Obama paid a visit to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland a few days ago for a routine checkup. The checkup found him to be in excellent health and fit for duty. However, the doctors did recommend that he “continue smoking cessation efforts.” In plain English that means “quit smoking, enough is enough”. Obama said that his wife and kids were constantly at him to kick the habit. He also said that he never smokes in front of them and nor does he have one daily. He did, however, admit to it being a struggle to quit.

Obama was also scanned for signs of colorectal cancer, a leading cause of death among African Americans. Cancer is of special concern in the case of Obama as his mother and another relative died of the disease. Fortunately, the President did not show any signs of it and was cleared of any symptoms. He was prescribed a “lower extremity muscle strengthening program” to help relieve pain he occasionally felt in his knees.

After the checkup, Obama visited soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who were being treated at the same medical center. His next checkup is scheduled for August 2011.

While the idea is not new, it will help the country reduce its heat trapping gas emissions by 80 % by the year 2050. This is also part of a plan by Obama to use nuclear energy, natural gas, oil and renewable energy work together to provide cleaner energy to the nation. When you look at all the positives that his plan could bring, it all seems very rosy. After all, helping the environment and preserving jobs is a very commendable plan.

However, everyone is not convinced. Many experts are saying that coal should be phased out completely and that renewable energy sources pursued. There are calls for natural gas to be used in more efficient ways as well. They argue that fitting the plants with the new equipment and then operating it would be a very expensive prospect. They also point out that this new technology will require more coal to be consumed to be operational. Another sore point is that the toxic elements and smog will not be eradicated by this process.

So far it appears that the only people convinced of this process’ success are the President and his administration. It also appears that this might turn out to be another fiasco like the healthcare reforms.

With last week’s bipartisan talks on the healthcare matter failing to come to a clear decision it looks more and more certain that the Democrats will use other tactics, namely “reconciliation”, to bring the healthcare bill to life. But that may be easier said than done. Currently Obama needs the support of two significant blocs of Democrats from the House of Representatives - those who oppose abortion and the fiscal conservatives. Unfortunately for the President, re-election is the main thing on their minds and getting them to support something as controversial as the healthcare bill when job creation is the biggest issue, will be close to impossible.

Obama has long been criticized for focusing on non-critical issues like healthcare and giving burning issues like job creation a back seat. His obsession with the healthcare bill has seen his approval ratings plummet dramatically and in this situation it is hard to visualize a second term coming through.

Call it determination or pride, Obama is steadily battering away at all opposition in an effort to make sure that the reforms will be pushed through. He is expected to release a revised bill this week which includes some of the Republican Party’s suggestions. But the hope of getting any Republican support for the bill is very slim.

With a career spanning five decades, Dylan has always been a prominent figure in the music scene. His greatest work is generally considered to be that which appeared in the sixties; songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” were adopted by the civil rights and anti-war movements as anthems. He has always been a character that bucked the trend and this made him extremely appealing to the flourishing counterculture of that time. Since the late eighties, Dylan has been on what most people call “the Never Ending Tour”.

Obama also paid tribute to Clint Eastwood, calling his movies “essays in individuality and hard truths which have the essence of what it means to be an American”.

Eastwood has worn many hats in his career and has performed as an actor, composer, producer and director. He has received five awards each from the Academy, Golden Globe and People’s Choice Awards. He has also received a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as an award for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.

Inexplicably both stars were missing from the award ceremony and the reason for that is not known at this time. However, many others who were honored did make it to the event and that includes Soprano Jessye Norman, Architect Maya Lin and Composer John Williams.

It is widely believed that the resignation was forced on Ms. Rogers due to the embarrassing gate crashing incident in November. In that incident, Michaele & Tareq Salahi as well as Carlos Allen attended the event and left the premises without any questioning. They were not on the guest list that evening for the White House state dinner held in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Ms. Rogers was criticized for not having any of her staff present with secret service agents.

Her replacement, Ms. Smoot, is a professional fundraiser and was responsible for President Obama’s efforts to raise funds during his presidential campaign. Ms. Smoot is no newcomer to the scene; in fact she has been employed by no less than five senators previous to her involvement in the Obama campaign. She is regarded as an extraordinary fund raiser who possesses a very powerful contact list. Expectations are that Ms. Smoot will be accepted by the Washington elite more than her predecessor was.

Ms. Rogers did not always conform to the traditional ways in Washington and was often perceived to ruffle some feathers. She always attributed this to the fact that Washington’s elite felt snubbed because the White House cared more for ordinary people. Her unfortunate departure seems to be a direct cause of these sentiments.

The announcement was made by the President via a video conference being made to the US-Islamic World Forum held in Doha, Qatar. In his address, President Obama spoke of Hussain as an “accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff” who he said, would help to enrich and fortify his outreach policy to the global Muslim population.
Part of Obama’s efforts after being appointed President of the United States of America has been to restore the country’s relations with the rest of the Islamic population - which makes up a fair portion of his foreign policy. This need to make amends was even highlighted in his speech delivered in Cairo in June 2009, where he called for a ‘new beginning’.

Obama, while making his address to the US-Islamic World Forum also said that Hussain had played a vital role in helping to develop the partnerships he spoke of in Cairo, and stated these efforts would only be augmented by his new appointment. Obama also reiterated that Hussain was a Hafiz - meaning that he had memorized the entire text of the holy Quran.

Hussain would be representing the Organization of the Islamic Conference which consists of fifty seven nations. The goal of the organization is to promote unity amongst Muslims the world over.
Working for President Obama as a deputy associate counsel, Hussain has worked quite extensively on new media, national security and science & technology issues as well. A White House statement also stated the he had worked as a trial attorney at the Justice Department and had also been a legislative assistant at the House Judiciary Committee. Hussain holds two degrees; one in public administration, and another in Arabic and Islamic studies.

The reactors are expected to supply power for over 1.4 million people and create employment for 850 people. The construction process is expected to create over 3,000 jobs. It might not seem like much, but in these times of poor public opinion, Obama needs every little bit of public support that he can muster. Recent polls have been critical of his inability to stay focused on issues that matter like the economy and unemployment.

The two new reactors will join a force of 104 that exist across 31 states. No new reactors have been built since 1979 when the Three Mile Island reactor suffered a major accident. That caused public and political support to shift away from the industry until Obama’s belief in nuclear power and clean energy jobs was made evident by this decision. The current force of nuclear reactors supply only 20 % of the nation’s power requirements but that figure is accountable for 70 % of the total clean energy produced. The impact of the new reactors will take a few years to be apparent, especially considering the fact that they have not yet been granted construction or operating licenses yet which may even take as long as 2012 for that to happen.

This week Obama is scheduled to meet the Dalai Lama and also go on the campaign trail to help Democrats retain their Senate seats. The Meeting with the Dalai Lama will only serve to anger China and the Senate campaign will occupy Obama’s time… time that could be spent on better things. Perhaps, issues like this are causing Americans to lose confidence in their President.

In a recent poll by the New York Times and CBS News, it was found that over 52 percent were not happy with the time spent on the economy by the President. A quarter of those polled considered jobs as the biggest issue affecting the country while another quarter identified the economy as the biggest problem. Only 13 % sided with Obama’s healthcare issues. 48 % have no confidence in the stimulus package creating jobs, but 41 % said that even though it hasn’t so far produced results, it has the potential to do so.

All in all, the main problem here seems to be a lack of focus and public relations. The Obama administration simply needs to give the people what they want and not what they think the public should want. So far, a second term is looking impossible for Obama.

In the audience were members from President Obama’s Cabinet, Congress, civil rights leaders and students who listened to Queen Latifah’s version of ‘What’s Going on’, a Marvin Gaye classic and Yolanda Adams who sang Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ amongst many others. This was just one of many efforts made by the President to open up the White House to what he called America’s soundtrack.

Other performers included Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, Bob Dylan, John Legend, Joan Baez, John Mellencamp, Blind Boys of Alabama and Seal. The line up also featured The Freedom Singers and the Howard University Choir.

President Obama also said that activists were strengthened by protest songs, inspired by spirituals and their bases were broadened by artists of hope. He went on to say that such work is what laid the foundation for a more just America that encouraged him to make history in 2008.

Music, President Obama said, helps to create faith in a movement, even when leaders are jailed and their churches are bombed. “It’s hard to sing when times are rough. The hymns helped … advance the cause of the nation,” said President Obama.

Major federal agencies do not take too well to huge changes, especially at NASA where such changes are only expected to take place once in every generation. President Obama’s choice to put a stop to the Constellation program has been likened to President Nixon’s decision to kill the Apollo program in the 1970s and put together a space shuttle.

While President Obama’s decision has a few spines tingling, especially those of some space visionaries, the brand new space strategy seems to focus heavily on technology development and the creation of a hot commercial sector where astronauts will be able to purchase tickets to space, just like we buy airline tickets. This kind of enthusiasm has been received with confusion and frustration by people in the industry who are wary of such changes and worry that NASA’s new direction is now ill-defined.

This sudden shift has left a large number of NASA employees uncertain about their next step at work, while thousands of NASA contractors are even more unsettled as the program they have been working on for the last five years will not be operational any more. Putting a stop to the Constellation program and terminating all existing contracts will cost the Obama budget around $2.5 billion. The program employment numbers for 2010 stood at 11,500 people in the US and around 8,600 from the private sector.