Entries tagged with “Barack Obama” from Polichicks

Piers Morgan's interview with actress Charlize Theron aired Friday. In addition to chatting about her new movie Young Adult and her hunt for a new man, the actress gave viewers a glimpse into her political background and views:
- Charlize has voted only twice in her life: once for Nelson Mandela and once for Barack Obama. (C'mon, Charlize, you gotta start voting more often!)
- She wants Democrats to do more. "I wish Democrats would put more action into what they tell people," she told Piers. (Hmm.. in what way, we wonder. Wish she had gone into more detail on this one.)
- Charlize doesn't think people should be able to go all willy nilly with gun ownership. "I don't think anyone should have a semiautomatic weapon for anything," she said. Sadly, the actress is no stranger to gun violence. In 1991, she saw her mother shoot and kill her father, who was drunk and shooting at Charlize and her mom. The actress notes that this tragic experince may have influenced her views on gun control.
- She is so in favor of gay marriage. "I think love is love, and we should all have the same rights."
- Charlize, an immigrant from South Africa, noted that her first language is Afrikaans and she still struggles with her English sometimes.
You can check out the trailer for Charlize's new film, Young Adult, below.
President Obama announced Wednesday that he will appoint pop star Shakira to the President's Advisory Council on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
Shakira has been an education advocate since 1995, when she founded the Barefoot Foundation to operate schools and education projects in Columbia, South Africa and Haiti.
In 2010, Shakira and her Barefoot Foundation formed an alliance with the World Bank to create educational programs for children across Latin America. She also served as the 2008 Honorary Chair of the Global Campaign for Education's Global Action Week and a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in 2003.
Shakira is a founding member of Latin America in Solidarity Action, a coalition of artists and business leaders seeking to promote integrated early childhood public policies.
President Obama issued a statement on the passing of Steve Jobs. The text of the entire White House press release is below:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Statement by the President on the Passing of Steve Jobs
Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet's most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve's wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.




Good morning, ladies!
Fine! He didn't say anything like that. That's just how we feel about books when we sit home alone on a dateless Saturday night.
Colombian pop star Shakira stopped by the White House Monday to meet with President Obama and Veep Joe Biden. The singer, who is a long-time children's advocate, discussed early childhood development issues with the president and veep.
Shakira was in Washington on behalf of the ALAS Foundation, a nonprofit coalition of Latin artists, a nonprofit coalition of Latin artists, business leaders and intellectuals that promotes public policies in support of early childhood education in Latin America. Shakira is also a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and the founder of the Barefoot Foundation, which focuses on creating access to education for children.
After her White House visit, Shakira headed to the World Bank to announce the World Bank's Early Child Development Program, which will spend $300 million on children's educational programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Above, check out the video of Shakira's World Bank appearance and watch her discuss child development issues with Greta Van Susteren on FOX News over here.
This young brother is really feeling the president's fade.
President Obama bends over to let the young son of a White House staffer touch his hair, because the child wants to see if the president's hair feels just like his own.
For the first time in our history, an African American child visiting the White House can see that someone with hair (and skin) like his (or hers) can be anything he wants to be when he grows up - even president of the United States of America. It's amazing to see that what an Obama presidency means for African Americans - inclusion, representation, unlimited dreams and long awaited, hard fought for change - is not lost on a child this small.
President Obama picked up a hearty lunch at Five Guys (the one by Nats stadium) Friday afternoon. He ordered a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, jalepeno peppers and mustard. Dee- lish!
(For those of you who are unfamiliar with Five Guys, just know this one little fact: Give an atheist a bite of a Five Guys burger, and you'll have her on her knees, shoutin' thanks to the Lord and speaking in tongues! They are that good. Seriously.)
Anyway - as you can see in the video, the president is one of those guys who doesn't decide what he wants until he gets to the counter and takes forever to place an order. We like the prez, but that drives us CRAY-ZAY! He's also a chatty fella and seems to enjoy making small talk with the other folks waiting for food.
So what do you make of this excerpt from Yes, Looks Do Matter, a New York Times article on stereotypes and the Susan Boyle phenomenon?
Stereotypes are seen as a necessary mechanism for making sense of information.... When people don't fit our preconceived notions, we tend to ignore the contradictions, until they are too dramatic to overlook. In those cases, said John F. Dovidio, a psychology professor at Yale, we focus on the contradiction -- Ms. Boyle's voice, for example. While that makes us see her as more of an individual, we also "find a way to make the world make sense again, even if the way we do it is to say, 'This is an exceptional situation.' It's easier for me to keep the same categories in my mind and come up with an explanation for the things that are discrepant."
Even when presented with multiple exceptions to the stereotype, we often keep the broad category and simply create a subtype, Professor Dovidio said.
For example, President Obama challenged negative stereotypes about blacks, but some people may have come up with a subtype of blacks -- black professionals -- rather than challenge the overall stereotype, Professor Dovidio said.
Makes an interesting conversation, to say the least.
First Lady Michelle Obama's well-toned arms have attracted many compliments and landed her on the cover of several magazines. Not to be outdone, her husband Barack scored a few "hot bod" points himself this month, when Washingtonian put his presidential pecks on its May cover and declared that "Our New Neighbor is Hot."
This being Washington and all, the cover has inspired serious debate: Appropriate or not to put a half nekked U.S. president on a magazine cover and call him hot? What about calling him beefcake, tenderoni or hunk o' hunk of burnin' love instead of hot? Any better or no? Do limitations on name calling apply to magazines only, or do they also apply to in person interactions? Say at a White House dinner, would it be okay to to introduce yourself to the president as Sasha Fierce and greet him with a respectful (albeit slightly husky and slurred), "Shawty, what your name is?"
After these issues are resolved, Washington power players will return to solving the economic crisis.
President Obama has to answer to the IRS, just like the rest of us. He and Michelle released their income tax return April 15th. We know you want to know what they earned, so feast your hungry eyes on these figures:
The Obamas earned $2.7 million in 2008, mostly from the president's book royalties. They donated $172,050 to charities, making their largest donations to Catholic Relief Services and the United Negro College Fund.
Okay, show's over folks. Nothing more to see here. So mosey your nosey right along now....
(Psst... wait... maybe there is more to see. You can eyeball the Obamas' 1040 yourself over here.)
And puppy makes five. Bo Obama became the newest member of the Obama family on Tuesday. Of Bo, the president joked, "I've finally got a friend," and had this exchange with a reporter:
Prez Obama: [Bo will] be sleeping inside the White House
Reporter: Is he gonna be in a bed?
Prez Obama: Not in my bed!