SCALIA'S BODY LIES IN REPOSE; OBAMA VISITS

ANTONIN SCALIA'S BODY LIES IN REPOSE:

PRES OBAMA & THE FIRST LADY PAY RESPECTS.

ONLY GOD & SCALIA KNOWS HOW HE REALLY DIED.

September 26, 1986 – February 13, 2016

Sources: CBS News, Fox News, YouTube 

**** Mourners Pay Respects To Late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Dignitaries and tourists alike are flocking to the Supreme Court on Friday to pay tribute to the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Scalia's casket lies in repose on the Lincoln catafalque in the court's Great Hall as mourners file through during a daylong remembrance honoring one of the court's most influential members.

The justice's former law clerks will take turns standing vigil by their former boss throughout the day and night in a tradition most recently observed after the 2005 death of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Scalia's casket arrived Friday morning, with Supreme Court police carrying it up the marble steps. Scalia's former clerks followed as honorary pallbearers.

After the private ceremony, Scalia's casket will be on public view from 10:30am until 8:30pm.

The President and First Lady paid their respects Friday afternoon and met privately with some members of Justice Scalia's family, according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. The president and Mrs. Obama "extended their personal condolences on behalf of the nation, and expressed gratitude for Justice Scalia's decades of public service, Earnest said.

Father Paul Scalia, Justice Scalia's son, will deliver the homily at the funeral mass on Saturday. The service will be held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Scalia died Saturday at age 79. He joined the court in 1986 and was its longest-serving justice. He sat to the right of Chief Justice John Roberts, the seat given to the senior justice. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Jane, nine children and 36 grandchildren.

C-17 Plane Threatens Michelle Obama's Life: 2012 Fear Tactics!

Today A Plane Carrying Michelle Obama Had To Abort Its Landing In Order To Avoid A Collision With A Military C-17 Cargo Plane. Coincidence? Of Course NOT!! President Obama's Political Contenders & Most Of His GOP "Friends" Are Angry Because They Know He's Going To Be Re-elected.

Its Time For The American Black Community To Unite, Mobilize, Organize & PRAY!!

Pray Until Something Happens!!

Officials: Plane carrying first lady got too close to military C-17


A plane carrying Michelle Obama had to abort its landing on Monday after it came too close to a military C-17 cargo plane, according to a senior administration official and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The planes were three miles apart, when they are supposed to be five miles apart, the official told CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what went wrong, as it is believed to be an air traffic controller mistake, the official said.

The White House does not believe the first lady's life was ever in danger, the senior official said.

The FAA said in a statement controllers at Andrews Air Force Base instructed an incoming Boeing 737 to perform a "go around" "because the plane did not have the required amount of separation" behind the military plane. The FAA is investigating. "The aircraft were never in any danger," the agency said.

The landing was briefly aborted and Obama's plane had to circle, the official said.

Obama was actually on a C-40, a military version of the 737 that was part of the Air National Guard -- not the regular air force fleet used by VIPs at Andrews, said Maj. Michelle Lai of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base.

The C-17 in question was on the runway, so the FAA did not want Obama's plane to be caught in the "jet wash," Lai said. That refers to the force of the air from the back of the C-17.

"It's important to know the FAA made the right call and at no time was the first lady's life in danger," Lai said.

When the Potomac TRACON, the regional radar facility, handed off the plane to the Andrews Air Force Base tower, the planes were three miles apart, a government official told CNN. "Both facilities knew how far apart they were" at the time of the handoff, the official said. But the official declined to say why the hand-off occurred.

The TRACON could have slowed Obama's plane down or order it to turn earlier, the official said. Why that wasn't done is under investigation. But "it was a controlled situation," the government official said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information on the incident and will be making an assessment to determine whether it will investigate more closely.


Sources: CNN

Michelle Obama Launches Whitehouse Mentoring & Leadership Program

Michelle Obama launches mentoring program


First Lady Michelle Obama kicked off a leadership and mentoring program Tuesday, opening the White House to 20 high school girls who will pair up with top administration officials to learn life skills.

At a gathering in the State Dining room, Obama told the girls that mentoring has always been important to her, and that she wanted to use her platform as first lady to "expand the mentoring role."

"In every part of government, there are women who are hungry to help bring you guys up," she said. "I always wanted to be a bridge between kids like me and the possibilities that can propel them to greatness."

Second Lady Jill Biden, White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, and several members of the first lady's staff and the senior staff in the West Wing will serve as mentors.

The 20 protégées, who are sophomores and juniors, were chosen by principals at area high schools and include young women from military families.

East Wing aides said that the program is a spin-off of the Women of Excellence event that Obama hosted at the White House in March, where celebrities, including Alicia Keys and Sheryl Crow, fanned out to local high schools to speak to young girls.

In the coming months, Obama will take that program on the road, aides said.

The West Wing also will launch a mentoring and leadership program for high school boys that the president will participate in, aides said.

The year long program headed by FLOTUS will include financial literacy training and exposure to different career paths, as well as possible field trips with the first lady, advisors said.

One student who is interested in foreign affairs wanted to know what she could get out of the program, and Obama suggested that through the State Department, there could be "access to ambassadors."

"The resources are infinite in terms of women in this administration who want to share with you," Obama said.

The first lady has stressed the importance of community service since moving into the White House; previously she ran a community service program in Chicago after leaving her job as a corporate lawyer. She has visited area schools and hosted hundreds of school children at the White House for gardening events as well as musical events.

She told the girls that with their unique opportunity, there is responsibility too.

"We have some expectations from you as well, that when you get to this position, you do the same for someone else," she said. "And if we keep building in that way, holding one another up, there's no telling what we can do."


Sources: Politico

"Michelle's Made More Sacrifices Than I Have"...Hula Hooping For Health

(Pres. Obama Compliments His Better Half: "Michelle's made more sacrifices than I have".)

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(First Lady Michelle Obama hula hoops for Kids Health)

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Hula hooping it up for health, first lady swivels

First lady Michelle Obama hooped it up for health — hula hooped, that is — managing to get in an impressive 142 swivels before her hula hoop hit the ground. Jumping rope double dutch? Not so much.

It was all for a good cause — encouraging kids to get more physical activity and eat better.

The first lady hosted a "healthy kids fair" on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday and invited about 100 children and parents from local elementary schools.

Chefs demonstrated how to make healthy-but-yummy snacks. And the first lady delivered a pep talk about eating right.

It wasn't all gloom, doom and nutrition.

Obama said it's OK to eat fun stuff sometimes — as long as you usually eat right.

"There's nothing that the first family loves more than a good burger, right?" Obama said. "And look, my favorite food in whole wide world are french fries. I love them. Dearly. Deeply. I have a good relationship with french fries and I would eat them every single day if I could."

"I tell my girls this: If you're getting the right foods for most of the time, then when it's time to have cake and french fries on those special occasions, then you balance it out."

Just eat those veggies

Obama also managed a spot-on imitation of kids whining about eating their vegetables.

"I don't wanna eat it. I don't like it. It takes bad. I don't want it,'" the first lady said in her best nasal whine.

Then she added: "We don't want to hear the whining. We want you to eat it. Just eat it."

That might not be such a hard sell if all healthy foods tasted likes the ones served up on the South Lawn: There was sweet and zesty popcorn made with peanuts and parmesan cheese, and zucchini quesadillas that the first lady declared tasted like pizza.

Obama was preaching to a tough crowd.

Lots of kids eagerly snapped up the treats. But one little girl didn't move a muscle when the first lady asked her to pledge that she'd try some new and healthy foods.

Hula hooping, jumping rope

After checking out the food demonstrations, Obama hiked up her belt and joined a crowd of young hula hoopers, keeping up with the best of them.

She didn't do so well when it came to jumping rope, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

The first lady made three unsuccessful attempts to jump into a round of double dutch — two ropes turning in opposite directions. Not giving up, she kicked off her flats and tried jumping into a single swinging rope. That didn't go much better.

So Obama moved on to an obstacle course, when she whizzed barefoot through a series of hurdles and back to the starting line.






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Sources: TIME, Essence, MSNBC, Google Maps

The Obamas Go To Church...Yes, Faith Is Important

(The Obamas walk home from Church.)

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The Obamas Go to Church

The Obama family attended services at St. John's Episcopal this morning, and the Secret Service even let them walk the two blocks across Lafayette Park on this gorgeous October day. It marked the first time the family has gone to church in Washington since Easter, when they also visited St. John's, although the Obamas have been worshipping at Evergreen Chapel at Camp David whenever they spend the weekend at the Maryland retreat.

It has also been three and a half months since the White House insisted that the First Family continues to look for a church in Washington to join. Few people would blame them if they decided it would be too disruptive to upend a local congregation--Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush all chose to largely avoid Washington churches for similar reasons, and conservatives defended their decisions to do so. It's all the more surprising then that the White House has chosen to dig in on this point and continue to maintain that the Obamas will choose a local church as their main place of worship. It only becomes a Church Watch if they make it one.



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Sources: MSNBC, TIME, Swampland, AP, Google Maps

Michelle Obama's Fascinating Journey: From Slavery To The Whitehouse

(First Lady Michelle Obama's fascinating journey from Slavery to the Whitehouse.)

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(Tracing Michelle Obama's family tree.)

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(A study reveals first lady’s white ancestor. A new genealogical study commissioned by the New York Times sheds light on first lady Michelle Obama’s ancestry. NBC’s Norah O’Donnell reports.)

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In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery

In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.

In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.

In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, represents the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House.

Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady.

Viewed by many as a powerful symbol of black advancement, Mrs. Obama grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obama’s roots were a mystery.

Now the more complete map of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors — including the slave mother, white father and their biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields — for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.

The findings — uncovered by Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist, and The New York Times — substantiate what Mrs. Obama has called longstanding family rumors about a white forebear.

While President Obama’s biracial background has drawn considerable attention, his wife’s pedigree, which includes American Indian strands, highlights the complicated history of racial intermingling, sometimes born of violence or coercion, that lingers in the bloodlines of many African-Americans. Mrs. Obama and her family declined to comment for this article, aides said, in part because of the personal nature of the subject.

“She is representative of how we have evolved and who we are,” said Edward Ball, a historian who discovered that he had black relatives, the descendants of his white slave-owning ancestors, when he researched his memoir, “Slaves in the Family.”

“We are not separate tribes of Latinos and whites and blacks in America,” Mr. Ball said. “We’ve all mingled, and we have done so for generations.”

The outlines of Mrs. Obama’s family history unfolded from 19th century probate records, yellowing marriage licenses, fading photographs and the recollections of elderly women who remember the family. Ms. Smolenyak, who has traced the ancestry of many prominent figures, began studying the first lady’s roots in earnest after conducting some preliminary research into Mrs. Obama’s ancestry for an article published in The New York Times earlier this year.

Of the dozens of relatives she identified, Ms. Smolenyak said, it was the slave girl who seemed to call out most clearly.

“Out of all Michelle’s roots, it’s Melvinia who is screaming to be found,” she said.

When her owner, David Patterson, died in 1852, Melvinia soon found herself on a 200-acre farm with new masters, Mr. Patterson’s daughter and son-in law, Christianne and Henry Shields. It was a strange and unfamiliar world.

In South Carolina, she had lived on an estate with 21 slaves. In Georgia, she was one of only three slaves on property that is now part of a neat subdivision in Rex, near Atlanta.

Whether Melvinia labored in the house or in the fields, there was no shortage of work: wheat, corn, sweet potatoes and cotton to plant and harvest, and 3 horses, 5 cows, 17 pigs and 20 sheep to care for, according to an 1860 agricultural survey.

It is difficult to say who might have impregnated Melvinia, who gave birth to Dolphus around 1859, when she was perhaps as young as 15. At the time, Henry Shields was in his late 40s and had four sons ages 19 to 24, but other men may have spent time on the farm.

“No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery; it was an everyday experience, “ said Jason A. Gillmer, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, who has researched liaisons between slave owners and slaves. “But we do find that some of these relationships can be very complex.”

In 1870, three of Melvinia’s four children, including Dolphus, were listed on the census as mulatto. One was born four years after emancipation, suggesting that the liaison that produced those children endured after slavery. She gave her children the Shields name, which may have hinted at their paternity or simply been the custom of former slaves taking their master’s surnames.

Even after she was freed, Melvinia stayed put, working as a farm laborer on land adjacent to that of Charles Shields, one of Henry’s sons.

But sometime in her 30s or 40s, census records show, Melvinia broke away and managed to reunite with former slaves from her childhood on the Patterson estate: Mariah and Bolus Easley, who settled with Melvinia in Bartow County, near the Alabama border. Dolphus married one of the Easleys’ daughters, Alice, who is Mrs. Obama’s great-great-grandmother.

A community “that had been ripped apart was somehow pulling itself back together,” Ms. Smolenyak said of the group in Bartow County.

Still, Melvinia appears to have lived with the unresolved legacy of her childhood in slavery until the very end. Her 1938 death certificate, signed by a relative, says “don’t know” in the space for the names of her parents, suggesting that Melvinia, then in her 90s, may never have known herself.

Sometime before 1888, Dolphus and Alice Shields continued the migration, heading to Birmingham, a boomtown with a rumbling railroad, an iron and steel industry and factories that attracted former slaves and their children from across the South.

Dolphus Shields was in his 30s and very light skinned — some say he looked like a white man — a church-going carpenter who could read, write and advance in an industrializing town. By 1900, he owned his own home, census records show. By 1911, he had opened his own carpentry and tool sharpening business.

A co-founder of First Ebenezer Baptist Church and Trinity Baptist Church, which later became active in the civil rights movement, he supervised Sunday schools at both churches, which still exist today, and at Regular Missionary Baptist Church.

“He was the dean of the deacons in Birmingham,” said Helen Heath, 88, who attended church with him. “He was a serious man. He was about business.”

He carried his family into the working-class, moving into a segregated neighborhood of striving black homeowners and renters. In his home, there was no smoking, no cursing, no gum chewing, no lipstick or trousers for ladies and absolutely no blues on the radio, which was reserved for hymns, remembered Bobbie Holt, 73, who was raised by Mr. Shields and his fourth wife, Lucy. She said the family went to church “every night of the week, it seemed like.”

He carried peppermints for neighborhood children, Mrs. Holt said, and told funny stories about his escapades as a boy. But his family struggled.

His first wife, Alice Easley Shields, moved around after they split up, working as a seamstress and a maid, and two of their sons stumbled.

Robert Lee Shields, Mrs. Obama’s great-grandfather, married Annie Lawson in 1906 and worked as a laborer and a railroad porter but disappeared from the public record sometime around his 32nd birthday.

Willie Arthur Shields, an inventor who obtained patents for improving dry cleaning operations, ended up working as a maintenance man, Mrs. Holt said.

As for his ancestry, Dolphus Shields didn’t talk about it.

“We got to the place where we didn’t want anybody to know we knew slaves; people didn’t want to talk about that,” said Mrs. Heath, who said she assumed he had white relatives because his skin color and hair texture “told you he had to be near white.”

At a time when blacks despaired at the intransigence and violence of whites who barred them from voting, from most city jobs, from whites-only restaurants and from owning property in white neighborhoods, Dolphus Shields served as a rare link between the deeply divided communities.

His carpentry shop stood in the white section of town, and he mixed easily and often with whites. “They would come to his shop and sit and talk,” Mrs. Holt said.

Dolphus Shields firmly believed race relations would improve. “It’s going to come together one day,” he often said, Mrs. Holt recalled.

By the time he died in 1950 at age 91, change was on the way. On June 9, 1950, the day that his obituary appeared on the front page of The Birmingham World, the black newspaper also ran a banner headline that read, “U.S. Court Bans Segregation in Diners and Higher Education.” The Supreme Court had outlawed separate but equal accommodations on railway cars and in universities in Texas and Oklahoma.

Up North, his grandson, a painter named Purnell Shields, Mrs. Obama’s grandfather, was positioning his family to seize the widening opportunities in Chicago.

But as his descendants moved forward, they lost touch with the past. Today, Dolphus Shields lies in a neglected black cemetery, where patches of grass grow knee-high and many tombstones have toppled.

Mrs. Holt, a retired nursing assistant, said he came to her in a dream last month. She dug up his photograph, never guessing that she would soon learn that Dolphus Shields was a great-great-grandfather of the first lady.

“Oh, my God,” said Mrs. Holt, gasping at the news. “I always looked up to him, but I would never have imagined something like this. Praise God, we’ve come a long way.”



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Sources: NY Times, MSNBC, Google Maps

Michelle Obama: "Current US Health Care System Is Unacceptable"...Women's Issue Too

(First lady Michelle Obama says the current state of health care in the U.S. is "Unacceptable" and women have an important role to play in changing that.)



(Is the First Lady Pres. Obama's secret weapon?)

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First Lady Michelle Obama: Reform is Women's issue


On the rare day when President Barack Obama had no public events scheduled, first lady Michelle Obama had the stage to herself on the health care front, pitching insurance reform as a women's issue in her strongest statements on the contentious debate so far.

Straying frequently from her prepared remarks to speak off the cuff, Obama said that in the health insurance debate, women and families are "the face of the fight."

Using personal stories from her own life — her daughter Sasha's meningitis scare, her father's struggle with multiple sclerosis — Obama said that women are "disproportionately affected by this issue because of the roles we play in our families."

"Women are affected because of the jobs we do in this economy ... Women are more likely to work part-time, or work in small businesses, jobs that don't always provide health insurance," she said. "Women are affected because in many states, insurance companies can still discriminate because of gender."

Obama, a former hospital administrator, said her husband's plan would help "achieve true equality for women."

The first lady echoed many of the points the president has made, calling his approach "a pretty reasonable plan," that would result in "good medicine and good economics."

"Under this plan, insurance companies will no longer be able to drop your coverage when you get too sick, or refuse to pay for the care you need, or set a cap on the amount of coverage you can get," she said. "And it will limit how much they can charge you for out-of-pocket expenses. Because getting sick in this country shouldn't mean that you bankrupt."

The speech marked Obama’s most high-profile foray into promoting her husband’s top legislative priority, which was sharply controversial over the summer. The White House clearly hopes that some of Michelle Obama’s personal popularity can help build public support for the reforms.

At her speech at the Old Executive Office building next to the White House, Michelle Obama was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said, quoting Ronald Reagan, said that the status quo was unacceptable and that the time for reform is now.

"If victory were not so close, people would be a little calmer, [but] the legislative process is underway," she said. "We can have health insurance reform this year."

Sebelius blamed insurance companies for charging women more for premiums, a theme Obama touched on as well.

Recent polls show that women under 50 are more likely to support the president's approach to health insurance reform.

Three women at the event talked about juggling health scares with high premiums. Obama said that "more than half of women report putting off needed medical care because they can't afford it."

"This current situation is unacceptable. No one in this country should be treated this way. It’s not fair. It’s not right. These are hard working folks we're talking about," Obama said, casting the debate in moral terms. "This is a ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ kind of problem. None of us are exempt. Ever."

Obama said that "now more than ever it is time to act," telling the audience activists and supporters that it’s time to stake their claim.

"We can't watch the debate take on a life of its own, we have to channel our passions into change," she said. "... we have to be fired up and ready to go."



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Sources: Politico, AP, MSNBC, Yahoo News, Youtube, Google Maps

Michelle Obama Joins Health Care Reform Debate...It Can't Wait!

NY Times----

WASHINGTON — She has become one of the Obama administration’s most visible surrogates on health care, announcing the release of $851 million in federal financing for health clinics, calling for tougher nutritional standards in the government’s school lunch program and urging Democrats to rally around the president’s efforts to revamp health care.

The high-profile emissary? Not Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, or Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House health policy adviser. It is the first lady, Michelle Obama.

“We’re at a critical juncture in the debate about health care in this country,” Mrs. Obama said at a clinic here in June. “The current system is economically unsustainable, and I don’t have to tell any of you that. And despite having the most expensive health care system in the world, we’re not necessarily healthier for it.”

After several months of focusing on her family, her garden and inspiring young people, Mrs. Obama is stepping into more wonkish terrain. She is toughening her message and talking more openly about influencing public policy as she works to integrate her efforts more closely with those of policy makers in the West Wing.

In June, Mrs. Obama traveled to San Francisco with Melody C. Barnes, the president’s domestic policy adviser, for the start of the administration’s initiative to promote volunteerism.

A week later, she went to a Washington clinic with the director of the Health Resources and Services Administration to announce the release of stimulus money for clinics. This month, her policy director joined a new interagency working group, including health, agriculture and housing officials, that will develop policy, legislation and public outreach to combat obesity.

While her efforts are most visible in the health care arena, Mrs. Obama is also focusing on other issues.

In May, she convened a meeting — with James L. Jones, the president’s national security adviser; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Peter R. Orszag, the White House budget chief, among others — to consider new policies and programs to help military families. Her staff is also working with nonprofit, corporate and philanthropic groups to help rally resources to support such families.

Mrs. Obama’s aides say the substantive speeches and increased coordination with the West Wing reflect the first lady’s determination to have an impact on the issues she cares about.

“The listening portion of this is over,” said Camille Johnston, her communications director. “Let’s make sure that we’re having an impact and delivering things as well.”

But Mrs. Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former hospital executive, is still treading cautiously as she fleshes out her priorities: promoting healthy living and community service and supporting military and working families.

Susan Sher, the first lady’s new chief of staff, emphasized that Mrs. Obama would not testify before Congress or argue the merits of competing health care plans. Indeed, the first lady did not stand alongside her husband in the White House last week when he praised the Senate health committee for approving an overhaul of the health care system.

Mrs. Obama has chosen instead to deliver her recent remarks in more traditional settings for a first lady — at a clinic, a playground and in the White House garden. Her aides say she will promote policy, not make it, and will continue to concentrate on children and families. They say they do not expect her to be accused of overstepping her bounds as Hillary Rodham Clinton was when she tried to remake health care as the first lady.

Jocelyn Frye, Mrs. Obama’s policy director, said the first lady wanted to “draw the connection between this massive conversation that’s happening about health reform and what’s really happening to people on the ground.”

Mrs. Obama’s advisers say this is a natural progression. After settling her family into the White House, the first lady could more easily turn to the garden and then a discussion of obesity, the importance of preventive care and corresponding government policies and legislation, they say.

The shift also coincides with Mrs. Obama’s decision in June to choose Ms. Sher, her longtime friend, to replace Jackie Norris as her chief of staff. At the time of that announcement, Ms. Sher, who was Mrs. Obama’s boss at the University of Chicago Medical Center, was working on health care issues as an associate counsel to the president.

Since then, as her husband has worked on health care, Mrs. Obama has peppered her speeches with statistics and references to health-related legislation, like the coming reauthorization of child nutrition programs.

She has repeatedly cited the costs of preventable illnesses like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure to the nation’s health care system ($120 billion a year, she says) and the impact of poor diet on children. (“Nearly a third of the children in this country are either overweight or obese, and a third will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lifetime,” she said. “Those numbers are unacceptable.”)

She sent out a mass e-mail message to Democrats across the country, urging them to volunteer to improve health care services and “to make a difference as we work to reform America’s health care system.”

And while she has often focused on motherhood, gardening and other domestic subjects in interviews, she took on a thorny policy issue last month: the prospects for a health care overhaul in an Obama administration.

“There are going to be tough choices that have to be made,” Mrs. Obama said on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” emphasizing that “no system is going to be perfect.”

Still, Mrs. Obama said she believed that the president would succeed where the Clintons did not. The country “has moved to another point in time,” she said. “More and more people are ready for this kind of reform.”

Sources: NY Times, Huffington Post

Pres. Obama's Speech To Africa Urges Change, Responsibility & Promise (Video, Full Text)

MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov, Huffington Post-----

(President Barack Obama delivers a sobering, yet hopeful speech this morning to Parliament in Accra, Ghana.)

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FULL TEXT:

Good morning. It is an honor for me to be in Accra, and to speak to the Representatives of the people of Ghana. I am deeply grateful for the welcome that I've received, as are Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama. Ghana's history is rich, the ties between our two countries are strong, and I am proud that this is my first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as President of the United States.

I am speaking to you at the end of a long trip. I began in Russia, for a Summit between two great powers. I traveled to Italy, for a meeting of the world's leading economies. And I have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well.

This is the simple truth of a time when the boundaries between people are overwhelmed by our connections. Your prosperity can expand America's. Your health and security can contribute to the world's. And the strength of your democracy can help advance human rights for people everywhere.

So I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world - as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children. That partnership must be grounded in mutual responsibility, and that is what I want to speak with you about today.

We must start from the simple premise that Africa's future is up to Africans.

I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family's own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story.

My grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him "boy" for much of his life. He was on the periphery of Kenya's liberation struggles, but he was still imprisoned briefly during repressive times. In his life, colonialism wasn't simply the creation of unnatural borders or unfair terms of trade - it was something experienced personally, day after day, year after year.

My father grew up herding goats in a tiny village, an impossible distance away from the American universities where he would come to get an education. He came of age at an extraordinary moment of promise for Africa. The struggles of his own father's generation were giving birth to new nations, beginning right here in Ghana. Africans were educating and asserting themselves in new ways. History was on the move.

But despite the progress that has been made - and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa - we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Countries like Kenya, which had a per capita economy larger than South Korea's when I was born, have been badly outpaced. Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the African continent. In many places, the hope of my father's generation gave way to cynicism, even despair.

It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants. In my father's life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many.

Of course, we also know that is not the whole story. Here in Ghana, you show us a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity. The people of Ghana have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing, with peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections. And with improved governance and an emerging civil society, Ghana's economy has shown impressive rates of growth.

This progress may lack the drama of the 20th century's liberation struggles, but make no mistake: it will ultimately be more significant. For just as it is important to emerge from the control of another nation, it is even more important to build one's own.

So I believe that this moment is just as promising for Ghana - and for Africa - as the moment when my father came of age and new nations were being born. This is a new moment of promise. Only this time, we have learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa's future. Instead, it will be you - the men and women in Ghana's Parliament, and the people you represent. Above all, it will be the young people - brimming with talent and energy and hope - who can claim the future that so many in my father's generation never found.

To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.

As for America and the West, our commitment must be measured by more than just the dollars we spend. I have pledged substantial increases in our foreign assistance, which is in Africa's interest and America's. But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of aid that helps people scrape by - it is whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change.

This mutual responsibility must be the foundation of our partnership. And today, I will focus on four areas that are critical to the future of Africa and the entire developing world: democracy; opportunity; health; and the peaceful resolution of conflict.

First, we must support strong and sustainable democratic governments.

As I said in Cairo, each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions. But history offers a clear verdict: governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable, and more successful than governments that do not.

This is about more than holding elections - it's also about what happens between them. Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.

In the 21st century, capable, reliable and transparent institutions are the key to success - strong parliaments and honest police forces; independent judges and journalists; a vibrant private sector and civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy, because that is what matters in peoples' lives.

Time and again, Ghanaians have chosen Constitutional rule over autocracy, and shown a democratic spirit that allows the energy of your people to break through. We see that in leaders who accept defeat graciously, and victors who resist calls to wield power against the opposition. We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth. We see it in police like Patience Quaye, who helped prosecute the first human trafficker in Ghana. We see it in the young people who are speaking up against patronage, and participating in the political process.

Across Africa, we have seen countless examples of people taking control of their destiny, and making change from the bottom up. We saw it in Kenya, where civil society and business came together to help stop post-election violence. We saw it in South Africa, where over three quarters of the country voted in the recent election - the fourth since the end of Apartheid. We saw it in Zimbabwe, where the Election Support Network braved brutal repression to stand up for the principle that a person's vote is their sacred right.

Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.

America will not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation - the essential truth of democracy is that each nation determines its own destiny. What we will do is increase assistance for responsible individuals and institutions, with a focus on supporting good governance - on parliaments, which check abuses of power and ensure that opposition voices are heard; on the rule of law, which ensures the equal administration of justice; on civic participation, so that young people get involved; and on concrete solutions to corruption like forensic accounting, automating services, strengthening hotlines, and protecting whistle-blowers to advance transparency and accountability.

As we provide this support, I have directed my Administration to give greater attention to corruption in our Human Rights report. People everywhere should have the right to start a business or get an education without paying a bribe. We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don't, and that is exactly what America will do.

This leads directly to our second area of partnership - supporting development that provides opportunity for more people.

With better governance, I have no doubt that Africa holds the promise of a broader base for prosperity. The continent is rich in natural resources. And from cell phone entrepreneurs to small farmers, Africans have shown the capacity and commitment to create their own opportunities. But old habits must also be broken. Dependence on commodities - or on a single export - concentrates wealth in the hands of the few, and leaves people too vulnerable to downturns.

In Ghana, for instance, oil brings great opportunities, and you have been responsible in preparing for new revenue. But as so many Ghanaians know, oil cannot simply become the new cocoa. From South Korea to Singapore, history shows that countries thrive when they invest in their people and infrastructure; when they promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled workforce, and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs.

As Africans reach for this promise, America will be more responsible in extending our hand. By cutting costs that go to Western consultants and administration, we will put more resources in the hands of those who need it, while training people to do more for themselves. That is why our $3.5 billion food security initiative is focused on new methods and technologies for farmers - not simply sending American producers or goods to Africa. Aid is not an end in itself. The purpose of foreign assistance must be creating the conditions where it is no longer needed.

America can also do more to promote trade and investment. Wealthy nations must open our doors to goods and services from Africa in a meaningful way. And where there is good governance, we can broaden prosperity through public-private partnerships that invest in better roads and electricity; capacity-building that trains people to grow a business; and financial services that reach poor and rural areas. This is also in our own interest - for if people are lifted out of poverty and wealth is created in Africa, new markets will open for our own goods.

One area that holds out both undeniable peril and extraordinary promise is energy. Africa gives off less greenhouse gas than any other part of the world, but it is the most threatened by climate change. A warming planet will spread disease, shrink water resources, and deplete crops, creating conditions that produce more famine and conflict. All of us - particularly the developed world - have a responsibility to slow these trends - through mitigation, and by changing the way that we use energy. But we can also work with Africans to turn this crisis into opportunity.

Together, we can partner on behalf of our planet and prosperity, and help countries increase access to power while skipping the dirtier phase of development. Across Africa, there is bountiful wind and solar power; geothermal energy and bio-fuels. From the Rift Valley to the North African deserts; from the Western coast to South Africa's crops -Africa's boundless natural gifts can generate its own power, while exporting profitable, clean energy abroad.

These steps are about more than growth numbers on a balance sheet. They're about whether a young person with an education can get a job that supports a family; a farmer can transfer their goods to the market; or an entrepreneur with a good idea can start a business. It's about the dignity of work. It's about the opportunity that must exist for Africans in the 21st century.

Just as governance is vital to opportunity, it is also critical to the third area that I will talk about - strengthening public health.

In recent years, enormous progress has been made in parts of Africa. Far more people are living productively with HIV/AIDS, and getting the drugs they need. But too many still die from diseases that shouldn't kill them. When children are being killed because of a mosquito bite, and mothers are dying in childbirth, then we know that more progress must be made.

Yet because of incentives - often provided by donor nations - many African doctors and nurses understandably go overseas, or work for programs that focus on a single disease. This creates gaps in primary care and basic prevention. Meanwhile, individual Africans also have to make responsible choices that prevent the spread of disease, while promoting public health in their communities and countries.

Across Africa, we see examples of people tackling these problems. In Nigeria, an Interfaith effort of Christians and Muslims has set an example of cooperation to confront malaria. Here in Ghana and across Africa, we see innovative ideas for filling gaps in care - for instance, through E-Health initiatives that allow doctors in big cities to support those in small towns.

America will support these efforts through a comprehensive, global health strategy. Because in the 21st century, we are called to act by our conscience and our common interest. When a child dies of a preventable illness in Accra, that diminishes us everywhere. And when disease goes unchecked in any corner of the world, we know that it can spread across oceans and continents.

That is why my Administration has committed $63 billion to meet these challenges. Building on the strong efforts of President Bush, we will carry forward the fight against HIV/AIDS. We will pursue the goal of ending deaths from malaria and tuberculosis, and eradicating polio. We will fight neglected tropical disease. And we won't confront illnesses in isolation - we will invest in public health systems that promote wellness, and focus on the health of mothers and children.

As we partner on behalf of a healthier future, we must also stop the destruction that comes not from illness, but from human beings - and so the final area that I will address is conflict.

Now let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. But for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.

These conflicts are a millstone around Africa's neck. We all have many identities - of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century. Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God's children. We all share common aspirations - to live in peace and security; to access education and opportunity; to love our families, our communities, and our faith. That is our common humanity.

That is why we must stand up to inhumanity in our midst. It is never justifiable to target innocents in the name of ideology. It is the death sentence of a society to force children to kill in wars. It is the ultimate mark of criminality and cowardice to condemn women to relentless and systematic rape. We must bear witness to the value of every child in Darfur and the dignity of every woman in Congo. No faith or culture should condone the outrages against them. All of us must strive for the peace and security necessary for progress.

Africans are standing up for this future. Here, too, Ghana is helping to point the way forward. Ghanaians should take pride in your contributions to peacekeeping from Congo to Liberia to Lebanon, and in your efforts to resist the scourge of the drug trade. We welcome the steps that are being taken by organizations like the African Union and ECOWAS to better resolve conflicts, keep the peace, and support those in need. And we encourage the vision of a strong, regional security architecture that can bring effective, transnational force to bear when needed.

America has a responsibility to advance this vision, not just with words, but with support that strengthens African capacity. When there is genocide in Darfur or terrorists in Somalia, these are not simply African problems - they are global security challenges, and they demand a global response. That is why we stand ready to partner through diplomacy, technical assistance, and logistical support, and will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable. And let me be clear: our Africa Command is focused not on establishing a foothold in the continent, but on confronting these common challenges to advance the security of America, Africa and the world.

In Moscow, I spoke of the need for an international system where the universal rights of human beings are respected, and violations of those rights are opposed. That must include a commitment to support those who resolve conflicts peacefully, to sanction and stop those who don't, and to help those who have suffered. But ultimately, it will be vibrant democracies like Botswana and Ghana which roll back the causes of conflict, and advance the frontiers of peace and prosperity.

As I said earlier, Africa's future is up to Africans.

The people of Africa are ready to claim that future. In my country, African-Americans - including so many recent immigrants - have thrived in every sector of society. We have done so despite a difficult past, and we have drawn strength from our African heritage. With strong institutions and a strong will, I know that Africans can live their dreams in Nairobi and Lagos; in Kigali and Kinshasa; in Harare and right here in Accra.

Fifty-two years ago, the eyes of the world were on Ghana. And a young preacher named Martin Luther King traveled here, to Accra, to watch the Union Jack come down and the Ghanaian flag go up. This was before the march on Washington or the success of the civil rights movement in my country. Dr. King was asked how he felt while watching the birth of a nation. And he said: "It renews my conviction in the ultimate triumph of justice."

Now, that triumph must be won once more, and it must be won by you. And I am particularly speaking to the young people. In places like Ghana, you make up over half of the population. Here is what you must know: the world will be what you make of it.

You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people. You can serve in your communities, and harness your energy and education to create new wealth and build new connections to the world. You can conquer disease, end conflicts, and make change from the bottom up. You can do that. Yes you can. Because in this moment, history is on the move.

But these things can only be done if you take responsibility for your future. It won't be easy. It will take time and effort. There will be suffering and setbacks. But I can promise you this: America will be with you. As a partner. As a friend. Opportunity won't come from any other place, though - it must come from the decisions that you make, the things that you do, and the hope that you hold in your hearts.

Freedom is your inheritance. Now, it is your responsibility to build upon freedom's foundation. And if you do, we will look back years from now to places like Accra and say that this was the time when the promise was realized - this was the moment when prosperity was forged; pain was overcome; and a new era of progress began. This can be the time when we witness the triumph of justice once more. Thank you.



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Ghana Welcomes President Barack Obama...Leader Of The Free World!

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(There is much excitement on the streets in Ghana as the African nation prepares for a visit from President Obama.)

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CAPE COAST, Ghana - From the rampart of a whitewashed fort once used to ship countless slaves from Africa to the Americas, Cheryl Hardin gazed through watery eyes at the route forcibly taken across the sea by her ancestors centuries before.

"It never gets any easier," the 48-year-old pediatrician said, wiping away tears on her fourth trip to Ghana's Cape Coast Castle in two decades. "It feels the same as when I first visited — painful, incomprehensible."

On Saturday, Barack Obama and his family will follow in the footsteps of countless African-Americans who have tried to reconnect with their past on these shores. Though Obama was not descended from slaves — his father was Kenyan — he will carry the legacy of the African-American experience with him as America's first black president.

For many, the trip will be steeped in symbolism.

"The world's least powerful people were shipped off from here as slaves," Hardin said Tuesday, looking past a row of cannons pointing toward the Atlantic Ocean. "Now Obama, an African-American, the most powerful person in the world, is going to be standing here. For us it will be a full-circle experience."

Built in the 1600s, Cape Coast Castle served as Britain's West Africa headquarters for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which saw European powers and African chiefs export millions in shackles to Europe and the Americas.

Nearly two centuries later, misery still lingers:

The slave trade ended here in 1833, and visitors can now trek through the fort's dungeons, dark rooms once crammed with more than 1,000 men and women at a time who slept in their own excrement. The dank air inside still stings the eyes.

Visiting for the first time, Hardin's 47-year-old sister Wanda Milian said the dungeons felt "like burial tombs."

"It felt suffocating. It felt still," said Milian, who like her sister lives in Houston. "I don't know what I expected. I didn't expect to experience the sense of loss, the sense of hopelessness and desolation."

Those who rebelled were packed into similar rooms with hardly enough air to breath, left to die without food or water. Their faint scratch marks are still visible on walls.

Down by the shore is the fort's so-called "Door of No Return," the last glimpse of Africa the slaves would ever see before they were loaded into canoes that took them to ships that crossed the ocean.

Horrible history contrasts with present:

Today, the door opens onto a different world: a gentle shore where boys freely kick a white soccer ball through the surf, where gray-bearded men sit in beached canoes fixing lime-green fishing nets, where women sell maize meal from plates on their heads.

Behind them is Africa's poverty: smoke from cooking fires rises from a maze of thin wooden shacks, their rusted corrugated aluminum roofs held down by rocks. Children bathe naked in a tiny dirt courtyard.

"I just can't wrap my mind around this," said Milian, who works at a Methodist church. "If it weren't for all this" — for slavery — "I wouldn't be standing here today. I wouldn't be who I am. I wouldn't have the opportunities I do. I wouldn't practice the religion I do."

Milian also grappled with the irony that fort housed a church while the trade went on, and that African chiefs and merchants made it all possible, brutally capturing millions and marching them from the continent's interior to be sold in exchange for guns, iron and rum.

"It's mixed up," Milian said. "It's not an easy puzzle to put together."

Though slavery in the U.S. ended after the Civil War in 1865, its legacy has lived on. The U.S. Senate on June 18 unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and racial segregation.

"This is part of our history," said Hardin, who first visited Ghana in the late 1980s and later married a Ghanaian engineer she met in the U.S.

Her 15-year-old son was along for the first time. "I want him to understand what his liberty really means, who he really is," Hardin said.

But racism, both sisters agreed, would not end with Obama's visit.

"Let's not be naive. When your skin is darker, you are still going to be treated differently," Hardin said. But Obama's trip "will be a turning point, not just for America but for the world."

Milian said Obama's journey would also bear a message to those who organized the trade.

"It will say they failed, it all failed," she said. "The human mind is capable of horrible things, but the fact that we're standing here, the fact Obama will be standing here, proves we are also capable of great resilience."


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The Obamas Arrive In Russia...Will This Be The End of "Cold War Politics?"

MSNBC----


(President Obama has arrived for a high-stakes meeting in Moscow. Will President Obama be able to "warm up" U.S. Foreign Relations with Russia? NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports.)

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(President Obama tells Media that Putin's ideology of "Cold War Politics" is outdated.)

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MOSCOW - President Barack Obama opened his first Moscow summit with confidence on Monday, predicting "extraordinary progress" out of meetings set to test his diplomatic skills on important priorities such as nuclear arsenal reductions and the fight in Afghanistan.

"The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences," Obama said he sat down in an ornate Kremlin room with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "If we work hard in these next few days ... we can make extraordinary progress that will benefit the people of both countries."

With both men eager to reset damaged relations, Obama's host launched the high-stakes summit with similar good will.


"We'll have a full-fledged discussion of our relations between our two countries, closing some of the pages of the past and opening some of the pages of the future," Medvedev said, through a translator. "It is my hope that it will be possible to tackle successfully" a range of problems from the economy to security and energy and the environment.

The first U.S.-Russia summit since the early part of the George W. Bush presidency presents a challenge for Obama — with Russia's wary public, a two-headed leadership and lingering hard feelings. Much of the world will watch signs of Obama's relationship with Russia's two leaders, Medvedev and his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The foundation set now could affect how much cooperation Obama gets in areas in which the United States needs help from Russia — chiefly pressuring Iran and North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions, but also in tackling terrorism, global warming and the economy.

In search of early results:

Both sides are talking of improving their ties and wanting to show some early results.

Agreements negotiated ahead of time give Obama something to take home before the summit even got under way, including another step toward the world's two largest nuclear powers reducing their arsenals and agreement from Russia to let the United States use its territory and air space to move arms into Afghanistan for the forces fighting extremists there.

Other side agreements meant to sweeten the talks included a new joint commission to try to account for missing service members of both countries dating back to World War II. Four working groups will look into missing military personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and Soviet military personnel still missing from Moscow's 10-year occupation of Afghanistan.

The White House also said the two countries have agreed to cooperate in the fields of public health and medical research, an arrangement intended to range across public health issues from infectious diseases to promotion of healthy lifestyles to improving global health.

Stuck on missile defense
Yet, the two sides remain in a stalemate over the U.S. pursuit of a missile-defense system in Europe. Obama's administration is reviewing the efficacy of plan, which Bush had pushed hard.

U.S. leaders have expressed hope of getting Russian cooperation on missile defense. But both sides have also shown signs of hardening their positions ahead of the summit.

The basic problem is unchanged:

The United States contends the program is designed to protect U.S. allies in Europe from a potential nuclear attack by Iran, but the Russians see it as a first step toward a system that could weaken their offensive nuclear strike potential.

"We're going to have to work our way through that," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told "Fox News Sunday."

Obama's distinctive Air Force One jetliner touched down with drizzly gray skies blanketing Moscow. He continued down a formal reception line on the airport tarmac, introducing his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters to the Russian officials waiting to greet them.

The entourage then headed directly to a wreath-laying ceremony at Russia's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, brilliant sun breaking over the city's center as they drove in. The president walked slowly behind three high-stepping Russian soldiers, then straightened the wreath's ribbon where they placed it in front of the eternal flame and stood alone briefly.

The summit starts a weeklong trip for Obama that also features G-8 meetings and a visit with the pope in Italy, and a speech in Ghana.

Room for improvement:

Obama's mission in Moscow is two-pronged, divided over two days. Building ties and signing security and cultural deals with the leadership comes first. He will also devote a significant amount of time to leaders of Russia's civil society to help those relationships, too.

There is plenty of room for improvement. Obama, who has enjoyed adoring crowds in travels across Europe so far, will face a skeptical Russian population, polling out Sunday shows.

Only 23 percent of Russians have confidence in Obama to do the right thing in international affairs, according to the University of Maryland's WorldPublicOpinion.org. Just 15 percent of the Russians polled said the United States is playing a positive role in the world; most said the United States abuses it power and makes Russia do what the United States wants.

"I would like there to be real change, not just talk," said Valentina Titova, a 60-year-old retired economist strolling not far from the Kremlin. "I would like to see America meddle less in other countries. They think they're so superior to others, they put themselves on a pedestal."

Aiming to change attitudes, Obama will outline his vision for U.S.-Russian relations at a speech at the New Economic School. It is unclear how many people will see it. Russian leaders control the television outlets.

The dominant theme of the summit is security, and Obama and Medvedev are set to announce progress toward renewing a strategic arms reduction pact that expires in December. The eventual deal could cut warheads from more than 2,000 each to as low as 1,500 apiece.

"At the moment I think we are all moderately optimistic, both the Russian side and the American side, so far as I know," Medvedev said ahead of Obama's arrival in an interview with Italian news outlets.

As Obama told a Russian-language news channel in the days before the summit: "America respects Russia. We want to build relations where we deal as equals."

Heightened stakes:

Yet he also caused a stir in Russia by telling The Associated Press last week that Putin has to learn that "the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated." That only elevated the stakes of Obama's first meeting with Putin, which is set for Tuesday.

Russia and the United States have been allies and adversaries. Obama inherited more of the latter, with relations having tanked in 2008 over Russia's war with neighboring Georgia.

Obama got off to a solid start, though, with Medvedev during an April meeting in London.




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