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President Obama is packing his bags for a 17-day, taxpayer-funded Christmas vacation to Hawaii, The Washington Times reported. The vacation begins on Friday, December 20. The first family will reportedly be shacking up at a palatial ocean-front home that rents for $24,500 a week. When you toss in the shaved ice, greens fees, and gas for Air Force One, the American taxpayers could be on the hook for one mighty expensive Hawaiian holiday. The Hawaii Reporter ran the numbers on last year’s trip and found that it cost taxpayers more than $4 million. That’s some pricy poi. And while the...

The US White House has released a photograph of President Barack Obama's daughter Sasha sneaking up on her father as he works in the Oval Office. The image has drawn comparisons with the famous 1963 image of John F Kennedy Jnr playing underneath the Oval Office desk as his father reads documents. That picture helped create the image of "Camelot" associated with the Kennedys. Mr Obama has said being able to work and live at home is "one of the huge benefits of being president". The photograph, taken in early August and released through the official White House Flickr website,...

So here we are in August, time for a little summer vacation. President Barack Obama is taking Michelle and the kids out on a Western swing to see some of America’s most famous national parks. Next Friday, August 14, they will fly out to Bozeman, Montana and the next day will visit Yellowstone National Park, home of the Old Faithful geyser, in nearby Wyoming. Later that day they head to Grand Junction, Colorado. On August 16, it’s on to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. They end up in Phoenix for the president to address the convention of Veterans of Foreign...

Obama for Father's Day: Stay Home, US Dads By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS June 19, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Growing up without a father left a painful hole in his heart, President Barack Obama told a lawnful of boys at the White House Friday in a remarkably personal Father's Day weekend message. He implored fathers everywhere -- and the kids when they're a bit older -- to stay home and stay involved in the lives of their own children. ''This isn't an obligation,'' said the father of two in a message to millions of wayward dads. ''This is a privilege to...

Obama's Great-Uncle Says President Visiting Concentration Camp Site for 'Political Reasons'President Obama plans to visit Germany's Buchenwald site as part of his multi-country tour, which begins this week -- but Obama's great-uncle, who helped liberate the camp, says it's all political. President Obama's scheduled visit to a former Nazi concentration camp is being done for "political reasons," the president's great-uncle -- who helped liberate that camp -- said in a recent interview. Obama plans to visit Germany's Buchenwald site as part of his multi-country tour, which begins this week. Charles Payne, Obama's great-uncle who helped liberate a sub-camp of Buchenwald...

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald during his upcoming tour of Europe, official German sources reported Friday. The U.S. administration has yet to confirm the report, but secret service units have already been sent to Germany to examine the security at places Obama is expected to visit during his trip. The secret service personnel were sent to Dresden, among other places. Obama is scheduled to visit the concentration camp on June 5, one day before taking part in a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the 1944 invasion of Allied forces in...

Obama's Kenyan auntie wins reprieve from being kicked out America as illegal immigrant ...known to Barack Obama as Auntie Zeituni today won a reprieve from being kicked out of the U.S. Onyango Zeituni - who is from Kenya...– has been living illegally in America for five years. ...today judges in Boston rescheduled a hearing on her fight to avoid ‘removal’...for February 4 next year.... Miss Onyango, 56, who was originally ordered to be deported in 2004, wore a red wig during the court session which was behind closed doors. She kept silent while being escorted out of the JFK Federal...

Mrs. Obama Speaks Out About Her Household By MARIAN BURROS Published: March 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — Reporters are not the only ones with a particularly keen interest in what Michelle Obama wears. Her husband, Mrs. Obama says, notices everything. In fact, she has learned not to wear a certain gray metallic belt when the president is around. “Barack calls it my ‘Star Trek’ belt,” the first lady said in an interview this week. “He doesn’t understand fashion.” The interview, which started out on the subject of the new White House vegetable garden, ended up ranging over a variety of household...

The Obamas to eat what they grow The Obama family plan to eat what they grow in the White House in the future US First Lady Michelle Obama is set to break the ground for an organic garden on a patch of the south lawn to grow produce for the White House kitchen. Local primary school pupils will help her with the planting and harvesting of the vegetables, herbs and salad crops. Promoting healthy eating for American families has become a part of the first lady's agenda. She has promised her whole family will be getting involved, and even President...

Obamas Prepare to Plant White House Vegetable Garden By MARIAN BURROS WASHINGTON — On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut. While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a...

ABC News' Brian Hartman Reports: President Obama's latest shovel-ready project is close to home -- in fact, right in his own yard. In an effort to promote healthy eating, the first family will be planting a vegetable garden right on the White House grounds. ABC News' Ann Compton and Sunlen Miller report that the new White House vegetable garden will be dug up and planted on the South grounds of the White House -- near the fountain but out of view of the main house. Though the 16-acre complex is maintained by the National Park Service, one worker who preferred...

First daughters Malia and Sasha Obama got a big surprise after school Wednesday: a brand-new swing set. They squealed with delight upon seeing it, a spokeswoman for the first lady said. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, went to work while the girls were at school, having the set installed on the south grounds of the White House within sight of the Oval Office, where their father spends plenty of time. Late last year as the couple planned the family's move to Washington, they had discussed with the chief usher at the White House ways to make the historic...

Don't watch this if your are drinking anything and are near a keyboard... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Xy4hNyYFs&feature=related

After telling the nation it was so urgent to pass the stimulus bill there was no time to even read it, President Obama took off for Chicago with wife Michelle, to dine at a fancy Chicago restaurant and spend the night at home in Hyde Park for Valentine's Day. The Bill will just have to wait for him to sign it next Tuesday. How to explain this odd behavior? Was this a calculated move? What could be the thinking behind it? Obama and his advisors are no doubt counting on the press to avoid noticing the contradiction between the alleged...

An anti-illegal-immigration political group is calling on Barack Obama today to deport his aunt, Zeituni Onyango, who apparently remains an illegal immigrant fugitive from justice in Cleveland. Americans for Legal Immigration posted its "public demand" on its Web site, basically telling Obama he's a hypocrite if he won't have his aunt arrested and removed to her native Kenya: "Actions speak louder than words, Mr. President," said William Gheen. "If you do not execute the deportation order for your aunt, then your lip service about the Rule of Law is no CHANGE from George Bush." The 56-year-old Onyanga was found living...

White House: First Couple Still Looking for ChurchBy The Associated Press Thu, Feb. 05 2009 05:30 PM EST WASHINGTON – The White House says Michelle and Barack Obama have visited several churches and will see a few more, but haven't decided on a place to worship. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the first couple visited a couple of churches around the time of his inauguration. Gibbs said they would like to visit some more and "figure out a congregation in the area that they can worship at." Gibbs said the president likely misses not having a regular place...

WASHINGTON (AP) — While senators worked into the night on an economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama could sit back and relax — if only for a couple of hours — to observe a popular dance theater group at the Kennedy Center. Though it was announced earlier in the day the president would attend, the Obamas picked the right moment to reward themselves with the show. They left around a flurry of news that lawmakers had reached a deal on a stimulus measure at the heart of the president's plan for reviving the economy. The Obamas were accompanied by Attorney...

Barack Obama hit the road, the furniture movers loaded up, and Tiger Woods made the cut for an inauguration the likes of which this country's never seen. The golf star - who has steered clear of politics - announced that he will speak at the Lincoln Memorial concert tomorrow to kick off the festivities as Obama gets set to take office. --snip-- Meanwhile, the White House staff readied a clockwork plan to move President Bush and First Lady Laura out and usher in Obama, First Lady Michelle, their daughters, Sasha and Malia, and the first lady's mom. The hand-off of...

Senator Ted Kennedy made an important political endorsement Tuesday. Massachusetts' Senior Senator endorsed the Portugese water dog as the perfect pet for the nation's new first family. President-elect Barack Obama made a very public promise to daughters Sasha and Malia the night he was elected. "You have earned the puppy that is coming with us to the White House," he said during his speech. Ever since, speculation has abounded on what type of dog the first family would choose. The Obama's have said they need a dog that is hypoallergenic, because daughter Malia has allergies. "A Portuguese water dog is...

Next Tuesday, Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President. On this historic occasion, PARADE asked the President-elect, who is also a devoted family man, to get personal and tell us what he wants for his children. Here, he shares his letter to them. Dear Malia and Sasha, I know that you've both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably shouldn't have let you have. But I also know that it hasn't always...