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...the 18½ foot Douglas fir in the Blue Room – is decorated with recycled ornaments that Mrs. Obama's team dug out of the warehouse where old White House decorations are stored. "We took about 800 ornaments left over from previous administrations, we sent them to 60 local community groups throughout the country, and asked them to decorate them to pay tribute to a favorite local landmark and then send them back to us for display here at the White House," said Mrs. Obama.

No inspector general can unearth corruption without access to his office, computer or staff. An "administrative leave" putting an IG in that position has the same effect, for all intents and purposes, as an immediate firing. That's the basic logic behind former Inspector General Gerald Walpin's lawsuit demanding at least temporary reinstatement to his job as watchdog at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). New revelations about the case from two lawmakers indicate that there is good reason to suspect duplicity from those who helped force Mr. Walpin's overnight removal in June. In the past 10 days, two...

You can be the judge regarding whether the term blackmail should be attributed to the actions of government officials in the following two stories.

Washington, DC - A Georgia couple who showed up at the White House a day early for a tour somehow wound up at an invitation-only breakfast with President Barack Obama and the first lady. It left the White House once again explaining how people who were not on an event guest list wound up being ushered into the presidential mansion anyway. The improbable adventure of Harvey and Paula Darden, Obama supporters from Hogansville, Ga., took place on Veterans Day, two weeks before Virginia socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi infamously crashed the Obamas' state dinner for the prime minister of India.

<p>The White House is once again explaining how uninvited guests wound up shaking hands with President Barack Obama.</p> <p>This time, a Georgia couple hoping to tour the White House ended up at an invitation-only Veterans Day breakfast.</p>

At the White House, as the Obama administration is learning all too well, a party is never a simple affair. One bone of contention has been the guest list: Administration officials say they are inviting 550 people, just 50 less than President Bush invited to his White House Hanukkah parties. But reports in the Israeli press spawned fast-spreading rumors that the Obama White House was only inviting 400 – and that the Bush White House had actually invited twice that number. It was, some suggested, a snub – and one that critics said should not come as a surprise. The...

Just because no one is too worried about gate crashers showing up at the White House Hanukkah party doesn't mean the guest list isn't being watched very carefully. The annual celebration has grown in recent years into an important bellwether in American Jewish circles, a sign of which leaders are in good graces and who is losing clout. So the Obama administration's announcement that it was cutting the size of the Dec. 16 party by more than a third has left many wondering who will make the cut, and what some might do to get their name added to the...

Here is video of Oprah Winfrey's Christmas Special from the White House with President Obama and First Lady Michelle. The special shows a lot of the White House and some historical things about previous Presidents, as well as talking with the Obamas . . . (VIDEO)

Just received this letter to the editor in my email:Party-crashers or undocumented guests? To the editor: I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night. Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family? I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests." Just because they...

Even in something as benign as a Christmas party, the White House simply cannot manage to stay away from the stupid. Most Christmas cookies are shaped like angels, wreaths, snowmen, Christmas trees, and other holiday items. But Fox News reported that at Monday’s annual Christmas party, the White House served cookies shaped like acorns... There are no reports of other White House cookies in the shapes of non-holiday themed inedible nuts from common trees. Whether inadvertent or deliberate, this is just bizarre...

Any fan of Cookie Monster on Sesame Street knows that "C" is for cookie. But at the Obama White House, "A" may be for acorn -- as in acorn cookies served at Monday's annual Christmas party. The chocolate cookies shaped like an acorn were quite a hit with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "I didn't expect to see such stark symbolism," King said in an e-mail. President Obama worked with the community organizing group ACORN in the mid-90s. But now ACORN faces a host of allegations related to voter fraud in the 2008 election and has been weakened by an undercover...

The nonprofit conservative group Judicial Watch has sued the U.S. Secret Service after the Obama administration again denied a request for copies of the list of visitors to the White House. The records are being sought by journalists and public interest groups to help determine who is influencing White House policy on health care, the economy and a host of other issues.

President Barack Obama recently called Rep. John Conyers Jr. to express his frustrations with the Judiciary Committee chairman’s criticism. In an interview with The Hill, Conyers said his opinions of Obama’s policies on healthcare reform and the war in Afghanistan have not sat well with the president. According to the lawmaker, the president picked up the phone several weeks ago to find out why Conyers was “demeaning” him. Obama’s decision to challenge Conyers highlights a sensitivity to criticism the president has taken on the left. Conyers’s critical remarks, many of which have been reported on the liberal-leaning Huffington Post, appear...

The lunch conversation inevitably turned to whether the White House would display its crèche, customarily placed in a prominent spot in the East Room. Ms. Rogers, this participant said, replied that the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display — a remark that drew an audible gasp from the tight-knit social secretary sisterhood. (A White House official confirmed that there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive and whether to display the crèche.) Yet in the end, tradition won out; the executive mansion is now decorated for the Christmas holiday, and the crèche is...

When Barack Obama became president, he promised a “new era of openness.” After almost a year of a media diet that seemed to be all-Obama, all-the-time that concluded in a reality-program couple crashing a state dinner at the White House, I’d be O.K. with the kimono closing a bit. When Michaele and Tareq Salahi waltzed uninvited into the White House for a state dinner almost two weeks ago, their camera crew from Bravo’s forthcoming “The Real Housewives of D.C.” was left waiting outside, but it’s not as if their presence would have been much of a breach of current protocol....

WASHINGTON: Long before a pair of gatecrashers penetrated the White House state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Secret Service had counted 91 instances of security breaches since 1980 at the executive mansion, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The Secret service had detailed for its internal use a lengthy list of security breaches dating to the Carter administration - including significant failures in the agency's protection of the president in a secret 2003 report, the influential daily said. Tareq and Michaele Salahi are the latest additions to a rogues' gallery of autograph hounds, publicity seekers, unstable personalities and...

The embattled Razzle Dazzle Czar, White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers says that the Obamas were planning a "non-religious Christmas." According to the Sunday New York Times the confession emerged at a luncheon earlier this year with former White House social secretaries. The ladies must have choked on their Caesar salads when Rogers went on to announce that the Obamas did not intend to display the Christmas Creche--the manger scene that traditionally occupies a central spot in the East Room. (This revelation reportedly drew a gasp from the retired social secretaries). The idea was that the absence of the Creche...

Barack Obama last night honoured five of the nation's top artists with the Kennedy Center Honors this weekend. Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro and comic genius Mel Brooks took centre stage during a show attended by the U.S. President and other power players from Washington and Hollywood. Also receiving the honors - which recognise individuals who have defined American culture through the arts as a living memorial to John F. Kennedy - are jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck and opera singer Grace Bumbry. About 300 guests, including Jack Black, Edward Norton, Matthew Broderick, Ben Stiller, Martin Scorsese, Sting, Philip...

Mara Liasson is the national political correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) and also regularly appears on Fox News Channel's Special Report and Fox News Sunday. It is incredible how far the Obama administration may have taken its "war" on Fox news. According to Politico, NPR, which is partially funded by the US Government, tried to strong-arm Liasson off of Fox News.

Uh Oh, Spaghettios.

Contentious exchanges between White House press secretaries and members of the media have been fairly commonplace during the past few presidential administrations. However, the one that took place Wednesday between White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and April Ryan of American Urban Radio, in which Gibbs essentially compared Ryan to a petulant child, is among the most heated (and entertaining) in recent memory. The testy exchange was sparked by Ryan's insistent questioning of White House social secretary Desiree Rogers' role at the recent state dinner, which has been in the headlines because of the fallout from Tareq and Michaele Salahi's...

The White House Jobs Summit was Thursday, and in case you have any hope for it actually helping produce real jobs, keep in mind two things.

This is kind of like asserting executive privilege to block disclosure of the White House chef’s recipe file. Even lefties can’t believe it: [I]t is literally inconceivable that anyone drafting the Constitution would have imagined the position of White House Social Secretary, paid for with taxpayer funds, and that the majesty of separation of powers rhetoric would apply to a situation like this…. This is simply yet more evidence that all presidents, regardless of political party and ostensible commitment to “transparency,” take on royalist airs when taking their oath of office. Congress wants to talk to her about how the...

When the Obama administration screws up it is quick to blame others. They do that until they can’t blame anyone anymore, that is, when the truth comes out and the culpable staffer is fired or resigns. We all remember the infamous fly-over of New York City by Air Force One this past summer. When it became quite apparent that it was a grievous error in judgment to allow Air Force One to “buzz” New York City while being chased by U.S. fighter planes at low altitude in a post 9/11 world, what did the White House do? They blamed the...

A random websurf today shows no shortage of prominent coverage in the Arabic language media including running commentary on the fiasco as well as in some cases detailed background explanations as to how the recent State Dinner security breach occured at the White House and uncleared people were able to come into close access with the President of the United States and visiting The Prime Minister of India.One such outlet is Arab Times in Arabic, located in the United States, but many other outlets are carrying it outside of the USA--including on some questionable sites. This appeared on Arabic...

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." --George Washington The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was a big day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as the Obama administration prepared for the biggest social event of its presidency: the White House State Dinner. The official 338-person guest list read like a who's who on the Left -- an elite scroll of Obama appointees, Demo politicians and big-dollar donors mixing it up with assorted sycophants from the media and entertainment industries. "Everyone looks great; we're feeling great," White House social secretary Desiree Rogers observed as she entered the event. According to the Obamas' fawning media,...

If Politico’s John F. Harris is correct and “Presidential politics is about storytelling” then the Obama campaign took an enormous risk using a narrative that left a lot to the individual imagination. Obama’s ambiguous call for change, created a fill-in-the-blank scenario for independents and moderates, and a call-to-arms for progressives. In Monday’s article “7 stories Barack Obama doesn’t want told” Harris explains, “Presented with a vivid storyline, voters naturally tend to fit every new event or piece of information into a picture that is already neatly framed in their minds.” “The pro-Obama narrative featured an almost mystically talented young idealist...

Maybe President Barack Obama's administration is just trying to trying to get some George Soros funding. Why else would Obama's people be playing the media criticism game again? In the latest of a series of White House - media head-on confrontations, Jared Bernstein, the chief economist and economic policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, took on the Wall Street Journal in a Dec. 1 post on the federal government's WhiteHouse.gov Web site. "There's a new report out from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the economic impact of the Recovery Act," Bernstein wrote. "I'll get to the findings in...

Days after Obama's inauguration, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, wrote to shareholders: "[W]e are going through more than a cycle. The global economy, and capitalism, will be 'reset' in several important ways. "The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner."

"WASHINGTON -- The standoff between the White House and the Congressional Black Caucus dragged on into Tuesday night, continuing to cloud the prospects of a vote Wednesday morning to overhaul supervision of banks. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) has scheduled a 10:15 a.m. vote on a bill to rework financial regulation. The 10 CBC members of his committee have said they won't vote for it until their concerns on a range of other issues relating to the economy are met by the White House. One problem: it's unclear to many what their concerns are, and CBC...

Once again, The White House is using its blog to attack a media organization -- and in a snarky way. First it went after car site Edmunds.com. Now it's going after The Wall Street Journal. Here's the full post written by Jared Bernstein, which slams the paper's reporting on the stimulus. The title: "Wall Street Journal Debunks Wall Street Journal on Recovery Act" ---- There's a new report out from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the economic impact of the Recovery Act. I'll get to the findings in a second, but somebody over at the Wall St. Journal's editorial...

Few would disagree with the Obama Administration's assertion that four words constitute "the fundamental question on health insurance reform." Now, the question -- one that appears on the White House web site -- is, WHO DO YOU TRUST?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Secret Service said on Tuesday they were investigating a suspicious package near the White House complex and a few nearby streets were closed.

Here is video of so-called White House "Party-Crashers" -Tareq and Michaela Salahi- speaking on the Today Show this morning where they said they did not "crash" the White House State Dinner last week given for the Prime Minister of India. They claim new information will come out soon that will cause this story to "take a dramatic turn." The Salahi's said they are "devastated" with the way the story is being reported that they are "party-crashers." Matt Lauer said he would be talking with them more extensively later in the show today. We'll post video of it when it becomes...

On a commercial break from Monday Night Football, there was a commercial for NFL's Play 60, where they promote kids to play outdoors for 60 minutes.In the commercial, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints is set to throw a pass on the White House lawn with children running in slow motion, with the White House in the background.At first thought, I was waiting for Drew to pass to one of the kids. Then I thought he might sling that sucker through the White House window hopefully getting Obama in back of the head.Then Obama pops up in the scene...

Pampered Chef presenter Wilma Flanders is struggling to explain how Vice President Joe Biden was able to crash a recent party at a Nashville couple's house yesterday. To make matters worse, it was Jerry and Sheila Dorfmeyer's first attempt at hosting a party. And maybe their last. "I have no idea how he got in," said Flanders. "Nobody invited him. He wasn't on the list. He just kinda showed up." Jerry said the vice president's attendance at the party was a threat to the couple's security and a social setback for the couple, who were new to the community. They...

Malik Zulu Shabazz, national chairman of the radical New Black Panther Party, refused to confirm or deny to WND whether he visited the White House since President Obama took office, despite his name appearing on a recent administration disclosure. Shabazz's namesake was among the 110 names and 481 visits released by the White House on Friday as part of the Obama administration's so-called volunteer disclosure policy. The names were just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have gone through the White House's doors since January. Among the famous names that stood out on the brief list...

Everyone is all atwitter about the obnoxious narcissism of the White House party crashers, Tareq Salahi and his wife. They are prone to living above their means and desperately seeking fame by any means necessary. The more important fact is Salahi’s connection to the ATFP. Debbie Schlussel and a few others who are bothering to pursue this alarming fact has pointed out that it didn’t take long for the ATFP web site to scrub all references to Salahi, an ATFP board member. We should know by now that the MSM is never going to connect those dots. Quit focusing on...

While hand-wringing continues in the White House and among Secret Service officials over an alleged gate-crashing of a state dinner, it appears Michaele and Tareq Salahi had met with Barack Obama previously when he served as a U.S. senator. Yet, a June 2005 photo from Polo Contacts Worldwide shows the Salahis with Obama at a pre-event to America's Polo Cup. Others in the photo include American Idol's Randy Jackson and members of the rock group Black Eyed Peas. Salahi is a former board member of the American Task Force on Palestine.

It is true. You already know about it. Tareq and Michaela Sahali weaseled their way through White House security and crashed the State party. What in the world were they thinking? And what in the world is the world thinking? As I’m typing this sentence millions of Americans are simultaneously having the same thought: “If the president can’t secure his own front door from uninvited strangers, how’s he going to keep America safe from terrorist attacks?” I’m going to risk your un-forgiveness, and not just for my overuse of colons, but for my spontaneous impulse to blurt this out. Here...

Well, it's not quite as bad as Paul Krugman critiquing the Fox Business Network, but a little troubling because tax dollars are being spent to undertake such an effort. A Nov. 27 post by incoming White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer on the The White House Blog attempted to fact check a Nov. 27 column by Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, proving the left-wing noise machine isn't the only shop in Washington, D.C. criticizing conservative voices (h/t Amanda Carpenter of The Washington Times). "In today's Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer takes great pains to paint a bleak picture of health care...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world is losing patience with Iran's behavior over its nuclear program and Tehran will be responsible for the consequences if it fails to meet its obligations, the White House said on Friday. Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama's chief spokesman, said a vote by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to rebuke Iran illustrated the "resolve and unity" of the international community over Iran's nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors voted 25-3 to censure Iran in a decision that gained rare backing from Russia and China, which have in the past blocked attempts to isolate...

Yesterday Brian Williams delivered an NBC Nightly News report about President Obama attending the Copenhagen global warming summit. Guess what hot topic was left untouched? If you had guessed Climategate you would have been correct. Not only Williams but also the other TV networks, with the exception of FOX News, have completely ignored what is considered to be the biggest scientific scandal in history. However, new Climategate revelations made by the Canada Free Press about a White House connection to the scandal will soon make it much more difficult (and ridiculous) for the networks to ignore. Canada Free Press editor...

A couple of aspiring reality TV stars gatecrashed the state dinner hosted in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House, clicked pictures with US Vice President Joe Biden and other guests and then posted them on their Facebook profile, US media said. A Washington Post report said: "Tareq and Michaele Salahi -- polo-playing socialites -- were seen arriving at the White House and later posted on the Facebook photos of themselves with VIPs at the elite gathering." "Honoured to be at the White House for the state dinner in honour of India with President Obama and...

It’s one of the most secure places on earth, but two Washington area socialites and reality TV wannabes were apparently able to get behind the gates at the White House and mingle with the crowd at the State Dinner in honor of India last night. The Washington Post has the dish on Tareq and Michaele Salahi, below: The First Lady’s office told ABC they would have no comment on the crashers and referred all inquiries to the Secret Service. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan confirms that the agency is looking “into a report that two individuals not on the guest...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Secret Service is investigating how an uninvited couple was admitted to U.S. President Barack Obama's White House state dinner, penetrating layers of security and mingling with VIP guests. The couple from northern Virginia was not invited to the dinner, not included on the official guest list, and were never seated at a table in the South Lawn tent where the dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was held, The Washington Post reported, citing a White House official it did not identify. A Secret Service spokesman told the Post that no one was under any risk...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will not be in Afghanistan eight years from now, the White House said on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama prepared to explain to Americans next week why he is expanding the war effort. After months of deliberation and fending off Republican charges that he was dithering on Afghanistan while violence there surged, Obama will address the nation on Tuesday on the way forward in the costly and unpopular eight-year war. He is expected to announce he is sending about 30,000 more troops as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy that will place greater emphasis...

Top aides to President Barack Obama have met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show. The AP in early August asked the White House to produce records identifying communications that top Obama aides -- including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior advisers David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and Pete Rouse, and 18 others -- had with outside interests on health care. The AP in late September narrowed its request to White House visitor records for those...

President Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the White House with words that have inspired snickers in New Delhi: "Yours is the first official state visit of my presidency, its fitting that you and India be so recognised," 48-year-old Obama told the 77-year-old Indian leader. The general reaction in India has been: Who the heck does this guy think he is? Note to the Great Diplomat: When you do a head of state an honor, you don't remind him, in public, of the fact that you have done him an honor, particularly in self-aggrandizing terms of this sort....

The White House Commie has done more to damage America in less than one year than 270 years of Nixons could ever have done! We need a real President, an American Patriot to undo the damage done by this treasonous imposter.