election

Organizing for Action: vh1: barackobama: vh1: meredifsteppy: i cant tell whether vh1 or...

libawr — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:15:39 -0400

Organizing for Action: vh1: barackobama: vh1: meredifsteppy: i cant tell whether vh1 or...:

vh1:

barackobama:

vh1:

meredifsteppy:

i cant tell whether vh1 or barackobama is my favorite blog and it is distressing me

Does the president ever reblog Darren Criss gifs? We think not.

POTUS: Needs more Darren GIFs!

Hey, Darren: Should everybody register to…

So the Tumblr Girls ran into Darren Criss at one of the White House Correspondents Dinner festivities and couldn’t resist keeping this thread going. (Thanks to topherchris for making our photo Tumblr-ready.)

Now, the question is whether the White House will be up to the GIF reblog challenge!

Attempting to revive this GIF war from last year’s election season. Will it work? Well the White House hasn’t posted a GIF in a few days….

The Official White House Tumblr: The White House, Tumbling Things

libawr — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:20:35 -0400

The Official White House Tumblr: The White House, Tumbling Things:

whitehouse:

We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs. That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr. We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science…

The White House is Tumbling!

Apply to be a Tumblr Fellow at the Personal Democracy Forum! How...

libawr — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:02:10 -0400

Apply to be a Tumblr Fellow at the Personal Democracy Forum!

How is technology changing society, politics and civic life? Thats the question tackled every summer at the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) conference at NYU. If it’s also a question that gets you excited, then you’ll be happy to know that Tumblr and PDF are teaming up to offer conference fellowships that cover the full registration costs and a meal with the team from Tumblr at PDF13. Ten applicants will be selected to attend this year’s conference on June 6-7.

We’re looking for people and organizations who are using technology and social media in innovative, meaningful ways to affect positive change. If that’s you, apply by taking a few minutes to fill out this brief form.

The deadline for applications is 6pm EST on Friday, April 26th, 2013. Winners will be notified the following week.

GIF created with permission from bindersfullofburgers.tumblr.com

And the Obama campaign weighs in with a...

arimelber — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:01:45 -0500

And the Obama campaign weighs in with a summary…

barackobama:

“Our journey is not complete.” —President Obama

The First Family — they’re just like us! via...

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:01:00 -0500

The First Family — they’re just like us!

via thesmithian:

[meaningful glance]

"It’s almost as if he has won re-election and knows he will never have to run again and hears..."

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:01:08 -0500

“It’s almost as if he has won re-election and knows he will never have to run again and hears the clock ticking on his last chance to use the power of the presidency on the causes he cares about. If anyone were wondering whether Obama wanted to lower expectations for his second term … no, he apparently does not.”

- James Fallows, the Atlantic journalist and former White House speechwriter, assesses Barack Obama’s address today.

A Progressive View of Obama's Inauguration

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:01:34 -0500

Adam Green, 36, Co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee

We have seen two governing models from this President. One is actually very well represented by the gun debate, where he carved out a bold position on the front end and is now rallying the public to pressure Congress. That’s the sweet spot where smart governance meets huge grassroots activism. If he uses that as a model in his second term, he will be successful in passing genuinely progressive reforms.

The other model is the Wall Street and health care fight - it entails cutting a deal early on, and asking the grassroots to ratify a somewhat compromised deal.

The best thing we can do as progressives, in the very short term, is to reward this President for what he’s done on gun control, and make sure he learns the positive lesson, that when he sets out a bold position, the public will get his back. And that’s what we’re doing at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Larry Schweiger, 63, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation We...

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:01:34 -0500

Larry Schweiger, 63, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation

We have four years to get real progress on issues that we care about, like climate change and other wildlife issues.

President Obama’s first term was probably 70% green - he was constrained by the political pressures. We would have had a cap-and-trade program, it would have been close to 100% if they’d gotten that accomplished, but they’ve taken on mercury; auto fuel standards; a source performance standard on power plants in motion; we have an effort coming together to deal with existing sources of pollution. I think the effort to address carbon and other pollution in urban areas, to make sure people have clean air in urban spaces is a very important effort.

Teddy Roosevelt was clearly the environmental president, but other presidents have made similar comments.

"Inauguration facts: “President Barack Obama on Monday became the first president to use the..."

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:01:40 -0500

“Inauguration facts: “President Barack Obama on Monday became the first president to use the word ‘gay’ in an inaugural address in reference to sexual orientation, making two references to gay rights as he began his second term.””

- From a Politico report.

Run the World. via lindsaylohangmyself

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:01:27 -0500

Run the World.

via lindsaylohangmyself

Even inaugurations have unscripted moments…

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:41:18 -0500

Even inaugurations have unscripted moments…

Brandon Hackley, 17, Portsmouth, VA We’re here to...

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:08:01 -0500

Brandon Hackley, 17, Portsmouth, VA

We’re here to celebrate a special moment. This is what the inauguration is all about — everybody from everywhere coming in for one moment.

I first heard of Obama when I was 13 years old, I heard he was running. I just believe in what he says.

"This was the most sustainedly “progressive” statement Barack Obama has made in his..."

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:04:38 -0500

“This was the most sustainedly “progressive” statement Barack Obama has made in his decade on the national stage.”

- James Fallows, a journalist for the Atlantic and former White House speechwriter for President Carter, on today’s address.

The First Family, growing up between inaugurals. buzzfeed: Then...

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:03:02 -0500

The First Family, growing up between inaugurals.

buzzfeed:

Then and now.

inauguration2013: Dear Mr. President, I didn’t vote for you. I...

libawr — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:10:00 -0500

inauguration2013:

Dear Mr. President,

I didn’t vote for you.

I know I didn’t vote for you, but you are my president now, and I believe in our country’s process of election. You are the president of all of us. Please remember that. We are all Americans, regardless of party lines, and we all just want what is best for our families.
Please remember that no issue is cut and dry - no issue is black and white. Listen fairly to both sides of the argument, and then decide what is best for everyone, not just one side or the other.
There are a lot of us who have gotten lost in the middle as both parties move further and further away from each other. Nobody talks of compromise. Nobody takes the good ideas of both sides and makes a better solution. You can be that person, Mister President. You can be someone we can ALL get behind. Just be the bigger person in this whole awful mess.

Signed,
Jennifer from Salt Lake City, Utah

What do you want President Obama to remember in his second term? Share your message at NPR’s Dear Mr. President.

NPR’s Dear Mr. President is still going strong. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend doing so now. Will the topic of the submissions shift now that Obama has clearly outlined his second term priorities?

Obama's Unusually Direct Inaugural Address

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:20:00 -0500

For an inaugural address, President Obama’s speech today was striking because it was unapologetically liberal and unusually direct.

When the President sought to counter attacks on Social Security, he embraced the program explicitly, crediting “Social Security” among the “commitments we make to each other.” That’s a sharp contrast from Obama’s first inaugural. Then he spoke only of providing “a retirement that is dignified” for the elderly — language designed to elide, rather than confront, the political fault lines over government assistance.

Obama was equally direct when he took aim at one of his 2012 rivals. The President singled out Paul Ryan’s famous complaint that a social safety net “saps” private initiative and turns workers into “takers.” Medicare does not “sap our initiative” or turn us into a “nation of takers,” Obama said, because entitlement programs actually “free us to take the risks that make this country great.” Winning the argument in November was not enough – Obama wanted the last word.

The President’s social agenda also left no doubt about his definition of equality today. In the first explicit call for gay rights in inaugural history, Obama linked marriage equality to the civil rights movement, suggesting a moral connection between the battles in Selma and Stonewall.

“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said, “for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”

Those words were politically unthinkable for every other incoming President in history. Just eight years ago today, a re-elected president was sworn in after running on a proposal to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage. But we needn’t go back that far. In 2009, a new President was elected with the same core position, opposing gay marriage as a legal right. Obama’s first inaugural address even invoked “the God-given promise that all are equal” – another elastic formulation that gestured towards inclusion, without actually specifying any execution or political risk. Today’s address, by contrast, put a bold exclamation point on the President’s much-discussed “evolution.” There is great symbolic power in the first black President embracing the gay rights struggle in such direct and moral terms.

If there was an overarching theme in this address, it was that notion of universal rights and collective purpose. Much has been made of the inaugural coinciding with Martin Luther King Day, and like Dr. King, Obama relentlessly tries to present his goals as the fulfillment of traditional ideals – not a new set of values.

At a rhetorical level, Obama hit that note with five different passages that began, “We, The People.” The framework salutes the Constitution’s preamble and implies, not immodestly, that part of the President’s agenda is on par with our constitutional rights and system of government. At a policy level, Obama invoked the Jeffersonian idea that America must often apply new methods to advance old values.

“We have always understood that when times change, so must we,” Obama said, “that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”

That is also the fault line running through the President’s second term – a belief in collective action and universal social insurance, pitted against the conservative premise that we should not provide, and cannot afford, a set of life-long entitlements for every single American.

—
By Ari Melber for Tumblr.

current: Word cloud: President Obama’s second inaugural...

libawr — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:59:00 -0500

current:

Word cloud: President Obama’s second inaugural address

Lots of MUSTs.

Fun fact: tonight's Commander-in-Chief's ball will be the first where soldiers are welcome to bring their same-sex partners.

libawr — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:57:59 -0500

Fun fact: tonight's Commander-in-Chief's ball will be the first where soldiers are welcome to bring their same-sex partners.

nailsyall: Happy inauguration day!

libawr — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:41:55 -0500

nailsyall:

Happy inauguration day!

‘nuff said. “God bless America.” buzzfeed

arimelber — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:05:29 -0500

‘nuff said.

“God bless America.”

buzzfeed