News of the Day

 

You might recall the genius that is Scout Tufankjian dropping in to TOD a while back to praise one of my horse poo pics from the 2009 inauguration parade? Well, she clearly was inspired – have a look at her completely and utterly majestic ‘Four More Years: Obama 2012’ here – thank you BWD!

****

Cape Cod Times: …. President Obama arrived at Nancy’s Restaurant and shook hands with a couple of dozen people waiting to place their order.

The presidential motorcade arrived at the Lake Avenue restaurant shortly after 1 p.m. and Obama hopped out of an SUV, undeterred by a steady rain. He was upbeat and made a point of chit-chatting with customers and restaurant employees as he made his way to the take-out counter.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” said Serena Creary of Natick. “I knew he was here (on the island), of course, but I never expected to see him.”

More here

****

He takes too many vacations #ObamaImpeachmentReasons pic.twitter.com/1cyV0qyd58

— Leyla (@MiamiLib) August 12, 2013

****

Brilliant news – thank you Dudette for letting us all know about this yesterday:

Daym right. RT: “@ajc: Hospital reverses decision, agrees to put 15-year-old on heart transplant list. http://t.co/Hz3f6mUH5F”

— Goldie Taylor (@goldietaylor) August 13, 2013

****

****

Milt Shook: Why Do We Allow So Many Ex-GOP to be “Authorities” on “Real Progressives”

Look, folks; I peg my progressive roots to the age of 14, when I worked for the McGovern Campaign, but my actual roots probably precede that. My father was a union steelworker, and my mom was the daughter of a union worker, as well. I was royally pissed off at the Kent State massacre. I thought Abbie Hoffman was amazing. Spiro Agnew’s and Richard Nixon’s names were said with derision in my house as early as 1968, and I cried, at the age of ten, when Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed. To this day, Bobby Kennedy is still my idol.

I am just as liberal as anyone out there who claims to speak for the progressive cause, and I have been for pretty much my entire life. So, it really pisses me off when someone comes along and insinuates or says that I’m not a “real” progressive, because I don’t think exactly the way they do. Being liberal or progressive is about being tolerant, and about understanding that not everyone sees every issue the same way. There are a lot of moderates out there who are actually progressive, but they don’t know it, in part because some of the loudest elements of the liberal media scream at the top of their lungs, telling us all what we should believe on every issue. Because they don’t believe exactly that, they figure they’re not very progressive. The problem with this is, they may hate the right wing, but they also come to hate us, even though they probably agree with us on most things.

More here

Rise and Shine

****

Monday: The President has no public events scheduled in observance of Veterans Day

Tuesday: Attends meetings at the White House

Wednesday: Holds a news conference in the East Room. He will also meet with business leaders at the White House

Thursday: The President will travel to the New York City area to view the storm damage, talk with citizens who are recovering from the storm and thank first responders who put their lives at risk to protect their communities

Friday: The President will meet with Congressional leaders of both parties at the White House to discuss the action needed to be taken to keep the economy growing and reduce the deficit

****

Cagle

****

NYT: President Obama, emboldened by his decisive re-election and lessons learned over four years in office, is looking to the renewal of budget talks with Republicans this week as a second chance to take command of the nation’s policy debates and finally fulfill his promise to end gridlock in Washington, associates say.

As he prepares to meet with Congressional leaders at the White House on Friday, aides say, Mr. Obama will not simply hunker down there for weeks of closed-door negotiations as he did in mid-2011 …. He will travel beyond the Beltway at times to rally public support for a deficit-cutting accord that mixes tax increases on the wealthy with spending cuts.

…. with the election campaign over, the campaign for the Obama legacy begins: Mr. Obama will keep his grass-roots organization in place to “have the president’s back,” as its members like to say, on the budget negotiations and other issues in the second term. Democrats concede that the network has not been a particularly effective legislative lobby to date. But they argue that when it was activated to pass payroll tax cuts and low-interest student loans, the pressure made a difference.

…. His first trip outside Washington to engage the public will come after Thanksgiving, since Mr. Obama is scheduled to leave next weekend on a diplomatic trip to Asia.

Full article here

****

****

@txvoodoo

****

Absolutely adore the fact that the word ‘phew‘ trended worldwide on Twitter when President Obama was re-elected 😎

****

Cagle

Cagle

****

Now, I don’t want to go on about this – well, that’s a complete lie, I do – but thanks to a very kind TOD lurker called Mandy, I’ve finally seen another comment left here by Scout Tufankjian – one that settles an ugly exchange between me and Bobfr for once and for all:

Bob? I accept your apology which I’m sure you’ll post soon – don’t worry about it, we can, hopefully, move on from this.

Scout? I ♥ you! Rest well after the campaign, you deserve it.

****

Moooooooooooorning everyone.

Rise and Shine

****

Today:

9:0: The President and First Lady host a breakfast with veterans; the Vice President and Dr Biden also attend

11:0: The President participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery; the First Lady, Vice President and Dr Biden also attend

11:15: The President delivers remarks at Arlington National Cemetery

****

Mike Thompson

Thank you Relellit – I ADORE this!

****

****

There’s a surprise, Gallup the least accurate polling company during the campaign 🙄

Read Nate Silver’s article here

****

****

NYT Editorial: The millionaires and billionaires who gave nearly $500 million to independent groups in the race to elect Mitt Romney and other Republicans not only bet on the wrong party, they bet on the wrong tactic. They believed that an endless drumbeat of television advertisements would be enough to drive voters away from President Obama and Democratic policies.

It did not work…..

…. the biggest-spending conservative groups were trounced. American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by Karl Rove, spent $104 million in the general election, but none of its candidates won. The United States Chamber of Commerce spent $24 million backing Republicans in 15 Senate races; only two of them won. Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul, spent $53 million on nine Republican candidates, eight of whom lost.

… A backlash against the damaging power of big money cannot come too soon.

Full editorial here

****

Steve Benen: First up from the God Machine this week is a look at the 2012 presidential election, and the differences along religious lines….

….. the results among Roman Catholic voters are arguably the most electorally significant. In every recent cycle, Catholics have been considered a key swing constituency and President Obama narrowly won their support, 50% to 48%. It suggests Republicans’ efforts to focus on contraception and reproductive rights had limited success, and the Bishops’ lobbying largely fell on deaf ears.

Also note, while many on the right hoped 2012 would be the year that Jewish voters abandoned Democrats, that didn’t come close to happening. Though Obama fared slightly worse among Jewish voters as compared to 2008, he still enjoyed overwhelming support.

Read full post here

****

****

Deaniac (The People’s View): The Impact of A President: A Personal Reflection on Equality

Four years ago, on election day 2008, I was a poll-captain for the No on 8 campaign in California. After working day and night trying to beat back California’s attempt to ban marriage equality, election day was finally upon us, and my job was to lead my team of volunteers to speak to voters in the parking lot of the polling place about voting No on 8. The team of volunteers rotated throughout the day, in 2, 3 or 4 hour shifts. Some stayed even half a day. I was there all day. From the break of dawn before the polls opened till they closed…..

Read full post here

****

Oooooh, cruel!

****

Yahoo: It was an intimate snapshot of a sweet celebration: Minutes after the networks called the 2012 presidential election for Barack Obama on Tuesday night, the Obama for America campaign posted a picture of him hugging his wife along with a simple message: “Four more years.” Within minutes, it became the most popular post in the history of Twitter and the most-liked image in the history of Facebook….

…. no one was more surprised than the woman who took the photo back in August, Scout Tufankjian….

…. The President is “so much happier and more relaxed” when he’s with his family … he and the first lady are so focused on each other. The way that they play off each other and get energy from each other… when I was shooting the president during the 2008 campaign I would watch them greet each other on stage and I used to text-message my boyfriend, now my husband: ‘Do you love me as much as Barack loves Michelle?’ and he’d be like, ‘Probably not, no’.”

More here

Thanks BWD

****

Cool bag – and shoes!

****

Morning everyone 😉

Okay, my life is now complete…

Remember I was majestically kind enough earlier today (this post) to share with you one of my spectacular photos from the last inauguration?

Some of you were rude enough to refer to it as the ‘horse manure’ pic, which said a whole more about you than my masterly eye for a photograph.

Any way, I captioned it:

“Eat your heart out, Scout Tufankjian”

Some of you might be aware that I worship the ground Scout Tufankjian carries her cameras on (if you haven’t bought this book you should be ashamed), she’s the most brilliant photographer on planet earth – and did gorgeous work again on the 2012 campaign (I’ve posted lots of her photos, you can see more here)

So, where were we?

Yes, my ‘horse manure’ pic that SO many of you failed to appreciate?

Well.

Look what I just found in pending:

And yes, I checked, it’s HER!

****

****

Scout Tufankjian? I LOVE you! 😆

The rest of you? Like Scout, please respect my horse manure pics in future, okay?

Photos from the Campaign Trail

Miami, October 11 (Scout Tufankjian)

Miami, October 11 (Scout Tufankjian)

Miami, October 11 (Scout Tufankjian)

Miami, October 11 (Scout Tufankjian)

Miami, October 11 (Scout Tufankjian)

Miami, October 11 (Scout Tufankjian)

First Lady Michelle Obama prepares her absentee ballot (Jocelyn Augustino)

Washington DC, October 12 (Scout Tufankjian)

Washington DC, October 12 (Scout Tufankjian)

La Crosse, Wisconsin, October 12 (Christopher Dilts)

La Crosse, Wisconsin, October 12 (Christopher Dilts)

La Crosse, Wisconsin, October 12 (Christopher Dilts)

****

Coming up:

2:45 ET: Michelle Obama speaks at a campaign event at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware

CBS 1 * CBS 2 * CNN

5:45 ET: Michelle Obama speaks at a campaign event at Cuyahoga County Community College, Cleveland

****

A hoot:

Tumblr

Eyes on the Prize

Scout Tufankjian

This and That

Mt Adams, OH, Sept 17 (Scout Tufankjian)

****

An airplane pulls a banner in protest at remarks made by Mitt Romney over the site of the Univision Facebook “Meet the Candidates” Forum in Miami, Sept 19

****

President Barack Obama reacts to a photograph during an interview with David Letterman during a taping of the “Late Show with David Letterman” at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, N.Y., Sept. 18, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

****

Um, alternative version:

****

Link

****

This and That

****

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

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

****

“Even the most hopeful among us must wonder….”

President Barack Obama, followed by Chaplain Colonel J. Wesley Smith and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, walks towards the podium during the transfer of remains ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Sept. 14, 2012, marking the return to the United States of the remains of the four Americans killed this week in Benghazi, Libya. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

****

President Obama looks as the remains of four Americans, including US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, are placed in hearses during the transfer of remains ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on September 14

****

Text of the President’s remarks here

****

Scout Tufankjian: Campaign Images

Kissimmee, September 6

Kissimmee, September 6

Melbourne, September 9

Orlando, September 6