o’malley | The Obama Diary

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Jan

Rise and Shine

Categories: All Photos, All Videos and Articles
Tags: app, Barack, Biden, bill, chief, Clinton, colin, control, gun, Inauguration 2009, Joe, kehoe, lincoln, martin, michael, newtown, o'malley, Obama, photos, police, powell, President

Ooooh, it’s nearly time again – get all the latest news at the Inauguration website

USA Today: President Obama’s second inaugural? There’s now an app for that. The Presidential Inauguration Committee plans to announce Monday it has created an iPhone and Android app that enables people to follow next week’s events as Obama is sworn in for a second term.

The app will provide livestream video of inaugural events, including the Jan. 21 swearing-in ceremony. There are also schedules for nationwide events associated with the inauguration, including the National Day of Service on Saturday.

More here

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Update: President Obama will hold a news conference at 11:15 a.m. today

Today:

11:0: VP Biden meets with Members of the House of Representatives

12:0: Jay Carney briefs the press

2:30: The President and VP meet with Secretary of State Clinton

3:0: President Obama participates in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony (closed press) – Ambassadors from Poland, Japan, Zambia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Tuvalu, Maldives and Mexico will attend

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TPM: Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with House Democrats’ task force to reduce gun violence at 11 a.m. ET Monday. The House members joining Biden are: Rep. Mike Thompson (CA), Rep. Bobby Scott (VA), Rep. Chaka Fattah (PA), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (NY), Rep. Jackie Speier (CA), Rep. Elizabeth Esty (CT), Rep. William Enyart (IL), Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO), Rep. Bennie Thompson (MS), Rep. John Conyers (MI), Rep. John Dingell (MI), Rep. Ron Barber (AZ).

Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will also attend the meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

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NBC: Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe has a message for the White House: “Ban assault weapons, restrict those magazines that so have so many bullets in them, shore up any loopholes in our criminal background checks,” he said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.

As Vice President Joe Biden prepares to present his gun violence proposals to the White House this week, the residents of Newtown — including first responders and some families of the victims — are speaking out on gun policy for the first time.

Few have a more personal connection to the issue than Kehoe: He was one of the first on the scene at the Sandy Hook Elementary School …. as a veteran law enforcement officer, what was most striking to Kehoe was that the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, had heavier firepower than Kehoe and his officers. The police had Glock pistols with 14-round magazines; Lanza had a Bushmaster assault-style rifle, two handguns and multiple 30-round magazines that allowed him to squeeze off an estimated 150 shots….

More here

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Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will seek to institute some of the nation’s strictest gun-licensing requirements, ban assault weapons and restrict visitor access to schools in one of the most expansive government responses sought to last month’s school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Perhaps most controversially, O’Malley (D) will ask the General Assembly to force prospective gun owners to provide fingerprints to state police, complete a hands-on weapon-familiarization and gun-safety course, and undergo a background check to be licensed.

And the governor is seeking new measures to keep guns out of the hands of those with mental illness who show violent tendencies…..

Full article here

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Read Steve Benen here

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TPM: The White House’s weekend ultimatum that Congress either lift the debt ceiling cleanly or take responsibility for default puts Republicans in a bind over their goal of reforming entitlement programs.

In ruling out all executive options, such as minting a high-value platinum coin, the White House put the onus on congressional Republicans to agree to raise the nation’s borrowing limit — without spending cuts or strings attached — or permit the first ever credit default. President Obama has steadfastly rebuffed their calls to cut social spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, and Democratic leaders support his position.

More here

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MoooOOoooOOorning!

Apr

rise and shine

By Chipsticks 173 Comments

Categories: All Photos, All Videos and Articles
Tags: ad, asne, associated, Barack, budget, ed, freeman, gop, guardian, hadley, martin, marvelous, mitt, new, o'malley, Obama, office, oval, Paul, photo, President, press, radical, romney, ryan, Schultz, speech, star, times, toon, trek, uhura, video, vp, york

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NYT Editorial: President Obama’s fruitless three-year search for compromise with the Republicans ended in a thunderclap of a speech on Tuesday, as he denounced the party and its presidential candidates for cruelty and extremism. He accused his opponents of imposing on the country a “radical vision” that “is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity.”

….The speech was the first time that Mr. Obama linked Mr. Romney, by name, to his party’s dishonest budget and discredited trickle-down policies. As Mr. Obama pointed out, Mr. Romney described as “marvelous” a budget that would drastically cut student financial aid, medical research, Head Start classrooms and environmental protections. Mr. Obama further ridiculed the budget’s deficit-cutting goal as “laughable” because it refuses to acknowledge the need for new revenues.

…. Mr. Obama provided a powerful signal on Tuesday that he intends to make this election about the Republican Party’s failure to confront, what he called, “the defining issue of our time”: restoring a sense of economic security while giving everyone a fair shot, rather than enabling only a shrinking number of people to do exceedingly well. His remarks promise a tough-minded campaign that will call extremism and dishonesty by name.

Full editorial here

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Gov Martin O’Malley appears from 7:30 in the video

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Bloomberg: Companies in the U.S. expanded payrolls in March, showing the labor market is strengthening, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.

Employment increased by 209,000 for the month after a revised 230,000 gain in February, figures from ADP Employer Services showed today…

….. Businesses added 215,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate held at 8.3 percent, economists project a Labor Department report will show in two days.

More here

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The Week

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Hadley Freeman (The Guardian): And so, as widely dreaded, the Republican primaries have dragged on into April. Well played, everyone! In a country so ruthless that TV shows can get cancelled after just one episode, maintaining such a long-running entertainment programme is an achievement. Admittedly, this is largely due to the fact that all of its featured stars are so uninspiringly bad….

…. one must not underestimate the impulse of Romney’s own party towards the ABR tactic – Anyone But Romney – one that has led to a sex-obsessed homophobe in a sweater vest and the Pillsbury Doughboy, AKA Newt Gingrich, being touted as sorta serious contenders for a presidential election …. Rick Santorum is predictably digging his heels in, like a toddler refusing to go to bed even though it’s at least two hours after his bed time, showing the deluded tenacity one would expect of a grown man who believes that restricting access to contraception reduces unwanted pregnancies….

Nevertheless, it does increasingly look as if, after all the bloodletting and financial expenditure of the past months, the Republicans will end up with the nominee who was always going to be the nominee. Hasn’t this been an excellent use of everyone’s time and energy?

But if you think this signifies the end of the bursts of crazy fun Santorum and Gingrich provided, don’t worry! Despite the vice-presidency being the most high-profile and pointless job outside the royal family, the Republicans have a knack for picking some doozies as running mates. There was Ken doll Dan Quayle, who thought he was JFK and couldn’t spell potato; Dick Cheney, the human Heart of Darkness; and of course, Sarah Palin, who needs no elaboration…..

More here

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Laughingsquid: Star Trek original television series actress Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura on the USS Enterprise) recently visited the White House for Black History Month. She was given a photo opportunity with President Obama and they both posed with their hands firmly giving the Vulcan salute.

Nichelle Nichols: On Feb 29, 2012 I was honored to have the chance to meet with President Obama in the Oval Office. I always knew that there was a reason that I liked him so much! Live Long & Prosper!

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11:30 AM: Michelle Obama holds a conference call with reporters in the week leading up to the one-year anniversary of Joining Forces

2:00 PM: Michelle Obama will visit the Fisher House located at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

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Morning everyone

Mar

state dinner

By Chipsticks 687 Comments

Categories: All Photos and All Videos
Tags: aaron, and, Andrew, anna, Astrid, attorney, Barack, Biden, Bonneville, bryan, buffett, cameron, carney, charles, claire, clooney, Damian, David, dingell, Dinner, Elba, eric, General, george, governor, gwen, hague, heinz, helen, her, his, holder, honor, house, hugh, Idris, ifill, Iris, jarrett, jay, jill, Joe, john, Katie, kerry, leroy, lewis, LuLu, Malone, martin, maryland, McCrory, mcilroy, medal, Michelle, Ned, o'malley, Obama, of, petry, photos, Pierce, President, rory, sam, samantha, schumer, Sebelius, sharon, shelby, shipman, son, state, sullivan, teresa, tone, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen, valerie, video, vogue, warren, Weinshall, wendell, white, wife, William, williams, wintour

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Dinner guests:

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and her son Ned

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory

Attorney General Eric Holder and his wife Sharon Malone

Warren Buffett and his wife Astrid

Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry, a medal of honor recipient, and his wife Ashley Petry

Sen. John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry

Sen. Charles Schumer and Iris Weinshall

Gwen Ifill and Wendell Pierce

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and his wife Katie

U.S. Congressman John Dingell and his wife Deborah

Andrew Sullivan and Aaron Tone

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, and Shelby Bryan

Jay Carney and Claire Shipman, Senior National Correspondent for ABC

Hugh Bonneville and LuLu Williams

Golfer Rory McIlroy and guest Conor Ridge

Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman

Idris Elba

George …. you know

Vice President Joe Biden with his wife Jill Biden and British Foreign Secretary William Hague

Jan

afternoon all

By Chipsticks 173 Comments

Categories: All Photos, All Videos and Articles
Tags: abdul, Barack, bill, Bob, Boehner, buzzfeed, carolina, carter, cesca, Clinton, Fox, Gingrich, Hillary, jabbar, jerry, jimmy, john, kareem, keyboard, keystone, martin, mckibben, mitt, news, Newt, o'malley, Obama, perry, phoenix, pipeline, President, racism, racist, rick, romney, south, springer, toon, toons, video, xl

Bob Cesca: As predicted, the Keystone XL pipeline has now been officially rejected by the Obama Administration after the Republicans chose to hasten the timeline for approval with a rider inserted into legislation that extended payroll tax-cuts and unemployment benefits for 2 months.

….. [when] Speaker Boehner whines about this today … you should keep this in mind:

Environmentalists note that in December 2010, according to Boehner’s financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada’s oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport….

Full post here

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350.org founder and Keystone XL protest leader, Bill McKibben, had the following reaction the news that the State Department is expected to reject the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline later this afternoon:

“Assuming that what we’re hearing is true, this isn’t just the right call, it’s the brave call. The knock on Barack Obama from many quarters has been that he’s too conciliatory. But here, in the face of a naked political threat from Big Oil to exact ‘huge political consequences,’ he’s stood up strong. This is a victory for Americans who testified in record numbers, and who demanded that science get the hearing usually reserved for big money.

More here

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepts a Los Angeles Lakers uniform from NBA legend, and State Department Cultural Ambassador, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, during their meeting in Washington, January 18.

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President Barack Obama will be in Phoenix next Wednesday as part of a swing through Iowa, Michigan and Western states after the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

The President is slated to visit Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Phoenix on Wednesday, Jan. 25 and then Las Vegas and Denver on Thursday, Jan. 26. That will be followed by Detroit on Friday, Jan. 27.

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The Week

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Mediaite: In a preview of Wednesday’s Piers Morgan Tonight, former President Jimmy Carter surprised host Morgan with his somewhat blunt (by mainstream media standards) assessment of Newt Gingrich. Speaking of his standing ovation moment at Monday night’s debate, President Carter told Morgan “I think (Gingrich) has that subtlety of racism that I know quite well, that Gingrich knows quite well, that appeals to some people in Georgia.”

“Really?” Morgan exclaimed as Carter spoke, later adding, “That’s a pretty serious charge to level at Newt Gingrich, that he’s being racist.”

“I’m not saying he’s racist, but he knows the subtle words to use to appeal to a racist group,” Carter responded.

More here

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NYT Editorial: Preaching Division in South Carolina. By mixing falsehoods with racial condescension, Newt Gingrich brought a raucous presidential debate crowd to its feet on Monday night in South Carolina, further cheapening his reputation and that of the state Republican Party.

For months, Mr. Gingrich has made racial resentment an integral part of his platform as a conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. He has traversed the country calling President Obama “the greatest food-stamp president in American history” and presenting African-Americans with the great revelation that they should prefer paychecks to federal handouts….

The fact is that Mr. Obama has “put” no one on food stamps. People apply for food assistance, known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, because they’re poor or out of work and their families are hungry. The number of people using the program, which is now at a peak, began rising with the recession, in 2007, and continued through four of the toughest years ever faced by the poor and near-poor in modern history. Mr. Obama eased the eligibility requirements as part of his stimulus program, a desperately needed measure that helped struggling families and the economy…..

Full editorial here

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Chris Weigant: The Huffington Post ran an article today titled “Gov. Martin O’Malley Urges Dems To Focus More On Romney’s Governing Record, Less On Bain.” In it, the governor of Maryland makes the following case:

“I think a point that needs to be emphasized was that in easier times when he [Romney] was governor of a pretty innovative state, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 [in job creation],” he said. “You contrast that to the tougher times we have now, under Governor Deval Patrick’s leadership, Massachusetts is 5th in the nation.”

O’Malley makes a good point. President Obama’s re-election team should heed it …. the real issue to put before the voters is what Mitt Romney did after he left the private sector for politics.

Full post here

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