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Outrage: Red Chinese flag to be flown on September 20 at the White House. (anyone able to organize a protest?)

Not long ago, the first lady planted the first seeds for the White House's own organic garden. Now the Obamas want to expand the idea to set up a farmers market just outside the White House. One aim of the market will be to help local farmers deliver fresh produce to D.C. school cafeterias, to encourage kids to make healthier choices in their diet. The president announced the plan at an interactive health care strategy meeting yesterday:"When it comes to food, one of the things that we are doing is working with school districts...Let's figure out how can we get...

Below Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck explains the Apollo Alliance on his July 28 show. Beck mentions the Obama administration’s “stimulus” blueprint, “The New Apollo Program: Clean Energy, Good Jobs,” which you can read here.

Perhaps it's the Russ Feingold influence. Feingold, when he served in the Wisconsin Legislature before traipsing off to Washington, was the bulldog behind legislation that outlawed gifts and other perks to legislators, things like free dinners and drinks, pen sets and the like, or even a cup of coffee. The idea was that legislators ought not be beholden to anyone except the people who elected them. Conversely, lawmakers are not to lavish favors on lobbyists and other influence peddlers. So by law they are to pay for their own meals and reimburse their hosts when they get something of value...

The House investigative committee’s top-ranking Republican wants White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to answer for allegations that he used “Chicago-style scare tactics” to intimidate lawmakers who say the economic stimulus has failed. In a letter sent to Emanuel on Tuesday, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) demanded to know how involved the chief of staff was in an effort to “threaten” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer after Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said the president’s Recovery Act was a failure. According to reports, Emanuel directed four Cabinet secretaries to send what Issa characterized as “threatening...

Attention: Obama Team Snitches Send all snitches to: flag@whitehouse.gov

Recently, high-profile visitors to the White House, including senior corporate executives, have found themselves paying for their own meals when sitting down with President Barack Obama, something unheard of in previous White Houses, according to former aides to President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. Thus far, there have been at least three instances -- the most recent coming last Friday -- where CEOs or other non-political guests were asked before arriving to the West Wing to provide credit card information so that their meals could be billed to them. According to one source, the meals cost between $20...

There are few subjects on the planet that I would like to touch less than this Professor Henry Gates/Sgt. Joseph Crowley mess. I'm guessing that whatever position I take, the comments would be even harsher than the time I admitting to liking Oakland. But as an American, there is one element of President Barack Obama's sit-down beer-drinking dialogue with Gates and Crowley that deserves further comment: I can't believe the president doesn't have better patio furniture. In reality, the Rose Garden patio furniture is probably quite expensive -- made of the best wrought iron, with wicker that was weaved at...

New homes are full of questions and possibilities. What color to paint the walls? How to arrange the furniture? What to plant in the garden? The Obama family must have asked a lot of those same questions when they moved into the White House. However, the first lady's dreams of growing an organic vegetable garden have been dragged down by a previous resident that refuses to leave: sludge.

When First Lady Michelle Obama planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn in March 2009, she hoped to both set an example of healthy eating and to grow tasty edibles for her daughters and husband. But Michelle's organic dream has been dashed by a nasty toxic legacy lurking in the soils of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It turns out that a previous Presidential gardening team had used sewage sludge for fertilizer

Yes, big business has not covered itself with glory over the last several years. Yes, it's unfair that the banks managed to screw up multiple times -- and still got bailed out to the tune of $700 billion in taxpayer money. Yes, the U.S. automakers have been messing up for decades; they shouldn't have had one more cent in bailout money. Yes, AIG insurance giant should have been left to rot rather than getting billions on the taxpayer dime. But, does the White House really think that the best way to hold some of these corporate miscreants -- or, at...

Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Barack Obama, sitting down in his private dining room just steps from the Oval Office. But even for powerful CEOs, there’s no such thing as a free lunch: White House staffers collected credit card numbers for each executive and carefully billed them for the cost of the meal with the president. The White House defended the unusual move as a way to avoid conflicts of interest. But the Bush administration didn’t charge presidential guests for meals, one former...

(CNSNews.com) – The traffic at President Obama's official White House Web site--whitehouse.gov--has fallen from a post-Inauguration peak to nearly the same level it was during the waning days of the Bush administration. The dramatic drop in traffic has happened despite the Obama Administration's complete redesign of the site. According to the web-traffic tracking site Alexa.com, whitehouse.gov was almost the 500th most popular Web site in the world in February. Since then, it has fallen to the 3,732 ranked Web site in the world. Traffic to the site has fallen 51.6 percent in the last three months. People are also spending...

On Tuesday, July 21, Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss and Charley Pride played to a very special audience. As part of the White House Summer Music series, the country music luminaries were in charge of serenading the First Lady and President Barack Obama. “I know folks think I’m a city boy, but I do appreciate listening to country music,” President Obama said as he introduced the concert. And what followed was a series of emotional performances from some of country’s biggest icons. The evening was especially meaningful for Charley Pride, who remains one of the few black performers to find success...

Obama detractors are suggesting that the garden on the South Lawn (planted by Mrs. Obama and schoolchildren in March) is fake. The conspiracy theorists claim that, despite a lot of compost and a very rainy spring, the vegetables harvested by the first lady and those same schoolchildren last Tuesday could not have grown so big in just 90 days. These critics surmise that the White House substituted mature plants for immature ones - in the dead of night, I guess - in order to fool the American public. An actual-dirt dirty trick that would live up to the name Watercressgate....

Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk on Friday took a brief ride at the White House as part of a Father's Day celebration. Hawk, 41, skated in the grand foyer and the nearby Old Executive Office Building, with the permission of White House officials.

Am I an old fart or am I right to be pissed that some jackass is skateboarding down the halls of the White House while all this Iranian shit is going down? We truly have succumbed to the idiocy of the MTV/Mountain Dew/Road Rules backward hat and baggy short culture. Did I miss something, or is the White House the future set for the next Real World? Where are the wallet chains? Is Hot Topic handling our foreign policy? Obama should be grounded for a week for letting Tony Hawk play in OUR house. Where in hell are the adults?...

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WASHINGTON – Hey, kids, don't try this at home. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk on Friday took a brief ride at the White House as part of a Father's Day celebration.

WASHINGTON – Hey, kids, don't try this at home. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk on Friday took a brief ride at the White House as part of a Father's Day celebration. Hawk, 41, skated in the grand foyer and the nearby Old Executive Office Building, with the permission of White House officials.

While Obama continues to blame Bush for problems being experienced in the United States, he continues many of his orders, such as withholding the names of visitors to the White House. Now the President wants to hide the names of people who spend time with him in the Oval Office. What happened to his promise about transparency? Apparently, Obama wants to keep hidden, the names of those who come to influence policy decisions. The fact is that two federal judges have ruled that the records are public, but the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all...

Strong winds have knocked down a tree on the White House's North Lawn. The tree appeared to have been snapped off near its base during a storm Tuesday afternoon. The large tree had stood between Pennsylvania Avenue and the West Wing. White House spokesman Bill Burton says it was a European linden. Grounds crews on Wednesday will grind up the tree to use it for mulch. Burton says the tree was planted in 1940 but not by a president to mark a special occasion. President George W. Bush and Laura Bush planted a tree on the North Lawn to replace...

President Hussein and Mrs. Hussein are reportedly removing portraits of presidents past from the White House and replacing them with abstract art. Remember, in Cambodia, when the Khumer Rouge took over, they declared it to be "year one," and removed all references to the past. Abstract art rather than pictures of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln? Yes, those oppressors, in Obama's mind, represent the stale US past

Barack Obama is taking on health care, financial regulation, torture and environmental policy. He’s also revamping the White House art collection. The Obamas are sending ripples through the art world as they put the call out to museums, galleries and private collectors that they’d like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic and female artists for the White House. In a sharp departure from the 19th-century still lifes, pastorals and portraits that dominate the White House’s public rooms, they are choosing bold, abstract art works.

We have lots of exclusive details on the Portuguese Water Dog President Barack Obama and Michelle are getting for Sasha and Malia. The pooch will make its grand entrance on Tuesday, and it's coming from a prominent Texas kennel, with the help of Senator Ted Kennedy's family. The black dog -- a male -- is approximately six months old. We've learned it was bred at the kennel and sold to someone who gave it back. The kennel is now "re-homing" the dog to the Obamas. The dog was named Charlie, but the Obamas will rename it.

As you may know, tonight at sundown is the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. We hold ceremonial dinners the first two nights to commemorate our slavery in Egypt and redemption into freedom by G-d. So, it's ironic that the President--who is the worst President for us ever and the one who pandered to the West's and the Jews' worst enemy all this week in Europe--is holding a Seder. It's sickening. Sadly, the ignoramus the fancy high-dollar Jewish donors who get to spend this evening with the couple that followed anti-Semitic Jeremiah Wright and employed Farrakhan acolytes, don't even...

Where's the White House puppy?Will B. Hussein O. ever compliment his breakfast waffle with a slice or two of bacon?Will there be Easter Ham served at the White House?Hmm...makes yah wonder.

At a time when people are having trouble holding on to their houses, Barack and Michelle Obama have sensibly decided not to use taxpayers’ money to renovate theirs. New presidents are allotted $100,000 to overhaul the White House residence and the Oval Office, and the Obamas hired Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith (known, per his site, for mixing “Old World classicism with very contemporary settings”). But the First Couple isn’t spending that money. They “are not using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters,” says Camille Johnston, director of communications for the First Lady. Nor...

Tickets to the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll will for the first time be distributed online. Gone is the first-come, first-served timed ticket distribution at the visitors kiosk on the ellipse the week before the roll and the smaller giveaway the morning of the roll. Those procedures, in place for the past eight years, replaced the traditional marathon waiting line for tickets that often began on Easter and lasted into Monday, the day of the roll. The tickets are being made available online so "more children and families from across the United States have the opportunity to experience this...

Michelle Obama and 26 local elementary school children broke ground this morning on the first White House kitchen garden since World War II. (snip) And during the ground breaking, the first lady didn't just stand by. We have photos of her and the kids using shovels, rakes, pitchforks and pushing wheelbarrows. There's no telling whether they were staged just for the photo op, but I have my reservations, given that Mrs. Obama was attired in neat-but-casual attire and what appear to be dress boots,

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...

President Barack Obama has officially named former Washington, D.C. tech chief Vivek Kundra as the federal governments CIO. Kundra, who previously served as the CTO for D.C.'s city government, has received a good deal of acclaim for his work in making that government act more transparently and economically. Among other things, Kundra has slashed the city's IT costs by shifting government e-mail and work applications over to Google Apps and has pushed for more transparency by posting lists on the Web of jobs that government contractors have been hired to perform. As the federal governments CIO, Kundra will oversee a...

The White House press office announced today that Vivek Kundra, the current chief technology officer of Washington DC, will be assuming the position of Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the White House. The appointment of a top CIO is another first: the position did not exist in any previous administrations. Kundra will also have final say on government technology purchases , and will have the authority to overrule his peers at subordinate agencies.

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...

The team that ran the most technologically advanced presidential campaign in modern history is finding it difficult to adapt that model to government. WhiteHouse.gov, envisioned as the primary vehicle for President Obama to communicate with the online masses, has been overwhelmed by challenges that staffers did not foresee and technological problems they have yet to solve. Obama, for example, would like to send out mass e-mail updates on presidential initiatives, but the White House does not have the technology in place to do so. The same goes for text messaging, another campaign staple.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is the place to be on Wednesdays. Since the presidency changed hands less than six weeks ago, a burst of entertaining has taken hold of the iconic, white-columned home of America's head of state. Much of it comes on Wednesdays. The stately East Room, where portraits of George and Martha Washington adorn the walls, was transformed into a concert hall as President Barack Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation's highest award for pop music on Wednesday. A week before that, the foot-stomping sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a cappella...

Since the presidency changed hands less than six weeks ago, a burst of entertaining has taken hold of the iconic, white-columned home of America's head of state. Much of it comes on Wednesdays. The stately East Room, where portraits of George and Martha Washington adorn the walls, was transformed into a concert hall as President Barack Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation's highest award for pop music on Wednesday. A week before that, the foot-stomping sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a cappella group, filled the East Room for a Black History Month program first lady...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is the place to be on Wednesdays. Since the presidency changed hands less than six weeks ago, a burst of entertaining has taken hold of the iconic, white-columned home of America's head of state. Much of it comes on Wednesdays. The stately East Room, where portraits of George and Martha Washington adorn the walls, was transformed into a concert hall as President Barack Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation's highest award for pop music on Wednesday. A week before that, the foot-stomping sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a cappella...

LOS ALAMITOS - Some say the decision by the city's mayor to step down after the widely publicized uproar over an e-mail he sent depicting a watermelon patch in front of the White House shows he is taking the impact of his action seriously. Others say the resignation was the only option for someone who offended so many. "It was a flagrant disregard for basic civility and a demonstrated lack of knowledge about how painful the issue of race has been for our nation," said Fred Smoller, associate professor of Political Science at Chapman University.

February 22, 2009 Obamas in hunt for modern art Sarah Baxter and Cristina Ruiz CONFIRMING their reputation for stylishness and modernity, Barack and Michelle Obama are searching for paintings by living artists to hang in their private quarters in the White House. The Sunday Times has learnt that the works that have caught their eye include paintings by Jasper Johns, best known for his iconic 1950s images of the American flag, and Ed Ruscha, one of the originators of pop art, which belong to the National Gallery in Washington. The final selection has not been made yet, but paintings by...

Barack Obama has sent Sir Winston Churchill packing and pulse rates soaring among anxious British diplomats. A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back. The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure. But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust...

Michelle Obama, in a visit to the Department of Education earlier this week, had to catch herself when she repeatedly used the word "we" as she discussed her husband's policies. "I shouldn't say 'we,' but the administration, 'we,'" the first lady told department employees after speaking in the first person about a dozen times. But to some, Obama has already shown her cards. Her planned visits to a slew of Cabinet agencies signal that she intends to take a far more active role than the "mom-in-chief" title she's already given herself. "Those are forays into public policy, so that's a...

President Obama lectured voters during the campaign about the need to make sacrifices for the environment. But now it's warm and toasty in the White House -- so much so that aides have likened it to a tropical hot house -- and Obama is under fire for turning up the heat. Obama made climate change a staple of his stump speech last year, calling on Americans to lower their energy use and set a model for the rest of the world in combating climate change. During a campaign event in Oregon in May, Obama said we have to "lead by...

Robert "Pinata" Gibbs was beaten like an old rug again today at the latest Obama presser. I am actually beginning to feel sorry for this rumpled sad sack who continues to bring a nerf bat to a gun fight. Among today's gems was a new explanation of how Obama could already have seventeen lobbyists working for his administration (revealed by Indian and British newspapers since American papers won't) after looking America in the eye during the campaign and giving us his solemn pledge that no lobbyist's feet would ever touch the floor in his White House. If I understood Gibbs,...

From The Sunday Times February 1, 2009. Meet Generation O - all the president’s hot dudes Sarah Baxter MOVE over, Michelle and Barack Obama. They may be the most glamorous first couple since the Kennedys but the hottest people in the White House are their staff. The rising star of the West Wing is the corset-wearing Alejandra Campoverdi, 26, a Harvard-educated California girl who stripped off for Maxim magazine, wooed a bachelor in the reality TV series For Love or Money and had a bit part in Constantine, a vampire film with Keanu Reeves, before joining the White House.

<p>“…the capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.</p>

Obama Selects a Decorator Posted by Jennifer Sergent Wednesday January 14, 2009 Designer to the stars Michael S. Smith is coming to decorate the White House. With clients such as Steven Spielberg, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Cindy Crawford – and a host of royals and international tycoons – one might think it odd at first glance that the Obamas chose such a hoity-toity designer during such an economically bleak time. Actually, it’s not odd at all. “He is equally at home at the most revered Parisian antiquaries as he is at Target,” says a press release that came out with his...

For the past eight years I have suffered the intolerant hate-filled-froth that has rested on the lips of "intelligencia." And by "intelligencia" I usually refer to people who have such high opinions of their learned place in life that they rain down condemnation and snobbery upon the poor schmucks like me who think common sense can be a more valuable commodity than ivy league tenure. (It can also include but not be limited to pretty much anyone else on the theological or political left in today's society. I've personally spotted froth on the mouths of fellow church goers, relatives, and...