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skip to main | skip to sidebar Obama Foodorama The Blog Of Record About White House Food Initiatives, From Policy To Pie Friday, October 11, 2013 The White House In Shutdown: First Lady Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden Is Wrecked Photos: The showcase plot is filled with unharvested vegetables and weeds, and wildlife running amok...Washington, DC - The first government shutdown in seventeen years has had a dramatic impact on First Lady Michelle Obama's world-famous Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn, currently bursting with more than thirty kinds of vegetables, including Presidential pumpkins awaiting harvest just in time for Halloween. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the famous White House kitchen garden, tomatoes are rotting on the vine. Herbs have gone to seed. And the sweet potatoes - a favorite of President Barack Obama - have become worm food. It's another impact of the government shutdown, one that only the fox and the many squirrels that live on the White House grounds could love. A foodie blog called Obamafoodarama that obsessively covers the White House "food ephemera" and the administration's food policy has posted photos of the normally immaculate garden looking more like what most gardeners' plots appear at this time of...

Veterans face off with Obama Storm Troopers At White House! (Video at link)

Veterans from every branch of the military have a message for our government. The message will be delivered in person at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13, in Washington, D.C. and at war memorials all across the nation. The Million Vet March on the Memorials is a grassroots movement started by five military brats, a term used to describe children of military members, to honor the nation's veterans.

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson.

Embattled IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram made 155 visits to the White House to meet with a top Obama White House official with whom she exchanged confidential taxpayer information over email. Of Ingram’s 165 White House meetings with White House staff, a staggering 155 of them were hosted by deputy assistant to the president for health policy Jeanne Lambrew, according to a June Watchdog.Org analysis of White House visitor records. Ingram exchanged confidential taxpayer information with Lambrew and White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (RELATED: White...

The Obama White House’s war against leaks, and its penchant for secrecy and noted lack of transparency, are the worst “since the Nixon administration,” according to a major new study that relied on interviews from leading Washington reporters and news organization chiefs. The report, released Thursday by the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ), found that reporters from many renowned media outlets consider the Obama administration the most closed-off in recent memory, and that there is not “any precedent” for its often hostile relationship toward the press.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government's aggressive prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information are having a chilling effect on journalists and government whistle-blowers, according to a report released Thursday on U.S. press freedoms under the Obama administration.

It is outrageous enough that the IRS and The White House were working in tandem so that the IRS shared confidential taxpayer information with the president and/or his aides. What makes the law-breaking doubly contemptible is that the information was shared in the context of a lawsuit against the despicable, unconstitutional ObamaCare abortifacient/contraceptive mandate: [Top ObamaCare official Sarah Hall] Ingram attempted to counsel the White House on a lawsuit from religious organizations opposing Obamacare’s contraception mandate. Email exchanges involving Ingram and White House officials — including White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz and deputy assistant to the president for...

Top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and provided to The Daily Caller. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/09/white-house-irs-exchanged-confidential-taxpayer-info/#ixzz2hFX51pwf

Is it a glimmer of hope, or more rhetoric as the deadline for possible government default gets closer? After weeks of near silence without any hint of a potential compromise between the Obama administration and congressional Republicans over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, the White House may be offering some conciliatory language that could help lead to a deal to prevent a potential default on October 17. As recently as Friday, White House officials declined to specify any demand for the length of a deal to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. Then on Monday, a White House official said it...

Evil Thought of the Day: If the Park Service is evicting residents from homes built on Federal Park lands. . . . . . .isn't the White House on National Park Land. Under Equal Protection Under Law, shouldn't the Obama's be evicted, too ??? Not that it will happen, as Some Animals are More Equal than Others. but. . .

DC rampage mom was ‘obsessed’ with Obama By Jamie Schram, Jeane Macintosh and Post Wires October 4, 2013 | 8:17am “She definitely had an obsession with him,” a law enforcement official said of Miriam Carey, 34. Carey also believed she was “the prophet of Stamford” and that the president was having her electronically monitored in order to broadcast her life on television, ABC News reported.

FULL TITLE: 'She thought President Obama was stalking her': Dental hygienist shot dead after ramming her car into the White House 'suffered delusions due to postpartum depression' The Connecticut mother who was gunned down by police yesterday after ramming a White House barrier with her young daughter in the car thought President Obama was stalking her, law sources said today. Investigators have found indications that Miriam Carey suffered delusions due to a history of mental illness, NBC Connecticut reports. Last night her mother revealed the 34-year-old has suffered from postpartum depression since giving birth to her daughter Erica last year....

WASHINGTON — Shortly before the federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, a small group of top White House officials huddled in the West Wing for what turned out to be a discussion of critical importance: how to run the place. They listened as soon-to-be-furloughed junior staff members showed them how to send a news release, issue a proclamation and distribute daily reports of President Obama’s activities. One crucial piece of information was how to clear someone through the security gates for Oval Office appointments. “I didn’t know how to do that before Monday night,” said Josh Earnest, the...

There was a time when even the highest government officials lived simpler lives. President George Washington made do with Tobias Lear, who not only served as his secretary, but also doubled as a diplomat and even measured his body for burial. President Thomas Jefferson made do with Meriwether Lewis as his personal secretary and Lewis also doubled as Jefferson’s explorer in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Washington worked on an expense account instead of a salary. He began his presidency working out of a rented three story house that was later demolished as a slum clearance project to make way...

House Republicans have violated the Constitution numerous times. They once violated our full faith and credit clause and threaten to do so again. They seek to undermine the post office, which is a constitutional requirement. They refuse the authority of the US Supreme Court and threaten to shut down the government. They are traitors and should be removed from office and prosecuted as such.

A Wisconsin school district is apologizing after middle school students were shown a video that featured Hollywood celebrities pledging to be a servant to President Obama.“I pledge to be a servant to our president,” Demi Moore said in the “I Pledge,” video shown Wednesday at Hudson Middle School. The video was part of a number of Peace One Day activities, an international event to build peace awareness. The students were also invited to make their own pledges after viewing the video. But there was a big problem – the video conveyed the idea that Americans should serve the presidency instead...

Stung by public unease about new details of spying by the National Security Agency, President Barack Obama selected a panel of advisers he described as independent experts to scrutinize the NSA’s surveillance programs to be sure they weren’t violating civil liberties and to restore Americans’ trust. But with just weeks remaining before its first deadline to report back to the White House, the review panel has effectively been operating as an arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NSA and all other U.S. spy efforts.The panel’s advisers work in offices on loan from the...

White House spokesperson Jay Carney criticized Republican leaders for moving “away from compromise,” but when asked if the administration would accept any delay in Obamacare, he replied, “No.” "House Republicans have decided to pursue a path away from the center, away from compromise in favor of voting on a piece of legislation that they know will not become law,” Carney said Wednesday. …

Yes, it’s official: lying to the government is now legally sanctioned.   “I did not have sex with that woman; Ms. Lewinski.” Because, as we all know, everyone lies about sex. The president’s “reforms” aim to turn doctors into government agents, pressuring them financially to ask questions they consider inappropriate and unnecessary, and to violate their Hippocratic Oath to keep patients’ records confidential.(snip) Doctors and hospitals who don’t comply with the federal government’s electronic-health-records requirements forgo incentive payments now; starting in 2015, they’ll face financial penalties from Medicare and Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services has already paid...

It was just a cockroach, one of millions around the world. But this one had a White House address, making it pretty special. Well, special at least to the reporters with workspace in the often-troubled basement of the press offices. Already this year, they have been treated to flooding, soaked carpet, mousetraps and the wondrous odors of mold.

As in cockroaches. But vermin is nothing new in a building that is 213 years old--and roaches aren't the worst of it...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Low-income workers on union health plans are not eligible for the same federal subsidies available to those who buy insurance in the new state health care marketplaces, the White House said Friday. The decision is a disappointment for labor unions, coming shortly after top union officials met for more than an hour with President Barack Obama to press their case that subsidies could be extended to union-sponsored plans.

What will the teleprompter say?! Either that or we will hear Valarie Jarrett's speech.

Barack Obama's plans for air strikes against Syria were thrown into disarray on Thursday night after the British parliament unexpectedly rejected a motion designed to pave the way to authorising the UK's participation in military action.

There is a growing volume of new evidence from numerous sources in the Middle East — mostly affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its sponsors and supporters — which makes a very strong case, based on solid circumstantial evidence, that the August 21, 2013, chemical strike in the Damascus suburbs was indeed a pre-meditated provocation by the Syrian opposition. The extent of US foreknowledge of this provocation needs further investigation because available data puts the “horror” of the Barack Obama White House in a different and disturbing light. On August 13-14, 2013, Western-sponsored opposition forces in Turkey started advance preparations...

Tuesday night, the Dodgers host the Cubs in Dodger Stadium and they are having possibly the best ballpark giveaway of the season. It's Rick Monday 'flag-saving' bobblehead night. That is, it commemorates the time Cubs outfielder Rick Monday saved an American flag was being burnt on the Dodgers Stadium outfield from a few protestors.

President Obama signaled in an exclusive interview with radio hosts Tom Joyner and Sybil Wilkes that Martin Luther King Jr. would have liked his health care plan for Americans. Obama spoke to the pair in the Oval Office to recognize the 50th anniversary of King’s March on Washington. “What do you think he’d say about Obamacare?” asked Joyner, when discussing King’s legacy. “Oh he’d like that,” Obama asserted. “Well, because he understood that health care, health security is not a privilege, it’s something in a county as wealthy as ours, everybody should have access to.”

The Washington Post wrote the following a couple of days ago: The Obama administration is reportedly proposing Cass Sunstein as a member of a panel to review the surveillance practices of the National Security Agency (NSA), among other former White House and intelligence staffers. Sunstein was the head of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs until last year, when he returned to teaching at Harvard Law School. While at Harvard in 2008, Sunstein co-authored a working paper that suggests government agents or their allies “cognitively infiltrate” conspiracy theorist groups by joining ”chat rooms, online social networks or...

...In 1972, the Miami Dolphins won 14 regular season games, and another three in the post season, leaving them with a perfect season, and a Super Bowl trophy. President Barack Hussein Obama invited the team to the White House, which has been closed to US citizens since March 9th, 2013. Known as “the People’s House,” the tours were shut down under the Obama administration, as part of a set of “sequester” budget cuts championed by the president. Critics have noted that Obama continues hosting extravagant events, despite the economic downturn, and earlier promises to resume tours as soon as possible....

On the Friday before Christmas, President Obama announced that he was appointing Mohamed A. El-Erian, the CEO of Pacific Investment Management Company, as the chairman of his Global Development Council. The announcement didn’t get much attention, but it should. It exemplifies what’s wrong with Obama’s approach to economic policy, which amounts to: insult rich people as “fat cats,” raise their taxes, and then choose a favored few of them for special access. If you’re not familiar with El-Erian, you must not be watching CNBC or attending the World Economic Forum at Davos. The son of an Egyptian ambassador to France...

When it came time to pick a little puppy pal for White House dog, Bo, the Obama family seems to have made the politically incorrect choice of purchasing a pure-bred instead of adopting a rescue dog from one of the many shelters that become the last stop for millions of dogs before they are euthanized.

Workmen transporting a house next to the White House. (President Calvin Coolidge apparently had no concern about this.)

The cost of weather-related power outages is high and rising as storms grow more severe and the U.S. electric grid gets older, according to an Obama Administration report that calls for increased spending on the nation’s electric power system. Power outages cost the economy $18 billion to $33 billion per year, according to the report, a figure that has been rising steadily over the past 20 years. That can rise to $40 billion to $75 billion in years with severe storms such as 2008’s Hurricane Ike and last year’s Superstorm Sandy. …

Over the decades, the federal regulatory state has grown while legislative control over those regulatory policies has declined, and back in 2010, the GOP came up with the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act as part of their red-tape reining Pledge to America. The REINS Act would make major regulations (defined as those with a calculated price tag of $100 million or more) contingent upon Congressional approval, and it’s been introduced in each of the past three Congresses but obviously never stood a chance in the Senate. The House is poised to vote once again on the...

Egyptians have long been frustrated with President Obama and his administration for backing Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood as they’ve protested the once-banned group’s abuses and negative impact on their country. Now Egyptians are employing the petition system that the White House set up to air grievances and request policy changes. …

Muslim Dinner at White House By Julio Severo According to CBNNews, President Barack Obama praised the accomplishments of Muslims in America at his fifth annual Iftar dinner. The event, hosted at the White House Thursday, is an observance of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan. While the Muslim ideology kills Christians around the world, Obama praises it at White House “Throughout our history Islam has contributed to the character of our country, and Muslim Americans and their good works have helped to build our nation and we have seen the results,” Obama said. The Muslim tradition at the White...

The White House on Wednesday condemned a Republican congressman’s assertion that many immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as kids are actually running drugs. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the comments from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, “were extremely unfortunate, and I think a number of people have pointed out that they were offensive.” “They certainly don’t help any efforts by Republicans to improve their standing among Hispanic Americans, I would assume,” Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president traveled to deliver an economic speech in Galesburg, Ill. …

The congressional investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of tea-party groups inched closer to the White House yesterday as testimony from three IRS attorneys indicated lawyers in the agency’s chief counsel’s office were involved in reviewing the applications of tea-party groups for tax exemption. The office is led by William Wilkins, one of two IRS officials appointed by President Obama. A source tells National Review Online that Judith Kindell, a senior adviser to Lois Lerner, also held up the processing of tea-party cases by demanding to review them herself. Lerner, who has become emblematic of the scandal that continues...

The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in...

Actors. Actresses. NFL football players. Baseball players. Librarians. Mayors. City councilmen. Members of AARP. The Obama administration is looking far and wide, leaving no stone unturned in a relentless search for…well…for help. Help with what? Help with getting people to enroll in health insurance plans this fall. And why is that? Because the administration is facing the very real possibility that its signature piece of legislation may fall flat on its face. Last week's announcement that the employer mandate will be delayed for a year and that income verification for people getting subsidies will also be delayed are the latest...

Censoring the f-word, the n-word, the s-word, and the a-word, singer Rachel Crow performed a kid-friendly version of rap artist Cee Lo Green's song "F*** You" at the White House.

Listen and watch as the case against Barack Obama and those who want to destroy our American freedoms. Please pass this on to every patriot you know.

Surprised by the recent waivers from the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act? Get ready for more, writes Margot Sanger-Katz at National Journal, because the employer mandate is far from the only piece of ObamaCare that’s not ready for prime time. In fact, it might be easier to select the few components that might be ready for the implementation target date than to number those that won’t: If you’ve been reading all the Obamacare stories lately, you might get the impression that the administration has just realized it will not be able to implement the massive health reform as...

As I explained back in April, I’m cautiously optimistic that Obamacare will fall apart for the simple reason that it’s impossible to have a workable government-run healthcare system without the type of brutal rationing and sub-standard care found in places like the United Kingdom. So part of me is happy that the White House has bumped into reality and now admits that it hasn’t been able to come up with a workable plan for the employer mandate. But another part of me is unhappy. One of the defining characteristics of a civilized government is adherence to the rule of law. Clearly written laws,...

Forget Paula Deen. There are far more dangerous bigots and poisonous haters spoiling the American landscape. They cook up violent rhetoric and murderous plots against our troops, our citizens and our allies 24/7. And they have direct access to the White House. Earlier this week, the indefatigable Investigative Project on Terrorism blew the whistle on the Obama administration's latest flirtation with Muslim jihad. Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah bragged on his website that he had met with Team Obama on June 13. IPT reported that bin Bayyah was invited by National Security Council official Gayle Smith "to learn from you and...

A senior Obama administration official confirmed to Fox News that members of the National Security Council staff met with a controversial Muslim scholar, but stressed that they were focused on his recent efforts to counter the Al Qaeda narrative. The official was responding to a report on Wednesday from The Investigative Project on Terrorism, which uncovered a statement on the website of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah claiming he met June 13 with Obama administration officials at the White House. Bin Bayyah is vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, a group founded by Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi --...

Full title: EXCLUSIVE: Deputy of banned suicide-bomb-endorsing cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi had White House meeting with National Security Council staff --------------------------------------- The UK and U.S. have banned Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who leads the anti-Israel International Union of Muslim Scholars. The Obama administration invited that group's VP, Abdallah bin Bayyah, to a private meeting on the day it announced support for Syria's rebelsThe organization ended its December 2012 board meeting by calling for the end of Israel and the return of its lands to the PalestiniansHours after MailOnline began inquiring with the National Security Council about its meeting with bin Bayyah, the cleric's...

Are the one-man diplomatic stylings of newly-appointed Secretary of State John Kerry perhaps getting a little too grandiose, even for the White House’s liking? So reports the Associated Press, and it is certainly true that, in just the first four months of his tenure, John Kerry has made for himself a schedule that keeps him all kinds of busy traveling hither and yon. Kerry’s long-term ambitions for the top job at State were hardly ever a secret, and it sounds like he might be taking himself just a bit too seriously in some White House officials’ estimation: Since succeeding Hillary...