Showing posts tagged barack obama

Acting commissioner of IRS resigns

CNN Political Ticker: US President Barack Obama has announced that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has requested and accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in the wake of its handling of requests by conservative groups for tax-exempt status.
Obama called the “misconduct” detailed in a report about the IRS response to those requests “inexcusable.”

Background check compromise falls 6 votes short NBC News: A measure to expand background checks for gun purchases was defeated in the US Senate Wednesday. The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted. “All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” President Barack Obama said after the vote, urging backers of gun control to continue the fight. The measure would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows. Photo credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

Background check compromise falls 6 votes short

NBC News: A measure to expand background checks for gun purchases was defeated in the US Senate Wednesday. The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted.

“All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” President Barack Obama said after the vote, urging backers of gun control to continue the fight.

The measure would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows.


Photo credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

Obama speaks out against GOP threats to filibuster gun control TPM: US President Obama was in Connecticut Monday to deliver an speech aimed at mobilizing public support for gun control — and speaking out against Republican senators who are on record threatening to filibuster legislation to address gun violence. “This is not about me. This is not not about politics,” he said to the crowd, which included families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. “This is about doing the right thing for families like yours that have been torn apart by gun violence, and families going forward.” Photo credit: Charles Dharapak/AP View high resolution

Obama speaks out against GOP threats to filibuster gun control

TPM: US President Obama was in Connecticut Monday to deliver an speech aimed at mobilizing public support for gun control — and speaking out against Republican senators who are on record threatening to filibuster legislation to address gun violence.

“This is not about me. This is not not about politics,” he said to the crowd, which included families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. “This is about doing the right thing for families like yours that have been torn apart by gun violence, and families going forward.”

Photo credit: Charles Dharapak/AP

Obama signs Violence Against Women Act reauthorization

NBC News:

Flanked by Vice President Joe Biden, the original author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, President Barack Obama signed a reauthorization of the legislation Thursday.

The reauthorization, which includes expansion of protections to gay couples and Native American women, passed the House last month after over a year of partisan disagreement over its renewal.

Obama: Nation stronger, GOP should back his plans AP: US President Barack Obama urged Congress, during the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, to embrace his plans to use government money for job creation and strengthening the nation’s middle class. Obama called for increased federal spending to fix the nation’s roads and bridges. He also called for the first increase in minimum wage in six years. He said his proposals would not increase the deficit. Photo credit: AP

Obama: Nation stronger, GOP should back his plans

AP: US President Barack Obama urged Congress, during the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, to embrace his plans to use government money for job creation and strengthening the nation’s middle class.

Obama called for increased federal spending to fix the nation’s roads and bridges. He also called for the first increase in minimum wage in six years. He said his proposals would not increase the deficit.

Photo credit: AP

Obama: Scouting should be open to gays, lesbians

AP: In a pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS, US President Barack Obama said the Boy Scouts of America should open its membership to gays and lesbians when its national executive board discusses the issue this week.


During the interview, Obama praised the scouts as a “great institution” that provides young people with lifelong leadership training and opportunities. He said “no one should be barred from that.”

Obama calls for equality for women, gays in inaugural address In his second inaugural address, U.S. President Barack Obama urged the nation to make sure that women were paid equally to men and that gay men and lesbians were treated equally under the law.“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said.Obama also vowed to respond to the threat of climate change, to maintain economic vitality, to protect the poor and to defend the country’s people through “strength of arms and rule of law.” Read more from The New York Times. Read the full text of Obama’s inaugural speech from NBC News. More on today’s inaugural events on BreakingNews.com.Photo: President Barack Obama takes the oath of office during the 57th Presidential Inauguration ceremonial swearing-in at the Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington, D.C. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images)

Obama calls for equality for women, gays in inaugural address

In his second inaugural address, U.S. President Barack Obama urged the nation to make sure that women were paid equally to men and that gay men and lesbians were treated equally under the law.

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

Obama also vowed to respond to the threat of climate change, to maintain economic vitality, to protect the poor and to defend the country’s people through “strength of arms and rule of law.” Read more from The New York Times.

Read the full text of Obama’s inaugural speech from NBC News.

More on today’s inaugural events on BreakingNews.com.

Photo: President Barack Obama takes the oath of office during the 57th Presidential Inauguration ceremonial swearing-in at the Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington, D.C. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama named TIME’s Person of the Year Today: TIME magazine unveiled Barack Obama as the 2012 choice for its Person of the Year cover Wednesday. On Tuesday, the magazine’s short list for the cover was revealed. In addition to Obama, those choices included Marissa Mayer, Mohammed Morsi, undocumented Americans, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Tim Cook, and Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati. The magazine’s Person of the Year has been a topic of year-end debate ever since Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year in 1927. Read the TIME cover story here. Photo: US President Barack Obama smiles while addressing his 1st news conference since his reelection at the White House in Washington, November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)

US President Barack Obama named TIME’s Person of the Year

Today: TIME magazine unveiled Barack Obama as the 2012 choice for its Person of the Year cover Wednesday. On Tuesday, the magazine’s short list for the cover was revealed. In addition to Obama, those choices included Marissa Mayer, Mohammed Morsi, undocumented Americans, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Tim Cook, and Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.

The magazine’s Person of the Year has been a topic of year-end debate ever since Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year in 1927.

Read the TIME cover story here.


Photo: US President Barack Obama smiles while addressing his 1st news conference since his reelection at the White House in Washington, November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)

Obama wins Florida, tops Romney 332 to 206 in electoral votesBarack Obama has been declared the winner in Florida, topping Mitt Romney in the final electoral vote tally 332 to 206, AP reports.Florida officials said Obama had 50% of the vote to Romney’s 49.1%, a margin of about 74,000 votes.Photo: President Barack Obama addresses supporters during his election night rally in Chicago, Nov. 6, 2012. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

Obama wins Florida, tops Romney 332 to 206 in electoral votes

Barack Obama has been declared the winner in Florida, topping Mitt Romney in the final electoral vote tally 332 to 206, AP reports.

Florida officials said Obama had 50% of the vote to Romney’s 49.1%, a margin of about 74,000 votes.

Photo: President Barack Obama addresses supporters during his election night rally in Chicago, Nov. 6, 2012. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

Mitt Romney takes lead in national poll after debateIn the first national poll since last week’s US presidential debate, Mitt Romney has surged and now holds a slight lead over President Obama among likely voters, according to a new poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center. Read more from National Journal. Photo: President Barack Obama shakes hands with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney after the first presidential debate at the University of Denver on Oct. 3, 2012. (Michael Reynolds / AP)

Mitt Romney takes lead in national poll after debate

In the first national poll since last week’s US presidential debate, Mitt Romney has surged and now holds a slight lead over President Obama among likely voters, according to a new poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center. Read more from National Journal.

Photo: President Barack Obama shakes hands with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney after the first presidential debate at the University of Denver on Oct. 3, 2012. (Michael Reynolds / AP)

reuters: A new Gallup poll shows sentiment on the legality of same-sex marriage is close, with 50% of people surveyed in favor of the law recognizing same-sex marriages as valid, while 48% of those surveyed think it should not be valid. The poll shows, politically, the most support for same-sex marriage comes from those who identify as Democrats. Most who identify as Republicans came out in opposition to same-sex marriage. [REUTERS] READ MORE: President Obama voices support for same-sex marriages View high resolution

reuters:

A new Gallup poll shows sentiment on the legality of same-sex marriage is close, with 50% of people surveyed in favor of the law recognizing same-sex marriages as valid, while 48% of those surveyed think it should not be valid.

The poll shows, politically, the most support for same-sex marriage comes from those who identify as Democrats. Most who identify as Republicans came out in opposition to same-sex marriage. [REUTERS]

READ MORE: President Obama voices support for same-sex marriages

(Reblogged from reuters)

Obama declares support for gay marriage

BREAKING: In an interview with ABC News, US President Barack Obama says he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and his own vice president.

Watch video from the interview here.