The State Dinner

Analysis…

Last night, President and Mrs. Obama hosted their first state dinner at the White House for the visiting Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.  The guest list included congressmen and governors, entertainers and well known Indian Americans.  The new presidential couple put their own twist on the state dinner, holding it in a tent outside  to accomodate more guests and serving Indian food to Indian guests, which would have been previously considered a protocol faux pas. 

Fox News | Chief among the non-attendees: top Republican lawmakers.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner won’t be there; he’s on Thanksgiving break and home in Ohio. His deputy, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, also didn’t get an invitation to the dinner.

The president didn’t invite his 2008 rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, even though Obama the candidate pledged a post-partisan presidency.

Huffington Post | Gay iconic businessman David Geffen and his excellent partner Jeremy Lingvall will be there and should give Melody Barnes some support — and to make their case to Michelle and Barack Obama that being absent in today’s civil rights movement shouldn’t be part of his presidency. Obama and team need to reconnect with the gay community which has a lot of doubt about his support of an end to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and for an end to other anti-gay discriminatory legislation.

The Hill | Singh and India were chosen for the honor of Obama’s first state dinner to send a signal of how important Obama sees India, a fast growing world power.

Obama and Singh hoisted white wine and expressed hope for continued friendship between their two countries.  In his toast, Singh praised Obama, telling him that his “journey to the White House has captured the imagination of millions and millions of people in India.”

Reuters | “Your journey to the White House has captured the imagination of millions and millions of people in India. You are an inspiration to all those who cherish the values of democracy, diversity and equal opportunity,” Singh told Obama to loud applause after they had walked together down a candle-lit tan carpet while the band played Hail to the Chief.

 Obama Foodarama | The ingredients for the State Dinner were sustainably sourced–and meant to represent American regional cuisine; there is no mention of the now-volatile word “organic” in any press guidance. The pears for the dessert were poached in honey from the White House beehive, and herbs and lettuces were harvested from the White House Kitchen Garden.

News…

RNC May Subject Members to Conservative Test | Daily Intel

When the Republican National Committee gets together in January to talk about the things they talk about, the “Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates” will come up for a vote. The goal of the resolution is to subject Republican politicians to a test that measures their support for ten basic party principles. If someone disagrees with three or more of the policies, the resolution’s supporters want to withhold party money and endorsement.

Gay is Not the New Black but Gay Rights are Civil Rights | Womanist Musings

It is fair to state unequivocally that gay is not the new Black or that gay rights are not the same struggle that is faced by African Americans, however; to deny that an oppression is  occurring is simply an expression of heterosexist privilege. At what point does fighting for the right to live openly not considered a civil right?  At what point do you decide that sexuality means that you should have a closeted experience?

That’s One Big Bang for Mankind | Truthdig

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider buried deep beneath the Swiss-French border made history Monday, smashing two proton beams traveling at near-light speed into each other. The LHC, also known as the big bang machine, is the largest machine on Earth and was built to re-create conditions that existed just after the birth of the universe.

The collider, housed at CERN, has inspired doomsday premonitions, but—for the time being, anyway—we’re still here.

Supporters Lighten Obama’s Image; Detractors Darken It | Jezebel

The National Academy of Sciences published a study that FINDS a correlation between a person’s political views and darker or lighter representations of Barack Obama. But does this study prove anything we didn’t learn during the OJ Simpson trial?