Barack Obama

President Obama Cancels Trip To L.A. Due To Syria Crisis

Looks like President Obama won't be headed to Los Angeles next week after all. Obama was supposed to address the AFL-CIO convention on Monday and attend a fundraiser in Hancock Park. But the debate over an attack on Syria will keep him in Washington.Too bad, because that would have given us an oppor ... More >>

Marijuana: Obama Administration Backs Off on Pot Enforcement (Again)

The federal government will officially stand back when it comes to enforcing its anti-weed laws in states where marijuana is legal. So says a memo from Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole today. Some in the pro-pot world were cautiously optimistic, noting that the Obama administration has said on ... More >>

Marijuana: Congress About to Check Obama's Pot Crackdown

The Obama administration's crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in places like Los Angeles has gone on fairly unimpeded. After all, the president is in many ways the law. See also: Marijuana Dispensary Crackdown by Feds in Echo Park, Westlake, Long Beach. Except that it's congress that make ... More >>

Here's Your Obamajam Traffic Cheat Sheet

Obamajam returns to L.A. today. But something tells us this President Obama, on his final term and begging Congress to do something, anything to support just one of his policy initiatives, isn't going to clog Los Angeles traffic like the superstar Obama of yesteryear did. In any case, police are p ... More >>

Obama Continues Gay-Friendly Policies and Nominates Rufus Gifford To Be Denmark Ambassador

Rufus Gifford, a former Los Angeles resident and openly gay man who was profiled in the 2008 L.A. Weekly feature story "Obama's Gay Gold Mine," has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next ambassador of Denmark. The nomination builds upon the president's strong gay-friendly record. I ... More >>

Marijuana: Obama is Champion Spender on Medical Enforcement

President Obama has said cracking down on medical marijuana in states where it's legal, like California, wouldn't be a priority for his law enforcement agencies. But a new report by the group Americans for Safe Access not only says that Obama has been tough on weed, but that his administration's sp ... More >>

Jeremy Scahill of the New Film Dirty Wars Talks About the Dangers of Covert Ops

Will President Obama Swing by Santa Monica High School Graduation?

A group of seniors at Santa Monica High School think it would be cool to have President Obama at their graduation Friday. So they started a campaign hash-tagged "Get Obama to the Greek" by making a video. Two seniors at SaMoHi, Sam Modabber and Nikki Bell, both 17, cajoled the President to come to ... More >>

Obama Coming To L.A., Still Wants Our Money Despite Election Win

Did President Obama not get the memo? The election is over. You don't need to tap L.A.'s rich people for campaign money anymore. You won. Wait, what? Ah: There are midterm congressional elections on the horizon. Democrats want to crack the alleged gridlock imposed by Republican filibusters. Friggin ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Hit The Streets As ICE Fears Sequester Cuts; Republicans Pissed

In what feels to us like a middle finger to those Republicans cheering on draconian "sequester" cuts to the federal budget following a congressional impasse, the Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants are being released from detention centers across America. The action is appa ... More >>

Obama Marijuana Policy Shift? Gil Kerlikowske Notes 'Serious National Conversation' On Pot

If you were to ask the marijuana nation if President Obama is friend or foe, the answer would probably be the latter. The Obama administration has cracked down on medical marijuana dispensaries in states such as California despite his vow that such prosecution would not be a priority. But now decr ... More >>

Obama: Marijuana Users In Pot-Legal States Shouldn't Be Prosecuted

President Obama says "we've got bigger fish to fry" when it comes to weighing whether or not to prosecute pot users in states where marijuana has essentially been legalized. In a Barbara Walters interview to air on ABC's 20/20 tonight, the president addresses the full legalization of weed in Washin ... More >>

Obama's Occidental Records Remain Under Wraps Despite Birther Orly Taitz's Lawsuit

An O.C. birther who took Occidental College to court in an attempt to get the Eagle Rock school to release President Obama's undergraduate grades and records lost the case this month, according to the campus paper, The Occidential Weekly. The woman, Rancho Santa Margarita attorney Orly Taitz, argue ... More >>

Killing Them Softly Review: Violent Brad Pitt Drama Argues Crime Is Just Business

Romney Writes Off Latinos, Young Voters As Government Moochers

The Republican party has four years to do something thinking, mainly about how you can be elected president, as Obama was last week, without a majority of white voters. The big story there is Latinos, and how they rocked the booths for Obama, with 70 percent or so going for the incumbent, according ... More >>

2012 Election Results: Historic Night for Gay Issues and Candidates Across the United States

Four years ago, Senator Barack Obama won the presidency, but gay folks across the country were outraged that California voters approved Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ban. Last night, it was a completely different story -- and one of the most historic and significant nights for the LGBT comm ... More >>

7-Eleven Coffee Drinkers May Predict Presidential Race Outcome

Predicting the outcome of an event can be done in one of several ways. Possible results can be gauged using statistics, polls, qualitative analysis -- or maybe psychic octopus. For the presidential election, the convenience store 7-Eleven partnered with The Onion and drew in voters with the simply- ... More >>

Presidential Winner 2012: Obama Beats Romney

President Obama's reelection campaign took Ohio and thus the election shortly after 8:13 p.m., NBC News reported. Mitt Romney won in contentious and important states such as North Carolina and Arizona, but once the projections had Ohio and its potent electoral votes in Obama's corner, it appeared t ... More >>

Obama's Got the Techno Vote

LA-based collective, The Looking Class, has taken up the challenge of reinvigorating our political disillusionment through an inspired social engineering design project now embarking on its maiden voyage.

Gays Could Win Presidential Election for Barack Obama, Says Gallup Report

Guess ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and taking a strong pro-gay marriage stand could help President Barack Obama's re-election effort. According to the Gallup Report, with the presidential race running so tight, gays and lesbians overwhelming support for Obama could help him edge out Republican ca ... More >>

Obama's Return To L.A. Today For Jay Leno Prompts Traffic Warning

President Obama is back, baby. And we're not just talking about winning the last two presidential debates after choking in the first one. No, the POTUS is back in L.A. this afternoon for the taping of the The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. And you know what that means? Traffic:

Obama In L.A. Wednesday For Jay Leno

President Obama will be back in L.A. this week. Given the tight presidential race, it's only logical that the candidates would be aiming at voters through the most effective of means -- late-night talk shows. That's right, the prez will be appearing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno ...

Jimmy Kimmel: Folks Describe Watching Presidential Debate Before It Aired (VIDEO)

We gloated a little when, earlier this month, the latest World University Rankings out of the U.K. said Caltech is the best school on the planet and UCLA is No. 13. L.A. is a smart place, innit? Well, not exactly. Last night Jimmy Kimmel Live aired a segment on street reaction to the presidential ... More >>

Did Villaraigosa Cozy Up to Leon Cooperman, Billionaire Enemy of The Obama Campaign?

By most accounts L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been a good Democrat. He supported Hillary Clinton in her presidential bid. And he carried water for the Obama campaign when the contentious issue of God came up during a Democratic National Convention platform meeting. But a new New Yorker story ... More >>

Obama 'Race Video' Touted as October Surprise Could Be About L.A. Riots, Katrina

Updated at the bottom: The Daily Caller posted the video, posted below. Today the site Daily Caller has been teasing video of a Barack Obama "race speech" that some in the rightblogger world have been touting as an "October surprise" that could upend a so-far uneven match between the president and ... More >>

Party With Obama in L.A. For Only $44?

Most fund-raisers for President Obama's reelection campaign are more like the $40,000-per-couple dinner reportedly being organized by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg Oct. 7. But, then again, Obama is a Democrat. According to a campaign email, you can see him at his big Nokia Theater shindig dow ... More >>

Marijuana Supporters Decry Obama's 'Harold & Kumar' Ad: VIDEO

The Democrats have enlisted Kal Penn of Harold & Kumar fame to help get out the youth vote. In an ad by the campaign both Penn and John Cho reprise their roles as the clearly stoned duo. Kumar nonchalantly takes a call from the prez who says, "I need to know if you're on-board." The duo is munchi ... More >>

Marijuana Advocates Plan Anti-Obama Protests at Presidential Campaign Offices

Mitt Romney's embrace of the Republican right wing (via his choice of running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan) would seem to have put most of the left firmly in the hands of Team Obama. Not so fast, apparently. Many in the marijuana nation are still fuming over the president's crackdown on weed dispensaries ... More >>

Martin Crimp's The City and How Obama Got His Groove Back Show the Art of Escaping Reality

VIDEO: Obama Calls Mars Rover Team at JPL, Talks Martians and Mohawk Guy

As is tradition after big American achievements or tragedies (such as, earlier this month, Michael Phelps' 19th Olympic medal and the Sikh community's tragic loss), President Obama reached out to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory this morning over telephone. You'd think the big White House phone cal ... More >>

Marijuana Activists Infiltrate Democratic Party in SoCal

So the figurehead of the Democratic Party, President Barack Obama, hasn't exactly been kind to the medical marijuana nation, what with all the federal raids on dispensaries and all. While Obama's flip-flopping on pot has some weed activists burning mad, one group of cannabis supporters in Californi ... More >>

Mila Kunis Says She's Been Campaigning for Obama by Doing 'Illegal' Graffiti in L.A.

Compared to President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, his second run has been lagging in hip factor. No free "Yes we can" ads from Will.i.am; no Shepard Fairey prints; no hot YouTube chicks with a "Crush on Obama." Mila Kunis, rebel patriot, to the rescue! Although she's not on the list of young Hol ... More >>

Obamacare Was a Republican Idea! 5 Obama Issues The GOP Once Owned

Republicans are acting like the blue-haired lady at a four-star restaurant who spies what's on the table of a minority couple nearby: "I'll definitely not have what they're having." What Republicans once ate up like Charlie Sheen at a Peruvian farmer's market they now reject as wholly un-American ... More >>

Disruption, Rebellion and Resistance: Activists Call for Action

Voter Suppression Efforts Could Take Out Barack Obama This Fall

Crossing the Line: A Village Voice Media Special Report on Freedom Under Fire

Obama Traffic, LA Pride Edition

Just in time for L.A. Pride 2012, President Obama will be in town capitalizing on his new cachet with the gays at two fundraisers--the $1,250 per person LGBT Leadership Council gala at the Beverly Wilshire, followed by a $25,000 per plate dinner at the home of "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy. The Preside ... More >>

Update: Defense of Marriage Act: Federal Appeals Court Says Anti-Gay Marriage Law is Unconstitutional

Update, 11:25 a.m.: California gay rights activists respond to DOMA ruling, after the jump. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act has been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in Boston, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in on the ruling. "Under current Supreme Court authorit ... More >>

Secret Service Attracted Prostitutes Way Back in Nixon's SoCal Days

The U.S. Secret Service got serviced by prostitutes ahead of President Obama's visit to Columbia last month, it is alleged. And much has been said about how this happened on Obama's watch. It's positively Clintonian, if you ask some in the Republican party. What's with these horny Democratic admini ... More >>

Obama Gets California's Support Despite Flip-Flop on Medical Marijuana Prosecution

You might whine about President Obama's flip-floppity ways when it comes to medical marijuana, but you certainly don't put your votes where your mouth is, at least not according to this poll. Californians, it seems, are solidly in Obama's corner in 2012. One would think that his administration's c ... More >>

Obama's Marijuana Use as Teen Was EPIC: Joints 'Intercepted' by Future President

When Barack Obama was running for president he wasn't shy about his past marijuana use, saying, "I inhaled. That was the point." Well, it looks like he wasn't joking. A forthcoming election-year biography of the Commander in Chief, Barack Obama: The Story, by David Maraniss, describes the future l ... More >>

Cannes Film Festival: Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly and Gael Garcia Bernal in No

The opening credits of the Brad Pitt-starring Killing Them Softly are set to snatches of Barack Obama's 2008 Democratic Convention speech, focused on the notion of "the American promise," jarringly jump-intercut with scenes of Frank (Scoot McNairy) making his way through a tunnel onto a dismal Ameri ... More >>

3 Out of 4 Americans Want Obama Off Medical Marijuana's Back

Obama's flip-flop on medical marijuana last month might seem like a political ploy meant to appease Middle Americans for whom legit cannabis dispensaries aren't even an option, let alone a right. After all, if you don't like it, who are going to vote for? Mitt Romney? Yeah right. But it turns out ... More >>

Obama Traffic, the Valley Edition! Starring George Clooney's Studio City Mansion

Updated at the bottom with all known street closures. (See also: "Obama Totally Screws Up Gay Activists' Plans to Protest His L.A. Visit Tomorrow.") Originally posted May 9 at 9:15 a.m. We might as well get used to President Obama making campaign stops in Los Angeles. His most moneyed and importan ... More >>

Obama's Marijuana Moments: Top 5 Stances, Statements And Subterfuges

The Left Coast is rejoicing today after President Obama announced that same-sex couples should be able to marry. And it wasn't lost on us that he made the statement on the eve of a fundraising trip to George Clooney's house tonight in the hills above Studio City. Maybe the timing was intended to he ... More >>

Obama Totally Screws Up Gay Activists' Plans to Protest His L.A. Visit Tomorrow

The best part about President Obama's frequent ATM stops in L.A. are the myriad protesters who storm Beverly Hills and try to seek out his motorcade. Among them, always, are the LGBT activists, angry that the president still hasn't come out in support of gay marriage (perhaps in fear of further ali ... More >>

Obama's Latino Problem Might Have Just Been Solved by This Hipster T-Shirt

You're young and Latino. And, frankly, you're on the fence about this Obama guy. After all, he promised immigration reform and only recently started to deliver after continuing George W. Bush's militaristic build-up of security along the border. And by "only recently" we mean that he planned to rel ... More >>

Marijuana Being Shut Out of Santa Barbara After Feds' Medical Crackdown

Obama recently said it: "Big" marijuana business would not be immune from federal prosecution, even in medical weed states like California. Today the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A. announced that the feds are walking that walk: They raided four pot operations, filed legal papers to seize the asse ... More >>

Obama: Marijuana Dispensary Busts by Feds Aren't About to Stop

If you think President Obama is a liar for promising to hold back on federal prosecution of medical marijuana and then seeing his feds bust more pot shops than they did under George W. Bush, maybe you're not listening to him carefully enough. Obama says that, perhaps, you misinterpreted his words w ... More >>