WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) — Stevie Wonder, touted by U.S. President Obama as the singer-songwriter who made the “soundtrack of my youth,” was given the Gershwin Award at the White House.   Obama, who presented Wonder the Library of Congress’s second annual award for lifetime achievement Wednesday night, even credited the 22-time Grammy award-winning recording artist with facilitating his romance with first lady Michelle Obama.   “I think it’s fair to say that had I not been a Stevie Wonder fan, Michelle might not have dated me. We might not have married,” the president said. “The fact that we agreed on Stevie was part of the essence of our courtship.”   The first lady, who said she grew up listening to Wonder’s music with her grandfather, seconded that emotion and drew “awhs” from the crowd when she pointed out his “You and I” was their wedding song.   She also lauded the staying power of Wonder’s songs, noting that 40 years later groups such as the Jonas Brothers cover them, “thrilling a new generation of young girls, including our own.”   Wonder, 58, was serenaded by a clutch of artists who played some of his catalogue of hits. Wonder sang “Signed Sealed Delivered.”   Wonder drew laughs when he joked he was “so excited to know that I was a part of” their romance. “I needn’t say more,” he said, though later he joked again that “You know, maybe I’ll be a part of creating some more of those babies,” triggering a roar of laughter and applause from the audience.   Wonder accepted the award for his mother, saying if she were there “She’d say, ‘Let me give him a peach cobbler.’”

(UPI Photo/Ron Sachs/Pool)

Exclusive: 1/150th of Ebony’s Power 150 Revealed!

By Tommy Christopher
Feb 20th 2009 7:08PM

Filed Under:eBarack Obama, Media, Obama Administration

While I was at the White House today, I befriended April Ryan from American Urban Radio Networks. She was the one sitting in front of me who wouldn’t let Robert Gibbs get away without a follow-up.

After the briefing, I saw April posing for a photo with a gathering of other journalists (also pictured is another new friend, Politico’s Nia-Malika Henderson). Ebony Magazine releases its Power 150 in May, and the African American contingent of the White House Press Corps is on the list. Ebony ’s Harriett Cole, who is producing the feature, was not at liberty to tell me where on the list they fell. I vote for a pretty high spot, because often, the people asking the questions can make more of a difference than those answering them.

Here’s my own no-frills version of the shot. You’ll have to wait until May to see the frilly one.

The Maynard Institute web site

“I Am Biracial, That’s Right.”

February 11, 2009

     Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton, left, and Hillary Clinton
spokesman Phil Singer at White House Correspondents Dinner last April.
Some are surprised to learn of Burton’s racial background.  (Credit: CNN)

Some Surprised by Background of Deputy Press Aide

When a list of members of the White House press office appeared to show that no African American professionals worked there, a press assistant fielded a call asking if that were indeed the case. She said yes, not realizing that one of her own bosses, White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, has a black father and white mother.

“I am biracial, that’s right,” Burton, 31, told Journal-isms on Tuesday. “Though I find it interesting that you ask only if I ‘consider’ myself biracial and not if I am.”

Burton’s ethnicity, a surprise to many who have worked with or covered him through the long Obama campaign and into the White House, has surfaced only sporadically as a subject in a meteoric career that includes service as communications director for the 2004 presidential campaign of Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., for that of John Kerry, also in 2004, as national press secretary for Sen. Barack Obama, and now as deputy White House press secretary. His race is usually ignored.

“I had NO idea and I used to see him everyday,” one African American Obama campaign worker said. “I’m as good as any of us in ‘detecting’ the mixed among us and I had no clue. He looks totally white!”

The same White House press assistant assured a caller last week that Burton was not African American and said she was sure because she had known him for some time.

Burton’s ethnicity became a subject of more than idle curiosity after Press Secretary Robert Gibbs released a list last week of the press-office staff, as this column reported then.

Even accounting for Burton, some were concerned. “I got an e-mail Tuesday listing all of the various press folks and contact information, and hardly any African-Americans or Hispanics were listed,” commentator Roland Martin said on CNN. “Granted, the deputy press secretary is African-American and the director of broadcast media is Hispanic. That’s not sufficient.

“Unfortunately, this shouldn’t come as a shock, because the campaign press staff of then-Sen. Barack Obama was just as weak on diversity.”

Martin repeated his position in his Creators Syndicate newspaper column.

He noted that staff members often rise to the key posts of press secretaries for entire departments and for the White House itself, and that Obama had articulated a commitment to diversity. White House staffers also decide which reporters are admitted to news conferences and which are called upon. Though there continues to be outreach to journalists of color in other venues - Obama gave an interview just this week to Black Enterprise magazine - it took six post-election news conferences before a black or Hispanic reporter had access to the microphone for questions.

It should be noted that the White House press office is not the only part of its communications team, and that aides assigned specifically to the “specialty media” - black and Latino news outlets, for example - are assigned to the “media relations” office.

Corey A. Ealons, who deals with African American media, told Journal-isms, “I continue to make the point that this is one operation with a wealth of diversity in its makeup” as it attempts to put forward Obama’s message.

As deputy press secretary, Burton is one of the key shapers of that message. Some will remember him on the campaign trail doing battle with Fox News’ Meghan Kelly after Fox played up comments that Obama had a “socialist” message, or perhaps when he announced that the Obamas had indeed left the Chicago church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

According to a 2008 story by Tom Buckham in Burton’s hometown Buffalo News, “Burton traces his political awakening to the times his father, Troy, who was active in the machinists union at the since-closed Pohlman Foundry Co. on the East Side, took him along to Buffalo School Board meetings.

“The two ‘always talked about politics,’ but attending those sessions ‘took it from theoretical to actionable,’ he said.

“The political bug bit in earnest after his time at the University of Minnesota, where he majored in English, Burton said. To earn money for school, he worked in community relations at Minneapolis headquarters of what is now Target Corp. . . .

“There, he came to the attention of Rep. Bill Luther, D-Minn., who hired him right after graduation.

“Burton arrived in Washington, D.C., in 1999 as one of the youngest press secretaries, if not the youngest, on Capitol Hill.

Troy Burton now lives in Niles, Ohio, and Bill Burton’s Polish-American mother, Deborah Ballard, still lives in Buffalo.

In 2007, Burton married Laura Capps, who worked in the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency and was Kerry’s press secretary in Iowa in 2003. Burton was her counterpart in the Gephardt campaign.

“It will be a long-distance marriage,” the Times wrote then. “For how long? ‘Until we move into the White House,’ Mr. Burton said.”

By Anne E. Kornblut
For anyone expecting Vice President Biden to disappear in a sea of strong-willed Cabinet heavyweights, an event at the White House on Friday morning was a signal: President Obama is really interested in giving Biden a higher profile.
At a crowded ceremony in the East Wing of the White House, Obama launched a task force on the middle class — and put Biden in charge of it. Obama acknowledged that the task force comes at a moment of crisis — just as the economy is experiencing, he said, the “worst contraction in close to three decades” with the release of new data showing the economy had shrunk 3.8 percent last quarter.

“This isn’t just an economic concept. This is a continuing disaster for America’s working families. As worrying as these numbers are, it’s what they mean to the American people that really matters,” Obama said. He said that Biden will be especially suited to the task of studying the middle class and coming up with solutions, given his working-class, Scranton roots.

Biden announced that his chief economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, will be the executive director of the task force — a welcome announcement to more liberal economists and the labor movement, who regard Bernstein as one of their greatest allies within the administration. The task force also has its own web site — astrongmiddleclass.gov — that will not only post information but also solicit ideas, Biden said.

The first task force meeting will take place on Feb. 27 in Philadelphia, to focus on green economy jobs (ones, in other words, that help revamp the infrastructure of the country to make it more environmentally sound). It will meet monthly, with a different topic at each gathering. When Biden told the audience that it would be “fully transparent,” despite coming out of the vice president’s office, the group laughed and burst into applause — the unspoken contrast being with former vice president Dick Cheney, known for his secrecy.

To be sure, the “task force” label can sometimes indicate an issue is being swept under the rug or delayed to a later time. But the group created on Friday directly ties Biden to the most pressing issue on Obama’s docket, the economy. And the event, timed to the release of the new economic data, capped a week of intense wrangling between the White House and Congress over an economic stimulus package — part of a broad push by Obama to demonstrate that his administration is dedicated to the middle class. That makes whatever Biden does — or does not do — with the task force unusually notable. Gearing up for the day, Biden published an op-ed in USA Today arguing that “for years, we had a White House that failed to put the middle class front and center in its economic policies.”

“President Barack Obama has made it clear that is going to change,” Biden wrote. He described it as an “important long-term task” to make sure that middle class families feel the benefits of the economic recovery once it begins, in areas such as education and job training, business development, and the reform of childcare. Biden promised “clear, specific steps we can take to meet these concerns and others” in keeping with the administration’s promise of operating “in a fully transparent manner.”

Biden is also scheduled to make a high-profile foreign trip next week, to a security conference in Munich, on Obama’s behalf.

At the event, Obama hailed the role of organized labor, saying he had sharply disagreed with the Bush administration’s approach to the labor movement. “The American economy is not and has never been a zero sum game. When workers are prospering, they buy products” and that helps keep businesses strong, Obama said.

Obama also said he was signing three executive orders to help workers, including one that required federal contractors to inform employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Board, and another ensuring that qualified employees keep their jobs even when a contract changes hands.

Pete Souza, White House / MCT

Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office a second time in the Map Room of the White House Wednesday.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described President Obama as “startled and perplexed” when Justice John Roberts transformed the words of the Presidential Oath of Office Tuesday.   Gibbs confirmed that President Obama memorized the words and was “startled” when the stumble occurred.   So without the 1.8 million people looking on in the cold temperatures, the oath was administered again by a robe clad Chief Justice, John Roberts.  The rare do over occurred in the in the Map Room of the White House.  Although no Bible was used in the re do, it was still binding.

The original, bungled version on Tuesday caught observers by surprise and then got replayed on cable news shows.

It happened when Obama interrupted Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.

Next in the oath is the phrase ” … that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.” But Roberts rearranged the order of the words, not saying “faithfully” until after “president of the United States.”

That appeared to throw Obama off. He stopped abruptly at the word “execute.”

Recognizing something was off, Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting “faithfully” in the right place but without repeating “execute.”

But Obama then repeated Roberts’ original, incorrect version: “… the office of president of the United States faithfully.”

Craig, the White House lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday evening: “We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. Yet the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time.”

The Constitution is clear about the exact wording of the oath and as a result, some constitutional experts have said that a do-over probably wasn’t necessary but also couldn’t hurt. Two other previous presidents have repeated the oath because of similar issues, Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur.

Barney Cam 2008 is star studded and packed with patriotism and the Scottish Terrier’s dreamed of U.S. participation in the Olympics. Speaking of the Olympics, some winners of the gold had starring roles in this farewell Barney Cam.

More than a month ago, Barney made news. The video went viral. He bit a reporter at the White House.

He is a not afraid to speak of his faith, yet he has not gone to a church services since being elected as the nations 44^th President. Reports indicate the President-Elect does not want his attendance to interrupt worship services.

The picture below was taken during, then Senator Barack Obama’s run for president. Do you think the President-Elect should put off going to church because others will be too consumed with his appearance and worship?

Obama skips church, heads to gym
By: Jonathan Martin and Carol E. Lee
November 24, 2008 04:47 AM EST

President-elect Barack Obama has yet to attend church services since winning the White House earlier this month, a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors.

On the three Sundays since his election, Obama has instead used his free time to get in workouts at a Chicago gym.

Asked about the president-elect’s decision to not attend church, a transition aide noted that the Obamas valued their faith experience in Chicago but were concerned about the impact their large retinue may have on other parishioners.

“Because they have a great deal of respect for places of worship, they do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw,” said the aide.

Both President-elect George W. Bush and President-elect Bill Clinton managed to attend church in the weeks after they were elected.

In November of 1992, Clinton went to services in Little Rock, Ark., on the three weekends following his election, taking pre-church jogs on the first two and attending on the third weekend a Catholic Mass with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, with whom he was trying to smooth over lingering campaign tensions.

In the weeks after the contested 2000 election, Bush regularly attended services at Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, and Al Gore was frequently photographed arriving at and leaving church in Virginia.

On his first day as president-elect, following weeks of Florida recounts and court hearings, Bush went to church with his wife, Laura. They attended an invite-only prayer service on Thursday, Dec. 14, at Tarrytown United Methodist Church. About 300 people attended, including top campaign staff and visiting clergy. During the service, the Rev. Mark Craig, senior pastor at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, told Bush, “You have been chosen by God to lead the people.”

Obama was an infrequent churchgoer on the campaign trail, though he did make a series of appearances in the pews and pulpits of South Carolina churches ahead of that heavily religious state’s primary.

The issue of where he worships is, of course, fraught. For about two decades, Obama and his family attended Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. But, with the public disclosure earlier this year of incendiary sermons at Trinity by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama and his wife, Michelle, in June resigned their membership in the large South Side congregation.

At the time, the then-Illinois senator said that he didn’t want his “church experience to be a political circus” and expressed regret for the unwanted attention members of the congregation had received, noting that some reporters had taken church bulletins only to call sick members and shut-ins.

During the campaign, Obama returned to Chicago to attend the South Side’s Apostolic Church of God on Father’s Day Sunday to give a speech aimed at the black community on the importance of fatherhood and family.

A number of Washington, D.C., churches of different denominations and traditions are now competing to become the spiritual home of the new first family.

The Obama aide said the family “look[s] forward to finding a church community in Washington, D.C.”

Former black Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele wants to be the head of the Republican National Committee. The next RNC chairman will be selected at the organization’s winter meeting in January. Steele spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2004 just weeks after then U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama’s address to the Democratic National Convention. In a written statement issued from Miami, the site of the Republican Governors conference, Steele said, “I want Republicans to get back to winning elections, not just for the sake of winning, but for the sake of our Country’s future. Most Americans today see a Republican Party that defines itself by what it is against rather than what it is for. We can tell you why Public schools aren’t working but not articulate a compelling vision for how we’ll better educate children. We’re well equipped to rail against tax increases; but can’t begin to explain how we’ll help the poor. The success of our Party’s resurgence will come from the states–from our local leaders and from our Governors.” In 2006, Steele lost a bid for a U.S. Senate seat vacated by Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes.

Is this the time for history to be made for the Republican Party? Could Michael Steele win? Do you think race will be a factor in his bid as he has to convince 168 RNC committee members he is the person for the job?

The staff is readying for the arrival. The 44^th President and the incoming First Lady come to the White House Monday. First Lady Laura Bush will host Mrs. Michelle Obama. It is expected Mrs. Bush will tour Mrs. Obama around the White House, in particular the second floor of the Residence. Mrs. Obama has never seen the second floor, the private portion containing the family quarters and the Lincoln Bedroom. President George Bush and President-Elect Barack Obama will meet in the Oval Office. The Obama children are not expected to make the visit.

The White House Historical Association previously sent Ms. Obama books on the White House and all that it encompasses. The family portion of the residence is something overseen by the White House Historical Association. The family quarters contains the personal furniture of a presidential family. If Mrs. Obama wants to change furniture in the other sections of the second floor like the Lincoln Bedroom, Queens Bedroom, and the sitting rooms, the White House Historical Association would get involved. They are the funding source for those expensive changes.

Those rooms, to include the Lincoln Bedroom, house modern technology and antiques. For instance, in the Lincoln Bedroom a flat screen television is hidden inside the doors of an antique armoire.

An African American ushers the Obamas into the Executive Mansion Residence and heads there transiton into their new life at the White House. Rear Admiral Steve Rochon is the director of the Executive Residence and will be working closely with the Obamas as they transition into their new life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Rear Admiral Rochon is a New Orleans native who has a passion for history and historic preservation. His mentor was a fellow member of the Coast Guard, the late author of Roots, Alex Haley.

Rochon was hired by President Bush in 2007 as Chief Usher and Director of the Executive Residence. At that time he left the Coast Guard and 36 years of public service to work at the People’s House. President Bush said of Rochon, “Admiral Rochon is a gifted leader and experienced manager who will be a great addition to the White House and the Residence staff.”

The Bush administration has enlisted the help of the world famous Jonas Brothers, to get to kids to America’s parks to stay active.  The bottom line, it is an effort to keep the nation’s youth healthy.  The federal government wants to prevent childhood obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other illnessess that are becoming more common in kids.

Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas taped the public service announcement with the Secretary of the Interior on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday.

It is personal for the sibling singing group.   Nick lives with diabetes.  His workout regimen is his hour-and-45 minute stage show.  He says, “All I am trying to do is make it through another day managing diabetes, and their just doing the same thing.  We are all there for one another.”

The Jonas Brothers arrival at the White House got the attention of Vice President Dick Cheney.  He brought his three grandchildren to work to meet the trio. While at the White House, with their two younger brothers,  they signed a wall of fame of sorts.   It is the wall of the historic swimming pool that sits beneath the White House Press Breifing Room.  Another high profile name, on the signature filled wall, Bono.

According to Shaping America’s Health, one third of American children and youth are either obese or at risk of becoming obese. Overweight and obese children are at risk for developing health problems more commonly seen in adults, including:  Type 2 diabetes. 

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation says 15,000 children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes every year.  Socio-economics is said to figure into the obesity and diabetes  numbers among kids. Research shows many children with type 2 diabetes are not given balanced meals at home and rely more on fast food restaurants and convenience stores for their nutrition. The culprit,  parents working long hours and not having time to prepare well balanced meals.