Obama's Host Governer's Dinner

The Obama’s hosted the Governor’s Dinner at the White House last night and were serenaded by Earth, Wind & Fire in the process.

Peep the terminator chillin' with Michelle Obama.

More pics below:

NBA Legends Talk About Barack Obama's Basketball Game & His Swagger!

CNN reports "CNN's John King sat down with Bill Russell, Earvin "Magic" Johnson and others to analyze the president's basketball game."

Obama EBONY Cover Largest Selling in Magazine History

EBONY magazine announced today that its January 2009 issue, featuring President Barack Obama, reached the highest sales in the magazine’s 67-year history. With newsstand sales topping 405,000 — more than double an average month — the issue was in high demand at retailers across the country and timed just after his election. This issue featured President Obama’s first and exclusive print interview and photo shoot after his Nov. 4 victory. The exclusive interview served as the centerpiece of the special collector’s edition, which chronicled the rise of Barack Obama to the most powerful position in the
world.

The commemorative issue, now available online, also offered readers never-before-seen photos, insightful commentaries from all age groups and President Obama, in his own words. And subscribers received the special edition with a first-ever gold EBONY logo.

“The magnitude of President Obama’s historic victory demanded that EBONY magazine pay tribute to such an achievement with a commemorative issue. Our mission for over six decades has been to tell our stories like no one else can,” said Linda Johnson Rice, chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., based in Chicago.

For those readers and President Obama fans who were unable to pick up a copy while on newsstands, the issue and special posters of the cover are available here.

Many Women Have Wet Dreams of Barack Obama

Here's an Excerpt:

Many women — not too surprisingly — were dreaming about sex with the president. In these dreams, the women replaced Michelle with greater or lesser guilt …

There was some daydreaming too, much of it a collective fantasy about the still-hot Obama marriage. “Barack and Michelle Obama look like they have sex. They look like they like having sex,” a Los Angeles woman wrote to me, summing up the comments of many. “Often. With each other. These days when the sexless marriage is such a big celebrity in America (and when first couples are icons of rigid propriety), that’s one interesting mental drama.”

I guess people want change in more than just the economy.

AP: alleges copyright infringement of Obama image

NEW YORK – On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.

Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

"The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission," the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement.

"AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution."

The Obama's Read to Children & The Books Aren't Upside Down

The Obamas were at the Capital City Public Charter School in northwest Washington Tuesday. The president told a group of gleeful second-graders: “We were just tired of being in the White House.” A moment earlier the president shook each child’s hand.

President Obama's Superbowl Pick

Enjoy the game...

Michelle Obama Spotted In D.C. Wearing Maternity Clothes?

There's been no conformation on if the First Lady is in fact pregnant but we'll keep you posted.

01/24/09: President Obama's Weekly Address

President Obama discusses the good and bad news in the current economic climate.

First African American To Lead Republican Party

Obama '12! We might as well start now. Although, this is still a good look.

President Obama's brother ARRESTED on Marijuana Charge

Here’s how the Associated Press is reporting it:

Kenyan police say the half brother of President Barack Obama has been arrested for possession of marijuana.

Area police chief Joshua Omokulongolo said George Obama was picked up Saturday and was being held at the Huruma police post in the capital. Omokulongolo said officers found one joint of marijuana on him.

George Obama and the president had the same father but barely know each other.

Michelle Obama is PREGNANT???

London: US First Lady Michelle Obama is believed to be pregnant and expecting her third child, a media report in Britain said on Friday.

America is buzzing with hope that the 45-year-old wife of that country's first Black President Barack Obama will soon give birth to a "White House baby", barely two weeks after his official inauguration, the 'Daily Star' reported.

Michelle and her 47-year-old husband already have two daughters, Malia (10), and Sasha (7).

Internet bloggers and journalists have in fact started the speculation as long ago as November.

And, now Los Angeles' celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton, has written: "This is completely unconfirmed and at this point just a 'rumour' but... we're hearing the talk in (Washington) DC is that Michelle Obama is pregnant. Could this be true????? It'd be happy news! Hopefully it's a boy!"

Though both Michelle and Barack have clearly stated in the past that they intended to have no more children, the White House has done nothing to quell the gossip, it said.

An insider was quoted as saying: "Anything can be done to hide these sorts of rumours, and Barack and Michelle would not have wanted anything to detract from the importance of the inauguration day.

"Their advisers will have been kept up to speed and it is very possible that there may be some announcement in the very near future."

In fact, British media have already nicknamed Michelle as "America's Lady Diana".

"Not since Princess of Wales has there been such a glamorous role model at the apex of society. The First Lady has excited the fashion world, but like Diana she would rather champion the less fortunate than be a clotheshorse," another newspaper had said just days back.

Jesse Jackson- Letter to Barack Obama!

The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., is one of the only other
African-American men to be seriously considered for the Democratic
nomination as president. Rev. Jackson's two presidential campaigns hit a milestone in U.S. politics: in 1984, his campaign registered over 1 million new voters, won 3.5 million votes and aided the Democrats in regaining control of the Senate in 1986. In 1988, his campaign registered over 2 million new voters and won 7 million votes.

A civil rights leader and founder of the RainbowPUSH Coalition, Inc., Jackson sat down to write an open letter to President Barack Obama. With the passion Jackson is known for, he challenges the nation's first Black President to carefully examine important policies including those relating to the
economy, education and Voting Rights Act.



Dear Mr. President:

What a joy and relief it is to be able to salute you as President Obama. Congratulations on a magnificently run campaign. Your discipline, vision, strength and courage will take America and the world a long way. Now that we have made it through the courtship of the primary season, the engagement party in Grant Park on November 4th, and the wedding on January 20th, we're entering into marriage—the final stage, one that is full of challenges.

It's high noon in our politics, when hope abounds. But it is midnight in our economics. But we have hope that the darkness will lead to a new light that will shine even brighter. We are in a time of the worst economic crisis of the last half century, and amid expanding wars and conflicts in Iraq, the Middle East and Africa. The two great themes of ending poverty at home and unnecessary wars abroad must dominate our priorities.

We need an economic stimulus. We also need equal protection under the law, which we've never had. Those who have been dealt the most inequality deserve targeted stimulation. Our character is measured, as you mentioned in your Inauguration speech, by how we treat the least of these. The least of these are gripped in poverty, high infant mortality, less access to capital, first-class jails and second-class schools, the highest victims of home foreclosures. They need targeted job creation and job training to offset targeted discrimination and denial leading to structural inequality. They need to be able to restructure and modify their loans, real foreclosure relief to save their homes.

Mr. President, I applaud your recent proposals to recommit our nation to education and invest in our most valuable asset, our youth. As you do, I'd like you to consider the RainbowPush Education Stimulus Plan, a simple yet sweeping plan to help families finance college costs that are steadily putting higher education out of the reach of most Americans. I propose that students holding and applying for college loans should be offered interest rates that do not exceed 1 percent—the same favorable terms that are being offered to large banks by the federal government. It's simply a matter of fairness.

Currently, students are generally forced to borrow loans with interest rates that range from 4 to 8 percent. Since that's inadequate to pay the costs of tuition and housing, most of them borrow from the commercial banks with 12 to 14 percent interest rates. Yet, these are the same banks that can borrow from the federal government at 1 percent interest; it's like scalping students. Many students must also finance their education with credit cards that carry interest rates of 20 percent or higher. As you know from your personal experience, graduating students will be saddled with debt for decades to come.

It gets worse when the students who get the loan cannot start payments within six months and are then penalized. As jobs are leaving, chances are they cannot start working in six months and need a longer grace period. Furthermore, the schools that lend them the money are penalized if students default on their loans; this pattern must end.

Through this 1 percent student loan program, along with the expansion of the Pell Grant program, which should correspond with the cost of the average college education, these programs will go a long way in developing the next generation of intellectual talent and leaders of our nation. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to pass up. We must go another way and seek the change that you eloquently talked about and promised.

Section Five Voting Rights Act, the key to political enfranchisement for all Americans, is now in peril as the Supreme Court reviews its validity. We must fight for the Voting Rights Act and prevail. Lyndon Johnson was right in his vision of a Great Society and the War on Poverty. We must build up on that great democratic tradition and carry it forward today.

Lifting the boats at the bottom is our moral challenge. Our foreign policy must place a priority on the escalating Middle East crisis which affects the whole region. One thousand lives were lost in the Gaza crisis while 3,000 died from cholera in Zimbabwe. Children in Haiti—100 miles off our shores—are eating mud pies as a staple. We must have one set of rules and standards and not lure Cubans to come to U.S. as refugees, and then deport or jail Haitians.

Twisting words sometimes has deadly consequences. What is an economic political refuge? Well, they are all human beings fleeing for their lives.
We're anxious to work with you, Mr. President. To follow through on Dr. King's last message, brought forward on his last birthday celebration, let us gather the moral courage to end poverty at home and end unnecessary wars abroad. I'm convinced that, yes, we can. We will. We must.

Keep hope alive.

Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
President and Founder
RainbowPUSH Coalition, Inc.

Beyonce vs The First Lady?!

In this week's National Enquirer, there's a report claiming that Michelle Obama had to set Beyonce straight. Here's an excerpt:

"Beyonce has spent months gushing over President Obama, and when she was in the same room with him, she couldn't tear her eyes away from him," revealed the source."Before things got out of hand, Michelle got word to Beyonce to tone things down or risk being banned from the White House in the future."Michelle was also appauled when she found out that Beyonce had pulled strings to get the Secret Service to chauffer her and her husband Jay Z to their car after rehearsals.

More:
"[Michelle] has a sore spot for Beyonce ever since a March 2007 fundraiser in New York Ciy when her husband was all googly-eyed over Beyonce and asked for her autograph."And yet

And more...
"On President Obama's big night, Michelle was cordial to Beyonce, but gave her the cold shoulder at the inauguration festivities. When Beyonce went to hug her, Michelle gave a forced smile and clutched her hand

LL Cool J Has Advice For Obama

It seems as though everyone lacking actual political experience wants to help out President Obama. LL Cool J says:

“The next chapter of your life has begun,” Cool J wrote. “The toughest decisions you will ever have to make lie in front of you. Decisions that will require you to choose between integrity and necessity enact the promises made to millions of people and recognize a change in perspective that will sometimes make those promises impossible to keep. Only you will be able to make those choices.”

Man Gets Suspended From His Job For Flirting with Michelle Obama!!!

Here’s how the Cleveland Plain-Dealer is reporting it:

Drum Major John Coleman offered a quick nod, a fleeting wave and what looked like a wink -- all while keeping stride -- as he marched the Cleveland Firefighter's Memorial Pipes & Drums past President Barack Obama last week.

Some might call it a heartwarming moment of patriotism during the inaugural parade.

The band's leader calls it a violation of the rules, captured by CNN. Coleman has been suspended as drum major for six months.

"We had gone over and over time and again with everyone in the band that this was a military parade. Protocol and proper decorum had to be followed at all times," said bandleader Pipe Major Mike Engle. "Unfortunately, John chose to ignore that."

Firefighter Waves To President Barack Obama And Gets Suspended

CLEVELAND, OH -- A local firefighter says he has accepted his six-month suspension from his role in the Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes and Drum Corp for giving President Barack Obama a nod and wave during last week's inaugural parade in Washington, D.C.

Drum Major and Cleveland Heights fire inspector John Coleman spoke exclusively to NewsChannel5's Duane Pohlman about his violation.

Coleman has been with the pipes and drums for 17 years and said he doesn't want to bring negativity or shame to the band.

"We returned from Washington and in the parking lot in the bus, I was told I was receiving a six month suspension for conduct unbecoming the band," Coleman said.

He said there was a lot of hard work by the band in Washington and it was a great moment.

"I just was told this was a military parade and I was not to salute the president, which I did not and I happened to glance over at the booth and see if the president was even in the booth reviewing," he said. "Contact was made with our eyes both together and he smiled and waived at the band and just as a gesture, I nodded my head. I gave him a slight wave and went on."

Coleman said he doesn't feel he did anything wrong.

"With the president, I could not just ignore him," he said.

Coleman teared up when talking about the incident, saying he was hurt by the suspension.

Bandleader Pipe Major Mike Engle said Coleman violated the proper decorum required of a military parade.

Engle says other pipe bands complained about the behavior.

New Jersey Mayor Is Worried About Barack Obama

Obama’s $3000 cell phone… ‘Barack-Berry’

Barack Obama’s fight to keep his cell phone leads to a revolutionary invention.

The Presidential cell phone has officially arrived and is appropriately nicknamed the “Barack-Berry,” but, in fact, President Obama’s new smartphone is a $3,350 device that has all the bells and whistles of a CIA secure computer server.

The president has fought the National Security Agency to keep his BlackBerry phone, saying they would have to “pry it out of my hands.” He protested that a mobile device would help him stay in touch with the real world.

However, e-mail has long been treated with suspicion by the Secret Service because of fears it could be hacked into by foreign espionage agencies, or that sensitive information could reach the public.

To prevent hacking, the NSA has created a spy-proof BlackBerry alternative called Sectera Edge. The cell phone is reportedly capable of encrypting top secret voice conversations and handling classified documents.

Check out the prototype below.

Republicans Against President Obama’s Stimulus Plan!!

Republicans plan to test President Barack Obama’s commitment to bipartisanship as his $825 billion stimulus package heads to the floor of the House of Representatives this week, with the House Republican leader saying Sunday morning that many in his party will vote no unless there are significant changes to the plan.“Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of this package and all of the spending in this package, we don’t think it’s going to work,” the House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so if it’s the plan that I see today, put me down in the no column.” While the plan can potentially pass the Democratic-dominated House without Republican support, it will continue to face opposition when it comes before the Senate, said Senator John McCain of Arizona, speaking on “Fox News Sunday.” At least two Republicans will need to approve the bill for a filibuster-proof majority vote of 60. Senator McCain, who lost the presidential election to Mr. Obama in November, said that he planned to vote no unless the bill were changed. “We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that there’ll be no new taxes,” Mr. McCain said. “We need to cut payroll taxes. We need to cut business taxes.” “We need to have a commitment that after a couple of quarters of G.D.P. growth that we will embark on a path,” he said about the gross domestic product, “to reduce spending to get our budget in balance.” The Republican objections came as President Obama dispatched his top economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, to the talk shows to defend aspects of the plan that have come under attack. More details about the stimulus package, the largest of its kind in the nation’s history, have become clear this weekend, as Democrats released a more detailed list of the spending. Speaking on “Meet the Press,” Mr. Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said that the president was attempting to strike a balance between tax cuts and longer-term initiatives in the bill, like spending on renewable energy and college tuition assistance.