“When My Situation Ain’t Improvin, I’m Tryin To Murder Everything Movin, Feel Me?!”

John McCormack at The Weekly Standard:

The Situation Room in the White House was reserved for national security meetings in previous administrations. Apparently in the Obama administration it’s used not only to map out campaign strategy, but for celebrity photo-ops as well

If Jay-Z was the one who talked some sense into the White House on trying KSM in a military tribunal, perhaps this photo-op isn’t such a breach of decorum after all. The nation would be truly indebted to him. Then again, we shouldn’t discount any sensible detainee policy recommendations that may have been offered by Shakira.

Ben Smith at Politico:

Jay-Z bragged at a show Wednesday that he’d just come from the White House, and the website Rap Radar has a photo that appears to show the rapper — who graced Obama’s campaign iPod — and friends posing around the table at what appears, from the table and the ceiling fixtures, to be the Situation Room.

Jay-Z is in the president’s seat, and given that he refers to himself as “Hov” (a reference to “Jehovah”), maybe it’s not that much of a stretch.

(h/t TWS)

UPDATE: The pictures appear to have first made their appearance on Twitter, and the woman who posted them — then took them down — says she’s been told they “shouldn’t have been up” and declined to comment further.

Michael Scherer at Swampland at Time:

One of the best songs on Jay-Z’s latest album, Blueprint 3, runs like this:

Uhh, I don’t know why they worry ’bout my pockets
Meanwhile I had Oprah chillin in the projects
Had her out in Bed-Stuy, chillin on the steps
Drinkin quarter waters, I gotta be the best
M.J. at Summer Jam, Obama on the text
Y’all should be afraid of what I’m gon’ do next
Hold up

We can only imagine the next Hova-Obama couplet, after Jay-Z and his wife, Beyonce Knowles, got a tour of the White House this week, and a chance to pose for pictures in the White House Situation Room. Hold up

[…]

Commenter nonplussed2 points to these lyrics from an earlier track on the same album:

And now that that’s that
Lets talk about the future
We have just seen the dream as predicted by Martin Luther
Now you could choose ta
Sit in front of your computa
Posin’ with guns
Shootin YouTube up
Or you could come with me to the White House get your suit up

Earlier in the same track, come these lines:

Please, We ain’t focused on naps
Cuz I don’t run rap no more I run the map
A small part of the reason the President is black
I told him I got him when he hit me on the jack
Talkin’ bout progress I ain’t lookin back

Wonkette:

We’re not sure if the AOL-email-chain-level wingnuts are furious about this yet, but they will be for about six months. That’s Jay-Z and the Beyonce lady with friends posing in the White House Situation Room the other day, just cold launchin’ nukes at white cities. The Weekly Standard is sounding the wingnut alarm.

Doug Mataconis at Below The Beltway:

My reaction ?

Jed Bartlett had a much cooler Sit Room:

UPDATE: Ta-Nehisi Coates