US News
Obama pays tribute to Abraham Lincoln on 200th birthday
Feb 12, 2009, 20:28 GMT
Statue of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, USA 12 February 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama is attending two events in tribute to Abraham Lincoln on the former president\'s 200th birthday. EPA/SHAWN THEW
Washington - US President Barack Obama on Thursday praised the nation's 16th president Abraham Lincoln for his legacy of holding together the United States through a bloody Civil War and abolishing slavery.
'For what Lincoln never forgot, not even in the midst of civil war, was that despite all that divided us - north and south, black and white - we were, at heart, one nation and one people, sharing a bond as Americans that could not break,' Obama said.
The United States on Thursday marked Lincoln's 200th birthday with ceremonies at the US Capitol in Washington and at historical sites across the country, including his presidential library in Springfield, Illinois and the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, where one of the key battles of the Civil War was fought and where Lincoln gave one of his most famous speeches.
Obama will travel to Springfield later for festivities at the Old State Capitol where Lincoln served as a state legislator - and where Obama served as a state senator in recent years, in a newer building.
Lincoln's path would take him out of rural poverty in his birthplace in Kentucky to the Illinois state legislature and later to a brief stint in the US Congress before being elected president in 1860.
As he took office, the southern states ceded from the union, but Lincoln managed to ultimately keep the country together in the face of the bitter divide over slavery - at the cost of more than half a million lives. He would free the slaves in the South with the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln was assassinated during his second presidential term in 1865 just days after the war ended. A bitter southern supporter shot Lincoln in the head while he was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
Obama has said he is a great admirer of Lincoln and has been compared to the 16th president for his rise from moderate circumstances and obscurity to fame, his great height and his Illinois background.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
Talk about a pet project. A tiny mouse with the longtime backing of a political giant may soon reap the benefits of the economic-stimulus package.
Lawmakers and administration officials divulged Wednesday that the $789 billion economic stimulus bill being finalized behind closed doors in Congress includes $30 million for wetlands restoration that the Obama administration intends to spend in the San Francisco Bay Area to protect, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the city of San Francisco and has previously championed preserving the mouse's habitat in the Bay Area.
The revelation immediately became a political football, as Republicans accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to keep so-called earmarks that fund lawmakers' favorite projects out of the legislation. Democrats, including Mrs. Pelosi, countered that the accusations were fabricated.
-What me worry?
Politics aside, the episode demonstrates that no matter how hard lawmakers argue that they technically lived up to their pledge to keep specific projects from being listed in the bill, there is little stopping the federal money from going to those projects after the legislation passes and federal and state agencies begin deciding where to spend their newfound dollars.
Programs for sexually transmitted diseases, smoking prevention, a clean-burning power plant and a computer center also appear ready to get infusions of money once the bill becomes law, congressional offices told The Washington Times.
'One of the proudest boasts of Democrats supporting their trillion-dollar spending plan is that it doesn't contain earmarks. But it seems like powerful Democrats will still find a way to bring home the bacon,' said a frustrated Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, who took direct aim at the mouse.
'This certainly doesn't sound like it will create or save American jobs,' Mr. Steel said. 'So can Speaker Pelosi explain exactly how we will improve the American economy by helping the adorable little' critter?
- No worries
Other spending questioned by Republicans -- but not considered on the chopping block -- are $275 million for flood prevention, $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries, and $650 million for the digital TV converter-box coupons.
The list goes on: $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office buildings, $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshals office buildings, and $1.3 billion for NASA, including $450 million tagged for science.
Then there is the $300 million for hybrid and electric cars for the federal government. The funding includes golf carts for federal workers.
-Starting to worry
Again foreigner, we could care less what you think.
By the way, why are you so stupid you have to create 3 different comments to get your foreign views across.
'we 'could' care less what you think.
So you must think it is important then, since you haven't actually cared less ?
page: 1
COME ON !Feb 12th, 2009 - 21:16:40
Lance and SP4 - ya keepin us waitin.
Report this comment