1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
James 4:1-3
Article Two of the United States Constitution creates the executive branch of the government, consisting of the president and other executive officers.
Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
The World Listens
BBC WORLD SERVICE
Editor's Choice
-
NewsFull video footage of President Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union address
-
NewsA recap of the US President's third annual State of the Union address, along with key points
-
NewsA look at the background behind the annual keynote speech by the US president to Congress
News239 results>
-
US & Canada / NEW 6 hours agoSuch was the message of President Obama's State of the Union address." Republicans have repeatedly rejected Mr Obama's call for higher taxes on…
-
Asia / NEW 7 hours ago… desire to reverse the image that America is clearly in decline, while China is inexorably rising. In both of Mr Obama's State of the Union speeches…
-
NEW 7 hours agoA Levittown business owner and resident reacts to President Obama's State of the Union…
Live coverage of President Barack Obama's State Of The Union speech to the US Congress.
… with coverage of President Obama's State of the Union Address…
Fact Checking: Obama's State Of The Union Address
January 25, 2012
Listen to the Story
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145826055/fact-checking-state-of-the-union-address
January 25, 2012
President Obama gave, what his opponents hope, will be his last State of the Union address Tuesday night. To check the facts in the president's speech, Steve Inskeep talks to NPR reporters Tom Gjelten, John Ydstie, David Welna, Elizabeth Shogren and Claudio Sanchez. Steve also talks to David Wessel of The Wall Street Journal.
In the mind of his supporters, President Obama's State of the Union speech last night was the last of his first term. His opponents hope it's the last State of the Union speech he will ever give. The president delivered a series of challenges to Congress assembled before him. And also detailed steps he'll take even if Congress does not agree.
We're reporting on that speech and reaction to it throughout today's program. And this is where we've gathered our correspondents to check some of the president's facts.
The president, for example, highlighted the killing of Osama bin Laden and then said this about the war in Afghanistan.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The Taliban's momentum has been broken and some troops in Afghanistan had begun to come home.
INSKEEP: NPR's Tom Gjelten covers national security issues. Tom, has the Taliban's momentum been broken in Afghanistan?
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: In some parts of Afghanistan, Steve, that is true. The Taliban's momentum has been broken. But those gains are tenuous. And what's not clear is what will happen when U.S. troops leave Afghanistan. The president in that speech said the transition to Afghan lead will continue and we will build an enduring partnership with Afghanistan.
INSKEEP: NPR's John Ydstie covers economics and was listening to that claim. And, John, the Republicans will say employment has fallen during the president's administration. The president dare suggested that jobs have been created during his administration. Is he correct?
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Well, more jobs have been lost than were created. But he's actually correct in the way he stated it. He acknowledged that four million jobs have been lost during his administration and...
INSKEEP: In the early months after the...
YDSTIE: Right. And then later on, three million jobs created. But one footnote is that government has lost jobs while the private sector has created three million. And so, the net jobs created since the bottom of the recession is 2,750,000.
INSKEEP: So it's a mixed picture. It depends on when you start counting here and exactly what you count.
OBAMA: American oil production is the highest that it's been in eight years. That's right, eight years. Not only that, last year we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past 16 years.
INSKEEP: NPR's Elizabeth Shogren was listening to that claim. And, Elizabeth, given how much the president has been criticized for being resistant to drilling in the United States, could that actually be true, we're relying less on foreign oil?
ELIZABETH SHOGREN, BYLINE: Yes, in fact it is true. In 2006, when there was another State of the Union address, President Bush then said that we were addicted to foreign oil. And at that point, 60 percent of our oil was coming from foreign sources. Now it's just less than half. And the Energy Information Agency says that in fact the trend is going to continue in that positive direction and that within a couple of decades it's going to be even less, say something like 36 percent.
And it's also true that domestic production of oil is on the rise. And this is a major breakthrough, something we haven't seen for a long time. In fact, the oil companies say that there are more rigs drilling for oil in the United States now than there have been for 25 years.
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145826055/fact-checking-state-of-the-union-address
Members Of Congress React To Obama's Speech
January 25, 2012
President Obama has delivered what could be his last State of the Union address as he fights for re-election. How did speech go over with the 535 members of Congress? Among those commenting, California Republican Dana Rohrbacher said Obama tried to take both sides on a lot of issues. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145826039/members-of-congress-react-to-obamas-speech
Gingrich Draws Enthusiastic Crowds In Florida
by Brian Naylor
January 25, 2012
The Republican presidential candidates continue campaigning in Florida in advance of next Tuesdays GOP primary. Newt Gingrich, who is leading the polls, made a series of stops along the state's Gulf Coast. He attacked President Obama for high gas prices. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145826043/gingrich-draws-enthusiastic-crowds-in-florida
Romney Chides Obama For Not Fixing Housing Crisis
by Ari Shapiro
January 25, 2012
Mitt Romney has spent a lot of his time in Florida talking about home foreclosures. The housing crisis is one of the few problems that Romney can use to attack both his Republican rival Newt Gingrich and President Obama. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145826045/romney-chides-obama-for-not-fixing-housing-crisis
Tax Returns Show Romney's Complicated Finances
by Jim Zarroli
January 25, 2012
Listen to the Story
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145828850/how-romney-made-his-money-and-what-he-did-with-it
January 25, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earned more than $42 million over the past two years — the bulk of it from an array of stocks and investment funds. And he paid about 15 percent of what he made in taxes. The release of some 500 pages of tax returns give a much fuller picture of how he made his money and what he did with it.
We now know that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made over $42 million over the past two years, most of it from an array of stocks and investment funds. We also know that he paid around 15 percent in taxes on that income. Romney gave in to his political rivals yesterday when he released some 500 pages of tax returns. And those pages gave a much fuller picture of his income and what he's done with it. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Romney had planned to wait until April to release his taxes, when he hoped to have the nomination sewn up. But after his second-place finish in South Carolina this weekend, he decided to try to get the issue behind him. Yesterday, he released his 2011 estimated return, his 2010 return, as well as the returns for his charitable foundation and three family trusts.
Tax attorney Jeff Kolodny, of Cozen O'Connor, says the fact that the returns are so voluminous underscores how complex his finances are.
JEFF KOLODNY: He's got a lot of different kind of investments that are somewhat sophisticated, and there's a lot to report about them. So it's not a function so much of his wealth, as much as the number of different investments that generate income.
ZARROLI: Romney, who's worth as much as a quarter billion dollars, made a fortune from his involvement with the private equity firm Bain Capital. Even though he was long gone by 2010, he continued to take a part of the profits. He also made money from numerous foreign and domestic stocks, hedge funds and investment funds - much of them owned through a pair of blind trusts.
And Alan Weiner says fair or not, Romney was operating within the law.
WEINER: If Congress changed the law then this would be ordinary income. I mean you speak to the future. I mean the past is the past.
ZARROLI: The returns also show that Romney and his wife, Ann, made some $7 million in charitable contributions. Most of it went into their family foundation, which in turn gave money to numerous causes. They included the Mormon Church, Harvard Business School, Boys and Girls Clubs, City Year and the George W. Bush Library.
Until last year, the Romneys also had nearly a million and a half dollars in a Swiss bank account. Asked why they had closed the account, their trustee said it was no longer serving any particular purpose. But the move came at a time when the U.S. government was cracking down on Americans with Swiss accounts. And that was generating some negative headlines.
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/25/145828850/how-romney-made-his-money-and-what-he-did-with-it
Wednesday January 25, 2012
http://iowapublicradio.org/news/the-exchange/
Analysis of President Obama's State of the Union Address
In this Jan. 25, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address at the Capitol in Washington.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
Diane and guests discuss President Obama's State of the Union Address.
Building an economy that’s built to last, reclaiming the American dream, and economic fairness: these were some of the main themes of President Obama’s State of the Union address. He spoke last night about the challenges this country faces and the teamwork he believes will be required to boost economic growth. Governor Mitch Daniels, who offered the Republican response, connected the slow growth of recent years to the President’s stewardship of a government that stifles private enterprise and fails to address staggering government debt: Join us for analysis on the speech and the presidential campaign ahead.
Guests
senior fellow, The Brookings Institution, columnist, Washington Post and author of "Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right" and of "Stand Up Fight Back."
professor and director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University; author of "Obama in Office: The First Two Years."
chief political correspondent, Washington Examiner.
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-01-25/analysis-president-obamas-state-union-address
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
David Biddle
jmac1949
Snowden
libbyliberalnyc
skypixie0
Jimmy Zuma
Salon.com
Comments