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First lady Michelle Obama cites 'remarkable progress' on the economyBy Alicia M. Cohn - 02/01/12 07:54 AM ET First Lady Michelle Obama cited "remarkable progress" on the economy during a speech for a small crowd of high-profile Hollywood names in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. "In the last three years, we've worked hard to get out of this mess and we've made some remarkable progress," the first lady told a group of about 135 supporters at a private campaign event for her husband. She listed President Obama's accomplishments on healthcare reform, the removal of troops from Iraq and the repeal...

  One of the mistakes that the West makes is that it doesn’t listen to what the Islamists are saying. If only we listened, we could hear their strategy. On November 20, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, the top Muslim Brotherhood theologian and arguably the most influential Sunni cleric in the world, called on Muslims to embrace “gradualism.”    The doctrine of gradualism is successful because we fail to appreciate the ability of the Islamists to be skillful political strategists. Gradualism is an intelligent form of jihad based on pragmatism, patience, long-term planning and self-evaluation. The Islamists evaluate their performance and recalibrate...

Several people have become interested in a quite controversial topic called "AGENDA 21." They have requested being on a ping list for this topic. While I do not have time to do a thorough treatment of this subject, nor am I in any way an expert, I am willing at least for a time,to ping people as I run across articles which might pertain to this concern. It might be good to start with an examination of just what it is or might be. To kick this discussion and exploration off,I did a Google search (just for fun) on "Agenda...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Koch Industries is looking to fill 2,500 job openings across the nation thanks to the commercial growth of most of its subsidiaries. Company officials said most of the 300 job openings at Koch Industries and 10 of its subsidiaries in Wichita are new, professional positions in areas such as information technology, accounting and engineering, The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/t02aP1) reported Friday. "Most of the job openings are due to growth as opposed to replacement," said Jeff Morris, director of talent development for Koch Industries. "It's a good problem to have," he said of the overall job openings....

About the It Gets Better Project The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better. What is the It Gets Better Project? In September 2010, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry Miller to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a...

Are we better off now then 3 years ago when Obama trash-talked the Bush economy? No. All measures are worse: Poverty, Employment, Income, Health Insurance Premiums, The Price of Gas, Home Values, Deficits, Debt ...

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

The majority of Russians remain dissatisfied with the progress of democratization in Russia, a new poll has found. The Moscow Times reports that 62 percent of people recently polled in an All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre survey answered that they are “dissatisfied with the development of democracy in Russia.” This number, however, is down marginally from the 73 percent who were dissatisfied with domestic conditions twenty years ago. Meanwhile, those who believe the country is showing progress are largely supporters of the ruling "United Russia" party, are under 45 years of age, and generally active Internet users. [Editors’ Note: Given...

On Jobs And Safety Net, Lawmakers Must Focus On Hard-Hit Minorities By Angela Glover Blackwell, Special to CNN August 5, 2011 Angela Glover Blackwell says blacks and Latinos hardest hit by unemployment She says debt deal leaves out unemployment insurance, job-creating investments Failure to do so will cost economy millions of jobs, gamble with U.S. future, she says Blackwell: Leaders must focus on robust, inclusive jobs agenda to ensure no one left behind (CNN) -- Last month, the Center for American Progress highlighted the stark and disproportionate impact of the ongoing jobs crisis on people of color, with unemployment among...

ABC has word that the deal is still tentative, but here is the outline: Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion Instead of Harry Reid’s bogus war savings, a commission will be appointed to recommend cuts totaling $1.8 trillion, thereby equaling the amount of the debt ceiling increase. That’s certainly an improvement over the Reid plan if the other cuts actually happen. I have my doubts whether the Democrats will follow through or simply use what they’ve already agreed to to demagogue the issue some more. So the bottom line is that both...

Some may have seen Mr. Díaz, a Democrat and a Pentecostal minister, as the Latino representative on the issue, but several same-sex couples in Queens — from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico — would debate that, if they were not so busy planning their weddings. “He pretends to speak for all of us, for Latinos, and I really do not think he does,” said Ana Maria Archila, a Colombian who decided on Friday night to marry her longtime partner after the State Senate voted to make same-sex unions legal.....Advocates for the two groups say that immigrants and gay...

Onward! Forward to backwardness! An update on this story. "Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists 'bombed Abuja police HQ'," from BBC News, June 17: An eyewitness told the BBC everybody was scared after the bombing There's that subheading again. And yes, bombs will do that. The Islamist group, Boko Haram, says it carried out Thursday's bombing of Nigeria's police headquarters which left at least six people dead. The attack comes days after Nigeria's police chief visited the north-eastern town of Maiduguri, where Boko Haram is based and vowed to defeat the group. The police say one of those who died was a...

Progress Toward the Dream of Space Drives and Stargates by Paul Gilster on May 23, 2011 by James F. WoodwardI first wrote about James Woodward’s work in my 2004 book Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration, and have often been asked since to comment further on his research. But it’s best to leave that to the man himself, and I’m pleased to turn today’s post over to him. A bit of biography: Jim Woodward earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at Middlebury College and New York University (respectively) in the 1960s. From his undergraduate days, his chief...

MIAMI (AP) -- President Barack Obama says that a slight dip in the unemployment rate to 8.9 percent is a sign of continued progress but that keeping that momentum going is important to the economic recovery. The government reported Friday that February's jobless rate had fallen to a two-year low, down from 9 percent in January.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2011 – Continued hard work will lead to sustained progress in Afghanistan this year, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force there told his troops in a letter dated today. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus addressed his comments to ISAF’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians. They and their Afghan counterparts “did tremendous work in 2010,” Petraeus wrote, terming their progress “impressive.” ISAF’s core objective in Afghanistan is to ensure that country never again becomes a sanctuary for al-Qaida or other transnational extremists, Petraeus wrote. Achieving that objective requires “a comprehensive civil-military campaign” aimed...

In Batavia, Ill. — just west of Chicago — you can walk along trails through a thousand-acre restored prairie filled with rare species like compass plant and rattlesnake master. From the edge of the prairie, you can see, as well, a four-mile ring of concrete and steel. That is the berm above the Tevatron, a high-energy subterranean racetrack for particle beams and the heart of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab. Since 1983, scientists have been using the Tevatron to create spectacular collisions between subatomic particles whose ghostly traces have helped reveal the fundamental constituents of matter, like the...

We have seen the hippie damage, and we hate it. Conservative America has been witness to the cultural damage and decay perpetrated on it by the left since the 1960s. We have stood back with jaw agape at the horrifying images of the American family disintegrating and drug use soaring, while the liberals nod approvingly, and call it "progress." This is astonishing. Without further investigation into their motives, you would think that they are simply trying to destroy our culture simply because they are hateful. It makes one wonder. Who, in their right mind would consider rising drug use and...

Measuring Spiritual Progress – (http://www.thatchristianwebsite.com/articles/progress.html)Our society is fascinated with measuring things. As early as kindergarten, children are taught to use a ruler and think about measures. Physicians measure height, weight, circumferences, blood pressure, pulse, temperature, blood counts, and more. Sports organizations measure kicks, throws, shots, jumps, running speeds, arm and leg strength, and scores. Humans are also fascinated with measurements in the weather: humidity, highs and lows, dew points, rainfall, and wind speed and direction. In business all kinds of things are measured: sales, quotas, employment, terminations, production, etc. And let’s not even get started on how many things the...

This 4-minute video dramatically depicts the global trends in health and wealth, from poor and sick to well and rich.

The motive to reform Islam from within is weaker than the motive of those like Martin Luther, as Islamists can point to the decline of Christian belief and assume the same would happen to Islam. It had not occurred to Protestant theologians who had been trying to “liberalize” and “modernize” Christianity … that they were thus undermining the very religion they were seeking to buttress “scientifically” … When the “protective covering” [of faith] is removed, no one should any longer be surprised to see [Christianity] quickly dry up. — Curtis Cate, from Friedrich Nietzsche. When the 21-year-old Friedrich Nietzsche, who...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that a peace agreement does not guarantee the existence of peace, which is why he insists on security arrangements.

In the early 1950s the same thought occurred to many people at once: things are improving so fast and so regularly, there might be a pattern to the improvements. Maybe we could plot technological progress to date, then extrapolate the curves and see what the future holds. Among the first to do this systemically was the US Air Force. They needed a long-term schedule of what kinds of planes they should be funding, but aerospace was one of the fastest moving frontiers in technology. Obviously they would build the fastest planes possible, but since it took decades to design, approve,...

The Two Faces of Feisal RaufWhat's wrong with What's Right With Islam. This is part two of a two-part series. You can read part one here.The problems with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s book What’s Right with Islam begin with the title. As Andrew McCarthy noted on National Review Online, the book, whose full title is now What’s Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West, was previously called What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America; before that, it was published in Malaysia as A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Sunday hailed reductions in violence in Iraq and said he believed Iraqis would resolve the impasse in their attempts to form a coalition government. "The trend lines have been steadily declining violence. Even after we left the cities, what you've seen is lower and lower levels of violence," Obama said in an interview with NBC News. "The Iraqi security forces are functioning, at least as well, if not better, than any of us had anticipated." Obama will deliver a nationally televised speech on Tuesday that will highlight what administration officials say is his fulfillment...

KABUL, Afghanistan (July 7) - An International Security Assistance Force official said today that progress continues is being made in establishing security in southern Afghanistan. German Army Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, ISAF spokesman, acknowledged that that the situation in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar has been difficult. But he stressed that the ISAF and Afghanistan National Security Force are working hard to put a stop to the violence. “We’ve reached a milestone this week that we believe will improve security in the South, denying insurgents the ability to use Kandahar as a safe haven and point of attack,”...

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2010 – Coalition forces are making steady progress in Afghanistan, and the coalition and government are regaining the momentum from the Taliban, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command said today. Video But Army Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who commands the corps-sized group, is not sanguine about the progress. “The situation remains serious, and we still face a tough and resourceful insurgency,” he said in a teleconference with Pentagon reporters. “But the momentum is beginning to shift to the Afghan forces’ advantage.” The influx of 40,000 more U.S. and coalition troops this year...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

I suspect that human capability reached its peak or plateau around 1965-75 – at the time of the Apollo moon landings – and has been declining ever since. This may sound bizarre or just plain false, but the argument is simple. That landing of men on the moon and bringing them back alive was the supreme achievement of human capability, the most difficult problem ever solved by humans. 40 years ago we could do it – repeatedly – but since then we have *not* been to the moon, and I suggest the real reason we have not been to the...

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 – Although it has come more slowly than expected, progress is, nonetheless, being made in Afghanistan, the top Defense Department civilian and military officials said today. “I do not believe we are bogged down,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said of U.S. operations in Afghanistan. “I believe we are making some progress. It is slower and harder than we anticipated. I think we are moving forward.” Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took questions from reporters in a Pentagon news conference. They expressed support for President Barack Obama’s strategy...

The Obama administration told congressional leaders in a letter on Monday that it has made "significant progress" implementing the health care overhaul, including a load of consumer friendly provisions that could ease negative perceptions of the plan among a skeptical public. The letter is part of an administration campaign to convey the impression that the debate is over and the health care train is leaving the station.

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2010 – Stability in Afghanistan is no longer on the decline, and most Afghans believe that despite increased violence, security actually has improved since this time last year, according to a new report Pentagon officials sent to Congress today. The congressionally mandated Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan attributes the 87 percent increase in violence from February 2009 to March 2010 largely to increased U.S., coalition and Afghan national security force activity, particularly into areas where they previously had not operated. The report, which covers the situation on the ground from Oct. 1 to...

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2010 – As the troop drawdown continues in Iraq, the top U.S. commander there said he’s convinced the Iraqi security forces are ready to take over more responsibility, and that the sacrifices the United States has made to get to this point will prove worthwhile.Video “I think we have an opportunity in Iraq we might never get again,” Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, said during an interview with Soldiers Radio and Television’s Gail McCabe.As Iraq builds on the security, economic and diplomatic progress made to date, Odierno said, it stands to enhance...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2010 – The past week was a very good one for security progress in Iraq, with two al-Qaida leaders being killed in an Iraqi-led operation, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. And Iraqi forces followed up their successes by arresting another senior al-Qaida leader in northern Iraq, Morrell noted at a Pentagon news conference.“This is not a good time … to be a leader of al-Qaida in Iraq,” Morrell said. “There’s not a lot of longevity in those jobs.”Although U.S. forces partnered with Iraqi forces for the operations, Morrell stressed, Iraqi security forces found and exploited...

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2010 – Afghan and international forces killed several insurgents and captured at least one other, according to initial reports of a firefight in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province this morning, military officials said. The forces were moving through the Qarah Bagh district in search of a senior Taliban commander and were approaching a compound when multiple insurgents engaged the force with machine guns, small arms, grenades, and rocket-propelled grenades. The combined force returned fire, killing several insurgents. As the combined force secured the compound, they continued to receive small-arms fire, grenades and heavy machine-gun fire from insurgents throughout the...

Sydney - President Barack Obama hit back at claims that the US had stalled in Afghanistan and vowed foreign forces would not be needed "in perpetuity", in a rare Australian TV interview aired on Thursday. Obama, speaking to public broadcaster ABC's 07:30 Report in Washington, also backed President Hamid Karzai to lead Afghanistan into the 21st century, dismissing recent controversies.

The International Space Station (ISS) orbital altitude will be raised by 1.7 kilometers (about a mile) on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control orbital altitude has said. The space station manoeuvre will be carried out with the help of eight boosters on board the Progress M-04M space freighter which is currently docked with the Zvezda module on the ISS, Ria Novosti quoting the spokesman said. "As a result of the operation...the ISS's orbit will be raised 1.7 kilometers, bringing the space station to an altitude of 348 kilometers (about 216 miles) above the Earth's surface," he said. The...

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2010 – The commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan said today he is pleased with the progress in the country so far while acknowledging that much more needs to be done. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said military operations in Helmand province have been promising, and that efforts to build the Afghan government in the province are the key to long-term success. McChrystal and Ambassador Mark Sedwill, the senior NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, spoke to Pentagon reporters from Kabul. The “clearing” portion of the battle against insurgents in Helmand continues, even as the “hold”...

Courtesy Australian Government Department of Defence Special Force reservists from 1st Commando Regiment have successfully completed their mission in Afghanistan of providing protection for the local Afghan population.Thanks to their efforts in Uruzgan province, Taliban insurgents now have less access to the population and local Afghan police have a stronger presence.Their mission over winter was Population Centric Operations, which involved heading to remote and dangerous parts of Uruzgan that were at risk of insurgent influence, and working to build the support of local communities for the Afghan National Security Forces and International Security Assistance Force efforts to maintain security...

If We Wait for Armageddon by Norma Zager “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist…” The Usual Suspects Evil never ceases to amaze me. Each moment as man progresses toward the demise of planet earth, he manages to regress by centuries. The terrorist double agent who murdered the CIA operatives recorded himself shortly before the killing. He was not intending to commit such a mass murder, but upon learning of the possibility of taking so many more lives, he commented the extra killings were “a gift from god.” “Whose god?” is what I...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2010 – NATO and Afghan forces have made early progress in an ongoing offensive on a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan, but have encountered some stiff resistance and may need another 25 to 30 days to secure the entire area, a top military official said. Video Overall the multinational force has reached the “end of the beginning” of the operation in central Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, said British Maj. Gen. Nick Patrick Carter, commander of NATO forces in International Security Assistance Force’s Regional Command-South, during a briefing today. “I guess it will take us another 25 to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2010 – Noting signs that the new strategy in Afghanistan “is beginning to bear fruit,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates also said during an interview aired last night that the effort to build up Iraq’s security forces and move forward with the U.S. drawdown plan there remains on track. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates speaks with Greta Van Susteren, host of the Fox News program "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren," during an interview in Rome, Feb. 7, 2010. DoD photo by Cherie Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates spoke with Fox News Channel’s...

DIYALA – "This is way easier than my last deployment," said Sgt. George Applegate, from Evergreen, Colo., while pulling security beside his Stryker vehicle near the Iraqi Police's 7th Battalion Emergency Reaction Force headquarters in Muqdadiyah, Jan. 31. Applegate, a fire team leader with 2nd Platoon, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, and the rest of 2nd Platoon were conducting a night patrol there, searching for possible improvised explosive devices. A couple years ago, Applegate wouldn't have been engaged in such a casual conversation while pulling security, because the threat of...

ISTANBUL, Feb. 4, 2010 – Although he stopped short of saying the worst is over for troops as they prepare to surge into some of the toughest Taliban-held areas, the top NATO and U.S. commander in Afghanistan said here today that conditions no longer are deteriorating. “I am not prepared to say that we have turned the corner. I am saying that the situation is serious. But I think we have made significant progress in setting conditions in 2009, and … we’ll make real progress in 2010,” said Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force...

Getting the Israelis and Palestinians to agree to negotiate, or even to agree to the framework in which negotiations will take place, "is just really hard," US President Barack Obama said in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday, as the president was completing his first year in office. Obama admitted that the administration "overestimated our ability to persuade [both sides] to [negotiate] when their politics ran contrary to that. Both sides - the Israelis and the Palestinians - have found that the political environment, the nature of their coalitions or the divisions within their societies, were such that it...

BAGHDAD – Troops here with the 317th and 808th Engineer Companies are bringing electricity to the future living spaces of U.S. Forces as they prepare to hand off their current housing to the Iraqi Army. The move will happen as soon as Soldiers from the 1434th Engineer Company complete the new Joint Operations Center at COS Carver. The IA will then occupy a portion of Carver that is currently home to Soldiers from 10th Mountain Division. The engineers are busy digging ditches, upgrading electrical boxes, burying cables, and connecting boxes to generators, which provide housing units with electricity. The new...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2010 – NATO’s top military commander expects significant progress in Afghanistan before the scheduled departure of U.S. troops begins in July 2011, a timeline that he said lends focus to the mission. The remarks today by Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, add weight to an American troop withdrawal start date that has been criticized as representing more a symbolic aspiration than a realistic commitment. “I have great confidence that as we get forward toward 2011, we’re going to have significant progress,” he said in an interview. “If we do that, we...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2010 – Training Afghan forces to assume security responsibility is a key component of President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, and American paratroopers are working with Afghan units to speed that day. Army Col. Brian Drinkwine, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, told Pentagon reporters today via video teleconference that the training and mentoring program is going well. The unit is the Army’s first brigade conducting this type of training and mentoring in Afghanistan. The 5,000-member unit covers an area half the size of Texas in southern and western Afghanistan. The unit works with...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — December was the first month since the Iraq war began in which there were no American combat deaths, a milestone hailed by military officials Friday as they inaugurated a new name for the U.S. force at the start of the year that will see the war wind down in earnest. Henceforth, the Multinational Force-Iraq will officially be called the United States Force-Iraq, in belated recognition of the fact that for some time there have been no other nations serving alongside U.S. troops in the nearly 7-year-old conflict. British, Australian and Romanian soldiers pulled out in July,...

Friday, 01 January 2010 17:32 BAGHDAD – Multi-National Security Transition Command –Iraq held its final ceremony on Phoenix Base here, Dec 31. Lt. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, the final MNSTC-I commander, recognized the command’s contributions to a safer, more secure Iraq since 2004 to an audience of distinguished Iraqi officials, U.S. servicemembers and civilians. Among the honored guests were Minister of Defense Secretary Salih Sarhan, Mr. Al Husseini, senior advisor to Defense and Security Council Chairman Hadi Al Ameri, and Lt. Gen. Al Awadi, Federal Police commissioner. Army Gen. David Petraeus was the first MNSTC-I commander when it activated June...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, 2010 – Progress in Iraq will continue as American forces draw down in the next year, U.S. commanders in Iraq said today. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, spoke about current conditions in Iraq during a press conference in Baghdad. Odierno said December marked the first month since the war started in 2003 with no U.S. battle casualties. “We had three non-battle deaths, but we had zero battle deaths due to combat operations,” he said. Iraqi forces are doing well in dealing with...