The Obama's sure know how to pick their guests, don't they. On one hand we have a rapper named "Common" who raps about killing cops and burning Pres. Bush. Now we have an admitted racist, Jill Scott who apparently cannot stand to see her black friends marry white women. "I felt my spirit wince."

She continues her racist rant: "Was I jealous? Did the reality of his relationship somehow diminish his soul's credibility? The answer is not simple. One could easily dispel the wince as racist or separatist, but that's not how I was brought up. I was reared in a Jehovah's Witness household. I was taught that every man should be judged by his deeds and not his color, and I firmly stand where my grandmother left me."

If the answer isn't a simple and resounding "NO", then in my opinion, you are racist. If you weren't brought up in a racist or separatist home, then why would you have a problem with a black man and a white woman in a relationship?

And there's more: "These harsh truths lead to what we really feel when we see a seemingly together brother with a Caucasian woman and their children. That feeling is betrayed."

Betrayed? Really? Come on. Just face it Mrs. Scott, you are a racist. "Some might find these thoughts to be hurtful. That is not my intent. I'm just sayin'"

With Christmas fast approaching, even America's First Lady has to help out with a few festive tasks.

And today, Michelle Obama pitched in to make seasonal decorations and treats after unveiling the newly decorated White House to specially invited guests from military families.

'It's Christmas. It's exciting!' she told the assembled press before helping her younger guests make festive crafts and cards.

Hope has turned to doubt and disenchantment for almost half of President Barack Obama's supporters.

More than 4 of 10 likely voters who say they once considered themselves Obama backers now are either less supportive or say they no longer support him at all, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Oct. 7-10.

Three weeks before the Nov. 2 congressional elections that Republicans are trying to make a referendum on Obama, fewer than half of likely voters approve of the president's job performance. Likely voters are more apt to say Obama's policies have harmed rather than helped the economy. Among those who say they are most enthusiastic about voting this year, 6 of 10 say the Democrat has damaged the economy.

"He's made compromises that have hurt the middle class," says poll respondent Alan Graham, 55, a surgeon in London, Kentucky, who supported Obama in 2008 and now is on the fence about the president. "I think the lobbyists for the big businesses are having their way with him."

It looks like Rupert Murdoch has finally figured out a way to make the White House pay — literally.

The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has jacked up the rate it charges the administration's news clipping service by a jaw-dropping $600,000 per year — and is steering the White House towards a direct deal with News Corp., according to an administration official.

"Obviously, we're not paying $500,000. This is taxpayer money," the official said. "We have no idea how we're going to handle this. We may have to drop [The Journal]."

It's unclear how News Corp. arrived at the $600,000 figure. But copyright laws would prevent the news-clipping service from widely disseminating Wall Street Journal articles without the parent company''s permission.

President Barack Obama wants federal workers to cut down on business travel and commuting by car as he seeks to reduce heat-trapping emissions produced by the federal government.

The White House was announcing Tuesday that the government will aim to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources like employee driving by 13 percent in 2020, compared with 2008 levels.

Earlier this year Obama directed agencies to reduce pollution from direct sources, such as buildings and government fleets, by 28 percent in the next decade.

Tony Award winners Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Tonya Pinkins and Marvin Hamlisch are part of "A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House" July 19 in Washington, DC.

The Broadway-themed evening is presented as part of the White House's "In Performance" concert series. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host the 7 PM concert that will be filmed for an Oct. 20 broadcast on PBS.

The President is scheduled to introduce the evening that boasts performances by Lane (Guys & Dolls, The Addams Family), McDonald (Ragtime, Master Class), Pinkins (Caroline, or Change, Jelly's Last Jam) and songwriter Hamlisch (A Chorus Line, Sweet Smell of Success) as well as Idina Menzel (Wicked), Brian d'Arcy James (Next to Normal), Chad Kimball (Memphis) and Karen Olivo (West Side Story). Also performing is young actress Assata Alston and the Joy of Motion Dance Center ensemble.

The White House on Friday released the salaries of its staff members ranging from its lowest-level employees to chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Emanuel, press secretary Roberts Gibbs, senior adviser David Axelrod and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett make the top salary amount of $172,200 per year. Three staffers have their salaries listed as $0.

In total, the White House pays its staff $38,796,307.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose agency is charged with securing America's borders, told an audience in Washington, D.C., in reference to the U.S.-Mexico border, "You're never going to totally seal that border."

Napolitano spoke and answered questions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on "Securing the Border: A Smarter Law Enforcement Approach," on Wednesday.

When asked if she could give a timeline on when the border would be secured, Napolitano said, "The plain fact of the matter is the border is as secure now as it has ever been, but we know we can always do more. And that will always be the case.

According to a White House schedule, President Barack Obama was slated to attend the meeting for roughly 20 minutes starting at 10:15 a.m. The meeting was still going -- though the president had long left -- several hours later.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

Europe still worships him and Washington's Obamatrons remain smitten, but former supporters are turning on the President, writes Toby Harnden.

Well, at least he's still got Sir Paul McCartney. At the White House last week, the 67-year-old crooner was gushing in much the same manner as his own groupies did at Shea Stadium in 1965. "I'm a big fan, he's a great guy," McCartney told American critics of President Barack Obama. "So lay off him, he's doing great."

Later, McCartney serenaded the First Lady with a rendition of Michelle and, receiving a prize from the Library of Congress, took a cheap shot at President George W Bush that was as unfunny as it was unoriginal. "After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." Bush. Doesn't read books. Stupid. Geddit?

"After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is."

The Obama administration dangled the possibility of a government job for former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in hopes he would forgo a challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, officials said Wednesday, just days after the White House admitted orchestrating a job offer in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

These officials declined to specify the job that was floated or the name of the administration official who approached Romanoff, and said no formal offer was ever made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not cleared to discuss private conversations.

"Mr. Romanoff was recommended to the White House from Democrats in Colorado for a position in the administration," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. "There were some initial conversations with him but no job was ever offered."

Reps. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, and Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, sent another letter to White House Counsel Bob Bauer on Wednesday, asking the White House to disclose specifics about any job offer to Sestak (D-Pa.) in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary.

By June 9, Issa wants the Obama administration's legal records, memos to the press office, and e-mails and phone records in relation to the Sestak job offer. Issa and Smith also are asking for notes and transcripts of interviews with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, former President Bill Clinton, Sestak and Sestak's brother Richard, who serves as his campaign manager.

President Obama's White House apparently isn't that committed to dispensing with the business-as-usual kind of politics he campaigned against.

Senate primary races in Pennsylvania and Colorado instead have revealed an Obama political machine that engages in favoritism and behind-the-scenes wrangling and deal-making that seem decidedly old-school. The two contests, in which someone from the administration allegedly offered a candidate some type of job to drop out of their race, have raised key questions that remain to be answered, especially in Colorado's Senate race.

The White House — and Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff — should speak up.

Administration officials dangled the possibility of a job for former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in hopes he would forego a challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, his rival in an Aug. 10 primary, administration officials said Wednesday.

These officials declined to specify the job that was floated or the name of the administration official who approached Romanoff, and said no formal offer was ever made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not cleared to discuss private conversations.

Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) called on the White House Monday to detail conversations it allegedly had with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) to try to convince him to drop his Senate bid.

Weiner said allegations that White House officials had offered Sestak an administration job in exchange for his dropping his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had become a growing political liability.

"I think what the White House should do is, to some degree, say, 'Here are the facts,'" Weiner said Monday morning during an appearance on MSNBC. "If there's not a lot [to] what's going on here, then just say what happened."

Rep. Joe Sestak, winner of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, is refusing to provide more information on what job he was offered by a White House official to drop of that race, although he confirmed again that the incident occurred.

The White House was backing incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in the primary. Sestak acknowledged in an interview in February that he was offered a position by an unnamed White House official - a potential violation of federal law - but has not offered any specifics on conversation. Republicans are trying to use the issue against Sestak in the November Senate race.

Did a series of tweets may have put Chicago chef Rick Bayless in hot water with the White House?

Bayless is in Washington, D.C. to prepare Wednesday night's State Dinner to honor Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The top chef was so excited about the trip he started tweeting about it Monday.

But the chef's tweets abruptly stopped Tuesday after the White House reportedly put the kibosh on the news blasts, according to the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet. Sweet has since updated her story to reflect comments made by Bayless, saying he didn't tweet from inside the White House.

Two top senators served the Obama administration Monday with subpoenas for information on the mass shooting at Fort Hood last November, claiming the administration's stonewalling left them with no other choice.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine -- respectively, the chairman and the ranking Republican on the Senate homeland security committee -- notified Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates of the decision in a letter Monday.

They said the committee had sent four formal requests for information to the Pentagon and two to the Justice Department, and received little response.

"Our efforts have been met with delay, the production of little that was not already publicly available, and shifting reasons why the departments are withholding the documents and witnesses that we have requested," they wrote. "Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to avoid reaching the conclusion that the departments simply do not want to cooperate with our investigation."

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement in response to the partisan health care proposal posted online by the White House for discussion at the upcoming bipartisan health care summit:

"The President has crippled the credibility of this week's summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected. This new Democrats-only backroom deal doubles down on the same failed approach that will drive up premiums, destroy jobs, raise taxes, and slash Medicare benefits.

"This week's summit clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial for continuing on a partisan course that relies on more backroom deals and parliamentary tricks to circumvent the will of the American people and jam through a massive government takeover of health care.

"The best way to protect families and small businesses in this time of economic uncertainty is to start over with a step-by-step approach to health care reform focused on lowering costs, and that's exactly what Republicans are fighting for. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the Republican bill reduces premiums for families and small businesses by up to 10 percent. The Republican bill reduces premiums by implementing common-sense reforms such as allowing Americans to purchase insurance across state lines. Despite their rhetoric to the contrary, none of the Democrats' proposals – including the President's – provides this much-needed reform in a manner that can actually be effective.

U.S. House Democrats said their party may not be able to offer a single health-care proposal at the Feb. 25 meeting President Barack Obama has called with a challenge to Republicans to present their alternative.

Obama has promised to "post online the text of a proposed health-insurance package" in advance of the televised meeting.

Democrats in Congress are still reconciling differences between versions of health legislation passed last year by the House and Senate. House Democrats, during a conference call with reporters yesterday, said that though the two chambers are close to an agreement, they may not have a united plan by next week.

"I don't know whether the president is going to put one particular piece of legislation on the table," Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told reporters.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, asked by reporters on Feb. 16 whether the president would present his own plan if Democrats in Congress failed to agree, said, "stay tuned."

In addition to pledging to post an overhaul plan online, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius challenged Republican leaders in a Feb. 12 letter to "put forward their own comprehensive bill."

The White House press room was a jovial place to be in the early days of President Barack Obama's presidency. But times have changed.

Back in May, POLITICO analyzed the press briefings and found that the instances of laughter — as indicated by "(Laughter)" being noted in the official transcript — occurred more than 10 times per day during press secretary Robert Gibbs's briefings.

But the laughter has been reduced by half in recent months: In the first six months of the Obama administration, briefings produced an average of 179 laughs per month. Over the past six months, the average has dropped down to 89.

Chalk it up to the close of any administration's initial honeymoon — and the Obama administration's tough second half of 2009, as it wrestled with health care and saw the late Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat filled by a Republican.

"The tone is one reason for less laughter," says American Urban Radio's April Ryan. "There are lots of serious questions begging for serious answers. Those questions do not meld with laughter and light banter."

The White House will predict a record budget deficit in the current fiscal year and more big shortfalls for the next decade in its upcoming budget proposal, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday.

In its budget proposal to be released on Monday, the White House predicts a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends September 30, the Capitol Hill source said.

According to the estimate, deficits will narrow to $700 billion by fiscal 2013 before gradually rising back to $1.0 trillion by the end of the decade, the source said.

After one year in office, the White House and its Democratic allies sum things up this way - we're in charge, you're not happy, but think how much unhappier you could be.

It's not exactly bumper-sticker material and polls suggest it's been of limited political utility. But, for now, it's the best the party in power has to offer when its aggressive policy agenda and political future have been mired in anxiety surrounding an economy barely hobbling out of deep recession.

As bad as things are, Obama and congressional Democrats say without the $787 billion stimulus, hundreds of billions in bank and auto company bailouts, unemployment would be much higher and state budgets in free-fall

"We knew that the recovery coming out of this extraordinary recession was going to be long and hard, and the easiest thing to do would have been to not take tough decisions and simply to point fingers," Obama told House Democrats on Thursday. "We can say now what we couldn't say a year ago: that America is moving forward again. The economy is growing. Job losses have slowed to a trickle. Job losses over the last quarter of 2009 were still unacceptable, but they were one-tenth of what we endured in the first quarter."

The White House says the stimulus saved or created 2 million jobs. Still, 1.7 million Americans who had jobs when Obama was inaugurated are jobless now.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of "trying to pretend we are not at war" with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term "war on terror" and attempting to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

"[W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe," Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO. "Why doesn't he want to admit we're at war? It doesn't fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn't fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society."

The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee on Tuesday night accused the White House of withholding information on the Fort Hood attack.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) said administration officials delayed briefing members of Congress about the alleged gunman, raising "red flags" about what the White House was hiding.

"When they withhold information, you always start asking questions," Hoekstra told Fox News. "That's what raises red flags. What do they know that they don't want us to know?"

Hoekstra linked President Barack Obama's handling of Fort Hood to a chain of other GOP criticisms of the president, including the administration's treatment of detainees and an investigation into possible CIA abuse.

"It is a political correctness that is making it unable for us to identify the real threat of homegrown terrorism," he alleged.

Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found.

California State University officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in Texas – and in 44 other states.

While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.

"I should be nervous," said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Huntsville, Ala.

Griffith said the Democratic rank and file is "very, very sensitive" to the fact that issues being pushed by party leaders "have the potential to cost some of our front-line members their seats."

House Democrats, forced to take a tough vote on a controversial cap-and-trade climate change bill in June, may have to vote as earlier as this weekend on the even more controversial health care bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team have struggled to get moderates on board for that vote, and Tuesday's results won't make the task any easier.

Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a Democratic climate change bill that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

With Republicans boycotting the committee's work saying more analysis of the legislation was needed, 10 Democrats voted to approve the legislation and one Democrat, Senator Max Baucus, voted against it.

The bill will now become one of several initiatives aimed at attacking global warming. Senator John Kerry is leading an effort with some Republicans and the White House to craft a compromise bill, which likely would not be voted on by the full Senate until next year at the earliest.

When Edmunds.com released its report on the Cash-for-Clunkers program on Wednesday, saying it cost $24,000 for each vehicle that wouldn't otherwise have been sold, it must have expected pushback.

It may not have anticipated, however, a sharp retort from the highest office in the land: the White House. But that's what it got yesterday, via a pithy entry on the White House blog calling the Edmunds analysis "implausible" and "faulty".

It not only refuted Edmunds' contentions by citing a report from the Council of Economic Advisors, but accused Edmunds of releasing sensational Clunkers analyses solely to draw media attention.

The White House made two points: First, Clunkers credits drew additional shoppers to showrooms, some of whom bought cars even without rebates and, second, that the U.S. economy will benefit in the fourth quarter as automakers increase spending to rebuild depleted inventories.

During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.

High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.

Republicans called for an investigation into allegations that President Barack Obama gave top donors special access to the White House on Wednesday.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) demanded an investigation into a report published in The Washington Times that top donors to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had been rewarded with access to privileged White House tours, behind-the-scenes briefings and other perks.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that the White House had effectively become a "full-service resort" during Obama's tenure, likening the alleged access to the benefits former President Bill Clinton had offered to some friends and top donors during his time in office.

"The seriousness of this issue requires an immediate investigation looking into the degree and details of fundraising efforts between the White House and DNC, whether there was any quid pro quo offered to donors, and the names of White House officials who were involved in such activities," Steele said Wednesday in a statement.

The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users, a failure that appears to run counter to President Obama's promise of a transparent government and his pledge to protect privacy on the Internet, the Washington Times reported.

Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the White House signaled that it would insist on open dealings with Internet users and, in fact, should feel obliged to disclose that it is collecting such information.

"The White House has not been adequately transparent, particularly on how it makes use of new social media techniques, such as this example," he said.

Do you agree or disagree with the White House's collection of data?