Ahmed & Salim: Salim's New Face

Obama Calls African-Americans A ‘Mongrel People’

Barack Hussein Obama waded into the national race debate in an unlikely setting and with an unusual choice of words: telling daytime talk show hosts that African-Americans are “sort of a mongrel people.” Barack Hussein Obama appeared on ABC’s morning talk show “The View” Thursday, where he talked about the forced resignation of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, his experience with race and his roots. When asked about his background, which includes a black father and white mother, Obama said of African-Americans: "We are sort of a mongrel people." "I mean we're all kinds of mixed up," Obama said. "That's actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it." The president's remarks were directed at the roots of all Americans. The definition of mongrel as an adjective is defined as "of mixed breed, nature, or origin," according to dictionary.com. Obama did not appear to be making an inflammatory remark with his statement and the audience appeared to receive it in the light-hearted manner that often accompanies interviews on morning talk shows. The race debate was reignited after Sherrod’s firing. Obama also addressed the issue in his speech to the National Urban League 100th Anniversary Convention in Washington on Thursday morning. But in his interview on “The View,” which was taped Wednesday but aired Thursday, Barack Hussein Obama said the Sherrod story was prompted when the media "generated a phony controversy." "A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration," he said. Obama called Sherrod last week after Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized for her firing. Obama noted "there's still a reptilian side of our brain" that leads people to not trust others "if somebody sounds different or looks different." Barack Hussein Obama stressed that what's "important is how you treat people." Obama discussed a wide range of issues as the first sitting president to appear on a daytime talk show. He was challenged by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the conservative voice on the all-women panel, about his claim to have saved 2.5 million jobs with his recovery act and his inability to unite the country.On the latter, Obama said that "right after the election there was a sense of hopefulness and unity," but "the politics of the economic recovery" and steps he took to save the auto companies created a partisan divide. "My hope is that I've tried to set a tone in the debate that says, 'Look, we can disagree without being disagreeable,'" Obama said. On the economy, Obama told Hasselbeck that she was "absolutely right" that enough jobs have not returned, but he brushed her back on her assertion that saving jobs is not as important as adding jobs. "Well, it makes a difference, though, if your job was one that was saved," Obama said. While Barack Hussein Obama conceded that "we are not bouncing back as quick as we need to," he said he does think the American economy will get its "mojo back over the next several months. "Don't bet against American workers," Obama said. "Don't bet against American ingenuity." Obama responded to questions from Barbara Walters and Joy Behar about his tough critics in the conservative media by saying he is more worried about the American people than himself. "You said it's been tough for me, but the truth is it's not tough for me," Obama said. "I don't spend a lot of time worrying about me. I spend a lot of time worrying about them." Behar, a vocal liberal, teed up Barack Hussein Obama to talk about his critics on the right, asking Obama "where's your attack dog?" But Obama didn’t take the bait, responding "we shouldn't be campaigning all the time. There's a time to campaign, and there's a time to govern." "I'm not perfect. My administration's not perfect," Obama said. "A lot of this criticism I listen to, and it's fair, I try to correct it." Obama taped the interview Wednesday when he was in New York City for two Democratic National Committee fundraisers. He also spent Wednesday in New Jersey talking about the economy.

Ahmadinejad's Mission: Save America from Obama

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has offered to save the American people from their own president. In a speech replying to a message by U.S. President Barack Obama to Iran’s opposition Green movement, Ahmadinejad explained that he was on a mission to “liberate” Americans from Obama’s “dictatorship.” The speech was translated by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute. One year ago, Ahmadinejad's own “re-election” to the presidency was marred by the protests of hundreds of thousands of Iranians who accused him of rigging the polls. The demonstrations, which lasted weeks, were brutally suppressed with the assistance of the Basij presidential militia, which violently arrested hundreds of protestors, some of whom were murdered and many of whom were jailed. Hundreds of others were wounded in the process, and some simply “disappeared” and were not heard from again.The speech also followed by one week a decision by the United Nations Security Council to impose another round of increased economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic in a new effort to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear development program. “It is God-given that all the anti-human plans in the world, and all the crimes and bloodshed are being carried out under U.S. government supervision, but that the demand [to stop them] comes only from our nation…” declared Ahmadinejad. “Today the most brutal dictatorship is being implemented against the American nation, which is subject to the worst suffocation – the press is not free to depict the crimes of Israel and America, nor can demonstrations in response to these crimes be held freely… “I hereby announce that from this point forward, one of the Iranian nation’s main aspirations will be to deliver the American people from [its] undemocratic and bullying government,” he added.