Equal Justice Under The Law

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals. That’s how we remember her. But she also left instructions for how she wanted her legacy to be honored. My statement: https://t.co/Wa6YcT5gDi

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 19, 2020

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Her Relationship With President Obama

good afternoon

Air Force One heads down a snowy runway for takeoff at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo. as President Barack Obama headed back to Washington

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Washington Post: Obama moves to ease student loan burdens

President Obama on Wednesday announced a plan to allow college graduates to cap federal student loan repayments at 10 percent of discretionary income starting in January, two years before the cap was due to take effect under federal law.

The accelerated “pay as you earn” program, which Obama will authorize through executive order, could benefit up to 1.6 million borrowers and reduce their payments by as much as a couple hundred dollars a month, administration officials said. All remaining debt on the federal loans would be forgiven after 20 years – five years earlier than under current law.

Read full article here

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😯

Thanks Esmerelda

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Reuters: …. President Obama’s appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” lifted the show to its highest Tuesday-night ratings since March 2, 2010, the night after Leno returned to the show.

Tuesday’s episode received a 4.1/11 metered-market household rating, a 52 percent leap over his Tuesday-night average so far this season. With Obama’s appearance,” The Tonight Show” handily surpassed “Late Show with David Letterman,” which posted a 2.7/7 household rating, “Nightline,” which drew a 3.6/9, and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” which received a 1.8./6.

Thanks Proud

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Ruth Marcus (Washington Post): In an interview with Parade magazine, the Texas governor declared Obama’s place of birth a “distractive” issue even as he happily latched on to the opportunity to distract ….. It was classic Perry, combining logical incoherence and a smarmy cheap shot.

…. Is this a presidential campaign or a middle-school playground? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours? By the way, if I had Perry’s grades, I wouldn’t be mentioning them. Certainly not if I were running against a former president of the Harvard Law Review.

…. You might think this was the candidate cannily trying to have it both ways: a nod to the birther crazies with a simultaneous wink at those who know this is a ridiculous distraction. Except that Perry managed to step on his real message of the day: his unaffordable and unfair proposal to “simplify” the tax code – by grafting a flat-tax alternative onto the existing system.

…. The matter of Obama’s birth certificate should be a closed case. It is astonishing that a sitting governor, no less a serious candidate for president, would stoop to playing this game.

… The country is facing serious problems. This will be a fateful election. Voters deserve better than scare tactics and drivel.

Full article here

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President Obama returns a salute as he steps off Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House as he returned from a three day trip to Nevada, California and Colorado.

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See here for more information

Thanks Marlz

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‘saving america from rick perry’

Ruth Marcus (Washington Post); Rick Perry is no George W. Bush. This is not a compliment … his 2010 Tea Party-steeped manifesto, “Fed Up!,” makes George Bush look like George McGovern. Perry has said he wasn’t planning to run for president when he wrote the book, and it shows:

● He floats the notion of repealing the 16th Amendment, which authorized the federal income tax. Perry describes the amendment as “the great milestone on the road to serfdom” because it “was the birth of wealth redistribution in the United States.”….

●He lambastes the 17th Amendment, which instituted direct election of senators, as a misguided “blow to the ability of states to exert influence on the federal government”….

● He laments the New Deal as “the second big step” – the 16th and 17th amendments being the first – “in the march of socialism and….”

● He specifically targets Social Security for “violently tossing aside any respect for our founding principles of federalism and limited government”….

● … he is even less happy about the Great Society, suggesting that programs such as Medicare are unconstitutional….

…. Perry’s views on the role of judges may be the most alarming given a president’s ability to shape the Supreme Court for decades to come. He writes about the current court with venomous disdain …. Disagreeing with liberal justices is one thing. Accusing them of not caring about the Constitution is like denouncing the opposing party as unpatriotic …

…. The subtitle of Perry’s book is “Our Fight to Save America from Washington.” Reading it summons the image of another, urgent fight: saving America from Rick Perry.

Full article here

96-3 …..

Steve Benen: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg believes her nomination would probably be defeated if it came up today. She’s correct:

Ginsburg said that to practice for her Senate confirmation hearings, White House staffers in mock hearings grilled her on her work for the ACLU. During those mock hearings she told them: “There’s nothing you can do to get me to bad mouth the ACLU.”

Such grilling, though, did not happen, she said. She was confirmed 96-3. “Today, my ACLU connection would probably disqualify me,” she said.

Ginsburg was the former director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, which would seem to make her a left-wing radical in the eyes of the Republican Party.

And yet, in 1993, Ginsburg was confirmed by the Senate on a 96-to-3 vote. That’s not a typo …. Note that plenty of Republican senators whose names will sound familiar – Chuck Grassley, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John McCain, Mitch McConnell – all voted for her nomination. (Then note that in 2010, Elena Kagan confirmed on a 63-to-37 vote – and Grassley, Hutchison, McCain, and McConnell all voted against her.)

….The political center of gravity has moved rather dramatically in a very short period of time.

Full post here – more at Think Progress

state of the union

Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

“Don’t cry – again.”

A seat sits empty for recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

…with John, Dallas and Roxanna Green, family of the late Christina Taylor Green of Tucson

…with Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)

with Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill, right, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., center, and Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa

Read the text of the address here

President Obama’s arrival:

The official White House video:

Here’s the C-Span version:

Enhanced White House version:

ah, more change you can believe in

The Supreme Court began a new era Monday with three women serving together for the first time – Ruth Bader Ginsburg and President Obama’s appointments, Sonia Sotomayor (left) and Elena Kagan (right)

holding court

President Barack Obama visits with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the Blue Room of the White House, prior to Kagan’s confirmation reception in the East Room, Aug. 6, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

house hosts

Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax

Singer/songwriter Regina Spektor

From left: Sen. Arlen Specter, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Vice President Joe Biden

….with Olympic swimming gold medalist Dara Torres

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month May 27, 2010 in the East Room of the the White House in Washington, DC

three guiding lights

First Lady Michelle Obama listens as Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor talk with a group of young women, during a mentoring event at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., March 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)