Posts Tagged ‘Michelle Obama’

I’m not going to mention the heckler by name or specifically address her grievances. I have no desire to interview her or provide a platform or forum to further make her case. She deserves none of the aforementioned.

I choose not to reward belligerent behavior and neither should you.

For her momentary disrespectful and indefensible outburst, the media in general has rewarded her with invaluable news coverage; coverage she was unable to generate on her own. That is “falling for the okie doke.” She was both a plant and admitted “activist,” interested not in actual dialogue with the First Lady but instead disrespect and self-aggrandizement. Recognize it for what it is.

I surely do and am not going to reward the belligerent behavior. You shouldn’t either.

If you came to this page expecting some long and drawn out analysis of the heckler’s issues, assigning some level of merit to them or blame to the president; extreme disappointment is in your immediate future. I don’t care what she had to say or care how outraged she happens to be. Parents should never bow to the petulant grocery-store-tantrums of children and we should not entertain the complaints of those who engage in such blatant disrespect.

Yell, (out of turn no less) at anyone and see how far that gets you in having your grievances acknowledged and addressed. Try it on your boss, demanding a raise in front of everyone at the office; then come back and tell me how it turned out. Be sure to also let me know how good that pink slip feels against your soft skin. Try it on your spouse in front of all of his/her peers or family and see where you end up sleeping later that night.

I get it, I do. In the moment it probably feels empowering, if not liberating; shouting down those you have deemed in opposition to your cause. After the momentary euphoria wears off, you should also realize you’ve made your fight more difficult, not easier.

Stop rewarding hecklers. Doing so, opens the door further and further for more of the same if not increasingly disrespectful behavior. Head it off at the pass now.

I will not allow this to be about an “activist” heckler or her complaints. This is about the First Lady…of these United States.

Note, I said First Lady…not “Michelle Obama.” The moment you rationalize disrespect relative to the person and not the position you’ve lost your way. You, the lay person are not ever of equal standing or on equal footing with the First Lady, irrespective of who it is or to whom she’s married.

Would we make allowances for such disrespect directed at Laura Bush because of our “outrage” at the Iraq war or the Great Recession? Or maybe if someone had shouted down Barbara Bush because George H.W. Bush reneged on “no new taxes,” you’d see my point.

The First Lady doesn’t pass bills or sign them into law. We all know this and so did the heckler. It is about grandstanding, in the way that Perez Hilton did during the Miss USA pageant in 2009. Hilton did the cause no favors then and this heckler did none now.

If you think that disrespecting the wife somehow inclines the husband to acquiesce, let me disabuse you of that notion. If the USA doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, then you can best believe a second-term President is neither unnerved nor inspired to action by the random heckler disrespecting the mother of his children. This behavior did not curry favor with any members of Congress or positively impact public opinion. Mission not accomplished as to winning over the hearts and minds of those Americans on the fence as to the issue of gay rights.

This is not a “free speech” issue. Nobody is arguing whether one has the “right” to heckle. You are free to heckle and the rest of us are free to subsequently ignore you and your grievances in response. But if the goal is actually connected to progress…pay close attention.

Once again, therein lies one of the essential differences between the Gay Rights movement and the 20th century Civil Rights movement. Dr. King was clear that there could never be any daylight in between the moral authority of the issue and the method of activism.

It is not enough to be “right,” one also has to be righteous in the approach. You can’t claim moral authority by way of unrighteous behavior.

Ever.

Even the heckling of Lady Bird Johnson in response to the signing of the Civil Rights Act didn’t help “the (dissenting) cause” either.

Hecklers lose.

We live in a country whose populace unfortunately prides itself on outrage. We love being mad and feeling mistreated by the government, federal or otherwise. The vitriol and general incivility in the way we engage one another can’t be denied. Far too often in our discourse, we seem to think that when outraged, any and all behavior is then somehow validated and excused.  If you support gay marriage, be absolutely clear that such behavior hurts the cause, not helps it. Not only do the ends not justify these means, the means must be consistent with the ends.

No person has any responsibility to respond or acknowledge a heckler on any level…ever. But we in the media have a responsibility to not reward the behavior.

I won’t do it.

Hecklers burn building bridges, not build them. They are arrested, “escorted out” and do nothing to push the cause forward. Hecklers don’t impact legislation or inspire positive public opinion and history is clear on these truths. It didn’t even help Congressman “you lie” Joe Wilson Vis-à-vis the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  In truth, the whole OWS movement was one long, uncoordinated and disjointed heckle.  That didn’t turn out well either, now did it?

Be they congressman or comedian concert-goer. Hecklers always lose and there’s good reason as to why.

Hecklers don’t advance the conversation or stop the show. The comedian finishes his/her set, the public figure finishes the speech and the heckle has helped change nothing along the way. They rightly are ignored, ridiculed, removed and ultimately relegated to footnote status. Heckling only manages to bring attention to the heckler, not what the heckler has to say…that is if you can even understand the person with no microphone shouting across the room.

Public dissent will always have a place in America, but that place will always require decency and decorum too.

Do not reward belligerent behavior…ever. If you do, you’ve then not only opened Pandora’s Box, you’ve turned it upside down and dumped its contents all over the floor.

Ultimately, we will all be much worse off because of it.

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly. Tune into The Mo’Kelly Show Saturdays from 6-8pm PDT on KFI AM640 and XM 244 Saturdays and Sundays from 8pm-9pm PST. Contact Mo’Kelly at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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According to the San Luis Obispo newspaper, the Tribune, an announcer during a Creston Classic Rodeo offended many in the stands after making a joke comparing the current first lady to the wife of presidential challenger Mitt Romney. The paper reported:

An announcer at the Creston Classic Rodeo offended some in the audience Saturday when he made a racist joke about first lady Michelle Obama over the PA system. Now, at least one rodeo board member is demanding an apology.

“I was really appalled and the people around me were really appalled,” said spectator Dona Wilson of Santa Margarita. “He was acting like we were buying into his bigotry and we weren’t.”
Wilson said she heard a lady beside her say: “ ‘Whoa! Racist or what?’ ”

According to Wilson, the joke as told by the announcer, went something like this: Playboy is offering Ann Romney $250,000 to pose in the magazine and the White House is upset about it because National Geographic only offered Michelle Obama $50 to pose for them. “I can’t speak for the board, but I myself think that this is unacceptable behavior or conduct by the announcer,” said Mike Barrett, Creston Classic Rodeo board member. “I find it offensive, and I think that it’s conduct unbecoming the rodeo announcer.”

Full story HERE

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly. Tune into The Mo’Kelly Show Saturdays from 6-8pm PDT on KFI AM640 and XM 166 Saturdays and Sundays from 11pm-midnight PDT. Contact Mo’Kelly at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly. Tune into The Mo’Kelly Show Saturdays from 6-8pm PDT on KFI AM640 and XM 166 Saturdays and Sundays from 11pm-midnight PDT. Contact Mo’Kelly at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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In this 24-hour news cycle, ostensibly we should be inundated with more news, information and substantive analysis, which would provide a solid foundation to measure the performance of politicians.

Instead, we seem to get bogged down in soundbite minutia, to the point we miss the obvious.

For example, when President Obama spoke about immigration reform while in Cartagena, Colombia last month, the rest of us were still too busy cackling over the absurdity of the Secret Service prostitution scandal. The real news was that President Obama promised immigration reform in the first year of his second term.

Yes, he’s running for re-election and is seeking to shore up his Latino support, but seemingly, the tired meme of President Obama not being the president of “just” (insert group) but of “all Americans” was nowhere to be found in an editorial sense.

But that’s ok, President Obama did sing for us. That should count for something.  Sales of Let’s Stay Together jumped 490%.  Al Green should definitely be voting for President Obama.

Even more recently, Vice-President Joe Biden offered personal and sincere sentiments, supporting the legalization of gay marriage. Predictably, the nation then turned to look at President Obama to see if he would either embrace, distance or dance around his Vice-President’s stance.

We’re still waiting…as the president is still “evolving.”

The LGBTQ community and also African-Americans in support of Gay marriage have not made any distinction that President Obama isn’t “just” the president of the LGBTQ community. This is not to cast aspersion on any community but let’s be honest about the shifting rationale as to what is fair in terms of criticism of President Obama and fair relative to African-American expectations.

In 2011 President Obama endured considerable criticism from high-profile members of the African-American community for allegedly not doing enough to address issues of specific relevance.

Depending on how cynical one wishes to be, President Obama wasn’t the president of just General Motors but of all Americans when he bailed it out. The president spoke at the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department Legislative Conference a few weeks ago again pledging to work on the behalf of unions.

Again pledging…

I’m still waiting on someone to say that President Obama isn’t the president of just the unions, but of all Americans. I shudder to think what would be said if President Obama pledged to work on behalf of African-Americans or promised to work on African-American specific issues during the first year of his second term.

Don’t say “but that’s different.” It’s NOT different at all. It’s EXACTLY the same, just with a different set of expectations for African-Americans.

President Obama has endured multiple tar baby references from elected Republican officials and presidential hopefuls. Senator and former GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan all found a way to creatively use “tar baby” and “Barack Obama” in the same sentence. I can’t seem to find any tar baby references in connection with other presidents, much less three times in reference to just one. Oh…a “coincidence” to be sure. But the moment President Obama cares to comment on the arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates or the death of Trayvon Martin, he supposedly is using race to “divide” America?

Really?

The inconvenient truth about being the first Black president is the Black part. It seems America wants all of the credit for electing a man of color to the Oval Office but wants no part of the reality that race still matters in America. Electing a Black man president renders race moot no more than electing a woman would render gender moot. If you don’t believe me, I’ll refer you to Pakistan, Argentina, Liberia and Great Britain as examples.

You can’t have it both ways America.

You can’t elect an African-American and also refuse him the right to remember he’s African-American. In the same way, if Mitt Romney were elected, we should not expect him to forget he’s Mormon or for Barney Frank to reject he’s gay while in office.

Such truths highlight the difference between Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and why history reveres the former and is largely indifferent to the latter.

Nobody expected Sarah Palin to present herself in a genderless fashion or deny addressing issues of greatest importance to women. I remember too many “lipstick on a pig,” “hockey mom” and “Mama grizzly” references for anyone to argue otherwise. Nevertheless, Palin was running to become VP of all Americans, not just women as it were.

Or put another way…

To suggest that incidents such as Republican operative Rusty DePass referring to Michelle Obama as a gorilla don’t indict the idea of a post-racial America is a joke. To argue there is no racial connection between Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s birther crusade and the preceding illegal immigration one in Arizona is another unfunny joke.

African-Americans have a duty and a right to be vocal in regards to its community’s needs. There is no other single constituency who will vote for Barack Obama in November to the tune of 90%. Not the LGBTQ community, not Latinos, not unions and arguably not even registered Democrats as a whole…and he’s promised the world to all of the aforementioned.

We as African-Americans should be sober in our assessment of whether President Obama has met our community’s expectations. If the Latino community can predicate their support of Barack Obama around the community-specific issues of the DREAM Act and immigration reform, then we in the African-American community should not settle for platitudes of rising tides lifting all boats in relation to Black unemployment…which is double the national rate.

As long as the LGBTQ community can frame their support of Barack Obama around such community-specific issues as DADT and gay marriage legislation; it is more than reasonable for us in the African-American community to apply pressure on the issues of inner city crime and public education.

The reality is that crime, education and unemployment are all inextricably linked. Another reality is that from a community perspective, Mitt Romney is not in any way a better alternative in addressing these issues. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon us as African-Americans to make sure that President Obama earns our votes and is consistently reminded that being the first African-American president only means something as long as he is unafraid to acknowledge it through governance.

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly.  Tune into The Mo’Kelly Show Saturdays from 6-9pm PDT on KFI AM640.  Contact Mo’Kelly at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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UPDATE: Kim Kardashian releases statement!  Read HERE!

In the past, Mo’Kelly has only made passing references to the sisters Kardashian out of their total societal irrelevance.  But enough is enough.

Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian seem to be of the opinion their sister is being unfairly treated by the media and critics.  Yes, Kim Kardashian is now the victim.  Sounds like a job for Mr. Mo’Kelly.

President Obama had a pretty good October; first Gadhafi, now Kardashian.

The Kardashians reportedly mocked the wardrobe of the First Lady, on the heels of President Obama indicating he is not necessarily a fan of the Kardashians, TV show, or otherwise. The sisters also reportedly accused the First Lady of trying to “keep voters on a budget” and that she secretly worships their lifestyle.

Yes, criticizing the First Lady who advocates fiscal and dietary responsibility is always indicative of sound judgment and perspective.

Mo’Kelly needed that precursor to set up the bowling pins. Now, to knock ‘em down.

Given the news that Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce from her “husband” Kris Humphries after all of 72 days of marriage, it’s time to reexamine how we came to this point.

First, the statistics:

The Kardashian wedding cost somewhere in the realm of $20 million dollars, which amortizes to approximately 278k per day of not-quite-wedded bliss. Conversely, conservative estimates are that Kim pocketed close to $30 million thanks to television rights and merchandising connected to the nuptials.

Kardashian banked 10 million in profit for a sham wedding.

Good business? Absolutely. Personally admirable or enviable? Absolutely not.

It is amazing how much money one can make when bereft of ethics, morals, scruples and honor. Then again, if your first million and first appearance on camera are both connected to a sex tape, it probably gets progressively easier to look oneself in the mirror moving forward. If you will defile yourself on camera for monetary gain on the strength of your family name, everything will always be on the table for the sake of a dollar.

Yes, Kim Kardashian is filing for divorce after 72 days. Til death do you part? Til death of the NBA lockout or Moammar Gadhafi would have made more sense. Planning the wedding took more than 72 days. Lindsay Lohan’s sentence for jewelry theft was more than 72 days. Not by much, but still longer. Mr. and Mrs. Humphries didn’t even make it to the end of Daylight Savings or the X Factor season finale.

Now for the not-so-rhetorical questions:

What does it say when someone spends $20 million on a wedding to impress people she didn’t know, to marry someone she didn’t even really like?

What does it say when someone pledges to spend her life with a man in August and then reneges before Halloween? Not only that, filing at the end of October likely means that Kardashian was probably considering it as early as Labor Day.

Michelle Obama…worships the Kardashian lifestyle?

All of this says that President Obama was exactly right.

Michelle Obama is married to the leader of the free world. Kim Kardashian is divorcing an unrestricted free agent with 5 or 6 years left in his career. Let’s not forget, it’s her SECOND divorce.

There is a reason why it’s called the First Lady of the United States. Emphasis on “first,” and “lady.” Neither of which even remotely applies to anything in the Kardashian world. According to Ray-J…Kim wasn’t even his first sex tape.

Michelle Obama is married to a former president of the Harvard Law Review. The HLR boasts 7 members who have served on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court. Khloe Kardashian is married to…well…Lamar Odom, the first player off the Lakers’ bench, who boasts 2 semesters of education from the University of Rhode Island. And youngest sister Kourtney recently became a first-time babymama.

Groupies between the age of 18 and 30 might be impressed, but the other 332 million U.S. residents are not.

Michelle Obama’s man picks her up in Air Force One. Now that’s gangsta.  DOMINO! (For those who play bones…you know what that means.)

Yes, Michelle Obama just LONGS to live Kardashian lifestyle and have her daughters emulate each of them.

Michelle Obama just celebrated her 19th wedding anniversary. Comparatively, mom Kris Jenner recently celebrated her 19th plastic surgery (as did husband Bruce).

Michelle Obama began her professional career as an Ivy league-educated attorney, making oral arguments and filing briefs in the courtroom regarding intellectual property rights. Conversely, Kim Kardashian began her professional “career” with a high school diploma, performing “oral” in her drawers in Ray-J’s bedroom.

Of course, Michelle Obama envies the lifestyle of Kim Kardashian and her two equally untalented sisters (wink, wink).

As my fellow Hoya classmate Lisa Copeland says, the Kardashian career has been a hugely successful “sex tape ponzi scheme.”

Props to President Obama for seeing fit not to invest in it. Yes, it matters that the President of the United States, father of two daughters has sense enough to dissuade them from being influenced by any and all things Kardashian. It’s the difference between following in the footsteps of Michelle Obama or Montana Fishburne.

Of course Kim Kardashian thinks she is the envy of every female. Most 13 year-olds tend to think along those lines.

It’s little different than the Birther mentality of Donald Trump, who also confused wealth and excess with social relevancy and import. Wealth will never excuse stupidity, only amplify it. The last Kardashian who mattered died 8 years ago. No amount of reality TV “success” will ever change this fact.

Michelle Obama has everything Kim Kardashian wants and will never have. You can’t buy it or fake it. You can’t pick it out of a magazine or hire a wedding planner to spend 20 million to trick us into believing you have it. It’s not connected to the number of Twitter followers you have or the team name in which a boyfriend competes. It can’t be given to you by any gift Tyler Perry movie role or any store opening in Las Vegas.

It’s called good sense, self-respect and honor. None of them is for sale. It’s what differentiates the women passed around by professional athletes and entertainers from the ones who set the correct example for young women, irrespective of color.

The divorce of Kim Kardashian is not relevant in a news sense, but it is a fitting moment to remind one-another of what it truly means to be a lady, “first” or otherwise.

UPDATE:  Comedienne and actress Sherri Shepherd hit Mo’Kelly on Twitter to let Mo’Kelly know that she and her husband “Sal” had passed 77 days; and that Mo’Kelly won’t be writing about her marriage anytime soon.

 ALSO READ: Robert Kardashian Deserves All the Credit…Not Ray J.

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal.  Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly and contact him at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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Every morning there is a consistent routine to Mo’Kelly’s process of news

The Mamas Palin

gathering. First, Mo’Kelly looks for what the world is discussing, then what the U.S. is discussing; then sees what’s going on in the African-American community and the interrelation of all of the aforementioned. From there, The Mo’Kelly Report looks to find the stories missed by the media, further expands on the ones featured or simply takes it in an altogether different direction.

Today is one of those “altogether different directions.”

Mo’Kelly has never offered any extended commentary about conservative commentator and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In short, she’s Rush Limbaugh in a skirt and eight years on the Kathy Griffin bikini starvation diet. She’s Ann Coulter, just without the vocabulary, general intelligence or formal education; diet versions of Republican opinion-makers, masquerading as a political figure of import.

You get the point. You can’t take Sarah Palin seriously anymore than you would Rush, Ann or any other fringe, extremist conservative ideology and there’s no reason you should. Does Sarah Palin wield influence? Absolutely. There are millions of uninformed and uneducated Americans out there…her “audience.”  But never confuse influence with import and credibility. Crack cocaine and Justin Bieber both wield considerable “influence,” but neither crackheads nor teeny boppers are looked to for social commentary.  The same applies here.

Sarah Palin can’t be taken seriously. Any person taking political cues from the likes of Sarah Palin can’t and shouldn’t be taken seriously either. The popularity of the Palin persona is quite reasonable given the disproportionate influence of reality media and the dysfunctional nature of the relationship between actual news and tabloid journalism.

If Kim Kardashian can create a “television career” on the back of…hmm, let Mo’Kelly re-phrase…on her back in the form of a sex-tape with Ray-J; then yes, Sarah Palin can wrongfully be confused with being a political heavyweight and opinion-leader. Sarah speaks to a large segment of the American population, one disconnected from the knowledge of American or

Barbara Bush

world history. It’s explanative of why she finds consistent fault with First Ladies Barbara Bush and Michelle Obama. One founded a Foundation for Family Literacy (Bush) and the other is a Princeton-educated lawyer and has championed childhood obesity while serving as mother to two exemplary children. Palin has consistently taken issue with everything/everyone she is not or can’t be.

You will not ever hear of her taking issue with the uninformed masses or so-called political pundits who pedal thinly-veiled racism and homophobia.  Why offend her base?

Coincidence? Not likely. And speaking of “exemplary” children…Mo’Kelly will now go back to  the idea of teenage adolescents and taking them seriously.

Bristol Palin.

Named after a hotel in Connecticut, bounced between 3 high schools before becoming impregnated by high school dropout Levi Johnston. Her educational exploits culminated with her high school diploma from Wasilla High, not-so-coincidentally her mother’s alma mater and widely characterized as a “dropout factory.”  In other words, Wasilla High is not known for its commitment to education.

But Mo’Kelly digresses…

For Bristol’s exploits, she was rewarded with a career as a paid speaker on the sexual abstinence circuit and a spot on the ratings behemoth, Dancing With the Stars.

In a society in which getting knocked up in high school lands you a spot on TV shows (16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, Dancing with the Stars), then yes, Bristol Palin is a “star” and her mother of also questionable educational background (5 different colleges in 6 years) is a “credible” political commentator.

These days, both mother and daughter are central figures in the NEWS media, usually surrounding controversial statements with the aromatic stench of racism and/or homophobia attached. The latest “news story” is that Bristol got loose on Facebook (again) and make some untoward comments about comedian Margaret Cho being a lesbian.

Margaret Cho

I will give my friend credit for creativity, and extra points for getting so many ‘facts’ wrong in so few sentences. Let me be blunt: my mom did not ‘force’ me to go on DWTS. She did not ask me either. The show approached me…

Anyone who watched the show could tell I performed better, and I felt better about myself, when they were in the audience. I wanted to make them both proud, but politics had nothing to do with it. Loving my parents had everything to do with it….

You say you ‘don’t agree with the family’s politics at all’ but I say, if you understood that commonsense conservative values supports the right of individuals like you, like all of us, to live our lives with less government interference and more independence, you would embrace us faster than KD Lang at an Indigo Girls concert.”

“Common sense”…did the formerly knocked up teenager, formerly engaged to the high-school dropout really undergird a point with the phrase “common sense?”

We as a society rewarded the teen mother with a TV show/career and at the same time expect her high school education and the parental stewardship of

Kim & Ray-J

Sarah Palin to guide her to a place of sexual tolerance and “common sense?”

Really?

Bristol Palin is inconsequential, as is her Facebook page and the comments expressed therein. It is indicative of the dysfunctional nature in which our contemporary news outlets operate. High school pregnancy is not, can not and should not ever be a pathway to stardom; neither should home sex tapes (Kardashian) or porn careers (Montana Fishburne).

Nothing which emanates from Bristol Palin’s mouth or social networking website should be taken to task and at best should be taken with a grain of salt. She is her mother’s child. Neither has earned the right to be taken seriously.

The moment Sarah Palin manages to conquer the issue of childhood pregnancy in a familial sense, is maybe…maybe the moment she can begin offering opinions about childhood obesity nationally. The moment someone in Sarah Palin’s family gains a legitimate education is the moment she should stop thanking Barbara Bush for her Foundation for Family Literacy and the work it does.  The moment Bristol Palin makes a meaningful contribution to society unrelated to unprotected sex, is the moment she should publicly comment about anyone’s sexual behavior; heterosexual or otherwise.

Kentucky Fried Chinchilla

There has to come a point in which jokers, court jesters and clowns are characterized accordingly. It’s unfortunate that Mo’Kelly ever had to devote any time to anything Palin-related, but enough is enough. Let’s stop being “offended” at the semi-educated, homophobic, limited world-exposure people for acting true to form.

Sarah Palin is who she is, not who some present her to be. You can glue any number of chicken feathers on a chinchilla, but it still has no business in any 2-piece and biscuit meal from KFC.

She is who she is.

And Bristol is her mother’s child.

Desiree Rogers

(“Resigns”…code for booted.)

WASHINGTON — White House social secretary Desiree Rogers is stepping down three months after an uninvited couple crashed the Obama administration’s first state dinner and she was heavily criticized for allowing it to happen.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama issued a statement thanking their longtime friend from Chicago for “the terrific job she’s done” organizing hundreds of events during her little more than a year on the job.

They indicated no reason for the departure, effective sometime next month after a transition period.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Rogers was neither forced out nor asked to leave.

Full Story HERE

RELATED: Dr. King Couldn’t Have Served in Obama Administration

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The dam has broken wide open on the sorority…

http://scribe.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/obama-gets-cranky-about-alpha-kappa-alpha

It’s not a good week for Alpha Kappa Alpha. For starters, the group’s national president, Barbara McKinzie, may be forced out following allegations that, among other “financial misdeeds,” she “used the organization’s money to commission a $900,000 ‘living legacy wax figure’ of herself,” as reported in the Washington Business Journal.

And then there was the New York Times Magazine cover story on Valerie Jarrett this weekend, which opened with an anecdote from the campaign trail, in which Jarrett wielded her trusted-advisor power to convince Barack Obama to go to an Alpha Kappa Alpha event—an event he desperately didn’t want to attend. As Robert Draper reports, Obama’s response to the request that he make an appearance at the African-American sorority’s Pink Ice Ball was: “I’ve been to sorority events before … We’re not gonna change anybody’s mind.’” After which he “snapped”: “I’m not going to any sorority event.” And “barked”: “I told Anton I’m not going to any Pink Ice Ball!”

As I made my way through the piece, I couldn’t get that lede out of my head. Why was Obama so against going to the sorority event, and what did he mean that he wouldn’t change anybody’s mind? Is Alpha Kappa Alpha notoriously conservative, or aggressively pro-Hillary?

//

Not at all. As my colleague with friends in the sorority put it, “If you can find a Republican at the Pink Ice Ball, I’ll clean your bathroom with a toothbrush.” And Megan Taylor, who was an undergrad member of the Theta Zeta chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, confirms that the sorority as a whole is very pro-Democrat, and pro-Obama. She says they released Obama T-shirts and signs with their signature green and pink colors to the entire organization (which requires approval at the national level), and inducted Michelle as an honorary member. Like me, Megan couldn’t make sense of that “We’re not gonna change anybody’s mind” line. Does it make sense to anyone else?