Free Republic

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...