President Obama greets members of the audience following a ceremony honoring the 2012 BCS National Champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team at the White House, April 15 (Photo by Pete Souza). More new photos here
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Today:
12:30: Press Briefing by Jay Carney
2:10: The President holds a bilateral meeting with President Thein Sein of Burma
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President Obama holds a National Security Council meeting in the Situation Room, April 5 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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The Week Ahead:
Tuesday: The President will attend meetings at the White House
Wednesday: Will attend meetings at the White House, and in the evening, as part of their “In Performance at the White House” series, the President and the First Lady will host a concert honoring singer-songwriter Carole King, who will be awarded the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song
Thursday: The President delivers a counter-terrorism speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
Friday: Will travel to Annapolis, Maryland, to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy
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The White House video of President Obama’s Morehouse address yesterday – we can never see it enough:
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Forbes: With the stock market hitting new highs, some people have already forgotten about the Great Recession. Recall 2009. Things looked pretty bleak economically. But the outlook has changed dramatically in just 4 years…. the President deserves attention for how well this economy has done during his leadership.
The auto rescue plan has worked. American car manufacturers are still dominant and employing millions directly and in supplier companies. Wall Street reform has been painful but it has re-instated faith amongst investors….
…. The deficit is now only 4% of the GDP, down from over 10% at the end of Bush’s administration …. major strides in health care reform – something no other President has accomplished – has given American’s more faith in their future, and an increased willingness to invest.
… By all measures, President Obama has outperformed every modern President.
Full post here
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Jon Favreau: How Obama Handles Crisis – The handwringers and bed wetters in the D.C. punditocracy should know that Barack Obama will never be on their timeline…..
Read here
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Oh @jonkarl, as a republican member of congress once famously said: You lie!!! talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/…
— Baratunde (@baratunde) May 20, 2013
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Charles Pierce: It has not been a good couple of weeks for ABC’s Jonathan Karl, the man who passed along barbered information from some disreputable sources, and then got found out. Yesterday, having been caught injecting disinformation e coli into the mainstream, Karl issued a statement that almost broke the blog’s heretofore infallible weaselspeak-to-Engiish translation device.
…. far more interesting to me is the dossier compiled on Karl by the folks at FAIR. This makes his latest misadventure seem much less like an accident.
….. at every level of his steady rise in the business, some executive should have looked at Karl’s resume, seen The Collegiate Network there, and then shitcanned the thing before the interview process even began….
…if Jonathan Karl doesn’t like being called a hack, then he should stop being a hack. Here’s one way to do it. Blow the source who lied to you and, therefore, lied to us.
Full post here
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I wonder what lies @jonkarl @abc @gma will spread about Obama this week? Probably that he ordered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
— Jonathan Jewel (@JonathanJewel) May 20, 2013
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Steve Benen: ABC’s Karl expresses ‘regret’ over false Benghazi report …. said on Twitter that he “sincerely” regrets his error….
…. the closer one looks at Karl’s response – over a week in the making – the more I’m inclined to believe the underlying problems haven’t been resolved.
…. The story “still entirely stands”? It shouldn’t; the story is wrong. As Josh Marshall noted, “You can’t have a major part of the story be false and have the story ‘entirely stand.’”
Full post here
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John Karl: “I have to protect my source. Otherwise next time they want to push a partisan lie, they’ll call someone else.”
— Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) May 19, 2013
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TPM: For the last several days we’ve been narrating the odd aftermath of ABC’s Jon Karl’s blockbuster but ultimately erroneous report about the White House Benghazi emails. This afternoon he released what I believe is his first statement on the controversy as such …
Statement from ABC News’ Jonathan Karl: “I regret that one email was quoted incorrectly and I regret that it’s become a distraction from the story, which still entirely stands. I should have been clearer about the attribution. We updated our story immediately when new information became available.”
This seems at best willfully misleading.
I thought it would be best to break the statement down into its constituent parts…..
See here
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.@jonkarl: “I’m deeply sorry that the ‘filet mignon’ I fed you last week was actually a shit sandwich. But wasn’t it delicious?” #Benghazi
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) May 19, 2013
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Robert Shrum: The Obama Scandals Are Desperate Measures by the GOP – Republicans lack any coherent program other than cutting taxes for the wealthy. That’s why they’re going after Obama now
I’ve written that in the end, congressional Republicans won’t agree to move forward on the budget, tax reform, immigration, job creation, or any other issues that matter to mainstream America before the presidential elections. But the fall of 2016 is a long time away, and they have to do something in the meantime. Now we know what it is.
It’s not much different from what they’ve done, or haven’t done, all along: obstruct Obama. Traduce him, delegitimize him — and slow economic recovery in hopes that voters will cast a protest vote for the GOP. It worked in 2010, and failed miserably in 2012.
More here
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After the President’s ‘Worst Week Ever™’….. twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/…
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) May 20, 2013
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Steve Benen: …. one of the areas of interest in the IRS controversy is which officials knew about the Inspector General’s investigation and when …. we learned Friday that some officials at the Treasury Department were aware of the Inspector General’s probe last year, which proves, well, not much….
But wait, Obama’s critics say …. What about notifying Congress? If the administration knew an IG investigation was underway, why not make lawmakers aware of this, at the time, as part of routine oversight? In this case, the administration did notify Congress last year….
…. This is not at all convenient for those eager to characterize this as a conspiracy.
Full post here
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Today we’ve announced a new corporate responsibility campaign to show which companies have #GunSense and which don’t. ow.ly/lcxpW
— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) May 20, 2013
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First Lady Michelle Obama reacts while talking with people along a ropeline with President Obama at Love Field Airport in Dallas, April 24 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama talks with Rachel Robinson before the “42” movie screening in the Family Theater at the White House, April 2 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama greets Karen Dunn, former Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to the President, and her son in the Oval Office, April 22 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama reacts to a missed shot on the White House Basketball Court during a clinic with kids and professional basketball players as part of the 2013 Egg Roll (Photo by Pete Souza)
More new photos here
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MooooOOOOoooorning!
Love and good wishes from us all to Symmetry who had her operation this morning.
