The first family spent Friday night at a lodge in Montana where Obama went fly-fishing -no, he didn’t catch any fish – and Michelle, Malia and Sasha went white-water rafting.
The next day they took a helicopter ride to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and accompanied by his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng her husband Konrad and their daughter, the party drove through the park in a motorcade, took an official tour with Park Ranger Katy Duffy and even stopped at the Old Faithful General Store where the President and Malia deliberated over which flavor ice cream to purchase.
Next stop on Obama’s weekend tour -Grand Canyon National Park.
President Obama presented the nation’s highest civilian medal, the Medal of Freedom, to 16 notables in the fields of theater, sports, science, humanities and politics on Wednesday at the White House.
Among the recipients were Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier, Archibishop Desmond Tutu, Actress Chita Rivera, physicist Stephen Hawkings, and tennis legend Billie Jean King,
“This is a chance for me — and for the United States of America — to say thank you to some of the finest citizens of this country and of all countries,” Mr. Obama said at the ceremony in the East Room of the White House.
It was both moving and poignant to watch the nation’s first African American president bestow an award to Poitier,who himself has broken through racial barriers, and Billie Jean King, who has made strides for both women and the gay community. However, the most priceless moment was when Obama got a face full of feathers as he placed a medal on 95 year-old Native American historian and educator, Joseph Medicine Crow.
Photo: Jim Young
The President met Medicine Crow during his campaign last year and was made an honorary member of the Crow tribe. Medicine Crow is the tribe’s sole surviving tribal war chief amd became the first of his tribe to receive a masters in anthropology in 1939.
The full list of recipients…
Nancy Goodman Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Pedro José Greer Jr., founder of the Camillus Health Concern, St. John Bosco Clinic Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist Jack Kemp, professional football player, Republican Vice President Nominee in 1996 Sen. Edward Kennedy, leading health-care advocate Billie Jean King, acclaimed professional tennis player
Reverend Joseph Lowery, civil rights movement leader Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, last living Plains Indian war chief Harvey Milk, first openly gay elected official Sandra Day O’Connor, first female U.S. Supreme Court justice Sidney Poitier, first African-American to win a Best Actor Academy Award Chita Rivera, first Hispanic recipient of Kennedy Center Honor Mary Robinson, first female President of Ireland Janet Davidson Rowley, geneticist Desmond Tutu, anti-Apartheid activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus, anti-poverty leader, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
President Barack Obama celebrated his 48th birthday on Tuesday and shared the love with long-time White House reporter Helen Thomas, who was also celebrating her birthday.
Obama led a roomful of reporters in singing “Happy Birthday” and presented Thomas with cupcakes and a kiss on the cheek.
“Helen wished for world peace, (and) no prejudice, but she and I also had a common birthday wish,” Obama said. “She said she wishes for a healthcare reform bill.”
And what did the President do to honor his own special day? A lunch meeting with 57 of the 60 Democratic senators and independents. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama already celebrated his birthday over the weekend at Camp David with family and friends, playing basketball and bowling a 144.
Posters depicting President Barack Obama as the Joker character from the Batman series Dark Knight with the word “socialism” across it have been appearing in Los Angeles causing some to cry racism and others to call it political commentary fail.
The posters are believed to be part of a campaign by conservatives who do not agree with Obama’s policies, but as yet is unconfirmed. The creator of the poster is also as yet unknown.
Critics have already accused the Joker depiction as being racist because of the similarity to the “blackface” caricature. Rightpundits.com scoffs at these racist claims and makes a rather good point saying, “There’s nothing racist about depicting Obama as a famous movie character. The poster equates him to a famous clown which had large red lips. If you think this is racist, I guess a black man can never dress up as a clown.”
“If I had to design the poster I would’ve turned Obama into Mao or Lenin,” Rightpundits goes on to say.
What does this poster represent to you? Propoganda, racism, or just great pop art.
The four men convened in the Rose Garden in what is now being referred to as the “beer summit, “where they spent a lot of time discussing the future,” said Crowley.
“I think what you had today was two gentlemen who agreed to disagree on a particular issue,” Crowley told reporters.
Gates stressed that they must use the opportunity “to foster greater sympathy among the American public for the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand.”
Obama was apparently pleased with his spin control beer session, especially after inciting media outrage with the comment “Cambridge police acted stupidly,” and said in a statement, “I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart.”
“I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode,” Obama went on to say.
The beer of choice for the group: Bud Light for Obama, Blue Moon for Crowley, Sam Adams Light for Gates, and a nonalcoholic Buckler for Vice President Joe Biden.
President Obama commented on the recent arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates at his Boston, Massachusetts home at a press conference on Wednesday saying if he himself tried to “jigger” his way into the White House he’d “get shot” -which got a big laugh from the roomful of reporters.
The President went on to say, “I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it’s fair to say, number one: any of us would be pretty angry; number two: that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three: what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately -that’s just a fact.”
After her Rainbow Brite skirt DON’T, we were seriously questioning our First Lady’s style…but after Michelle Obama debuted this sleek new bob on Tuesday, we fell in love with her style all over again.
The gorgeous figure looked stunning as she and the president hosted a country music celebration in the White House’s East Room with Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss.
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