IT SUCKS TO BE OBAMA ON THE LAST DAY OF JUNE...

A few gleanings from today's news articles......... for your reading pleasure

The White House effectively turned down an invitation by Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell for President Barack Obama to visit his members on Capitol Hill on Thursday to discuss raising the debt limit.  White House press secretary Jay Carney, while not directly saying the invitation had been rejected, said Obama did not need to hear Republicans tell him what they would not support.  That, Carney said, was "not a conversation worth having."  But Yesterday, Obama insisted higher taxes must be part of any budget pact and warned of “significant and unpredictable” consequences if Congress doesn’t act soon to raise the debt ceiling.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R, FL) [said in an interview today where he discussed President Obama’s press conference on Wednesday on the debt problems] ….that he will respond to Obama’s recent press conference, where the president reveled in class-warfare bluster.  “Quite frankly, I am both disappointed for our country and shocked at some of the rhetoric,” he says.  “It was rhetoric, I thought, that was more appropriate for some left-wing strong man than for the president of the United States.”

And up the road and across the aisle, Charles Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democratic leader, accused Republicans of seeking to slow the U.S. economy for political gain in the debate over cutting budget deficits.  He insisted Democrats have the “upper hand” in the negotiations.  “I think they are bluffing [when they say they are willing to default rather than raise taxes],” Schumer said. “We [the Democrats] have a good opportunity to prevail on our critical priorities.”

One of the Senate's top Republicans on Thursday fired back at President Obama for questioning his party's work ethic, suggesting that the president should spend less time on the golf course.  "I think the best way to get an appointment with the president is to set up a tee time," Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, told Fox News.

On Wednesday the Obama campaign sent around a slightly panicky email about its quarterly fundraising numbers.  Today, they have sent out another, slightly panickier, email about their quarterly fundraising numbers. The email is titled “Midnight,” just to make it a little bit scary.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has signaled to White House officials that he’s considering leaving the administration after President Barack Obama reaches an agreement with Congress to raise the national debt limit, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped just 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 428,000, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 420,000. The prior week's figure was unrevised at 429,000.  It was the 12th straight week that claims have been above 400,000, a level that is usually associated with a stable labor market. Employment stumbled badly in May, with employers adding just 54,000 jobs—the fewest in eight months.

The unemployment rate remains high, reaching 9.1 percent last month, with Depression-era levels of joblessness affecting the African American community. Worst of all, the public is showing a profound lack of confidence that significant improvement lies ahead. Fewer than one in ten Americans thinks that the jobless rate will get below its pre-recession level of five percent in the next two years, according to the Bloomberg poll.

Three more American soldiers were killed this week, the United States military announced Thursday, bringing the combat-related deaths for United States forces in Iraq to a monthly toll not seen since 2008.

A MSNBC talking head calls you a dick.............. on live TV

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST - GLENN BECK IS MOVING TO HIS OWN NETWORK!!!