Petitions. Official Department of State Response to STOP EXPANDING TRADE WITH VIETNAM AT THE EXPENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS Please see the bottom of the response for the Vietnamese translation. By Michael Posner I would like to thank all of you who signed this petition underscoring Americans' concern for human rights in Vietnam and the United States-Vietnam relationship. As our dialogue with Vietnam evolves, we are especially cognizant of the views of the Vietnamese community in the U.S. The United States will remain diligent in pursuing progress on human rights in our high-level engagement as we pursue a wide array of security, economic, and strategic interests with Vietnam. My colleague, Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, underscored these concerns directly with Vietnamese officials during his most recent visit to Hanoi on February 2. The Obama Administration is committed to an ongoing dialogue with the Vietnamese American community.
Signatures: 19 of 150,945. Live Video - C-SPAN3. BBC - Democracy Live - Full video: President Obama's speech to UK Parliament. The UK and US are at a "pivotal moment" in their relationship and "profound challenges" lie ahead, US President Barack Obama has told MPs and peers in Westminster on 25 May 2011 In a historic speech to both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall, the president said the special relationship between the two nations was founded not only on shared history and language but common beliefs and values "that have united our people through the ages". Rejecting arguments that emerging superpowers like China, India and Brazil meant the end for American and European influence in the world, he stressed the time for European and US leadership was "now", in a speech that covered a range of issues including foreign policy, economic development and international security. It is rare for a foreign head of state to address both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.
Last September Pope Benedict became the third visiting dignitary to address both Houses in Westminster Hall since World War II. Obama honors "America's guardians" ARLINGTON, Va. - President Barack Obama honored America's fallen service members, and called on Americans to remember their sacrifice. In a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery Monday, Mr. Obama expressed the honor and solemn responsibility he feels serving as commander in chief of "one of the finest fighting forces the world has ever known. " He paid tribute to service members who lost their lives in service: "Venerable warriors who lay here and across this country and around the globe.
Each of them adds honor to what it means to be a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Coast Guardsman. Each is a link in an unbroken chain that stretches back to the earliest days of our republic. "And on this day, we memorialize them all. "The patriots we memorialize today sacrificed not only all they had but all they would ever know. "But on this day we remember that it is on our behalf that they gave their lives. "We remember that the blessings we enjoy as Americans came at a dear cost. Obama and Libya: Obama goes to war in Libya. It's a good thing we didn't elect John McCain in 2008. A McCain victory would have meant an escalation in Afghanistan, a third war in the Middle East and a president sending U.S. forces into harm's way heedless of public opinion or congressional power.
Instead, we elected Barack Obama, who firmly rejected military action for purely humanitarian reasons. In his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq war, Obama insisted that though Saddam Hussein "butchers his own people to secure his own power," the war was unjustified. Hussein, he pointed out, "poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors" and "can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. " In 2008, we saw debates between Obama and his rival contenders. Now we are seeing a debate between Obama the candidate and Obama the president. Candidate Obama was firm in his opposition to the Iraq war. Bush made the case for removing Hussein over months. George W. Obama Letter to Congress on Libya Sparks Protests. President Obama on the Situation in Egypt. THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, everybody.
My administration has been closely monitoring the situation in Egypt, and I know that we will be learning more tomorrow when day breaks. As the situation continues to unfold, our first concern is preventing injury or loss of life. So I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protestors.
The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. I also call upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they’ve taken to interfere with access to the Internet, to cell phone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the 21st century. At the same time, those protesting in the streets have a responsibility to express themselves peacefully. In the absence of these reforms, grievances have built up over time. Worldview's Channel. Longing for Partisanship! State of the Union 2011. The formal basis for the State of the Union address is from the U.S. Constitution: The President "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union," Article II, Section 3, Clause 1.
From 1790 to 1934, the State of the Union Address was known as the Annual Message. President Franklin Roosevelt first referred to the Annual Message as the "State of the Union Address," a title that became official during the Truman Administration. In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson chose to send his address in writing, a precedent that held until President Woodrow Wilson delivered his message in person in 1913. President Calvin Coolidge’s 1923 Annual Message was the first to be broadcast nationally on radio. President Harry Truman’s 1947 State of the Union was the first to be broadcast on television. President George W. President George W. President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 State of the Union address was rescheduled because the Challenger disaster took place earlier in the day.
Can Immelt Serve Both Obama and GE? - Clyde Prestowitz - The Conversation. By Clyde Prestowitz | 4:34 PM January 24, 2011 President Obama’s appointment last week of GE Chairman Jeff Immelt as chairman of his board of outside economic advisers poses an interesting and fundamentally important question: Can the CEO of an American global company chair a panel that gives more than conventional bromides as advice to the President? Let’s take a very fresh recent example involving GE. As China’s President Hu Jintao was preparing to arrive in Washington last week, GE announced the conclusion of an agreement to do a joint venture with China’s state owned company Avic to produce in China the avionics for China’s new C919 commercial jet liner. The deal will result in transfer of most, if not all, of GE’s advanced avionics technology to the joint venture with the strong possibility that it will also find its way to Avic and/or others in China outside the joint venture as other technologies have been doing in similar cases in other industries.
But that’s the point. Statement by the President on Events in Tunisia. Tucson shootings: Let us heal together, Obama says at memorial event. TUCSON - President Obama comforted a community suffused with grief and summoned the nation to recommit to a more civil public discourse as he delivered a eulogy Wednesday evening urging Americans to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. " Evoking memories of the six killed here Saturday, Obama seized upon the mass shooting at a congresswoman's supermarket meet-and-greet to tackle directly the subject of the nation's harsh political dialogue.
He sharply decried the "politics and point-scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle. " "Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together," Obama told 14,000 people at the University of Arizona's McKale Memorial Center. Judge Larry A. Live Coverage: Memorial in Tucson | The Rundown News Blog. The White House. President Obama: Memorial in Arizona. McKale Memorial Center University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Please, please be seated. To the families of those we’ve lost; to all who called them friends; to the students of this university, the public servants who are gathered here, the people of Tucson and the people of Arizona: I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow.
There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts. Scripture tells us: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. On Saturday morning, Gabby, her staff and many of her constituents gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech. And that quintessentially American scene, that was the scene that was shattered by a gunman’s bullets. Judge John Roll served our legal system for nearly 40 years. Girl’s Death in Tucson Hits Home for Obama. Remarks by the President at a Memorial Service for the Victims of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona. The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 12, 2011 McKale Memorial Center University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
(Applause.) To the families of those we’ve lost; to all who called them friends; to the students of this university, the public servants who are gathered here, the people of Tucson and the people of Arizona: I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow. There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts.
Scripture tells us: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. On Saturday morning, Gabby, her staff and many of her constituents gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech. And that quintessentially American scene, that was the scene that was shattered by a gunman’s bullets. Gabby opened her eyes.