By JEFF ZELENY and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
President Obama has taken away Mitt Romney’s longstanding advantage as the candidate voters say is most likely to restore the economy and create jobs, according to the latest poll by The New York Times and CBS News, which found a modest sense of optimism among Americans that White House policies are working.
Posts published in “News”
President Barack Obama greets members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House September 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama gathered Team USA at the White House on Friday to hail the Olympians and Paralympians as conquering heroes. “We could not be prouder of you. You gave us a summer that we will never forget,” he told more than 400 athletes crowding bleachers on the South Lawn. Obama was joined by his wife Michelle, who was in London for the opening of the 2012 Summer Games and led the official U.S. delegation, and Vice President Joe Biden.
PHILADELPHIA — Retired boxing greatMuhammad Ali (pictured) will visit Philadelphia to receive the Liberty Medal, an award recognizing his longtime role as a fighter outside the ring for humanitarian causes, civil rights, and religious freedom.
The honor will be presented on Thursday during a ceremony at the National Constitution Center by the champ’s daughter, who is also a boxer, and two U.S. Olympic athletes. It comes with a $100,000 cash prize.“ Ali embodies the spirit of the Liberty Medal by embracing the ideals of the Constitution – freedom, self-governance, equality and empowerment – and helping to spread them across the globe,” former President Bill Clinton, the center’s chairman, said in a statement. Since hanging up his gloves in 1981, Ali has traveled extensively on international charitable missions and devoted his time to philanthropy and social causes.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the U.S. is safer and its people resilient on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama laid a wreath at the Pentagon, one of several official observances marking the suicide hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
Frederick Douglass (file photo)
The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday night approved a resolution that will move the bust of Frederick Douglass to the Capitol, making him only the third African-American to be so honored. The other two: Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth. There are 180 busts on display at the Capitol.
For years, the so-called National Organization for Marriage, the anti-gay group at the helm of many campaigns opposing the freedom to marry, has made it their focus to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks,” a strategy specifically outlined in a series of classified documents that came to light earlier this year. The organization has tried desperately to pit minority group against minority group in its efforts to push its agenda.
But in recent months, we’ve seen time and time again that NOM’s efforts are failing. African-American support for the freedom to marry is at an all-time high, and it continues to increase steadily as we approach the November 6 election. Our first African-American president also became the first sitting president to announce his support for ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. And the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a longtime supporter of the LGBT community, adopted an official resolution in favor of the freedom to marry back in May of this year.
Today, Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the NAACP published an editorial about why the marriage campaign in Maryland matters.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker wowed ‘em at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday when he offered the party’s 2012 platform to delegates. Here are a few excerpts:
“Our platform emphasizes that a vibrant, free, and fair market is essential to economic growth. We also must pull from our highest ideals of justice and protect against those ills that destabilized our economy – like predatory lending, over-leveraged financial institutions, and the unchecked avarice of the past that trumped fairness and common sense.”
“When your country is in a costly war, with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn’t class warfare — it’s patriotism. But we all know – it’s common sense – that for an economy built to last we must invest in what will power us for generations to come.”
“This is our American mission. These are the dreams of our fathers and mothers. This is the demand from the next generation, who call to our conscience in a chorus of conviction, in classrooms from coast to coast, north to south, when they proudly proclaim with those sacred words from our most profound pledge, that we are a nation with liberty, and justice, for all. And this November, with the reelection of President Barack Obama, this generation of Americans will ever expand upon the hope, the truth, and the promise of America.”
He got a standing ovation and there were people wiping tears from their eyes. Booker clearly liked being in the spotlight.
by Bob Ingle via blogs.app.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPdKUA9Ipg&w=560&h=315]
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu called Sunday for Tony Blair and George Bush to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for their role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”
The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.
“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added.
Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”
The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.
“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added.