HOTT NEWS!

During a recent interview with QVC … JUSTIN BIEBER talks about meeting USHER and President BARACK OBAMA for the first time.

Link: http://bit.ly/QVCJBalbum

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

Completing a job Bush couldn‘t finish!

President BARACK OBAMA will send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan. AP correspondent Julie Pace reports on the president’s strategy for escalating the war, and eventually ending the country’s military mission there.

Michaele and Tareq Salahi breached White House security to shake hands with the president, but how did they do it?

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

This time, the picture is the story.

After the Secret Service insisted that President BARACK OBAMAwas never endangered by a security breach that allowed a couple to crash his first state dinner, the White House has released a photo showing that not only did the pair get close to Obama, they actually shook hands and talked to him.

As the White House was disclosing that the Virginia couple, MICHAELE and TAREQ SALAHI, met Obama in the receiving line, a “deeply concerned and embarrassed” Secret Service on Friday acknowledged that its officers never checked whether the two were on the guest list before letting them onto the White House grounds.

The White House released a photo showing the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held. Obama and reality TV hopeful Michaele Salahi are smiling as she grasps his right hand with both of hers and her husband looks on. Singh is standing to Obama’s left.

The Secret Service had said previously that the president was not in danger because the couple — like others at the dinner — had gone through magnetometers. But in light of their close proximity to the president, no such claim was made Friday.

“This incident compromised the safety and security of the president and undermined our confidence in the protection we expect of the Secret Service,” said Rep. Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Disturbed by the agency’s failure “to follow basic security procedures,” the New York Democrat said in a statement Saturday he wants a review of Secret Service practices and has asked for a briefing next week.

The Salahis were not on the guest list and should have been barred from entering last Tuesday’s dinner on the White House South Lawn for the prime minister of India, said Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

“The power base of black politics is shifting to elsewhere in the country.“

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

With President Barack Obama in the White House as the country’s first African American commander-in-chief, one may think Harlem, a center of black politics in this country for decades, would be soaring. Harlem produced New York’s first black governor and the city’s first black mayor.

Instead, the power base of black politics is shifting to elsewhere in the country and the city, according to an article in Tuesday’s New York Times.

As the article points out, two of Harlem’s, and the nation’s most well-known, black politicians–Congressman Charlie Rangel, chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and New York Gov. David A. Paterson–are experiencing difficulties. Rangel is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee regarding his financial disclosures, and Paterson is polling so poorly that the White House has requested he not seek the Democratic nod for governor next year.

According to the New York Times:

Nationally, Harlem is increasingly eclipsed by Chicago, the home base of President Obama and much of his inner circle, while the power Mr. Rangel and others once wielded in New York City affairs is rapidly dispersing to Brooklyn and Queens, home to a younger generation of elected officials eager to assert themselves. If Mr. Paterson goes, some black leaders say, the Harlem machine goes with him.

Younger politicians in Brooklyn and Queens who supported Obama’s unlikely candidacy over that of Hillary Rodham Clinton are now stepping up to fill the potential power void:

But while Harlem and its voters remain influential, Governor Paterson and Mr. Rangel have few heirs. The president pro tem of the State Senate, Malcolm A. Smith, is a product of southeast Queens. His likely successor, John L. Sampson, the Democratic leader in the Senate, hails from central Brooklyn, part of a close-knit group of younger black lawmakers with overlapping districts and ambitions. The party’s standard-bearer in this year’s New York mayoral race, William C. Thompson Jr., is also from Brooklyn, as is the chairman of Albany’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns.

“That’s how it is. The younger generation will challenge the older generation, and that’s how it should be,” said Ronald Walters, professor emeritus of government and politics and former director of the African American leadership Center at the University of Maryland. “Back in 1984 to 1988, when Jesse Jackson ran for president, a new generation of people came aboard and learned the skills needed to make it into politics and worked their way in to the media and policy.”

The reluctance of some African American elected officials to support Obama’s candidacy, combined with the failure to groom the next generation of African American leaders, is being cited for the shift.

HOTT DAMN!

There maybe a lot of truth in this!

Slim Thug Speaks On Rappers Being Affected During The Recession

In what’s sure to be the biggest moment from the internet, Obama affably downplays the suggestion that opposition to his administration and its policies is racially motivated.

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

Nothing wrong with easing a little tension!

Seeking to downplay accusations that those against his health reform plans are racially motivated, Obama chose to go for laughs on Letterman tonight.

In what’s sure to be the biggest moment from the internet, Obama affably downplays the suggestion that opposition to his administration and its policies is racially motivated, deadpanning, “I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.”

It’s a nice laugh line, only helped by Letterman ably playing the straight man and asking back, “How long have you been a black man?”

Obama also does a bit of policy pushing, lightly touching on the economy, unemployment, and his strategy in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, he knows how to end strong, ending with a bit on how Malia and Sasha Obama are handling living in the White House: “They basically just goofed off all summer, which I couldn’t do.”

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

President BARACK OBAMA gives a speech directly to Americas students welcoming them back to school. He emphasizes their hope and potential but makes clear they will need to take responsibility for themselves and their education to reach that potential. September 8, 2009.

[singing] “blame it on the news ... taxpayer blues ... blame it one loans ... now your home‘s gone!

HOTT DAMN!

“Blame It On The Economy” [music video parody]

The President responds to critics who say he wore “mom jeans.“

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

Critics are annoying! LOL!

Forget his policies on health care, Iran and and North Korea, apparently what people want to know is: What’s up with those jeans?

After wearing these to throw the first pitch at the All-Star game in St. Louis last week, fashionistas criticized the usually dapper PRESIDENT for wearing an outdated pair of Levi’s.

When asked about his choice of denim on NBC’s Today Show, Obama said, “I’m a little frumpy. I hate to shop, those jeans are comfortable. For those of you who want your president to look great in his tight jeans I’m sorry, I’m not the guy.”

But I guess we can fogive the guy, seeing as he’s the President and all.

“We went down in some dungeons where captives were held. There was a church above the dungeons, which tells you something about saying one thing and doing another. We went through the door of no return, and I was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities, on the voyage from slavery to freedom“

President Barack Obama walks onto stage to speak at the NAACP annual convention July 16, 2009 in New York City. Obama discussed the civil rights movement and the importance of carrying on civic responsibility at the 100th anniversary of the nation‘s oldest civil rights organization.

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

Preach on, Brother! Preach on!

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed by a group of blacks and whites in response to lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Ill., the political birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. After a century spent fighting for racial equality and social justice, a black man is leading the nation. So it was only fitting that at the NAACP’s Centennial Convention in New York City, attended by Black Voices, President OBAMA took the opportunity to thank the civil rights organization for laying the foundation of his success.

“Because ordinary people made the civil rights movement their own, I made a trip to Springfield a couple years ago – where Lincoln once lived and race riots once raged – and began the journey that has led me here tonight as the 44th president of the United States of America,” he told those gathered at the NAACP Spingarn Awards Dinner yesterday at the New York Hilton in Manhattan. “Because of them, I stand here tonight on the shoulders of giants.”

His address, which he clearly enjoyed making, had the air of a homecoming. The preacher-like intensity he reached at its climax brought the crowd of dignitaries and NAACP members to its feet three times, with thunderous applause. Perhaps Obama’s recent trip to Ghana had stoked the fire in his belly. “Michelle and I took Malia and Sasha to Cape Coast Castle, where captives were once imprisoned before being auctioned, where, across an ocean, so much of the African American experience began,” he described. “We went down in some dungeons where captives were held. There was a church above the dungeons, which tells you something about saying one thing and doing another. We went through the door of no return, and I was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities, on the voyage from slavery to freedom.”

Though it was clear Obama’s mission last night was to thank and to inspire, he did cite some of the efforts his administration is making to address the education and achievement gaps between blacks and whites, as well as to protect consumers against predatory lenders and reform health care. He pointed to the creation of the still-embryonic White House Office of Urban Affairs and also mentioned a recent report by New York City controller Bill Thompson that the number of unemployed blacks in the city rose four times as fast as the number of unemployed whites between early 2008 and early 2009. However, those looking for meat on the bones of efforts benefiting African Americans would go away hungry from the Spingarn dinner.

Instead, Obama seized the moment to exhort the group — and all black Americans — to take responsibility for overcoming the economic and social inequalities that still plague our our community, while acknowledging the role of institutional racism. “Government programs alone won’t get our children to the Promised Land,” Obama said. “We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes – because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.” He left the group with this message: “If three civil rights workers in Mississippi…could lay down their lives in freedom’s cause, I know we can come together to face down the challenges of our own time. We can fix our schools, heal our sick, and rescue our youth from violence and despair.”

Though black Americans must continue to hold the president accountable for addressing our needs, it’s clear that as Obama attacks the many-headed hydra of a failing economy, a dysfunctional health care system and two wars, indeed, the task will largely fall on our own shoulders.

Those who follow Mrs. Obama’s sartorial choices will be interested to learn that the First Lady wore a black skirt, top, and veil by Italian luxury brand Moschino

HOTT LOOK@POLITICS!

First impressions are always the most impressionable!

Today, BARACK OBAMA met POPE BENEDICT XVI for the first time as President of the United States. First Lady MICHELLE OBAMA accompanied him to the sitting, which took place in the pope’s Vatican library on Friday.

According to the Associated Press, Pope Benedict XVI underscored the church’s opposition to abortion and stem cell research during the 30-minute meeting. The president and the pope also reportedly discussed immigration, foreign aid, and the road to peace in the Middle East.

Those who follow Mrs. Obama’s sartorial choices will be interested to learn that the First Lady wore a black skirt, top, and veil by Italian luxury brand Moschino. Stylish and in accordance with the Vatican dress code, naturally.

HOTT DAMN!

This is some funny sh*t!

The president told ‘Newsweek’ that being surrounded by men with guns may hamper Malia and Sasha’s dating lives down the road

I feel sorry for the guy that chooses to date one of President Daddy’s little girls! LOL!

In an interview with Newsweek published Saturday, President BARACK OBAMA said that daughters MALIA and SASHA have adjusted to public life exceptionally well, but expressed some concern about their coming teenage years.

Were you surprised at how quickly your family became part of the cultural iconography?

”You know, the nice thing is that, partly because of temperament, partly because of Michelle’s unbelievable parenting skills, I’ve just got some happy, normal kids. And all that stuff that’s going on around them, they just kind of miss. We have not seen any effects, any fishbowl effects, yet on them. Now, I worry about them when they’re teenagers where, you know, you’re already embarrassed about your parents and even more embarrassed on TV all the time. And dating I think will be an issue because I have men with guns surrounding them at all times [laughter], which I’m perfectly happy with, but they may feel differently about it.”

The president has set rules agreed upon by members of the press about shooting pictures of the two girls. Though he and Michelle have been very open in talking about their family dynamics, the girls are often off limits.

After 100 days, President Barack Obama interrupted prime time television to let everyone know he’s looking ahead to the next hundred days… and the hundred days after that, and after that, and after that

Speech? Overall! Pretty! Good!

President BARACK OBAMA downplayed the importance of his first 100 days in office in a speech given at a Wednesday evening press conference. The president said it was his job to provide an “unrelenting, unyielding effort … to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.”

Obama spoke for only a few minutes before turning the floor over to the White House press corps for questions, ranging from auto bailouts, to his budget, to abortion, to torture.

Here are the full prepared remarks from the president before taking questions:

OBAMA: Before we begin tonight, I just want to provide everyone with a few brief updates on some of the challenges we’re dealing with right now.

First, we are continuing to closely monitor the emergency cases of the H1N1 flu virus throughout the United States. As I said this morning, this is obviously a very serious situation, and every American should know that their entire government is taking the utmost precautions and preparations.

Our public health officials have recommended that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of this flu strongly consider temporarily closing. And if more schools are forced to close, we’ve recommended that both parents and businesses think about contingency plans if their children do have to stay home.

I’ve requested an immediate $1.5 billion in emergency funding from Congress to support our ability to monitor and track this virus and to build our supply of antiviral drugs and other equipment. And we will also ensure that those materials get to where they need to be as quickly as possible.

And, finally, I’ve asked every American to take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: Keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you’re sick; and keep your children home from school if they’re sick.

We’ll continue to provide regular updates to the American people as we receive more information. And everyone should rest assured that this government is prepared to do whatever it takes to control the impact of this virus.

The second thing I’d like to mention is how gratified I am that the House and the Senate passed a budget resolution today that will serve as an economic blueprint for this nation’s future.

I especially want to thank Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi, all of the members of Congress who worked so quickly and effectively to make this blueprint a reality.

This budget builds on the steps we’ve taken over the last 100 days to move this economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity.

We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95 percent of all working families. We passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full time. And we launched a housing plan that has already contributed to a spike in the number of homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages, which is the equivalent of another tax cut.

But even as we clear away the wreckage of this recession, I’ve also said that we can’t go back to an economy that’s built on a pile of sand, on inflated home prices and maxed-out credit cards, on overleveraged banks and outdated regulations that allow recklessness of a few to threaten the prosperity of all.

We have to lay a new foundation for growth, a foundation that will strengthen our economy and help us compete in the 21st century. And that’s exactly what this budget begins to do.

It contains new investments in education that will equip our workers with the right skills and training, new investments in renewable energy that will create millions of jobs and new industries, new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses, and new savings that will bring down our deficit.

I also campaigned on the promise that I would change the direction of our nation’s foreign policy. And we’ve begun to do that, as well. We’ve begun to end the war in Iraq, and we forged with our NATO allies a new strategy to target al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and banning torture without exception.

And we’ve renewed our diplomatic efforts to deal with challenges ranging from the global economic crisis to the spread of nuclear weapons.

So I think we’re off to a good start, but it’s just a start. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, but I’m not content. I’m pleased with our progress, but I’m not satisfied.

Millions of Americans are still without jobs and homes, and more will be lost before this recession is over. Credit is still not flowing nearly as freely as it should. Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high, and government is still not as efficient as it needs to be.

We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.

You can expect us to work on health care reform that will bring down costs while maintaining quality, as well as energy legislation that will spark a clean-energy revolution. I expect to sign legislation by the end of this year that sets new rules of the road for Wall Street, rules that reward drive and innovation, as opposed to shortcuts and abuse.

And we will also work to pass legislation that protects credit card users from unfair rate hikes and abusive fees and penalties. We’ll continue scouring the federal budget for savings and target more programs for elimination. And we will continue to pursue procurement reform that will greatly reduce the no-bid contracts that have wasted so many taxpayer dollars.

So we have a lot of work left to do. It’s work that will take time, and it will take effort. But the United States of America, I believe, will see a better day.

We will rebuild a stronger nation, and we will endure as a beacon for all of those weary travelers beyond our shores who still dream that there’s a place where all of this is possible.

I want to thank the American people for their support and their patience during these trying times, and I look forward to working with you in the next hundred days, in the hundred days after that, all of the hundreds of days to follow to make sure that this country is what it can be.

And with that, I will start taking some questions.

“We are very proud of the First Family and wanted to join in celebrating their choice of a family pet. Now everyone can own a little Bo Beanie Baby 2.0 and join in the excitement”

Desperate moves during the recession.

Ty is apparently very determined to cash in on the Obama family.

The toy company released its version of first dog, BO, despite being reprimanded by MICHELLE OBAMA’s press secretary earlier this year for two dolls unmistakably modeled on first daughters SASHA and MALIA OBAMA. Ty never admitted Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia were based on the girls, but in a press release, the company fully acknowledged the inspiration for Bo, a black and white Portuguese water dog.

“We are very proud of the First Family and wanted to join in celebrating their choice of a family pet. Now everyone can own a little Bo Beanie Baby 2.0 and join in the excitement.”

The Bo doll retails for $4.99, but it’s selling on eBay between $30 and $50.

But d*mn! Is it me? Or does it seem like Ty is trying their best to cash in on the first family.

do we blame him?

“He likes solitude, where he can just take a moment and collect his thoughts and breathe,” says a close Obama friend. “And in this job, there is none of that”

Sometimes! It’s hard to get away!

One source revealed to the media that BARACK OBAMA wanted to escape. It was an uncharacteristically sunny day in London, warm and not a cloud in the sky, and all afternoon the president had been cooped up with foreign leaders inside a stuffy ballroom at Winfield House, a grand mansion that is home to the U.S. ambassador. The property has one of the largest and most beautiful private gardens in London. Its lawn, green and lush, is the length of sevral football fields, framed by shady magnolia trees that were just beginning to bloom.

For security and privacy, the Secret Service had covered the windows facing the lawn. But whenever a door leading to a back credenza opened, Obama was able to catch a glimpse of the outdoors. After he said goodbye to his last guest, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Obama walked to the back door and peered out. “Come on,” he called to two of his closest aides, senior adviser David Axelrod and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “Let’s go take a walk.”

The Secret Service agents on duty “freaked,” in the words of one senior Obama aide who recounted the story (and who, like others quoted in this story, asked for anonymity for the usual reasons). They raced ahead of the president, fanning out to make sure Obama was safe. His regular team of agents—as they often remind Obama, much to his chagrin—do not enjoy moments of spontaneity like this. On the roof, snipers stood at the ready as the president and his aides slowly circled the lawn again and again. “We did that for about 45 minutes,” Gibbs recalled. “Just looping around.” They talked a bit about business—there was drama between the Chinese and French that put the looming G20 talks at risk—but mostly Obama kept quiet, taking in the view and keeping his thoughts to himself.

It was a rare moment of semi-freedom for a president who has struggled to maintain a sense of normalcy in the White House. Just two days later, at a town-hall meeting in France, Obama talked about the drawbacks of being president: “You know, it’s very frustrating now. It used to be when I came to Europe that I could just wander down to a café, and sit and have some wine and watch people go by, and go into a little shop, and watch the sun go down. Now I’m in hotel rooms all the time and I have security around me all the time. And so just, you know, losing that ability to just take a walk, that is something that is frustrating.”

Obama is hardly the first president to complain about life in the White House bubble. “I never dreamed such loneliness and desolation of heart possible,” wrote Woodrow Wilson. William Howard Taft called it “the loneliest place in the world.” Harry Truman spoke of “the great white jail known as the White House,” a phrase echoed by Bill Clinton, who called it “the crown jewel of the federal penal system.”

Yet Obama seems to have had a tougher time adjusting than Clinton, or even George W. Bush, in part because he can still remember what it was like to be a normal person. Before becoming president, he spent just four years in the U.S. Senate; though he was hardly a stranger to the public, Obama still had a life. If he wanted to take a walk around Capitol Hill, he could—and often did. But Obama’s temperament has also made the adjustment difficult.

Though outgoing in public, Obama was an only child and spent a lot of time alone (he’s described himself as being hermitlike during his days at Columbia University). That hasn’t changed. “He likes solitude, where he can just take a moment and collect his thoughts and breathe,” says a close Obama friend to the media. “And in this job, there is none of that.”

ok! so! what’s next?

Protesters held tea parties throughout the country, drawing thousands to demonstrate against the president’s economic policies

Taxpayers vs. Nay-sayers!

Today was tax day and it was the culmination of a conservative movement to protest President BARACK OBAMA’s economic policies (namely bailouts and taxes) by holding modern-day tea parties.

The tea parties took place in major cities all over the country, urged on by cable television and radio personalities such as Rick Santelli and Glenn Beck. The teabaggers, as they’ve come to be called, believe that Obama’s taxes are unfair because he’s using the money to bail out irresponsible home and business owners.

In Washington, DC, the Huffington Post reports that one such protest was shut down briefly after someone threw a box of tea bags onto the White House lawn. Police and Secret Service agents moved the crowd back from the area while they sent in a robot to inspect the package for explosives.

Meanwhile in Texas, Governor Rick Perry riled up protesters with a fiery speech in which he decried the Obama administration. Afterwards he gave a brief interview where he hinted that Texas might secede from the United States if Texans were forced to pay taxes they didn’t agree with.

For their part, Barack and Michelle Obama filed a joint return, claiming approximately $2.7 million in income with about one third of that going to income taxes. Barack earned $139,204 as a Democratic senator from Illinois. Barack was paid $2.5 million in royalties for his two books: Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

“The AP reports that the iPod was filled with music to accompany the book, pictures of the Queen’s 2007 visit to the States, and photos from Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration”

The most important impression is the first impression.

At first it might sound like a more expensive version of the thoughtless gifts the Obamas gave British Prime Minister GORDON BROWN’s sons when they visited last month. But on closer inspection, this time they got it right.

BARACK and MICHELLE OBAMA presented Queen Elizabeth II with an iPod Wednesday along with a book of songs composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, signed by Rodgers in 1952. The AP reports that the iPod was filled with music to accompany the book, pictures of the Queen’s 2007 visit to the States, and photos from Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

And in return? The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, gave the Obamas signed portraits of themselves.

Now who looks like the better gifter? Take that England!

Republican National Committee Chairman MICHAEL STEELE comments on Relations with President Obama. He states, “I’m Done.”

And so are we! LOL!

Invasion of Privacy: U.S. government wants to tap into all your computers and delete any copyrighted material you may have

Damn! I thought Bush was out of office!

Rumors are that President OBAMA’s administration is helping to push forward a bill that would allow the government to spy on your personal computer and seize your property.