A Gallup poll taken in November found 76 percent of Americans favor a national minimum wage hike to $9 per hour. House Speaker John Boehner told MSNBC that the president probably has the executive authority to raise federal wages, but Republicans will be watching closely for any abuses of power.

The White House also endorsed the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Representative George Miller (D-Calif.) last March. The bill would gradually raise the minimum wage for all workers until it reaches $10.10 an hour. It would also increase the minimum wage for tipped workers for the first time since the early 1990s, and give cost-of-living increases based on the Consumer Price Index.

The bill has little chance of getting through the House of Representatives. A minimum wage increase would put some needed extra cash in the pockets of millions of workers, but may disrupt gains in other areas.

The Economics

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent in December, the lowest reading since late 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the gains stemmed more from workers dropping out of the labor force than from more people becoming employed. Companies added a mere 74,000 jobs total in December, the lowest one-month reading in three years, according to Time magazine.

Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, an economic forecasting and bank stress testing firm, told AZ Star Net last year that a hike in minimum wage nationally would increase the price of labor, and discourage companies from hiring more workers. But the Chicago Federal Reserve believes the move would stimulate the economy by putting more money into the pockets of people who spend as opposed to save.

State and Municipal-Level Minimum Wage Hikes

Several states are following the president’s lead, refusing to wait for Congress to act on a minimum wage increase. California governor Jerry Brown signed a bill in September that will increase the state’s minimum wage in increments until it reaches $10 an hour in 2016.

Washington state has the highest minimum wage in the country, raising it from $9.19 in 2013 to $9.32 this year due to inflation. The minimum wage in New Jersey increased by $1 to $8.25 on January 1 due to a voter initiative that also calls for annual cost-of-living increases.

The White House said that 2014 will be an action-packed year, with the President putting the wealth gap and wage inequality at the forefront of his agenda. Carney told reporters that the administration will continue to explore options to get things done within the power it has.

Obama’s uncle first came to the United States in 1963 on a student visa. He became an illegal immigrant when his visa expired in 1970. In 1992, a deportatation order was issued against him, but he ignored said order and continued to stay in the country. His illegal status remained undetected until his arrest in 2011 for drunk driving in Framingham, Massachusetts where he allegedly bragged about his White House connection. He denied saying this to the arresting officers.

During the hearing, his lawyer, Margaret Wong asked him whether he had relatives living in the United States. He replied that he had a nephew, two nieces and a sister. Probed further, he revealed that the nephew he referred to is President Barack Obama himself. But, Wong maintains that his powerful connections did not help his cause. In fact, it placed his applications under a microscope and delayed the case further. The 69-year old Onyango works as a manager of a liquor store.

According to another immigration lawyer, President Obama’s was given permanent resident status mainly because he qualified under the law and not because of his connections. Onyango only had to prove was that he has been in the country since 1972 or earlier and that he has behaved himself since then. This was confirmed by the judge who said that Obama was a gentleman and a good taxpayer, and thus his petition was granted.

Three years earlier, the same judge also granted an asylum to Obama’s aunt, Zeutuni Onyango, who was also staying in the country illegally.

“I told you I was going to do it!”  Obama shouted to someone just offstage. “The Sandman did not come out!”

“Don’t worry, Rev. I cannot sing like you,” he joked. “I just wanted to show my appreciation.”

Well it didn’t take very long for us to see the President’s very first tweet, and it didn’t have anything to do whatsoever with his Presidential re-election – it was actually to wish all the dads out there a “Happy Father’s Day”.

Here it is:

According to Obama’s re-election campaign officials, he’ll be personally tweeting his own tweets during his upcoming reelection bid.

And the signature to be looking for, to know that its the President himself doing the tweeting, is the “-BO”.

This upcoming election season is going to  heavily engaged with social media – Twitter and Facebook leading the charge.

But in a recent news release from President Barack Obama’s reelection staff, the President will actually be writing his own updates on Facebook and Twitter.  And you’ll be able to identify the tweets coming from President Barack Obama himself because his updates, the ones he writes personally, will be signed “-BO”.

And of course, the BO references will be getting much late night talk show attention with jokes about how President Barack Obama’s tweets smell!

You can tell by the looks on their faces that what they are either hearing or watching is some serious stuff – especially the look on Hilary Clinton’s face which is near shock at whatever she sees or is hearing.

It’s intense my friends:

(From Flickr)  President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Seated, from left, are: Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, Assistant Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command; Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Standing, from left, are: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Tony Binken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

via flickr

For President Barack Obama, his Presidency was all about “Change”!  Change that needed to come to Washington, “Change” that was going turn around the unemployment rate, and “Change” that was, once and for all, end the politics that plagues our capital.

But with the new budget crisis, and the fact that our Federal government was about an hour away from complete shut down, does this bode well for President Barack Obama’s message of “Change”?

I have to believe, no wait… I’m convinced, that the GOP is already  fully capitalizing on this opportunity to hammer the President for his lack of leadership in Washington.

And it’s really just a matter of time – and perhaps it’s already there and I just haven’t seen it yet – before YouTube fills up with GOP attacks on the President.

So is this a reflection of Barack Obama’s lack of leadership as the President?

I believe so, yes…

While He (the President) should have been in Washington leading from the White House as the President of the United States, he was in Philadelphia talking with energy workers.  And while he should have been leading from the front with a budget for the Federal Government, he was planning a vacation with his family.

But is it all the President’s fault?

Of course not… the congress is as much to blame.

I’m just saying that it doesn’t look very good on a President who campaigned, and was elected, on the message that “Change Would Come” – when clearly it hasn’t.

image from NYTimes

Facebook’s HQ in Palo Alto will be the site for the very first 2012 Barack Obama re-election campaign town hall meeting. The Town Hall meeting will be held on April 20th at 1:45pm PST / 4:45pm EST where Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg will host President Barack Obama.

There are already 2,864 people attending the event (at the time of this writing).

Here’s info from the Town Hall event page on Facebook:

WHAT’S HAPPENING
President Barack Obama will hold a special “Facebook Live” townhall to connect with Americans across the country.

WHERE & WHEN IT’S HAPPENING
Where? Well, everywhere! The event at Facebook’s headquarters, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg & COO Sheryl Sandberg, will be live streamed for anyone to watch. Just come back here at the right time: Wednesday, April 20 @ 1:45pm PST / 4:45pm EST.

Somebody did some good Photoshop hacking to produce this bad boy…

It’s President Barack Obama and Sarah Palin cutting it up on Dancing With The Stars.

The conversion around President Barack Obama’s economic policy has just been taken to the web via two videos released by White House Chief Economic Advisor Austan Goolsbee.

Mr. Goolsbee, who is the young CEA to President Obama and occasional stand up comedian, makes his pitch as to why the Bush tax are bad for the economy, and bad for the American people.

The two videos are simple – you have Mr. Goolsbee with a marker and white dry erase board explaining perhaps one of the biggest issues around current economic policy – the expiration of the Bush tax cuts which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

Here’s the two videos from White House Chief Economic Advisor Austan Goolsbee:

President Barack Obama had to replace Christina Romer as the top economic adviser to the President. And today Obama announced that Austan Goolsbee will be the new chair of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. This is a high office and high position for anyone economist to hold. President Obama went on to say that, “Austan’s been one of my good friends and close economic advisers for many years,” the President said during his remarks this morning. “He’s not just a brilliant economist. He’s someone who has a deep appreciation of how the economy affects everyday people and he talks about it in a way that’s easily understood… I have complete confidence he’s going to do an outstanding job.”

via CBSNews

In what is becoming one of the most controversial issues to confront the The White House and President Barack Obama, the President made it clear that he “supports the freedom to practice religion in America” as his reason for supporting the plan.

The Republican Party is hammering President Obama saying he is “detached from the American people” because of his support of the Mosque being built.

Here’s a  news clip where the President shares his views on the construction of a Mosque near Ground Zero, and of Republicans expressing their thoughts about the President:

President Barack Obama was on The View?

It’s true, his appearance shocked the television audience and the Youtube video search for the episode has spiked to unheard of levels.

So what did President Barack Obama talk about today on The View?

The big question of the day presented to Barack Obama was this:

Were you invited to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding?

And guess what his answer was?

You’ll have to watch the video below to find out.

Of course you know that Obama is going to be criticized for showing up on The View and doing a talk show. The critics will hammer him because “they” think he should be spending his time more productively like standing on the sandy shores of Louisiana, or some other pressing issue.

Here’s President Barack Obama on The View (Youtube Video):

The rumors of BP suspending their stock dividend are growing as the oil continues to gush from the broken BP oil pipe, and President Barack Obama relates the crisis to that of 9/11.

As you can tell from the BP live oil feed video below, it appears that BP is capturing more of the gushing oil from the broken pipe. The amount of oil being collected from the gushing oil pipe is increasing as BP today announced that:

“The lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap, installed on June 3, continues to collect oil and gas flowing from the MC252 well and transport them to the Discoverer Enterprise drillship on the surface.

In the first 12 hours of June 13 (midnight to noon), approximately 7,720 barrels of oil were collected and 16.9 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared. On June 12, a total of approximately 15,000 barrels of oil were collected and 32.9 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared. The total volume of oil collected by the LMRP cap system since it began operation is approximately 127,000 barrels. A further approximately 22,000 barrels of oil previously had been collected through use of the Riser Insertion Tube Tool and stored in the Discoverer Enterprise.”

[source, BP.com]

President Barack Obama calls oil spill equivalent to 9/11 attacks.

President Barack Obama said in a White House interview by Politico that the BP oil spill is comparable to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center as it relates to the impact that it is having on our nation.

The President said that, when looking at the fact that the BP oil spill crisis came out of nowhere, and was unexpected, and that the crisis will have a long term impact on our country – long after the crisis has passed – these events are comparable to the 9/11 attacks.

“I think he’s off-base,” said ex-FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose son died at the World Trade Center. “These were terrorist attacks, these 9/11 murders, not something caused by people trying to make money” – according to the NYDailyNews.com.

Will BP Suspend their stock dividend

Finally, it is being discussed on CNBC this morning that BP is apt to suspend their stock dividend. The cost, and the global impact of the oil spill, is having a dramatic impact on BP’s bottom line. And obviously, this is literally billions of dollars that BP was not expecting to pay out.

The BP suspension of their dividend is not expected to happen today.

BP Oil Spill Live Video Feed

First The Obama Affair, Now Obama Social Security Number

Is it me, or does it seem like there is a group out there – more than likely spearheaded by the Republican party – that is determined to find some kind of trash on President Barack Obama to initiate a fall from grace?

Barack Obama Affair Rumors with Vera Baker

At the beginning of this month – on May 1st – the Internet exploded with rumors about a Barack Obama affair with Vera Baker.

Although the rumors picked up a lot of momentum and interest on the web initially, the issue just seemed to die out within a couple of days. Unlike, in dramatic contrast, to the outbreak of the Tiger Wood’s affairs.

So it finally gave me the impression that perhaps some group was actually trying to get something started to ultimately put Barack Obama at odds against the popular view of him within the United States, and throughout the world.

Barack Obama Social Security Number

And now this – controversy around an alleged Barack Obama social security number from the State of Connecticut.

According to rumors, “two private investigators working independently have raised concerns over the social security number of our beloved President Barack Hussein Obama. The reason being that the digits he covets are reserved for the state of Connecticut, a location he never hailed from. While special circumstances have allowed individuals to register in non-residential states, they remain ’special’ circumstances. Still, no reason for concern, BHO has maintained his ethical integrity while standing by his campaign vow of COMPLETE DISCLOSURE & TRANSPARENCY. With the patriotically excusable omission of a few useless pieces of documentation including his original birth certificate and:

educational records, scholarly articles, passport documents, medical records, papers from his service in the Illinois state Senate, Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and adoption papers

What to think of all the Barack Obama rumors?

So what do we think about all this negativity that is coming out against Barack Obama? Let me say, as a point of disclosure, that I am a Republican and did not vote for Obama. But with that said, I don’t really feel comfortable with all this negativity and seemingly blatant attempts to bring down our current President.

As a citizen of the United States, our Constitution supports the process to which our President’s are elected. President Barack Obama won the election, and if we say we defend our Constitution, then isn’t is a bit hypocritical to be simultaneously trying to ruin our President while he is in office?

All of these rumors seem anti-American to me if they are, as I implied initially, stemming from select Republican groups that are trying to find anyway possible to bring down our President.

What do you think?

Do you think these rumors are strategic attacks by some group or organization to bring down our President and ruin his reputation?

Or are these rumors and allegations simply true statements about a man who happens to be in a high profile position?

I don’t know, but it smells like intent to destroy to me…

13 years of Labour government – out, as Gordon Brown steps down.  Conservative leader David Cameron became Britain’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years Tuesday.

The new prime minister said he aims to form a full coalition government with the third-place Liberal Democrats after his Conservative Party victory.  His party did not receive a majority of votes, just enough to win.

“We have some deep and pressing problems — a huge deficit, deep social problems, a political system in need of reform,” Cameron said. “For those reasons, I aim to form a proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.”

“Nick Clegg and I are both political leaders who want to put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest,” Cameron said.  Cameron and  Clegg’s pact would be the first coalition government since World War II.

Cameron visited Buckingham Palace and was asked to form a government by Queen Elizabeth II less than an hour after Brown tendered his resignation to the monarch.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that President Barack Obama has not spoken to Brown since he announced his resignation.  Gibbs said that the president would speak to the new prime minister soon.

(Huffington Post) President Barack Obama intends to nominate Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Justice John Paul Stevens, NBC News’s Pete Williams reports.

Kagan, 50, served as the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009. Obama nominated her to serve in her current post as solicitor general early in 2009, and she won Senate confirmation by a vote of 61-31. She is the first woman to serve as solicitor general of the United States.

She was widely viewed as a front-runner when Obama was considering candidates for a Supreme Court opening last year, but the president ultimately chose Sonia Sotomayor for the job.

[Source: HuffingtonPost.com]

What do you think?

So what are your thoughts on Elena Kagan being nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Barack Obama?

Wall Street – DOW Closes Down Triple Digits For The Week (INDEXDJX:.DJI)

DJIA Closes at 10,380.06, -140.26 (-1.33%) for the week

No sooner did President Barack Obama finish his speech about how he is directly responsible for the strong jobs numbers did the stock market begin it’s rebound from yesterday’s dramatic fall from grace.  Even though yesterday we saw a drop on Wall Street, so sudden and dramatic, unlike anything that has possibly been seen before in history – the stock market has actually found a way to only end down currently 166 points or less than 2% for the week.

To experience what happened yesterday in the stock market, and for the Dow Jones Industrial Averages to finish the week out less than 2% is something that I would call pretty good – and perhaps even “dodging a bullet” would be more appropriate.

Right now the DJIA (INDEXDJX:.DJI) is trading at 10,354.21 – this is sharply lower than the recent high of when the DOW hit 11,000. However, it is up from earlier today when the markets first opened. And even though there was improving US job market forecasts and payrolls expanded by 290,000 in the month of April – which is the best month since March 2006 – the market still looks like it will end up closing down for the week in triple digits.

Justin Bieber Fever – Leave The Kid Alone Already (Video)

Justin Bieber – some people in the world love him (understatement of the year…), some hate him (again, understatement of the year), some people just want to stare at his photos, other just want to burn all his photos – some people, like during Saturday Night Live, can’t decide whether they have the hots of him or just want to give him a bath!

Regardless of which why your emotions sway about Justin Bieber, just remember ya’ll, he is still just a kid after all (wow, did that rhyme?).

Justin Bieber does, regardless of how you feel about him, command a lot of attention from people beyond just his screaming teenage girl fan base. He has met President Barack Obama three separate times – and performed for him (I think) each time they met.

Plus he is the youngest kid in history who has ever been recommended to actually host Saturday Night Live – let alone having a leading role on the late night TV show.

All of these, and more, prove that even though Justin Bieber is a pop sensation like so many before him, he is commanding the attention of some pretty high profile individuals – not to mention the hundreds of millions of screaming fans that following him everywhere he goes.

Here’s a funny video commentary on Justin Bieber. This video is rediculously popular on YouTube with well over 2.6 million views.

Barack Obama Cheating Scandal, Affair With Vera Baker?

Wow, this news is interesting to say the very least. Last night news was breaking via The National Enquirer that President Barack Obama is having an affair with a woman named Vera Baker.

According The National Enquirer, Barack Obama and Vera Baker were caught in a Washington, DC hotel together.

Vera Baker photos here.

The Obama scandal says: “a confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions.”

The ENQUIRER has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence.

This is news that will definitely start spreading like wildfire this weekend if there is even a remote chance of evidence or truth to it.

According to reports, independent anti-Obama agencies are offering more than $1 million dollars to reports and resources that come forward providing substantial evidence to confirm these rumors.

Here’s the news that The National Enquirer is breaking:

A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-oldVERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions.

While Baker has insisted in the past that “nothing happened” between them, the ENQUIRER has learned that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous where the President was staying.

On the condition of anonymity, the limo driver said he took Baker “from a friend’s home in the DC area to the Hotel George where I learned later that Obama would be spending the night.”

The driver recalled that he “waited in the lobby while she went to change her outfit.

“But to the best of my knowledge she did not have a room at the hotel and she was not staying there so I thought that it was a bit odd.”

The driver said he then picked up Obama at the airport and drove both he and Baker to various locations while he was campaigning for funds.  Vera accompanied him to each meeting.

“About 10:30 PM, I drove them to the hotel and they went in together!”

“My services for the evening were done – and there was no indication she was going to leave the hotel that night.”

A top DC source told The ENQUIRER exclusively that the driver’s account had been independently corroborated by investigators who believe the couple spent the night together at the hotel.

The ENQUIRER has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence.

“Investigators are attempting to obtain a tape from the hotel (that) shows Vera and Barack together,” the DC insider confided.

“If the tape surfaces, it will explode the scandal.”

[Resource: The National Enquirer]

Read below to see the whole series of images – it’s funny!

I just found this hilarious set of pictures that were put together by Superpoop.com. The images below show President Barack Obama sitting with Hilary Clinton at what appears to be a high level meetings. But Barack Obama is looking down at something – that is played out to be a mobile phone apparently – while Hilary Clinton leans over to see what he’s doing.

The commentary has Barack Obama smiling and then saying:

Yeah, I’ve got Facebook on here and everything. Let me send you… wait, someone killed me in Mafia Wars.

Love the look on Hilary Clinton’s face after reading that.

But then the image scrolls down to former Russian President Vladimir Putin (2000 – 2008). Vladimir Putin is holding his fist up what looks to be in an expression of victory – which is funny because the very next photo is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton looking back at Vladimir Putin in disgust – like he is the one who killed Barack Obama in Mafia Wars.

Here’s the images from Superpoop.com:

Idol Gives Back 2010 Performers

This years 2010 American Idol Gives Back performers are nothing less than stellar!

The names (see below) that will be present are a perfect compliment to the award winning American Idol Gives Back program that raises for various chosen charities.

This year’s American Idol Give Back 2010 will raise awareness, funds, and resources to benefit United States based and international charities such as:

• Children’s Health Fund
• Feeding America
• Malaria No More
• Save the Children’s U.S. Programs
• United Nations Foundation

“Idol Gives Back” made history by raising over $140 million for charity.

Idol Gives Back 2010 Performers:

Here is the list of artists that will be performing at Idol Gives Back 2010:

• Alicia Keys
• Carrie Underwood
• The Black Eyed Peas
• Annie Lennox
• Jeff Beck

Corporate Sponsors and donations

As previously announced, News Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, AT&T and ExxonMobil will return as corporate sponsors of “Idol Gives Back” and will generously donate to the historic Emmy Award-winning television event. Viewers will once again be able to make donations during and following the show. In addition, the week’s voting results will be revealed, sending one of the finalists home.

According to Pop Tower, in previous years, “Idol Gives Back” has welcomed President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former President George W. Bush, Brad Pitt, Bono, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Annie Lennox, Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Josh Groban, P!nk, Celine Dion, Robin Williams, Ben Stiller and others.

Goldman Sachs, SEC Fraud Case Planned?

With the recent developments in the Goldman Sachs and SEC fraud case, one might come to the conclusion that the whole accusation was planned and politically motivated.

Earlier today, I shared a video of Rush Limbaugh talking about how The White House, and the Democratic party, was running a Google Adwords campaign for the keyword “goldman sachs sec”, right around the time the SEC filed the charges against Goldman. The link from the ad campaign would link visitors directly to President Barack Obama’s website.

The relationship to the keyword targeted ads, and the SEC filing of fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, might seem coincidental, but to people like Rush Limbaugh and myself, it all sounds like an orchestrated political attempt at swaying American’s hearts and minds.

Financial legislation is about to be debated in Congress, and the timing of the Goldman Sachs fraud accusations from the SEC, in conjunction with The White House running keyword targeted ads that read “goldman sachs sec”, make the case for “coincidence” seems a lot less viable.

What do you think?

Was the Goldman Sachs fraud charges from the SEC part of the Democrats plan to gain favor with their financial reform?

Or was all of this pure coincidence and circumstantial in its timing?

If you watched Rush Limbaugh’s video, then you might be inclined to think that the SEC is nothing more than a puppet in the hands of President Barack Obama.

However, listening to the sounds bites that Rush shared about how the White House had no idea, and was not informed on the SEC filings, then you might believe the events were pure coincidence.

Barack Obama News: Obama Faces ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ Hecklers At Speech (see video below)

President Barack Obama was in California today at a campaign fundraiser for Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

During President Obama’s visit to California, he gave a speech in which he started talking about the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. That is the policy that currently prevents gays from serving openly in the United States Military.

As President Barack Obama was speaking, hecklers broke out in the crowd wanting to know what he was going to do to get rid of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy – and to which, President Obama simply said, after a bit of exasperation, “I support the repeal of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy”. Upon him saying that, the crowd started to cheer!

Check out President Barack Obama responding to hecklers:

Justin Bieber Met President Barack Obama Twice

So let’s count the number of 16 year olds who have met with the President of the United States not just once, but on two different occasions.

Hmmm….  let’s see…. umm!  I can’t think of any, can you?

Well, there is one actually, and his name is Justin Bieber.

That’s right, Justin Bieber has actually met President Barack Obama two different times – pretty impressive huh?

In fact, one of those times Justin Bieber was invited directly into The Oval Office to hang out with President Barack Obama, take some pictures, and just chill out I guess.

Here’s what Justin Bieber had to say about hanging out with President Barack Obama in The Oval Office at the White House:

“I got to hang out with him in the Oval Office, which is pretty crazy, because no one really gets to go in there,” he said. “But it was pretty incredible. I got pictures with him.”

The two times that Justin Bieber has met and performed for President Barack Obama was when he took the  stage in the Washington D.C.  in December where he performed along with mentor Usher for “Christmas in Washington.”

And the second time Justin Bieber met President Barack Obama was just last week when he took part in the annual Easter Egg Roll.

Not too bad for being 16 years old and already hanging out with The President of the United States in The Oval Office!

Justice John Paul Stevens Retiring From Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc, is retiring. President Barack Obama now has his second high court opening to fill.

Stevens said Friday he will step down when the court finishes its work for the summer in late June or early July. He said he hopes his successor is confirmed “well in advance of the commencement of the court’s next term.”

His announcement had been hinted at for months. It comes 11 days before his 90th birthday.

Read more about Justice Stevens from Yahoo News

Dennis Kucinich Reluctantly To Vote For Obama Care

Can we not have leaders in our government who are willing to take a stand for what they truly believe in? Is it acceptable to have representatives in our government who break and give in to pressure from others?

That’s exactly what Rep. Dennis Kucinich has decided to do with his vote on Obama’s health care reform bill.

Kucinich, a Democrat, was one of the load roaring voices within the Democratic party that stood against President Obama’s health care reform.

But because of mounting pressure from the Democratic party, and from President Barack Obama himself, Kucinich has changed his mind and will “reluctantly” vote for Obama’s health care bill.

From the NYDailyNews.com, “I have taken this fight farther than many in Congress have been willing to take it,” Kucinich said, arguing that he owed it to his constituents to push for a single-payer health-care system that ends the power of insurance companies.

But, he said, “In the past week, it’s become clear that the vote on the final health bill will be very close.”

And he does not want to be the one who scuttles reform, even if he doesn’t think it’s good enough.

“I know I have to make a decision on the bill not as I’d like to see it, but as it is,” he said.

“After careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth and close friends, I’ve decided to cast my vote in favor.”

Man… what a disappointing day indeed to know that our elected officials in Washington are caving in to pressure, and casting a vote for a bill they truly do not believe in.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/03/17/2010-03-17_dennis_kucinich_staunch_critic_from_the_left_backs_obamas_health_care_bill__relu.html#ixzz0iSSwoJ2g

President Barack Obama’s closing statements at the Health Care Summit:

In his closing statements, President Obama made a plea to republicans to come to the table with resolutions, ideas, and ultimately solutions as to how the government produce effective health care reform.

A lot of the talking heads today are 100% convinced that Barack Obama will do anything in his power, to include bribery, manipulation, and “special favors” in order to sway key Senator votes in passing health care legislation.

Here’s a video of the President’s closing statements (what do you think?)

Question

Answer – use a racial slur against The President of the United States in front of students.

I understand that the political debate is intense at the moment in Washington DC.  With issues such as health care reform and dealing with record high unemployment, emotions can run high.  But when you start using racial slurs against President Barack Obama in front of high school students, then you’ve really gone too far.

Teacher fired for racial slur against Barack Obama

At the heart of the tension is the question of “how do we reform health care to control costs and expand coverage”.

What the Republicans, quite a few democrats, and business owners want is health care that corrects the incentives that inflate costs.  However, Obama is fixed almost exclusively on health care reform that allows for preventative care and expanded coverage, most of which would be funded by the Government.

Warren Buffet said of President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill, “…it’s 2000 pages of non-sense!”

Buffett described health-care costs as an impediment to U.S. businesses and said reform efforts have to put more emphasis on controlling them. He said the 17% of gross domestic product the U.S. spends every year on health care is unsustainable, and that most of America’s peers spend about half that amount.

“That kind of a cost, compared with the rest of the world, is like a tapeworm eating at our economic body,” the Associated Press quoted Buffett as saying.