This and That

Pete Souza: Pres Obama speaking in Jacksonville, Florida

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Steve Benen: AG Holder to fight Texas on voting rights

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Republican policymakers acted with remarkable speed – literally, less than 24 hours – to approve new voting restrictions, most notably a controversial voter-ID law.

When the Voting Rights Act was intact, changes to voting laws in the Lone Star State would need to be cleared with the Justice Department in advance of being implemented, but with the law gutted by a narrow Supreme Court majority, GOP officials in Texas assumed the Justice Department is no longer relevant, and they could do as they pleased.

The nation’s Attorney General apparently believes otherwise….

More here

And see TPM: Holder’s Move Against Texas Could Send The Voting Rights Act Back To The Supreme Court

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Steve Benen: Among voter-suppression bills, ‘This is the single worst’

Over the last few years, we’ve seen quite a few states take up new voting restrictions, immediately on the heels of Republican gains in the 2010 election cycle, so much so that the notion of a “Republican war on voting” was widely recognized and understood. After the 2012 elections, despite the failures of voter suppression, state GOP officials renewed their efforts.

But it’s probably fair to say we haven’t seen anything quite as astounding as the proposed restrictions in North Carolina. Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “This is the single worst bill we have seen introduced since voter suppression bills began sweeping the country.”

More here

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I am sick and tired of Cornel West’s race and poverty pimping, and I am calling him out. http://t.co/5curU3yXnE

— The People’s View (@thepeoplesview) July 26, 2013

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BlackAmericaWeb: Is Anyone Black Enough for Cornel West?

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shock! “@BlackCanseco: #GeorgeZimmerman’s “heroic” car crash rescue may be fraudulent after all. http://t.co/ktNe1UsG3U #thanksgeorge #syg”

— Wieland (@lawscribe) July 25, 2013

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Zimmerman Juror B29 in her own words… http://t.co/VA0y5nRJ89

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) July 25, 2013

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Trayvon Martin’s parents: Juror B29′s revelations ‘devastating’ http://t.co/J3EezZa8FJ

— theGrio.com (@theGrio) July 26, 2013

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More here

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To see the whole list of 25 Thoughts on Conservative Policies, visit http://t.co/amvoTfLJRR …,

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 26, 2013

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This really is beyond belief:

ThinkProgress: Ohio Plans Unspeakably Cruel Appeal Of Dying Man’s Last Wish

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President Obama tours Jacksonville port with, from left, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx; Dennis Kelly, TracPac Regional Vice President and General Manager; Ray Schleicher, CEO of the Jacksonville Port Authority, and Fred Wakefield, International Longshoreman’s Association Representative

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Text of the President’s remarks in Jacksonville today here

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EXCLUSIVE: Inside Groundswell, the right-wing group where activists & journalists coordinate messaging http://t.co/9GZRllKxED #groundswell

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 25, 2013

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President Obama talks with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx aboard Air Force One during the flight to Jacksonville, July 25 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Republicans Launch A Campaign to Convince The Uninsured NOT to Buy Health Insurance http://t.co/jYpAor88Bi via @politicususa #p2 #p2b #ctl

— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) July 25, 2013

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Norm Ornstein: The Unprecedented, Contemptible GOP Quest to Sabotage Obamacare. What the Republicans are doing now goes beyond mere hardball politics – and could hurt millions of Americans affected by health-care reform.

And from Steve Benen: None dare call it sabotage

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So many OFA vols are calling @SpeakerBoehner today demanding action on #Immigration they are waiting on hold 40 min to leave a message

— Jon Carson OFA (@JonCarsonOFA) July 25, 2013

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What’s most telling re @thehill‘s f**k-up is their eagerness to create anti-Obama story when he wasn’t even mentioned pic.twitter.com/re95CMaBod

— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) July 25, 2013

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President Obama reaches up to touch a media microphone while talking with people along a tarmac ropeline after arriving at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., July 24 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

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New CBO report finds sequester cuts will cost up to 1.6mill jobs by Sept. 2014. Time for GOP to move fwd on a budget: http://t.co/xioecdOjEB

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 25, 2013

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A southern strategy for the 21st century http://t.co/fcfDS4ZOjW

— Smartypants (@Smartypants32) July 25, 2013

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ThinkProgress: Washington Nationals Use Teddy Roosevelt Mascot To Promote Obamacare

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A MUST READ “@joshuafoust: I made a timeline of Edward Snowden’s flight from the U.S. It raises a lot of questions. http://t.co/MVbbc8jxYF”

— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) July 25, 2013

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If you’ve ever wondered what landing on the South Lawn of the White House was like…here you go —> pic.twitter.com/QrqGpUlzEq

— The White House (@whitehouse) July 25, 2013

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USA Today: President Obama is declaring Saturday to be Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.

“I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor our distinguished Korean War veterans,” Obama said in a proclamation signed Thursday.

Obama will commemorate the event with a speech on Saturday at the Korean War memorial in Washington, D.C.

More here

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Pete Souza: Pres Obama signing photos backstage in Jacksonville

Be not afraid

To the stranger who took me into her home, gave me soup and tea tostop my shaking and a phone to call home, thank you. #BostonMarathon2013

— Judith U (@Autismville) April 15, 2013

We don’t know who did it.

We don’t know if he was a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew.

We don’t know if he was left wing or right wing.

We don’t know if it was done with a political purpose in mind, or if his mind merely snapped, lashing out at a society of which he wasn’t a part.

At this point, we know nothing about the bomber at today’s Boston Marathon.

But I will not cower in fear.

I will not listen to the ones with the megaphones who are already using this as an excuse to settle political scores.

I will not hide in my room, or acquiesce to give up a bit of freedom for safety. Giving up one rarely secures you the other.

I will not pound my chest and say that the answer is more guns on the street, so that we’re all deputized, armed, dangerous.

I will not let hatred blind me.

I will run towards the danger, like hundreds of citizens did in Boston.

I will open my home to those who suffered and lost.

I will stay resolute that fear will not prevail.

I will trust that this country will feel its way towards doing the right thing. It always, eventually, does.

Our instinct is to give up on our fellow humans. One of my first reactions was to root for global warming to do its worst.

But that hopelessness is the one thing which will condemn us to extinction.

Hope is what keeps humanity going; it’s the only thing keeping us from falling into the abyss. Once we’ve lost hope, we’ve lost what makes us human.

I will not lose hope.

We don’t know what prompted the bomber to commit his act. But one thing we can assume with a clear certainty is that hope was lost in him.

I will not be that man.

I will not succumb to the thought that humanity is a cesspit, doomed to fall. One man bombed a race. Hundreds raced towards the explosions, to help out their fellow human beings. I’m with them.

I will not be afraid. That’s when I lose.

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Chips: Follow Liberal Librarian on Twitter and read him at The People’s View

Chat Away – and don’t forget Jimmy Fallon tonight

@jimmyfallon

@FLOTUS

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Orlando Sentinel: ABC News has released photos of Robin Roberts’ interview with first lady Michelle Obama.

The chat was conducted Friday, but it won’t air until Tuesday on “Good Morning America”….

More here

Rise and Shine

An exhausting trip: President Obama yawns at the beginning of the East Asian Summit Plenary Session at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 20

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Thank you FoxFire

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For All

OFA

Chat away 😉

‘this is not a game’

Transcript

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evening all

The Week

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Charles Pierce: …. my fellow Papists … if you all would be so kind, please shut the fk up about birth control, abortion, and this neverending madness about what ladies do with their lady parts without the pope’s permission.

….. please stop going on my television set and telling me what “the Catholic position” is on the fact that the president has told various Catholic institutions – and told them quite gently, too – that, yes, if they want all those nice juicy tax advantages, they must abide by the federal law and, in their capacities as employers, make contraceptives available to their employees under the new Affordable Care Act.

There is no “Catholic position” on this issue. There are the opinions of the clerical bureaucrats and the members of the Clan of The Red Beanie, and then there is the opinion of the overwhelming majority of Catholic laypeople, who stopped listening to anything the Vatican said on the matter of birth control back in 1965.

…. For that matter, there is no real “Catholic vote” out there to be mined, either. A breakdown of how American Catholics vote on one particular issue or another pretty much tracks with how the country in general breaks down … Catholics made up their mind on this issue long ago. They stopped listening to Rome, and to the Chancery, and most of them are much better off.

Full post here

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Kevin Drum: …. I guess I’m tired of religious groups operating secular enterprises (hospitals, schools), hiring people of multiple faiths, serving the general public, taking taxpayer dollars – and then claiming that deeply held religious beliefs should exempt them from public policy …. I imagine the “religious community” in the United States would be a wee bit more understanding if the Obama administration refused to condone the practice.

…. if Catholic hospitals don’t want to follow reasonable, 21st century secular rules, they need to make themselves into truly religious enterprises. In particular, they need to stop taking secular taxpayer money. As long as they do, though, they should follow the same rules as anyone else.

More here

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Josh Kraushaar (National Journal): If President Obama wins re-election, he’ll point to the last couple of weeks as a turning point. He’s sharpened his economic message, emphasized fairness for the middle class, and most importantly, he’s benefited from an economy that’s showing some signs of improvement.

But the most underplayed development are signs that the president’s approval rating is ticking upwards with the group most resistant to him, non-college educated, working-class whites. Over the last week, several surveys have suggested that Obama is gaining some ground with this group, in both national and statewide polling. If these gains stick, it’s something that should be very concerning to the Romney campaign, which is dependent on winning overwhelming support from blue-collar white voters as part of a winning GOP coalition.

…. As Buffalo Springfield once sang: “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” Pay very close attention to Obama’s numbers with the white working-class. The assumption was that they were hardened against the president.  But there’s some fresh evidence that could be changing.

Full post here

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Bloomberg: President Barack Obama nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Janet Wolfenbarger to be the service’s first female four-star general and the military’s second woman to reach the highest rank.

Wolfenbarger, the Air Force’s top uniformed official for weapons development, was also nominated as commander of the Air Force’s Materiel Command, according to a Defense Department statement today. The positions are subject to Senate confirmation.

The first woman with four stars in the U.S. military, Army General Ann Dunwoody, was confirmed in 2008 and is commanding general of that service’s Materiel Command.

More here

Thanks Jovie

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Obama Foodorama: Expect some hilarious Let’s Move! hijinks on Tuesday night when First Lady Michelle Obama cameos in a video segment on NBC talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The comic visited Mrs. Obama last week at the White House to film the outing, which will air as part of this week’s celebration of the second anniversary of the Let’s Move! campaign. Among other fitness activities, the First Lady had Fallon running up and down the historic White House stairs, he said when he announced the upcoming cameo…..

More here

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Haven’t posted this in a while, love it:

afternoon all

First lady Michelle Obama is joined by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the future site of a Northgate Market in Inglewood, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. Michelle Obama says the proposed new supermarket in the middle of a blue-collar Hispanic neighborhood in Southern California is an example of how the effort to bring healthy foods to low-income communities is paying off.

AP: First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday said the campaign to bring healthy food to all Americans is happening neighborhood by neighborhood.

Standing in a vacant Southern California store set to be refurbished and reopened this summer, Obama lauded efforts to bring large grocery retailers to inner-city areas that traditional supermarket chains spurn.

…. Obama, who is on the second day of her two-day visit to the Los Angeles area, made the stop in the blue-collar, largely Hispanic neighborhood as part of her “Let’s Move!” campaign to boost healthy food and fitness.

Part of the campaign includes promoting initiatives such as the $264 million California FreshWorks Fund, which finances grocery businesses willing to open in urban areas.

…. After the Inglewood event, Obama was scheduled to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and to deliver a luncheon speech at the Democratic National Committee.

Full article here

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Washington Post: U.S. factories grew in January at the fastest pace in seven months, boosted by a rise in new orders. And builders ended a poor year for construction by spending more on homes and projects for the fifth straight month.

The reports bolster other data showing the U.S. economy started the year strong.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Wednesday that its manufacturing index rose last month to 54.1 from 53.1 in December. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

Consumers are buying more cars and trucks, while businesses ordered more machinery and other equipment. That has driven manufacturing, which expanded for the 30th straight month.

Both new orders and order backlogs rose to nine-month highs. Increasing order backlogs suggest manufacturers are lacking the capacity to meet demand. That could mean more growth in production and employment in the near future, economists said.

Export orders also rose, a sign that U.S. manufacturers haven’t yet been affected by Europe’s slowing economy.

“This is a very encouraging report on manufacturing activity that shows particular strength in leading indicators,” said John Ryding, an economist at RDQ Economics.

Full article here

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Gallup

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Steve Benen: For campaign watchers, Florida’s Republican presidential primary was the big draw yesterday, but there was another noteworthy race on the other side of the country: a U.S. House special election in Oregon’s 1st congressional district.

Just two weeks ago, the National Republican Congressional Committee took an interest in the race, airing attack ads against Democratic candidate Suzanne Bonamici. The GOP candidate, Rob Cornilles, even released an internal poll showing him trailing by only four points.

Yesterday, however, it became clear Republicans were chasing a mirage.

Democrat Suzanne Bonamici swept to victory Tuesday in Oregon’s 1st Congressional District, continuing her party’s nearly four-decade-long hold on the seat covering the northwestern corner of the state. With the bulk of ballots counted, Bonamici was defeating Republican Rob Cornilles by about 15 percentage points…..

Full post here

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President Barack Obama at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church, Virginia, February 1

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TPM

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Forgot to post this yesterday:

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TPM: The Obama administration announced Wednesday that the Medicare Advantage program, which allows seniors to receive health coverage through a private insurer, is enjoying lower costs and more customers as a result of the health care reform law.

More here

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Yahoo: If you watched President Obama’s Google+ hangout Monday night, you saw two interesting exchanges between the president and Jennifer Wedel, a 29-year-old Texas mother of two.

It turns out that Wedel’s digital meeting convinced her to vote for Obama in this year’s presidential election – despite her support for the GOP.

…. Afterwards, Wedel, who described herself as a “good Republican,” is now planning to vote for Obama in this year’s presidential election.

“I didn’t vote for him four years ago. But I have been so disappointed with the presidential race. I haven’t seen anybody who would have been a good replacement. I know how Obama is now. I know how he rolls. So I’d probably vote him back in,” said Wedel in an interview with The Atlantic. “I (feel) like I know him a little more,” Wedel said. “There was a connection. He should definitely do this with more people…..”

….. for those who watched the event, a slightly odd moment near the end might have jumped out. During that personal question round, Wedel asked Obama if he would do a little jig. Obama demurred. What was that about? It’s a YouTube meme thing, explained Wedel. An extremely popular video on the site is a minute-and-a-half clip of then-candidate Obama shaking it on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” back in 2007; one version has 12 million hits and counting.

“It’s so funny,” said Wedel. “You’ve got to watch it.”

More here

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Thanks nintendowii10

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Make sure you don’t miss Liberal Librarian’s post below

rise and shine

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10:45: VP Biden delivers remarks at American Seating Company’s factory in Grand Rapids, Mich.

11:00: PBO delivers remarks on the economy at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church, Va.

5:00: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee luncheon in Los Angeles.

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Gallup

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WSJ: The private sector added 170,000 jobs in January, in line with expectations, as small-business hiring fueled the increase …. The latest ADP report showed large businesses with 500 employees or more added just 3,000 employees in January, while medium-size businesses added 72,000 workers and small businesses, those that employ fewer than 50 workers, hired 95,000 new employees. Service-sector jobs increased by 152,000 last month, and factory jobs rose by 10,000.

More here

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The Week

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USA Today: The closer we get to the fall campaign, the more President Obama sharpens his stump speech. At a fundraiser last night in Washington ….Obama argued that the Republicans will take the economy back to where it was before the 2008 crisis, and have “the wrong vision for America.”

“Their basic argument is that if we strip out regulations, if we disregard environmental concerns, if we take away protections for consumers, if we lower taxes even further for the kind of folks who are in this room, that somehow growth and the American Dream will be restored,” Obama said.

That said, Obama warned supporters that this will be a tough election, and they can’t take anything for granted.

“We’re all going to have to be focused on making sure that every single day the American people understand not only where we want to take the country but also that we’re willing to fight for them,” Obama said.

More here

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Charles Pierce (Esquire): …. I’m not going to sit there and listen to (Willard Romney) …. the cosseted plutocrat son of a millionnaire auto dealer – one who is running on a platform that will make himself and everyone like him richer while warning the rest of us, as he did in his victory speech in Tampa, that “If you’re looking for cradle-to-grave help from the government, I’m not your candidate” – go and dragoon into that effort Tom Paine, who would have spat in Willard Romney’s face if he’d ever met him.

Mitt Romney is someone whose children have a trust fund totaling $100 million. His great-great-grandchildren are not ever going to have to worry about money from their cradles to their graves. Thomas Paine? I’m sorry, but there are levels of bullshit to which I will not agree to descend.

Romney won because he had the most money. And because he had the most money, enough of the Tea Party “base,” which was supposed to hate him like gum disease, decided thusly: What the hell? The important thing is to get the Muslim Kenyan Usurper Negro out of the White House, so this is the horse we have to ride…..

…. it was how Romney delivered the speech that was so revelatory. This is a rich kid who likes flogging The Help. There were just enough shit-eating, country-club grins as he delivered his rancid material to show you what the guy must have been like in those golden moments when he realized that there was more dough in wrecking a company than in investing in it.

Full article here

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David Firestone (NYT): ….. nearly half the nation now holds an unfavorable view of Mr. Romney, much higher than last year. The number is even higher among independents. If Mr. Gingrich can raise enough money to stay in the race, Mr. Romney will have to spend valuable time, resources and good will to keep countering him.

All of that subtracts from his ability to pivot to Mr. Obama, and makes his criticism of the president seem like more of the same endless negativity. Mr. Romney’s victory speech tonight was less than uplifting, suggesting the United States had sunk to “the worst of what Europe has become.” If he means the Euro crisis, it’s not even close, and he will not get very far persuading voters that Washington is turning into Athens.

He even made a crack about Mr. Obama and his “faculty lounge” colleagues who think they know better than everyone else. That sounds hollow, coming from one of the country’s best-educated elitists, and it’s precisely the wrong message for a country that knows it must improve education at all levels.

It was left to Rick Santorum, who barely competed in Florida, to express the real lesson of Florida’s knife fight, and the dangers of letting it continue. “What we’ve seen the last few weeks in Florida,” he said tonight, “is not something that is going to help us win this election.”

Full post here

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The Week

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CBS

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Morning everyone 😉

ooops

Eric Cantor’s website today.

But, but, but: he said Congress is in session!

Looks like President Obama’s recess appointments were ……… legal. 😳

Jesse Lee