Rear Admiral Michelle Howard

Rear Admiral Michelle Howard
Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 2.

Rear Admiral Michelle Howard is a 1978 graduate of Gateway High School in Aurora, Colo. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982 and from the Army’s Command and General Staff College in 1998, with a master's degree in Military Arts and Sciences. Howard’s initial sea tours were aboard USS Hunley (AS 31) and USS Lexington (AVT 16). While serving onboard Lexington, she received the Secretary of the Navy/Navy League Captain Winifred Collins award in May 1987. This award is given to one woman officer a year for outstanding leadership. She reported to USS Mount Hood (AE 29) as chief engineer in 1990 and served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. She assumed duties as first lieutenant onboard the USS Flint (AE 32) in July 1992. In January 1996, she became the executive officer of USS Tortuga (LSD 46) and deployed to the Adriatic in support of Operation Joint Endeavor, a peacekeeping effort in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. 60 days after returning from the Mediterranean deployment, Tortuga departed on a West African Training Cruise, where the ship’s Sailors, with embarked Marines and U.S. Coast Guard detachment, operated with the naval services of seven African nations. She took command of USS Rushmore (LSD 47) on 12 March 1999, becoming the first African American woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy. Howard was the Commander of Amphibious Squadron 7 from May 2004 to September 2005. Deploying with Expeditionary Strike Group 5, operations included tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia and maritime security operations in the North Persian Gulf. Her shore assignments include: course coordinator/instructor for the Steam Engineering Officer of the Watch course; action officer and Navy’s liaison to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Services in the Bureau of Personnel; Action Officer J-3, Global Operations, Readiness on the Joint Staff from 2001-2003; executive assistant to the Joint Staff Director of Operations from February 2003 to February 2004; and deputy director N3 on the OPNAV Staff from December 2005 to July 2006; deputy director, Expeditionary Warfare Division, OPNAV staff from July 2006 to December 2006. She was the senior military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy from January 2007 to January 2009 and currently serves as Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 2.

Updated: 21 April 2009 MAERSK-ALABAMA CAPTAIN RESCUED BY ONE OF REAR ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD'S SHIP ( the Bainbridge CO's CO ) Nope, this is one you SURE DIDN'T HEAR on the news. The ship that rescued the Maersk-Alabama's captain was one of a group of ships commanded by a BLACK FEMALE REAR ADMIRAL ? Get OUT of here! If you're like me, you briefly saw her, briefly, in some news clips, and (like me) probably figured she was a medical tech. You GO, girl! On the other hand, in an ideal world, no this SHOULDN'T BE "news." Anymore than that it should be "news" that we have female B-52 pilots or black admirals, or (say) a black President. Another PHOTO and story you won't see on CNN or the mainstream media. Sunday, April 5, 2009 Rear Adm. Michelle Howard Assumes Command of Counter-Piracy Task Force CTF 151, ESG 2 GULF OF ADEN (April 5, 2009) Rear Adm. Terence McKnight shakes hands with Rear Adm. Michelle Howard after she assumed command of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 2 and Combined Task Force (CTF) 151, aboard amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4). McKnight served as Commander, ESG 2 since November, 2007 and Commander, CTF 151 since January, 2009. Boxer is the flagship for CTF 151. CTF 151 is a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate throughout the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) area of responsibility to actively deter, disrupt and suppress piracy in order to protect global maritime security and secure freedom of navigation for the benefit of all nations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John J. Siller.) GULF OF ADEN (Apr. 5, 2009) - Rear Adm. Michelle Howard relieves Rear Adm. Terence McKnight as commander of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 2 and Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4), April 5. Boxer is the flagship for CTF 151. CTF 151 is a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate throughout the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) area of responsibility to actively deter, disrupt and suppress piracy in order to protect global maritime security and secure freedom of navigation for the benefit of all nations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Laura A. Moore.) USS BOXER, At Sea, April 5, 2009 -- Rear Adm. Michelle Howard assumed command of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 2 during a ceremony held on board USS Boxer (LHD 4) today and relieved Rear Adm. Terence McKnight, ESG 2’s commander since November 2007. In addition to relieving McKnight as the ESG 2 commander, Howard assumes command of several U.S. 5th Fleet task forces, including Combined Task Force (CTF) 51 and 59, as well as CTF 151, an international maritime coalition created to disrupt, deter and thwart piracy. “I’m very fortunate to follow behind Admiral McKnight,” said Howard. “He and the staff have done a terrific job in standing up CTF 151. His leadership will be missed on the waterfront.” As commander of ESG 2, McKnight was responsible for all of the amphibious assets based on the U.S. East Coast and upon deploying to the U.S. 5th Fleet’s area of operations in January 2009, he assumed command of CTF 151. McKnight said commanding ESG 2 has been an incredible experience and one he will never forget. “This has definitely been one of the more exciting assignments of my career,” he said. “Not only did I never think I’d be sailing the ocean chasing pirates, I certainly never thought I’d be doing it alongside the navies of so many different countries, especially Russia and China.” “My time at ESG 2 has been amazing,” McKnight continued. “In addition to all the exercises and contingencies we were involved with before we deployed, I was privileged enough to have hosted a Great White Fleet event in New York City along with my staff and we also played a big part in the grand re-opening of the Intrepid museum during Veterans Day Weekend 2008. Those two events will certainly remain cherished memories when I look back at my career.” As the first African-American woman to command a U.S. Navy ship, Howard said she understands the magnitude of bridging cultural and international gaps. “ESG 2 has executed the three missions they’re responsible for without missing a beat,” she said. “My top priority right now is to deter piracy here in the Gulf of Aden. I want to continue the extensive international coordination Admiral McKnight started. That’s the true key to defeating piracy. Piracy is a problem that affects all maritime nations and requires an international solution. I’m looking forward to working with naval professionals from around the world on this vital mission.” CTF 151 is a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate throughout the CMF area of responsibility to actively deter, disrupt and suppress piracy in order to protect global maritime security and secure freedom of navigation for the benefit of all nations. Howard previously served as Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. (Report by Lt. John Fage, Expeditionary Strike Group 2 Public Affairs.)

A War For Your Soul-Birmingham Version by Erisai Films

A War For Your Soul-Birmingham version by Erisai Films

This video was created to inspire young African-Americans not to fall prey to some of the problems they face in society. The use of the voice "Master of Darkness" represents evil, which is where the blame of all problems should be placed, and not on any one group of people. This video should not to be used to divide people (Black & White), there are images of heroes that are white in this video, and there are images of Black & White coming together with the words of Dr. King in the background. Some of the images from the past can be unsettling, but they are used to show all Americans how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. This film is being strategically placed in school systems, churches and youth orgs around the country, in hope of helping a lost generation of kids that we as Americans have forgotten. As fellow Americans we must continue to love each other, and take that love and spread it to the rest of the world. Peace & Love - Erisai Films myspace.com/erisaifilms

A War For Your Soul-Birmingham version from Erisai Films on Vimeo.

The Summit of the Americas in Trinidad & Tobago

"Great Stuff"
The Summit of the Americas in Trinidad & Tobago
34 Heads of State, Presidents, and/or Prime Ministers
USA President, Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton
The Opening Performance
Directed by Brian McFarlane
Part One - The Cultural Presentation at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago

Part Two -The Cultural Presentation at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago

Part Three -The Cultural Presentation at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago

Part Four-The Cultural Presentation at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago

The Opening Address from the Honourable Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and Host/Chairman of the Fifth Summit of the Americas


USA President Barack Obama’s speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Summit of The Americas in Trinidad & Tobago


Second Part-USA President Barack Obama’s speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Summit of The Americas in Trinidad &Tobago

CANDIATE FOR PRESIDENT 2012!

I HAVE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE.
HERE IS MY PLATFORM:

(1) 'Press 1 for English' is immediately banned. English is the official language; speak it or wait at the border until you can.

(2) We will immediately go into a two year isolationist posture to straighten out the country's attitude. NO imports, no exports. We will use the 'Wal-Mart 's policy, 'If we ain't got it, you don't need it.'

(3) When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it.

(4) All retired military personnel will be required to man one of our many observation towers on the southern border (six month tour). They will be under strict orders not to fire on SOUTHBOUND aliens.

(5) Social security will immediately return to its original state. If you didn't put nuttin in, you ain't gettin nuttin out. The president nor any other politician will be able to touch it.


(6) Welfare - Checks will be handed out on Fridays at the end of the 40 hour school week and the successful completion of urinalysis and a passing grade.

(7) Professional Athletes--Steroids. The FIRST time you check positive you're banned for life.

(8) Crime - We will adopt the Turkish method, the first time you steal, you lose your right hand. There is no more life sentences. If convicted of murder, you will be put to death by the same method you chose for your victim; gun, knife, strangulation, etc.

(9) One export will be allowed, Wheat. The world needs to eat. A bushel of wheat will be the exact price of a barrel of oil.

(10) All foreign aid using American taxpayer money will immediately cease, and the saved money will pay off the national debt and ultimately lower taxes. When disasters occur around the world, we'll ask the American people if they want to donate to a disaster fund, and each citizen can make the decision whether it's a worthy cause.

(11) The Pledge of Allegiance will be said every day at school and every day in Congress.

(12) The National Anthem will be played at all appropriate ceremonies, sporting events, outings, etc.
Sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes


GOD BLESS AMERICA .


Bill Cosby






I will not be voting for Mr. Bill --- (Ron)

My Petition

Jill Scott on BET Singing "My Petition"

Number of Black Americans in State Prisons for Drug Offenses Declines

By Darryl Fears Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 14, 2009; 2:16 PM

For the first time since crack cocaine sparked a war on drugs 20 years ago, the number of black Americans in state prisons for drug offenses has fallen sharply, while the number of white prisoners convicted for drug crimes has increased, according to a report released today.
The D.C.-based Sentencing Project reported that the number of black inmates in state prisons for drug offenses had fallen from 145,000 in 1999 to 113,500 in 2005, a 21 percent decline. Over the same period, the number of white drug offenders rose steadily, from 50,000 to more than 72,000, a 42 percent increase. The number of Latino drug offenders was virtually unchanged at about 51,000.
The findings represent a significant shift in the racial makeup of those incarcerated for drugs and could signal a gradual change in the demographics of the nation's prison population 2 million, which has been disproportionately black for decades. Drug offenders make up about a quarter of the overall prison population.
The Sentencing Project report and other experts said the numbers could reflect two factors: an increased reliance by prosecutors and judges on prison alternatives such as drug courts, and a shift in police focus to methamphetamines, which are used and distributed mostly by white Americans.

The report relied heavily on data compiled by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics and covered six years ending in 2005, the last year the bureau broke down the state prison population by race and drug offense.

African American drug offenders, who have been convicted most often for dealing and possessing crack cocaine, still made up a disproportionate share of the total, 44 percent in 2005. That was down from nearly 58 percent six years earlier, but still represented a disproportionate share, because black Americans make up only about 12 percent of the U.S. population.

The number of white state drug offenders rose from 20 percent to 29 percent, and Latino prisoners made up 20 percent of inmates.
"I have no doubt that crystal meth explains some of the white increase, but I'm not ready to say it's the reason for all of the white increase," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which opposes stiff penalties for nonviolent drug crimes. "It's also hard to imagine that [drug courts] are not having some effect. Most drug courts are in urban areas where African Americans live."
Twenty percent of white inmates used methamphetamines in the month before they were arrested, compared with 1 percent of black inmates, according to interviews conducted in the nation's 14,500 state prisons and 3,700 federal prisons.
Drug courts offer nonviolent offenders the option of undergoing rigorous substance abuse treatment and criminal rehabilitation or going to jail. There are more than 2,000 such courts in operation, mostly in cities with large black communities that were ravaged by violence associated with crack cocaine. White suspects are also increasingly winding up in drug courts for abusing methamphetamines.


Mauer also hypothesized that drug dealers might have shifted from open air crack cocaine markets to dealing indoors, making them harder for police to bust. And he speculated that because so many African American men have been incarcerated, there are fewer on the street to be arrested.
But James E. Felman, co-chairman of the Sentencing Committee for the American Bar Association, said that in Tampa, where he practices law, police are still arresting black suspects for crack possession and distribution, and handing out long sentences.
"I can't second-guess their study, but I haven't seen a change," Felman said. "Maybe we're getting smarter on crime in some states. That could be part of it."

David Muhlhausen, a senior policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said stronger police enforcement of methamphetamine trafficking and use, coupled with treatment options mostly for urban crack cocaine offenders, probably caused the shift. "There is some data out there that suggests that drug courts and drug treatments reduce recidivism," he said. "If you take the less serious offenders and put them into programs other than prison it would be a benefit to society."

The war on drugs began in 1986, when Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act to combat violence associated with the crack cocaine trade. Lawmakers were prompted by the death of University of Maryland basketball player Len Bias, who they mistakenly believed had died from ingesting crack. Bias overdosed on powder cocaine.

Last year, then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) joined several of his colleagues in saying his support of the legislation was a mistake. As a result of the law, more than a half-million people have been incarcerated for drug offenses in state and federal prison, a massive increase from the 40,000 who were jailed for the same offenses in 1980.

According to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics last year, 7.2 million people are under prison supervision, as inmates, parolees and probationers, at a cost of about $45 billion per year.



California, which has one of the nation's largest prison populations, farmed out 170,000 inmates to private prisons as far away as Tennessee in 2006 to relieve costs, and has relaxed its penal code to relieve prison overcrowding.
Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, a former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, said the record incarceration might be worth the cost. "As the number of people under correctional supervision goes up, crime goes down," he said. Conservative estimates put the cost of violent crime at about $17 billion, Sedgwick said.

MICHELLE'S FIRST BOYFRIEND

First Lady Michelle Obama’s First Boyfriend Speaks Out A man named David Upchurch is now telling media sources about his stint as First Lady Michelle Obama’s first boyfriend.

The then 18-year-old Mrs. Obama was escorted by him to her Whitney Young High School prom in Chicago .

They grew up together, were neighbors in the Chi, and David now lives in Colorado Springs , CO . He says the reason they broke up is because he didn’t have his life together and he was “a screw up”. He says: “I always knew Michelle was special and would make a difference in the world.”



I guess the First Lady wasn’t taking any ish even back then. Seven years later she met a law student named Barack Obama. And the rest is history. Love it.

THE FIRST PUP

The First Puppy Makes a Big Splash Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog, Is All Over the Web Before His Official Debut

By Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, April 12, 2009; Page A01

Who let the dog out?
That's the Washington mystery du jour.
The identity of the first puppy -- the one that the Washington press corps has been yelping about for months, the one President Obama has seemed to delight in dropping hints about -- leaked out yesterday.

This despite White House efforts to delay the news until the big debut planned for Tuesday afternoon. The little guy is a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog given to the Obama girls as a gift by that Portuguese water dog-lovin' senator himself, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.



The girls named it Bo -- and let it be noted that you learned that here first. Malia and Sasha chose the name, because their cousins have a cat named Bo and because first lady Michelle Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley, a source said. (Get it? Bo . . . Diddley?) Bo's a handsome little guy. Well suited for formal occasions at the White House, he's got tuxedo-black fur, with a white chest, white paws and a rakish white goatee Clearly, the identity of the dog was information too big to contain.

This is not Bo, but it is a picture of what he will look like as he age. Beautiful!


Must Love Dogs
The whole country is in love with "Bo", the Obama family's new dog। And why not? Americans are so hungry for good news, we'll take it in furry form. And besides, dogs make the world a better place.
The best thing about dogs is that dogs love you back। A dog loves unconditionally. Dogs know that of faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love. (Though I will say that dogs are also very good at hope. My dogs hope continually for treats and w-a-l-k-s; right now I have three dogs looking at me expectantly, hoping that when I finish typing this we will go outside. And maybe have a treat too.)

Who doesn't love a news story about a puppy? I know if I click on a story about Bo, it's not going to be about what to do about Afghanistan. I know that its not going to be a story that will break my heart once again because another teenager has died from gun violence here in Chicago. I know it won't be a story about the failed state of Somalia and pirates (pirates!) threatening ships and passengers.
I'm tired of worrying about our world। There just doesn't seem to be much of anything in the news that isn't downright alarming, from more giant chunks of ice falling off of the poles to more people losing their jobs. Even the wonderful news last week about marriage equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people from several states made me worry when the next attack on their equal rights would come.

No wonder I want to read about Bo। No wonder other people want to read about Bo. He has no reactionary legislative agenda. He just makes us smile, this puppy with the curly hair and the big white paws. I think the whole country has emotional fatigue, and if we're emotionally fatigued by all these crises, imagine how President Obama feels.

I looked at the picture of Bo happily running down the hallway alongside President Obama, looking up and plainly enjoying this cool chase game. The President was smiling, looking down at Bo.I hoped the President was having fun too. I hoped playing with the puppy gave him a little relief from stress. Dogs are good for that. I believe dogs are a gift of grace. Welcome, Bo.

BROTHER TO BROTHER...

You go boy! He is sooo….. cool. According to one commenter, "This is the most powerful photo in the series. Remember British royal custom, and both U.S. and British security procedure dictate that they are not supposed to talk, touch, or shake hands, but the two brothers couldn't resist the historic moment. The black royal cop never imagined in his wildest dream that he would usher a Black American president into the British corridors of power!"

Thank you Deena Bailey

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Mad About Michelle

Subject to Debate

By Katha Pollitt

This article appeared in the April 20, 2009 edition of The Nation.

April 2, 2009

Someday we'll get beyond obsessing about
first ladies--and by "we" I mean the sort of journalists who use "we" to mean "the vast majority of Americans" when it is usually just themselves and their friends. Meanwhile, Michelle Obama is getting more bouquets from the media than any woman in public life since Mother Teresa. Her clothes, her looks, her height (six feet!), her curves, her delightful combination of warmth, simplicity, charm, dignity, humor and smarts. Gone are the days when National Review put her on the cover as "Mrs. Grievance," when Maureen Dowd wondered aloud if Michelle's wifely jokes about Barack's foibles were "emasculating" and when Christopher Hitchens wrote in Slate that her undergraduate thesis, "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community," was not "written in any known language" and used it to tie her to Louis Farrakhan, a pair of African dictators and the Holocaust. Remember how Obama supporters fumed about that New Yorker cover cartoon of Barack as an Al Qaeda terrorist and Michelle as a rifle-toting Black Panther? People wouldn't get that it was satire! Seems pretty silly now, doesn't it? Yesterday's fist-bumping radical is today's mom in chief.

Well, not quite. After all, Michelle Obama is still black, although only wingnuts and black people mention it--most whites are much too polite. And she's a woman, too, which always makes for trouble. So while half the country swoons over her Vogue cover and her community service in schools and homeless shelters, there are those who feel just a little bit threatened. There are her bare arms, for example--they have muscles! "In the taxi," Dowd confided in a recent column, "when I asked David Brooks about her amazing arms, he indicated it was time for her to cover up. 'She's made her point,' he said. 'Now she should put away Thunder and Lightning.'" Brooks didn't like "the V-neck sleeveless, eggplant dress" she wore to Barack's address to Congress, either. A supersmart black woman who's also fashionable and fit--terrifying.

And then there's this developing story line--call it the Goldilocks and the Three Bears syndrome. Hillary Clinton was too ambitious; Laura Bush (who?) was too retro; but Michelle has the woman thing just right. As David Samuels writes in New York magazine:

There are clear limits to Michelle's ambition. She went to excellent schools, got decent grades, stayed away from too much intellectual heavy lifting, and held a series of practical, modestly salaried jobs while accommodating her husband's wilder dreams and raising two lovely daughters. In this, she is a more practical role model for young women than Hillary Clinton, blending her calculations about family and career with an expectation of normal personal happiness.

Would you like some manly condescension with that factual misinformation, ladies? By all means, avoid "too much intellectual heavy lifting"! If Samuels regards $273,618--Michelle Obama's salary in her last year as head of community affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals--as modest, he must be the richest magazine journalist in the world. Michelle Obama, who made almost twice as much as her husband the senator, earned more than 99 percent of the population, and 98 percent of men. Moreover, she did so while raising two small children, often without her husband, who was off legislating in Springfield and Washington. That Samuels, like a 1950s home ec teacher, advises "young women" to keep their ambitions "practical" if they want to be happy shows just how disturbing Hillary Clinton--or rather the nightmare fantasy of Hillary Clinton--has been to certain male psyches. Because what if women wanted to be the ones with the wild dreams? What if they wanted men to be the enablers and nurturers? That would be awful.

Just after the election Rebecca Traister wrote a terrific piece in Salon lamenting the "momification" of Michelle Obama. Probably it was inevitable: "In part because of the legacy left her by Hillary and her detractors," Traister observed, "powerful couples must now tread as far as possible from the 'two for one' talk, lest the female half get smacked with a nutcracker." Besides, there was that Angry Black Woman image to banish. It might have been politically necessary, and for all I know Michelle Obama is having the time of her life--unlike most professional women who take (let's hope) eight years off, she doesn't have to worry about the cost to her career. Some days I think just being a highly visible admirable black woman is a social cause all by itself, given how little of that side of black life most white Americans see. Still, there's something depressing about the joy and relief with which the high-end media have greeted Michelle's makeover from accomplished professional and outspoken social critic to new-traditionalist homebody. They're not only not ready for Hillary Clinton, they're apparently not even ready for Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the American Prospect, Dana Goldstein recently argued that being first lady should be treated like the job it is and awarded a salary. Michelle is "a public face of the Obama administration," working behind the scenes to rally support for her husband's programs--and she endures a schedule of ceremonial duties and photo ops that would put most women on Prozac and that are not optional. She can't decide to skip dinner with the Democratic chairmen of Congressional committees and watch TV with the girls instead. If first ladies were paid--Goldstein suggests that the money could come from lowering the president's $400,000 salary--we might respect them more.

Meanwhile, we should be counting ourselves lucky that 
Michelle Obama is working for free and let her wear whatever she wants.

Katha Pollitt's writing has appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

BLACK IS IN!

The most powerful politician in the world is Black.

The head of the Republican National Committee is Black.

The best known media mogul on earth is Black.


The greatest golfer in the world is Black.
The top female tennis players in the world are Black.


The highest grossing actor worldwide is Black.




The brightest Astrophysicist under the sun is Black.




The Superbowl winning Head Coach is Black





The most successful brain surgeon in the world is Black!



The fastest human on the planet is Black.





The most winning race car driver is Black!



Michael Jackson must be kicking himself.

Commentary: My crush on Michelle Obama

      Commentary: My crush on Michelle Obama 
Editor's note: Jack Cafferty is the author of a new book, "Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream," to be published in March. He provides commentary on CNN's "The Situation Room" daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET. You can also visit Jack's Cafferty File blog. 

Jack Cafferty says Michelle Obama understands that the White House is the "people's house."
NEW YORK (CNN) -- I think I am developing a crush on America's first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He's good, but she's utterly fascinating. Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It's like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows. It's the people's house, and Michelle Obama totally gets it. So much so that she has taken to inviting people in from the streets to see her home.. Nice touch -- one completely lacking in her recent predecessors.
Watch her when she visits a local school and you see the warmth and affection she instantly triggers in people. Kids are pretty much totally honest with very good BS-detectors. If they sense you're a phony, forget it. But around the first lady, they want to hug her and laugh with her and tell her stories.
You can see the same qualities these kids recognize in her daughters. She is the consummate mother as evidenced by the poised, polite smiling children she and her husband are raising. I have four daughters, and trust me -- they don't turn out like the Obama children without devoted parents.
New to the Washington neighborhood, Michelle Obama has taken it upon herself to go around and introduce herself to the people in the various agencies of government. When's the last time a first lady did that? I don't ever remember it before. And during her visits she listens rather than lectures. And people respond to her.
She was raised on the south side of Chicago by blue-collar parents. She went to Princeton University, and Harvard Law School. But in many ways she's still a kid from the south side of Chicago, and that's what makes her special. She knows exactly who she is.
The Obamas bring a humanity and humility to their tasks which sets them far apart from the run-of-the mill phonies who populate Washington. It's exactly what the doctor ordered for this wounded nation.
Michelle Obama's unassuming, but dead-on, sense of style has the fashion press gushing all over itself.
Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend. Who appears sleeveless on the cover of Vogue, let alone in front of a joint session of Congress while her husband delivers one of the most important speeches of his life? And the reviews were rave.
Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine gushed, "Oh my god! The first lady has bare arms in Congress in February at night!" If she keeps it up, Seventh Avenue will soon stop making women's clothes with sleeves.
Ok, I admit it. When it comes to the first lady, I'm smitten..
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack Cafferty.

A DEMONSTRATION OF WHAT IS COMING!

This video is a demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED.

It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.


Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. Before his studies at MIT, he worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher. Mistry is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real-world interactions.

Some previous projects from Mistry's work at MIT includes intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; and TaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world. His research interests also include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics.






Check out this Web Site:

http://www.pranavmistry.com/

MICHELLE ROBINSON OBAMA'S BIOGRAPHY

Born on January 17, 1964, Michelle Robinson was raised in a one-bedroom apartment on Chicago's South Shore.

Of note is that she shared a "bedroom" with her brother, but it wasn't much of a bedroom. It was actually the living room with a divider down the middle. Michelle's father died in 1990 two years before she married Barack, but her mother is still alive and living in the same one-bedroom apartment, protected by a burglar-proof wrought-iron door and secured windows.

After high school Michelle Robinson majored in sociology at Princeton University, graduating with cum laude honors in 1985. From there she attended Harvard where she earned her law degree in 1988, one year ahead of her husband-to-be, Barack, whom she hadn't met yet but attended the same law school.

* MICHELLE AND BARACK MEET

After graduating from Harvard, Michelle accepted a position at a downtown Chicago law firm. In 1989 she was asked to mentor a summer associate from Harvard name Barack Obama. According to reports, Barack didn't have much interest in corporate law, but did have a lot of interest in Michelle.

Apparently Michelle Robinson initially brushed off advances from Barack because they were working at same firm...and he was an intern and she higher up the law firm's food chain as an associate. But love prevailed and they were married on October 18, 1992.

Interestingly Barack and Michelle waited almost seven years before having children. Their first daughter name Malia Ann Obama was born in 1999 with Natasha (often called "sasha") following two years later in 2001.

When asked about what made her fall in love with him she replied "for the same reason many other people respect him; his connection with people."

Even though her husband is the center of attention, Michelle has zero concerns about fidelity in their marriage. She told Ebony magazine in March 2006, "I never worry about things I can't affect, and with fidelity . . . that is between Barack and me, and if somebody can come between us, we didn't have much to begin with."

* MICHELLE'S ROBINSON OBAMA'S CAREER

Michelle's impressive resume includes: Former Associate Dean at the University of Chicago a member of six boards of directors including the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Tree House Foods; Vice President, Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. In this position she was responsible for all programs and initiatives that involve the relationships between the hospitals and the community as well as management of the hospitals' business diversity program.

* MICHELLE OBAMA'S INFLUENCES ON BARACK'S POLITICAL CAREER

Michelle's professional relationships were helpful when her husband in 2004, then a state senator, ran for the United States Senate, where he faced a primary dominated by some of the Democratic Party's most
powerful political families.

In this 2004 race, Obama had the support of influential black business leaders, some of whom had closer ties to his wife than they did to him. According to Newsweek, a former boss of Michelle Obama's, a powerful black woman Valerie Jarrett, chair of the Chicago Stock Exchange, served as finance chair of Barack Obama's U.S. Senate campaign.

* MICHELLE OBAMA: THE MOM & WIFE

After Barack was elected to the U.S. Senate, Barack and Michelle choose
to keep their children in Chicago, where Michelle continued her career
as well. "We made a good decision to stay in Chicago so that has kept
our family stable," Michelle Obama told the Chicago Tribune. Every
Sunday the family attends services at the Trinity United Church of
Christ.

According to reports, Michelle has mastered being a mother, career
woman and the wife of a politician. When Newsweek magazine trailed her in 2004, the reporter could not help but notice a to-do list for her two daughters Malia and Natasha that included time for "play." She is in bed most nights by 9:30 and rises each morning at 4:30 to run on a treadmill.

This level of discipline and organization helps her manage
her public and private pressures with poise. In New Yorker magazine
Michelle noted that the life of a political wife is "hard and that's why Barack is such a grateful man."But there's more to it. "Barack didn't pledge riches" Michelle explains to Newsweek. "Only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he's delivered."

SLOW DANCE

 


This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital. It was sent by her medical doctor.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,we'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time To call and say, 'Hi'

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

     Michelle Obama Adjusts To D.C.

  

           First Lady Visits DC High School

First Lady Michelle Obama Reflects on Talking 'Like a White Girl'

Michelle Obama Tells D.C. Students That Stereotypes Get in the Way

By DAVID WRIGHT

March 20, 2009

First lady Michelle Obama visited one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation's capital Thursday, hoping her example would help encourage struggling, young high school students.

It's the latest attempt by the first lady to use her bully pulpit to talk candidly with Americans, and she's sparking some compelling conversations.

Obama's remarks came as part of a career day she organized for Washington, D.C.-area students, featuring 20 other high-profile women who fanned out across the city to connect with kids. For her part, the first lady acknowledged that her childhood included struggles with language and racial identity.

And when one student asked her, "How did you get to where you are now?" she credited, in part, her command of the language.

"I remember there were kids around my  Chicago  neighborhood who would say, 'Ooh, you talk funny. You talk like a white girl.' I heard that growing up my whole life. I was like, 'I don't even know what that means but I am still getting my A.'"

Even now, Americans listen intently not just to what the Obamas say but how they say it: words, accents, even gestures.

"For many folks, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama, to a lesser extent, don't sound like as what they think of stereotypical black," said Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African-American studies at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "And just like there might be whites invested in those stereotypes, there are obviously African-Americans invested in those also."