President Obama Honors Robin Williams

Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.

 I like to remember him like this :)

President Obama To Ease Student Loan Debt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -  

President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Tuesday to lessen the burden of student loans, allowing millions of cash-strapped college graduates to breathe a sigh of relief.

Obama's plan is to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income, bringing it forward to start in 2012 instead of 2014. This way, recent college grads swamped by loan payments can begin to contribute to our faltering economy. 

Obama stuck it to Congress when he said, "Steps like these won't take the place of the bold action we need from Congress to boost our economy and create jobs, but they will make a difference,". POW!

The loans initiative will be the third such move by Obama in as many days, following action to aid homeowners and boost hiring of military veterans. The White House wants to show he is an activist president battling a "do-nothing" Congress.

Executive orders by the president do not require approval by Congress.

Republican lawmakers blocked a $447 billion jobs plan put forward by Obama in September because it proposed to raise some taxes.

Students helped Obama reach the White House in 2008. As he campaigns for reelection in 2012, Obama's public approval ratings have fallen near 40 percent, the low of his presidency, because people are unhappy with America's economy and his role in bringing us out of this funk.

Americans owe more on student loans than on outstanding credit card debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, total loans outstanding are slated to exceed $1 trillion this year! 

The rise in private student lending and growing debt defaults have also been highlighted by the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Obama will announce the student loan measure in Denver on Wednesday as he wraps up a West Coast road trip that will be crucial to his re-election campaign in 2012.

 

The White House estimates the loan changes could cut monthly payments for 1.6 million graduates.

Student debt will also be forgiven after 20 years, compared with 25 years under current law.

Obama will also make changes to allow 6 million students to bundle together certain federal loans to allow a single monthly payment, reducing the risk of default caused by juggling multiple debt obligations. BRILLIANT!

The option will be open in January and those that take it up will also get a 0.5 percentage point cut in the interest rate on some of their loans, lowering monthly payments and potentially saving them hundreds of dollars in interest.

"College graduates are entering one of the toughest job markets in recent memory, and we have a way to help them save money by consolidating their debt and capping their loan payments," said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Todd Eastham, Steven Mullen)

The Obamas Don't Like The Kardashians

We live in a Kardashian nation, but President Barack Obama isn't exactly a fan of reality TV's royal family!
First Lady Michelle Obama told iVillage that her hubby, 50, doesn't like Sasha, 10, and Malia, 13, keeping up with Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian's antics on the boob tube.

PHOTOS: The Obama family is just like Us!

Michelle, 47, says that like most parents, she and Barack regulate how much TV their daughters watch and what they're allowed to see. "Barack really thinks some of the Kardashians -- when they watch that stuff -- he doesn't like that as much," she told iVillage.

PHOTOS: Kardashian family album

"But I sort of feel like if we're talking about it, and I'm more concerned with how they take it in -- what did you learn when you watched that," Michelle explained. "And if they're learning the right lessons, like, that was crazy, then I'm like, okay."

I agree with their parenting decision. What do the Kardashians have to offer a 10 and a 13 year old? NOT A DAMN THING! Before the little 14 year old girl who got caught in the middle of a web media storm last week for her antics at school, she tweeted that her influences were Kim Kardashian and Lil Kim. Hmm...way to go Barack & Michelle!

WANTED: Joseph Kony & The Lord's Resistance Army

By ADAM ENTOUS and JULIAN E. BARNES

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of up to 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa to help hunt down the leaders of a rebel force known as the Lord's Resistance Army.

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Associated Press

Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army during a meeting with a delegation of officials and lawmakers from northern Uganda in 2006.

A senior administration official said 12 troops have been deployed so far under what he called a training mission aimed at helping African forces find and kill Joseph Kony, the fugitive head of the rebels.

The U.S. forces will deploy to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense," Mr. Obama said in a letter to Congress released Friday.

The U.S. deployment will include special operations forces, defense officials said. Pentagon officials noted that U.S. forces are routinely deployed to Africa for training missions.

The Lord's Resistance Army is believed to have killed, kidnapped and mutilated tens of thousands of civilians since the 1990s. Military officials said they believed Mr. Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, and other top LRA leaders are currently hiding the Central African Republic.

The LRA, which says it is a religious group, first emerged in northern Uganda in the 1990s but was driven out by the Ugandan military. Although Mr. Kony is thought to command just a few hundred armed loyalists, the LRA's mobility and the difficulties of the terrain has made the group hard to find, officials said.

The Obamas looking good in Ralph Lauren

Photo by Charles Dharapak / AP Images

This evening the President and First Lady are hosting a dinner for Queen Elizabeth at the Winfield House, where the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. lives. For the occasion, Mrs. O has chosen an off-the-shoulder black gown by Ralph Lauren paired with absolutely knock-out jewelry by Tom Binns and a jade and diamond lattice ring by Yewn. Stunning!

The gown originates from the Ralph Lauren Fall 2011 collection, seen here.

Obama releases full birth cert, proves "birthers" wrong

By Rachel Rose Hartman

 

The White House on Wednesday morning released the president's long form birth certificate (pdf) in an attempt to put "birther" questions to rest.

"The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good for the country. It may have been good politics and good T.V., but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement.

The president had released his certificate of live birth in 2008, but many "birthers" said the absence of a long form birth certificate prompted questions about Obama's birthplace of Hawaii. In recent weeks potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has brought birther questions into the forefront of the media.

"At a time of great consequence for this country--when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue," Pfeiffer said. "The President's hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country."

Obama admitted at a White House press conference following the document's release Wednesday morning that he's been both amused and puzzled by the degree to which his place of birth has become an issue.

The president echoed Pfeiffer's statements saying that Americans and their representatives need to come together to solve issues such as how to "invest in our future" while tackling the federal deficit and federal debt:

But we're not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. We're not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We're not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.

Though the president didn't mention Trump by name, Obama noted that when he announced his deficit plan this month, his birth certificate, not our country's economic future, dominated the news that week.

Trump on Wednesday took full credit for the release.

"I feel I've accomplished something really really important and I'm honored by it," Trump said at a press conference held during his pre-scheduled visit today to New Hampshire. Trump noted that people have long been requesting the document, but Trump was the only one who got the president to release it. Trump suggested Wednesday this development will boost his own potential presidential candidacy.

Trump said he and others are still going to have to assess the document's authenticity. We're "going to look at it. We have to see if it's real, if it's proper," Trump said. But he added that he's "sure it's the right deal" and is looking forward to moving on to more important issues such as OPEC and China.