Vintage McCartney lifts somber White House

Forty-six years after the Beatles invaded America, Paul McCartney rocked the White House Wednesday, honored by President Barack Obama at a star-studded concert celebrating his songwriting legen

Paul McCartney Receives Music Award at White House

Former Beatle Paul McCartney speaks at a news conference before the White House event.

 
President Barack Obama presents Paul McCartney with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song at the White House.

Calling him the "most successful songwriter in history," U.S. President Barack Obama presented music legend Paul McCartney with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

McCartney was one of the four original members of The Beatles, whose string of record-breaking hits revolutionized pop music in the 1960s.



After their break-up in 1970, McCartney went out on his own, performing with his band Wings and then alone. His numerous record-breaking hits include such classics as "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", and "Let It Be."

"Tonight it is my distinct pleasure to present America's highest award for popular music on behalf of a grateful nation, grateful that a young Englishman shared his dreams with us. Sir Paul McCartney," said President Obama in a ceremony at the White House.

The Gershwin is named after the renowned song writers George and Ira Gershwin and was given to McCartney in appreciation of his five decades of extraordinary contributions to American music.

"It is such a fantastic evening for me," McCartney said after receving the prize. "I mean, getting this prize is good enough, but getting it from this president."

During the evening, McCartney sang some of his most famous songs, including his opening act, "Got to Get You into My Life."

The evening also included an all-star cast of performers who sang their own versions of McCartney hits. The performers included Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Faith Hill and the Jonas Brothers.

But the highlight of the evening was clearly the guest of honor, who dedicated one of his classic hits, "Michelle," to the first lady.

At a news conference at the Library of Congress before the White House event, the former Beatle said receiving the Gershwin award is especially meaningful.

"It's fantastic for me to be here because as a little kid I grew up listening to the music of the Gershwin brothers and loved it, and had no idea of course that one day I might be in such a place getting an honor such as this."

Previous Gershwin prize winners include 23-time Grammy-Award winner Stevie Wonder and singer/songwriter Paul Simon.

McCartney says that when it comes to writing songs, not much has changed for him over the years.

"Songwriting is always a great thing for me 'cause it's a mystery. You start with a black hole and if you're lucky, a couple of hours later there'll be a song there. That mystery and that magic is still the same for me.

Obama Cheating Scandal: Vera Baker?

The National Enquirer has been pushing a salacious story indicating that President Barack Obama and former campaign aide Vera Baker carried on an affair beginning in 2004 � see her photo below.

Reportedly, the 35-year-old Baker was a tireless worker who raised millions for the Obama U.S. Senate campaign and was instrumental in helping to get him elected. According to the Enquirer, anti-Obama operatives are offering $1 million to eyewitnesses who can attest that an affair actually did take place. The NE contends that the alleged trysts took place at the home of a DC friend and at the Hotel George.

An anonymous limo driver is quoted in the story and he details a specific evening where he squired the couple to several fundraising events and then dropped them off together at the Hotel George.

On-site surveillance video footage is reportedly being sought by NE investigators. The report suggests that �if the tape surfaces, it will explode the scandal�.



We are prone to dismiss the story as so much bunk. That said, we and everyone else thought the same about the John Edwards and Rielle Hunter scandal too � and we all know how that one turned out. Let�s just say that under the circumstances we are skeptical but could be persuaded with something substantially more solid than the account of �an anonymous limo driver�.

Polanski set for extradition after Obama rejects plea from Sarkozy that he be spared

In Washington: Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama earlier this month

House arrest: Roman Polanksi enjoys a sunny lunch with friends in Gstaad, Switzerland last week

Disgraced Roman Polanski is set to be extradited to the U.S. under armed guard after a bid to halt the process was rejected.

It follows French head of state Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivering a personal letter to Barack Obama from the film director asking to be spared jail � a move which apparently failed because the American President refused even to read the note.

Lawyers for 76-year-old Polanski applied to have his child sex case heard in absentia, meaning he could remain under house arrest in Switzerland.

But a California appeals court rejected the bid outright yesterday, paving the way for the extradition process to continue.



If it is successful Polanski is likely to fly to America as a captured fugitive with federal agents in September, said a Swiss judicial source.

Polanski is wanted on child sex charges after fleeing the U.S. 32 years ago following the rape of a 13-year-old girl.

He was arrested in Switzerland last September as he travelled to a film festival and is fighting extradition while under house arrest in his luxury chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad.

His latest appeal includes a sworn statement by his victim, Samantha Geimer, saying that the 1977 charge should be dropped.

But the California 2nd District Court of Appeal dismissed Polanski�s application without issuing an opinion.
They also rejected the petition by Miss Geimer, who is now a mother of three living in Hawaii. Allowing prosecution witnesses to end cases by simply forgiving a criminal would set an unacceptable precedent, the court heard.

Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said Polanski will only be extradited if he receives a sentence longer than six months.

Polanski has admitted plying the teenage Miss Geimer with champagne and a sedative drug before having sex with her at the home of film star Jack Nicholson in March 1977.

He was indicted on six charges, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, and pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a minor as part of a judicial bargaining process.

But Polanski fled to his native France before he could be sentenced, having already spent 42 days in an American prison.

He spent the next three decades evading American authorities.

Polanski, whose main home is in Paris, also spent two months in a Swiss jail immediately after police arrested him.

The Oscar-winning director of Rosemary�s Baby and The Pianist could still appeal to Supreme Court in California in an eleventh hour bid to stop extradition.

Mr Sarkozy�s intervention has been revealed by the French political weekly L�Express.
The magazine read: �In an astonishing act of backroom diplomacy, Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivered a letter from Roman Polanski to Barack Obama last week on the sidelines of the anti-nuclear proliferation summit in Washington.�

But a White House source suggested that Mr Obama did not even bother reading the letter, as it was not delivered according to diplomatic protocol.

�He would have no intention on interfering in the judicial process anyway,� said the source.

Polanski and his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, are both close to French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. All are well known members of Paris�s �artistic� community.

Crazy Newz: Twelve Awful Celebrity Tattoos

Why would anyone want to get Britney's worst phase permanently on their skin?Luckily for Britney,hair grows back,unfortunately for the owner of this tattoo.

Nixon Tattoo

This tattoo of Pope John Paul II looks so real that it got first prize in a Brazilian Tattoo Convention.

Out of all the stupid things this guy could have had tattooed on himself,he decided to go with Frank Zappa picking his nose.

The ultimate science tattoo: Jack Newton,23,decided to have his right leg inked with theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking's face after reading his best selling book.

 

Apparently, celebrity tattoos are for amateurs.Real fandom means tattooing a celebrity's adopted offspring in a prominent and permanent place of one's body.Andy Bowling,a 42 year old Texan man,has got both Brad and Maddox tattooed on his body.

Tattoo of Henry David Thoreau sitting on a pumpkin,surrounded by his famous pronouncement.

This person has Harry Potter portrayed on his limb.

This guy grew up watching Bob Ross with his Grandmother.After she passed away he got this as a funny reminder of their time together.How Sweet!!!

I bet Madonna would love to see this tattoo.

We know everybody loves Oprah,but this tattoo is far off the limits.

Pretty Girl+Hope Poster+Tattoo = Don't think it's a very nice combination at all.

Health:Obama administration is moving towards legalization of marijuana

Allhotnewz.blogspot.com learned that the Obama administration is moving towards legalization of marijuana for medical reasons. Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy saying that federal agents will only target marijuana distributors when they violate both federal and state law.

That means that if your State law allows for medical marijuana � like California � you�re GOOD!! Under the Bush Administration, DEA agents would actively go after Californians who were legally prescribed weed by their doctors.

Here�s what Attorney General Holder said:
"The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law," Holder said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Justice Department...

"Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people, organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that's inconsistent with federal and state law," the attorney general said.�

WOO HOO!!!

Zariff--Barack Obama's Barber becomes famous

Today it seems that even if you touch Barack Obama then you also become a start just like Zariff-Barack Obama's Barber.

He has been Barack Obama's barber for the last 14 years, and has had his barber shop become very popular and a tourist attraction since Obama became president-elect.

People come from everywhere to visit Zariff's barber shop to take pictures and snapshots of the chair where Obama gets his hair cut in. And his haircut has inspired people to ask for the "Obama Cut" throughout the day.

Politics: Zardari Hopes-"Obama should reconsider the issue"

The Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari said, he hopes that the President-elect Barack Obama would reconsider the issue of having a military expedition for the existence of Al-Qaeda and Taliban in the Afghan border inside Pakistan.

The Pakistani government, mainly the president has always been under great pressure by the USA in restraining terrorism. But the U.S authority is very disappointed on seeing Pakistan�s failing role on this matter. Since August and until now there has been almost 18 military expeditions by the U.S military force in the possible suspicious terrorists regions. These expeditions were mostly made by some unknown planes from Afghanistan. Pointing towards the terrorists in Pakistan, Barack Obama have already said that, if he is elected, then the U.S would single-handedly attack on the terrorist regions in Pakistan if its government fails to control the situation.

Zardari thinks that the time has now come when there will be possible changes made on every issue by the U.S and this military expedition on Pakistan is a big matter to think of. So he deeply hopes that Barack Obama would give this issue a second thought and some reconsideration or pre-assessment is necessary.

Politics: Bush-Obama White House Private Meeting

The President-elect Barack Obama visited George W.Bush in the Oval office at White House in a private meeting.What could it be for?Why Bush invited Obama just within the first week after he won the historical election?What chats really took place between these two icons?

US President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have paid their first visit to the White House in Washington since last week's historic vote.White House Press Secretary Dana Perino described the sessions as "good, constructive, relaxed and friendly," while Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the two men engaged in "a broad discussion about the importance of working together throughout the transition of government in light of the nation's many critical economic and security challenges."

Later President Bush conducted his own tour of the living quarters for Obama, including the office he uses, the Lincoln bedroom and the bedrooms for the Obama daughters.Obama has said that he won't get involved in policymaking before Jan. 20, analysts said that Bush needed to hear the president-elect's thoughts, particularly if international leaders asked about differences between the two.

"This shows that there isn't a lot of tension between President Bush and President-elect Obama," said John Fortier, a political analyst at Washington's American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research center.

Politics: Lets Congratulate BARACK OBAMA

To BARACK OBAMA For Becoming The First Ever Black American President

Finally the time for "Change" has come to America.Barack Obama wins U.S election 2008 and became the first ever black president in United States of America and will be soon heading towards the White House to claim his chair that was belonging to him since he put his first step on the field with the "CHANGE WE NEED" slogan.

We all Congratulate him for his
"Deserving Victory"

Politics: Why Obama might be the Winner--There are 8 strong reasons behind it

Well everyone knows that Barack Obama holds a very strong position in his presidential election run than the Republican John McCain.There are 8 strong reasons Barack Obama will however win handily.











1.Obama's supporters are more energized.

Obama draws massive crowds wherever he goes and has energized young and first-time voters in a way that will astonish pollsters relying on traditional turnout models. Obama supporters see their votes as an exciting chance to create a brighter future.





2.Obama has a superior ground game.

Obama is better controlled at the neighborhood level than any Democratic presidential candidate in history.His campaign is also making milestone use of technology�using e-mail, text messages and social-networking sites to keep in touch with supporters and recommend them to the polls.





3. Obama has a superior air game.

Obama is so flush with cash that he's able to saturate TV and radio in key markets at the end of the campaign with ads that counter McCain's criticisms of him and initiate attacks on McCain.It's not just the money but the strength of mind to respond rapidly and passionately inside the space of a single news cycle.





4. McCain has lost his brand.

Yes, he's a unstable man running in sensitive times under the banner of troubled party. But he started off with the image of a bipartisan straight-shooter with a obvious, selfless sense of proportion.Now that McCain's finally settled on conservative tax policy as his theme down the stretch, his campaign is so desperate for traction that it's going schoolyard.





5. Palin is turning out to be the disasta' from Alaska

I'm confident historians will rank McCain's decision to choose a rookie governor from a low-population state to be his running mate as his major miscalculation. Palin's youth, spunkiness and old-fashioned bona fides fired up the Republican base, sure. But her unawareness, on display in early TV interviews, embarrassed the rest of us, and polls now show her as a distinct drag on the ticket.



6. Obama hasn't lost his cool.

Historians will also note the textbook discipline of the Obama campaign, which stuck to a set of fairly simple "change" messages while the McCain campaign kept trying out new themes. This control has been mirrored by Obama's own equanimity, particularly during the debates in which he looked and sounded far more presidential than the nervous, simpering McCain.



7. McCain hasn't been able to fight the Bush head winds.

No matter how many times McCain said "maverick," he still couldn't create adequate distance from the deeply disliked president to make the sale to voters hungering for new leadership.





8.Obama has been lucky.

Things have been fairly quiet all year on the terror and national security fronts�McCain's strengths. And the chief crisis of the campaign season�the economic meltdown�not only played into one of Obama's perceived strong suits, it also caused McCain to appear impulsive and indecisive in the face of a sudden challenge.

This is not a mock or an assurance, but is expected that luck to hold at least through Tuesday night.

Politics: Barack Obama gettting hearts from Redneckers

Who would have thought that Barack Obama would get some hearts from the Rednecks too? But this is no more just a thought as he is getting some supports from the Redneckers as well.

This is a bit unexpected.

We're sure most people figured that John McCain and especially Sarah Palin would have the "redneck" votes locked!

But, Barack Obama is getting some hold up from the Redneckers too!

Well, at least he has the vote of two rednecks.

Les Spencer and Tony Viessman are two self-proclaimed rednecks. They explain the term as "hardworking guys who like to hunt, fish, and maybe pop a beer or two."

Spencer adds, "I hunt squirrels, too. And I like eating turtles."

Eating turtles? Unfortunate little guys!

The two retirees from Rolla, MO, make up the whole, unaffiliated "Rednecks for Obama."

The two men have even traveled, using their own money, to all the debates and even the Democratic National Convention in the hopes of convincing others that "Obama is redneck-friendly."

Viessman adds, "This election is too significant."

A retired highway patrol officer, Viessman, was even so impressed that Obama was the first presidential candidate to visit Rolla since Harry Truman, that he went out and bought a 7 by 3 foot sign to welcome him to town. Adding, "Cost me 25 bucks."

And when asked why some rednecks might not be voting for Obama, he said, "Guns. And that he's black. Sometimes change is hard for people. But I don't care if you're black or Oriental or green, if you can do the job. And he can do the job. He's pretty near the smartest guy who's ever run for president."

Spencer added, "We are just trying to tell people that you don't have to be scared of Obama. He's not going to try to take away your guns, no matter what the NRA says."

And Viessman added, "My dad used to say, 'A poor man who votes for a Republican is a fool.' "

Let's hope everyone goes out and votes for the best candidate. Your vote will make a difference!

The best candidate is Barack Obama.