The First Lady strays off-message at a Healthy Kids event at the White House this afternoon, rhapsodizing about the snack she craves the most:
My favorite food in the whole wide world is French fries. I love them. Dearly. (Laughter.) Deeply. (Laughter.) I have a good relationship with French fries and I would eat them every single day
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From TIME’s Sophia Yan:
Move over on that shelf, Barbie–gotta make some room for Michelle. Three versions of a six-inch Michelle Obama action figure will arrive in specialty stores mid-November. Consumers will be able to take their pick of Michelle in her black-and-red election night dress; in the bright purple sheath dress by Chicago
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A little fun reading on this Columbus Day courtesy of the New Republic‘s Noam Scheiber (aka, my husband), who reports on the Obama economics team’s shared passion for tennis. When they’re not busy trying to save the global economy, Geithner, Summers et al like to blow off steam by heading down to Nick Bollettieri’s famous academy in …
The Obama family attended services at St. John’s Episcopal this morning, and the Secret Service even let them walk the two blocks across Lafayette Park on this gorgeous October day. It marked the first time the family has gone to church in Washington since Easter, when they also visited St. John’s, although the Obamas have been …
The Vatican Press Office released a statement this morning congratulating Barack Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize (translation courtesy of the National Catholic Reporter):
The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace to President Obama is greeted with appreciation in the Vatican, in light of the commitment demonstrated by the
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Classy. Rush Limbaugh isn’t easily rendered speechless, but the conservative radio host took a few tries to get going this afternoon on his radio show. “Folks, there aren’t words for this,” said Limbaugh before pausing for a long moment. “Can you imagine, folks, how big Obama’s head is today?” he tried again. “I think it’s getting so big …
Unlike Joe, I did think that rejecting the prize could have been an option for Obama. But the President announced in the Rose Garden a few minutes ago that he will accept the award “as a call to action, a call to all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.” And following Joe’s advice, he said of the Nobel …
Just…wow. I honestly don’t know what’s more shocking–that France’s culture minister, the same fellow who vociferously defended Roman Polanski and complained the director was being “thrown to the lions,” has a history of paying for sex with “young boys” in Thailand or that HE WROTE ABOUT IT IN A BOOK FOUR YEARS AGO.
And not that …
Last week the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to U.S. Senators about current health reform legislation. The USCCB has supported the goal of universal health coverage for decades, but the letter made clear that they do not yet support the Senate Finance Committee’s bill because of concerns about affordability, coverage …
This is insane. The guys at Conservapedia (aka, “the trustworthy encyclopedia”) have decided to retranslate the Bible in what they’re calling the Conservative Bible Project, because “liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations.”
And you thought liberal bias was limited to the evil mainstream …
There will be a fair bit of second-guessing and recriminations to come, now that the IOC has bounced Chicago in the first-round. One question is whether this does anything to tarnish Valerie Jarrett’s unique role as Obama’s wise voice of counsel. Jarrett’s role in Chicago’s Olympic bid pre-dated her arrival at the White House, but once …
President Obama issued an executive order this afternoon, prohibiting government employees from texting and emailing while driving government vehicles or while driving on government business or while driving and using electronic devices purchased by the government. The idea is that the federal government should set a good example to …
Does anyone at the Vatican talk to each other? Or are these guys just really really awful at public relations? Earlier this week, the Holy See’s ambassador to the United Nations delivered a defiant statement in response to allegations that Vatican officials haven’t done enough to deal with sex abuse within the church. The statement …
