Photo courtesy of Flickr user Nick Douglas

Everyone here at DC Metblogs wishes our 44th President on the United States a happy birthday as he 48. Despite the weirdo birthers who are taking the chance to question his citizenship, I personally hope President Obama has a moment to celebrate his day, just like the rest of us do. Maybe he’ll have another beer summit or take Michelle out for another night in Old Town, or maybe he should follow his Chief of Staff’s lead and catch a performance of Barack Stars.

His exact plans aren’t known yet, the official guidence for the day says he’s going to have lunch with Joe and the Senate Democratic caucus. Besides that not much is known, even though the press tried it’s best with Gibbs yesterday.

Maybe he’ll go out and see Adam Lambert, maybe he’s a closet American Idol fan.

It’s tough enough being the President of the United States, but President Barack Obama has been facing recent battles that have ranged from his fashion choices at baseball games to his status as an American citizen. The latest firestorm deals with his reaction to the Henry Louis Gates arrest in my home state of Massachusetts. While some people are taking sides on whether it was right or wrong for him to say that the Cambridge officiers acted stupidly,” others are having fun that he offered both sides to talk it out over beer.

The latest twist in the Gates story (can we call it Gates-gate?) started with a recent comment from Glenn Beck on Fox and Friends:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ndc2LX2u98[/youtube]

Glenn Beck’s accusation of Barack Obama being a racist quickly made a splash and the Morning Joe crew had a lot to say on it this morning.

After hearing Glenn Beck and the reaction I asked myself the question, why would Glenn Beck say such a thing? Does he really think Obama is a racist?

The answer for me is probably not…as much.

You have to realize that Beck is a media pundit one who’s profile has risen in the punditry world. He has a daily Television show, a radio show, books, magazines, and a blog. His growing media outlets would certainly impress Martha Stewart (Glenn Beck should just rename his site to Beck Omnimedia.) All he needs is a towel line and a recipe for tuna casserole.

Beck’s commodity are his opinions and thoughts, which he is certainly entitled to have, and he’s never been to trade with it.

What is he trading for? A little attention? Does this mean he’s just spouting shock and awe to boost his ratings? To an extent yes but not entirely so.

Remember this is the same man who’s also hinted that Obama is a communist, so this isn’t the first time he’s slammed Obama. Beck is a man with many bullhorns and only has so much to feed into each of them. I think Beck does think what he says but he knows he has to go over the top with it because in the world of punditry: the bigger the opinion the better.

What do you think- is Glenn Beck really serious when he accuses Obama of being a racist?

I took a look at Anne Schroeder Mullins’ post on Auto Tune In The News, a series of remixed news videos set to a hip-hop beat and run through a vocoder Auto-Tune . The result is Joe Biden sounding less like Vice-President, and more like Kanye West. It’s really amazing. Throw in some crazy costumes and you have an entertaining way to enjoy the recent news stories.

The videos are done by The Gregory Brothers, an all-family musical group based in Brooklyn.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Psfn6iOfS8[/youtube]

I didn’t know that Katie Couric had skillz.

Courtesy Of Nasa

Yesterday my co-worker Lisa tweeted about the NASA’s updates as they attempted to launch the space shuttle Endeavour for the 4th time. Unfortunately weather once again delayed the launch.

However what interested me wasn’t the weather down in Florida, but the follow-up story The Washington Post had on the International Space Station, the reason the shuttle was going up into space in the first place. Construction on the station is almost complete but now there’s been talk that the station could be shut down and allowed to burn in Earth’s atmosphere as soon as 2016.

According to the article there’s no long term plans for the station past 2015.

I think that’s kind of ridiculous, I’m not a space aficionado by any means but to me Space Exploration has been something that has defined not only our country as a leader, but the recent accomplishments as a human race.

Now of course the de-orbiting of the ISS doesn’t mean that there isn’t another plan. With the space shuttle fleet to be retired in 2010, it’s only going to make way for the next generation of space travel vehicles. But so far I’m not hearing any plans for a replacement for the ISS, once it’s gone we’re going to lose a key presence in the heavens.

I agree with Senator Bill Nelson’s comments on the situation, “”If we’ve spent a hundred billion dollars, I don’t think we want to shut it down in 2015…My opinion is it would be a travesty to de-orbit this thing…if we get rid of this darned thing in 2015, we’re going to cede our leadership in human exploration.”

So my question is, what is the U.S. Government’s next plan post space station?

Below is a very interested piece on a technique lobbyists are using to get into Congressional Hearings: paying homeless people to stand in line for them.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu0b2DwB_VI[/youtube]

If you haven’t heard of Elizabeth Becton, you will now:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI-ficXX_ag[/youtube]

Thanks to Shenanigans for this gem

Photo courtesy Flickr user eralon

The bigger news out there appears to be the crazy weather (I woke up at 6 AM in the center of The Perfect Storm, the weather as I type this? Sunny.)

The story that should be a bigger splash? The Virginia Democratic Primary which opened their polls today as the three Democratic candidates for Governor face-off. At first I was a little interested in the race but now my interest has waned again. With more rain in the forecast today, I’m not expecting anything but lackluster participation totals for today’s race. That being said it’s no longer absolutely safe that front-runner Terry McAuliffe will walk away with a victory, who knows if Brian Moran or even Creigh Deeds could walk away with an upset.

Polls are open til 7 P.M. statewide if you are a resident and are itching to be vocal on the issue.

(UPDATE: And look what happened… Deeds upsets and wins it)

Photo courtesy Flickr user jGregor

This month marks the 3rd year since I made the transition from lowly college intern to full-time young professional.

I don’t know how I managed life without a 401k and bills to pay.

It didn’t occur to me that summertime meant intern time for The District, as a Massachusetts native most of us just spent out summers getting drunk and rooting for the Sox. It does make sense, much like the tourists that flock upon our city in February on, hoards of students fresh off their latest semester haze come down upon DC, ready to do some exciting work to bolster that resume.

Perhaps the funny way I’m learning about Intern season if from the up and rising blog, DC Interns. The blog collects stories of the young and naive as they struggle to learn Metro etiquette, the proper way to walk down the hall, and how to dress for the job. The site is only a few weeks old but everyone is talking about it.

The blog is entertaining as we condescendingly laugh at those below our pay grade that act like they are so cool because they work on the hill. The site’s creator writes, “we’ve all been there, we have all had an entry-level or intern position in DC – but we had it without your extreme sense of entitlement … and therein lies the difference.”

Is it a little high schoolish for the upperclassmen to make fun of the frosh? Probably. But isn’t it funny anyways? You betcha!

Yesterday, a fellow Metblogger Tweeted with a “Red Alert”:  the DC Council had passed the five-cent plastic bag tax!  The Post reported that “The D.C. Council voted unanimously yesterday to assess a 5-cent tax on paper and plastic bags to try to discourage their use, putting the District at the forefront of efforts nationwide to promote reusable shopping bags.”  The tax will apply to food-service providers, grocers, and pharmacies.  Could the District be on track to join San Francisco as the only major city to ban plastic bags outright?

The bag tax is designed to limit pollution in the Anacostia and its tributaries — proceeds will be used for the Anacostia River Cleanup Fund.  Will the city distribute any reusable bags to its residents to get them started?  Businesses who sell reusable bags will qualify for a rebate of one penny on each bag sold (or, of they offer a discount for using the bags, two cents).  Will they subsidize the price of reusable bags for their customers?

I’ve seen reactions to the news ranging from, “Hooray!  Let’s dance with glee,” to “Oh great.  Another tax for District residents.”  Regardless of the means or how one feels about the bag tax, though, I hope we can all agree that we don’t want the Anacostia looking like this any more:

Anacostia River, near Poplar Point

The Council will need to vote again on the measure before it goes to the Mayor for his signature.  What do you think, DC?

So earlier this month I wrote about Obama’s visit to Ray’s Hell Burger. I thought it was really cool that The President ate lunch at a place down the street from me.

Now it’s clear that he’s a burger guy- while being filmed for a NBC News documentary, Barack Obama stopped by a local Five Guys (which I think is better than Hell Burger) and ordered up some lunch. He took orders from all his advisers, and Brian Williams sneaks in an order as well.

When I first wrote about his Hell Burger visit, I joked around the office that he now needs to visit Five Guys, looks like we was listening. So what other DC eateries does he need to try out?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1TxMKaYHYA[/youtube]

(thank to Politico for the video link)