@lacasablanca: Oval Office meeting: President Obama and @sr_simone of “Nuns on the Bus” discussed #ImmigrationReform
SOOOOexcited. Leaving White House & 1 on 1 meeting with POTUS in Oval Office. He wants #cir13 NOW! Is following #Nunsonthebus
— Sr. Simone Campbell (@sr_simone) May 30, 2013
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Today:
10:20: The President delivers remarks on student loans (White House Live)
10:50: Meets with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
12:30: Press Briefing by Jay Carney
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Not defending Holder OTR meetings, but in 2006, news orgs defended their off record meetings with Bush: washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content…
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 31, 2013
Yep, how things have changed…..
Washington Post (March 2006): Off the Record, Bush Makes Media Inroads …. As he defends his Iraq policy with a public campaign of speeches and a recent news conference, President Bush also has been waging a private campaign that has included off-the-record sessions with White House reporters….
One gathering, which took place Thursday in the White House residence, was an unusual gesture by Bush, who has agreed to comparatively few lengthy exchanges with reporters during his five years in office….
Last week’s session involved reporters from several prominent broadcast and print outlets, including ABC News and The Washington Post. Under the off-the-record ground rules, the journalists were barred from reporting what was discussed. White House officials said they also hoped the meetings’ mere existence would remain under wraps….
More here
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Joe Conason (National Memo): …. The notion that Barack Obama is “Nixonian” – or that his administration’s recent troubles bear any resemblance to “Watergate” – is the biggest media lie since the phony “Whitewater scandal” crested during the Clinton presidency.
…. Only in a country afflicted with chronic historical amnesia could they issue such accusations without shame or embarrassment. Only under those circumstances could the Republicans continue their fitful fabrication of a “Democratic Watergate” without fear of being laughed off the stage….
…. But certain liberals in the media have fretted loudly over Obama’s “scandals,” too ….. is it all just trumped-up hysteria? To answer those questions, it helps to remember what Nixon and his gang actually did to America – and why they were driven out of Washington and, in many cases, sent to prison….
More here
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That dreaded Obamacare. Cutting health costs. Now this. Health Law Is Fostering Competition, U.S. Says, via @nytimes nyti.ms/136FbUK
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) May 31, 2013
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Steve Benen: Student loans reclaim center stage ….. President Obama will deliver remarks, flanked by college students, on a subject that too often goes overlooked: student loans. With a looming interest rate hike, the president will reportedly “call on Congress to help keep college affordable for middle-class families and students by preventing student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1.”
…. House Republicans say they’ve already passed a bill on this, which is true. They also say their bill is worthwhile and consistent with White House demands, which is not true…..
More here
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Yep, austerity works so well:
Bloomberg: Euro-area unemployment increased to a record in April after the currency bloc’s recession deepened in the first quarter, increasing pressure on its leaders and the European Central Bank to spur economic growth.
The euro-area jobless rate rose to 12.2 percent from 12.1 percent in March…. to 19.38 million in April, up 95,000 from the previous month. Youth unemployment was at 24.4 percent …. Spain had the highest rate at 26.8 percent. No April data were available for Greece, which had a 27 percent rate in February.
More here
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LOLGOP (National Memo): This May Be The Greatest Letter Any Elected Republican Has Ever Written
Given the GOP’s obsession with making health care decisions for girls and women, you may have wondered how any self-respecting physician could identify with the Republican Party.
Rep. Doug Cox (R-OK) is wondering the same thing. Responding to legislation that would deny poor women contraception that would prevent abortions, Cox, a doctor, decided that he had to speak out in a letter to the The Oklahoman:
All of the new Oklahoma laws aimed at limiting abortion and contraception are great for the Republican family that lives in a gingerbread house with a two-car garage, two planned kids and a dog. In the real world, they are less than perfect…..
More here
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What good is it to save the planet if big oil suffers slightly?
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 31, 2013
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NYT: G.O.P. Sizes Up Obama as Midterm Target …. plenty of Republicans are still eager to wage a midterm campaign against President Obama ….. Not everyone in the party, however, is so sure that they can expand their ranks in Congress or improve their standing among voters by personally attacking the president, whose likability ratings stand near 80 percent even if only half of Americans approve of his job performance. And they are cautioning their fellow party members to avoid building their campaigns around the same kinds of messages that have fallen flat before.
More here
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Mediaite: This is the documentary that went too far for PBS. The New Yorker recently published an investigative piece by Jane Mayer that chronicled how and why ITVS, which produces films for PBS’ “Independent Lens” series, ended up passing on the film to protect one of public television’s biggest donors: David Koch.
The documentary, titled Citizen Koch, is now without a distributor, but the filmmakers, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, have posted the trailer online, which takes an unflinching look at the effects of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision on America’s political process. The conclusion of the film appears to be that the Koch Brothers, with their massive financial influence and support of Republican candidates and causes, are at the heart of the problem.
More here
The trailer:
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Paul Krugman: Like many observers, I usually read reports about political goings-on with a sort of weary cynicism. Every once in a while, however, politicians do something so wrong, substantively and morally, that cynicism just won’t cut it; it’s time to get really angry instead. So it is with the ugly, destructive war against food stamps.
The food stamp program tries to provide modest but crucial aid to families in need. And the evidence is crystal clear both that the overwhelming majority of food stamp recipients really need the help, and that the program is highly successful at reducing “food insecurity,” in which families go hungry at least some of the time.
…. So what do Republicans want to do with this paragon of programs? First, shrink it; then, effectively kill it …. this is a time to get really, really angry.
Full article here
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Steve Benen: Senate Dems’ ‘nuclear option’ looms large
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has, on more than one occasion, threatened high-profile showdowns over filibuster abuses, only to back off in the end. And so, as talk of the “nuclear option” becomes more common, even reform proponents are skeptical about whether Reid will follow through on the aggressive, confrontational tactic.
We’ll know more as the summer progresses about Reid’s true intentions, but in the interim, there are two broad angles to keep in mind. The first is whether the Majority Leader actually has the votes to successfully pull off the nuclear option….
More here
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AP: Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up his visit to Rio de Janeiro with a visit to a slum on Thursday before traveling to Brasilia for a Friday meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Biden embraced and shook hands with residents of the Santa Marta hillside slum in Rio’s south zone during the 30-minute visit.
The slum is among several that are part of Rio’s slum “pacification” program to make the city safe ahead of the 2014 soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
Biden met in the slum with Police Major Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, who last year received one of the U.S. government’s International Women of Courage awards for her work in setting up a “pacification unit” in Santa Marta.
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MooooOOOOoooorning – Happy Friday!
