For those Democrats too busy to send out holiday cards this year, Obama for America has got you covered.
President Barack Obama is starring in a free, personalized holiday video card perfect for all the Dems on your list.
Users can enter the name of the card's intended recipient, and a software program will insert it into a montage of beaming, waving Americans all saying "happy holidays!" in unison.
Here's a scene from a card sent to ITK. Very merry.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) joined constituents in a rousing round of "Jingle Bells," with lyrics suited to the current healthcare debate.
The chorus goes: "We can't wait, we can't wait, we can't wait at all, Healthcare now for everyone, listen to our call (hey!)"
Ellison is the third lawmaker in a week to record a healthcare reform themed Christmas ditty: Sens. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and Kit Bond (R- Mo.) both employed the rhyme and meter of the classic poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas," for their compositions.
President Barack Obama will be getting "sports stuff" for Christmas from his wife this year.
First Lady Michelle Obama revealed the hint on a visit with her daughters, Sasha and Malia, and First Dog Bo to the Children's National Medical Center in Northwest Washington on Tuesday afternoon. The trip continued a tradition of First Ladies' visits to hospitalized kids on Christmas that began with Bess Truman in the 1950s.
During the visit Obama told children that her favorite Christmas carol is "Jingle Bells," while seven-year-old Sasha Obama explained that the White House has a cardboard "Wishing Tree" where people write wishes on pieces of paper and stick them into the tree. "Hopefully, your wish will come true," she said.
Shortly after arriving at the hospital, the first lady (pictured with her daughters in 2008) handed out White House holiday cookies to children in the Heart and Kidney Unit, while Sasha and Malia walked Bo around the atrium, visiting with sick children.
Malia was heard asking one of the girls, "Are you having fun? Are you going home for Christmas?" The answer was yes.
A steel drum band entertained the 200 or so patients and staff until, after about an hour, the first lady arrived with Santa Claus.
As she began to read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," Bo, a one year-old Portugese water dog, began barking at Santa.
"Quiet Bo," said the first lady. But Bo kept barking, forcing Santa to move to another side of the podium. Sasha and Malia read aloud as well before all three answered questions from the audience.
Sasha said the holidays will be different this year because "It will be easier to get on airplane," prompting laughter.
Michelle Obama told the crowd that there are 26 Christmas trees at the White House, to which Malia added, "Unfortunately we don't get presents under every tree."
In what might be the first prank of his presidency, Barack Obama posed as "Barry from D.C." when he called in to WTOP's live broadcast Tuesday and surprised outgoing Virginia governor Tim Kaine (D).
"I want to complain about traffic in Northern Virginia," 'Barry' began, completely fooling the governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
But his unique voice quickly gave him away, and he segued into thanks for Kaine's service to Virginia and his support in helping to win Virginia for Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
"Of course, your wife is superior to you," Obama joked, "as I think most people would say about the first lady.
"So we've got to stick together," Kaine agreed, laughing.
WTOP news director Mike McMearty told The Hill that planning for the practical joke began four months ago when the governor's staff contacted the White House about a surprise call. "The whole newsroom knew about it, and everyone on Kaine's staff. He was the only one who didn't know."
Initially, the host planned to introduce an anonymous caller from Northwest D.C., but McMearty said it was the president who wanted to be "Barry from D.C."
A woman in Hawaii has been arrested after threatening to kill First Lady Michelle Obama, according to an affidavit filed by Secret Service Special Agent John Woodruff and reported by the Honolulu Advertiser.
The woman, Kristy Lee Roshia, currently lives in Hawaii. She reportedly has a history of making threats to the Secret Service that stretches back more than two years.
The incident in question began Nov. 10, when Roshia told a Secret Service office receptionist in Boston that she would "kill Michelle Obama."
Read more...
They say that politics doesn't matter in the bedroom, but a new skit from a liberal advocacy group aims to convince young voters that it does.
Rock the Vote, the youth-focused voters' group known for its longtime partnership with MTV, has released a new internet video called "Hold Out for Healthcare," produced by the comedy website FunnyorDie.com.
In it, actors Zach Gilford, who stars as Matt Saracen in the NBC hit show "Friday Night Lights," and Eva Amurri, who plays Jackie in the Showtime hit "Californication," jointly narrate a lecture encouraging young people to put their sex lives on the line for healthcare reform.
Unlike most stars who appear in advocacy ads, the pair never identify themselves by their TV shows. Instead, they deliver their lines with a funny, soap-opera style melodrama that's almost tongue-in-cheek; but not quite.
Their message to viewers? "Rock the Vote" by denying sex to potential partners who oppose healthcare reform. "Politics is personal," they say, and a person's political beliefs are critical to determining their sexual attractiveness.
President Barack Obama said Monday that he and First Lady Michelle Obama got their H1N1 vaccinations over the weekend. Their daughters, Sasha and Malia, had already been vaccinated.
In an Oval Office interview with American Urban Radio Networks' April Ryan, Obama stressed how safe it is to get the vaccine.
"Malia andSasha actually had it several months ago, right when it was first being made available to school-age children," Obama said. "That's the most important population because this flu, unlike seasonal flu, disproportionately affects children and young people -- healthy children and young people as well as people with underlying conditions like asthma or neurological diseases."
Obama said he and First Lady Michelle Obama waited to get the vaccine when they were sure there was enough nationwide for children to be vaccinated.
"I think people just need to understand: If I had the two people that are most important in my life, my two daughters, get it right away -- and they've been just fine with it and in fact haven't gotten sick this entire flu season -- then you need to know that you need to make sure your children get it as well," Obama said.
President Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to a boys and girls club in Northeast Washington on Monday afternoon, toting a basket of gingerbread cookies baked in the shape of Christmas trees, gingerbread men, maple leaves and First Dog Bo Obama.
"Have you guys been good?" Obama asked the group of 27 children at the Richard England Clubhouse and Community Center.
"Yes!" the kids between the ages of 6 and 11 answered.
"Do you think you deserve cookies?"
"Yes!"
"You sure, now?"
"Yes!" they cried in unison.
Obama handed out cookies before sitting down to read the award-winning classic children's book "Polar Express," complete with a special Santa Claus voice for the "Ho Ho Ho's."
After he finished reading, the president asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Their responses included cell phones, video games, and iPods.
"Whatever happened to, like, asking for a bike?" Obama asked, surprised by the high-tech requests.
"Everbody has a bike," he was told.
One child told the president he wanted a cell phone.
"Who you gonna call?" Obama asked.
"Everyone."
"Like who?"
After sharing a few observations about Christmas, Obama passed out more cookies. They must have been good, because the children clamored for him not to leave.
Before departing, seven year-old Niko Letterlough presented the president with a win-win deal.
"Will you come back and play me at foosball?" Letterbough asked Obama.
"You know, I hate getting beat," Obama replied.
"I'll let ya win," said the second-grader, before giving the president a fist-bump.
The votes are in, and Sarah Palin's claim that the healthcare reform bill would include government-run "death panels" has earned the dubious honor of "Lie of the Year," according to a survey conducted by a political fact-checking website.
PolitiFact surveyed more than 4,800 of its readers, and 61 percent of them picked Palin's August 2009 statement, posted on her Facebook page, that the elderly and disabled "will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."
Palin wasn't the only politico caught with pants on fire; others included:
-- Orly Taitz, who claimed that she had proof that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii where his birth certificate states he was born (8.7%).
-- Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who shouted "You lie!" to Obama during an address to Congress, when the president said the healthcare bill wouldn't pay for illegal immigrants (5.8 %).
-- Vice President Joe Biden, who claimed that "When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft," in response to questions about the spread of swine flu (1.7 %).
Click here for PolitiFact's list of the best tall tales of 2009.
The word 'leak' has its own meaning in politics, and plenty of political careers have been killed by leaks of information.
But Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) revealed that another kind of leak almost killed him years ago.
During a Senate hearing on Thursday, Pryor said that shortly after law school, he lived with a life-threatening carbon monoxide gas leak emanating from a hot water heater in a house he shared with two roommates.
"One of my roommates, his bedroom was just a few feet down the hall from a bathroom," Pryor recalled, "and it had a hot water heater ... and the carbon monoxide was just leaking out of that hot water heater.
He added, "we had no idea."
And the men would have likely remained clueless if the odorless, invisible toxic gas hadn't finally made his roommate sick enough to seek help. "He's getting these flu-like symptoms -- headaches, you know, the whole thing."
Pryor still doesn't know how his roommate figured out the cause of his symptoms, saying only that the guy "knew something was wrong and he figured it out."
The three men replaced the water heater, installing a new one "properly, with the right venting and everything," said Pryor.
But, he said, the leak could easily resulted "in a tragedy."
