Politico:
Rand Paul says he wants surveillance reform. Instead, he helped sink it.
And now he’s under fire from the civil liberties groups who have been his strongest allies in his war on the NSA’s domestic spying program.
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here. Look, libertarians, Rand is all about what's good for Rand. You might as well learn that now.
Politico:
The White House is in full-out sales pitch mode for President Barack Obama’s announcement Thursday that he will shield about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, circumventing Congress to provide the most sweeping changes to immigration policy in decades.
Obama is meeting with key Democratic lawmakers. Aides are speaking with advocates and lining up surrogates who will help promote the plan. A Facebook video with the president released Wednesday afternoon drew more than 1 million viewers and was shared more than 23,000 times, reaching the feeds of more than 5.5 million people.
The White House even managed to get Univision to delay its live telecast of the Latin Grammy Awards, with its audience of about 10 million viewers, for Obama’s speech at 8 p.m. Eastern time — although it won’t be aired by the four major broadcast networks.
All this for an announcement that’s going to set off a political firestorm.
About time, too. And clearly the story of the day. Sorry, conservatives. No one gives a crap about Jonathan Gruber.
Brian Stelter:
Eight years ago, President George W. Bush delivered a prime time address on immigration, carried by all the big broadcast networks.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama will do the same thing, but three of the broadcasters, ABC, NBC, and CBS have signaled that they won't be carrying it.
CNN will carry the 8 p.m. address, of course, and so will all the other cable news channels. PBS will, as well. And perhaps most importantly for the White House, the dominant Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States, Univision, will be translating it and airing it live.
The varying decisions illustrate just how much has changed in the media industry in the Bush and Obama years.
The White House would like the "big three" networks to carry Obama's speech, of course -- although diminished, they still amass big audiences in prime time.
But administration officials put out feelers this week and determined that the networks would be reluctant to hand over the air time, so the officials decided not to formally request it from ABC, NBC, and CBS...
Some television executives said privately on Wednesday that they perceived Obama's planned address to be more overtly political than Bush's address on immigration in 2006.
Note to television execs: immigration is always political.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Fusion:
President Obama will announce a plan on Thursday evening to use his executive powers to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The announcement will come in a speech at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will last 10 minutes, a White House source told Univision News. The address will air on Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster and a parent company of Fusion.
On Wednesday, immigrant-rights advocates prepared plans to bolster the president’s announcement.
“We hear there will be a prime time Thursday evening announcement (to preview) and full unveiling in Vegas on Friday,” activist Dawn Le wrote in an email to other advocacy groups, which was mistakenly forwarded to reporters by the AFL-CIO. “Can folks begin to work and plan watch parties for Thursday and/or Friday? Unclear whether Thursday night content will be what is “celebratory”, but Friday will be where we need a lot of energy guaranteed. Need to get a FULL list of locations, key spokespeople you want to lift up (please specify English/Spanish capacity) ASAP.”
The president will travel to Las Vegas on Friday, according to media reports, where he is expected to speak further about his plan.
Jonathan Capehart:
Cooler heads or not, the president’s action could very well squelch any movement on any other initiative for the rest of his tenure. And while Latino voters might be grateful in the short term, will they remember Obama’s promise-kept in 2016? Most importantly, will said Hispanic gratitude at the ballot box for Democrats be enough to overcome the expected tidal wave of outrage at the ballot box from Southern white voters? Remember, Obama delayed his executive order this summer at the behest of Senate Democrats, who feared such a move would surely doom their control of the Senate. He did what they wished and they still lost — by a lot.
NY Times:
Millions of undocumented immigrants who are set to be granted a form of legal status by President Obama as early as this week will not receive one key benefit: government subsidies for health care available under the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Obama is preparing to use his executive authority to provide work permits for up to five million people who are in the United States illegally, and to shield them from deportation. But an official familiar with the administration’s deliberations said on Tuesday that such people would not be eligible for subsidized, low-cost plans from the government’s health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president has not announced details of the plan, said the immigrants would most likely be treated the same way that so-called Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children — were under a similar executive action in 2012. The Dreamers did not receive health care benefits.
Mother Jones:
Update: Late Wednesday, Jay Leno said in a brief phone interview that he had called the National Shooting Sports Foundation to cancel his scheduled performance at the SHOT Show. He also said that he'd spoken with Po Murray of the Newtown Action Alliance to let her know. "I understand it's Newtown, and of course I get it," Leno told Mother Jones. "It's just sometimes, mistakes get made."
Gun control advocates aren't laughing about Jay Leno's next move.
On Tuesday, several gun violence-prevention groups called on the comedian to cancel his appearance at January's Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT), an annual event put on by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is based in Newtown, Connecticut. A petition posted by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence accuses Leno of "helping to legitimize a crass commercialism which values profit over human lives" by speaking to this group, which lobbied against the background checks bill in Congress following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The drive is backed by the Campaign to Unload, which pushes for divestment from gun companies, and the Newtown Action Alliance, founded by residents of the Connecticut town who support gun-safety legislation. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which has pushed corporate restaurants and retailers to take a stand against open-carry activists in their stores, has also launched a social media campaign against Leno.
So Leno did the right thing, and social media pressure mattered.