Just a picture of President Obama eating with Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam for a segment of the show "Parts Unknown."

Source

Okay why does everything this man does look so damn cool?

Apparently in between bites the President also lifted the decades old arms ban in Vietnam as well.

Will we EVER have a President this cool again? Because I somehow doubt it.

What'd he say? #RayCharlesTribute https://t.co/XhphyLrcRI

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 27, 2016

How much do Alaskans like Barack Obama? Enough to make him our top Google search that's how much.

Source

What did I tell ya?

The man needs to move up here where he is loved and respected.

Of course the fact that he needs to avoid Wasilla goes without saying.

The video that perfectly captures the last six years of Obama's presidency.

Courtesy of Vox:  

Today, President Obama read from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to entertain children attending the White House Easter Egg Roll. But, midway through the book, danger approached — in the form of a bee. 

When the children first saw the approaching insect and began to scream, the president's first reaction unwittingly fed their fears. "Oh no, it's a bee!" he said. 

But as the frightened screams continued, Obama changed tack: "It's okay, guys. Bees are good. They won't land on you." 

"They sting, and they're scary!" a child yelled in response, to the president of the United States. 

"They won't sting you. They'll be okay," Obama said, chuckling. But the children still didn't buy his assurances, and the screams only grew louder.

So there's our President remaining calm in the face of hysterics and telling people that things will be all right if they just stop panicking.

How many times have we seen that exact same scenario play out during the roll out of Obamacare?

Or concerning the economy and jobs?

Or now with this Iran nuclear deal?

In every case the President is the grown up in the room telling everybody to calm down and things will work out fine. And in every case the Republicans, who usually take the role of the children in the video above, run around screaming that "the sky is falling."

And even after it turns out he was right, they give him shit for not fixing the problem faster.

But at least children have an excuse.

Republicans DON'T!

President Obama heckled over immigration during speech, handles it like pro.

Courtesy of the YouTube page:  

Immigration-rights protesters interrupted President Obama's speech Monday demanding he use executive powers to immediately halt all deportations, but he rebuked them, telling them he doesn't have that power. "You have a power to stop deportation," one man, standing directly behind Mr. Obama, shouted near the end of the president's immigration speech in San Francisco, who then began to lead chants of "Stop deportation!" 

"Actually, I don't, and that's why we are here," Mr. Obama replied. 

When security moved to escort the protester out of the room, Mr. Obama told them to hold off. 

"These guys don't need to go. let me finish. No, no, he can stay there," he said. 

He went on to say if he thought he had unilateral powers to halt deportations, he would. But he said that would actually break the law. 

"If in fact I could solve all these problems without passing the laws in Congress then I would do so. But we're also a nation of laws, that's part of our tradition," he said. 

"The easy way out is to yell and pretend I can try and do something by violating our laws. what I'm proposing is the harder path," Mr. Obama said. "It requires us lobbying and getting it done."

I was incredibly impressed with how he engaged this young man instead of simply allowing the Secret Service to strong arm him out of the building. He did not have to engage, but he did.

I am sometimes really irritated by people who seem to think that the President can solve every problem with a snap of his fingers or an Executive Order. He can't.

He needs to have a Congress and Senate that are willing to work with him, and right now the Republicans will not touch a single thing that he wants to get done.

And let me just add that I sometimes think of myself as pretty cool, but I would have had a VERY hard time keeping my cool while that jackass was yelling like that and refusing to let the President respond.

Now just imagine how President Romney would have handled that. Frightening isn't it?

Talking Points has more.

The Right Wing is all excited about President Obama "losing his cool" and "snapping at staff."

So the other day while the President was getting ready to talk about the success of the Affordable Care Act, there was a small kerfuffle over the fact that his remarks were not prepared.

This is how one Right Wing rag characterized his response under the headline "Grumpy Obama snaps at staff after not having remarks:"While preparing to give remarks at an event in San Jose, Calif., President Obama seemed to be lacking one thing: his actual remarks, and instead of asking nicely for them, he snapped at staff.

Okay so you got it? The President was pissed off and lost his cool and berated some poor staff member.  Well at least THAT is what some on the Right would like you to believe.

Here judge for yourself.

Okay, now speaking from personal experience I have both been the person that a boss has lost their cool with, and I have been the boss that lost their cool, and I have to say that if THIS is Obama's example for losing his cool, he is doing it COMPLETELY wrong!

Where is the red face? Where is the aggressive gesturing? Where are the threats of "firing your ass so fast it will make your damn head spin?"

Yeah I could only hope for a boss that lost his cool and snapped at me like that.

Just in case you missed it, here is the President dealing with lipstick on the collar like a boss.

You have to admit, THAT was cool.

You know it is moments like these that I really see Barack Obama's true character, and I usually like what I see.

Michele Bachmann receives pair of Google glass. Stunned to learn what Google has to say about her.

Photo courtesy of Luke Russert.

Can you imagine Michele Bachmann functioning with a pair of these on her head?

I don't think that on her BEST days she is able to walk and chew gum.

Wait until she Googles her husband and finds out that her entire life has been lie.

P.S. For those who are curious here is a real life demonstration of what it is like to wear these things.

Perhaps the coolest cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that you will ever see.

This is Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station doing a rather amazing, and genuinely good, rendition of Space Oddity.

So much awesome in this video.

Finally, perhaps we should ALL learn to deal with criticism the way our President handles it.

Courtesy of the official White House Tumblr site.

How Obama won the internet.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:  

Obama was about to take part in a phenomenon called “Ask Me Anything,” a popular interview series on Reddit, a site with 50 million visitors a month. Redditors, as the site’s 2 million in-crowd-y regular users are known, did not take too kindly to frauds or dodges or interviewees who didn’t take Reddit seriously. AMA subjects ran the gamut from celebrities (Woody Harrelson, Seth MacFarlane, PSY) to regular professionals (a male stripper) to basically anything (a woman who was date raped). Community members were also encouraged to submit requests for people they wanted to question. 

This was a day of political-campaign and Internet firsts, the sitting president subjecting himself to a free- for-all question-and-answer session with a hardcore community of pot-smoking freedom junkies who hated drones and loved porn and had a keen interest in politics and the future. It was chaotically democratic, and something of a gamble. Reddit had its baggage, issues, controversies, etc.; it wouldn’t generally pass a campaign or White House vetting. There’s some fucked up shit there, creep shots, racist rants, borderline teen porn, for example—and other good shit, too, for the most part, but the kind of material that could become fodder for critics looking to attack Obama. 

More pressingly, though: if Obama didn’t get into it, if he didn’t engage, if he came across as a phony . . . Goff and the digital team had been kicking around the idea during a brainstorming session with Cutter, figuring out what the president was going to do during the week of the Republican convention. 

Obama sat in front of his laptop, wearing a white collared shirt and a blue tie with white stripes. 

“So what is this?” Obama asked. 

Goff briefed him for less than a minute: an insanely popular social news site, crowd-sourced, no editorial, voice of the people. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” 

“All right, you know how this works?” 

“No. I have no idea.” Obama, at his computer, entered his greeting into Reddit. 

"Hey everybody—this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville, and am looking forward to your questions. At the top, I do want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with folks who are dealing with Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, and to let them know that we are going to be coordinating with state and local officials to make sure that we give families everything they need to recover." 

Post. 

Obama was supposed to hand the computer over to Keenan, and Keenan would type Obama’s dictated responses in a shared Google doc. Then, Goff, on his own computer, would post the answers from the doc into the forum. 

Scratch the plan. 

Obama wanted to keep writing himself. 

“I’ll just keep going,” he said. 

Goff scanned the message board, selecting questions, putting them in a Google doc for Obama to look at, and choosing which ones to respond to. 

Row 18, 19, 20—which one do you want to answer, Mr. President? 

“I’ll take ’em all.” 

Obama answered questions about small businesses, Internet freedom, the corrupting influence of money in politics, student loans, basketball. 

Silent1mezzo: What’s the recipe for the White House’s beer? 

Obama: It will be out soon! I can tell from first hand experience, it is tasty. 

The AMA broke the Internet. Swarmed Reddit servers had never supported so many views before; the site slowed down a bit. Obama’s connection didn’t falter but back in the Chicago office, the connection was patchy. The campaign couldn’t follow the whole thing. 

The time limit had been set for 30 minutes, but Obama stayed for 15 minutes longer just because he was into it.

You know Obama will go down in history of a NUMBER of reasons, but not insignificant among them is that he is the FIRST President to understand, embrace, and ultimately tame the internet.

You have to remember that THIS was the first time that people, sitting in their homes or offices, were able to interact with the President of the United States in real time just like they did in chat rooms, twitter feeds, and text messages to their friends and family ever day.

Suddenly the President was not just some face on the television or distant politician thousands of miles away, he was right there with them. It was as if he had suddenly walked into their neighborhood bar and sat down to share a beer or ask about their day.

Which by the way have had much to do with why THIS chair is still occupied by one Barack Hussein Obama.

As an aggressive internet user myself, I have found myself repeatedly impressed by how President Obama has dealt with the new social media aspect of his job, and happen to know that his participation during that AMA on Reddit ABSOLUTELY earned him the lifelong support of a large number of young people, who I think will also probably support the Democratic party for the remainder of their lives.

Really goes without saying.

You know what is even more humorous about this is the idea that Palin would even care about how anybody else was feeling.

You know unless their illness opened up and opportunity for her that is.

Update: I just heard on MSNBC that the blood clot is located between the skull and the brain in vein behind the right ear, the doctors are treating her with anti-coagulants, and they expect her to make a full recovery with NO neurological damage expected.

So you know what that means.

Hillary 2016!

Video of President Obama getting his Tweet on.

As you guys may remember the President took to Twitter on Monday to take advantage of the new social media to talk directly to the American people.

Here is behind the scenes video of that event.

One thing I learned, the President is a better typist than I am.

You know I really respect the fact that the President is so willing to come to where the people are and to engage in interactions that may be out of his comfort zone, and not look a little clumsy while doing it. Just makes him more human and accessible in my opinion.

However I have to say that as cool as having the President tweet at you, I still think it pales in comparison to when Obama went to Reddit and did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) over at Reddit.

I truly do think that earned him huge points with the youth in this country. And undoubtedly inspired more than a few to vote for him as well.

 In fact they are STILL talking about it over at Reddit to this day.

President Obama's coolest moments.

Click photo to play video

I had forgotten some of these moments, others I had never seen, but they are all destined to put smile on your face and remind you of just why you worked so hard to give this man a second term.

Just a reminder as to why ALL Americans, regardless of their party affiliations, should be proud of this President.

Simply put this is one of the most impressive things I have ever heard uttered by a political leader, made even more so by the intensity of the attacks that have come his way since even before he was elected.

Could any of us imagine Mitt Romney dealing with that kind of hate with such sophistication and class?

Are you watching? Tonight we should ALL be filled with Curiosity.

Courtesy of NASA:

Its approximately 352 million mile (567 million kilometer), 36-week journey from Earth nearly complete, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are "all systems go" for touchdown in Mars' Gale Crater tonight at 10:31 p.m. PDT (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6). This morning, flight controllers decided to forgo the sixth and final opportunity on the mission calendar for a course-correction maneuver. The spacecraft is headed for its target entry point at the top of Mars' atmosphere precisely enough that the maneuver was deemed unnecessary. In addition, this afternoon, mission controllers determined that no further updates are necessary to the onboard information the spacecraft will use during its autonomous control of MSL's entry, descent and landing. Parameters on a motion tracker were adjusted Saturday for fine-tuning determination of the spacecraft's orientation during its descent.

Any minute hour now Curiosity should be touching down. (Sorry I got a little overly excited.)

I will update this post as new information comes in.

As our VP would say, "This is a big fucking deal!"

Update: Here is where the first images taken by Curiosity will show up. (NASA.)

Update 2: Here is the first image to arrive from Curiosity. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Update 3: Transmitter turned off as Curiosity makes its approach. Only about an hour left until touch down.

Update 4: It is down! It landed safely! Let's give a round of applause for science.

NASA rocks!

NOTHING ruffles this President's feathers.

During a speech at a recent fundraiser there is a slight problem with the lights. Check out how the coolest man in the room handles it

Click image to watch video

Did not even miss a beat!

I have to say that I am SO looking forward to watching Mitt Romney, the man whose face turns purple whenever he is called on the carpet, deal with THIS guy in a debate.

It is going to be a bloodbath.

Just an early morning reminder of how cool your President is.

Live long and prosper Mr. President.

President Obama, super cool, Ninja chess master.

The GOP throws everything they can think of at the man, but he seems to always be one step ahead of them every time.

Your move Republicans.

Apparently Romney's dog escaped to seek asylum in Canada after his horrendous trip strapped to the top of that station wagon.

Image courtesy of Zero Drop

According to Politicker NY:

Mitt Romney may not have told the whole truth about the scandalous tale of his Irish Setter, Seamus, being strapped to the roof of his car during a 12-hour family road trip to Canada. According to a trusted Politicker tipster, two of Mr. Romney’s sons had an off-record conversation with reporters where they revealed the dog ran away when they reached their destination on that infamous journey in 1983. 

Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, has previously said Seamus survived the trip and went on to live to a “ripe old age.” As of this writing, Mr. Romney’s campaign has not responded to multiple requests for comment on this story. 

Mr. Romney and his wife clearly want the world to think that, despite defecating himself, Seamus had a pleasant trip to Canada and a long life in the Romney household. However, based on what Mr. Romney’s sons allegedly told reporters about Seamus going on the lam in Canada, Seamus didn’t like being strapped to the car enough to stick around for the return trip.

Somehow I don't think we want to choose a leader of the free world whose dog was so traumatized by him that he ran across the border to escape into Canada. What do you think? 

This story has really caught on now and David Letterman has introduced a new segment of his show called "What's Mitt Romney's dog tied to today?" (I also urge you to watch the video until the end to see the portion called "Cool, Not Cool.")