January 20, 2013 ( WASHINGTON) — Vice President Joe Biden has been sworn in to a second term.
The 70-year-old Biden took the oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotamayor during a private ceremony Sunday at the U.S. Naval Observatory, the vice president’s residence.
Biden and President Barack Obama will take the oath of office again on Monday during a public ceremony at the Capitol.
h/t Inquirer News
They went to a gun show to “appreciate” their guns, and got shot by what was apparently a “bad guy with a gun” if we are to believe Wayne LaPierre‘s bad guy good guy theory. According to local news in North Carolina, a 12-gauge shotgun discharged while its owner, 36-year-old Gary Lynn Wilson, of Wilmington, unzipped its case for a law enforcement officer to check it at a security entrance.
Three people were injured when the gun went off, officials said, including a retired Wake County Sherriff’s deputy working the show.
Fifty-year-old Linwood Hester, of Durham, and 54-year-old Janet Hoover, of Benson, were transported to WakeMed Hospital. Officials said they are both in good condition and will be released Saturday.
Deputy Jake Alderman, 54, of Wake Forest, was treated at WakeMed North Healthplex and has been released.
The gunshot also shattered the window in the main hallway leading into to big room, witnesses said.
The Dixie Gun and Knife Show was shut down after the incident. The event is typically scheduled at the fairgrounds about four times a year.
Video:
The President used his weekly address to double down on some of the measures he spoke about on Tuesday. Proposals that “grew out of meetings Vice President Biden and his task force held over the last month with more than 200 different groups – from parents and teachers; to law enforcement and sportsmen; to religious leaders and mental health professionals.”
He spoke about the limited steps he can do on his own and called on Congress to do their part to help cut down on gun violence.
My administration is taking a series of actions right away – from strengthening our background check system, to helping schools hire more resource officers if they want them, to directing the Centers for Disease Control to study the best ways to reduce gun violence.
But the truth is, making a real and lasting difference also requires Congress to act – and act soon
And he again called on the American people to get involved, making sure that their member of Congress is in favor of sensible laws to curb gun violence.
They get a “C” for effort, and that’s because they actually had music playing in the background.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – House Republicans appeared to be coming to grips with a stark realization as they returned to Washington from a three-day retreat here — they have a majority in name only.
The party begins the 113th Congress with reduced numbers and confronting a popular president and an increased Democratic majority in the Senate.
Preparing for a cascade of fiscal battles and a presidential push on guns and immigration, the House GOP is adopting a minority posture, hoping to achieve modest goals incrementally while serving as a check on Obama’s ambitious second-term agenda.
Republicans “have to recognize the realities of the divided government that we have,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the party’s budget chief and 2012 vice presidential nominee.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his aides have taken to referring to the “Democrat majority in Washington” in statements in recent weeks.
The stance is a significant shift from the party’s mantra in the immediate aftermath of the November election, when Boehner and other leaders claimed one half of a dual mandate from voters who had reelected both Obama and the House Republican majority.
It also represents a resetting of expectations for Republican lawmakers and voters alike.
h/t The Hill
When President Obama won his first term in 2008, millions showed up to witness history in the making. Now, with his second term inauguration on January 20th, the expectation is that the crowds will be a lot less than the 2008 figures.
We are here to help.
President Obama just released the Official Inauguration Playlist on Spotify. So to bring you as close to the events as we possibly can, here is the playlist. And if you have a Spotify account, you can even listen to the Official music below.
WASHINGTON — Backing down from their hard-line stance, House Republicans said Friday that they would agree to lift the federal government’s statutory borrowing limit for three months, with a requirement that both chambers of Congress pass a budget in that time to clear the way for negotiations on long-term deficit reduction.
The new proposal, which came out of closed-door party negotiations at a retreat in Williamsburg, Va., seemed to significantly reduce the threat of a default by the federal government in coming weeks. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said he was encouraged by the offer; Senate Democrats, while bristling at the demand for a budget, were also reassured and viewed it as a de-escalation of the debt fight.
The change in tack represented a retreat for House Republicans, who were increasingly isolated in their refusal to lift the debt ceiling. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio had previously said he would raise it only if it were paired with immediate spending cuts of equivalent value. The new strategy is designed to start a more orderly negotiation with President Obama and Senate Democrats on ways to shrink the trillion-dollar deficit.
TMZ Reports;
The controversial “Django Unchained” action figures have officially been DISCONTINUED … after several African American groups called for a boycott of the dolls … TMZ has learned.
Sources connected to the toy production tell us … shortly after advocacy groups like Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and Project Islamic Hope spoke out against the figurines … the Weinstein Company (which produced the film) reached out to the toy company and told them to put the kibosh on the toy line ASAP.
We’re told the toy company agreed, insisting they never intended to offend anyone … and halted production immediately.
Sources tell us … the toymakers only released somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 dolls before shutting down production.
I tuned in last night like many others, to see if I could forgive a man who used to command much of my respect. Lance Armstrong had a great chance last night to own it all. Oprah gave him the platform to take the bull by the horns and fess up to everything he was guilty of. That’s what I expected of him last night and I think that’s what Oprah expected. Sadly, Armstrong let us all down.
He admitted to using banned substances for every single Tour De France victory and for the first 15 minutes of the interview it seemed like this was going well. Then Armstrong took a weird turn, telling Oprah he never pressured a single teammate to do the things he was doing because he “never outright told them to use PEDs.” Oprah tried to make a point that Armstrong was the leader of his team and since he was so open about his steroid use, when he told a teammate that he wanted them to step up and do better, this pressure to take PEDs was implied. Oprah’s point was met by an argument over semantics. Armstrong conceded that he was supposed to lead by example but then pushed the fact that he never said the words “do steroids” so he was not guilty of pressuring anyone.
That was not the only time Armstrong claimed innocence based on semantics. Oprah asked him while he was doping, if he realized he was cheating. He answered with a clear and firm “no.” Oprah was blown away so she pushed the topic. “How could you not realize you we’re cheating?” Oprah asked. Armstrong then explained that he had looked up the definition of cheating and that it was defined as gaining an unfair advantage over an opponent or foe. He said that he never did that. Armstrong’s argument is that everyone else was on performance enhancing drugs so he never gained an unfair advantage.
Lance Armstrong struck me as a cheating spouse who was only owning up to what they were caught doing instead of owning the whole situation. I didn’t see his confession as genuine. Maybe it was just a sad attempt to stay relevant but he has attacked so many people for accusing him of things he really did that if he is not going to own everything and apologize to every person he sued, this whole interview is moot.
The topic of his ex teammate’s wife came up. Betsy Andreu had told people that she heard Armstrong tell a doctor that he had done a whole list of banned substances. Armstrong not only sued her for this but he called her a “crazy whore.” Andreu was under the impression Armstrong called her a “crazy fat whore.” Armstrong made a point of saying that he did call her a crazy whore but that he never called her fat. So I guess that makes it all better.
Armstrong didn’t lose all my respect by doing all the things he did. He lost my respect last night when he somehow confessed but still took almost no responsibility for what he did. He claimed it was all on him but everything he said last night leads me to believe that he still doesn’t see anything wrong with what he did.
Before I end this post, I’ll leave you with this final point. Mark McGwire used steroids to prolong a career of high production. A career where his home run and RBI totals were always high as long as he was healthy. Roger Clemens is without a doubt, one of the best pitchers to ever grace the mound. He used steroids when he saw his career starting to decline. He used them to keep an already very successful career going. Lance Armstrong would have been a nobody if he didn’t take PED’s. That’s the difference between him and every other great athlete that cheated. He built his career on lies.
