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1st Lady Says The President Sings To Her All The Time

WTLC-FM 106.7 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:43:19 +0000

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

Smoke Bomb Thrown At White House During Occupy Protests

Cochise — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:27:35 +0000

WASHINGTON-The White House was on lock down for more than an hour after what appeared to be a smoke bomb was thrown over the fence onto the executive compound.

The smoke bomb was thrown while between 1,000 and 1,500 people affiliated with Occupy D.C. were protesting outside the White House.

Reuters reports:

A majority of the protesters had left the area earlier and there had been no arrests, he said.

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, went out to dinner to celebrate her birthday and were not at the White House when the incident began but returned while the investigation was under way.

Members of the White House press pool were prevented from leaving for about 45 minutes before they were escorted off the grounds. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was also closed during the investigation.

Melody Barnes Leaves White House Amid Crisis

Cochise — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:22:26 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Melody Barnes is leaving as White House chief domestic policy adviser at a time when President Barack Obama’s administration is getting little notice for its work on the home front to fix the struggling economy.

SEE ALSO: Why Ron Paul Got A Free Pass

Barnes, who will be gone by Tuesday, is quick to point out that there have been many domestic achievements, even though the public is dissatisfied.

“I completely understand what the American public is feeling,” she said in an interview in her tidy West Wing office. “Real people are hurting in a significant way. … At the same time, I’m proud of the things we’ve been able to accomplish over the last few years.”

Her office is wrestling with multiple thorny issues now just as it was when Barnes started as Obama’s domestic policy team director in 2009.

Back then, the economy plunged into free-fall and the country was in its worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Jobs were being lost at a rate of about 750,000 a month – a number Barnes still finds so staggering she said she has to double-check it every time she says it.

Homes were being foreclosed, unemployment was skyrocketing and reaching double the national average in the black community. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on, an outbreak of H1N1flu virus became a pandemic, and a tsunami that hit Japan crippled a nuclear plant near Tokyo, to name some of the highlights.

Even her chance to play golf with the president, the first time a woman joined him, was a response to what was a public image crisis for Obama. The president was getting flak for playing basketball with men and fostering complaints about a boys’ club in the White House.

Just before Christmas, the president and Congress wrangled over a two-month extension of a Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. Obama won a victory when the proposal won bipartisan support in the Senate and finally was accepted by House Republicans under extreme pressure.

Barnes, a Richmond, Va., native with a career in government and private sector work, is bowing out of the political arena as Obama struggles with low approval ratings on his handling of the economy.

A majority of Americans do not think the president deserves a second term, according to the most recent Associated Press-GfK poll. But at the same time, the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.6 percent, the lowest level since March 2009. The president’s overall approval rating stands at 44 percent, the lowest of his term in AP-GfK surveys.

His strong stance against House Republicans in the payroll tax standoff has caused an uptick in approval ratings in subsequent polls.

Barnes expects the list of legislative victories that she and others pulled off amid the hemorrhaging economy will become more clear in the coming year as the dark clouds of the economy disperse.

She tops that list with the early work to stabilize the economy, 21 months of consistent job growth and the president’s long-term investments in education overhaul, an area that became her specialty.

“Our work on education reform, it’ll be part of this president’s legacy,” she said.

Barnes said that with a fraction of what the federal government spends annually on education, about $100 billion, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the administration tapped into an education reform movement taking place at the grass roots among governors and local communities frustrated with the prescriptive, one-size-fits-all mandates of No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration’s education cornerstone.

Congress has yet to approve revisions to No Child Left Behind, states are using up the stimulus money, and Obama’s Race to the Top grant program faces spending cuts. But Barnes said Obama has given a boost to education law changes that now allow such things as connecting student performance and teacher evaluations.

Barnes, chief counsel to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Obama also deserves credit for passage of a health care overhaul, legislation that she had worked on for eight years with Kennedy. The Massachusetts senator spent his career trying to restructure health care.

There’s also the auto industry bailout, expansion of Pell grants to help fund college education, the end of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and work to advance civil rights, she said.

“When you are worried about day to day, it’s hard to step back and to take all those other things in,” Barnes said. “Although at the same time, I’m literally in the grocery store and people come up to me and say, `Hey, you work for the president. You keep on doing what you are doing.’ ”

Married a few months into the president’s first year, Barnes plans to spend more time with family. She is considering offers in the private sector but hasn’t disclosed what those are.

SEE ALSO:

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Suspect In White House Shooting Captured In Pennsylvania

Cochise — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:09:10 +0000

On Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement captured a man suspected in a shooting incident near the White House.

Police took 21-year-old Oscar Ortega into custody at a hotel near Indiana, Pa. Using information provided by the Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police made the arrest at 12:35 p.m.

Secret Service confirmed on Tuesday morning that 2 bullets were found on the White House grounds, one of them lodged in ballistic glass behind a historic window.

On Friday night, an arrest warrant was issued for Ortega in the shooting.

Law enforcement said Ortega moved into the D.C. region several weeks ago. His family in Idaho Falls, Idaho reported him missing on October 31.

Smoked Out! White House Rejects Marijuana Legalization Petitions

Cochise — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:51:18 +0000

WASHINGTON — The White House has rejected several petitions calling for the legalization of marijuana including one that would stop the federal government from interfering with individual states’ marijuana laws. The government has recently began shutting down marijuana dispensaries in California and has pledged to continue to do so.

California Votes Down Marijuana Legalization Measure Prop 19

Lights Out! DOJ Relaunches Assault On Medical Marijuana In California

The Huffington Post reports:

“As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem,” wrote Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in a statement released late on Friday. “We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.” “It’s maddening that the administration wants to continue failed prohibition polices that do nothing to reduce drug use and succeed only in funneling billions of dollars into the pockets of the cartels and gangs that control the illegal market,” said Franklin, who serves as executive director of advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, in a statement released Saturday.

Obama Family’s Life In The White House Inspires New Sitcom

Cochise — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:22:52 +0000

Since President Barack Obama was elected, the first family's every move has been scrutinized by the media. Now, NBC is developing a new television sitcom inspired by the Obamas, which focuses on a dysfunctional first family and their life in the White House. See also: The sitcom, titled 1600 Penn, is a comedic spin written by Josh Gad and Jon Lovett, two... Read more..

Obama Advisor, Melody Barnes, Speaks On Resignation

Cochise — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:59:41 +0000

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes spoke on why she decided to leave her position during an “Open for Questions” Q&A session moderated by The Root.

Barnes will leave the White House at the end of the year, she said Thursday.

VIDEO:

“I think we have been able to make changes, even though there’s still so much work to be done,” replied Barnes, pointing out the Obama administration’s work on education as something she is particularly proud to have helped shape.

Obama: “We Must Pump It Up To Pass Jobs Act”

WTLC-FM 106.7 — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:35:45 +0000

Four days after President Obama laid out the American Jobs Act for Congress, he took his message to a public forum attended by over 100 African Americans at the White House and live-streamed over the Internet, imploring them to help get the bill passed.

“We are at a critical juncture in our country and this Jobs Act can deliver,” said Obama. “I need people to get out there and support this. If Congress doesn’t get it done, we know exactly who is holding this up.”

With Black unemployment at a 27-year-high of 16.7 percent, the President laid out specifics of his plan and how it would help to get the African-American community back to work.

The plan would provide summer jobs for youth (45 percent unemployment for Black youth) and boost the paychecks of 20 million Black workers through an extension and expansion of the payroll tax. It would also extend unemployment insurance for nearly 1.4 million African Americans who have been unemployed six months or longer.

The forum, titled “Open for Questions with InteractiveOne,” featured various administration officials discussing how the administration’s polices have affected and will affect the Black community, taking questions from NewsOne.com and its sister sites in the InteractiveOne network, TheGrio.com, TheUrbanDaily.com, HelloBeautiful.com, and BlackPlanet.com.

The featured speakers included Director of Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, US Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Deputy Administrator of the US Small Business Administration Marie Johns, Ambassador and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

For over two hours, panelists and audience members peppered administration officials such as Valerie Jarrett with comments and questions from Twitter and social networking site, BlackPlanet.com.

The president urged the panelists and audience members to knock on doors to help educate the American public about the benefits of this bill.

“We must pump it up to pass this Jobs Act,” said Obama.

Below is a video of the event:

Obama Offers Mortgage Relief To Unemployed Homeowners

Cochise — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:55:45 +0000

WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration announced Thursday that adjustments will be made to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), requiring services to extend the forbearance period for unemployed homeowners from 3 months to 12 months, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Expected to become a standard for the mortgage industry, these adjustments will allot unemployed homeowners more time to find employment while keeping their homes.

Forbearance will also be extended to severely delinquent borrowers.

The adjustment to the FHA will work in concert with other successful initiatives framed by the Administration: the Hard Hit Fund and the Emergency Homeowner Loan Program (EHLP). The FHA provides aid to 18 states and the District of Columbia, implementing programs to avoid homeowners from foreclosure. The EHLP, which compliments the Hard Hit Fund by serving the remaining states and Puerto Rico, assists homeowners who experience reduction in income and face possibly foreclosure due to involuntary underemployment.

The Downward Spiral Of The Black Housing Crisis

Obama Administration: Weiner Scandal Is A Distraction

Cochise — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:32:02 +0000

WASHINGTON — After much silence, the Obama administration is speaking out on the Weinergate scandal. White House press secretary Jay Carney said President Obama believes Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) was wrong to send a lewd photo over Twitter and then lie about it, but the continuing scandal surrounding it has become a distraction from important national business.

Aboard Air Force One during a trip to Raleigh, N.C. Carney said, “The president feels, we feel at the White House, this is a distraction, as Congressman Weiner has said himself, his behavior was inappropriate; dishonesty was inappropriate.”

While many Democrats have called for Weiner to step down from his Congressional seat, Carney told reporters that the president’s staff has not been involved in calling for Weiner’s resignation.