Love at first blight: Let’s say you’re a fun-loving young single person, and you use the internet to help set up dates with men or women of your choosing. You might expect a few awkward dates here or there, garnished lovingly with some spam email. What you probably wouldn’t expect, however, is for such an email (from the service OKCupid) to contain this weird, apocalyptic anti-Obama image. The body text conspicuously didn’t mention it, but rather played up the 2012 doomsday paranoia (“We’re screwed. You should be too!”) — so, um, who exactly put this image together, or green-lit it?
“President Barack Obama issued a video response Friday to a petition on the White House website calling for the stricter gun control measures in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
“Like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms,” Obama said in the video. “It’s encouraging that many gun owners have stepped up this week to say there are steps we can take to prevent more tragedies like the one in Newtown.”
Obama continued: “Here’s what I think we should do. This week I called on Congress to take up and pass common-sense legislation that has the support of the majority of the American people, including banning the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, and making sure criminals can’t take advantage of legal loopholes to get their hands on a gun.”
The gun control petition, which had close to 200,000 signatures as of Friday morning, is the most popular effort ever championed on the White House’s “We The People” platform.”
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Way to go to tumblr! This never would have happened without everyone pitching in.
Heed the President’s words though: “If we’re going to succeed, it’s going to take a sustained effort from mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, law enforcement, and responsible gun owners. Organizing, speaking up, calling their members of congress as many times as it takes, standing up and saying enough on behalf of all our kids. That’s how change happens.”
Major props to perzadook for the petition, and bringing the issue to the forefront in a way where Obama responded directly.
Here’s Obama’s response to the gun control petition launched by Perzadook.
“The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing:” This morning, President Obama announced the formation of what’s essentially a gun control task force—a policy team tasked with crafting concrete proposals to reduce gun violence. The group will be headed by Vice President Biden, and its proposals will be due on the President’s desk “no later than January.” Obama emphatically rejected the notion that the team is a “commission;” he insisted that it will not “be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside.” He also pledged to speak of the proposals, whatever they may be, in his State of the Union address next year.
TIME Person of the Year: President Obama
(Photo: TIME)
In addition to President Obama, the short list for Person of the Year included Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!; Mohammed Morsi, president of Egypt; Undocumented Americans; Bill and Hillary Clinton; Malala Yousafzai, the student activist from Pakistan who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple; and the Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.
He won a second term. His signature piece of legislation passed judicial muster. He still has weaknesses (see: drones), but ultimately he’s looking a lot stronger in 2012 than he was in 2011. Seems like an obvious one. Side note: Based on the Flickr iOS app alone — a clear sign that things are turning around at Yahoo — Marissa Mayer would have been an awesome choice.
As a country, we have been through this too many times…we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.President Obama, in a statement on the Sandy Hook shooting. While we don’t mean to be crass at a moment like this, the phrasing of this could suggest an increased focus on gun control within the administration, which would be a major development.
(Source: youtube.com)
We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news I react not as a president but as anybody else would—as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do…This evening, Michelle and I will do what every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter, and we’ll tell them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight, and they need all of us right now. In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans, and I will do everything in my power as President to help.President Obama, in a statement on the shooting at Sandy Creek Elementary School (thanks Matt Keys for grabbing the audio).
UPDATE: Bob Orr reports, based on preliminary info, that guns appear to have been purchased legally and belong to Ryan Lanza
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 14, 2012
President Obama is set to speak on the incident within the hour.
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Her claims regarding Keith Judd? “In her court filing, Taitz claims that Judd would be the Democratic Party nominee if Obama was removed from the ballot and could not be voted on by the Electoral College next week.” *blink*
If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly – to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities.Susan Rice • In her letter to President Obama, acquired by NBC News, explaining why she will no longer stay in the running for Secretary of State. “That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country…Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time,” she continues. Partisan politics suck.
Obviously, with [this] recognition comes responsibilities. To make sure that they organise themselves effectively, that they are representative of all the parties, [and] that they commit themselves to a political transition that respects women’s rights and minority rights.President Obama • Announcing, in a critical geopolitical development today, that the U.S. now recognizes the Syrian rebellion as the “legitimate representative” of the people. This is a move that’s been speculated about for a long while — it also brings into focus an announcement earlier today that a part of the rebellion’s coalition, Jabhat al-Nusra, had been designated a terrorist group by the administration. Obviously, such a designation had to be made in advance of granting this recognition to the greater body of the opposition. source
And today, I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching. The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there where be consequences, and you will be held accountable.President Obama • Speaking forcefully to the Assad government of Syria last night, at the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction symposium (he also lauded outgoing GOP Senator Richard Lugar, with whom he’s worked extensively on nuclear disarmament). The possibility of Syria mobilizing a chemical weapons attack on its people has been a worrisome one for human rights organizations worldwide, further stoked by a recent internet blackout that left Syria functionally opaque for two days. This is one of the most aggressive statements Obama has made on the conflict in Syria — as foreign-policy types like to say, he’s drawn a red line, which may be instructive of the level of involvement he’s comfortable with. source
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