare better or saved costs in Massachusetts. It’s done just the opposite.”

‘oopsie: fox unwittingly eviscerates reagan over obama easter egg’

Politicususa: On Fox and Friends, guest Laura Ingraham kicked off FNC’s Easter attack on Barack and Michelle Obama by suggesting that Obama is full of ego for handing out autographed commemorative Easter eggs as part of the White House Easter Egg Roll. Ingraham claimed that Laura Bush never did this….Only the Obamas would be so arrogant as to give away autographed Easter Eggs to the kids:

In fact, the tradition of handing out autographed Easter Eggs at the White House event began with…….Ronald Reagan (“Autographed eggs were hidden in the Egg hunt for kids to find during President Ronald Reagan’s reign. By affixing signatures to the commemorative egg, President George W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush became the first to do so”):

Corbis Images: Children play on the lawn of the White House during an Easter Egg Rolling Contest being sponsored by President Ronald Reagan. (April 4, 1983)

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Desperate wingnuts sure love embarrassing themselves, eh? 😆

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Fred reminded me of similar previous outrages:

‘Obama has no class – he puts his feet on the Oval Office desk! Can you EVER remember a Republican President doing that?!’

‘Obama has no class – he throws a ball around the Oval Office! Can you EVER remember a Republican President doing that?!’

‘Obama has no class – sometimes he doesn’t wear a jacket in the Oval Office! Can you EVER remember a Republican President doing that?!’

‘Obama has no class – he wore flip-flops in Hawaii! Next thing he’ll be wearing Crocs in the White House!”

‘You know, Obama is so classless it wouldn’t surprise me if he eats his meals off the sacred Oval desk!”

😉

‘no clear skies for most 2012 gop contenders’

Michael Scherer (Time): When news broke of Jon Huntsman’s serious consideration of a run for president last month, several conservative pundits, including the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin, dismissed the former Utah governor’s chances by pointing to his moderate record on global warming, which they predicted would play poorly among the GOP’s conservative base.

….But Huntsman is far from the only 2012 GOP contender who will have to explain past support for confronting climate change on the campaign trail. In point of fact, carbon regulation was not so verboten in the GOP just a few years ago. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich all have supported efforts to combat climate change…..

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Read the full article here – it’s terrific. It includes videos of potential GOP 2012 candidates comparing what they had to say in the past about tackling climate change, cap and trade, etc, to their latest positions.

Of course, if you’re not a climate change denier (or sceptic, at least), you won’t get any loot from the Koch brothers (see here and here)

the dregs

March 7:

VAN SUSTEREN: What would you do about Libya?

GINGRICH: Exercise a no-fly zone this evening …. We don’t need to have the United Nations. All we have to say is that we think that slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable and that we’re intervening.

During appearances that same day, Gingrich also said that he would provide help to the Libyan rebels on top of the no-fly zone: “This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.”

After the President initiated a no-fly zone over Libya:

March 23:

LAUER: Do you think Moammar Qaddafi has to go as a result of this intervention?

GINGRICH: Let me draw the distinction. I would not have intervened. I think there were a lot of other ways to affect Qaddafi. I think there are a lot of other allies in the region we could have worked with. I would not have used American and European forces.

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Steve Benen: This received no pushback whatsoever from host Matt Lauer, who may not have realized that Gingrich has been saying the exact opposite for weeks…. I don’t doubt Gingrich will remain a media darling, invited onto national television on a daily basis to present arguments unchallenged, but that doesn’t change the fact that no one should take this pseudo-intellectual clown seriously.

See Slate and ThinkProgress for more (including videos)

a fuss about flip-flops? seriously?!

Shine: …..last week, while on holiday in Hawaii, President Barack Obama may have boldly gone where no president before him had gone while on vacation: he wore flip-flops. In public.

….. news outlets, style watchers, and even historians have labored extensively over the appropriateness of Obama’s footwear choice.

“I can’t say I’ve seen a president’s toes before,” presidential historian Jane Hampton Cook told the New York Post. “But I don’t think this is a big deal. Your footwear belongs to the occasion. If you’re on the beach buying your daughter snow cones, I don’t think you can beat him up for this.”

June Ambrose, a celeb fashion stylist agrees: “When he’s serving in office he’s in the right attire. It’s not like he came to address the State of the Union in flip-flops. This is his personal time and I think he’s entitled to have a human experience. This is what keeps him grounded and very in touch with what’s going on in this country.”

…”Someone who is of a different time won’t understand the flip-flops,” said Ambrose. “This is a modern day perspective. I think that anyone who’s going to have a strong opinion is someone who’s completely old school, and this is the new school. Obama is continuously breaking the rules and creating waves in his own way, and I think that’s really refreshing. But I think we need to focus our attention on other things that are a lot more important and pressing in the world than the fashion statement our president is making.”

Thanks Donna 😉

Truly, the world has gone bonkers

PS Does anyone remember the OUTRAGE when Crocs were worn at the White House? Nope, me neither.

And yes, they are POTUS socks 😐

S. Holland reminded us, in the comments, about all the fuss following photos of President Obama with his feet on the Oval Office desk. How ‘uppity’ is that? Here it is:

Oh, wait.

And then there was the UPROAR about President Obama playing with a football in the Oval Office – such disrespect! Here it is:

Then there was the FURY when President Obama appeared in the Oval Office without a jacket – the headline on a wingnut site was ‘Obama Breaks Reagan/Bush Oval Office Jacket Rule’……

Oooops.

hey, fancy flip flops!

Chinese-made flip-flops featuring the image of US President Barrack Obama are displayed outside a shoe store in Mumbai on August 18, 2010. Store owner Prashant of Kamble Shoes in central Mumbai is left with only four pairs having already sold close to 100 pairs at INR 249 (5.3 dollars) in the last week. Kamble has ordered more stock as these are in great demand.