Valentine’s Day: Loooove

Happy Valentine’s Day, my loves. You make even the coldest days feel warm. 💕 pic.twitter.com/COOIOCgVdh

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) February 14, 2020

Happy Valentine’s Day to my forever dance partner, @MichelleObama. pic.twitter.com/lHvTGUwEHr

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 14, 2020

Rise and Shine

Bo in the snow – Feb. 10, 2010, photos by Pete Souza

MooOOooOOOooorning! Another busy-ish Sunday, but I’ll be in and out all day, and will catch up with the news – if there is any – later.

Rise and Shine

@petesouza: ‘Photo of the day: POTUS w outgoing SecDef Panetta at his farewell tribute’

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WhiteHouse.gov

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Greg Sargent: John Boehner’s office is circulating Charles Krauthammer’s column, which argues that Republicans should call Obama’s sequester “bluff” and make no concessions whatsoever in revenues to avert the sequester. This is still more confirmation that the GOP’s explicit position is that allowing the sequester to happen – which Republicans themselves say will gut the military and tank the economy – is preferable to compromising at all with Dems, and that they will use the threat of disaster to force a solution that averts the sequester only by giving Republicans everything they want.

….. we’re back to exactly where we were during the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling fights. Republicans are explicitly and openly using the prospect of serious harm to millions and millions of Americans to force Democrats to agree to a deal that gives Republicans everything that they want, while requiring them to make no concessions whatsoever….

More here

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Steve Benen: When it comes to the looming, automatic sequestration cuts, there seem to be two broader debates happening simultaneously. The first, more important question deals with what’s going to happen with the policy itself, and the scope of the damage it could do to the economy, the military, and the country.

The second question is a little pettier: who came up with this awful idea in the first place? A Republican National Committee spokesperson, echoing his party’s favorite new talking point, insists this is all President Obama’s fault.

…. Does the GOP have a point on this? Was the policy actually Obama’s idea? No. The argument is not only wrong, it’s dependent on the entire political world having a very short memory …. Since this has become such an important element of the larger fight, let’s take a minute to set the record straight…..

More here

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Business Insider: ….  Charles Krauthammer writes that Republicans should “call Obama’s sequester bluff.” It’s being passed around by Republicans and other conservatives on Twitter and in email blasts. His argument – which exemplifies a typical conservative shift on the sequester recently – is that Republicans now have leverage on the sequester over President Barack Obama…..

…. Krauthammer wasn’t always so bullish on using the sequester as a tool for leverage. Last May, he warned in an appearance on Fox News that letting the cuts go into effect would be a “catastrophe” for the nation’s defense…..

…. The conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal advanced a similar argument on Thursday. In an editorial entitled “The Unscary Sequester,” the editorial board disputed Washington’s “collective fit of terror.”

…. Then there’s the editorial the board wrote not even seven months ago. It used the same language as Krauthammer – “catastrophe,” which it wrote was “playing out in slow motion.” The board also said that Obama had the leverage, and that it would be a “dangerous game” to play with the sequester.

More here

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Auto exports:

stlouisfed

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RollCall: President Barack Obama has agreed to do more than just raise money for House Democrats’ effort to win back the majority in 2014: He is also going to help with candidate recruitment.

Obama will headline eight fundraising events in 2013 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and more fundraisers are planned for 2014. But Obama’s agreement to help DCCC Chairman Steve Israel of New York make the sell to would-be candidates in targeted districts is also significant.

“It’s transformational,” Israel said in an interview, adding that House Democrats are “firing on all cylinders like I’ve never seen before.”

The president’s efforts to assist House Democrats politically are more than Israel initially even asked for.

More here

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Ari Berman (The Nation): In 2006, Congress voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another twenty-five years. The legislation passed 390–33 in the House and 98–0 in the Senate. Every top Republican supported the bill …. Civil rights leaders flanked George W. Bush at the signing ceremony.

Seven years later, the bipartisan consensus that supported the VRA for nearly fifty years has collapsed, and conservatives are challenging the law as never before. Last November, three days after a presidential election in which voter suppression played a starring role, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to Section 5 of the VRA, which compels parts or all of sixteen states with a history of racial discrimination in voting to clear election-related changes with the federal government. The case will be heard on February 27.

The lawsuit, originating in Shelby County, Alabama, is backed by leading operatives and funders in the conservative movement, along with Republican attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas….

More here

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Washington Post: First lady Michelle Obama will join some of Illinois’ most recognizable politicians and clergy Saturday to mourn a 15-year-old honor student whose death has drawn attention to staggering gun violence in the nation’s third-largest city.

But Hadiya Pendleton’s family says her Saturday funeral service won’t be about politics, but about remembering a girl who loved to dance, once appeared in an anti-gang video and died just days after performing at one of President Barack Obama’s inauguration events.

None of the dignitaries are slated to speak during the service. The teen’s pastor and brother will talk, and the musical group Pendleton was a member of will perform.

More here

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@BarackObama

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NYT: Among the victims of gun violence who will be sitting in the House chamber on Tuesday night when President Obama delivers his State of the Union address will be a teacher who survived the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Natalie Hammond, who reportedly took bullet wounds to the leg, foot and hand but narrowly escaped with her life, will attend the speech as the guest of her congresswoman, Elizabeth Esty, the representative for Newtown, Conn.

Ms. Hammond, the school’s lead teacher, and another school employee were the only two people to survive after being shot by the gunman, Adam Lanza. Ms. Hammond will be one of the many victims of gun violence who will attend the State of the Union address.

More here

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WH: On Friday, February 15, President Obama will welcome the recipients of the 2012 Citizens Medal to the White House for a special ceremony to recognize their efforts to serve their communities, and inspire others to do the same.

See the list of recipients here

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State of the Union addresses:

2009 (not an ‘official’ State of the Union address’ – the first official one was in 2010):

2010:

2011:

2012:

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I hope TODers living in snowy places are keeping safe and warm – this is for you:

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MoooOOoooOOOoorning!

This and That

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Bo, the Obama family dog, plays in the snow in the Rose Garden of the White House, Jan. 24 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Helloooooooo everyone – how are you all doing? I still haven’t replied to recent emails …. but tomorrow, hopefully. 😕

Snow White

@petesouza: ‘Snow! The view from outside the Oval Office’

Back later, chat away

Rise and Shine

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President Obama’s interview with Tom Joyner here

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Links for the Business Rountable

White House Live (audio only) * CBS * CNN

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Greg Sargent: Why GOP will buckle on tax rates for rich: Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times has a very good overview of the situation: Republicans know that going over the cliff won’t be that damaging in the short term; they know Obama is prepared to go over it without a deal to raise tax rates on the rich; and they know they’ll have to yield sooner or later. It’s good to see more news outlets getting it right on the basic dynamic here.

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Paul Krugman: From Politico:

Dick Armey left the deep-pocketed tea party group he helped build over a clash with a top lieutenant …. [he] received an $8 million buyout….

Remember, the tea party is a grass-roots movement, a spontaneous uprising of ordinary Americans against the snooty, coffee-drinking elite.

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ThinkProgress: …. Sen-elect Elizabeth Warren, a dogged consumer advocate whose critique of Wall Street excess was a centerpiece of her campaign, will join the Senate Banking Committee. Wall Street spent boatloads of money to prevent Warren’s election, but now she will have oversight of the rules and regulations under which banks operate….

…. Several Senate candidates supported by Wall Street wound up losing. As a member of the Banking Committee, Warren will have the opportunity to stand against both the watering down of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and new misguided efforts to reduce limits on Wall Street.

Full post here

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Liberal Librarian (The People’s View): …. it’s also part and parcel of the modern Republican Party: its narrow-mindedness; it’s utter lack of regard for anyone not of its circle — and often not even them; its disbelief in any kind of common humanity which binds together the world’s peoples. A convention which has been US domestic law for 22 years becomes suspect when it returns from the foreign recesses of the UN. A health care law which incorporated many once-mainstream Republican ideas becomes the greatest tyranny ever faced by the nation when translated into action by a foreign usurper.

Full post here

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TPM

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And that’s just a taste of the international reaction to the Snow poll.

Yes, Snow won – in an avalanche.

But because it’s playing havoc with some people’s browsers – just like last year – there’ll only be the occasional sprinkle. “So what was the flippin’ point in having a snow poll,” I hear you ask. Eh, good question. 😕

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Mooooooooorning everyone!

Decision 2012: The Snow Poll

Unfortunately votes from some states won’t be counted for weeks, by which time this poll will be long over. So it’s not technically true to say:

But, the decision of the rest of you people – 🙄 – will be final, unless I don’t like it. Voting ends in the morning-ish.

Okay:

PS This is a global snow poll – a snow globe, so to speak:

evening all

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden talk following a meeting in the Oval Office, March 2 (Pete Souza)

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A gazillion thank yous to HZ for her wonderful comment (turned-in-to-a-post today at Tien Le’s excellent suggestion) – it was a joyful, constructive, positive breath of fresh air in the middle of all today’s madness. You’re a gem, HZ.

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ThinkProgress

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Don’t miss:

The Atlantic

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Robert Shrum: After Mini-Mitt’s diminutive three-point Michigan “triumph,” which was a little like a Roman general being hailed for a near defeat, how important is Ohio? To put it in Santorian terms, it could be apocalypse two; once more, as in Michigan, Mitt will have to avert the sun darkening and the sky falling on his presidential campaign.

Full article here

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OFA

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Thank you Jenny

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The Week

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President Barack Obama is introduced by Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar before delivering remarks at a conservation event at the U.S. Dept. of Interior in Washington, March, 2

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President Barack Obama walks across the South Lawn upon his return to the White House after visiting wounded service members at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland

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Mitt Romney holds up a baby from the audience at a campaign rally at Cleveland State University, March 2

Just sayin’

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Rick Mania:

Rick Santorum speaks during a campaign stop at Chillicothe High School on March 2, 2012 in Chillicothe, Ohio

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First Lady Michelle Obama embraces members of the Johnson C. Smith ladies’ basketball team during a “Let’s Move!” physical fitness promotion between games at the CIAA basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C.

Thanks CTGirl

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TOD is up and running on YouTube again after today’s little, eh, setback. Just click the YouTube logo third from the top in the right sidebar and it’ll take you to the channel. I’ll add more of the old videos over the next few days. Hey, this YouTube channel might disappear too …. if it does, well, we’ll just start up another one 😉

evening all

New York, March 1

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Friday:

2:20 PM: PBO visits the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

5:15 PM: Delivers remarks at a conservation event.

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President Barack Obama at a dinner honoring Iraq war veterans, White House Photo, Pete Souza, 2/29/12

In this composite image, President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., (top) and arrives at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, N.H., (bottom) March 1, 2012. The President traveled to Nashua, N.H., to tour Nashua Community College and deliver remarks on his blueprint for an economy built to last with a focus on American energy. (Official White House Photos by Pete Souza)

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Snow falls as people stand in line to see President Barack Obama, March 1, 2012, in Nashua, N.H.

snow problem

Snow falls as people stand in line to see President Obama in Nashua, N.H.

Arriving at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, New Hampshire

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President Obama walks to board Marine One helicopter from the South Lawn of the White House, March 1

For some reason, missing from the schedule:

Manchester airport waiting for the President. Crews clearing the runway …. “Believe it or not there is a runway out there.”

WMUR

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President Obama’s motorcade drives through a snow storm enroute to a speech on energy policy and the economy at Nashua Community College