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• Nearly 30 million Americans have gotten health insurance under Obamacare.
• The rate of uninsured adults has dropped to 12.3%.
Percentage of insurance exchange customers who’d previously been uninsured: 57%
• Annual number of people who would be uninsured over the next decade if not for Obamcare: 24 to 27 million
• The Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimate of how much Obamacare’s subsidies will cost: $209 billion less than projected
More here
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Politics makes for odd sickbed funding. When Texas Senator Ted Cruz made his plans to run for president official, the announcement came with an awkward revelation: Cruz, who has made opposition to the law his signature, would have to enroll in Obamacare.
But Cruz isn’t the only GOP presidential hopeful to hold his nose and accept some filthy healthcare lucre. As this Reuters graphic shows, since 2010, Affordable Care Act (ACA) grants have doled out varying amounts to states, from less than $10 million to over $500 million. Some of those grants have gone to some surprising places: A Reuters exclusive from Andy Sullivan reveals that Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Texas Governor Rick Perry collectively applied for and won at least $352 million in ACA grants.
More here
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President Barack Obama met with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece in the Oval Office of the White House. Obama and Samras discussed a range of bilateral issues during their meeting.
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AJC: U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a man in high demand as we approach the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, recently sat down with The Guardian – the newspaper that Edward Snowden chose for his now-famous leaks.
The Atlanta congressman wasn’t thrilled with the results. Apparently, the headline – since adjusted – had him praising the former IT man for the NSA as another Gandhi….
…. Here’s the note put out this morning by Lewis:
“News reports about my interview with The Guardian are misleading, and they do not reflect my complete opinion. Let me be clear. I do not agree with what Mr. Snowden did. He has damaged American international relations and compromised our national security. He leaked classified information and may have jeopardized human lives. That must be condemned.
“I never praised Mr. Snowden or said his actions rise to those of Mohandas Gandhi or other civil rights leaders. In fact, The Guardian itself agreed to retract the word “praise” from its headline…..”
More here
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https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/365496173068443648
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Pity the poor Dudebros. Their search for the black man who will give them permission to hate Obama continues.
— allanbrauer (@allanbrauer) August 8, 2013
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ThinkProgress: Voters Confront Congressman For Trying To Repeal Obamacare: ‘We’ve Got To Have It’
In Washington, D.C., Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) issues countless press releases boasting about his votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, insisting that his constituents in North Carolina are clamoring for relief from the law. But during a town hall in Swannanoa on Wednesday, voters confronted the five-term Congressman with an entirely different sentiment: they demanded to know why Republicans would take away the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions without offering any credible other alternative for reforming the health care system. One grieving mother, who spoke to reporters before the event, said that her son was denied insurance because of a pre-existing health condition and eventually died of colon cancer.
More here
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Pinterest: Vintage Black Beauty & History
Huge thanks to Yardarm for this link, it has a really beautiful, powerful, and thought provoking collection of photos. You must check them out.
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Lawrence O’Donnell Demolishing Julia Ioffe’s Non-Factual Pro-Putin Nonsense
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Zap2It: President Obama’s Appearance On ‘The Tonight Show’ Earns Top Tuesday Overnights In 21 Months
In Late-Night Metered Markets Tuesday night: With a guest appearance by President Barack Obama, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” delivered its highest rating in metered-market households (a 3.8 rating, 10 share) for any night of the week in nine months, since Wednesday, October 24, 2012 (4.0), the night of Obama’s prior appearance on the show, and highest for a Tuesday night in 21 months, since October 25, 2011 (4.1), the night of another appearance by President Obama.
More here
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TIME: How Obama’s Putin Snub Is Playing Out In Russia
On Wednesday evening, when U.S. President Obama cancelled his upcoming visit to Moscow, the Russian reaction was perhaps most clear in the way that Vesti, the state’s main propaganda TV channel, conveyed it on the channel’s website. Buried about half way down on the page, underneath a story about Russian tourists in Turkey, Vesti announced: “The invitation for Obama stands.” Beside that was the somewhat diversionary headline: “Barack Obama will travel to St. Petersburg for the G20 summit.” The actual news — that Obama had decided not to meet with his Russian counterpart before, after or during the G20 summit in St. Petersburg next month — was clearly not something the official spin doctors wanted to advertise.
After a year spent honing their anti-American rhetoric — on issues ranging from the adoption of Russian children to missile defense in Europe and the civil war in Syria — the Kremlin message makers were suddenly eager to claim that President Vladimir Putin didn’t really mean for things to go this far. “Sure, Putin uses this rhetoric, but it’s not so much anti-American as anti-Euro-Atlantic,” says Evgeny Minchenko, a Kremlin-connected political strategist. “And keep in mind that he has tried to stop short of a head-on collision.”
Putin has not yet replied to Obama’s snub, but most experts found it hard to see how he could spin it in his favor. “He can again say that he did not bow to American demands, that he did not obey,” says Alexander Konovalov, an expert on U.S.-Russia affairs at the Moscow Institute of International Relations. But that message has grown hackneyed over the past year of bickering between Moscow and Washington, so it will not earn him many points with the domestic electorate, adds Konovalov.
More here
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https://twitter.com/katz/status/365581543860736000
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AP: Obama To Honor Clinton, Oprah With Freedom Medal
Clinton and Oprah Winfrey will be among 16 people that President Barack Obama will venerate later this year with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Thursday. They’ll join other prominent people to be honored this year, including musicians, scientists, activists — even an astronaut. “This year’s honorees have been blessed with extraordinary talent, but what sets them apart is their gift for sharing that talent with the world,” Obama said in a statement.
Others who will receive the medal: Daniel Inouye, former senator from Hawaii, World War II veteran and the first Japanese American in Congress. Inouye will receive the award posthumously. Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post who oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of Watergate. Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space. Ride will receive the award posthumously. Richard Lugar, former senator from Indiana who worked to reduce the global nuclear threat. Gloria Steinem, writer and prominent women’s rights activist. Ernie Banks, baseball player who hit more than 500 home runs and played 19 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
Bayard Rustin, civil and gay rights activist and adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin will receive the award posthumously. Daniel Kahneman, psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Loretta Lynn, country music singer. Maria Molina, chemist and environmental scientist who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Arturo Sandoval, Grammy-winning jazz musician who was born in Cuba and defected to the U.S. Dean Smith, head coach of University of North Carolina’s basketball team for 36 years. Patricia Wald, first woman appointed to U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and became the court’s chief judge. C.T. Vivian, civil rights leader and minister.
More here
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Stephen Freaking Colbert For The Win!
https://twitter.com/ColbertReport/status/365276338313113601
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Photo Of The Day!
Pete Souza: Instagram of Bo in the Oval Office.
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Saturday: The President has no public events scheduled
Sunday:
8:0 AM The President departs the White House
9:50: Arrives Atlanta, Georgia
11:0: Attends Morehouse College commencement and delivers the commencement speech
2:10: Delivers remarks at a DSCC event at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Atlanta
3:10: Departs Atlanta
4:55: Arrives the White House
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(Photo: Pete Souza, 2009)
The Week Ahead:
Monday: The President will welcome President Thein Sein of Myanmar to the White House. Since President Obama’s historic trip to Rangoon last November, the United States has continued to advocate for continued progress on reform by President Thein Sein’s government, in close cooperation with Aung San Suu Kyi, civil society leaders, and the international community.
Tuesday: Will attend meetings at the White House.
Wednesday: Will attend meetings at the White House, and in the evening, as part of their “In Performance at the White House” series, the President and the First Lady will host a concert honoring singer-songwriter Carole King, who will be awarded the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Thursday: Will attend meetings at the White House.
Friday: Will travel to Annapolis, Maryland, to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy.
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This week started with Three! Huge! Scandals! It ends with #umbrellagate. Well played, Mr. President. Well played.
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) May 17, 2013
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Media Matters: ABC News & The Whitewater Tactics At The Center Of The Scandal Machine
…. ABC’s flawed reporting on the emails, based on selective leaks, has led to questions about reporter Jonathan Karl’s future, vividly demonstrating the consequences of this type of press manipulation. But whether fellow journalists – and viewers – will demand accountability from Karl remains to be seen.
It’s the Whitewater experience, which GOP leaders are reportedly skittish of repeating, that provides a blueprint for accountability over this type of press manipulation.
…. Will the media, which once again saw one of their own get burned by relying on selective leaks in furtherance of a hunting of a president, demand accountability this time?
Full post here
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The more you look at this report, the more (literally) incredible it is – and thrown in, for good measure, edits of Jay Carney (from 0:18) to make him look like a bumbling fool. Truly, Fox out-Foxed by ABC.
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Michael Tomasky: Will ABC Finger the Liar?
….. ABC News, if you ask me, has had a worse week than Obama, not that as many people are paying attention. But consider. CNN and Jake Tapper got the actual emails, proving beyond a doubt that ABC and Karl were wrong. And on CBS, Scott Pelley and Major Garrett took the unheard of step of basically calling news gatherers at a fellow network liars.
…. The record up to today suggests that the government is a good measure more trustworthy than ABC News–and, don’t forget, than whoever it was (surely a GOP source of some kind) who lied to Karl in the first place.
Full post here
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More at Mediaite
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Mediaite: Does Jon Karl Have The Juice To Survive Benghazi Email Controversy?
….. Even the best reporter can get played by a source with an ax to grind, but by presenting that source’s misinformation as a series of direct quotes from emails that the source made up, Jonathan Karl bought and paid for the consequences, and so did ABC News. They both owe their viewers, and this White House, an apology.
Full post here
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In light of current events, an interesting read from 2011:
See here
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President Obama checks to see if he still needs the umbrella held by a U.S. Marine during a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 16
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Text of remarks here
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First Lady Michelle Obama with Emine Erdoğan, wife of Turkish PM, May 16. Photo by Lawrence Jackson
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@PeteSouza: POTUS has dinner with PM Erdogan of Turkey in Red Room at WH
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It’s. The. Law. #ObamaCareInThreeWords, twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…
— The White House (@whitehouse) May 16, 2013
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#ObamacareInThreeWords Actually Pro Life.
— Jason Febery (@JasonFebery) May 16, 2013
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Washington Post: Since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2011, the House has voted 36 times to repeal either all, or part, of President Obama’s health-care law.
On Thursday, the House is scheduled to do it again, taking up another bill that would repeal the health care law in full.
With number 37 on the way, here are the details of the first 36 votes….
Read here
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GOP to replace Obamacare with Benghazicare – a health plan based on belief that a fake scandal is the cure for everything.
— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) May 16, 2013
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Steve Benen: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was asked yesterday about House Republicans, once again, voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, even though House Republicans realize this is pointless. Noting the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, Reid said they have “truly lost their minds.”
That’s not an unfair assessment….
More here
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Fuck yeah Obamacare! #ObamaCareInThreeWords
— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) May 16, 2013
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Did pigs just fly? Did a reporter just speak the truth…..
TPM: Wow, This is Pretty Epic
Generally, once partisan, tendentious sources leak information that turns out to be wrong, nothing’s ever done about it. That’s for many reasons, some good or somewhat understandable, mostly bad. But on CBS Evening News tonight, Major Garrett did something I don’t feel like I’ve seen in a really long time or maybe ever on a network news cast. He basically said straight out: Republicans told us these were the quotes, that wasn’t true….
More here
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Was this written as a ransom note? RT @jrubinblogger: WHite Ouse BAD, AWGUL, HORRIBLE week not over yet
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) May 16, 2013
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Heritage letter to Republicans on Capitol Hill: don’t legislate, just scandalize Obama on.thegrio.com/16mXJEQ
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) May 16, 2013
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Okay, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been captured. What next? Intelligent people would look to the law for that answer. Intelligent people would study the law and not make up lies to conform to their warped view. Not so Glenn Greenwald. Why? Because Glenn happens to suffer from that all too familiar “Obama Derangement Syndrome” that has inflicted many a former so called logical person since January 20, 2009 when Barack Obama took the Oath of Office and became the 44th President of the United States. Glen Greenwald’s latest drivel (click on his name to read it if you wish) claims President Obama has rolled back Miranda Rights and will do the same for Tsarnaev instead of following due process of the law. People connected with reality, know that’s hogwash. Doug Mataconis’s, @Lawscribe’s (that’s his twitter handle), and Orin Kerr’s articles clear up the stink in the air.
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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Miranda, and The Public Safety Exception
Doug Mataconis: As James Joyner has already noted this morning, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will, at least initially, not be read his Miranda rights and authorities will attempt to question him regarding the plot that he engaged in with his brother, whether the two of them had any assistance from others in the United States or elsewhere, and presumably whether there are other bombs out there. While ordinarily police give the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona fairly soon after someone is arrested, in this case authorities are relying on what’s called the “public safety” exception to Miranda
Before getting into a discussion of the “public safety” exception, it’s important to recognize what Miranda does and does not require, and what the consequences are if the police do not comply with it properly. Contrary to the conclusion that most people are likely to gather from watching crime dramas like Law & Order, officers are not required to give the warning before they arrest someone and failure to give the warning will not result in dismissal of the case. Miranda is more properly seen as an evidentiary rule that the government must follow if it wishes to interrogate a suspect and eventual defendant and use whatever statements that interrogation elicits against him in court. If a suspect is not given his or her Miranda warnings and the state then attempts to utilize post-arrest statements against him, then the government will generally be barred from using that statement against him in Court.
Read more here (This is a MUST read)
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