On This (Yester)Day: First Lady Michelle Obama in London, during the 2012 Olympics, with David Beckham.
*Cough* Red arrow.
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MoooOOOooorning - Happy Monday!
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GM Chips and TOD.
Mooooooooorning COS!!!!
Happy Monday TODers
Congrats Cos
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeya Chips
Helloooooooo Africaaaaaaa!!!!
:) :)
Good morning everyone. Looks like I straggled in behind COS and Africa, congrats to both of you. Have a wonderful Monday. Off to do chores.
Good morning TOD
Morning vetivera24!
Good morning, Chips and TODers. The photo above answers any question about the First Lady’s fearlessness because who else on on the planet would have the courage to calmly kick a soccer ball with David Beckham looking on? Forget Wonder Woman, we already have one in the White House.
:-) So true, Jackie!! Good morning to ya!
Good Morning Chips and TOD.
Morning BFF! Thanks a million, have that in R&S.
Chips, would it be possible to carry a link to the 1 millions votes for 2014 on the side until election day? That way, lurkers can just click on or we can copy and send to our followers. Just a thought.
Done! Excellent idea Jackie, just added the First Lady’s video and a link to the site in the sidebar. Thanks a million for the suggestion!
This is awesome - thanks JER for posting :) Thank you FLOTUS!
Good Morning, Everyone:)
Morning rikyrah!
I don’t normally read these dispatches, but this joint statement by an iman and a rabbi on the current war is powerful. They join together in categorically condemning the violence on both sides and urge that the long process of negotiations begin now, using sources from both the Torah and Quoran to support their words. It’s quick and worth a look.
http://www.nvhcreston.org/muslimjewish-statement-gaza-israel-vbt/
Morning JackieG! How was your county fair?
Thank your for sharing the dispatch above - it’s always encouraging to hear from the saner members within a group when conflict erupts or persists. I’ve put it in a tweet for anyone who wants to pass it on.
Blacks shouldn’t be fooled by Rand Paul
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake 6:05 a.m. EDT July 25, 2025
(Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is the mayor of Baltimore and the secretary of the Democratic National Committee.)
Over the past few months, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has been traveling across the country, speaking to African-Americans in urban communities, pitching himself and the GOP’s ideas.
He thinks the GOP’s ideas are in our community’s best interest, and today he’s in Cincinnati to speak at the National Urban League Conference to try his spin out yet again.
While I applaud anyone’s efforts to reach out to the black community and share ideas that would improve our families’ lives, Paul doesn’t understand a very important piece of the puzzle: earning our trust.
For Paul to claim to stand up for our values while opposing policy after policy that advances our community is not the way to do this.
Paul’s long and troubled history with civil rights issues is generally well known around Kentucky and in Washington, D.C., but for many Ohioans, it’s time to take a closer look.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/07/25/rand-paul-at-odds-with-black-community/13131979/
Rand Paul’s snow job calls to mind some epic snow jobs….for instance..
The Trojan Horse…..Lucy w/the football…
ans of course there are a multitude of slogans…
A wolf in sheep’s clothing…bait & switch…buyer beware…if it walks like a duck…etc…
I’m sure you can come up with more….
Rand Paul cannot be trusted….he is who he is….and we SEE it quite clearly….
G’morning Chips & TOD! Congrats COS on #1 :) Happy Monday everyone!
Moooooooorning Hopefruit!
A poor messenger with a dubious message
07/25/14 04:31 PM—UPDATED 07/25/14 05:02 PM
By Steve Benen
If persistence mattered more than accuracy, then Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) would be extremely well positioned to expand his base of support to traditional Democratic constituencies. After all, the Kentucky Republican rarely misses an opportunity to make his pitch to organizations committed to civil rights and the interests of minority communities.
Benjy Sarlin reports today, for example, that Paul talked up his agenda at a civil rights conference in Ohio this morning.
“I say we take a stand and fight for justice now,” said the Republican senator from Kentucky. The speech to the National Urban League’s conference in Cincinnati was part of a broader campaign by Paul to engage with minority voters ahead of a likely presidential run. […]
“Not only do I support the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, I’m a Republican who wants to restore a federal role for the government in the Voting Rights Act,” Paul said.
On a surface level, that sounds like exactly the kind of message progressives and proponents of civil rights find appealing.
It’s what happens when we look just below the surface that Rand Paul runs into trouble.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/poor-messenger-dubious-message
Good morning, TOD! Perfect photo for me today. I was really dragging this morning and didn’t want to go to the gym but I toughed it out and did it! Thank you to FLOTUS for setting such a great example of fitness and health. Hope everyone has a great Monday.
House GOP leader leaves presidential impeachment on the table
07/28/14 08:00 AM—UPDATED 07/28/14 08:06 AM
By Steve Benen
House Republicans recently had to elect new leaders, and rank-and-file conservatives insisted that at least one far-right Tea Partier join the team. They succeeded: Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), a fan of debt-ceiling crises and a lawmaker who believes President Obama may be trying to create a “dictatorship,” was chosen as the new House Majority Whip.
Yesterday was something of a coming-out party for the Louisiana Republican: Scalise sat down with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” his first Sunday show appearance of this Congress. It didn’t go especially well. As Adam Serwer noted, the congressman, recently chosen as the third-ranking GOP official in the House, refused to take presidential impeachment off the table.
Wallace: Will you consider impeaching the president?
Scalise: This might be the first White House in history that’s trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president. Ultimately, what we want to do is see the president follow the laws. But the president took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this land, and he’s not. In fact, the Supreme Court, unanimously, more than 12 times, unanimously said, the president overreached, and actually did things he doesn’t have the authority to do.
First, that’s not even close to what the Supreme Court said, and the fact that a member of the House Republican leadership team would repeat such nonsense on national television – in response to a question he was no doubt prepared for – is alarming.
Second, and perhaps more important, was the fact that Scalise didn’t answer the question. To his credit, Wallace followed up, asking, “So if he overreaches again on executive action to defer more deportations, what will the House do?” Again, the new House Republican leader dodged. So Wallace asked again whether or not impeachment is “off the table.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/house-gop-leader-leaves-presidential-impeachment-the-table
GM Rikyrah
The GOP have been calling for Impeachment since they held that infamous clandestine meeting on Inauguration Night…This is Not a new thing….but just as the media latched on the meme of the birth certificate…now they have another shiny new penny …..Impeachment!
#VoteDemNovember2014
The real party of civil rights
07/25/14 03:38 PM—UPDATED 07/25/14 05:37 PM
By Steve Benen
About once a year, the right will roll out a stale argument: Republicans are the real party of civil rights, because Southern Democrats supported segregation during the civil-rights fights in the middle of the 20th century. National Review’s John Fund walked the well-traveled ground this week.
Fund’s piece was essentially an advertisement for a booklet published by the conservative American Civil Rights Union titled “The Truth About Jim Crow.”
“Available for free at TheTruthAboutJimCrow.org, it sets the record straight on a hidden racial past that many Democrats would rather see swept under the carpet,” Fund raved.
Fund went on to invoke arguments familiar to anyone who’s heard a conservative try to explain why Democrats are the real racists, reminding readers that Woodrow Wilson had a horrible record on race relations, that a larger percentage of congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and that the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Jay Bookman took a closer look at the pamphlet Fund’s piece was promoting, highlighting some of its more glaring errors of fact and judgment.
What’s more Jamelle Bouie notes that it’s curious that National Review would push this line, given its own history: “It would be nice if Fund had reckoned with National Review’s early defense of segregation, including William F. Buckley’s assertion that ‘the cultural superiority of White over Negro’ is a ‘fact that obtrudes’ and that ‘National Review believes that the South’s premises are correct…. It is more important for the community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority.’”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-real-party-civil-rights
Shame of the GOP on border
By Juan Williams
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The most outrageously false claim is that Obama’s 2012 executive order is the real problem. That order halted the deportation of some children brought to the United States illegally as minors.
The fact is that Obama’s executive order applied only to young people who were already in the country. The young people now asking for help are not eligible under his program.
It is a marvel of political dishonesty to point at Obama and blame him for how human traffickers misrepresent U.S. immigration policy to desperate parents in Central America.
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Read more: http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/213454-juan-williams-shame-of-the-gop-on-border#ixzz38lVbA41d
Oh dear no, Juan Williams ran away from the plantation again. Does he not know that his overseers look down on this type of foolishness? It’s going to be hell to pay when he gets back to Fox News, oh well.
I know, I thought the same thing. Then I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that George Will shocked the Sunday Fox panel by saying (paraphrasing) we should welcome the children refugees. Imagine that? He was sitting next to Juan Williams when he made those comments.
GOP lawmakers balk at Pentagon’s climate concerns
07/25/14 12:50 PM
By Steve Benen
In general, when Defense Department leaders alert Congress to a national-security threat, we expect Republican lawmakers to take it seriously. Rebecca Leber reported this week, however, Pentagon concerns about climate change affecting military operations are being ignored by GOP officials.
At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing [on Tuesday], a Department of Defense representative laid out how climate change is exposing its infrastructure in coastal and Arctic regions to rising sea levels and extreme weather, and that it’s even impacting decisions like which types of weapons the Pentagon buys. This is only the latest in a series of recent warnings from the military, which raised the issue as far back as George W. Bush’s second term.
In March, the Pentagon warned, in its Quadrennial Defense Review, that the effects of climate change “are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions – conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.” In other words, increased drought and water shortages are likely to trigger fighting over limited resources.
What’s striking is the Republicans’ indifference. In fact, it’s worse than indifference – GOP lawmakers aren’t just ignoring the Pentagon’s concerns about climate and national security; they’re actually pushing hard in the other direction.
Kate Sheppard noted a few months ago that House Republicans “passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill … that would bar the Department of Defense from using funds to assess climate change and its implications for national security.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-lawmakers-balk-pentagons-climate-concerns
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks & TOD family.
Goooooaaaall - ManU !
:-) Goooooood goooooooal mooooorning GGail!!
:D
Chips I *sware* you go to bed thinking of ways to start trouble, or if not, you sure wake up with lots of ideas to do same! /smh/
A very Good Morning, TODobots! It’s Monday, and no matter what it brings, let’s live life.
Greetings and preemptive THANKS to all bts – LEGENDary, esteemed, distinguished, balanced (my synonym for ‘even’), (Diva) delicious, and any others who step up to the plate – for your anticipated hard work during the week we are embarking on! We do not take you for granted, no matter how quiet we may seem. We deeply appreciate your commitment and love for Pres O & his Admin, as we appreciate all you do to make sure the truth about his accomplishments gets some traction.
26,461,812
hitsTHANKS!!! & #FORWARD as we #TRUSTBARACK!Aaaaaaaaaw, you lovely person! Thank you soooooo much VC, and good morning to ya!!
{{{{{{{CC}}}}}}} <<< There! Your hugs for the week ….. in case you need 'em. ;) ;)
I suspect (hopefully my suspicion meter is malfunctioning) we all may need some this last July week.
This!
Morning, Honey bun! Nice to see you bouncing in and bouncing around this Monday morning!
Thanks, VC.
You are very welcome, Ms Legend! You consistently do a bang-up job on behalf of PBO, and for that many of us will be forever grateful. May your Monday be all that you hoped and planned for, … and more!
ISN’T THIS SPECIAL? DO NOTHING CONGRESS SUDDENLY WANTS TO DO SOMETHING. (LOL)
GOP wants to show it can govern
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Congress has been known more for its dysfunction than anything else since Republicans took over control of the House after the Tea Party wave of 2010. That’s one reason Congress’s approval rating stands at 15 percent in the latest Gallup survey from early July.
.
.
The GOP thinks much of the talk about a do-nothing Congress is unfair. Republican leaders have repeatedly pointed to the number of jobs bills the lower chamber has approved that have languished in the Senate. They’ve called on President Obama to embrace their proposals.
But they also realize past fights over the debt ceiling and last fall’s damaging battle that led to a 16-day government shutdown have raised questions about the GOP’s ability to govern.
—————————————————-
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/213448-gop-wants-to-show-it-can-govern-in-final-week#ixzz38lWxuOgU
LH, this reminds me of a song that Jane Powell sang in the wonderful musical, The Royal Wedding. It began..”It’s too late now to forget the past…” The GOP House has been throwing mud in the gears and having temper tantrums for four years and now they want us to forget all of that in the last weeks before the election. Well, it’s too late now.
Exactly JG. They can’t un-ring the bell. They are still the worst congress ever on record no matter what they do in the next four days. They still suck. They still can’t govern. It’s really rich that after saying NO to every reasonable proposal to help the country they suddenly realize THE OPTICS make them look bad. smdh
I love that song. Jane was incredible.
The GOP has to be shamed into doing the right thing at every turn.
Congress reaches preliminary deal on veterans’ aid
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/congress-reaches-preliminary-deal-veterans-aid
GM LH. Rachel sure highlighted the “do-nothing congress” on her show. They must have washed her show. :) Unfortunately, the Democrats are lumped in with the do-nothing repugs.
Hey COS, yes that segment that Rachel did on Friday was terrific. I can’t image any Republican watching it and not feeling the old sphincter muscles tightening up. She nailed them big time using the facts. And what do we have this morning, it looks like movement on the VA bill which should have been a done deal six weeks ago.
Goooooood Morning!
Congrats on your marvelous Monday morning first COS!
Hi Africa! Hi Chips!
Hello World! :-D
Mooooooooorning Duuuuuuuuuudette!!!
Come here you!
{{{{{{{{{{ Chipsticks }}}}}}}}}}}
Love ya!
[big kiss on the cheek]
Aghhh! Ack… Pffffft! Wha? What IS that? Dog hair on your face? Doesn’t Danny have his own bed? :-D
:lol: That is toooooo close to the truth Dudette, I am covered in his flippin’ hairs, I almost look like him!!!
:-) It’s a tradeoff - with doggie love, you get doggie shedding! :-)
:-) I just don’t know how he has any hair left, I vacuum up MOUNTAINS of it every day!!
Thx Dudette. After watching this video, I know I will have a beautiful day. :)
:-) :-) :-)
So much to do, so little time! :-D
Good morning, TOD especially football(soccer) fans.
It seems that a New York team has signed David something a longtime Chelsea star to its team. I am potentially happy about this but I await assesment from the football(soccer) experts here. The NY team has only 3 other players signed so far.
Does signing David mean that NY soccer has instant credibility?
Or is it a yawn?
:-) Morning Jackie!! NYC have signed Frank Lampard from Chelsea - I’m assuming he was a hero for Nerdy and LL, scored a gazillion goals for them and was a bit popular with the fans. But he’s around 136 now. **Checking Wiki** Correction: he’s 36. So, he’s way past his best, but he should be a good signing.
Thank you Chips, Frank Lampard it is. I have caught the soccer fever and now will anxiously await the opening games. Not coming until spring, 2015 however.
It’s a fantastic choice Vicki. The New York team lucked out. The man is a football legend and shot Chelsea (Goooooooo CHELSEA! Gooooo BLUES!) to the top time after time after time; especially against Chipstick’s hilariously crappy Manchester United this past season.
Exclusive: Frank Lampard arrives for first NYC training session:
Oi! You’d better come correct when you speak the holy name of the LEGEND, Frank Lampard.
The man is a god in football circles and certainly million times better than squirrel haired man.
:-) Moooooooorning Nerdy!!!!
Oh boy. I see I have stepped in it now.
Thank you, Nerdy. I will be joining you now cheering Chelsea after Chips very unpleasant ageist joke.
Plus frank lampard at 36 looks very good to me.
unlike some of your faves, Chips. Rodney, romney, Rooney, what’s his name.
VICKI!
GM TODville,
Missed most of yesterday, but loved the 10-Years-Ago-Today post. My guess is that exactly 0% of TODville has not seen that once-in-a-life-speech.
But seeing and savoring then-Senator Obama’s words made me realize that this truly was a historic speech, one that will be forever in the annals of “Great Speeches In History,” (going back to the ancient Greeks, etc.) and brought me to (happy) tears.
It will also be in the annals of the “Politicians With Unwavering Consistency,” which consists of only a handful of modern US politicians.
The worthless MSM sneer at this speech and want Americans to forget compelling moments that really meant something to the majority of Americans, especially to our future (the youth) — such as this speech, PBO’s “race” speech in Philadelphia (fittingly, the city of brotherly love), PBO’s New Hampshire concession speech, etc.
JackieG — so thrilling to hear your experience with other Dems. How wonderful to have shared this inspiring, uplifting and motivating with like-minded people after the debacle of 2000 Presidential election, Abu Ghraib, etc. Wish I could have been there.
Carolyn — also touched by your story of how Barack Obama’s speech caught your husband’s ear.
Forever grateful for the extraordinary man our President is.
Best President Ever! I could see that young man was destined for greatness as he delivered that speech!
Live Now: Sec John Kerry at Young African Leaders Summit
http://www.cbsnews.com/liveFeed/widget.shtml
So why did they cut away from John’s speech to show us men walking around with clipboards? Grrrr.
Unflippingbelievable!!!
It’s times like these I feel a certain passing curiosity about a) how media people are trained, and b) what goes on in media planning meetings.
Good morning, TOD. Another day with the Grandson. Headed into Philly to go to the Franklin Institute. Wanted to leave info:
273-mile Walk for Rural Healthcare Culminates with Moral Monday Rally at US Capitol
NAACP’s Rev. Dr. William Barber and Hundreds of Supporters Join GOP Mayor Adam O’Neal for final 3.8 miles into Washington
(WASHINGTON DC) — On Monday “Walking Mayor” Adam O’Neal (R) will complete his 273-mile march from his home town of Belhaven, NC to the U.S. Capitol Building in the name of Medicaid expansion, endangered rural hospitals, and the Pungo District Hospital, which closed on July 1 endangering more than 20K people in his community.
After entering Washington, DC, the mayor will rally with hundreds of his constituents and NC Moral Monday leader Rev. Dr. William Barber at the Upper Senate Park at 200 New Jersey Ave. NW at 11:30 a.m. ET. SaveOurHospital.org has posted a detailed map for July 28, 2014, the final morning of the 15-day journey is at link.
It is more than telling of true colors that C-SPAN2 & 3 are choosing to run taped programming rather than live coverage of the Young African Leaders Conference and the Moral Monday March to the Capitol in the Capital.
I noticed that Alycee, I was trying to find a time and link for the First Lady’s appearance at the summit and noticed they weren’t showing any of it. Amazing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/27/ebola-american_n_5625508.html
I’m beyond scared right now.
Good morning, Jeff. I, too, have been following the ebola story with increasing apprehension.
Time to refuel. /whispering - chips, will you hold the r&s till I return please. I know nerdy does r&s sometimes, but *she* won’t listen to me. bbl/
R&S!
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/07/28/rise-and-shine-871/