Turkey Pardon Streaming LIVE!

Oh man. The Presidential Turkey Pardon is streaming live today on the White House website.

The White House even made an official preview video.



Of course they didn't say what TIME the live stream would take place. But I'll find out and let you guys know.

UPDATE: OMG, it's happening NOW! It started at 11:30 and the girls are there!!!!!!!!!!

Tony Blair and a Baby Elephant

Tony Blair met a baby elephant while on vacation in Bali. JEALOUS!

Obama's Puppy-Talk Voice

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I watched Brian Williams' "Inside the Obama White House" special on NBC last night. Overall it wasn't very insidery, but we DID get to hear something very special: Obama's puppy-talk voice.

I'm not gonna lie, it was super weird to hear. I'm used to that sonorous, elegant tone! But still, fun.

Obamaburger

Obama visited Five Guys and Time Magazine's "The Page" blog has a ridiculously detailed (yet necessary, obvs!) play-by-play of what went down.

A little presidential dialogue: "Reggie, you got you orders? Where's Reggie? Whaddya got?"

To his order taker: "I need one cheeseburger and one fries for me. Jalapeno, tomato, mustard. That's it for me … Plus lettuce on mine too."

BE CAREFUL OBAMS! When you order a regular burger it's actually a DOUBLE!!! I learned that the hard way.

He paid for his staff's food, then stuck around and chatted with patrons.

I love this photo so much. You can tell he's really giving it some thought. As one should when it comes to burgers!

Kids + Presidents = CUTENESS

Via Politico: "The caption from the White House Flickr feed: 'The youngster wanted to see if the President's haircut felt like his own.'"

Cuties.

Make Way for Robins, Too, While You're at It

AND there are baby robins outside the press briefing room!

Spring has sprung!

Make Way for Ducklings, Mr. President

There are ducklings at the White House, people. DUCKLINGS!

BoMG

So he's finally here!

Bo is very cute, but I'm sorry, he's NOT a puppy. He's just not. I wanted a tiny little peanut of a dog the size of a thimble that Obama could carry around in his pocket. Oh well.

Bo's pretty awesome so far though. He seems VERY energetic.

I highly recommend you check out the Presidential Pet Museum, which has loads of info on past presidential pups and ponies.

There's Taft's cow, Pauline Wayne. The last cow at the White House!



Benjamin Harrison's pet goat, Old Whiskers.




Feller, the Unwanted Dog. Harry Truman got him as a present but gave him away to the White House Physician. HOW DO YOU GIVE THIS DOG AWAY??? LOOK AT THAT THING!



Did you know that Calvin Coolidge had three collies, a terrier, an Airedale, a sheepdog, a chow, another chow, a bulldog, a police dog, a bird dog, canaries, a goose, a mockingbird, raccoons, a donkey, and cats? Dignitaries from other countries gave them lion cubs, a wallaby, a pygmy hippo and a bear. WTF, COOLIDGE? Best President ever.

Obamas, get some wallaby babies and maybe you'll be back in my good graces.

Barney's Last Hurrah

President Bush's dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, have been making curiously high-budget Christmas videos every year he's been in office. I always look forward to them. They're always like 8 minutes long and make me laugh so hard. My fave was 2005's "A Very Beazley Christmas", in which Barney got jealous of his new little sis Miss Beazley and all the attention she was getting.

This year's video is, sadly, the last one, and it looks kind of crappy compared to the previous ones. But that only makes it more awesome, obvs.

The First Family's acting SO bad. And so is the dream sequence animation of Barney and Miss Beazley as divers and gymnasts at the Beijing Olympics. (I'm serious. Make sure you watch until 3:05, when there are some VERY high-profile surprise guests!)

I wonder if the President enjoys doing these videos or if he's like "Ugh, one of THESE again? Boy am I glad it's the last one."

One thing's for sure. Those darn dogs are CUTE as lil buttons.

Vice Pupsident

Joe Biden's wife Jill got him a German Shepherd pup as a present for winning the election!



He doesn't have a name yet. Apparently the Bidens are letting their granddaugthers name the dog.

Aww-splosion! Obams has his work cut out for him trying to find someone cuter than this lil fella.

Pupdate: Oh, BIDEN! Apparently he got this dog from a known puppy mill. Peeps are MAD.

Hang in there, Socks!

Poor Socks the cat. First the Clintons handed him off to Bill's former personal secretary when Bill left office. (Was their ownership of Socks just a PR stunt!? Why did they keep Buddy and not Socks? Jerks.)

Now, Socks is very, very sick! He has cancer and isn't expected to live much longer.

Linda Kulman, who ghost wrote Hillary Clinton's book, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids's Letters To First Pets, was saddened by the news, telling me, "He is the last of his kind." For the book, Kulman, says she "spent time" with Socks and Clinton's first pup Buddy. "He was nothing but a gentleman. He was elegant and a perfect resident of the White House." She adds, "he won't soon be replaced."

Aw!

Here are some cute tidbits about Socks from his wiki:

He was known to share his food and water with a stray tabby, dubbed "Slippers".

He eventually lost the position of principal Clinton pet in 1997 when the Clintons acquired Buddy, a Labrador Retriever. At this point, some fans of Socks joked that he had been "voted out of office" of White House pet in favor of the more traditional dog.

Socks found Buddy's intrusion intolerable; according to Hillary Rodham Clinton, Socks "despised Buddy from first sight, instantly and forever." Bill Clinton said, "I did better with ... the Palestinians and the Israelis than I've done with Socks and Buddy."




Oh man, I hope Socks hasn't seen this pic. It would make him TICKED OFF.

On a separate note, what's this Kids's Letters to First Pets book???? I gotta get my hands on it.

Pumpkin and Pecan: Leftovers

How much do I wish that was the title of a reality show about the just-pardoned turkeys and their new celebrity life?



Here's a cute pic of a kid named Jack greeting Pumpkin in his little crate. Pumpkin flew first class with his handler from D.C. to Disneyland. Which is ridiculous. But also funny to imagine! I bet Pumpkin definitely smelled bad and made some screechy gobble-y turkey noises. I like to think of all the richies in first class getting their feathers ruffled (hee!) about having to share their cabin with a turkey, albeit a famous one.

Unfortunately I missed the Disneyland parade, of which Pumpkin was grand marshall, but I found this video of last year's parade so you can get an idea of what it looked like. The turkey shows up at 1:20.



I'm really bummed that the turkey wasn't wearing any little accoutrement. Like a tiny crown. I was picturing him with a crown, cape and scepter, like the king of the parade! Something like this:


Now that Thanksgiving is over, Pumpkin (and pinch-hitter turkey Pecan, who was also pardoned but didn't get to do any of the fun parade stuff, or fly first class) are living in some Disney farm.



"Where is my butler? I demand that you provide me with proper lodging! This is an outrage!"

THE END!

"I beg your pardon!"

President Bush pardoned his last turkey this morning, and all I could think was, "OH MAN! This is gonna be so cute when Obams does it next year!"

Here's a snippet of Bush's speech at the ceremony. I hate to admit this, but it is so totally adorable. (If you love hokey dad humor and puns, which I do.)

This is a tradition that dates back to the presidency of Harry Truman. Just to be safe, I will be pardoning a second bird-- in the unlikely event the main act chickens out. Turkeys are not only the ones on edge this morning -- you see, it turns out the Rose Garden is Barney's turf. So the press corps is a little nervous, as well.

This is an election year, so it is fitting that the names of these two birds were chosen through the democratic process. After a long, drawn out election season, when the people finally spoke, the name of the ticket sent here to the White House was Pumpkin and Pecan. Pumpkin is right there. Pecan is in an undisclosed location.

Pumpkin and Pecan have an exciting trip ahead of them: Later today, they will fly to Disneyland aboard "Turkey One." Pumpkin will be the honorary Grand Marshal of Disneyland's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Together these birds will gobble the rest of their days in "The Happiest Place on Earth." I just hope they stay humble there.

Isn't Pumpkin hilarious looking? He's so surly. Love it.