Results tagged “barackobama”

First Hawaii told the "birthers" to knock it off, and now a federal judge has told them to give it a rest, too.

After days of "WTF, Oslo?" resounding around the country and across the globe, the five judges of the Nobel jury have responded in a rare defense of their decision to award the Peace Prize to President Obama. They have flipped the international community the bird and basically said "We did it, we stand by it, deal with it." In this piece from the Chicago Tribune, committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland stated that "Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year...Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?"

Under fire from gay rights group for his lack of action since his inauguration, President Barack Obama pledged yesterday to end the military's controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Of course, such a proclamation came with a caveat that likely will cause the criticism to continue: he set no specific time-table for actually ending the policy. Obama made the announcement yesterday at a fund-raiser for the Human Rights Campaign. Speaking to a crowd of 3,000 at the event, Obama said, "I will end 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'; that is my commitment...I'm here with you in that fight." The frustration with Obama's lack of action has led to today's National Equality March (which also marks National Coming Out Day). If you want to join the march, you've still got time: it gets underway at 1 p.m. at Daley Plaza. Just watch out for those marathon stragglers.

President Obama held a news conference this morning to address his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps sensing the criticisms of the far right and skepticism of some of his supporters to being awarded the honor, Obama said he was "surprised and deeply humbled" at winning the Nobel, questioned whether he even deserved the honor and said that he doesn't view the Nobel as 'recognition of (his) own accomplishments."

President Obama became the third sitting President to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Obama was awarded the honor for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Local speculation is running rampant these days as the people of the greater Chicagoland are wondering if Chicago's Olympic bid will pass muster next month. Mayor Daley is feeling pretty damn good about Chicago's chances of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. "I'm much more confident in our presentation, I'm much more confident in our sponsorship, I'm much more confident that we have all the facts and figures," Daley said yesterday. Never one to clam up in front of media types, Daley went on to explain his reasoning by way of a quick geography lesson.

For all the debate over President Obama's speech to schools tomorrow, the speech itself - at least in its current form - is a pretty straight-forward pep talk. Based on an advanced copy of the speech released to the media, it seems more like the standard "Stay in School" speech, underscoring students' responsibilities and, as written, could easily have come out of the mouth of any number of Presidents regardless of political party affiliation.

It's been nearly 25 year since the Bears won Super Bowl XX -- doesn't that make us feel old! -- but the Bears team that brought home the Lombardi Trophy has never received their customary visit to the White House. Back in 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle tragedy resulted in their visit being postponed, and it was never rescheduled.

                     

It's time for our monthly check-in with Chicago's Commander-in-Chief who's had a rough several weeks. Photos courtesy of the White House Flickr stream.

Proving that a 10-year-old could do the same job as half the TV anchors, Damon Weaver, the youngster who made headlines for his interview with then-Senator (and now VP) Joe Biden a few months back, finally lands the big fish, President Barack Obama.

Governor Quinn and Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis were among the democratic leaders at Federal Plaza Tuesday pumping up organized labor and liberal advocacy groups in support of President Obama’s health care reform proposal. Hundreds attended to unite against the current insurance system and build momentum for the president’s proposal. As no good rally is without counter-protestors, conservative activists like Eric Odom also made a showing, he told Chicago Breaking News: “We basically feel the legislation being pushed through (is) very dangerous”, and “We are really pushing for everybody to take a deep breath and really look at what we’re getting into and not just jump into something…that’s going to cost us for years to come”.

Frankly, we’re sick of hearing about the economy. And when the new show at Second City e.t.c. opened singing, “The economy blows,” we settled in ready to tally the number of times the actors poked fun at the economic down turn. Thankfully, we didn’t get very far.

Well that was quick. President Obama's response to South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint's comment that the GOP could "break" Obama by debating health care reform has already made its way onto a made-in-the-USA, 100 percent cotton t-shirt. Now you have the perfect compliment to your Ivan Drago "I Must Break You" t-shirts. [via Gapers Block]

Former University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein was tapped back in January of this year by past U of C colleague President Obama to join the growing rank of czars and head up the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, but now the Senate confirmation process has been put on hold by Republican Senator John Cornyn.

An Army reservist has found a unique way to get out of going into battle. U.S. Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook is balking at being deployed to Afghanistan, saying that the Commander-in-Chief has no right sending him there because Barack Obama can't legally be the President.

President Barack Obama will sign a presidential memorandum today to extend some benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, but they may not include health or retirement benefits. Some gay rights activists expected Obama to make strides for gay rights this June in honor of Gay Pride Month, but they have been disappointed by the lack of movement.

The White Sox were supposed to crack open their 2009 season Monday afternoon at U.S. Cellular field, but due to the forecast cold, snow and high winds, the team announced on Sunday that their Opening Day will be pushed back to Tuesday. Not that the weather's going to be all that much better on Tuesday -- sub-40 temps and flurries are called for.

Of course you’ve seen Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” design on posters, buttons, the cover of Time Magazine, even as a bad tattoo. But Fairey isn’t the only independent artist who was compelled to create in support of then President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. Now you can see more than 100 works (prints, posters, photos, and videos) from artists, designers, and the Obama ‘08 campaign at Officially Unofficial - Inspired Art for Obama,” opening April 1 at the Chicago Tourism Center.

In case you missed it, President Barack Obama (did you know: he used to be a Senator from Illinois?) visited The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (ugh, Letterman wasn't available?) and talked the economy, AIG, and ruffled a few feathers by comparing his bowling game to the Special Olympics.

The past couple of days, everybody has been busy analyzing their NCAA Tournament pool picks when they should have instead been working. Even a financial meltdown and two wars can't keep our Hoopster-in-Chief from finding time to fill in his bracket, too. No way he's letting Rahm beat him! Barack Obama predicted a Final Four of Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis and Pittsburgh -- choosing three #1 seeds and one #2 seed. Pretty pragmatic picks, if we do say so. Most people view UConn as the most vulnerable of the top seeds.

While this skit, from this weekend's episode of SNL, isn't the funniest Obama-themed skit the show has produced, it's worth it just for Andy Samberg's brilliant Rahm Emanuel impression.

• Legendary Chicago architect John Holabird passed away yesterday at the age of 88.
• Our pal Justin Kaufmann over at WBEZ's blog has a copy of Cook County Clerk David Orr's alleged open letter to Sen. Burris calling for Burris to resign.
• Like it or not, President Obama signed off on the $787 billion stimulus package today.

Anxious because you haven’t bought anything for your Obamabilia collection in a while? Never fear -- starting Tuesday you can add limited-time license plates bearing the president’s grin to your pile of Obama-emblazoned T-shirts, buttons and key chains. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White unveiled on Friday the $50-a-pair “Illinois Salutes Barack Obama” special-event license plates, which celebrate the “Land of Lincoln’s” connection with the 44th president of the U.S.

While the White Sox's starting rotation is still a bit up in the air, the team is hoping to have a crafty left-hander on the mound Opening Day. The Sox have officially invited new President Barack Obama to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on April 6, when the South Siders play host to the Kansas City Royals.

The White Sox may never be able to surpass the Cubs as most popular team in town, but having our new Commander in Chief as a fan has certainly given the Sox some new found cache. Since Barack Obama's election as president, sales of Sox caps have surged 25 percent. So it comes as little surprise that the South Siders are playing up their new status as First Team. The Sox have already launched a First Fan page on their website.

       

The initial planning stages of our inauguration coverage began on November 5, 2008. After months of prep, paper work, applications, and urgent calls to friends looking for a couch to crash, the moment finally arrived and just like that, it was all over. After five straight days of traveling and sprinting around D.C., Wednesday was spent recovering and, for some of us, traveling once more. With President Obama now sworn in twice for good measure, he's hit the ground running, something extremely difficult for us after a weekend of scurrying around the city, trying to cover as much as possible. Tankboy, Lizz, and Karl have returned safely to Chicago and by the time this post goes live, my plane should hopefully be on its approach to Midway. But before I left town, I got a chance to scope out Washington D.C. in its own recovery mode. For the first time since I arrived, I had a chance to relax and take some time to check out some monuments and how the deconstruction of the National Mall was going.

First there was talk about the "terrorist fist jab." Now there's this clip from Fox News Channel 2 in Detroit where "The Love Doctor" makes an unfortunate mistake. While this humorous (if sophomoric) example does delight us, it's called a "fist bump," people.

In a speech at the "We Are One" concert at Lincoln Memorial Center on Sunday, President-Any-Minute-Now Barack Obama said, "I won't pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many." Well, a number of groups have responded, "Screw that, we want action NOW." On Obama's first full day in office, January 21st, a "Solidarity Rally" will take place in Federal Plaza at 5:00 p.m. Members from various organizations will be in attendance, including the Gay Liberation Network, the International Socialist Organization, and the Coalition of African, Asian, Arab, European, and Latino Immigrants of Illinois to "demand the change they voted for" -- mainly, immediately ending raids and deportations.

It looks everyone’s favorite Olympic events, mountain biking and road cycling, could take place in Madison and Mt. Horeb, Wis. if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games. Hey, at least it’s not table tennis. But it turns out the cheese-head state is a cycling hot spot that offers more competitive courses than Chicago. Sadly, it’s doubtful that moving the events to Wisconsin will significantly lessen the economic troubles looming for Chicago taxpayers.

                          

After our morning at the Capitol, we made our way over to the Lincoln Memorial for the "We Are One" Concert which was to feature a range of political, celebrity, and musical appearances before an expected crowd of up to 500,000. We were plenty early as we made our way through the masses and it gave us a chance to scan the hundreds of items available to buy from the countless vendors. Shirts, towels, buttons, flags, you name it, it probably has Obama's picture on it and you're going to pay a a lot of pennies for it. Once inside the grounds, we found the press section nestled below the right side of the stage with a nice view, though the set pieces and a jumbotron obscured our view of one of the two onstage podiums as well as the actual Lincoln Memorial, but, still, we weren't complaining. We dodged CNN's John Roberts as he filmed a report from our corral and set up position for the show.