The White House

Michelle Obama Caught "Kaepernicking" on Camera With 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick

On Tuesday, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick posted a photo of himself and First Lady Michelle Obama "Kaepernicking" while at the White House. Per the football star: I got the opportunity to meet one of the greatest women in the world, the first lady @first_Obama and even got her #Kaepernicking

Insanely Wealthy Bay Area Town Sends Obama the Bill for His Visit

The really, really, really rich town of Atherton has the audacity to tap the White House for money the president cost the town during his recent visit to the Bay Area last month. CBS News enlightened us all with the story about how Atherton, home of Google guru Erick Schmidt, and where the median ... More >>

Drug Czar Says We're in a "Serious National Conversation About Marijuana"

U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske is in an unenviable position. The former Seattle police chief is criss-crossing the country advocating a different approach to drug law enforcement, while explaining why steps like the one his erstwhile home state took -- legalizing small amounts of marijuana -- are ab ... More >>

Texans Petition Obama to Let Lone Star State Secede

If you were planning to pack up your Chick-fil-A coupons and move to Texas -- where the death penalty is considered a Hallmark moment and there is no such thing as state income tax -- you might want to hold your horses. After threatening a Civil War if President Barack Obama won reelection, the bitt ... More >>

Obama Breaks Down While Thanking Volunteers, Proves Real Men Do Cry (Video)

Just a day after being reelected to another four years in the White House (just love saying that!), President Barack Obama got pretty weepy while delivering a heartfelt "thank you" to young volunteers at his Chicago campaign headquarters. It was an unexpectedly heartfelt moment. You can hear the pre ... More >>

Rock the Vote: Presidential Honey Ale Competition

Four more years!....of home-brewed beer in the White House, that is. With Obama's re-election, hopefully the White House chefs will continue to share their adventures in brewing with us. We're pretty sure that if White House tours came with a beer sampler, we would cease to be a divided nation once ... More >>

The Most Crucial (and Beery) Vote of the Season

We've heard there are some voting opportunities for Bay Area citizens over the next couple weeks. Rumblings of district supervisors, mind-boggling propositions and somebody called the "Commander in Chief" abound. It sure is a pity that those folks are being overshadowed by the biggest voting event o ... More >>

SF Homebrewers Guild Launches a Presidential Competition

Regardless of your political preferences, it's time to reach across the aisle. The SF Homebrewers Guild is launching a brewing competition of Presidential proportions. For those who aren't dialed into the nuances of political theater, the White House recently released a document of paramount nationa ... More >>

President Obama Says White House Beer Recipe Will Be "Out Soon"

Last week we urged you to sign the petition on the White House website to release the recipe for White House Honey Ale, brewed on the premises with honey from the beehive near Michelle Obama's kitchen garden. That same week, a diligent home brewer on Reddit filed a Freedom of Information Act Request ... More >>

Sign a Petition to Release the White House Honey Ale Recipe

Good news, home brewing fans: You could be brewing the same beer as President Barack Obama in a few months. Last week the news broke that the White House brews three varieties of its own beer on the premises -- White House Honey Ale, White House Honey Blonde Ale and White House Honey Porter -- all ... More >>

Presidential-Worthy Cookies in The City of Repose

One might not expect to find pastries from a chef trained by a former White House toque in a City of Repose, but that's part of what makes the Bay Area food scene always surprising. Nora's Patisserie (29 San Pedro Road), located on a non-descript stretch in Colma, is a hidden treasure for appreciat ... More >>

How Much Would the White House Cost You in San Francisco?

In San Francisco, a building hailing from the mid-19th century is a source of wonder. In Europe, they've got public toilets that old. The White House, which was completed in 1800, would be an oddity out here -- to put it mildly. San Francisco has its share of palatial estates, but none that wer ... More >>

Obama Ignores Medical Marijuana During Google Hangout

​President Barack Obama again turned to social media to connect with voters -- and again he used it to ignore talking pot.You might have noticed that every time President Obama takes to the series of interactive intertubes, the unwashed masses want to talk, not taxes, and not turkey, but the good ... More >>

President Barack Obama Likes Arcade Fire and the Black Eyed Peas. Yes, Really.

​Yesterday, we found out from a British music news website that, like Santa Claus, Barack Obama keeps a "Nice" list -- or rather a list of people he wants to have supporting him in his re-election campaign. We've seen the list, and alongside all of the alphabetized politicians, business and sports ... More >>

An Open Letter to Lady Gaga About Gay Rights, Bullying, and Generally Being a Badass

​Dear Lady Gaga, We heard you were at the White House yesterday, meeting with one of Barack Obama's senior political advisers, to talk about bullying prevention. We think that's really cool. We're pretty sure you're the only woman on Earth who's ever been invited to the President's house after app ... More >>

Obama's Drug Czar Report Debunks Medical Marijuana, Feds Are on a Pot-Hating Roll

They have one thing in common, anyway​The rule of three -- you can't escape it. Not in religion, not in anatomy, not even in Barack Obama's War on Drugs.First, there was the June memo from the Justice Department in which the White House decided the 16 states with medical cannabis laws be damned. T ... More >>

The Best #AskObama Questions from Obama's Twitter Town Hall

President Obama's Twitter Town Hall is currently unfolding at the White House -- and it's a great idea to have ordinary Americans pose questions to the country's chief executive via the #AskObama hashtag. But we also knew this medium for political dialogue would bring out the inner child in some who ... More >>

Common: Five More Reasons for Talk Radio Conservatives to Hate Him

This man is dangerous!​Turns out, we were wrong. For all these years, we considered Chicago rapper/romantic comedy star Common just a hair more hardcore than Jamiroquai. We thought of him as a somewhat conscious MC boasting a warm baritone, some strong tracks, and the allegiance of white guys who ... More >>

How to Get Backstage After the Show

These days, being backstage at a show usually involves little more than watching a pile of people obsess about food, try to locate the nearest shower, and -- most importantly -- get venue Wi-Fi to work. Behind The Music-style rock 'n' roll hedonism is a rarity these days, but if you're still o ... More >>

Obama Writes a Book, Macarons Are Trending (Again), Paula Deen Explains All

​​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. The First Lady gets a book deal. According to the Washington Post, Michelle Obama just signed a contract to write a book about the White House garden and healthy eating ― an ... More >>

Obama to Come to Bay Area This Week to Talk Jobs

Yes, we still can ​The day after Speaker of the House John Boehner called President Barack Obama's budget plan a job killer, the White House announced the president will be making a West Coast swing through the San Francisco Bay Area to address the one thing we really, really need: jobs.The White ... More >>

Trendsetter

Week in Gay: Carrie Prejean to Wed 'Jesus in Cleats'

Her prince has come!​On Thursday, members of the LGBT media were invited to participate in some kind of weird press conference at the White House. Was it a show of good faith (this is a first for queer journalists) or just another attempt to appear attentive? An administration official named Melod ... More >>

The Week in Gay: New Trend in 2010 -- Same-Sex Bedpans!

Uppity Fag has his eye on the one on the bottom left...​Late yesterday afternoon President Barack Obama signed a mandate that extends hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples in hospitals throughout the country. Whatever. While some may hail this as a victory for gay rights, the bot ... More >>

Gays Fed Up With Ineffective Queer Leadership

Dan Choi's not gonna take it anymore ... and neither is Uppity Fag​ The raucous events of last week -- protests at Nancy Pelosi's offices and the arrest of Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo at the White House - indicate that the LGBT community is no longer willing to abdicate its power to advocacy grou ... More >>

Hope You Enjoyed CMCR Report, Because That's All, Folks

It's not news that marijuana may have healing qualities: after all, medicinal cannabis has been (sort of) the law of the land since 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215 . Still, it was a very big deal when the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research released the results last Wednesday ... More >>

Doggy Bag: 2009 Unearthed

Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesPlotting the White House garden.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Harvest of fame: Last week Weird Vegetables' Kale Daikon ticked down five vegetal highlights of 2009. Five? Who knew? Daikon looks back at Michelle Obama's scratching around in D.C. dirt, th ... More >>

Welcome to the New Year. Libertarians Are Still Unhappy.

All told, you can't blame the stalwarts who still pledge allegiance to the Libertarian Party for being bummed these days. Is hope dead?​Their last presidential candidate, Bob Barr, was denounced by one of the national media's most prominent libertarians -- former SF Weekly Editor Jack Shafer -- as ... More >>

The Most Elaborate Gingerbread Houses in the U.S.

Gingerbread houses are good for two things: eating and ogling.  And while it's fun to get a sugar rush from sloppy homemade concoctions, some gingerbread houses are just too beautiful ― or too weird ― to eat. Allow us to present some of the most ogle-worthy gingerbread houses out there. T ... More >>

2012: The end is near

Chronic City: An End To The War On Drugs -- Impossible Dream? Political Ploy? Or Inevitable?

Gil KerlikowskeNew White House Drug Czar and former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske didn't wait long before making big waves as the top drug enforcement officer in the country.  In his first public appearance since being confirmed on May 7, Kerlikowske, in a new interview with the Wall Str ... More >>

It’s Better With Jell-O

The Obama Diet: The First Foodie Family

Via: Obama-Biden Transition ProjectThe Obama FamilyAlice Waters, who has been trying for years to get Presidents from Clinton to Obama to get on board with her vision of fresh, local, seasonal, organic food for all (read her letters to Clinton and Obama here), should be happy: it seems like her ... More >>

Get a Job: White House Report Details Employment Boosts in Each Congressional District. Check Out Yours Here.

Every morning about this time/ she get me out of my bed/ a-crying get a job. After breakfast, everyday, she throws the want ads right my way/ And never fails to say, Get a job Sha na na na, sha na na na na -- The Silhouettes, "Get a Job." It may not do the mind well to note that the members o ... More >>

Playing With Food

Last night, as the tryptophan was kicking in, we played Foodie Fight, a Trivial Pursuit-like game published by S.F.'s Chronicle Books. It was unexpectedly difficult overall, and we complained about that a lot, but there would always be an easy question or two just when we were about to get too frust ... More >>

Fiona Ma for President?

Now that Barack Obama has crossed the non-WASP-in-the-White House threshold, which other minority groups might get to produce a president? Mark Oppenheimer explores the question on Slate.com.. Bemusingly, Slate.com readers quickly called Oppenheimer out on his own racial insensitivity because ... More >>

Slow Food Nation Presents Civil Eats

Slow Food Rocks Interview: White House Organic Farm Project

Scott McClellan Tells Us Who To Blame

Great Scott!

Not Too Nice

Of lunchtime invitations, flip-flop flaps, and shortened first names

Dog Bites

Making a meal out of journalistic and political news, spell-checking the Guardian, and wrapping up the Castro race skirmish.

Zoom Lens

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival continues its "can't we all get along" ethos

The 400 Blows

A movie about teenage name-calling -- using the raw words the kids

Versifying

Good poetry, bad poetry, and something in between

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

Unspun

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

Slap Shots

The Absolutely True, Somewhat Spurious and Totally Impossible

CONSPIRACIES BY THE BAY!!!