First Lady Michelle Obama talks with children attending Camp Noah as they make trail mix at the McAlpine Park Recreation Center in Birmingham, Ala., July 18, 2012 (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
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Presidential Daily Schedule (All Times Eastern)
11:25: The President delivers a statement on the Affordable Care Act
12:25: First Lady Michelle Obama, Rahm Emanuel and Amy Rule visit Urban Alliance Chicago
3:0: The President participates in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony (closed press)
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Steve Benen: Jobless claims show sharp improvement, reach three-month low
Last week’s report on initial unemployment claims was unexpectedly discouraging, making the good news this morning that more reassuring.
The number of people who applied for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits dropped 24,000 to 334,000 in the week that ended July 13, hitting the lowest level of new claims since early May, signaling a slower pace of layoffs, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected initial claims to fall to 341,000 from an original estimate of 360,000 in the prior week. However, it’s difficult to precisely measure claims this month because of distortions from events such as annual auto plant shutdowns and the July 4 holiday, they said…. The four-week average of initial claims, a less volatile gauge, declined 5,250 to 346,000.
More here
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Philip Bump: Those of you who are old enough may remember a time when Barack Obama was plagued with scandal. “Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill,” Politico yelped. The suffix “-gate” was added to various words. So what happened to the scandals? For the most part, they’ve been hollowed out. The scandal: Benghazi. What it was: The death of four Americans at a diplomatic (read: CIA) outpost in the Libyan city of Benghazi last September 11th bubbled for a while. The release of emails suggesting a cover-up kicked conspiracy theories into high gear.
How real it was in the first place: Not very. Current status: Last rites administered Those emails reported by ABC News were only part of the story. The White House released the full email chain, making it clear that the administration’s involvement in drafting a set of post-attack talking points wasn’t what opponents suggested. (We even declared the scandal dead the same week.)
More here
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President Barack Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office before a phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, July 18, 2012. Pictured, from left, are: Chris Mizelle, Director for Russia and Central Asia, NSS; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Jack Lew; and Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Paul Krugman: Obamacare Is the Right’s Worst Nightmare
News from New York: it looks as if insurance premiums on the individual market are going to plunge thanks to Obamacare. This shouldn’t come as a surprise; in fact, the New York experience perfectly illustrates why Obamacare had to look the way it does. And it also illustrates why conservatives should be terrified about this legislation, as it takes effect. Americans may have had a lot of misgivings in advance, thanks to vast, deliberately spread misinformation. But I agree with Matt Yglesias — unless the GOP finds even more ways to sabotage the plan, this thing is going to work, it’s going to be extremely popular, and it’s going to wreak havoc with conservative ideology.
Conservatives are right to be hysterical about this: it’s an attack on everything they believe — and it’s going to make Americans’ lives better. What could be worse?
Full post here
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Abby Ohlheiser: House Republicans followed up on the Obama administration’s decision to delay the implementation of the employer mandate for one year by voting to make that decision a law, and to extend that delay to all individuals, too. It’s a more limited protest vote than what we’re used to seeing from the House GOP on Obamacare: There have been 38 legislative attempts to revoke either all or part of the health care reform law since 2011.
On Wednesday, both votes to delay passed easily: 264 – 161 for the employer mandate, and 251 – 174 for the individual mandate. They will not become law: President Obama would veto both bills if they made it to his desk.
More here
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GOP is ZERO for 38 on attempts to repeal #Obamacare. RT if you want Congress to stop wasting time & focus on jobs. http://t.co/6lsV5vsbLX
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Niki Tsongas (@nikiinthehouse) July 17, 2013****
Sen. Elizabeth Warren embraces Richard Cordray following a statement by President Barack Obama on Cordray’s confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, July 17
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Happy 95th Birthday Nelson Mandela!
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Statement by the President and Mrs Obama on Nelson Mandela International Day:
On behalf of our family and the people of the United States, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes and prayers to Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his 95th birthday, as well as to Graça Machel, the Mandela family, and the government and people of South Africa as they mark the fifth annual Nelson Mandela International Day. Our family was deeply moved by our visit to Madiba’s former cell on Robben Island during our recent trip to South Africa, and we will forever draw strength and inspiration from his extraordinary example of moral courage, kindness, and humility.
On Nelson Mandela International Day, people everywhere have the opportunity to honor Madiba through individual and collective acts of service. Through our own lives, by heeding his example, we can honor the man who showed his own people – and the world – the path to justice, equality, and freedom. May Nelson Mandela’s life of service to others and his unwavering commitment to equality, reconciliation, and human dignity continue to be a beacon for each future generation seeking a more just and prosperous world.
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Something is wrong in a country where the future President of the United States was racially profiled just because he’s black
Josh Lederman: In 1999, a fresh-faced state senator on Chicago’s South Side heard constituents complain that police were free to pull over drivers because they were black. So Barack Obama proposed a bill to tackle racial profiling. When it failed, he revised it and proposed it again and again. ”Race and ethnicity is not an indicator of criminal activity,” Obama said when his bill finally passed the Senate four years later. He said targeting individuals based on race was humiliating and fostered contempt in black communities.
More than a decade later, Obama’s efforts to pass groundbreaking racial profiling legislation in Illinois offer some of the clearest clues as to how America’s first black president feels about an issue that’s polarizing a nation roiled by the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin. Obama has spoken only rarely about his own experience with incidents he perceived to be race-related. In his 2006 book “The Audacity of Hope,” he described his struggles with the injustices of “driving while black” and the vigilance he felt was still necessary for him and his family.
“I can recite the usual litany of petty slights that during my 45 years have been directed my way: security guards tailing me as I shop in department stores, white couples who toss me their car keys as I stand outside a restaurant waiting for the valet, police cars pulling me over for no apparent reason,” Obama wrote.
More here
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Tal Kopan: Trayvon Martin’s parents are asking President Barack Obama to go through the details of the shooting death of their son with a fine-tooth comb, saying American teenagers don’t know how to behave in its wake. Appearing on “CBS This Morning,” Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton was asked what she wanted the president to do. “That’s pretty tough. To say the least, at least investigate what happened. At least go through it with a fine-tooth comb and just make sure all the T’s were crossed and all the I’s were dotted, because this is sending a terrible message,” Fulton said. “It’s sending out a terrible message to young teenagers. Trayvon was walking too slow, so should they be walking too fast? You know, so I don’t think teenagers in whole know exactly what to do now.”
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When I heard the Zimmerman verdict, the first thing I did was pick up my son, Jack #HeIsNotASuspect http://t.co/fjBjndcc4R
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Ben Jealous (@BenJealous) July 17, 2013With Trayvon, "Can you believe a boy who looks like this is innocent?" With Dzhokhar, "Can you believe a boy who looks like this is guilty?"
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Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 18, 2013***
David Simon (Creator of the critically acclaimed series The Wire): You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead. In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all. And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary.
If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve. I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own. Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies: Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible. I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country.
More here
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Meredith Shiner: A meeting of Senate Republicans on Wednesday grew tense as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told his members he could have gotten a better deal on nominations than the one negotiated by rank-and-file Republicans. McConnell’s tone, according to multiple sources, implied that he had been kept in the dark about the talks between some in his own ranks and Democrats. However, those same Republicans say they kept McConnell updated throughout their negotiating process.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., got so frustrated with McConnell’s presentation of events, that he called “bullshit” loud enough for the room to hear, nearly a half-dozen sources said. The heated exchange underscored the “buyer’s remorse” among some Republicans, especially leaders, one senior Republican said on background.
More here
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Trayvon Martin's father Tracy asked by @MLauer to address jury: "How can you let the killer of an unarmed teen go free?" @TODAYShow
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Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) July 18, 2013DOJ has set up an email address to receive correspondence concerning the federal investigation re Trayvon Martin: Sanford.Florida@usdoj.gov
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DOJ Civil Rights (@CivilRights) July 17, 2013****
ThinkProgress: Bruce Springsteen Dedicates ‘American Skin (41 Shots)’ To The U.S. ‘For Justice For Trayvon Martin’
During his concert in Limerick, Ireland Tuesday night, Bruce Springsteen dedicated “American Skin (41 Shots),” a song he debuted in 2000 about the February 4, 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo by four plainclothes New York City police officers, as “a letter back home…for justice for Trayvon Martin.”
If you haven’t heard the song before, part of what’s chilling about hearing it again in this context is that the lyrics, which describe a black woman talking to her child about how not to get killed by the police, remain as applicable now as they were a decade and a half ago. When Springsteen sings “Lena gets her son ready for school / She says ‘On these streets, Charles / You’ve got to understand the rules / If an officer stops you, / promise me you’ll always be polite / And that you’ll never ever run away / Promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight,’” he could be quoting Levar Burton explaining the tactics he uses to try to avoid a deadly outcome during traffic stops by the police…..
More here
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The Future of Texas
Mayor Julián Castro, Senator Wendy Davis, and U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro
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Tom Kludt: Vice President Joe Biden opened up about his presidential prospects in the latest issue of GQ, telling the magazine that he’d” be at peace if he never makes it to the White House — but that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t run in 2016. ”I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America,” Biden said in the interview. “”But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.”
More here
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Vice President Joe Biden arrives for a meeting with President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon in the Oval Office, July 18, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Have A Jose Mourinho Leading Chelsea To Victory Day! 
