President Obama: The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade

obama_jazz-0e0d8Barack Obama is president of the United States.

Over the past six years, America’s businesses have created more than 14 million new jobs. To keep this progress going, we need to pursue every avenue of economic growth. Today, some of our greatest economic opportunities abroad are in the Asia-Pacific region, which is on its way to becoming the most populous and lucrative market on the planet. Increasing trade in this area of the world would be a boon to American businesses and American workers, and it would give us a leg up on our economic competitors, including one we hear a lot about on the campaign trail these days: China.

Of course, China’s greatest economic opportunities also lie in its own neighborhood, which is why China is not wasting any time. As we speak, China is negotiating a trade deal that would carve up some of the fastest-growing markets in the world at our expense, putting American jobs, businesses and goods at risk.  Source

Video:  Obama on TPP: ‘Other countries should play by rules set by US & partners, not the other way round’

How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11

crash_trade_centerIn its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.

That’s quite an understatement.

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

TENNESSEE GOVERNOR VETOES BIBLE BILL

bible-pageTennessee Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the official book of the state, saying the measure actually downplayed the significance of the Good Book and turned it into a historical, rather than spiritual, text.

“In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,” Haslam wrote in a letter to the speaker of the statehouse, the Washington Post reported.

He went on, saying: “If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance. If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”

Supporters said the Bible actually holds economic, cultural and historical significance for Tennessee and pointed to the text of the bill, which reminded “printing the Bible is a multi-million dollar industry for the state with many top Bible publishers headquartered in Nashville.   Source

Obama: Let Big Brother In If You Want Online Protection

ap_902474625827-640x480President Obama urged students to open up their digital life to the federal government, if they wanted to be protected by the government, calling the current privacy expectations from Americans unrealistic. “People have a whole new set of privacy expectations that are understandable. They also expect though that since their lives are all digitized, that the digital world is safe, which creates a contradictory demand on government,” he said. Source