The Obama Diary

White House live

****

USA Today: President Obama, facing political problems over high gas prices, will announce a plan today “to increase oversight and crack down on manipulation in oil markets,” the White House announced.

“At a time when American consumers are feeling pain at the pump, it is critically important to ensure that illegal manipulation, fraud and market rigging are not contributing to gas price increases,” said the announcement.

Obama, along with Attorney General Eric Holder, is scheduled to discuss the plan at 11:10 a.m.

More here

****

Cagle

****

ThinkProgress: …. For most women, Romney maintains that a choice to work or to stay at home with the kids should be regarded as equally valid, his campaign made clear last week. But for poor women who receive government assistance, staying home is not an option — they should work….

A passage from Romney’s book, No Apology: The Case For American Greatness, elaborates on this. In it, he argues that children of “nonworking parents” will be conditioned to have “an indolent and unproductive life”…

…. While Romney’s sentiment is understandable and common among conservatives, it doesn’t fit easily with his view that all “all moms are working moms”…. If nonworking mothers on welfare produce “indolent and unproductive” children, then why doesn’t the same hold true for other women?

More here

****

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a Joining Forces event at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, April 12 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

12:00 ET: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee event in Nashville.

3:30: Michelle Obama arrives in Pittsburgh where she will be greeted by service members and their families from the 911th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command and the 171st Air Refueling Wing.

4:30: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee event in Pittsburgh.

6:00: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee event in Pittsburgh.

7:45: VP Joe Biden attends a campaign event in D.C.

****

Cagle

****

NYT: A year ago, few people outside the world of state legislatures had heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a four-decade-old organization run by right-wing activists and financed by business leaders. The group writes prototypes of state laws to promote corporate and conservative interests and spreads them from one state capital to another.

The council, known as ALEC, has since become better known, with news organizations alerting the public to the damage it has caused: voter ID laws that marginalize minorities and the elderly, antiunion bills that hurt the middle class and the dismantling of protective environmental regulations.

Now it’s clear that ALEC, along with the National Rifle Association, also played a big role in the passage of the “Stand Your Ground” self-defense laws around the country…..

That was apparently the last straw for several prominent corporations that had been financial supporters of ALEC. In recent weeks, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Intuit, Mars, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have stopped supporting the group, responding to pressure from activists and consumers who have formed a grass-roots counterweight to corporate treasuries. That pressure is likely to continue as long as state lawmakers are more responsive to the needs of big donors than the public interest.

More here

****

President Barack Obama and President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia participate in a presentation of land titles to the Afro-Colombian community at the Plaza de San Pedro in Cartagena, Colombia, April 15, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

****

Charles Pierce: ….. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Republican party, root and branch, from its deepest grass roots to its highest levels, has become completely demented. This does not mean that it is incapable of winning elections; on the contrary, the 2010 midterms, as well as the statewide elections around the country, ushered in a class of politicians so thoroughly dedicated to turning nonsense into public policy that future historians are going to marvel at our ability to survive what we wrought upon ourselves.

It is now impossible to become an elected Republican politician in this country if, for example, you believe in the overwhelming scientific consensus that exists behind the concept of anthropogenic global warming. Just recently, birth control, an issue most people thought pretty well had been settled in the 1960s, became yet another litmus test for Republican candidates, as did the Keystone XL pipeline, to which every Republican presidential candidate pledged unyielding fealty despite the fact that several prairie Republicans and an army of conservative farmers and ranchers are scared to death of the thing…..

More here

****

Cagle

****

Morning everyone (again)