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Tag: Obama

  • Kelly Clarkson Gets Checked Out By Clinton

    Kelly Clarkson performed “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee” at yesterday’s presidential inauguration and had once-in-a-lifetime photo ops with some of the most powerful people in the country: President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and of course, Beyonce. But she probably had no clue the most popular pic of the day would be the one of former president Bill Clinton seemingly checking her out.

    Of course, it’s probably just a “right place at the right time” sort of thing, captured when Clinton was trying to get a better view of the festivities but ended up looking like the lascivious old Slick Willy we came to know and love in the ’90s.

    Either way, it was still a huge day for Clarkson, who tweeted about the event all morning, saying, “Wow ….I was incredibly nervous and cold ha! I just wanna officially thank President Obama for opening for me haha! Just kidding :)”

    Images: Twitter

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  • White House Speaks Out On U.S. Rejecting UN Internet Treaty

    Last week, there was much rejoicing after the U.S. and other nations firmly rejected a UN treaty that sought to regulate the Internet on an international level. There’s been a lot of talk about the conference since then, but the White House hasn’t offered a statement on the conclusion of the conference until now.

    Echoing a previous statement made near the end of the ITU conference, the White House reiterated its stance that it opposes any efforts to regulate the Internet. The administration says that it opposed the UN treaty based on the principle that “the Internet’s social and economic benefits come from the free flow of information and ideas and that the technical innovation enabling this information flow comes from the full engagement of civil society, industry, and governments in the process.”

    So, what did the US want out of this conference? The administration says that delegates should have focused on ways to install broadband in more parts of the world instead of trying to regulate it.

    The United States went to the WCIT prepared to negotiate revisions to a telecommunications treaty, last revised in 1988. These changes would have reflected the realities of the modern world while staying true to the charter of the Conference. Unfortunately, a small number of vocal states at the WCIT which do not endorse the principles of economic opportunity and free expression sought, in proposal after proposal, to instead focus on the Internet. Because of those efforts, the Conference missed a significant opportunity to encourage economic growth through greater broadband deployment.

    In the end, the United States determined that it could not sign the proposed treaty and we were far from alone in our stance. Fifty-four nations in the developed and developing world—including India, Kenya, the Philippines, Colombia, and almost all of Europe—have also chosen not to sign the treaty. Moreover, U.S. industry, Congress, and civil society were united in recognizing the value of a principled decision to protect the existing multistakeholder governance model of the Internet and not sign a treaty that could have set a dangerous precedent for greater state control of information on the Internet.

    We recognize, however, that many states wanted something from this Conference that it did not provide, but could have: increased investment in broadband to connect more people around the world to the digital future. And to those nations, we reaffirm that our Administration is committed to connecting more across the globe to modern technology — and will do so both directly, and in forums positioned to address real needs in a constructive way.

    The treaty’s rejection has stalled any efforts on an International scale to further broadband expansion, but the U.S. says its committed to working with other nations, alongside industry and civil society, to help grow broadband access around the world.

  • As LinkedIn’s Influencer Program Grows, Richard Branson Hits 1 Million Followers

    As LinkedIn’s Influencer Program Grows, Richard Branson Hits 1 Million Followers

    At the beginning of October, LinkedIn debuted their new “Influencer” initiative, which allowed users to follow specific “thought leaders” across the network. At the outset, about 150 thought leaders from various industries were included in the program, which allowed them to publish long-form articles and presentations for their follower base.

    At the one-month mark, we told you that Virgin’s Richard Branson had emerged as the star of the LinkedIn Influencers, garnering over 750,000 followers four weeks. At that time, LinkedIn also added a couple of new features like a thought leader scoreboard and new sorting mechanisms.

    And today, LinkedIn is announcing that Sir Richard Branson is officially the first person to reach the 1 million follower milestone. That’s nearly double the follower count of the next closest thought leader – President Obama.

    “Like many of our Influencers, Branson has been posting about entrepreneurship, paths to success, and the keys to balancing good work and a good life. His five tips for starting a successful business has nearly 500,000 pageviews; his 197-word article suggesting that happiness is the best measure of success drew close to 3,500 comments. Our data shows that he’s popular with everyone from entrepreneurs to HR workers and in industries ranging from tech to construction (Dig deeper into the data in the related SlideShare below). The only continent where he doesn’t have a single follower is Antarctica,” says LinkedIn’s Daniel Roth.

    Alongside the announcement of Branson’s success on the platform, LinkedIn is providing some new statistics about the Influencers initiative in general. They now have 170 thought leaders for users to follow, and over 6 million users have chosen to follow one of them. There have been over 1,000 original posts by the thought leaders, which have generated more than 11 million views and 80,000 comments.

  • Clinton Falls Asleep During Obama’s Speech?

    Clinton Falls Asleep During Obama’s Speech?

    Hillary Clinton is earning some notoriety among web trolls today as a video makes its way around the circuit of her apparently catching a few z’s during President Obama’s speech in Myanmar on Monday.

    The president was the first American leader to visit Myanmar, as well as Cambodia, and gave an inspirational speech to the audience at the University of Yangon.

    “You’re taking a journey that has the potential to inspire so many people,” Obama said.

    Apparently, jet-lag was enough to keep the Secretary of State a little sleepy during the oration, as it appears she nodded off for a moment.

  • Gingrich Calls Romney “Nuts” Over Obama Comments

    Newt Gingrich sat down for a political roundtable discussion over the weekend, and one of the topics was a highly controversial comment Mitt Romney made about President Obama and his campaign during a conference call with donors.

    “What the president’s campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote,” Romney said of this year’s election.

    Indeed, the voters in question didn’t take kindly to the accusation that they were bought, and a firestorm of controversy was aimed at Romney for implying that the election was something of a bribe. Newt Gingrich, who has been an outspoken figure in the presidential race, said the comments were “insulting”.

    “I just think it’s nuts. I mean, first of all, it’s insulting,” Gingrich said. “This would be like Walmart having a bad week and going, ‘The customers have really been unruly.’ I mean, the job of a political leader in part is to understand the people. If we can’t offer a better future that is believable to more people, we’re not gonna win.”

    To some, the comments seem to reinforce the idea that Romney, along with others in the Republican party, “despises” the American people, and that by picking up where his “47%” comment left off, he isn’t doing himself any favors even now that the election is over.

  • Ted Nugent On Election: The Best Of His Twitter Feed

    Ted Nugent has been overwhelmingly vocal about President Obama’s first term, and it looks like that’s not about to change now that America has elected him to serve again.

    The rocker and hunting enthusiast has been tweeting up a storm lately about where he thinks the country is going and why, and many of his views have caused other Twitter users to chime in, but mostly because they disagree.

    Earlier this year, Nugent got himself into some hot water by saying, “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” Since it’s frowned upon in a big way to say anything remotely threatening about the president, Nugent was treated to a sit-down with the Secret Service, where they questioned his words to find out if he was a danger to the man they protect. Luckily for him, they decided he wasn’t, but if he keeps up his Twitter feed this way, he may garner some negative attention once again.

  • Victoria Jackson Loses It On Twitter, Gets Spoofed

    Victoria Jackson, a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and comedienne, has garnered negative attention over the past several years for her outspoken rants about gays, God, and politics; however, none have come close to her latest tirade on Twitter after the election was called.

    Jackson tweeted several times about America being “dead” now that Obama is back in office, and is adamant about trying to prove that Mitt Romney was closer to winning than we all think. Her opinions aren’t being taken seriously, however, as she’s being blasted all over the web.

    The actress previously angered “Glee” fans everywhere when she spoke up about an episode in which two male characters kissed, saying, “Did you see Glee this week? Sickening! And, besides shoving the gay thing down our throats, they made a mockery of Christians – again!”

    Her rants have been compiled into one spoof by comedienne Julie Brown, who takes on the blonde’s quirky personality with ease.

  • Beyonce Tweets Support For Obama

    Beyonce Tweets Support For Obama

    Beyonce came into the Twitter world much later than the rest of us, because she was busy being married to Jay-Z, having the most talked about–and least seen–celebrity baby ever, and generally ruling the world. But when she joined, she made sure to come in with a bang.

    Bey and her man are famously supportive of President Obama, and she made it known on the social media site that even though she’s from a red state, that won’t stop her from showing him some love.

    Also, she inexplicably wore nerd glasses, but no one batted an eyelash, because she’s Beyonce and she’s allowed. Note: new blunt bangs are getting a workout on the web.

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  • President Obama Does Gangnam Style with a T-Rex in NMA’s Election Animation

    You knew it was coming. No major world event is ever really complete without a breakdown from our favorite Taiwanese animators.

    NMA has just released their take on the 2012 Presidential Election, and it lives up to their delightfully odd standard.

    If you only watch one post-election wrap-up this morning, please let it be this one. Divorced from political bias, Next Media Animation free themselves up to present last night’s election the way it should be presented – with boxing, Nate Silver beatdowns, trapdoors, battleaxes, dinosaurs, hadoukens, and Gangnam style. Check it out below:

  • The Obamas’ Hug Becomes Most-Liked Photo in Facebook History

    When it was becoming more clear that Barack Obama would be reelected and remain President of the United States, he tweeted and Facebooked the news to his millions of followers/fans. One photo update in particular resonated with people, and it has now become the most-liked photo in the history of the social network.

    You may have already seen the photo – that embrace between President Obama and First Lady Michelle. According to Facebook, it became the most-liked photo in history last night when it hit 2.1 million likes.

    As of the writing of this article, the photo has broken the 3 million like barrier and also boasts over 366,000 shares.

    Facebook + Journalists5 hours ago

    With more than 2.1 million likes, this Barack Obama photo is the most-liked Facebook photo of all time.

    Timeline Photos

    Powered by socialditto  710 likes ·  18 comments

    According to Facebook, the most popular terms on the site when Obama was declared the winner were “Obama wins,” “Romney,” “President,” “Four More Years,” and “Come on.” The President shared the hugging photo on multiple social networks with the phrase “Four More Years.”

    It’s not just Facebook where that photo made a big splash. The hugging photo has also been given the title of most-retweeted tweet in the history of Twitter.

  • Popular Vote: Will Obama Take That, Too?

    While the days leading up to the election were stressful for the parties involved, perhaps even more stress was laid upon the shoulders of each candidate’s supporters on election night. It seemed like a very tight race for hours, sometimes even coming within a few hundred votes for some states.

    Shortly before midnight, however, President Obama won the necessary amount of Electoral College Votes needed to bring him back to office for another term. Today, many are left wondering where he stands with the popular vote, which was predicted to be another close race.

    Romney held a slight lead as of last night, before many of the western states had been accounted for. But Nate Silver of the New York Times says Obama will more than likely top his opponent by the time it’s all said and done.

    “Mr. Obama is also likely to win the popular vote, perhaps by two to three percentage points, once votes from California, Oregon and Washington are fully counted,” Silver wrote.

    Obama earned a record number of racial minority voters this year, which helped him considerably in key states. He was able to take almost all of the swing states by storm, although not all of the counts are in just yet.

  • Katy Perry: Skintight Ballot Dress Hits Election Rallies

    Katy Perry is among a few high-profile musicians lending their support to President Obama, and in the week leading up to election day several voters were surprised by concerts given at re-election rallies. But the real hit wasn’t Perry’s music, it was her choice of skintight rubber outfits bearing ballots and pro-Obama sentiments.

    One outfit was a white mini-dress with her ballot choice on the front; the other, a similarly cut blue number with “Forward” emblazoned down the side with Obama’s campaign logo. Of course, Perry is well-known for her wild stage outfits, but these dresses are more about a cause than spectacle.

    “Don’t wait; go tomorrow,” she told supporters of voting. “How many of you guys are 18 in here? Let’s do this tomorrow.”

    Perry says the most important issue for her in this election is equal rights. She was joined at the rallies by Bruce Springsteen and former president Bill Clinton, who has been supportive of President Obama despite early criticism of his policies four years ago. After losing his voice over the weekend in Virginia, he told the audience, “I give my voice in the service of my president.”

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    Image: TheJasmineBrand.com
    Lead Image: Yahoo.com

  • Donald Trump Gives Obama An Extension

    Donald Trump Gives Obama An Extension

    Donald Trump announced last week that he would give $5 million to the charity of President Obama’s choice if he would release his college and passport records to the public by a certain time today. However, due to the immense crisis the East Coast has endured with Hurricane Sandy–and Obama canceling many of his appointments in order to deal with the situation–Trump has graciously offered an extension on the deadline.

    “The check will be given within one hour after he releases all of the records so stated,” Trump said in his original announcement. “He’ll be doing a great service for the country if he does this. If he releases these records, it will end the questions and indeed the anger of many Americans. They’ll know something about their president.”

    Obama has yet to take Trump up on the offer, however, and joked about their relationship to Jay Leno after the announcement was made, saying the bad blood began when the two of them were growing up together in Kenya (in reality, the pair has never met face-to-face).

    “We had constant run-ins on the soccer field,” Obama said. “He wasn’t very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America I thought it would be over.”

    Trump said on Twitter that he would give the president more time to think it over due to his recent busy schedule, which brings up a point: why not give the $5 million to relief efforts in New York?

  • Presidential Polls: Hurricane Sandy Could Impact Election

    President Obama has consistently had at least a slight lead in most of the polls so far, but that could change with the effects of Hurricane Sandy charging down the Eastern seaboard, which holds several key states for him in the election.

    With enormous power outages throughout several cities and thousands of voters displaced because of evacuations and flooding, it’s difficult to say just how big the impact will be on Election Day. The Investor’s Business Daily Poll has announced they will be suspending polling activity until further notice, and other national polls could be affected as well. Nate Silver of The New York Times predicts that Obama’s lead could drop right when it really matters…but will it be enough to count?

    “Imagine that 15 million people are essentially off-limits to pollsters because of the hurricane, because they are without power, displaced from their homes or otherwise are well-adjusted human beings who are more interested in looking after their families than in answering a political survey,” he writes. “The Northeast is Democratic leaning, of course: imagine that these voters would prefer Barack Obama to Mitt Romney by a net of 20 percentage points, on average.

    Fifteen million Americans represent about one-twentieth of the American population. If one-twentieth of Americans, who are 20 points Democratic-leaning, are unable to reply to surveys, Mr. Obama’s standing in the polls would be negatively impacted by a net of one percentage point as a result.”

  • Madonna Booed For Endorsing Obama During Concert

    Madonna is more than likely used to having her say and getting her way, so when she urged concert-goers to vote for Obama recently and was promptly booed for her efforts, it must have come as something of a shock.

    The Material Girl was in New Orleans for her MDNA tour when she took a break between songs to talk politics.

    “Who’s registered to vote?” she asked. “I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.”

    She was quickly booed by a large chunk of her fans, and several people actually walked out. While she was quick to try and smooth things over, the angered fans weren’t having it, so it’s hard to say whether she’ll be welcome back there again.

    “Seriously, I don’t care who you vote for,” she amended. “Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote.”

    The story quickly made rounds on Twitter as people voiced their opinions on whether Madonna should just perform and not use the stage as a platform for anything else.

  • Lena Dunham Compared To Putin With Obama Video

    Lena Dunham, who created and stars in the highly controversial show “Girls”, has made a little pro-Obama video which is garnering massive attention, mostly because in it, she says Obama was her “first”.

    She’s referring, of course, to the first time she voted. The video is an obvious tongue-in-cheek gesture aimed at college-aged females–her show’s demographic–in order to get them into voting booths. With so many young women siding with President Obama’s stance on important issues like women’s healthcare/birth control, gay marriage, and the Lily Ledbetter Act, it’s more important than ever for them to get out and show their support on Election Day.

    The ad–which Obama has nothing to do with–is drawing a lot of criticism, however, with TheRightScoop calling it “disgusting” and comparing it to an ad put out by Putin.

    Talk about desperation. They’ve finally sunken to a new low trying to get the youth vote by comparing voting for the first time to having sex for the first time. “You’re first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. You wanna do it with a great guy…” Ugh.

  • David Letterman Riffs On Trump’s “Surprise”

    When Donald Trump declared on Wednesday that his “surprise announcement” about President Obama was actually just a plea for him to make his college and passport records public, many of those watching thought it was a joke.

    But Trump was very serious, and that in itself has garnered several jokes at his expense. Obama himself appeared on “The Tonight Show” afterward and told Jay Leno that the bad blood between himself and Trump began when they were growing up in Kenya, much to the delight of the audience.

    “We had constant run-ins on the soccer field,” Obama said. “He wasn’t very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America I thought it would be over.”

    Letterman took his own jab at Trump in the form of a Top 10 List, which he named “Lame October Surprises”:

    10. George H.W. Bush admitting he’s the father of George W. Bush.

    9. Jimmy Carter’s confession that he’s cheated at Scrabble “in his heart.”

    8. John McCain accused of driving under the influence of soup.

    7. George McGovern’s allegation that Richard Nixon tapes songs off the radio.

    6. Rumors suggesting Abraham Lincoln’s hat concealed a “stovepipe head.”

    5. Democrats’ claim Eisenhower wanted slogan “I lick Ike.”

    4. Walter Mondale tearfully acknowledging his hazelnut allergy.

    3. Suggestion that Barack Obama has surgically enhanced ears.

    2. Mitt Romney’s investment in companies that order Chinese take-out.

    1. Donald Trump offering $5 million to unearth anyone who still takes him seriously.

  • Sarah Palin’s “Racist” Rant At Obama On Facebook

    Sarah Palin is once again drawing ire for her words, this time aimed at a post she made on Facebook about President Obama and the way the White House handled the Libya attacks.

    Using an antiquated term with a racially charged history, Palin accused Obama of doing a “shuck and jive” on the American people regarding what she called “these Benghazi lies”. Her post immediately drew fire from the Democrats, who pointed out that the term was racist; the Republicans, however, were quick to her defense, pointing out that White House press secretary Jay Carney used the same term last year during a briefing. However, he was talking about himself–a white man–when he said it, something Palin’s detractors are quick to point out.

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    Palin later took to Facebook in her own defense, saying that there is nothing racist about the terms she used. According to UrbanDictionary.com, however, it does have ties to the days of slavery.

    To shuck and jive” originally referred to the intentionally misleading words and actions that African-Americans would employ in order to deceive racist Euro-Americans in power, both during the period of slavery and afterwards. The expression was documented as being in wide usage in the 1920s, but may have originated much earlier.

    “Shucking and jiving” was a tactic of both survival and resistance. A slave, for instance, could say eagerly, “Oh, yes, Master,” and have no real intention to obey. Or an African-American man could pretend to be working hard at a task he was ordered to do, but might put up this pretense only when under observation. Both would be instances of “doin’ the old shuck ‘n jive.”

    The Atlantic Wire also did some digging around as to the origin of the phrase, and found text in Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking which also attributes it to racial slang.

    “The origin of ‘shuckin’ and jivin” according to Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, published in 1989, is in shucking corn, and refers to using words and performance to decieve and manipulate. Some sources say it started in the slavery days, others say it’s from jazz in the 1930s. But all say it started as black slang.”

    In Palin’s words:

    For the record, there was nothing remotely racist in my use of the phrase “shuck and jive” – a phrase which many people have used, including Chris Matthews, Andrew Cuomo, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to name a few off the top of my head. In fact, Andrew Cuomo also used the phrase in reference to Barack Obama, and the fact that Mr. Cuomo and I used the phrase in relation to President Obama signifies nothing out of the ordinary. I would have used the exact same expression if I had been writing about President Carter, whose foreign policy rivaled Obama’s in its ineptitude, or about the Nixon administration, which was also famously rocked by a cover-up.

    I’ve been known to use the phrase most often when chastising my daughter Piper to stop procrastinating and do her homework. As she is part Yup’ik Eskimo, I’m not sure if this term would be deemed offensive when it’s directed at her or if it would be considered benign as in the case of Chris Matthews’ use of it in reference to Rachel Maddow. Just to be careful, from now on I’ll avoid using it with Piper, and I would appreciate it if the media refrained from using words and phrases like igloo, Eskimo Pie, and “when hell freezes over,” as they might be considered offensive by my extended Alaska Native family.

    The outrageously outraged reaction to this expression from perennial hypocrites like Chris Matthews has only made me laugh. Mr. Matthews, let me share with you my favorite Irish toast: “May we always be happy, and may our enemies always know it.”

    – Sarah Palin

  • Colin Powell Endorsement: Still Republican, But Voting Democrat

    Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State under George W. Bush, publicly announced this morning that he is endorsing President Obama for a second term.

    Powell backed Obama during the last election, as well, much to the dismay of his fellow Republicans. But he says he likes to get all the facts and see exactly what each candidate will do during their campaigns before making his decision on who to vote for, something which gets pushed to the wayside these days in favor of voting strictly for one’s party.

    “I think I’m a Republican of a more moderate mold,” he said. “That’s something of a dying breed I’m sorry to say.”

    On President Obama, Powell said the country needs to remember that Congress shoulders a lot of the blame for the deep pit of problems the country has been in over recent years, and that the president has accomplished many of the things he set out to do four years ago.

    “When he took over, the country was in very very difficult straits,” he said. “We were in the one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression. The fiscal system was collapsing. Wall Street was in chaos, we had 800,000 jobs lost in that first month of the Obama administration and unemployment peaked a few months later at 10 percent. So we were in real trouble. The auto industry was collapsing, the housing was start[ing] to collapse and we were in very difficult straits. And I saw over the next several years, stabilization come back in the financial community, housing is now starting to pick up after four years, it’s starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising….Generally we’ve come out of the dive and we’re starting to gain altitude. The unemployment rate is too high, people are still hurting in housing, but I see that we’re starting to rise up.”

  • Sarah Jessica Parker Hits Home State For Obama

    Sarah Jessica Parker hasn’t kept it a secret that she is a fan of President Obama’s; in June, she held a fundraiser for his campaign at her home and starred in an ad talking him up which aired on MTV. In her latest effort to spread the word about Obama to her fellow female voters, she hit up her home state of Ohio recently along with actress Alfre Woodward and Democratic strategist Valerie Jarrett.

    “The things that I feel are most important to women and to children, the things that have made an enormous difference these past four years, and the possibility for even more important, vital and necessary change, is going to come from the Obama administration,” she said.

    Indeed, Obama has been enormously popular among women voters this time around because of his stance on healthcare–including birth control–and the fact that he believes the government shouldn’t have a say in what women do with their own bodies. Winning the key state of Ohio could mean winning the election, as both parties are fully aware, and with celebrity endorsements on his side, Obama’s approval rating in the state could be just the boost he needs.

    Valerie Jarrett, who is chair of the White House Council of Women and Girls, says the election is particularly important for females this year.

    “If you think about the president and what he’s fought for his entire life, it’s really all about equality, and opportunity — building a middle class that’s meant to last, and women are an important part of that,” she said.

    Image: Rex/InStyle.UK

  • Tagg Romney Apologized: Too Little, Too Late

    When Tagg Romney said he wanted to run up to President Obama during the debates and “take a swing at him”, he must have known he’d receive some backlash for it. Not for thinking it, but for admitting it in a public forum (a radio interview). Apparently, he didn’t think much of it until Twitter and other social media sites blew up about it.

    When asked how he reacted when Obama accused Romney’s father of lying during the debate, he replied, “Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can’t do that because, well, first because there’s a lot of Secret Service between you and him, but also because that’s the nature of the process.” He added, “We signed up for it. We’ve gotta kinda sit there and take our punches and then send them right back the other way.”

    Now that he’s apologized to Obama–he did so personally after the last debate on Monday night, saying he was “just joking”–many are saying the apology is too little, too late.

    Image: Twitter