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Tag: president obama

  • George W. Bush a Better President Than Obama, According to New Poll

    President Obama’s approval poll numbers have been sitting at low levels for months now. The botched roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) healthcare markets hit his approval numbers hard. The government shutdown of 2013, though caused by House Republicans, dragged down the president’s approval numbers as Americans grew ever-more tired of legislative gridlock. Foreign policy headaches such as the Russian invasion of Crimea and civil wars in both Iraq and Syria have also driven down the president’s foreign policy approval numbers.

    Now a new poll shows just how little some Americans think of President Obama. The poll, released on Wednesday by the Quinnipiac University Poll, shows that nearly one-third of Americans believe Obama is the worst U.S. president since World War II.

    This compares to 28% of those polled who said that George W. Bush is the worst U.S. president since that time. Perhaps even worse, 45% of those polled said that they believe the country would be better off if Mitt Romney had won the 2012 presidential election and a majority (54%) said that the current administration is not competently running the U.S. government.

    “Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

    Well into his second term, President Obama’s approval ratings now sit at an all-time low for this president. The percentage of Americans who approve of the president’s job record hit just 42% last October, and that number has dipped to 41% in subsequent months.

    At the other end of the spectrum, many Americans are pining for a return of the Gipper. Over one-third (35%) of those polled by Quinnipiac said that Ronald Reagan was the best president of the past seven decades. Other (relatively) popular presidents include Bill Clinton (18%) and John Kennedy (15%). Obama finished fourth-best in the poll with just 8% of Americans calling him the best president since FDR.

    Image via the White House

  • Climate Change Presents Risk to US Business

    In a nonpartisan study released by the Risky Business Project, leading economic and environmental figures have assessed the monetary threat that climate change proposes to business in the United States. The findings are not optimistic.

    The study, led by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and former hedge fund manager Thomas F. Steyer, used analysis and calculations conducted by the Rhodium Group, an economic research firm, and Risk Management Solutions, a company which uses catastrophe-modeling to predict risks to insurance companies and other corporations.

    When one looks at the numbers published by the study, one can see why the report is being taken so seriously:

    — Rises in the sea level will put somewhere between $66 billion and $106 billion worth of property along the eastern coast below sea level by 2050, with that number increasing to $507 billion by 2100

    — Drastic increases in temperatures in the South will bring 27 to 50 extra days of 95+ degree temperatures, resulting in at least a three percent decrease in labor productivity of outside workers, along with a 19 percent decrease in crop yields from the Midwest

    — The extra energy needed to power air conditioning due to the rise in temperatures will cost the United States $12 billion per year and would necessitate the construction of 95 gigawatts of generation capacity, the equivalent of 200 coal or natural gas power plants.

    The sponsors of the report recently met with President Obama at the White House to discuss what can be done to incentivize US businesses to adopt greener environmental policies. Those backing the study believe that a carbon emissions tax is the way to force US businesses to invest in clean energy, something many Republicans have spoken out against in the past.

    “Every year that goes by without a comprehensive public and private sector response to climate change is a year that locks in future climate events that will have a far more devastating effect on our local, regional, and national economies,” states the report.

    Three weeks ago, President Obama and the EPA ordered power plants to reduce their carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030, putting the levels at pre-2005 numbers.

    Image via YouTube

  • Student Loan Debt Is $1.1 Trillion; Obama Tries To Do Something About It

    Since President Barack Obama was elected in 2009, the federal student loan debt increased to 517 percent. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated the student loan debt at $1.1 trillion with $650 billion in credit card debt.

    Although students who have loans have a grace period of six months after graduation before their first payment, this does not erase the fact that the debt is there and it will not go away soon. For this reason, new graduates must get some sort of employment, even if it is not their dream job, just to start paying off bills.

    Just last week, Obama stated new executive actions to enable five million student loan-borrowers to limit their monthly payments at 10 percent of their income. The President also stated that any remaining loan debt after 20 years should be forgiven.

    These executive actions are only applicable to borrowers who took out their first loan after September 30, 2007 and continued to borrow money after September 30, 2011. It will also be an option for those who will start borrowing on July 1.

    In a statement, Obama said, “We’re still seeing too big a debt load on too many young people. The outrage here is that they’re just doing what they’ve been told they’re supposed to do. I can’t tell you how many letters I get from people who say, ‘I did everything I was supposed to, and now I’m finding myself in a situation where I’ve got debts I can’t pay off.’”

    In addition to the new executive actions, Obama also urged the U.S. Department of Education to improve publicity on income-based repayment programs that are available to borrowers. He also stated that the government will be renegotiating their terms with loan servicing companies in order to aid borrowers, especially those who are struggling with their debts.

    According to Cecilia Muñoz, Obama’s top domestic policy adviser, the new proposals on student loans will ultimately save taxpayers money through reducing the defaults on student loans. The Obama administration has been proposing to expand the income-based repayment program for the past two years, and they are aiming to target all borrowers, regardless of when they took out a loan.

    Obama also said that loan companies are “in the business of helping out students” and they are not there just to collect payments. “They owe young people the customer service, and support, and financial flexibility that they deserve.”

    Officials will begin negotiating new terms on loan servicing contracts when they expire this summer.

    Image via YouTube

  • Elizabeth Warren Student Loan Bill Up for Senate Vote Wednesday

    Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been working on behalf of Americans with student loan debt since she took office in 2012.

    The first bill the freshman senator ever filed, back in May 2013, was designed to offer new, shockingly-low student loan interest rates at a time when, barring Congressional action, the rate on federally backed Stafford loans was set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

    That original bill, the Bank on Student Loans Fairness Act, went nowhere.

    In May 2014 Warren was back with the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. The bill would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 in order to allow refinancing of certain existing federal student loans at lower interest rates.

    Student loan borrowers could lower interest rates on old loans, which range from almost 7 percent to 9 percent or higher, to match those that the government offers to new buyers today: 3.86 percent for undergraduate loans, 5.41 percent for graduate loans and 6.41 percent for PLUS loans.

    The bill affects millions of Americans. Some 40 million, to be more precise. Collectively they owe $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. It is now the second-largest form of consumer debt after home mortgages.

    “From 2004 to 2012, the average student loan balance increased by 70 percent. Millions of young people are struggling to keep up with their student loan payments,” Warren and Congressman John Tierney (D-MA) recently wrote. “This is an emergency. Student loan debt is crushing our young people and weighing down our economy.”

    Last week Obama threw his support behind the bill.

    It is also endorsed by student groups as well as organizations like the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association.

    As Warren and Tierney point out, “[e]very day, student loan debt stops more and more young people from moving out of their parents’ homes, from saving for a down payment, buying homes, buying cars, starting small businesses, saving for retirement or making purchases that grow our economy.”

    The bill’s opponents argue that it doesn’t address rising college costs:

    “This bill doesn’t make college more affordable, reduce the amount of money students will have to borrow, or do anything about the lack of jobs grads face in the Obama economy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a statement.

    But Warren is moving forward with her campaign in spite of detractors.

    On Monday President Obama signed an executive order that would make as many as 5 million borrowers eligible to cap their student loan repayments at 10% of their monthly income.

    On Wednesday Warren’s bill will go up for vote on the Senate floor. Many doubt it can generate the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster in the Senate, much less pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

    Regardless of Wednesday’s outcome, Democrats are using it as part of their Fair Shot Agenda, a slate of bills “designed to contrast Democratic values with those of the GOP by daring Republicans to reject poll-tested legislation.”

    Image via YouTube, Senator Elizabeth Warren

  • Obama Heads to Tumblr for Q&A, Tumblr Asked to be Thoughtful and Grammatically Sound

    The White House has held numerous Q&A sessions on Twitter and Facebook, and President Obama himself has even sat down for a reddit AMA, but on June 10th, for the first time ever, Obama will be answering user questions on Tumblr.

    Users are being asked to submit questions, the best most sterile of which will be passed on to Tumblr head David Karp to ask the President. The White House knows that over 40 percent of Tumblr’s user base is comprised of 18 to 34-year-olds, so it’s no surprise that the theme of the Tumblr chat will be education and student loans.

    More specifically, education, college affordability, and reducing student loan debt.

    “Getting a higher education is the single-most important investment students can make in their own futures. At the same time, it’s never been more expensive. That’s why since taking office, the President has made historic investments to make college more affordable – and it’s why he’s inviting you to join a conversation about the issue. Starting today, you can submit questions for the President at ObamaIRL.tumblr.com,” says the White House.

    They’re also asking Tumblr users to be thoughtful and check their grammar. LOL. That White House is so funny.

    Tumblr was one of the first social destinations that Obama Obama’s social strategy team joined – way back in 2011.

    “There will be trolls among you: this we know. We ask only that you remember that we’re people—fairly nice ones—and that your mother would want you to be polite,” they said at the time. Since then, the White House has posted a lot of GIFs, videos, and infographics.

    According to the White House, the Tumblr experience has “been an incredible way to connect with followers on the issues they care about.”

    Images via White House, blog & Tumblr

  • Bowe Bergdahl: Was It A Mistake To Free Him?

    Obama is facing backlash for his decision to free Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for the release of five top Taliban leaders from Guantanamo. The initial reaction was relief, but now many are questioning the President’s decision.

    Bergdahl had been in Taliban custody for almost five years before his release. When Bergdahl was released on Saturday, soldiers came forward and stated that Bergdahl abandoned his Army unit in Afghanistan in 2009 during a combat deployment.

    Bergdahl disappeared from his observation post on June 2009. Three men from his 30-man platoon said that they found his night-vision goggles, body armor, helmet, and rifle neatly stacked inside his tent.

    Before his disappearance, several soldiers said that Bergdahl had expressed his dissatisfaction with the Army, and had made statements about walking to India or China. Fellow soldiers have called Bergdahl a deserter, and say he should be charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

    The military is now investigating Bergdahl’s reason for leaving his post. According to Army General Martin Dempsey, the U.S. military is being accused of turning their eyes away from misconduct. However, Dempsey said that Bergdahl’s case is “premature.” “Like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty. Our Army’s leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred,” he said.

    Obama officials are defending their decision to release Bergdahl by saying that he could have soon been killed by his captors.

    Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said that the Pentagon does not qualify whom they try to recover. “It doesn’t matter how he was taken captive. It doesn’t matter under what circumstances he left. It doesn’t matter what his persuasions were, political or otherwise. We have an obligation to recover all of those who are missing in action.”

    The soldiers insisted that Bergdahl is a deserter, and many lives were lost while searching for him over the past five years. “More than a handful of soldiers got Purple Hearts looking for him,” former Army Spc. Cody Full, a former roommate of Bergdahl said.

    According to Full, Bergdahl mailed home all his personal effects before moving to the observation post in Afghanistan. “Why would you mail your stuff home unless you were not going to ever need it again?” he asked.

    The investigation was not completed, since Army officials were not yet able to talk to Bergdahl. He is being treated at a military hospital in Germany. In the investigation, military officers have gathered information that Bergdahl may have walked off voluntarily, but they are still open to the idea that he may have been taken prisoner while using the latrine.

    Andy Andrews, whose son was killed while looking for Bergdahl said, “Where is the honor in any of this?” His wife said, “Honorable soldiers risked their lives for someone who was a deserter, a traitor. It devalues their lives.”

    Many are now asking if the five Taliban leaders were released in exchange of a hero, or a deserter.

    If hard evidence of desertion is found, Bergdahl could face court-martial. If convicted, Bergdahl could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

    The five Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bowe Bergdahl

    Image via YouTube

  • Oklahoma Execution Was Inhumane, Says White House

    In a press conference held earlier today, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the botched execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett “fell short of the humane standards required when the death penalty is carried out,” according to the AP.

    He went on to say that everyone could see that this was the case.

    On Tuesday evening, Lockett died of a heart attack after waking up mid-execution.

    According to the timeline, Lockett’s execution began at 6:23 pm. Ten minutes later, he was determined to be unconscious. A few minutes after the paralytic was administered, Lockett began moving and attempting to speak.

    “Lockett grimaced and tensed his body several times over a three minute period before the execution was shielded from the press. After being declared unconscious ten minutes into the process, Lockett spoke at three separate moments. The first two were inaudible, however the third time he spoke, Lockett said the word ‘man,’” says one eyewitness account.

    By 7:06, Lockett was declared dead due to an apparent heart attack.

    The news flooded Twitter, and shortly after Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued a stay of execution for another death row inmate, who was set to be executed later that evening.

    “I have asked the Department of Corrections to conduct a full review of Oklahoma’s execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this evening’s execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett,” said Fallin. “I have issued an executive order delaying the execution of Charles Frederick Warner for 14 days to allow for that review to be completed.”

    For anti-Death Penalty advocates, the botched execution is another cruel example of a broken system. As supplies of lethal injection drugs become more and more scarce (mostly due to hesitant pharm companies), states like Oklahoma have been forced to adopt alternative drugs–drugs that are oftentimes held from pubic knowledge. There are worries that these drugs are unable to provide a humane death, although some would argue that there is no such thing even with the standard cocktail.

    On Twitter, death penalty advocates pointed to the fact that Lockett’s crime, for which he was sentenced to death, involved the brutal death of a young woman whom he shot and then watched as she was buried alive.

    There’s no doubt that this latest incident will spur fierce debate–even more so now that the White House has weighed in on it. It’s worth noting that the White House and President Obama’s official position on the Death Penalty is that it should be allowed, but only reserved for the most heinous of crimes. He does, however, feel that the Death Penalty has been proven to do little to deter crime.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kathleen Sebelius Says She Told Obama Staying “Wasn’t an Option”

    Kathleen Sebelius, who resigned last week as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that she made the decision to leave and told President Barack Obama last month that staying “wasn’t an option.”

    Sebelius’ appearance on Meet the Press was her first interview since the White House announced her resignation Friday. She said that she and the president first spoke about her future after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – started to show it was recovering from a problematic launch on October 1.

    “The president and I began to talk after the first of the year, and I went back to him in early March,” Sebelius said.

    “I made it pretty clear that it really wasn’t an option to stay on, Sebelius said.

    “I thought it was fair to either commit to January 2017 or leave with enough time that he would get a strong, competent leader,” Sebelius said.

    “That really wasn’t a commitment I was willing to make and he knew that,” Sebelius continued.

    Sebelius was responding to speculation that she was asked to resign after the failed Obamacare rollout last fall.

    President Obama announced her resignation on Friday, as well as his nomination of budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to take over as health secretary.

    Although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had a rocky start because of technical glitches with the program’s website, enrollment totals after the March 31 deadline exceeded projections. Sebelius’ resignation comes at a high note for the program. She announced last week that 7.5 million people signed up for private health coverage under the law. 

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kathleen Sebelius Talks Failed Obamacare Rollout

    For Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary who just resigned, the date of Dec.1 was a scary one.

    Why? Because that was the relaunch date for HealthCare.gov, since the initial launch of Oct.1 failed so miserably.

    As most have heard by now, Sebelius was replaced by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the Director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and since leaving, she’s given her first interview on the failed Affordable Care Act roll out.

    Sebelius said Oct. 1 was the wrong date for the launch, but she also said she’s glad everything worked out in the end, since over 7 million signed up for Obamacare, which is higher than the President anticipated.

    “Well, I think there’s no question, and I’ve said this many times, that the launch of the website was terribly flawed and terribly difficult,” she said. “Clearly, the estimate that it was ready to go Oct. 1 was just flat out wrong.”

    But since all of that is behind her, Sebelius feels it was all worth it for the sake of the country, since people now have access to proper medical coverage, and she’s thrilled that for the very first time folks can easily get all kinds of useful healthcare information.

    “People have competitive choices and real information for the first time ever in this insurance market,” Sebelius stated.

    According to an inside source for Reuters, the former Governor of Kansas planned to resign after the open enrollment period ended, which probably means President Obama knew he would go with Burwell for quite some time. Plus, the President has the utmost confidence in Burwell, said Sebelius, as she’s done a great job of managing budgets for the White House.

    “She believed that once open enrollment ended it would be the right time to transition the department to new leadership,” said the insider referring to Sebelius. “The president sought a nominee with strong credential in management, implementation, and performance for this important role.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Samsung’s Obama/Ortiz Selfie Ad Miffs White House

    Samsung’s Obama/Ortiz Selfie Ad Miffs White House

    Earlier this week, President Obama welcomed the Boston Red Sox to the White House to honor their 2013 World Series run. It wasn’t huge news, as the President of the United States has been welcoming championship sports teams to the White House for decades.

    There was an interesting moment, however, when Red Sox slugger David Ortiz snapped a selfie with the President. The selfie soon went viral, and at this point has garnered over 41,000 retweets. Check it out:

    Soon after, the innocent selfie came under fire as it was revealed that it was all probably just a marketing ploy to promote Samsung devices (what Ortiz used to take the selfie). Here is Samsung retweeting the selfie from its Mobile US corporate account:

    Sports Business Journal reported that the selfie came on the heels of a recent endorsement deal between Ortiz and Samsung.

    Couple that with the fact that Samsung had just done the exact same thing at the Oscars with Ellen Degeneres’ (much more popular) tweet, and you have a pretty open and shut case of corporate interference. Oh, and there was also the fact that Samsung released a statement on the selfie calling it an “historic moment” and basically admitted to teaching Ortiz how to best “share images with fans.”

    Ok, Samsung, you win again. End of story, right?

    Well, no. Now the White House is pissed.

    The Wall Street Journal quotes White House press secretary Jay Carney as saying:

    “As a rule the White House objects to attempts to use the president’s likeness for commercial purposes. And we certainly object in this case.”

    Carney said that the President’s legal team objects to this stunt, but wouldn’t comment on whether or not lawyers will be involved in the future. President Obama himself hasn’t made a statement on the issue.

    The White House did retweet Ortiz’s selfie at the time, and it still remains in their Twitter feed:

    And the White House blog talks about the selfie in their post about the day, saying Big Papi “made the most of the moment” with his selfie.

    So it looks like the White House press was unaware of Samsung’s influence on the now-infamous selfie until recently.

    Image via White House blog

  • Michigan Minimum Wage Should be Raised, Says Obama

    President Obama wants to raise the minimum wage in Michigan by almost three dollars. As he said in his State of the Union address given in January, the president believes doing so can help people out of poverty. The republicans on the other hand, see it doing just about the opposite.

    In a speech he gave at the University of Michigan on Wednesday to a crowd of about 1,400, Obama cracked jokes about the Republican Party and touted the importance of his proposal to increase minimum wage.

    “You’ve got a choice,” the president said in his speech. “You can give America the shaft, or you can give it a raise.”

    Obama’s proposal would increase the minimum wage amount from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. The state of Michigan already has an effort in place to address the subject on the November ballot. The state wants the state minimum wage to increase from $7.40 to $10.10. According to polls, this initiative is popular among voters, particularly those who have been hit hard by tough economic times.

    The White House believes raising the minimum wage in Michigan will help more than 970,000 voters in the state. Republicans who oppose the plan, however, believe raising the limit will result in over 500,000 jobs being lost.

    Here’s what Twitter thinks about the raise:

    Senator Richard J. Durbin, a democrat from Illinois, says he plans to bring the proposal up for a vote as early as next week.

    “If it doesn’t pass — at that stage, procedurally or otherwise — we need to be open for conversation,” Durbin said in an interview. “But first, we want to make our stand for what we believe to be a fair minimum wage for all Americans.”

    Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine has been vocal about her opposition regarding the raise. She claims the proposal will not pass because the increase is too high. Instead, she plans on proposing a smaller increase, in addition to tax break renewals for small business that qualify.

    Image via YouTube

  • Obamacare’s Glitch Disqualifies Americans From Health Care

    Obamacare’s Glitch Disqualifies Americans From Health Care

    The main Obamacare website, where Americans can apply for healthcare, has an ongoing glitch that may be telling users that they are not qualified for subsidies when they really are. This glitch has been discovered to be running for nearly six months now.

    The Healthcare.gov website has a subsidy calculator where users can estimate how much financial assistance they qualify for before applying for Obamacare. The estimate is unofficial, but many eligible Americans might be discouraged to sign up for health care coverage because of its high costs.

    The glitch was discovered by the Philadelphia Inquirer while typing in hypothetical incomes. Before this, none of the officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) noticed the glitch on the Obamacare website.

    The subsidy calculator is using 2014 poverty guidelines when the health care law is using 2013 guidelines. The Affordable Care Act is still using last year’s mandate because sign-ups began in 2013. The 2014 guidelines are 1.5 percent higher, which may add thousands of dollars in coverage costs.

    CMS counters that it made a small difference, and that they are correcting the issue.

    This glitch affects those with incomes that barely reach the poverty line. Under the law, families whose income is 100 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level are qualified to receive subsidies.

    There is no word on how many people have been affected, but it is possible that many families did not continue applying for Obamacare after receiving expensive and inaccurate results.

    However, applicants can still continue and see if they are actually qualified. According to CMS spokesperson Richard Olague, users can get an accurate calculation of their subsidy if they complete their healthcare application.

    The Healthcare.gov website is the latest of government websites that have suffered several glitches since they were launched last year.

    Enrollment for coverage ends March 31.

    This was not the first glitch

    Image via YouTube

  • North Korea Fires 30 Missiles Into The Sea of Japan

    Last Saturday, North Korea test-fired 30 short-range missiles off their east coast and into the Sea of Japan, according to reports from South Korea’s Joint Chief of Staff. “The missiles are estimated to have flown about 60 kilometres (37 miles),” a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs said. These new tests come after pleas from Seoul and Washington to stop “provocative actions.” The tests are assumed to be a show of force intended to express anger at the South’s joint military exercises with the United States. At the 2009 G-20 London Summit, U.S. President Obama called South Korea “one of America’s closest allies and greatest friends.”

    “The North should stop actions that cause military tension and unnerve its neighbours,” Seoul spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters. “Provocative action made without any prior notifications. can pose significant danger to sea vessels and aircraft passing by the area,” he added. These latest test fires are North Korea’s sixth launch in just over a month. The missiles used are Soviet-era short range missiles, used in the 1960s. It’s been estimated that North Korea will likely test-fire all of their remaining Frog missiles in the near future.

    These missile tests came as South Korea and Japan announced on Friday that their leaders will hold a summit with President Obama next week – in what the Telegraph calls a breakthrough agreement after Washington urged South Korea and Japan to mend their strained ties. The summit will mark the first formal talks between the country’s leaders in over a year. It’s reported that at the summit, North Korea’s nuclear program and the issue of nuclear non-proliferation is on the agenda for discussion.

    Do you think South Korea and the United States should be concerned over these test-fires? Or is it more of the same intimidating actions of North Korea to appear threatening?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Obama Calls Ellen’s Record Tweet a Cheap Stunt

    Obama Calls Ellen’s Record Tweet a Cheap Stunt

    As you may have heard, the deadline for Obamacare enrollment is fast approaching (it’s the end of the month, fyi). In order to get more people on board, President Obama has been on a media tour of sorts. The latest stop on the Affordable Care Act promotional train was The Ellen Show.

    Remember Ellen’s big Oscar tweet?

    That tweet has now garnered over 3.4 million retweets, and is comfortably the most retweeted tweet of all time. On Oscar night, during the first hour on Twitter, the tweet was retweeted over 1 million times–crushing the record set by the President back in 2012 when he tweeted this after the election:

    780,000? Weak. It’s not even close, right?

    Well, President Obama is calling shenanigans on the whole thing.

    “I don’t know if you know this,” said Ellen, “but i was aiming to break your record of retweets and I apologize for doing it but I broke your retweet record.”

    “I heard about that. I though it was a pretty cheap stunt myself–getting a bunch of celebrities in the background.”

    Jokes aside, we all know that it was a pretty cheap stunt. It was all one giant advertisement for Samsung, paid for from the beginning, and we were all duped. Well, not all of us I guess. 3.4 million, to be exact.

    Either way, nobody forced Twitter users to retweet the selfie. Samsung ploy or not, Ellen is the Queen of Retweets and that’s just a fact. Congrats.

    Image via The Ellen Show, YouTube

  • Bill Yosses, Pastry Chef, Leaving White House In June For New York City

    William “Bill” Yosses has been the Executive Pastry Chef in the White House since 2007. He was hired by Laura Bush, the former first lady. After serving delectable desserts for the White House for seven years, the 60-year-old pastry chef is ready to hang up his apron.

    The announcement came when Yosses was interviewed for The New York Times. After his resignation, which will be effective in June, Yosses will be moving to New York and will be focusing on teaching culinary arts to adults and children. He is going to focus on sharing his knowledge on eating healthier.

    “It’s a bittersweet decision,” said the pastry chef. Despite leaving a job that he is passionate about, Yosses is looking forward to moving to New York, as he will be with his husband. His husband is a teacher and they have been living apart for 11 years.

    When the Obamas came to the White House, first lady Michelle Obama asked him to create healthier desserts in small portions. Yosses described Obama as, “an inspiring boss, a combination of spontaneity and seriousness.” Although he has been creating healthier options for the first family, Yosses said that he has not given up on his former way of making desserts.

    According to sources from the White House, they still do not know what direction the first lady will take when hiring Yosses’ successor.

    Although Yosses has shifted towards healthy desserts, he is still known in the White House for serving the best pies and has been nicknamed “The Crustmaster” by the president. Yosses also said that the White House still creates traditional desserts about 20% of the time for special occasions.

    In a statement, the first lady said that she is sad about Yosses’ departure, but she is grateful for his outstanding work and she wishes him the best in his future undertakings.

    Bill Yosses at TEDx

    Image via YouTube

  • March Madness 2014: The Games Start On Thursday, Are Your Brackets Ready?

    The madness will soon be upon us, as all of the top teams, and their fans, prepare for the big NCAA tournament that will ignite March Madness 2014. It has been a wild year that has seen several top teams go up and down, and no team has much of an edge heading into the tournament.

    The seeds and first-round match-ups have been selected, and as people hurry up to finish up their brackets, they continue to debate about the right picks. Of course, it is impossible to tell who will win, and some people might even pick them at random.

    A perfect bracket has never been done before, but fans continue to do them every year in the hopes that they could be the first. This year, Warren Buffet is even offering $1 billion to anyone who is finally able to complete the near-impossible task.

    Some people could make rough drafts, and continue to edit them starting on Sunday night, and others may wait until the last minute. However, everyone must remember that in order for a bracket to be counted, they must be submitted before the tip-off of the first game on Thursday, March 20th.

    President Obama took time out of his busy presidential schedule to fill out a bracket as he has done every year, and while his Final Four was unveiled initially, every pick that he made was revealed to viewers on a special edition of Sportscenter this morning.

    If someone wants to copy Obama’s picks, then go with Louisville, Michigan State, Florida, and Arizona. He correctly picked Lousiville in the championship last year, and has them going again this year, but feels that Michigan State has the power to overcome the defending champions.

    The four No.1 seeds this year are Florida, who obtained the No.1 overall seed after going undefeated in the SEC, Wichita State, who is undefeated on the season, Arizona, and Virginia. Any of them has the ability to go to the Final Four, but then again, many others do as well.

    Post by ESPN College Basketball.

    Two teams from Obama’s Final Four are No.4 seeds, Louisiville and MIchigan State, and both teams have a great chance of making the championship. There are several teams that have peaked at different points during the season, and if recent years have taught fans anything, it would be that any team is capable of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

    Michigan State may not be a No.1 seed, but they have plenty of experience playing in the tournament, and were picked to win by all five ESPN analysts, which includes Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg, Jay Williams and Dick Vitale.

    March Madness 2014 will be underway on Thursday, and while plenty of people seem to be picking Michigan State to win it all, there are always surprises in the tournament. The Spartans did just win the Big Ten tournament, and when healthy, they are certainly one of the teams to beat.

    Image via Facebook

  • President Obama Reveals His Picks For The Final Four

    It’s March Madness time again, and like no president before him had done, President Obama has taken the time to publicly fill out an NCAA March Madness bracket, letting everyone know what his final four picks will be.

    He has proven over the years that he is a big fan of college basketball, and has even shown a bit of favoritism toward certain teams in a way. From 2009 until 2013, President Obama has picked three different teams to win the championship, and he as been correct once.

    In the era that has become known as “Barack-etology,” Obama has picked Indiana (over Louisville in 2013), Kansas (over Ohio State in 2011 and Kentucky in 2010) and North Carolina (over Kentucky in 2012 and Louisville in 2009).

    However, he did also correctly pick that Louisville would go to the championship in 2013, a game that they won. He predicted that they would lose to Indiana, and Louisville ended up winning when they beat another Big Ten school, Michigan.

    Speaking on last year’s championship game, President Obama said that it was “one of the best championship games that any of us have seen in a very, very long time.”

    This year could be the most exciting one that basketball fans have seen in a while since no team seems to be a real front-runner heading into the tournament, except possibly Florida, who went undefeated in conference play, and earned the No.1 overall seed.

    As a result, President Obama only has two No.1 seeds in his final four, but as most people know, a Final Four that consists of four No.1 seeds almost never happens. The president’s final four picks are Florida, Arizona, Michigan State, and Louisville.

    Do you agree with Obama’s picks? Who will be making the Final Four this year?

    Last year Obama’s men’s bracket ranked 2,080,996 out of 8.15 million entries in ESPN.com’s free ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge, placing him in the 74.4th percentile. Every year is different though, and this could be his year again.

    Michigan State and Louisville are the No.4 seeds in the East, and Midwest, respectively. However, both teams are on a role after winning their conference championships, and are likely contenders to win it all. They are led by Michigan State’s Gary Harris, and Louisville’s Russ Smith, both contenders for the Wooden Award.

    President Obama correctly placed Louisville in the championship last year, but do they have the potential to get back? They lost Peyton Siva, but still have a load of talent on their team, and are seeking another championship.

    Image via Youtube

  • Mark Zuckerberg Called Obama to Express Frustration ‘Over the Damage the Government Is Creating for Our Future’

    Earlier this week, reports emerged that said the NSA posed as Facebook to infect computers with malware. The revelation came from none other than American fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden, who claimed that the security agency had “tricked users computers into thinking that they were accessing real Facebook servers. Once the user had been fooled, the NSA hacked into the user’s computer and extracted data from their hard drive,” according to the LA Times.

    I guess that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg felt that the time was right to once again call for increased government transparency, a free internet, and security for all.

    in a post this afternoon, Zuckerberg says that he is “confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government.” He doesn’t mention these reports specifically, as the post expresses a general concern about the U.S. government’s impact on a free, open, transparent, and secure internet. He says that trust in the internet is more important than ever.

    “The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst,” says Zuckerberg in the post. “I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.”

    Post by Mark Zuckerberg.

    When the whole Edward Snowden NSA surveillance story broke last summer, Facebook was one of the first companies to vehemently deny any involvement. At the time, they also called for more data transparency–specifically involving national security data requests.

    “We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. It’s the only way to protect everyone’s civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term,” said Zuckerberg.

    Image via Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

  • Obama’s ‘Between Two Ferns’ Tactic Leads to Healthcare.gov Traffic Spike

    Let’s just assume that President Obama had reasons to sit down with Zach Galifianakis on “Between Two Ferns” other than showing the country that he could expertly pull off a fat joke.

    Of course, Obama’s move to star in one of the internet’s longest-running and funniest quasi anti-comedy bits had everything to do with pushing signups for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges as the signup period dwindles. Americans now have until March 31st to purchase coverage. It’s crunch time, and the White House made a calculated decision to reach out to the younger crowd by throwing them an (admittedly pretty funny) elevated sales pitch.

    And it looks like it paid off–if the White House’s measure of success was simply getting people to the healthcare.gov site.

    Time will tell if a sudden boost in signups can be directly attributed to the Funny or Die video, but in terms of a sheer traffic driver, it looks as though the move payed off to the tune of a 40% spike in healthcare.gov visits.

    The video has seen over 12 million views on the Funny or Die site alone, and that figure doesn’t include the countless views the video saw on YouTube before Funny or Die removed it.

    According to Google data, “healthcare.gov” has seen a spike in searches over the past 24 hours and “Between Two Ferns” is one of the hottest search trends since Tuesday morning.

    “I can assure you that the Funny or Die video will be one of the reasons we get young Americans to HealthCare.gov–one of the reasons we get young Americans to enroll in health insurance programs, but not the only one,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

    Pageviews aren’t signups, but it’s clear that Obama got people curious when he made mentions of the open enrollment period–you know, between all the Hangover 3 jokes.

    Images via YouTube, reddit

  • Obama Gets to Watch Game of Thrones’ New Season Before You Do

    A couple of weeks ago, we heard that President Obama asked HBO CEO Richard Plepler if he, as the most powerful man in the world, could please pretty pretty please get some advance episodes of Game of Thrones and True Detective–two of the company’s most popular shows.

    You can’t really blame a guy for trying. I know I sure as hell would.

    Well, it turns out those reports were true–and HBO obliged.

    Speaking to Vanity Fair’s Jim Windolf, Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff had this to say:

    “One perk of being the most powerful man in the world: yes, you get to see episodes early.”

    So there you go. Fresh off binging on 13 episodes of House of Cards, President Obama is now making his way through the drama and dragons of Westeros way before you.

    I guess House of Cards creator Beau Willimon said it best, when referring to the news that Obama was such a big fan of the show:

    “On the one hand I was thrilled, and on the other hand I’m thinking ’13 hours is a big chunk of your day.’”

    Sadly, none of us are the President of the United States. That means that all we have until April 6th are trailers–glorious trailers, I’ll admit, but still just trailers.

    Shit.

    Image via Game of Thrones, Facebook

  • Zach Galifianakis Interviews Barack Obama In Latest Episode Of “Between Two Ferns”

    The episodes of Between Two Ferns seem to get better with each installment, and with the latest episode, Zach Galifianakis hosted President Barack Obama. The show is a short internet comedy series that utilizes Galifinakis’ hilarious antics as he interviews celebrity guests.

    Things certainly got interesting with the questions that he asked, and Obama helped deliver some witty jokes as well. He welcomed Barack Obama on the show by jokingly apologizing that it had not happened sooner, before saying “My mouse pad broke, and I had to get my great-aunt some diabetes shoes.”

    In case the Obama interview sparked curiosity for fans, and people want to see more hilarious clips like this one, click here for all of the Between Two Ferns interviews.

    While Zach Galiafanakis may have thought it would be a great way to get some more viewers on his mock interview show, Obama was also using it as an opportunity to reach more young people. He still needs more young people to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act, and the March 31st deadline is approaching shortly.

    Dan Pfeiffer, Obama’s senior adviser and chief communications strategist, explained his appearance on the show when saying “We have to find ways to break through. This is essentially an extension of the code we have been trying to crack for seven years now.”

    The comedic genius has helped to turn the show into an Internet cult favorite by making his guests feel awkward and uncomfortable. He has been host to a variety of guests, but up until now, they have mostly been actors or celebrities of some sort.

    His last guest was in September when he was host to Justin Bieber, and was seen criticizing his music career, and hairstyle, among other things. Galifianakis’ interview with Obama was posted on Tuesday morning, and according to NPR, the video had been viewed more than 320,000 times within two hours.

    The appearance by Obama on a show like Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns is something that no previous president has done before. After a recent introduction to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s revival of Cosmos, and an interview with Charles Barkley during the 2014 NBA All-Star Game, he continues to prove that he truly is the people’s president.

    The comedy segment included several odd questions toward the nation’s president, and he continued to deliver with hilarious answers, even insulting Zach Galifianakis on occasion.

    President Obama also showed that he was a fan of the show already, or at least had done his research well, as he referenced a previous episode with Bradley Cooper as being one of the best.

    Image via Youtube