Video- President Obama interviewed by Indonesian press

Via Ben.

Obama postpones trip to Indonesia until health care reform resolved

By GottaLaff

Via email alert:

President's overseas travel plans are delayed until June as Congress considers final passage of health-care bill. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama wanted to be in Washington for the conclusion of the health-care debate.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com.

Video- Indonesia Remembers Obama As a Boy

Meet the 'chubby boy with the curly hair': New photographs of Barack Obama's childhood in Indonesia emerge

Chubby is not a word I usually associate with the Prez. Via.

Breaking- President Obama to postpone Indonesia trip to help finish healthcare

Just announced on MSNBC, will link to more when it happens. Added- Heh, here's the complete story.

Obama delaying Asia trip from March 18 to March 21 to work on health care

Associated Press- WASHINGTON - Obama delaying Asia trip from March 18 to March 21 to work on health care.

Via Taegan-

This delay is most likely caused by the Senate parliamentarian, who according to The Hill, has ruled that President Obama "must sign the health care reform bill before Democrats can use special budget rules to pass changes demanded by the House."

Photo- Statue of Obama as boy erected in Indonesian park

Good lord it's awful. Looks to me that they just reworked one of St Francis of Assisi as a boy. (A butterfly? Really?)

Young Obama statue to be inaugurated in his Indonesian former neighborhood

Cue inappropriate Muslim bashing in Ben Smith's comments.

JAKARTA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- A statue depicting young figure of the United States President Barrack Obama would be inaugurated in Obama's former neighborhood in Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta, the group called "Friends of Obama" said on Tuesday.

The construction of the statue was initiated by "Friends of Obama", a non-government organization. The statue is erected at a corner of a playground at Menteng Dalam, a suburb area in Jakarta.

The group said in a statement that the 2-meter high statue depicts Obama when he was at the age of 10 years old. At that age Obama studied in an elementary school in the neighborhood when he was under the custody of his mother, Ann-Dunham, who married to an Indonesian, Lolo Soetoro.

Video- Krauthammer attacks "narcissism" of Hawaii-born, Indonesia-raised Obama for calling himself the "first Pacific president"

Yep, totally narcissistic (also see "uppity") to describe yourself accurately. Via Media Matters.

Birthers debunked by their own evidence

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

What an interesting find this is. My gorgeous British pal and fellow blogger/Tweeter has posted the above document with this explanation:

I recently found this image of Barack Obama's Indonesian school files on a comment posted by a "Birther" on the Houston Chronicle's website.

The commenter claimed that "Bangsa" means "Citizenship", I cannot confirm or deny that Bangsa does in fact mean Citizenship in Indonesian, however what the "Birthers" have failed to notice is that written on line 2 is the word, HONOLULU, followed by his date of birth.

Hoisted by their own birthtards.

Breaking: Ritz-Carlton, Marriott hotels in Jakarta rocked by bomb blasts

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Death toll up to 6. President Obama has been notified of bombing.

UPDATE: Twitter breaks Jakarta news.

Twitter has once again proved its worth as a lightning fast way to spread information during disasters and breaking news events.

Daniel Tumiwa appeared to be first in the world to report the Jakarta bombings on the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels.

"Bom @ marriot and ritz Carlton kuningan jakarta," he wrote.

"Left location.Shocked. Lots of blood. Breakfast meetings at coffee shops while bombs went off."

Before long other Indonesians were uploading photographs and details they had recorded on their mobile phones. [...]

Read all of the tweets coming from inside Jakarta at this page.

Twitpics

Original post:

Bad news:

UPDATE: POLICE say at least four foreigners have been killed in explosions at two five-star hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Bombs exploded at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels, ripping the facade off the Ritz, police said.

An Associated Press reporter saw three injured taken away from the Ritz.

A witness reported seeing bodies inside the Marriot.

More:

The head of the Health Ministry crisis center, Rustam Pakaya, said at least two people were seriously injured, including one New Zealander. One hospital emergency room said it was already treating 15 people.

South Jakarta police Col. Firman Bundi confirmed that four foreigners were killed in the blasts at the neighboring hotels in an upscale Jakarta neighborhood.

President Obama's Mother's Batik Collection To Be Exhibited

Very nice. h/t Ben.

Indonesian consulate general in New York will organize an exhabition of traditional clothes of batik that belonged to US President Barak Obama's mother in July, says a top diplomat.

Indonesian Consul General in New York Trie Edi Mulyani said on Friday there were around 40 pieces of batik of Ann Dunham, Obama's mother who married to an Indonesian and spent five years in the capital city of Jakarta, that would be exhibited.

"Besides those belonged to Obama's mother, we are going to exhibit a number of batik that belonged to first lady Ibu Ani," she said in Jakarta.

(snip)

The exhibition is a part of a roadshow in the United States with the first has been held in Chicago this month.

Photo Of The Day

An Indonesian painter works at his studio that has a painting of US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Jakarta. Clinton held talks on Wednesday in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, on her first mission to start mending US ties with the Islamic world.(AFP/Adek Berry)

Tsunami warning issued after Indonesia 7.5 quake

Ugh, not again.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia issued a tsunami warning after an earthquake struck southeast of Melonguane in North Sulawesi.

The U.S. Geographical Survey said the 7.5 magnitude quake had struck in the Talaud Islands of Indonesia, 201 miles south-southeast of General Santos, on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

(snip)

A 9.1 magnitude quake caused the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 232,000 people in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other countries across the Indian Ocean.

VIDEO: President Obama's Indonesian Dazzles at State Dept.

By GottaLaff



Bush could barely speak English:

As President Obama worked the rope-line at the State Department Thursday, a State Department staffer named Charles Silver, knowing the President once lived in Indonesia, shouted out, "good afternoon" in the local language.

Obama responded back in what Silver later told ABC News was "very good" Bahasa Indonesian. The two then chatted briefly about the neighborhood Obama once lived in.

When the staffer asked if Obama had lived in the Jakarta neighborhood where embassy staffers live, Obama replied that was for rich people, and he lived in another neighborhood with a similar name, one that Silver said is where the "real people" live.

Reality has returned to the White House. How novel.