The first lady hit up The Tonight Show with Jay Leno about how to cope with raising kids in the White House and being married to the President. She also talked about the Prez’s singing. Funny!

She even got Jay to eat healthy LOL!

Leno once told a magazine he hadn’t eaten a vegetable since 1969, and he insisted he tasted his last apple in 1984. That didn’t dissuade the first lady, who’s promoting her “Let’s Move!” campaign to get kids excited about fitness and healthy eating habits.

Earlier, Obama poked fun at him in a Twitter post, hinting she’d “get Jay to eat some veggies” on the NBC show.

Blackmediascoop.com

‘He does have a beautiful voice, and he sings to me all the time,’ Michelle Obama told ‘The Tonight Show’ host Jay Leno.

The president showed off his skills recently when he sang a bar of an Al Green song during a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

The First Lady dazzled in her high waisted mint green J. Crew skirt, a gold-flecked sweater and a pair of low, pointed-toe heels for  her TV appearance.

Watch Michelle Obama Show Off Her Dance Moves On iCarly [VIDEO]

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President Obama sang a bit of Al Green’s classic ‘Let’s Stay Together’ at a fund-raiser at the Apollo Theater and a week later, sales of the original version jumped %500. WOW.

There’s a lotta ways that have been proposed to boost the American economy; the President covered everything from clean energy to saving the auto-industry in his recent State Of The Union address. We’d like to offer yet another suggestion;

Have President Barack Obama sing a bit of his favorite songs. President Obama got the golden-voice and can the music industry just “flexing the golden pipes” every now-and-then.  The Rev. Al Green can attest to this fact and the Prez actually can carry a tune. I advocate having President Obama belt out a bit of some soul classics when the spirit hits him, then we can stand back and admire the results as we watch our legends get a well-deserved ‘Presidential escort’ back into the limelight.

Kudos to our President for going above and beyond the call of duty. I really wouldn’t be upset if he took a stab at some of Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson’s catalogue.

Source: MTV News

Seeing as how this is the last year of President Obama‘s term (unless we re-elect him), it’s important for us to know what he has planned and how it will effect us. Here are three points from the State of the Union that you should be aware of, either for water cooler talk or just to be in the know.

Economy: This has been a pressing issue for the United States even before President Obama was elected. Last night, this was the star of the speech. The President wants to provide programs to improve education and job training. There’s a gap in the skill set between under-trained, under-educated and unemployed Americans and the jobs they’re not quite qualified for. Realistically speaking, Obama knows that it’s going to take time to get the almost 50% of Americans who’ve been without a job for 6 months or more back to work, but is determined to make that happen within his term and hopefully within the next.

He also wants to provide a tax break to companies who “insource” jobs back to the United States. With this break, companies are rewarded for hiring U.S. citizens. He also wants to see U.S. exports increase and is willing to travel all around the world to open up new markets for U.S. products.

And what about college loans putting students further into debt? If the President’s intentions come to pass, congress would prevent student loan rates from going up, extend a tax credit for college tuition and double the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.

Energy: President Obama wants to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and would like to develop every available source of American energy, from using our natural gas resources (he noted that he wants all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use to avoid health risks) to new technology in the clean energy sector.

Clean energy is key in the preservation of our world as we know it. “I’m directing my administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public land to power 3 million homes. And I’m proud to announce that the Department of Defense, working with us, the world’s largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history — with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.”

American Values: This topic is a heavy one for the American people. President Obama wants us all to have equal economic opportunities, specifically with the tax code. He wants this economy to work for us all, not just the wealthy 1%.

This means that the wealthy Americans will pay the taxes they should be paying as opposed to paying less than the lesser paid Americans–”The Buffet Rule.” If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes and if you make under $250,000 a year, like most Americans do, your taxes shouldn’t go up.

In the speech, President Obama stated, “If you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college and put a little away for retirement.” Basically, our President wants a “fairer America,” a country that allows for the equal treatment financially for us all.

The speech of course brought up more topics, like an extension on mandatory school age attendance, creation of trade enforcement unit, an urge for immigration overhaul, establishment of financial crimes unit, protecting homeowners from abusive lending, peaceful resolutions to Iran, building a relationship with Afghanistan among many other pressing topics. In case you missed it, you can read the transcripts of the entire speech here or view it here.

Follow me on Twitter @Rhapsodani!

Who Knew? President Obama Sings “Let’s Stay Together” [VIDEO]

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RELATED: What To Expect In Obama’s State Of The Union Speech

Tonight at 9pm EST, Obama is expected to focus on the economy. Obviously. But, more specifically, he is reportedly going to deal with economic inequity.

As with all State of the Union addresses, they are often tailored to the times in which that are delivered. The Huffington Post outlined some memorable themes from previous speeches.

Last year’s address was a call for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

“We will move forward together or not at all,” said Obama. He advocated for investments in education, technology and transportation while calling for deficit reduction. “We do big things,” closed Obama. “The idea of America endures.”

In 2010, Obama used his address as a rallying call:

In 2010, with the White House and the Democratic Party reeling from the surprise loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat to Scott Brown – which threw the chance of passing health care reform in doubt — Obama declared “I don’t quit” but acknowledged that “change has not come fast enough.” During the speech, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito shook his head in disagreement when Obama assailed the Citizens United decision on campaign finance.

In his first State of the Union address, he focused on the economy that refused to improve:

In March 2009, Obama delivered his first State of the Union amid an economic catastrophe. He called for increased financial regulation, more investments in health care, energy and education. “Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” he said.

It seems like Obama may have to look back on that speech he made some four years ago because the economy is still in bad shape. Perhaps, the Republican Party will remind us of this fact in the traditional partisan rebuttal following his speech.

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President Obama showed off his vocal talents during a fundraising appearance at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY on Thursday night. Singing a little snippet from Al Green’s 1972 hit, “Let’s Stay Together” what made it even more amusing was the fact that the Rev. Al Green was actually among the crowd of 1,400 supporters.

“To know that Rev. Al Green was here!” President Obama said looking off stage.

“I…I’m…soooo in love with you,” he sang as the crowd began to applause and cheer, reports USA Today. The president admitted that he doesn’t quite have the same amount of talent as Green. “Don’t worry, Rev, I cannot sing like you…but I just wanted to show my appreciation,” he joked.

He also pointed to people backstage, telling the audience that “These guys didn’t think I would do it, but I told them I was going to do it!”

Take a look:

(SOURCE Hello Beautiful)

by theGrio.com

From EurWeb: Tavis Smiley appeared on the Joe Madison show on Monday (January 9) and said that if the election were held today that he would vote a second time for President Obama.

Hmm, that outta surprise the Tavis haters out there.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

theGrio.com

Blackvoices.com

Sean Hannity and Prof. Cornel West had a lively discussion about Herman Cain and President Obama on Hannity’s Wednesday show. While the chat wasn’t as explosive as West’s epic conversation with Bill O’Reilly, things got pretty heated at times.

Hannity began by asking West whether he thought Obama deserves a second term. West said that he did, but that he wished Obama was “even more intense in terms of his commitment to poor and working people.”

Hannity blanched at this. “Hang on a second!” he said. “He’s already given us $5 trillion in debt … and that’s not enough for you? You want more money.”

“No, no, not at all,” West said. “My problem is that in America, oligarchs rule and rotating politicians reign!” He accused Hannity of spreading the “falsehood” that Obama is a socialist. “He’s a neoliberal tied to the oligarchs!” he cried.

Hannity moved on, interrogating West about his comment some months ago that Herman Cain should “get off the symbolic crack pipe” for saying that racism is not holding black people back in America.

“I think you owe Herman Cain an apology,” Hannity told West. “Why can’t somebody be African American and conservative?”

West said that he simply meant that Cain was “living in Never Never Land” because he was downplaying race when it came to “the prison industrial complex,” immigration policy and other issues.

Hannity said that racism was “repugnant,” but that he bet West found the attacks on Cain to be “repugnant.” West said that he was simply disagreeing with Cain’s views.

WATCH:

Blackvoices.com

by theGrio.com

Since Haiti’s devastating quake two years ago today, many Republicans and Democrats have been urging President Obama to take a simple step to save lives and speed recovery, one which would cost virtually nothing, reunite families, and help thousands in Haiti.

Ten editorial boards have urged the Obama administration to take the step, as have nine U.S. senators, the chairpersons of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Philadelphia’s City Council, 87 members of the U.S. Congress in a December 15 letter, eight Florida Congresspersons including Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson in a December 22 letter, the Center for Global Development and many others.

But for two full years administration officials have stalled them and Haitian American leaders, saying the step is “under consideration,” in effect a way of saying “no.”

What’s the proposal? Consider this: 112,000 people in Haiti are beneficiaries of family-based visa petitions which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already approved but who nevertheless remain on a 3 to 10 year wait list in Haiti, where many may not survive given the dangerous conditions there.

As it has for others, DHS easily could and should create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program to expedite reunifying them with their petitioning families here. DHS has approved them for U.S. residency and all have a U.S. family support network in place. And for any who, after paying a large fee to the U.S. Treasury, would get a work permit and a job, their remittances — the life-saving money from Haiti’s diaspora which is its most important single source of revenue — would help ten times their number in Haiti.

A July 17, 2010 Boston Globe editorial called this the “most effective way” to show U.S. leadership on Haiti. And a March 22, 2010 Miami Herald editorial — the first of three by that paper urging this, the most recent of which appeared yesterday — asserted, “There is no valid argument for failing to move quickly on this front.” That was 22 months ago.

The United States has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Indochinese, Kosovar and Cuban refugees in recent decades, and there is even more direct precedent for creating this program for the Haitians.

In 2007, DHS created the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, under which since 2009 over 30,000 approved Cuban beneficiaries have been paroled. Many of the editorials now urging a similar Haitian program have decried the “double standard” in not also expediting Haitian family reunification, Los Angeles Times editors for example asking, “Why the disparate treatment?”

On November 2, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was urged by Massachusetts leaders, for the third time in six weeks, to create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program to “mirror” the Cuban one. That state’s 9-member black and Latino Legislative Caucus wrote:

We are deeply concerned about the precarious status of many Haitian children, elders and families as they wait in Haiti to be reunited with their families in the United States. As you know, for many, the conditions in Haiti since the devastating earthquake of 2010 remain unstable and even dangerous. Establishing a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program (HFRPP), modeled after the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, would alleviate this crisis by simply allowing Haitians already approved for visas to wait for them in the United States with their families rather than in Haiti.

Their letter cited the proposed program’s “economic benefits,” including “sending more remittances home to Haiti to foster economic development with greater speed.”

see more photos here