On This Day: President Obama embraces Nicole Hockley, who lost a son in the Sandy Hook shootings, after delivering a statement on the Senate’s failure to pass a measure to expanded gun background checks, April 17, 2013
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Today (all times Eastern):
11:05: President Obama welcomes the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride to the White House
11:40: Meets with representatives from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners
1:35: Meets with insurance executives
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One year ago today, the Senate failed us by blocking a bill to reduce gun violence. My @USATODAY op-ed: http://t.co/22LrL1Cpqz
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) April 17, 2014
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LA Times: Health insurance gains since last fall hit 12 million, survey shows
President Obama’s health law has led to an even greater increase in health coverage than previously estimated, according to new Gallup survey data, which suggest that about 12 million previously uninsured Americans have gained coverage since last fall.
That is millions more than Gallup found in March and suggests that as many as 4 million people signed up for some kind of insurance in the last several weeks as the first enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act drew to a close.
Just 12.9% of adults nationally lacked coverage in the first half of April, initial data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index indicates, the lowest rate since the survey began in 2008.
More here
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#ACASignups Texas (yes, Texas!): Nearly 178K QHPs in Houston alone thru 4/05: http://t.co/Ohzi65YStp #ACA #Obamacare @GovernorPerry
— Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) April 16, 2014
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Conservative crybabies lose again: The right’s laughable new Obamacare conspiracies, debunked http://t.co/4HaGnoK94V via @SimonMaloy
— Salon.com (@Salon) April 17, 2014
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Brian Beutler: The Repeal Swindle Republicans are pretending to support Obamacare’s goals, but they don’t
For years now, undeterred by an imposing level of conservative schadenfreude, a handful of us have argued that the introduction of Affordable Care Act benefits in January would flip the politics of Obamacare, and the GOP’s repeal platform would collapse.
It’s April now and that worm is turning before our eyes, both on on Capitol Hill and in states across the country.
Republicans have replaced an unabashed “full repeal!” mantra with a deluge of weasel words meant to conceal the fact that “repeal” is still the beginning and end of their health-care reform agenda. It’s still the goal—they’re just a little ashamed of it now. And that places an onus on Dems (and reporters and anyone else who believes politicians should own the consequences of their policies) to be extremely explicit about the benefits Obamacare is conferring, and what an unvarnished rendering of GOP health policy would really look like.
More here
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Millions of Americans can now rely on quality, affordable health care coverage: http://t.co/IBVidI2Weg
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 16, 2014
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Steve Benen: Jobless claims inch up, but remain near 7-year low
Initial unemployment claims improved unexpectedly last week to a level unseen in seven years, and though the new figures from the Labor Department aren’t quite as good, they’re close.
The number of people who applied for unemployment-insurance benefits ticked up by 2,000 to 304,000 in the week that ended April 12, a slight increase from the lowest level since 2007…
… In terms of metrics, when jobless claims fall below the 400,000 threshold, it’s considered evidence of an improving jobs landscape, and when the number drops below 370,000, it suggests jobs are being created rather quickly. At this point, we’ve been below 340,000 in 13 of the last 15 weeks.
Full post here
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That moment Putin realizes President Obama won’t say “how high” when Putin says “jump.” So he throws a tantrum. https://t.co/BnAkKZJ1Bl
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) April 17, 2014
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CBS: Obama warns of “consequences” for Russian actions destabilizing Ukraine
President Obama put Russian President Vladimir Putin on notice Wednesday evening, warning that further actions to destabilize the interim Ukrainian government will result in consequences from both the United States and Europe.
In an interview with CBS News White House Correspondent Major Garrett , Mr. Obama said it was “absolutely clear” that Russia had violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by annexing Crimea last month, and they continue to do so by supporting “non-state militias” in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Still, the White House has not abandoned diplomatic solutions. Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Geneva Wednesday evening to prepare for four-party talks with European, Russian and Ukrainian officials.
More here – video at link
And more from the interview here
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#Putin Tells #Snowden There’s No Mass Surveillance In #Russia | http://t.co/sIPLOcvNxp Were his lips moving?
— peacefare.net (@DanielSerwer) April 17, 2014
Anyone who thinks that Snowden/Putin interview is anything more than Putin trying to pull America’s chain is delusional. Snowden as tool.
— Nancy LeTourneau (@Smartypants60) April 17, 2014
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LA Times: Putin: Russia may invade Ukraine to protect locals
Russia may invade southeast Ukraine to protect the local population, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
Speaking live at his annual call-in show in a Moscow television studio, Putin implied he reserves the right to move Russian troops into the neighboring country on behalf of pro-Russian residents.
“We know quite well that we must do our best to protect their rights and help them independently decide their fate and we will struggle for that,” Putin said. “I remind you that the Federation Council of Russia [the upper house of Parliament] empowered the president to use the armed forces in Ukraine.”
But Putin added that he hoped he would not have to resort to that.
Putin’s threat suggests that Russia’s armed intervention in Ukraine is a looming reality, Ukrainian political scientist Vadim Karasyov said.
More here
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LA Times: Russian economy hit by Ukraine fallout; 0% growth in 2014 possible
Russia’s economy has been hit hard by the Ukraine crisis, prompting finance officials to cut growth forecasts for this year to near zero and draining the country’s hard currency reserves as investors flee an uncertain market, Kremlin officials disclosed Wednesday.
In an address to the lower house of parliament, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said $63 billion had been converted from rubles to hard currencies and taken out of the country in the first quarter of this year.
If that pace of capital flight continues, Russia could easily surpass the $120 billion lost at the height of the global economic crisis six years ago.
More here
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It’s Been 1 Year Since The #Senate Introduced Comprehensive #Immigration Reform. Your Move, #House. #p2 pic.twitter.com/mQ32tab9bv
— Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) April 16, 2014
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Reuters: US Court Deportations Have Fallen Drastically Under Obama
Deportations through U.S. immigration courts have fallen 43 percent in the past five years as the federal government brought fewer cases before those courts, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the New York Times on Wednesday.
The figures come as President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Republicans clashed openly over immigration- reform legislation that remains stalled in the Republican-led House.
… Obama, who has made immigration reform a priority, has drawn fire from advocacy groups and been called “deporter in chief” for presiding over an administration that has deported some 2 million people. But his administration brought 26 percent fewer cases in immigration courts in 2013 than in 2009, the New York Times reported.
More here – (And see NDN Analysis: Total Removals, Returns of Unauthorized Immigrants Plummet Under Obama)
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And who is helping push the ‘Deporter in Chief’ smear? Ah yes, Ezra’s Vox:
Get outta here.
I’m not going to click on any links to Vox, nor am I going to RT anything from Vox. Sorry not sorry.
— Andie the Obamanista (@andie_walsh) April 17, 2014
PS Stay classy, Ezra:
@ezraklein Can’t believe you’re going there. I guess even wonks aren’t immune to using sexualized linkbait.
— Nancy LeTourneau (@Smartypants60) April 17, 2014
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USA Today: Biden: I’ll tell Obama first if I run in 2016
Vice President Biden says he hasn’t decided whether to seek the presidency in 2016 – and when he does he’ll tell the incumbent about it first.
“If I decide to run, believe me, this’ll be the first guy I talk to,” Biden said during a joint interview with President Obama on CBS News. “But that decision hasn’t been made for real, and there’s plenty of time.”
.”.. If I absolutely knew I wasn’t going to run – or I absolutely knew I was – there’s nothing I would do differently over the next seven, eight, ten months,” Biden said. “We have a very important job to do.”
Obama responded by praising Biden. “I’ve got somebody who I think will go down as the finest Vice Presidents in history, and he has been, as I said earlier, a great partner in everything that I do,” Obama said.
More here
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Hey #tcot here’s the selfie that destroyed the dignity of the presidency forever. You’re welcome. pic.twitter.com/LVfnzbgPgb
— BWD (@theonlyadult) April 17, 2014
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UN report says Iran has neutralized half of its uranium stock closest to nuke-arms grade – @AP http://t.co/PChDqmY5xF
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) April 17, 2014
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SmartyPants: Why Taibbi’s brand of linkbait works
Perhaps by now you’ve heard that Matt Taibbi went on Democracy Now to promote his latest book and gin up that old emo meme about how President Obama is worse than Bush – this time it’s about not holding Wall Street accountable for the crimes that led to the Great Recession. So he managed to get our attention and probably sold a lot more of his books….
…. In stark contrast to this approach is a long article by Jed Rakoff, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York (someone who knows a thing or two about securities law and white collar crime). He thoroughly reviews every argument made for the lack of prosecutions (including the one made by Taibbi), discarding them all. Then he speculates about three of his own. The reason you probably haven’t heard about it is that he makes intelligent and nuanced arguments. He’s writing to educate, not inflame.
More here
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Yet when Steve Jobs gave commencement speeches, you never saw headlines like these. Nice, @washingtonpost. SMH. http://t.co/dQO3jmygDw
— Fed-Up Hipster (@thewayoftheid) April 17, 2014
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Trevor LaFauci (The People’s View): From Boston To Bundy: Mainstream Media’s Struggle To Define Modern Terrorism
This past week in Kansas, a man shot and killed a teenager and his grandfather coming out of their house of worship. Three states over in Las Vegas, Nevada, a woman attempted to attack the former American Secretary of State during her speech by throwing a shoe at her. And down the road from the footwear fiasco, a man in Clark County, Nevada and an armed renegade militia engaged in a standoff with federal land managers for misusing government land and refusing to pay taxes.
Let’s recap: A vicious murder of two unarmed people after a religious service. An attack of an American diplomat and potential 2016 presidential candidate. An armed rebellion by a rancher who threatened federal employees who were just trying to do their job. Three separate events that put Americans’ safety and security at risk. Three deranged individuals who openly took up violence against their fellow citizens. There was media coverage of these events and yet not a single mention of a word that describes the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political means. Nowhere in any mainstream media coverage did any of the networks refer to any of these events as what they were: Terrorism.
Which brings us to an interesting question: How does the mainstream media in the year 2014 determine who is and who isn’t a terrorist?
More here
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This “militiaman” is aiming at law enforcement at Bundy ranch. Let that sink in. Then imagine if he was black. pic.twitter.com/N9srcSwgGM
— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) April 17, 2014
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Peter Bergen (CNN): U.S. right wing extremists more deadly than jihadists
On Sunday, a man shot and killed a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and then drove to a nearby Jewish retirement community where he shot and killed a third person. Police arrested a suspect, Frazier Glenn Cross, who shouted “Heil Hitler” after he was taken into custody.
Cross, who also goes by Frazier Glenn Miller, is a well-known right wing extremist who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Patriot Party, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
…. since 9/11 extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda’s ideology. According to a count by the New America Foundation, right wing extremists have killed 34 people in the United States for political reasons since 9/11.
More here
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Mother Jones: Is New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez the Next Sarah Palin?
Petty. Vindictive. Weak on policy. And yet she’s being hailed as the Republican Party’s great new hope.
…. Previously unreleased audio recordings, text messages, and emails reveal a side of Martinez the public has rarely, if ever, seen.
Full post here
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Must read —> MT @Green_Footballs Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald smears me with a faked graphic http://t.co/0Um6QJrSla
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) April 16, 2014
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The Daily Banter: Cenk Uygur Just Took $4-Million from a Conservative Source (but He’s Still a Better Liberal Than You)
One of the pitfalls of running a for-profit media company that traffics almost entirely in one specific brand of political opinion is that your funding, and where it comes from, becomes especially relevant. If you spend all day espousing what you claim are strongly liberal views, then turn around and take a giant bag of money from, say, a former Republican candidate for president and governor of Louisiana who has worked against a woman’s right to choose and in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, people might accuse you of being a bit hypocritical.
Just a little while ago the Young Turks Network announced that it’s inked a deal to get $4-million in seed money from a group run by Buddy Roemer. With the funding comes an option that could double the take for TYT, with the whole thing being made through Roemer’s private equity fund, Roemer, Robinson, Melville & Co. Roemer himself is a pretty staunch conservative, despite having been a Democrat for many years and a late-career decision to try running for president as a member of both the Reform and Americans Elect party. In addition to his retrograde views on abortion and gay marriage, he also supported Arizona’s draconian crackdown on undocumented immigrants, is pro-torture, and is for the repeal of the ACA, saying that it amounts to government interference in healthcare. In other words, the guy is the furthest thing from a liberal.
More here
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Here’s Romney mailing his taxes #uniteblue pic.twitter.com/2Eu7LW8vGh
— DNCpeep (@DNCpeep) April 17, 2014
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On This Day
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First Lady Michelle Obama smiles as she greets several members of the 911th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command and the 171st Air Refueling Wing at their base near Pittsburgh on April 17, 2012
…. embracing one of the female members of the 911th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command and the 171st Air Refueling Wing
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President Obama walks into the Rose Garden to deliver a statement on the Senate’s failure to pass a measure to expanded gun background checks, April 17, 2013
President Obama puts his arm around former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords before he speaks in the Rose Garden, April 17
Vice President Joe Biden embraces Mark Barden, father of Daniel who died at Sandy Hook
The Obama Diary 
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