President Barack Obama with a three-year-old relative of Rosa Parks after unveiling a statue in her honor
Reminded me of:
Flickr
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This evening:
7:30: President Obama delivers remarks at the Business Council dinner and answer questions, Park Hyatt Hotel, Washington, DC (Pooled Press for Remarks)
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TPM
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Just catching up with reaction to what Scalia said today. Absolutely stunning. More in the morning, just a few snippets:
ThinkProgress: There were audible gasps in the Supreme Court’s lawyers’ lounge, where audio of the oral argument is pumped in for members of the Supreme Court bar, when Justice Antonin Scalia offered his assessment of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. He called it a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”
….It should be noted that even one of Scalia’s fellow justices felt the need to call out his remark. Justice Sotomayor asked the attorney challenging the Voting Right Act whether he thought voting rights are a racial entitlement as soon as he took the podium for rebuttal.
Full post here
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Charles Pierce: …. Sotomayor, for whom this seems very, very personal, made an argument from history that discrimination is an infinitely mutable thing and that, as soon as you find a remedy for one form of it, human ingenuity will devise three new ones…..
……it was hard not to go back to Florida, and to all the people I met who were waiting in line for six and seven hours to vote because the state had deliberately enacted policies to make it more difficult. Those policies were discriminatory. The people enacting them knew exactly what they were doing. They knew who those policies were aimed at as surely as did the county registrars administering the literacy tests did back in 1965…..
Full post here
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Greg Sargent: Judging by all the early reporting on the first round of Supreme Court arguments about a key section of the Voting Rights Act, that provision may be in real peril. Conservative justices expressed sharp skepticism of the law, with much attention being paid to Antonin Scalia’s description of it as a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”
…. all may not be lost. That’s because proponents of the Voting Rights Act are focused mainly on holding on to Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Full post here
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Steve Benen: I’m beginning to think an infectious disease is spreading in the nation’s capital. Symptoms include memory loss (forgetting everything Republicans have done in recent years), blurred vision (an inability to see obvious GOP ploys), and an uncontrollable urge to blame “both sides” for everything, even when it doesn’t make any sense.
The disease has already affected pundits like Bob Woodward, Ron Fournier, David Brooks, nearly everyone on the network Sunday shows, and today reaches the editorial board of the Washington Post. Indeed, the Post’s editors seem to have come down with an especially acute case today, as evidenced this bang-your-head-against-your-desk editorial on the sequester, which cavalierly ignores the paper’s own reporting, and demands that President Obama “lead” by somehow getting congressional Republicans to be more responsible.
Full post here
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President Barack Obama talks with Congressional leaders prior to the Rosa Parks statue unveiling ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Feb. 27, 2013. Pictured, from left, are: Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.; Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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First lady Michelle Obama at a “Let’s Move!” event in Clinton, Miss.
… with Rachael Ray
More in the morning
White House.gov
Up up and away
Hellooooooo Carol, helloooooo everyone!
Hellooooo Chip, and everyone!
OHHHH you added the Harry Reid portrait he was talking about at the Rosa Parks ceremony today. Thanks, I love that pic.. Backstory When a Boy Found a Familiar Feel in a Pat of the Head of State: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/us/politics/indelible-image-of-a-boys-pat-on-obamas-head-hangs-in-white-house.html
Hiya LP, today’s photo reminded me so much of that gem:
Yessssss!! This was an awesome NAT Geo documentary. I dont know if you noticed at today’s ceremony, when Harry Reid was talking about that picture, PBO looked visibly moved. I swear, I will have to go back and look, but maybe somebody noticed as well.
Caught up
Hello??
Wow! Just turn my back for a minute, and everything happens! Whew. Thanks so much for all the info and news, Ms Chips, don’t know what we would do without you!
Evening all. Well today has certainly been an interesting day. If nothing else, it shows why we need a Democrat in the WH in perpituity (sp?). We can’t afford to ever have a Republican President getting to nominate SC justices again. Even if the VRA is upheld, and I am not giving up hope yet, we have to keep reactionary people as well as incomptent people like Scalia off the bench. I am not saying they all need to be raving progressives, but at least people who aren’t as blatantly racist as Scalia obviously is.
At the same time, we need to avoid being distracted from other items, such as fiscal responsibility, gun control, VAWA, abd all the other things on our plate. A basic Republican strategy, if they feel they are in trouble on one issue, like gun control, is to bring up another issue and hope people forget the first one. Well, we will not forget.
Yes, Japa21 - we have to be very good at mutli-tasking! Chips, this photo of President Obama with that darling little boy rockets to the top 10 in my book!
One of my all-time favorites now too Judith, it’s a gem.
Yes, I was going to post that. There is so much info to get through. And he’s a relative. He couldn’t help but touch the president. :smile:
Good evening Friends! Lots of stuff happening today. Boy, have I got a lot of catching up to do!
Congrats carolmaewy!! You’re streaking again…. Just got home from BIO lab, freeeeeeeeeeeee till Suday. I find out if my CPU is gonna get the “Office Space” treatment tomorrow. One way or another looking forward to finding out!
Actually, I think it was UT that was streaking earlier today, according to a comment and tweet she made.
Streaking was in during the ’70’s!
Enjoy the time off.
excellent!
That’s exactly right. No matter what the Supreme Court does with the current case, we need a new law that applies to all 50 states. Instead of Section 5, we’ll make it Section 50.
Wide ranging interview by our beloved VP in Field & Stream magaizine on gun control policies…
I’ll read it later, but that is a great venue for this issue. Not all hunters are gun nuts and a lot of them support better control regulations.
I concur touch all bases, then you cant be accused of singling anybody out….
Thanks for the pictures of FLOTUS. That color looks lovely on her. Is there any video of the event in Mississippi.
Here you go:
Thank you FLOTUS for all you are doing, thanks to everyone who are trying to help our kids have chance of a healthy life.
What a precious little boy!
A very flattering article about Mrs.Obama, from an unexpected source…
Scalia - the Tea Party Justice! That man is awful to the core!
Despite Scalia’s ugliness, as they say, “keep hope alive.”
There’s an endless supply of paint!
I want to add “and an endless supply of” something else, but I’m sticking with the hope and the paint!
The sequester is the self-inflicted wound PBO described.
Couldn’t anyone see when they agreed to this in 2011 that the Worst Case Scenario could happen?
Did the Dems really think there were lengths to which the GOP wouldn’t go?
Indiana has already withheld unemployment insurance. A many as 1,000,00 jobs may be lost.
If anyone here can cheer me up, please do.
It certainly looks like the sequester will be reality very soon. But I have not lost hope. I can foresee the consequences taking shape, and that’s when the Republicans will get an earful from their constituents. It’s an unfortunate truth that lots of people will not become engaged until the worst has happened. As long as the sequester is something that may or may not happen, only activists take note of the impending disaster and put pressure on Congress. But let the pink slips accumulate and the outrage will overwhelm the Congressional phones and websites. The President has been firm and clear: this is all about closing loopholes available to the wealthy and the well-connected. It’s not something that Republicans consider part of their unbreakable principles - Speaker Boehner has offered these same tax reforms before. So there is no good reason that they should let the country go down this disastrous path now. There are a growing number of Republicans that want to compromise and eventually they will silence the Tea Party segment, especially after a huge public outcry. It would be helpful if the media were more informative about the real situation regarding the deficit (getting smaller under President Obama) and would initiate a broader discussion about deficits and debt and the tax reforms that will help. That’s were Organizing for Action will come in: we have to be the new media, using all available avenues to start that discussion.
Thank you, hgerhard. I feel a bit better.
And your points are exactly right: why is the shrinking deficit not news? Why are the GOPTP allowed to endlessly whine about cutting spending and cutting the deficit when those are the Wrong things to be focusing on?
After the pain is widespread and people are suffering only then there will be corrective action.
Pain and suffering…
All for keeping loopholes that benefit the wealthy in place!!!
The crazy, it is mind boggling. Evidently, the Club For Growth has a new website up called Primary My Congressman. Fer gosh sakes, they want more RWNJs to win the primaries. Haven’t they learned anything from the last votes? Oh welll, unless it’s a gerrymandered district, this is good news for our side. If it is a gerrymandered district, then it won’t matter, a nut is a nut, is a nut.
Chips, You made it in while my back was turned! I don’t mind this time however, as I was collecting vital information for my continued health - like the fact that I’ll need to take a week off from TODville starting March 10 (when two overly intense TODobots will likely bring their confrontation to the village).
I decided to find out who appointed Scalia…Reagan did! One more disastrous result of his presidency. We blame GWB for so much, which we should, but this poison started with Reagan, and we should never forget it. Reagan was a very poor president, and the last at least three years he was receding into Alzheimer’s…..that was sad, but he should not have been president.
I agree carolyn, I still cant find one reason that he is considered a good president. He invited the religious RWNJs into the repub party, who are now known as the teabutts
I quit the Republican party when he became president. His conservative policies indicated to me that he was not smart enough to be president. That is my general estimation of present conservative thought. I doubt that I will ever vote for another Republican.
I just never understood his appeal. he was so divisive with the welfare queen stuff, and the like.
And, as one at the time, I can tell you that all federal workers who would admit it thought he hated all of us, and he showed it often, once he started to take down the Air Traffic Controllers and others. He had no use for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who worked to keep the federal government operational every day - and those of us who would admit it had no respect for him, whatsoever.
Congressman Ellison was on Hannity’s and Fox News’ cases wasn’t he?
my yes. I posted a link earlier, a masterful take down and a good dose of reality it was.
I remember when I was still in HS I had a friend who was active in voter registration in SNCC. He had in his hand a first hand report of the beating that John Lewis took on the Selma bridge with blood streaming down his face and a skull fracture. That’s what Scalia calls “Racial Entitlement” getting brutalized for asking for your right to vote, and the price that so many paid, including their lives, so that the Voting Rights Act could be passed. The reason the South is GOP today is because of the Voting Rights Act, as LBJ said when it passed. “Today we lost the South.” The GOP judges want us all to forget history past and present so they can act on behalf of their party masters to obstruct the right of all Americans to vote.
Nixon and Lee Atwater also promoted the Southern strategy.
That’s just brilliant Bill, says it absolutely all. Thank you.
Sorry, can’t retweet you. I’m blocked.
This must be reconciled w/ ideoligical Governers, why would someone have to go to this extreme? Funding for ACA is going to be crucial.
As amk sometimes tweets, and copied from, Samuel L. Jackson, Americans, “Wake the F Up!
This seems IMPOSSIBLE
Good evening! Great remarks by our President at today’s unveiling. In reading through various articles about Scalia’s remarks, the reason they drew gasps was not just their … crudeness … but that he was also by them chucking out his own supposed judicial theories.
It makes me incredibly glad that we re-elected President Obama, since any Supreme Court justices a Republican President might nominate would be as bad or worse than Scalia. We now have the opportunity to get a Court that isn’t so blatantly dogmatic right.
Join Organizing for Action staff, policy experts, and other supporters online at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time this Wednesday for a policy briefing.
Email questions @barackobama.com with any questions you have during the livestream. http://www.barackobama.com/live-call/wednesday-policy-briefing
ohhh thank you lp, I nearly forgot about this tonight :)
Thank you LP!
Just thinking about it and hoped I hadn’t missed it.
NO worries everyone, thats why we all have our collective brains here, for those of us who (will not be named, starts w/ L***** ends w/P) may have lost a few brain cells over the years.
Can’t get the lives treat on my iPad. :(
Livefeed.
Thanks Bob, watching the video now, Rev Al is outstanding.
I’m so glad the John Lewis called out this comment. He possess a moral authority that is head and shoulders above anyone else in the public square on this issue, in particular a whack job judge like Scalia.
The Senate has confirmed Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary.
Senate confirmed Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary. Don’t know if that’s committee or full Senate.
Full senate vote.
On the same wave length, Bill R.
Yes, the full Senate confirmed him 71-26. 20 R’s voted for him. Scarce opposition according to NYT. Tha t was about 14 min. Ago, so may be old news here! :wink:
Lew confirmed despite sessions tirade/
http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1952287
Sessions had another tirade? Does he have one or two a day? Do Senators have a resident Psychiatrist? Can we get a study on the mental health of Congress? Is the tirade in USE T.? Thanks.
Not just once but again and again and again. I had it on without sound waiting for the vote. Every time I looked, there he was again. I NEVER listen to Sessions. Prime example of the limitations of most conservative brains.
Heads Up: President Obama delivers remarks at the Business Council dinner, 7:30 EST
Streaming has started at:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=4
http://www.ustream.tv/cbsnews
C-Span will also be televising it.
Oh, how I needed this. TY, Chips!!
ACE REPORTER MAJOR GARRETT OBSESSING OVER DATE FOR PBO MEETING WITH CONGRESS
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Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, 2/27/2013
MR. CARNEY: The President spoke with leaders last week. And there have been discussions with —
Q And it sounds like this is not a negotiation. You’re asking Republicans to come here to surrender.
MR. CARNEY: No. We’re asking Republicans to compromise in the same way that the President has compromised, Major. As I just said, what represents compromise by Democrats? A willingness to go along with spending cuts that they don’t necessarily want to see, a willingness to go along with entitlement reforms that they don’t necessarily prefer? I think the answer you would have to that is yes. I think that’s the answer that we all recognize here is a reality in Washington. That’s what the President has put forward. He has put forward budget deficit reduction proposals that represent significantly greater deficit reduction through spending cuts and entitlement savings than through revenues. But he insists on balance.
Q Why not today instead of Friday?
MR. CARNEY: First of all, the President will be meeting with them Friday. He spoke with them last week. He spoke with them today on Capitol Hill. The Senate has still yet to vote — hopefully, will vote tomorrow on a proposal that achieves the kind of postponement of the sequester deadline that would allow Congress to move forward on balanced deficit reduction in a sensible, no drama fashion that would avoid these unnecessary impacts across the economy and the country. And hopefully, Republicans will change their minds about filibustering that, they will allow a majority of the Senate to pass a bill that would achieve that delay in a balanced way, move it to the House and perhaps — again, hope springs eternal — the Speaker of the House would allow that to come to a vote.
Because I think there’s a very good chance that there’s a majority in the House of Representatives that would support a simple proposition, which is that we can postpone the deadline for the sequester in a balanced way just as Congress did in bipartisan fashion just two months ago. Why not do that, and then let Congress go about the business of working on further deficit reduction? We certainly hope they do.
Thanks, guys.
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/27/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-and-secretary-education-arne-d
Waiting for the Tantrum to End
John Boehner has already told everyone, including Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, and Barack Obama, that his caucus isn’t going to budge on the Sequester until after it kicks in and starts causing real pain. He doesn’t have a strategy beyond that. Everyone knows that this is what he’s going to do, so anytime you see someone call for negotiations or compromise, they are either positioning themselves politically or they are actually referring to some time in the future, meaning March.
When reporters call for negotiations or wonder why they aren’t occurring, they are either engaging in unprofessional partisanship or simply demonstrating they can’t understand their own beat. When partisans call for negotiations, they are either spinning the public or simply appealing for sanity.
- See more at: http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/2/26/102132/388#sthash.cZsLGqjD.dpuf
Republican Plan B: let the lunatics have their tantrum
By Smartypants
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So Plan B basically comes down to letting the lunatics in their caucus have their tantrum…and then caving. The truth is that as loud as the lunatics are, they don’t have a majority in the House. Despite partisan lines, the majority is now held by a coalition of Democrats and sane Republicans. Nothing is going to pass the House without that coalition’s support. And so we should all hold a funeral service for the Hastert Rule.
When we apply Plan B to the sequester, we can see that what Speaker Boehner is doing right now is letting the lunatics have their tantrum. The question - as Jonathan Chait points out - is “then what?”
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http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/02/republican-plan-b-let-lunatics-have.html
Bob Woodward is insane. In the morning he accuses Pres. Obama of being weak and not being more dictator like. Now he says the white house is threatening him. Someone needs his meds.
He’s been driven insane by hate, driving himself nuts looking for a negative slant on all things Obama.
He’s completely lost it UT, I’d imagine he was shocked by being called out by so many for completely contradicting himself with that bullcrap the other day, this guy’s probably more used to being revered.
He’s gotten away for so long on his Watergate reputation, he thinks he can just say any old thing. Teh pity is, he did get away with it by his peers failing to call him on his stuff or to challenge him. I guess he wrote one word too many. he should have left the field while he could still kick the ball, so to speak.
OMG, so someone at the White House is threatening Bob Woodward. What with a drone or ak-47. You have to wonder about Woodward mental state. With all this President have going on running this country, he doesn’t have time to worry about Bob Woodward. It is clear Woodward want attention. So let Woodard name the person who threaten him, don’t pull some Ted Cruz, name the senior WH person.
It’s so neat he got his book in there too.
Well that didn’t work. Here’s what I was trying to post:
ahem…..ahem….excuse me please. This is for the evening TOD crew. I posted it earlier for the afternoon shift. I’m asking a favor of all you TODdies to vote for my #2 daughter, Kelauni, in a contest sponsored by My Destinations, a travel company. She’s currently teaching English in Spain and this would be another great opportunity for her. To vote you must click on one of the icons in the ‘Vote For This Entry’ box next to her name. Also, if you don’t mind, please share with and ask your friends to vote for her as well. I really appreciate it. Thanks:
http://www.mydestination.com/users/kelauni/bbb#tab
I clicked on our link, but I didn’t see a vote link. I did tweet and FB.
thanks CarolMae, you just copy the url in the little box then paste it on the Twitter and FB page. The video should then show up and your vote gets counted. Thank you so much
I went back and think I got it. Four more had voted! Good luck to her!
wow thanks I hadn’t visited the site lately. She just posted it today. It’s almost 6am in Spain and she’ll be up soon. What a surprise for her to see how many votes in such a short time. Thanks again.
I put it on my google too. :)
:)
Given all of the foolish that Antonin Scalia has spouted today, I feel the need to post this ‘oldie, but goodie’ from Jay Smooth’s Ill Doctrine.
How To Tell People They Sound Racist
Oh wow, I remember this one! Great post, isonprize!!
I am not normaly a violent person but if I find this SOB in a dark alley…… Well I will leave it there.
You notice who Woodward is talking to, Politco and TeaNN.
New post:
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/02/27/rep-john-lewis-scalia-comment-an-affront-to-a-cause-people-died-for/
jonathan chait attempts to make sense of rethug insanity- conclusion being, yes, they’re driven by self interest and short sightedness.
‘ The mystery of John Boehner’s sequestration strategy — What are they thinking? How do they imagine it will work? — is slowly coming into focus. Viewed as a plan to accomplish some policy end, it makes no sense. But that doesn’t seem to be its main intent. Boehner’s plan seems mainly designed to keep John Boehner from losing his job. In that sense, and in that sense only, the logic holds.
The first thing to understand is how crazy the Republican strategy is as a partywide approach. Sequestration is automatic cuts to spending, but only to the parts of the federal budget that Republicans hate the least. Their least favorite part of the federal budget — anti-poverty programs — is exempt. Their second least-favorite part — broad social insurance programs, meaning Medicare and Social Security — is also exempt. What’s being cut is discretionary government spending, which Republicans dislike in theory but not so much in practice, and defense, which they quite like. ‘
- See more at: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/logic-of-boehners-crazy-sequester-strategy.html#sthash.IBD3B7MA.dpuf
Join Stephanie Cutter and OFA for a strategy call at 8 ET
http://www.barackobama.com/live-call/wednesday-policy-briefing?utm_medium=email&utm_source=obama&utm_content=httpmybarackobamacomWednesdayPolicyBriefing&utm_campaign=em12_20130225_sc_seq&source=em12_20130225_sc_seq
Don’t know if this has been mentioned here—-but just one little real life tidbit to refute the claim that all things are hunky-dory now, no longer a need for the Voting Rights Act——-I heard Krystal Ball report today on the town in Ms. with a white mayor and an all white town council who, noting that their town was now majority AA and that there were AA candidates running for office who were likely to be elected, decided to do the prudent thing and cancelled their election. Took care of that voting problem, lickety split. Scalia and Thomas and their gang on the Sup. Ct. are purposely blind (don’t care) to this kind of injustice/suppression that still occurs in many locations.
We’re gonna hear it tomorrow from the media whiners. They didn’t get to hear the q and a.
I thought that this morning Yardarm when I saw the Q&A would be closed to the press - and if they were there all we’d get would be distortions, edited soundbites to fit their agenda, etc, etc, etc. Throw them out every time, that’s what I say!
Okay, just heard the President’s remarks to the business community and the feed went blank. As to what happened in the Supreme Court, if they do anything to strike Section 5 then would they turn to the clock back to when the women didn’t have the vote??
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Wednesday stood by her threat to put a hold on the nomination of President Obama’s pick to run the Interior Department.
Murkowski has wielded that option in response to Interior’s preliminary indication that it would not approve a road in Alaska that project advocates say is needed to help an isolated Aleutian village reach an airport for medical evacuations.
“A hold on a nomination is absolutely a tool. And you don’t want to threaten, but it sure has taken an awful lot to get the attention of the administration on this issue. We apparently now have their attention,” Murkowski told reporters Wednesday during a pen and pad briefing with residents of the town fighting for the road.
Read more…
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/285399-sen-murkowski-maintains-hold-threat-for-interior-nominee
Here we go again? Same playbook?
Obstruct everything… Blowup the federal government so people don’t care about their benefits anymore.
Battered wife syndrome!!
So much going on today.. I often wonder how POTUS keeps going. I pray for him each morning and the last thing at night.
And I do, throughout the day! And we’ll have to keep that up, for four more years, that’s for sure.