(The) guest list included the actors Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood, the directors Steven Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan, the writer Jhumpa Lahiri, former secretary of state Colin Powell, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a Republican, and Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of Pepsico.

India's is an ancient culture which is the first known to have employed usury: A culture that can make a lot of money while producing nothing, or makes a productive sustainable society, and economy, that benefits all.

Bread & circuses, not politics.

forgive the cheapening of the thread, but let's talk about 60-something David Geffen, and his 20-something boyfriend seated at head table!!

It's well known that movie mogul David Geffen is Obama's Gay Friend. This was reinforced by tonight's state dinner, where Geffen sat at Obama's table. Oh, and Geffen's plus one was there, too: His hunky, 26-year-old boyfriend.

This is such an interesting post - can you be more specific about your opinions?

Usury - lending at interest or excessive interest - has, according to known records, been practiced in various parts of the world for at least four thousand years. During this time, there is substantial evidence of intense criticisism by various traditions, institutions and social reformers on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds. The rationale employed by these wide-ranging critics have included arguments about work ethic, social justice, economic instability, ecological destruction and inter-generational equity. While the contemporary relevance of these largely historical debates are not analysed in detail, the authors contend that their significance is greater than ever before in the context of the modern interest-based global economy.

True party crashers @ the WH state dinner. Pretty brave if you ask me, especially since it appears that someone slipped them in.

The party crashers were being filmed as possible subjects for a reality show. Like the Heene family (balloon boy), it seems like everybody wants to be a reality TV star.

And what's with the secret service? If they can't keep party crashers out of a state dinner for a foreign head of state, how are they supposed to be protecting the president from evildoers (domestic and foreign)? All the terrorists need to do is disguise themselves as a well-dressed white couple and bingo--instant access.

If some attendees wandered over and said hello while they were talking to security, it's a little easier to see how this could happen, but it still doesn't excuse a potentially dangerous security breach. Who knows what other connections they might have. Bin Laden's rather well-connected, too.

Bet they'd be surprised @ what their holy scriptures say about this practice & its immoral implications, especially on the poor & downtrodden.

Question: is it me or does it seem that the Prez & Geffen's beau are looking longingly @ each other?

UPDATE: According to a CNN source inside the White House, the couple that crashed the first Obama administration state dinner DID in fact meet the president despite earlier reports that Tareq and Michaele Salahi never came in contact with the president.

AP- Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the couple who crashed the White House state dinner, may face criminal charges, the Secret Service announced today.

The head of the Secret Service said today that his agency failed to verify whether the couple was invited to the party and expressed his deep concern and embarrassment. Director Mark Sullivan went on to say that measures have been taken to ensure this will not happen again

Jim Mackin, the agency's spokesman, said this is one reason the Secret Service has kept mum about what happened when the couple, who are auditioning for the Bravo reality show "The Real Housewives of DC", arrived at the security checkpoint Tuesday. They were not on the guest list for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but managing to get into the party, where they posed for photos with Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Representative Peter T. King of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, called for a Congressional investigation, saying in an interview Thursday that he was shocked at the lack of security at the White House on Tuesday night.
* * *
Mr. King said he had seen people turned away from similar White House events, including a congressman who brought his daughter instead of his wife, whose name was on the list. He also raised concerns about the Secret Service’s assertion that Mr. Obama was safe because all guests passed through metal detectors.

“The fact they went through the magnometer is incidental,” he said. “They could have had anthrax on them. They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table.”
* * *
Not two hours after the party, Mrs. Salahi had on her Facebook page a dozen photos of her and her husband with Washington’s social elite.

Whether or not they wind up on “Housewives,” the couple have certainly acted as if they were stars. They are now scheduled to be on “Larry King Live” on Monday.

Television industry executives said on Saturday that Michaele and Tareq Salahi had postponed plans for an interview Monday on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and were seeking top-dollar bids for their first television interview.
* * *
For years, the Salahis have publicized their own flashy adventures in the social and sporting scenes of Washington and its outlying horse country, and left behind a record of lawsuits and unpaid bills, many from the bankruptcy of the family vineyard after extended litigation between Mr. Salahi and his parents.
* * *
As questions continued to swirl about the pair’s most remarkable appearance to date, a television network executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly comment on payments, said the couple’s asking price for an interview was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “They are asking for best offers from all the networks,” the executive said. Programs quietly pay steep fees for photographs and videos to secure interviews in some cases.
* * *
The Salahis were not national celebrities but they assiduously cultivated an image as well-connected Washington socialites.
* * *
... the Salahis moved through Washington’s social elite with a sense of privilege even though their business had been in bankruptcy and they left some personal bills unpaid.

For her wedding, Mrs. Salahi ran up a tab of thousands of dollars having her hair and makeup done at the Erwin Gomez Salon, an exclusive establishment in Georgetown that says it helped prepare members of the Obama family on Inauguration Day.

But James Packard-Gomez, the salon’s creative director, said in an interview on Saturday that even though Mrs. Salahi had never paid her bill, she continued to book appointments and the salon continued to serve her.

One night out with friends, Harshman said, she was surprised when Michaele casually mentioned that she was a model. "I said, 'You never mentioned this to me before.' " Later, Harshman said, "it grew into 'supermodel.' I ignored it half the time."

Last year Michaele, now 44, told a Post reporter that she had been a Washington Redskins cheerleader, and she has been photographed at several alumni events. But the cheerleaders' director of marketing, Melanie Coburn, wrote in an e-mail: "We have no record of her being a member of the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders."

Nor could the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders Alumni Association find any record of her, said Terri Crane-Lamb, president of the association.

One former cheerleader, Konnie McKee, said Michaele came to alumni events, but no one remembered her being on the squad. McKee and Crane-Lamb noticed Michaele attending WRCAA events. "I remember Terri and I talking: 'What's the deal? Does anyone remember her?' "

Jones, a career military officer who serves as the Pentagon’s White House liaison, exchanged e-mails with the Salahis about the state dinner, but denies she promised them admittance.

“I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening’s events,” Jones said in a statement released by the White House late Monday. “I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.”

Late Monday, a Washington, D.C., television station reported that the Salahis crashed a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner on Sept. 26 at which Obama spoke. The station’s Web site quoted a foundation representative, Lance Jones, as saying the Salahis were escorted out by security guards after they were caught sitting at a table paid for by other donors.

On her Facebook page, Michaele Sahali expressed her desire to be famous: “Get Ready Kelly Ripa — Don’t you want a friend to tag team Regis!” She even wrote that she wanted to co-host TODAY.