President Obama Sings ‘Sweet Home Chicago” at Blues Jam

The Prez gets the Blues on – with the opening bars of Sweet Home Chicago –

Reports of Shots Fired Near White House

Apparently an abandoned car and “machine gun” have been found at the scene, although it is unkown what the target may have been at this point…

Apparently, Constitution Avenue, which is some distance across parkland was shut down for a period of time.

Shots fired near White House

Shots have been fired between two cars near the White House, U.S. Park Police confirms.

Sgt. David Schlosser of the U.S. Park Police said Friday evening that the agency received a report of shots fired near 16th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, between The White House and the Washington Monument, at about 9:30 p.m.

He said that shortly afterward, officers located an abandoned vehicle several blocks away on the ramp to the nearby Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. Authorities tell ABC7 News that an AK-47 assault rifle was found.

He said police are looking at “involvement of this vehicle in the situation,” but didn’t know whether a weapon was recovered. He said police suspect another vehicle was involved.

Constitution Avenue is closed between 15th and 17th Streets. U.S. Park Police and Security Service are on the scene.

Police are looking for bullet holes and haven’t confirmed that shots were actually fired. He said The White House is a fair distance away and doesn’t appear to have been the focus.

President Barack Obama was observing Veterans Day with a basketball game aboard a Navy warship Friday. Obama’s stop in San Diego was the first leg of a nine-day diplomacy mission he’s embarking on, to Hawaii, where the U.S. is hosting an economic summit for the Asia-Pacific, and from there to Australia and Indonesia.

Michelle Obama Hits Local Target Store to Shop Incognito

Turns out the First Lady loves to slip out of the White House bubble and do things normal folks do…

Like Shop.

Michelle Obama photographed shopping at D.C.-area Target

The first lady shops at Target — just like us!

An Associated Press photographer on Thursday snapped some choice photos of Michelle Obama in the checkout line of a Target store just outside Washington for what her office says was a “routine errand,” the likes of which she does often.

The first lady appears to have been trying to pick up some items incognito. She is seen sporting a Nike cap and large, dark sunglasses.

Photos: Michelle Obama shops at Target

“It is not uncommon for the first lady to slip out to run an errand, eat at a local restaurant or otherwise enjoy the city outside the White House gates,” said Kristina Schake, communications director for the first lady.

It’s unclear how the photo came about; her office said the photographer, Charles Dharapak, “caught her” at the store.

President Obama has often mused about how he wishes he could break outside the “bubble” he has to travel in. The first lady does not have the same full-time entourage of reporters as her husband.

But she, too, has spoken of some frustration about how living in the White House has changed her routine.

“Before we lived here, we were normal people. I had a job, I drove my own car, I took my kids to school every day.  I went to Target and shopped for my groceries,” she said at an April event for children of White House staff.

President Obama – “Bootlegging At the White House!”

Oh My! When the Tea Bagged set finds out the Chefs at the White House have been brewing their own special homebrew beer for the President and his guests, the Rethugs in Congress will undoubtedly want a full Congressional investigation of the “Al Capone” President! Undoubtedly, the White House recently had to purchase the Presidential Buses because the normal Presidential Limo, nicknamed “The Beast” is just too small to deliver the goods across the DC line to Maryland and Virginia…

Next, Michelle bachman and Hermain Cain will be accusing President Obama of turning the White House into a Speakeasy! Cantor and the House Tea Baggers have promised to  set in motion a bill to bring back Prohibition to be introduced on the floor of the House any day now.

Medal of Honor Awardee, Dakota Meyer Has a Beer With President Obama

White House brewing its own beer

Former Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Thursday, had a simple but unusual request when White House staffers talked to him a few days ago, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.

Meyer said he would like to have a beer with the president.

Great idea- right? And how could the president refuse?

So it happened. Mr. Obama and the war hero hung out together on the patio outside the Oval Office.

Wondering what brand they were drinking? Are you ready?

It was — the White House’s own brew, made with equipment the Obamas bought with their own money — the first beer ever made at the White House, according to historians.

It is White House Honey Ale.

It was the first beer served at the Super Bowl party. A very small batch — 90-100 bottles — all consumed that day.

The White House chefs have been brewing since, a little at a time. There was some for St. Patrick’s Day, another batch in June, and the beer served to Sgt. Meyer.

And just for the record: Home-brewing is legal in Washington, D.C.

The Black History of the White House

Interesting stories here about the history of the White House, slavery, and race in America.

Very interesting portion in the beginning about George Washington holding 9 slaves in the White House during his Presidency.

“The Problem” Rockwell Painting Now Hangs in White House

This image, done by famous American Painter, Norman Rockwell remains as one of the most poignant and powerful pieces done about the Civil Rights struggle in America.

Not sure why so many are trying to make a big deal out of this, other than the fact it demonstrates how far backward we, as a country, have slid since Raygun.

Rockwell painting hangs in White House

All this - so one little girl could go to school...

Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting “The Problem We All Live With” is hanging temporarily in the White House at the request of President Barack Obama. Executives from the Norman Rockwell Museum, where the painting is usually displayed, visited the White House and Obama last week to view the painting in a West Wing hallway near the Oval Office.

Obama requested the painting, which depicts a black child being escorted to school by U.S. marshals, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges’ historic walk Nov. 14, 1960, integrating the William Frantz public school in New Orleans. It inspired Rockwell’s bold illustration for the Jan. 14, 1964, issue of “Look” magazine.

Rudy Bridges Hall, who serves on the board of the Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Mass., also visited the White House, met Obama and stood before the painting.

“I was about 18 or 19 years old the first time that I actually saw it,” she said. “It confirmed what I had been thinking all along — that this was very important, and you did this, and it should be talked about.

“At that point in time that’s what the country was going through, and here was a man who had been doing lots of work — painting family images — and all of the sudden decided, ‘This is what I am going to do. It’s wrong, and I’m going to say that it’s wrong.'”

“The Problem We All Live With” was the first painting purchased by the Rockwell museum in 1975. Support by the Henry Luce Foundation made the White House loan possible.

Conyers Calls for March on White House

President Obama just signed his death warrant as a two termer. The sad thing is – he didn’t accomplish shit to have made it worthwhile.

Congressman John Conyers joins the long list of Progressives who have had enough… (the video quality on this one is poor)