This and That

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Las Vegas, September 12 (Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America)

Golden, Colorado, September 13 (Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America)

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Rise and Shine

Golden, Colorado, Sept 13

Today:

10:0: President Obama and Michelle Obama welcome the 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House

White House live

11:15: Jay Carney briefs the press.

1:35: Michelle Obama attends a campaign fundraising event in Washington, D.C.

7:0: President Obama attends a campaign event (Private residence, closed press)

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Morning everyone, I’ll be back in a while with a bit of this and that, meanwhile: chat away 😉

‘You Are The Reason’

Yet another WordPress blogger who is a member of the anti-reblogging campaign – Boycott rebloggers, they create nothing, only steal – thanks! Tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut

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13 is an unlucky number? Huh! It’s magical: Some of us were born on the 13th 😕

Okay, I’m not going to be sloppy about this ….. promise ….. well ….. ish …. except to say: thank you everyone for taking the blog to another very lovely landmark, 13 million hits, this journey with you all has been pretty damn delightful and amazing. Genuine and endless thanks to you all for keeping me company along the way, and for being forgiving about the occasional meltdown. 😳

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I think – hope – you know by now I hate mentioning the money word ….. but if you have a spare $13, it would be completely sweet if you could donate to any of these TOD fundraisers, just to mark the, ah, historic occasion:

a4alice * Alycee * BWD * CollegeKay * Cookemom * DonnaDem4Obama

Hgerhard * HZ * Judith Fardig * Mae Who Love Our CIC

Marlz * Meta * Pamela *prettyfoot58 * proudmemberofglobalzero * Rita * Theo67 * The Obama Diary

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And if you have anything left over, you could donate to some of the Democratic candidates trying to win back Congress …. which would make PBO’s second term even more perfect:

Like Elizabeth Warren

If there are any other candidates you’d like to promote, please link them in the comments. Thanks.

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Golden, Colorado, Sept 13

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Thanks again everyone.

Forward 😉

Change

Ricky Watson of Littleton, Colorado wipes tears from his eyes after he thanked President Barack Obama for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at a campaign rally in Golden, Colorado, September 13. Watson was kicked out of the Air Force 25 years ago for being gay.

Heads Up: President Obama in Colorado

@OFA_CO: ‘Check out the line of supporters getting ready to see Barack Obama in Golden’

**** 1:10 ET: President Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at Lions Park in Golden, Colorado ****

C-Span * CNN * CBS 1 * CBS 2 * 9News

Streaming has started at 9News – thanks JER

@serenabwoods: ‘Folks lined up to see #POTUS in Golden! What a beautiful morning’

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2:0 ET: First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Carpenter Theater, Richmond, Virginia

WTVR * NBC12

Minneapolis

President Obama greets Randy Hobbs with his daughter Isabella, 5, after arriving in Minneapolis

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Sullivan Harris look over the barricade as President Obama speaks at Honeywell in Golden Vale

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President Obama shares a laugh with Sen Al Franken and Sen Amy Klobuchar

…. posing for a photo with Myra Soukup, 16

A portrait of President Obama shows his autograph and a message “Dream big Dreams” after he signed the picture for Myra Soukup

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…. touring the Honeywell Golden Valley facility in Minneapolis

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President Obama is greeted by Ryan Sullivan, Honeywell Electrical Technologist and Navy veteran, before delivering remarks at the Honeywell Golden Valley facility in Minneapolis

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4:20: Departs Minneapolis en route Chicago

5:20: Arrives Chicago

7:10 Delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Chicago Cultural Center

(listed in CNN’s live streaming schedule)

8:25 Delivers remarks at a campaign event, private residence

9:55: Delivers remarks at a campaign event, private residence

evening all

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden talk outside the State Dining Room before addressing the National Governors Association annual meeting at the White House, Feb. 27, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

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Tuesday: PBO will deliver remarks at the United Auto Workers conference in Washington, DC.

Wednesday: PBO and the First Lady will host a dinner at the White House to honor Armed Forces, who served in Iraq, and their families.

Thursday: PBO will travel to Nashua, New Hampshire, and deliver remarks on the economy. In the evening, the President will attend campaign events in New York City.

Friday: PBO will travel to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to visit with wounded service members.

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Toronto Star: When Mitt Romney regaled a Michigan audience this week with childhood memories of a landmark moment in Detroit history, it was a rare instance of emotional candour.

And, perhaps, an even rarer example of time travel.

Romney recalled he was “probably 4 or something like that” the day of the Golden Jubilee, when three-quarters of a million people gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American automobile.

“My dad had a job being the grandmaster. They painted Woodward Ave. with gold paint,” Romney told a rapt Tea Party audience in the village of Milford Thursday night, reliving a moment of American industrial glory.

The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney …. took place June 1, 1946 – fully nine months before Romney was born…..

More here

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Slate: …. In January, workers in the manufacturing sector worked an average of 41.9 hours per week. That same figure was reached for a few months during the winter of 1997-1998, but the last time it was actually higher than that was July of 1945 when America’s factories were working overtime to fight and win World War II….

We’re at the point, in other words, where just to sustain current levels of output American factories are going to need to start adding workers.

More here

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Change You Can Believe In:

Yahoo: Five months after the military’s ban on openly gay service expired, a photo of a young gay Marine’s homecoming kiss has gone viral. Nearly 15,000 people have liked the picture on Facebook, which was posted in a group for gay Marines on Saturday.

The Marine, Brandon Morgan, posted a response on his Facebook wall according to the JoeMyGod blog. “To everyone who has responded in a positive way. My partner and I want to say thank you. Dalan, the giant in the photo, can’t believe how many shares and likes we have gotten on this. We didn’t do this to get famous,or something like that we did this cause after 3 deployments and four years knowing each other, we finally told each other how we felt,” Morgan wrote.

More here

Thanks Bob and Lisa

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ThinkProgress: An article in The Hill today describing the results of a new poll inaccurately reports that voters want “a lower tax bill” for wealthy individuals and businesses. If anything, the poll shows the opposite.

In tax policy, it’s critical to distinguish between marginal tax rates and effective tax rates … The Hill article fails to sort out this very basic distinction, then proceeds to make a number of apples-to-oranges comparisons that paint a misleading picture of what wealthy people and corporations are paying in taxes now and what people want them to pay.

….. Having repeatedly confused marginal and effective rates, the article misinterprets the poll results to conclude that people want “a lower tax bill” for individuals and corporations….

….Here’s a better explanation: Voters understand what The Hill does not – that wealthy people and corporations actually pay taxes at much lower rates than the top marginal rates on the books. And when asked what they think the “most appropriate” rates should be, a majority of people cite rates that are higher than what the wealthy and corporations are actually paying now.

More here

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Washington Post (Editorial): At a time of record debts and deficits, the two leading Republican presidential candidates are proposing a path on taxes and spending likely to add trillions more. That’s the sobering conclusion of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), whose board includes six Republican former lawmakers with expertise in budget issues, three Republican former heads of the Congressional Budget Office, and two former Office of Management and Budget directors under Republican presidents.

Full article here

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NY Mag: Of the various expressions of right-wing hysteria that have flowered over the past three years –  goldbuggery, birtherism, death panels at home and imaginary apology tours by President Obama abroad – perhaps the strain that has taken deepest root within mainstream Republican circles is the terror that the achievements of the Obama administration may be irreversible, and that the time remaining to stop permanent nightfall is dwindling away.

… The GOP has reason to be scared. Obama’s election was the vindication of a prediction made several years before…. that demographic and political trends were converging in such a way as to form a ­natural-majority coalition for Democrats.

… if they lose their bid to unseat Obama, they will have mortgaged their future for nothing at all. And over the last several months, it has appeared increasingly likely that the party’s great all-or-nothing bet may land, ultimately, on nothing. In which case, the Republicans will have turned an unfavorable outlook into a truly bleak one in a fit of panic. The deepest effect of Obama’s election upon the Republicans’ psyche has been to make them truly fear, for the first time since before Ronald Reagan, that the future is against them.

Full article here

Thanks Loriah

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The Week

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Anti-Romney Robocall From “Democrats For Santorum”:

🙄

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Yikes, I can’t remember who posted this today – whoever you are, thank you!

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Nick Anderson

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Thanks Symmetry!!!

out and about

….. visiting DeWitt Dairy Treats, Aug. 16, in DeWitt, Iowa

Jay Carney

President Obama pats Brady, a golden retriever, while visiting the Grasshopper antique store in LeClaire, Iowa

President Obama autographs a man’s t-shirt as he visits LeClaire, Iowa

President Obama tosses a bag of popcorn to members of the media in LeClaire

… meeting members of the girls junior volleyball team at Maquoketa High School, Iowa

A girl on the cross country running team smiles and looks back at her friends after meeting President Obama at Maquoketa High School