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"The Secret Service isn't happy about this," President Barack Obama joked with eighth-grader Joey Hudy, of Phoenix, Ariz., as he convinced the kid to launch a marshmallow across the crowded room today (Feb. 7) at the White House. The student scientist and the commander in chief were hamming it up at the second White House Science Fair, where Obama stressed the importance of science and engineering education for our country's future and announced increased investment in science education from both the public and private sector. "This is what's going to make a difference in the country over the long haul....

Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins goalie, snubs President Obama By DONOVAN SLACK | 1/23/12 3:14 PM EST There was a notable absence during a White House reception this afternoon for the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins: star goalie Tim Thomas. Thomas refused the invite for "political reasons," Sports Illustrated reports. The goaltender was the only member of the Bruins who wasn't at the ceremony, where President Obama congratulated the team on its victory. Thomas is a staunch conservative and is expected to explain his snub of the president on his Facebook page this evening.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is considering moving the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte to Bank of America Stadium to sell more skyboxes to wealthy donors, according to three Democrats involved in the fundraising. The 74,000-seat home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers would also have room for the convention to sell more floor passes close to the stage. Planners for the event are struggling to meet a $36.6 million fundraising goal, according to the Democrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter. Obama's advisers are aware of the political...

Report says global climate deal hinges on Obama reelectionBy Ben Geman - 01/05/12 11:55 AM ET Prospects for striking a binding global climate deal by 2015 are probably toast if President Obama loses in November. That’s among the conclusions in a wide-ranging, new climate and green energy outlook from banking giant HSBC’s research branch. A major outcome from the United Nations climate talks in December was a plan to craft a deal by 2015 — one that would include big, developing nations such as China — and have it come into force by 2020. But Obama’s main Republican White House...

President Barack Obama has characterized his views on same-sex marriage as “evolving.” While he has traditionally opposed gay marriage, some intriguing developments — including a wedding card he purportedly sent to a gay couple — are leading to questions surrounding whether he’ll soon change his mind. With the campaign cycle heating up, this may be a demographic he’ll more actively pursue. Regarding the alleged note: A recently-married gay couple has come forward saying that they received a random card from the president. The note, which offers them well-wishes as they start their life together, may be further evidence that Obama...

“These people are going to end up rioting about this,” says Sheila Tyson, a community activist in Jefferson County, Ala. “If they let this stuff happen they are going to get the biggest riot the South has ever seen . . . I can see it coming.” That’s a pretty serious prediction. What could possibly start a riot that big? She’s talking about the likelihood of Jefferson County increasing its water and sewage bill rates. Oh. Is it really all that bad? “If the sewer bill gets higher, my light might get cut off and if I try to catch...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 21% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20

Building on pro-gay policies put in place by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama today ordered overseas federal agencies to fight local anti-gay violence and provide asylum to homosexuals seeking protection. Obama said, "I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world -- whether it is passing laws that criminalize LGBT status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women, and children for their perceived sexual orientation." >>SNIP<< "There is no question that the administration's record of advancing equality for LGBT people has been enhanced by the leadership...

December 1, 2011 11:19am 331 Comments Obama: My kids will succeed, even if USA doesn't byJoel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer Follow on Twitter:Follow @jsgehrkejr President Obama believes that Republican leadership of the country would ruin the United States as a land of opportunity, but he's (justifiably) confident that his daughters will have plenty of opportunities, no matter what. "Our kids are going to be fine," Obama told supporters at a campaign event last night. "And I always tell Malia and Sasha, look, you guys, I don't worry about you . . . they’re on a path that is going to...

When Hillary Clinton was on the campaign trail in 2008 and spoke at Scranton High School, the line to get tickets a few days before her appearance stretched about 1,000 people long. Monday's line to grab the available free tickets to President Barack Obama's speech Wednesday was noticeably shorter — about 225 people were waiting when the doors opened for the distribution. "It's a little disappointing to see that," said Cathy Kneeland, 64, of Scranton, who showed up more than three hours early to stand in line and found herself second. "You would think more people would want to see...

A Boston Globe reporter sympathetic to Barack Obama apparently received favored access to the immigration file of the president's father. In writing her biography of Barack Obama's father, Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs had access to what appears to be the father's unredacted Immigration and Naturalization Service file. The documents cover the time Barack Obama Sr. arrived in Honolulu in 1959 until he was forced to leave the United States in 1964. However, the redacted file the Department of Homeland Security provided in an Freedom of Information Act request to independent reporter Heather Smathers whited-out key facts about the...

Sources tell ABC News that the president will announce today that US troops in Iraq will draw down to zero by the end of the year. A White House official says that at approximately 11:30am today, President Obama convened a secure video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to talk with him about this news.

For most of the Obama administration, we only had to worry about the economic destruction he was fomenting. Now the threats and actions are becoming physically violent. It’s getting scary out there. Forget about running guns to Mexican drug cartels via “Fast and Furious.” Most of the people killed with those guns were Mexican, and they were doing a lot of that even before the Obama administration got into the business of adding to their arsenals. But now we have Democrats, like North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue telling us that maybe we should forgo elections for a few years. Others,...

Once again the Occupy insert city here protesters are engaging in seditious, unpatriotic behavior. This time we take you to Portland, Oregon where a band of protesters sing a punkish sounding song which must be entitled, Fuck the USA. See for yourself (warning strong language):

Barack Obama, US president, offered more support for protesters against the global financial system after a weekend of demonstrations in cities around the world, but called on them not to “demonise” those who worked on Wall Street. On Sunday, Mr Obama honoured Martin Luther King at a dedication to a new memorial on National Mall in Washington. Referring to protests that have spread from Wall Street to London, Rome and elsewhere, Mr Obama said: “Dr King would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonising those who work there.” Mr Obama had previously said the protests “express...

Trying its hardest to show that it has no idea what is going on, an official in the Obama White House has now publicly touted the Occupy Wall Street movement, using their own slogan. "The interests of the 99 percent of Americans are well-represented on [President Obama's campaign] tour," said Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest Sunday. Secretary Earnest is referring to the OWS slogan, which states that "the 1%" of "rich capitalists" are oppressing "the 99%" somehow. ...The OWS movement also has a severe antisemitic overtone, even though it calls for "economic equality," and is decidedly more violent than...

President Obama is paying close attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement - and has said he sympathizes with protesters' broad grievances - but for the first time a White House official has publicly touted the movement's "99 percent" slogan. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest, in a Sunday conference call briefing to outline details of Obama's three-day bus trip to North Carolina and Virginia, was asked if the president intended to address the growing protests that have sprouted up throughout the country and some cities in western Europe. Earnest told scribes to stay tuned, adding that it was possible...

Two hours after President Barack Obama cited Rev. Martin Luther King’s advice that Americans not question each others’ love of country, his spokesman demanded that GOP legislators “put country before party” by ending their opposition to the president’s spending plans. Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest made the demand during an afternoon press conference called to tout the president’s three-day bus tour through counties in swing-states Virginia and North Carolina. The bus tour starts Monday and is intended to magnify the media’s coverage of poll-tested provisions in Obama’s proposed $446 billion, one-year stimulus bill, the American Jobs Act. For example, the...

<p>At first I thought the fleabaggers were just leftist radicals protesting capitalism. But as I am looking at youtube videos from across the country and now the world, a good chunk of them are just unemployeds who are blaming corporations for not hiring them. This is exactly what the regime wants. Blaming Bush has run its course, blaming Congress has had limited success, so now why not blame corporations directly for not hiring. Wall Street is just the figurehead representing corporations. So this is Obama's last line of defense for his failure. He tried everything - from stimulating the economy with trillions to trying to cut deals with mean Republicans.. but in the end it's greedy that corporations don't want to hire because they want to fatten their profits. Vote Obama in 2012 and he will take it to the corporations. This will be the theme heading into 2012.</p>

It's been awhile since we've harped on this unlawful, cowardly, and politically-calculated failure of Democrats in the Senate -- but the 900-day mark seems like as good an opportunity as any to refresh everyone's memory about just how derelict Reid's posse continues to be. Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Jeff Sessions pre-emptively mark this pitiful milestone with a scathing indictment : America is greatly in need of strong, competent leadership. Our nation’s total debt is now larger than our entire economy. Unemployment is painfully high and growth is painfully slow. Since taking office, the president has accelerated Washington’s reckless...

(Reuters) - U.S. officials have met members of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, a U.S. diplomat said, after Washington announced it would have direct contacts with Egypt's biggest Islamist group whose role has grown since U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three...

[snip] The ad scares me. It's actually the “2012” trailer, but without the waves and wolves because Perry does not believe in man-made global warming. This would make a great summer blockbuster. I can see sequel potential, and there’s even Shia LaBoeuf-level acting. But the message is startling. Is Perry's main selling point really, “It's the Apocalypse, and I am the Only Hope For America?” Because, frankly, this is not what I was hoping for from my presidential candidates. “Also, here is some footage of horses!” Zero Change and Zero Jobs. Thank heavens REAL GOLD-FONT ALL-CAPS AMERICAN Rick Perry is...

The president promotes his jobs bill with a project that is not shovel-ready. In an effort to highlight the need for the American Jobs Act, which would provide billions in new infrastructure funding, the president will deliver a speech within sight of a “functionally obsolete” bridge on the Ohio River. Though the president disavowed “political grandstanding” in an address to Congress earlier this month, even the communications staff at the White House could not deny the political motives behind the visit. “This was on a long list, but it was notable because it connects . . . Ohio and Kentucky,”...

Canadian Commentator: The Press Gave America 'An Untried, Unknown,' 'Incompetent Figure As President' By Noel Sheppard Created 09/18/2011 - 9:09pm Maybe what America's press really need is a Canadian television commentator to explain how atrocious their coverage of Barack Obama has been since the moment he tossed his named into the presidential ring in February 2007. Although they may not be familiar with CBC's Rex Murphy, they should certainly heed the marvelous piece he wrote for the National Post Saturday entitled "The Media’s Love Affair With a Disastrous President": As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — So it’s official: In August there was no jobs growth, no sales growth and no price growth... That flat performance is pretty appropriate description about the economy: one that might not be in a recession but isn’t going anywhere fast and is very vulnerable to contraction.

I just got to thinking and have a question. Does anybody know if Zero ever registered for Selective Service? Just wondering.

We must fight back. Urgent petition:  Keep the Cross at Ground Zero A group called American Atheists is suing to get the World Trade Center Cross removed from the 9-11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, a construction worker found the Cross-shaped beams in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Immediately, the steel Cross became a powerful sign of hope for those who lost family members on Sept. 11, and for every American who loves God. Now this beloved symbol is under attack from American Atheists. They are suing to get it...

President Obama has landed in New Jersey and is touring flood-ravaged Wayne and Paterson today to witness some of the devastation caused by Hurricane Irene. Obama toured Wayne briefly before traveling by motorcade to Paterson before 2 p.m., where he will see some of the most flood-damaged streets in the state. After riding into Paterson past thousands of cheering residents lining Main Street, the president viewed the still closed Main Street bridge over the Passaic River. "We are going to make sure we provide the resources needed," Obama said. With piles of furniture and carpeting lining the street, residents described...

More dispiriting news, this time about the White House overturning the EPA’s proposed new rules on smog. That comes a few hours after the jobs report from Friday morning, one of the bleakest yet. And it comes a few days in advance of what everyone expects will be a small-thinking, modest, blah jobs speech by the president. It’s not only getting to the point where it’s getting hard to see him winning reelection. It’s getting to the point where it’s hard to imagine people taking him seriously for the remaining 14 months of his current term. The smog decision is...

Charles Krauthammer on Fox News's "Special Report" Friday offered Republicans a 2012 campaign slogan to defeat Barack Obama. "President Zero: zero economic expansion, zero jobs, zero ideas on how to cure the economy" CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: That assumes the speech he thinks will turn the economy around. This is not that speech. This is to frame the debate for his reelection. This is not a serious jobs proposal. It will include things he knows Republicans will reject. And thus he sets up the premise, because his own White House has now said we are going to be nine percent...

<p>WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Job growth was unchanged in August, the weakest performance in almost a year...lower than the 53,000 gain expected.</p>

Cashill is the author of Deconstructing Obama. The literary expert discovered months before the November 2008 election: nothing in Obama’s history suggested he was capable of writing either Dreams or his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope. In fact, as Cashill continued his research, he came to the shocking conclusion that the real craftsman behind Dreams was likely terrorist emeritus Bill Ayers. This letter provides more evidence to Cashill’s controversial theory. The American Thinker reported: On November 16, 1990, Barack Obama, then president of the Harvard Law Review, published a letter in the Harvard Law Record, an independent Harvard Law...

When Gov. Rick Perry returns to Austin this weekend, he’s likely to return to a hero’s welcome. He launched his campaign in a flawless rollout in South Carolina last weekend, captured the top spot in Rasmussen by double-digits, and is off to a dominating start in the GOP primary. Perry’s welcome will take all of that into account, as well as something else: Those of us who have watched him campaign have seen him blitz like this before, and in the past it has been a prelude to a long, entertaining campaign and ultimate victory. The first week since Texas...

This should be good. Just announced on Megyn Kelly's show on Fox: Maxine Waters is supposed to appear in a video where she faults Obama for taking the bus tour, and ineffective leadership in job creation.

An enraged Barack Obama just took to the nation’s airwaves to announce his effort to strike a deal with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has fallen apart. Perhaps for the first time in American history, this president is literally using this press conference to create a financial panic over the weekend about the opening of the markets on Monday. He is warning of disaster on Monday. Clearly, he wants to use this as leverage to frighten the GOP into passing the plan proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which will push the debt ceiling problem into 2013,...

Judge Rules Ex-Firefighter Cannot Sue Over Mosque NY Times A Manhattan judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former New York City firefighter who is trying to stop the construction of an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. The former firefighter, Timothy Brown, sought to overturn a decision by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to deny landmark status for a 150-year-old building on Park Place that would be demolished to make way for the center. [..] In a decision issued on Friday, Justice Paul G. Feinman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan wrote that Mr. Brown was “an...

Democrats turned to a tried-and-true strategy this week in the fight over the debt ceiling, casting Republicans as the guardians of yacht owners, hedge fund managers and Big Oil. After a week of speeches laced with populist rhetoric and shortly after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced a vote on a resolution written as a lose-lose for Republicans, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor conceded that his party is open to talking about loopholes, a shift from his previous hard line. “Voters don’t have a favorable view of millionaires. This is something the president and other Democrats are using to project...

The first questioner in the White House’s “Twitter Town Hall” asked President Barack Obama about the mistakes he had made while in office, and he promptly volunteered his government’s inability to reverse the steep decline in housing prices and to meet the public’s expectation of a quick economic recovery. Most of the time, however, President Barack Obama used today’s event to repeat his campaign themes, debt ceiling pitch, and proposals to cut defense spending. One thing he would have “done differently,” Obama said, “would have been to explain to the American people that it was going to take a while...

WASHINGTON — For the first family, their Vineyard haven is taking on the flavor of a summer White House. President Obama, for the third straight year, is planning to return to Martha’s Vineyard for vacation this summer, according to a White House official. The Obamas are scheduled to spend seven to 10 days on the island in mid- to late August, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. Arrangements for White House staff members and Secret Service personnel who travel with the Obamas have been made. The family is expected to stay at...

June 23, 2011 — Late Wednesday afternoon, I headed over to the White House to attend a background session about President Obama's Afghanistan speech. But when I watched the speech a few hours later, I wondered if I had somehow had wandered into the wrong briefing room. I was promised by senior administration officials that the speech would provide at least some strategic rationale for withdrawing 10,000 U.S. troops by the end of 2011 and 23,000 more troops by September 2012. They argued that the concept of a distinct fighting season is not entirely right, and so withdrawing forces next...

He rose to the presidency insisting that process matters. On Libya, he's shown contempt for it. Barack Obama appealed to some voters in 2008 because he seemed to understand that process matters. His predecessor, George W. Bush, felt tremendous pressure to prevent another terrorist attack. Anyone in his position would've been tempted to go Jack Bauer, breaking normal protocol and even laws in service of keeping us safer. Upon reflection, however, America learned that those protocols and laws were there for a reason. That in their absence the hubris of leaders is unleashed. That innocent people get tortured, average Americans...

Yesterday Speaker House leader Boehner,President Obama,V.P. Biden and Gov.Kasich all teed off at 2:00 pm at Andrews Air Force Base Golf and Country Club.They played 18 holes of golf betting a dollar each.Boehner and Obama won.

The last time President Obama went to Ground Zero was 2008, and he was with John McCain for what both campaigns described, without irony, as a non-political observance of the anniversary of the 2001 attacks. Any time a politician goes to Ground Zero -- in September or otherwise -- and especially with a retinue of national media in tow, it's deeply political. Which is what makes Obama's planned trip to Ground Zero on Thursday so curious. What's he going to say? How to avoid making a post-kill mission trip to the hallowed ground not appear exploitative and intensely political? "He...

The current 41% approval rating from April 12-14 polling includes interviews conducted before and after Obama announced his plan for deficit reduction on Wednesday. It also comes in the same week Congress is voting on the 2011 budget deal reached last Friday. The deal did not seem to have an immediate effect on the way Americans viewed Obama, given his 44% approval rating in the three days prior to the agreement and his 46% rating in the initial days after the agreement. The economy is likely also a factor in Obama's declining ratings. Though unemployment is improving according to government...

The Hawaiian state health official who personally reviewed Barack Obama's original birth certificate has affirmed again that the document is "real" and denounced "conspiracy theorists" in the so-called "birther" movement for continuing to spread bogus claims about the issue.

A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn’t reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.”

President Obama formally launched his re-election campaign Monday, urging grass-roots supporters central to his first White House run to mobilize again to protect the change he's brought over the past two years. The official start of his second White House bid comes 20 months before the November 2012 election. "We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does," the Democrat said in an e-mail to

President Obama found himself locked out of the White House on Wednesday.

First I did a double take. He said what? I read it again and the shock waves followed. A beleaguered Presi dent Obama has told aides it would be so much easier to be the president of China, The New York Times reports. There are two ways to read the remark, which is attributed to anonymous aides. One is that Obama resents the burden of global leadership that comes with the American presidency. The other is that he longs for an authoritarian system, where he need tolerate no dissent. Under either or both interpretations, his confession carries a dose of...