The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Barack Obama says since he took office, “there have been no large-scale attacks on the United States” President Barack Obama talked about terrorism and drones in a major speech on May 23, 2013. At one point, Obama said "there have been no large-scale attacks on the United States" since the start of his presidency, adding, "Now, make no mistake, our nation is still threatened by terrorists. From Benghazi to Boston, we have been tragically reminded of that truth. But we have to recognize that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11." We wondered whether he was accurate when he said "there have been ... >> More

WASHINGTON -- Failure is OK, but continuing to work hard is more important, Michelle Obama said Friday. That was the message the first lady delivered to students at an elementary school where the arts are being used to help boost student performance. The school is located in Anacostia, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Mrs. Obama said failure was not an impediment for her and shouldn't be for them. She also encouraged the students to "try new things and not be afraid to fail, because we have all failed." "You're looking at the first ... I have failed at things. Things have been really hard for me at times," Mrs. Obama said at Savoy Elementary School. "But all I had to do was keep going and keep working hard." To further illustrate her point, she pointed to Kerry Washington, star of ABC's "Scandal," as another example. Mrs. Obama said the actress, who was sitting in the audience for the visit, is a big star these days because she chose to keep perfecting her craft instead of becoming discouraged by rejection during her career. "She spent a lot of time practicing and working and trying out for things and having people tell her `no,' `no, thank you,' `you're not good enough, you're not pretty enough,'" the first lady said. "Could you imagine somebody telling Kerry that she wasn't pretty enough, she wasn't tall enough, she was too short? That's all performing is, is rejection." Washington, who is the school's arts ambassador, later said she wasn't sure how that came to be. "It might have something to do with playing Olivia Pope and having a principal Pope," she joked. Olivia Pope is her character on "Scandal" and Patrick Pope is the school's principal. ___ Online: Turnaround Arts: http://turnaroundarts.pcah.gov ___ Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

An outspoken supporter of the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) ban on gay participants has vowed to withdraw his own sons out of the scouting organization. In an editorial for CNN, John Stemberger called the BSA's May 23 announcement that sexual orientation would be eliminated as youth membership criterion would eventually "lead to myriad bad consequences." "First, the new BSA policy is logically incoherent and morally and ethically inconsistent. The BSA had never discriminated against homosexuals," Stemberger, who is an Eagle Scout, writes. "The BSA membership application did not ask about sexual orientation, and there has never been a witch hunt in the BSA to find or remove its gay members." Before referring to the Boy Scouts as "one of the great jewels of American culture," Stemberger continues: "Most important, the new policy robs parents of Boy Scouts, like me, of the sole authority to raise issues of sex and sexuality with their kids. Parents should have the exclusive right to raise issues about sex and sexuality with their children in their own time and in their own way, in the privacy of their homes, not brought up by other older boys around a campfire. Allowing open homosexuality injects a sensitive and highly charged political issue into the heart of the BSA, against the wishes of the vast majority of parents." You can read the rest of the editorial here. Stemberger is also president of On My Honor, which is described as "a coalition of concerned parents, Scout Leaders, Scouting donors, Eagle Scouts and others" who are "united" in opposing "open homosexuality" in the Boy Scouts. Likely to defend Stemberger's statements is the National Organization of Marriage's (NOM) Brian Brown, who said the Boy Scouts' decision to admit openly gay Scouts would end up "sexualizing the organization." "All of this is happening not because of a true grassroots demand of gay youth to be part of the organization but by an orchestrated political effort by gay activists who want to punish any group or organization that does not embrace homosexuality," Brown wrote in a statement. "It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."

Amid growing speculation that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is testing GOP presidential waters in Iowa and elsewhere, progressive activists warned Thursday at a rally in West Des Moines that a Walker presidency would be “terrifying" and disastrous to middle class families.

Klein & Soltas, Washington PostObamacare got some very good news on Thursday.In 2009, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that a medium-level "silver" plan "” which covers 70 percent of a beneficiary's expected health costs "” on the California health exchange would cost $5,200 annually. More recently, a report from the consulting firm Milliman predicted it would carry a $450 monthly premium. Yesterday, we got the real numbers. And they're lower than anyone thought.

Ross Kaminsky, TASOnly in the United States Congress could a legislative provision entitled “Market-Based H-1B Visa Limits” actually mean that “the number of visas calculated under subparagraph (A) for any fiscal year shall not be less than 110,000 or more than 180,000.”If you read even a few pages of the so-called Gang of Eight immigration bill trudging its way through Congress—a bill that contains many provisions as horrendous as that one—you can’t help but think of Otto von Bismarck’s famous sausage-making analogy and wonder...

Eugene Robinson, Washington PostWASHINGTON -- President Obama should spend his remaining years in office making the United States part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem. If Congress sticks to its policy of obstruction and willful ignorance, Obama should use his executive powers to the fullest extent. We are out of time.With each breath, every person alive today experiences something unique in human history: an atmosphere containing more than 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide. This makes us special, I suppose, but not in a good way.The truth is that 400 is just one of those round-number...

Paul Krugman, New York TimesThese days we are, in economic terms, all Japanese "” which is why the ongoing economic experiment in the country that started it all is so important, not just for Japan, but for the world.In a sense, the really remarkable thing about "Abenomics" "” the sharp turn toward monetary and fiscal stimulus adopted by the government of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe "” is that nobody else in the advanced world is trying anything similar.

Peter Suderman, ReasonAt a congressional hearing yesterday with Gary Cohen, the Health and Human Services official charged with managing the implementation of Obamacare, Republican legislators charged that Cohen’s agency may be improperly allowing some states to run “assister” programs that pay people to help individuals sign up for the health law’s coverage options. Republicans charged that HHS may not have the statutory authority to fund those programs in states running their own exchanges. That includes states like California, which plans to use a significant part of the...

Charlie Cook, National JrnlHenny Youngman, the late borscht belt comedian, told hundreds of politically incorrect jokes. One of them was his response when asked, "How's your wife?" "Compared to what?" he'd say.Many women find the joke tasteless, but it can be a useful framework for thinking about national politics. Americans may not be ecstatic about President Obama and his policies, but compared with the Republicans, they think Obama doesn't look so bad. This might partly explain why, even with all of the controversies engulfing the Obama administration these days,...

David Zurawik, Balt SunThe Obama White House has been trying to de-legitimize Fox News almost from the day it took office. Remember the media blitz of 2009 launched by then White House Communications Director Anita Dunn?

The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False | Mitch McConnell says HHS put a gag order on insurers about impact of Obamacare Controversy is swirling around the White House, with inquiries into the consulate attack in Benghazi, the IRS' targeting of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s probe of journalists’ phone records. Some Republicans say these issues are emblematic of the how the Obama White House operates. "There is a culture of intimidation throughout the administration. The IRS is just the most recent example," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Meet the Press on May 19, 2013. "... Over at HHS back during the Obamacare debate, Secretary (Kathleen) Sebelius sent out a directive to help insurance companies telling them ... >> More

Bevan & Stone, RCP Morning Commute

Support for expanding background checks to more gun purchases remains high, according to polls released Thursday. But the surveys provide mixed evidence on how the Senate's defeat of the Manchin-Toomey proposal might affect future electoral support for opponents of greater background checks. According to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday and conducted earlier in May, 81 percent of Americans said they continue to back making gun show and private firearms sales subject to background checks, while only 17 percent said they were opposed. A HuffPost/YouGov poll also conducted in early May showed respondents in favor of expanding background checks by a 74 percent to 16 percent margin. Both the Pew survey and a new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that support for the defeated Manchin-Toomey measure, which would have expanded background checks to all gun show and online purchases, is also widespread. In the Pew survey, 73 percent said the Manchin-Toomey proposal should be passed if reintroduced, while 67 percent of respondents to the Post/ABC poll said the Senate did the wrong thing in rejecting the legislation. Americans were more likely to tell Pew that they supported expanding background checks generally than that they wanted Congress to pass the Manchin-Toomey measure. Much that drop-off occurred among Republicans, 81 percent of whom said they favor greater checks but only 57 percent of whom said they want the specific proposal to pass. The Pew survey found a close divide between the 50 percent who said it's more important to "control gun ownership" and the 48 percent who said it's more important to "protect the rights of Americans to own guns." But when asked whether they would vote for a candidate who disagreed with them on gun policy even if they agreed on other issues, those emphasizing gun rights were more likely to say no (41 percent) than those emphasizing gun control (31 percent). The former were also more likely to say they have donated money to an organization taking a position on gun policy, by 12 percent to 3 percent. The two groups were about equally likely to say they have contacted an elected official to express an opinion on gun policy. In other words, the Pew poll confirms the conventional wisdom of an enthusiasm gap in favor of opponents of gun control. But the Post/ABC poll suggests that the enthusiasm edge goes to gun control supporters on the specific issue of background checks. Among Post/ABC survey respondents who said the Senate did the right thing in defeating background checks legislation, 53 percent said they could still support a candidate who voted for greater background checks if they agreed with that candidate on other issues. But among those who said the Senate did the wrong thing, 55 percent said they could not support an otherwise acceptable candidate who opposed the Manchin-Toomey legislation. Scott Clement and Sean Sullivan of The Washington Post note that among all registered voters in the survey, 35 percent said they would rule out a candidate who opposed expanding background checks and only 14 percent said they would rule out one who supported doing so. Clement and Sullivan also wrote that there was little difference between those numbers nationally and in states where senators earned high ratings from the National Rifle Association. All of this suggests that background checks are an exception to how Americans usually think about gun control. On the other hand, the HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted earlier in May found evidence that opponents were the ones paying closest attention to legislation on the issue. Fifty-five percent of background check opponents, but only 40 percent of proponents, said they had "heard a lot" about the Senate's defeat of the measure. That was the case despite apparently high enthusiasm among those in favor of the measure, with 48 percent of respondents (and an equal percentage of registered voters) saying it was "very important" that the Senate expand background checks and another 16 percent saying it was "somewhat important." The Post/ABC and HuffPost/YouGov polls also found little evidence that the Senate legislation's defeat at the hands of mostly Republican senators (with the help of a few Democrats) has hurt Republicans on the issue of gun control overall. In the Post/ABC poll, when asked whom they trust more on handling gun control, 42 percent of respondents said President Barack Obama and 41 percent said Republicans -- the same percentages found by a Post/ABC poll conducted before the background checks measure was defeated. That was true even though the poll found that, among those who said the Senate did the wrong thing in defeating the background checks legislation, 64 percent blamed Republicans for the defeat and only 17 percent blamed Obama. The HuffPost/YouGov poll similarly found that Americans were equally likely to say they trust Republicans and Democrats on the issue. Those who oppose expanding background checks trusted Republicans more, by 87 percent to 6 percent, while those in favor of greater checks were more divided, with 49 percent trusting Democrats more and 24 percent trusting Republicans more. In fact, the HuffPost/YouGov poll provides some evidence that the Manchin-Toomey measure's defeat may have hurt both Republicans and Democrats. Overall, 36 percent said the defeat left them with a less favorable opinion of the Republican Party, and just 18 percent said it gave them a more favorable opinion. But 26 percent said the defeat gave them a less favorable view of the Democratic Party, and only 11 percent said it gave them a more favorable view. Even Democrats and those who said they favor background checks were more likely to say their opinion of the Democratic Party had fallen than risen, perhaps reflecting the high profile of the four Democrats who opposed the background checks measure. If the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey legislation has simply led to more frustration with both parties, neither may benefit despite Americans' strong feelings in favor of the measure. The Pew Research Center poll was conducted May 1-5 among 1,504 randomly selected U.S. adults, and the Washington Post/ABC News poll was conducted May 16-19 among 1,001 randomly selected adults. Both surveys used live telephone interviewers calling landlines and cellphones. The Huffpost/YouGov poll was conducted May 3-4 among 1,000 adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.

After a vicious tornado ripped through her Moore, Okla. home on Tuesday, Rebecca Vitsmun was lucky to be alive. After graciously handling an awkward moment while discussing the aftermath on national television, more good fortune is headed her way. In a Tuesday interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Vitsmun was asked if she was thanking "the Lord" for deciding to escape home with her 19-month-old son. She hesitated for a moment, before telling Blitzer that she was actually an atheist. "You are. All right. But you made the right call," Blitzer said, prompting Vitsmun to add: "We are here, and I don't blame anyone for thanking the Lord." An Indiegogo community called Atheists Unite has responded resoundingly in support of Vitsmun's poise. Over just a few hours from late Thursday into early Friday, 250-plus funders had raised more than $7,000 for her. According to the page, a fundraising goal of $50,000 in assistance has been set. "It's important that our community shows that we have your back when you come out publicly as an atheist," the campaign page wrote. "Let's show the world that you dont need to believe in a god to have human compassion nor does all charity fall under the banner of religion. Let's get this courageous woman and her family back in their own home." As of late Thursday, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office listed the EF-5 tornado death toll at 24 people, including ten children. According to the Associated Press, damage estimates stood at $1.5 billion to $2 billion, with as many as 13,000 homes affected by the natural disaster.

A little more than two weeks after introducing her first bill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is already seeing a wave of strong support. Back on May 8, Warren announced her plans to set student loan interest rates at the same level big banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Come July 1, some student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, prompting Warren to push for legislation that reduces the level to 0.75 percent. By Thursday, Warren's website showcased that more than two dozen organizations have endorsed the measure. Among the notable supporters were major universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and groups like American Federation of Teachers. Coupled with the support from outside sources is a strong core of political colleagues behind the bill. Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) have joined on as co-sponsors, and Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) has introduced a corresponding House version of the bill. In a Tuesday op-ed for the Boston Globe entitled "Banking on our students," Warren and Tierney stressed the other end of the student loan predicament: government profits. Back in mid-May, figures from the Congressional Budget Office showed that the Department Of Education is set to reap a record $51 billion profit from student loan borrowers. From the Globe: This is not fair. And it’s not necessary, either. The federal government makes 36 cents on every dollar it lends to students. Just last week, the Congressional Budget Office announced that the government will make $51 billion on the student loans it issued this year — more than the annual profit of any Fortune 500 company, and about five times Google’s yearly earnings. We should not be profiting from students who are drowning in debt while we are giving great deals to big banks.

By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - New U.S. guidelines for conducting armed drone operations overseas set a higher bar for attacking non-Americans and could reduce controversial "signature strikes" targeted at suspicious groups rather than individuals. But the drone guidelines announced by President Barack Obama on Thursday still include vague language and loopholes that officials could use to conduct more expansive operations. The new rules, part of Obama's attempts to pull back from what he called "perpetual war-footing" against terrorism, came in a "Presidential Policy Guidance" he signed this week. Obama "has clearly raised the bar significantly for the use of drone strikes with the very specific and restrictive criteria," said John Bellinger, former State Department legal adviser in President George W. Bush's administration. "The standard for targeting is now the same for Americans and non-Americans - it must be a continuing and imminent threat of violence to Americans. And there must be a near certainty that no non-combatants will be killed," he said. "Signature" drone strikes, in which the United States targets suspicious-looking groups of people without knowing their specific identities were first authorized by Bush in 2008, causing a sharp jump in the number of drone attacks. During his first term in office, Obama stepped up the practice. People not confirmed as terrorist targets of the United States are attacked because they bear the "signature" of militant activity. Such strikes have provoked anti-American unrest in countries like Pakistan because of civilian deaths. Under Obama's new guidelines, signature attacks are expected to decline, especially after U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, when the need for drone strikes to protect U.S. ground forces will be gone. The reason for signature strikes is often to help a country like Yemen fight well-organized groups of militants, and targets are frequently brought to the attention of the United States by the Yemeni government, said Kenneth Anderson, a law professor at American University. "That's the biggest thing that it appears that they have given up, that we won't be striking on behalf of allies fighting their own wars," he said. The New America Foundation think tank, which collects data on drone strikes, said 355 drone attacks in Pakistan had killed between 2,010 and 3,336 people, among whom 258 to 307 were civilians. In Yemen, 69 drone strikes have killed between 586 and 819 people, of whom 548 to 748 were militants. VAGUE WORDING Faced with criticism about civilian casualties, Obama said the United States would only use those drone strikes when a threat was "continuing and imminent," a nuanced change from the previous policy of launching strikes against a significant threat. Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst, said that was too vague. "It still leaves questions and doubts. One piece of phraseology that should raise questions is the somewhat oxymoronic 'continuing, imminent threat.' If a threat is continuing, how can it be imminent, except maybe at one particular time before it is finally executed? " he said. The new Obama drone policy also states a preference for having future strikes conducted by the military. Until now, the CIA had been the main agency conducting drone strikes outside war zones in places like Pakistan. The administration made public few details about how the shift in control of drone operations would be carried out. But government sources told Reuters earlier this week that shifting operations to the Pentagon would be done in stages and that the CIA would keep conducting strikes in Pakistan for the time being. One government source said that for the moment, the decision as to which agency conducts a drone attack would likely be determined on a case-by-case basis rather than a hard rule based on geography. Another government source said the process outlined by Obama would involve a "lot more people" in deciding who gets killed, where, when and how, leading to a cumbersome and time-consuming process. (Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Peter Cooney)

WASHINGTON -- Schools in Newtown, Conn., will receive $1.3 million in federal aid to recover after the shootings that left 26 students and educators dead last year. Education Secretary Arne Duncan planned to announce the School Emergency Response to Violence grant during a visit to the state on Friday. The grant to Newtown schools was designed to offset costs the district incurred after the December 2012 shooting as well as provide counseling and training for school officials. "This tragedy has forever changed the entire Newtown community and our country," Duncan said in remarks prepared for delivery during a noon stop at Hartford's Classical Magnet School with Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. "While we continue efforts to enact President Obama's comprehensive approach to make our schools and communities safer, we want to do whatever we can to support ongoing recovery efforts and ensure this community has the resources it needs to meet the needs of its teachers, students and families," Duncan said. Duncan, who was part of Vice President Joe Biden's task force to respond to the shootings in Newtown, also planned to address school safety. Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother at their Newtown home before going to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty of the victims were children. Students have been moved to a remodeled school renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School in the neighboring town of Monroe. In the wake of the shooting, Congress attempted to tighten gun laws only to be thwarted by the National Rifle Association. A bipartisan bill that would have required background checks fell short, although its Democratic sponsor, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has said he would try again to pass it. Since 2001, the Education Department has given more than $33.5 million to 106 schools recovering from violence, weather or other disruptive incidents. ___ Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

Nearly seven months after Hurricane Sandy ravaged New Jersey's shoreline, President Barack Obama and Gov. Chris Christie (R) are set to tour the area together again. The Washington Post reports that a White House official said the two will meet next Tuesday, right after the Memorial Day summer tourism season begins. Obama plans to speak about helping spur economic circumstances for businesses and families affected by the storm, CNN added. Back when Sandy hit, Christie made headlines for his vocal support of Obama's efforts after the storm. He credited the president and his staff for working "tremendously hard" to help New Jersey and other areas. The timing of those comments was a week before the presidential election. When asked by Fox News on Oct. 30 whether GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was visiting the state, Christie dismissed the race altogether. "I have a job to do," Christie said. "If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me." Six months after the storm first hit, Christie reflected back on Obama's effort during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." He again praised the president for what he did to help the recovery, but added how far apart they are on political issues. “Listen, the president has kept every promise that he made,” Christie said. “What I was saying at the time was, I was asked how the president was doing, I said, he’s doing a good job, he’s kept his word. And so everybody knows that I have about 95 percent level disagreement with Barack Obama on issues of principle and philosophy. But the fact is we have a job to do. And what people expect from people they elect is to do their job.” Christie was under fire earlier this month for choosing to appear with his family in commercials to promote tourism at the Jersey Shore. The money for these ads was funded by a $60 billion aid package passed by Congress for Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. "The Jersey Shore is open. The word is spreading. Because we're stronger than the storm. You bet we are," the Christies say.

Alex Roarty, National JournalSince last year's election, the Republican Party's political leaders offered a blueprint of how they can rebuild the party after disappointing across-the-board 2012 losses, proposing a retooled platform that would better appeal to the middle class and be more welcoming to minorities.But the controversies besieging the White House present an alternative strategy—simply running against the Democratic problems at the expense of dealing with the long-term challenges the party faces. Republican officials are now sending strong signals they're planning to highlight the...

Michelle Malkin, TownhallGird your loins, America. President Obama intends to empty out Guantanamo Bay and send scores of suspected Muslim terror operatives back to their jihadist-coddling native countries. Goaded by anti-war activists and soft-on-terror attorneys (including those from Attorney General Eric Holder's former private law firm), Obama announced Thursday that he'll lift a ban on sending up to 90 Yemeni detainees home and will initiate other stalled transfers out of the compound.This radical appeasement of Obama's left flank is a surefire recipe for more Benghazis, more U.S.S. Coles and more...

Douglas Murray, WSJHow many ignored warnings does it take? That is one question that should hang over Britain after the horror of the daytime murder of a British soldier on the streets of south London. On Wednesday afternoon, Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in Woolwich by two men wielding large knives and shouting "Allahu akbar"—God is great.Islamists have been saying for years they would do this. They have planned to do it. And now they have done it.