He bowed to an EMPEROR. Apparently that’s a problem. Here’s a quote from a conservative who spoke on Fox News: “..it’s not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one.”

President praises work of MIT

And then there’s the victor, Barack Obama, a Harvard law school graduate, community organizer, civil rights lawyer, law professor, junior senator and president of the most “powerful” country in the world. A stunning resume, but where are the accomplishments? The peace work, the advocacy, the results?

Just as President Obama, during a speech about health care reform at a joint session of Congress Wednesday night stated his new health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Joe Wilson did the unthinkable. “You lie!” he shouted at the President, anger spewing from his mouth and his gaze.

In a recent letter FBI head Robert Mueller brutally attacked the Scottish government and Secretary of Justice Kenny MacAskill over the recent release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man widely known as the Lockerbie bomber.

EarthTalk answers: Do insulating paints work? And what does Obama think of “clean” coal?

I thought it was really effective in its own way and for its own purpose, which was to get Muslims and Americans thinking about their attitudes toward one another and to show the Arab world that America’s new government is committed to mending international relationships that have been negatively affected by Muslim extremists.

The way in which Islam is portrayed in western media is not its true form. Extremists have soiled the foundation of the world’s second largest religion. A lot of people have an innate prejudice towards anyone who looks remotely Muslim or even just dark and suspicious.

Pakistan’s Swat Valley has become the site of yet another humanitarian crisis as nearly half a million inhabitants flee in efforts to escape the battle between the Taliban and government troops, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The proposed budget cuts only account for about 0.5 per cent of the total 2010 approved spending, but Obama stressed that while this is true, this particular $17 billion can be put to much better use than it has been in Washington.

President Obama sent heads spinning earlier this year by giving the Prime Minister of Britain a gift that some deemed hardly worthy in comparison to the gift that the Prime Minister gave to the President.
The Prime Minister, if you recall, gave the President Obama a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century [...]

President Obama’s spare Air Force One and two F-16 fighter jets caused momentary panic in New York City today, when they drifted over skyscrapers in Manhattan for a photo-op.

According to this blog, nothing has happened in world news for three weeks. That’s my bad. First off, I just want to say sorry for not posting in almost a month. I was swamped with school work, finals and assignments to end off the year. But now, I’m in the clear, so I can again devote some time every day to writing for Blast.

Obama said that carmakers like G.M. and Chrysler have come up with projections that do not qualify them to receive the billions of dollars for which they are asking.

Ever wonder what astronauts do in their spare time? You guessed it. Details inside.

President Obama ordered treasury secretary Timothy Geithner Monday to take all legal action needed to stop the payment of nearly $165 million in bonuses handed out by AIG to its executives, according to IHT.

The Bush Era stem cell funding ban will be lifted on Monday.

March 7 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s expected reversal of an 8-year-old restriction on U.S. funding for embryonic stem cell research has excited scientists and health advocates who say the action will accelerate the search for cures to major illness.

Obama plans to lift the funding ban, imposed by former President George W. Bush, in a March 9 signing ceremony, said two government officials, who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity. Bush objected to the use of the tissue because the process caused the destruction of human embryos.

In a wide ranging NYT interview, Obama mulls reaching out to elements of the Taliban.

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq.

Mr. Obama pointed to the success in peeling Iraqi insurgents away from more hard-core elements of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a strategy that many credit as much as the increase of American forces with turning the war around in the last two years. “There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region,” he said, while cautioning that solutions in Afghanistan will be complicated.

He will also start easing restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba.

President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US’s tattered reputation in Latin America.

The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month’s Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president’s regional debut and signal a new era of “Yankee” cooperation.

The administration has moved to ease draconian travel controls and lift limits on cash remittances that Cuban-Americans can send to the island, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families.

• The new head of the FCC is an internet expert who is a strong advocate for net neutrality and cheaper broadband access.

As anticipated, Julius Genachowski has been tapped by President Barack Obama to head the Federal Communications Commission.

The move is another indication that incoming leadership in Washington will move decisively to protect the free flowing Internet from those seeking to become gatekeepers to new media.

It also fulfills Obama’s promise made on the campaign trail to appoint an FCC chair who shares his support for Net Neutrality.

• Obama’s secret letter to Russia purportedly said if Russia helps with Iran, the European missile defense system will no longer be needed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he wanted to work with Russia to resolve a nuclear stand-off with Iran but denied reports he had offered to slow deployment of a missile defense shield in exchange for Moscow’s help.

The New York Times reported that Obama had sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting he would back off deploying a system in eastern Europe to intercept and destroy missiles, a move Russia sees as a military threat, if Moscow helped stop Iran from developing long-range weapons.

• Department of Justice halts a death penalty case.

SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama’s Justice Department halted the death penalty trial of an alleged San Francisco gang leader Monday by accepting a 40-year prison sentence that the Bush administration had vetoed.

The plea agreement for Emile Fort remained on hold after a federal judge heard a tearful plea from a murder victim’s mother for a life sentence and summoned prosecutors to a closed-door session to describe their case against Fort.

• The days of no bid government contracts are now over.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the way the U.S. government awards contracts for private sector work, reversing a Bush administration policy that in some cases led to federal investigations of procurement practices and no-bid contracts.

Obama joined Republican Sen. John McCain, his presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures to announce an executive memorandum that commits his administration to a new set of marching orders for awarding contracts. Obama said “the days of giving government contractors a blank check are over” and said changes could save up to $40 billion a year.

• Obama unveils his new budget. It includes billions for health care, an additional $750 billion for banks, as well as a tax increase for the wealthy.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, administration officials said Wednesday.

The tax proposal, coming after recent years in which wealth has become more concentrated at the top of the income scale, introduces a politically volatile edge to the Congressional debate over Mr. Obama’s domestic priorities.

The president will also propose, in the 10-year budget he is to release Thursday, to use revenues from the centerpiece of his environmental policy — a plan under which companies must buy permits to exceed pollution emission caps — to pay for an extension of a two-year tax credit that benefits low-wage and middle-income people.

• Obama plans to reinstitute the assault weapons ban. Recently, Mexico has complained that our assault weapons are contributing to their drug war.

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

• The Attorney General also said they would stop raiding medical marijuana clubs.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law. His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, and marks a major shift from the previous administration.

After the inauguration, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continued to carry out such raids, despite Obama’s promise. Holder was asked if those raids represented American policy going forward.

“No,” he said. “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”

The time has come. Obama’s first speech to a joint session of Congress takes place tonight at 9 p.m., broadcast on all major television stations. Will he extend a hand towards Iran, following up on his promise to engage in open discourse with President Ahmadinejad? What will he say about health care reform? The economy?

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