Rise and Shine

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Today – all times EST:

11:50 AM: The President delivers a statement to reporters on the Affordable Care Act, Fairmont Hotel, San Jose

White House Live * C-Span * CBS

12:25: Departs San Jose

1:35: Arrives Los Angeles

3:0: Delivers remarks at a DNC Fundraiser, Private Residence, Santa Monica

5:05: Departs Los Angeles

5:55: Arrives Palm Springs

8:0: Participates in a photo opportunity with President Xi Jinping of China, at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, Rancho Mirage, California.

8:05: Holds a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping

11:0: Holds a working dinner with President Xi Jinping

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Steve Benen: … The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, slightly better than expected, though the overall unemployment rate inched higher to 7.6%. As is usually the case, there was a gap between the two major sectors – America’s private sector added 178,000 jobs last month, while spending cuts caused the public sector lose 3,000 jobs.

One key figure to keep in mind, however, was local-government hiring, where 13,000 jobs were created. We’ve grown accustomed to municipalities doing the opposite, and if this holds up (and continues), it will strengthen the overall job market…

More here

We knew you wouldn’t make good on your threat MT @stevebenen I’m off today, but I posted monthly jobs charts anyway on.msnbc.com/17tLPJ6

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 7, 2013

PS Loved this: “Do you folks remember the last time Steve Benen took a day off? Yeah, we had to go back and look, too. I’m happy to report that Steve is taking vacation today and tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.”

But…. “Steve says he’ll be escaping vacation at least long enough to post the new unemployment report – and his famous bikini graph – on Friday morning.”

Yes, he took a break from his two day vacation to post on the jobs’ figures. He’s a hoot.

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Unemployment rate among Latinos was 9.1% in May. One year ago, it was 11%. bls.gov/news.release/e…

— mhugolopez (@mhugolopez) June 7, 2013

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U.S. stocks surge at open after jobs report: on.mktw.net/13KTL3t Dow +70 points, S&P 500 +7 points

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) June 7, 2013

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Some 420,000 people entered labor force in search of work. That pushed up unemployment rate to 7.6%, but it’s not a bad thing.

— Jeffry Bartash (@jbartash) June 7, 2013

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Socialism RT @ryanavent: Since February of 2010, private employers have added 6.9m jobs, government has shed 622k.

— Matt O’Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) June 7, 2013

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BLS needs to add new category: total jobs; non-farm private-sector jobs; and # that would have been created if GOP didn’t exist.

— Michael Tomasky (@mtomasky) June 7, 2013

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Must-read – although, Tomasky makes the mistake of suggesting the deranged hate only comes from the right:

Michael Tomasky: Nothing will stop Republicans from trying to turn the IRS scandal into Watergate. They simply despise Obama too much to settle for anything less ….. That’s all this is really about — their base’s rage at the continued existence of Barack Obama, and their own twisted craving to acknowledge and stoke it.

…. all that is to say nothing of the racist invective that is the constant background music of this presidency …. We in the media never discuss this, but it is a daily diet in this country — yes, daily — and nothing said about any president in history that I can think of comes close to matching its relentless and savage sickness.

…. The liberal base hated George Bush all right, but the hate wasn’t quite as existential, wasn’t quite as drenched in the same kind of suppurated derangement one finds in quarters of the right.

Besides which, Bush discredited himself through his uniform incompetence. Obama, clearly competent, has not done that and is unlikely to do it. So the Republicans have to do it to him. Tarnishing Obama is the only way they can emerge from these eight years not completely humiliated by him, so we’re just going to have to endure it.

Full post here

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Rise and Shine

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy aboard Air Force One, June 6, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama’s image juxtaposed with this discussion says a lot about how far we’ve come but how there is much more progress needed

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Ken Wheaton: Last week, a new ad from Cheerios was deemed controversial when media outlets discovered that the racist contingent of the idiocracy known as the YouTube comment section trashed the ad for featuring a mixed-race couple and a biracial child.

But according to data from Ace Metrix, Americans like the ad. In fact, “Good for Your Heart” (called “Just Checking” on YouTube) tested the highest of six new Cheerios ads this year and garnered attention and likeability scores 9% and 11% “above the current 90-day norm for cereals.”

More here

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Jeffrey Goldberg: Now Rice will be, in effect, Kerry’s supervisor. McCain and Graham, by turning Rice into the scapegoat of the Benghazi debacle, have inadvertently allowed the president to bring her into the innermost ring of power, in a role that requires no Senate confirmation.

Honored to be named the President's next NSA. To all my @USUN & @StateDept colleagues, we've accomplished a ton. Thanks for 4.5 great years.

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Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) June 05, 2013

In the highly centralized White House foreign-policy and national-security operation (critics would call it overcentralized, and they have a point) the secretary of state, even one of Kerry’s stature, does comparatively little to set the administration’s overarching policy.  It will be Rice’s job to interpret the president’s broadest wishes and put them into place across several government departments.

Her influence will be especially pronounced, I think, because she is part of Obama’s original foreign-policy team — in what could have been a near-suicidal career move, Rice, a former official in President Bill Clinton’s administration, signed on to Obama’s campaign when his victory didn’t seem at all assured. Her appointment today is partly payback for her loyalty, and a thumb in the eyes of her Senate critics. It is also a sign that the president and Rice are in sync on a broad set of issues, and here is where it gets interesting.

More here

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New York Times: Wisconsin and Minnesota are neighboring states with long traditions of caring for the least fortunate, but, at the moment, only one of them is concerned about the health of the poor and uninsured. In February, more than 130,000 Minnesota residents who lack health insurance became eligible for coverage when the state expanded its Medicaid program under the health care reform law. That will save the state $129 million in the first two years alone.

Wisconsin, however, has chosen to take the path of indifference. On Tuesday, the Republicans who control the State Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted to reject the expansion of Medicaid, even though it would have covered 85,000 people at less cost to the state. The committee was marching in lock step behind the governor, Scott Walker, who claims to be worried that federal financing will run out. What’s really going on, of course, is that state Republicans have made poor people the victims of their ideological resistance to President Obama and his health care law.

More here

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NSA's three month surveillance order for Verizon dates from right after the Boston bombing.

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Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) June 06, 2013

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So, @ggreenwald is *still* claiming he's been a lifelong opponent of eeeeeevil Presidents? Aaaaaah..... http://t.co/gfpDZtxABn

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TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 06, 2013

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This is a MUST read by Joshua Foust if you want to know the truth about the NSA story and not fall for Glenn Greenwald’s and the media’s nonsense. Click Here

Delicious irony: On Sunday, @ggreenwald accused Obama aides of 'cashing in', just before he launched personal fundraiser on Guardian website

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TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 06, 2013

Joshua Foust: 1. Congress voted to legalize expansive surveillance powers in 2001 (The USA PATRIOT ACT), 2008 (retroactive immunity for warantless NSA wiretaps in the FISA Amendments Act), and in 2012 (renewing the FISA Amendments Act).