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First Lady Michelle Obama made the cover of Vogue Magazine for a second time, as well as for the second term of her husband's presidency. In the article "Leading By Example," Jonathan Van Meter chronicles the First Family and how they're influencing America.
President Barack Obama talks with Congressional leaders prior to the Rosa Parks statue unveiling ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Feb. 27, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)The DNC has flooded my (and possibly your) inbox with sequestration facts since Friday afternoon. And if you're like most people you're either looking up from your meal of Top Ramen inside your cardboard box going "huh" or you've been dreading this day ever since you learned you would be directly affected by the $85 billion harsh cuts coming from this bullshit poison pill, crafted by Congress years ago, only to finally come to roost last Friday.
Photo via The White House
The romance is over and has settled into quite a marriage. It's not perfect, but this thing between "us" ("us" being most black people, various minority groups, the LGBT community, certain women folks, pragmatic progressives, MSNBC viewers, Democratic voters, young people and folks who are really invested in Michelle Obama's hair choices) and President Obama is "real." This is it. So let's just enjoy this moment before the hangover and the GOP crashes the party and we're all back to arguing about what is obvious and stupid. Let's look back at our works and marvel and wonder and hope and be optimistic, but know what we're getting into this time around.
This week The Snob returned to the Beauty Shop at NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin. It was my first time back since running away to New York City this fall. I'd missed being on the show ... a lot. I love Michel and the whole Tell Me More family, so it was great to be back. On Wednesday's show, we talked the drama surrounding President Obama picking Chuck Hagel for Secretary of State and the "drama" surrounding rapper Shawty Lo and his new show on Oxygen, All My Babies Mamas where -- FINALLY -- you can witness the fall of Western Civilization in real time.
Seriously, China. It's your turn at bat. Like Daniel Day-Lewis at the end of "There Will Be Blood," we're all finished here. Nothing left to see. Idiocracy is real and whatnot.
Audio after the jump!
When I'm not working on a TV show, I'm still writing columns for Clutch and I'm beat, man. Straight up just beat ... down over election 2012. I'm ready to get this over with, aren't you? I wrote: "President Obama is flawed. He’s not your personal savior or unicorn. If anything, I think he actually has a lot more in common with his more starry-eyed supporters in 2008 because he really did think he could just show up in Washington talking all measured, positive and rational and change the game. But politics is a disease that has no desire of being cured. This is why a true, feral political animal like Bill Clinton thrived so well in that putrid swamp of double-speak and lies. President Obama doesn’t really want that stink on him, but hey, buddy, are we going to do this or what?"
So go vote. Vote. Please. Just do it, OK? I'm begging you. Sweet Lord. Take some personal agency this election season. If only so you can put up your "Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kodos" sticker. Some bet on the numbers, bet on dice, bet on NFL football, bet on craps, bet on Vegas -- I'm betting on my vote counting. I hope you're betting on yours.
Read the full post on Clutch Magazine Online here.
More after the jump.
This week for Clutch I tackle Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown's love for an attention grabbing cover -- whether that attention is good or not. Like the little kid in class who will take love and hate in equal doses since it both counts as a form of EVERYONE LOOK AT ME, Newsweek may have used President Obama as a punching bag for its latest cover, but history suggests by next month Obama could be awesome, or it could be his opponent Mitt Romney's turn again to get punched in the nards by a periodical. You never know.
Source: Twitter, via user @delrayser
It boiled down to the government has the right levy a tax. But considering that the government already has multiple social welfare programs going involving health care -- from Medicare to Medicaid to veterans' health care, etc. -- I was always more surprised that people were fighting the legality of it in court rather than hashing it out in Congress to modify the existing law. But in a 5-4 decision where Chief Justice John Roberts joined Justices Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor in upholding the law, the signature legislation of the Obama Administration was allowed to remain unchanged. The descending votes came, unsurprisingly from Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who felt the law was an overreach and should have been struck down completely.
President Barack Obama greets people in the audience after delivering the keynote address at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies 18th Annual Gala Dinner in Washington, D.C., May 8, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)When the DREAM Act died in Congress many feared of what would come of the thousands of children, many now adults, who unwittingly were not citizens when their parents brought them illegally to the United States. Many, not knowing their status until their mid-to-late teens, found pathways to careers and college closed as they lived in constant fear of deportation from the only home they've ever known. Circumventing Congress, the Obama Administration announced Friday they would stop deporting certain younger illegal immigrants who fit a specific criteria: those who were brought here at age 16 or younger; are presently age 30 or younger; have no criminal record; have been in the US for at least five continuative years; and have either a GED, a U.S. high school diploma or have served in the military.
This week for Clutch Magazine The Snob went political (one of my favorite things to do) and tackled how Florida Republicans are trying to push the Sunshine State into Mitt Romney's favor by purging their voter rolls of "possibly" illegal voters. They're currently fighting the Department of Justice as the DOJ says this purge is in violation of the Voter Rights Act. Hey, if the fight against non-existent voter fraud errs on the side of Democratic-leaning citizens not being able to vote, Republicans are willing to make that, ahem, sacrifice.
Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 9:15AM
