Results tagged “presidentobama”

We know we're preaching to the converted here (for the most part), and we probably should have caught this semi-gruesome spoof ad by NYC's Upright Citizens Brigade (which once gave birth to Amy Poehler) before Halloween. But here it is, nevertheless, because it still gives us a chuckle, and everybody's in a political mood today anyhow.

In 1987, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the Department of Health and Human Services added HIV to the list of communicable diseases that barred tourists and travelers from entry into the U.S. In 1993, Congress went further to list HIV-positivity as the only medical condition listed as grounds for inadmissibility for immigration into the country, and therefore no major AIDS conference has taken place here ever since.

They sure do love our fine President up in Norway! Despite having only been in office 12 days when the nomination deadline passed, the Nobel committee went ahead and awarded Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, apparently as "an encouragement" for him to act peaceably and use diplomacy in the future. Also, this was clearly a Fuck You to Dubya, as ABC 7 News points out, with the Nobel Committee handing this award to the first person who wasn't named Bush pretty much the minute he took he office. Everyone, including the White House, was taken by surprise.

Apart from a few new sand dunes, the CA coast remained unscathed by yesterday's tsunami in the Pacific. The tsunami struck the islands of Samoa and American Samoa, killing over 100 people with dozens still unaccounted for, following an 8.0 quake 120 miles away (see AP vid above). Early this morning another quake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 13 75 people. President Obama has declared American Samoa a "major disaster," thereby rushing federal aid to the region, and the Australian government has pledged immediate help as well. 25 FEMA crew members from Oakland are on their way as of early this morning.

In that *super controversial* address to school children that had conservatives nationwide saying he would turn our kids into an army of health-care-reform-endorsing zombies, President Barack Obama today advised kids to "be careful what you post on Facebook" because it could come back and haunt you someday. Sound advice. He also made the *super controversial* statement, "Every single one of you has something to offer," and said that of anyone dead or alive who he could have dinner with, he'd choose Ghandi. No word yet on the number of glazed-over, socialist automatons later seen wandering the nation's school yards.

Call it what you will, but hometown gal Nancy Pelosi's push to get the President's health care initiative through Congress before their August recess appears to be failing, and among those stalling it is another hometown gal, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who still doesn't know how we're going to pay for any of this shit. Her actual words relate more to creating new health care entitlements that the country's budget can't afford. To wit: "Entitlements are well over 50 percent of every dollar the federal government spends this year and are going straight up. If you add more entitlements, it's a problem." We would agree that a feasible plan for covering the costs of this plan should be laid out, but President Obama promises it won't add to the deficit. DiFi calls bullshit. Who to believe?

        

We're not sure there is such a thing as a *good* wax figure, but we're sure the people at the Fisherman's Wharf Wax Museum would like us to think so. In any event, your afternoon palate cleanser today is this collection (via Buzzfeed) of really bad wax figures that's making its way around the webs. Sources aren't given, so it's very possible that one or two of these are featured in our very own museum, but having never stepped foot inside, we cannot confirm. Perhaps one of our eagle-eyed commenters will recognize something. Here we give you a selection, featuring scary-bad versions of the Cast of Seinfeld, Julia Roberts, Cher, LeAnn Rimes (looking, um, "special"), Michael J. Fox, Barack Obama, and Pulp Fiction-era John Travolta and Uma Thurman. PREVIOUSLY: Wax Obama to Arrive at Wax Museum Today

           

Thanks to loyal SFist contributing photog Steve Rhodes, we have these pictures of the sizable protest that went down in Union Square last night, in which activists, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and local Iranian-Americans gathered to voice their support for the post-election protests in Tehran and to ask President Obama to support reform leader Mir Hussein Moussavi.

We suppose not everyone really subscribes to the theory that Osama Bin Laden hasn't been alive and kicking for years, but in case you did, his Al Qaeda puppet-masters have released a new audio tape in which Bin Laden attacks the Obama Administration for recent crackdowns on militants in the Swat Valley of northwest Pakistan. In the tape, released on Al Jazeera, the allegedly alive terrorist leader says, "Obama and his administration have sown new seeds to increase hatred and revenge on America. The number of these seeds is equal to the number of displaced people from Swat Valley." So the old man is still sucking air someplace, and apparently has misplaced his video camera, but anyway... carry on.

A new piece today in the Washington Post suggests that Obama administration officials and members of Congress alike are considering the possibility of a VAT, or value-added tax, which would impose a levy on all goods and services in order to cover the nation's gi-fucking-normous budget deficit. Along with raising taxes on the highest earners, the idea of a VAT seems to be gaining traction as something that has worked for 130 other countries worldwide.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a self-described Newyorican who grew up in a housing project in the Bronx after her parents moved from Puerto Rico, has been tapped by President Obama to be the next Supreme Court justice of the U.S. She was inspired by Perry Mason as a little girl, and has served as a federal judge for New York's Southern District for 17 years. In addition to being the first person of Hispanic descent ever appointed to the court, KCBS reports that Sotomayor brings "more judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice confirmed in the past 70 years."

A wax statue of President Barack Obama will arrive, via the F Market, at the Fisherman's Wharf wax museum today around 3PM. The first 100 patrons at the museum after Wax Obama's arrival will get in free. Tourists from far and wide shall now come to our fair city solely for the purpose of viewing our very own Wax Obama.

A new piece in the East Bay Express tells the tale of AC Transit's decision to move forward with a $28 million purchase of 12 zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell buses -- that's just over $2M per bus, and the same total price tag of 55 hybrid buses. Robert Gammon in the Express calls this a "boondoggle," and points to President Obama all but eradicating the federal fuel cell program due to costs.

Senator Arlen Specter, reborn as a Democrat, appeared at the White House with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and said, "I think that I can be of assistance to you, Mr. President. ... There are a lot of big issues we're tackling now that I've been deeply involved in." Specter and Biden are good friends; the NY Times reports that Biden had been pressing Specter about switching parties lately: In the past 10 weeks, "Mr. Biden and Mr. Specter had spoken 14 times — six times in person and eight in telephone conversations. [Each time] Mr. Biden argued that the Republican Party had increasingly drifted away from Mr. Specter since the election and that ideologically, he was closer to the Democratic Party." Today, Obama said, "I don't expect Arlen to be a rubber stamp. In fact, I'd like to think that Arlen's decision reflects recognition that this administration is open to many different ideas and many different points of view... I'm eager to receive his counsel and his advice, especially when he disagrees."