OBAMA VOWS TO CLOSE GITMO BEFORE HE LEAVES OFFICE; DARES CONGRESS

OBAMA VOWS TO CLOSE GITMO BEFORE HE LEAVES OFFICE:

IS THIS ABOUT ERASING GEORGE W. BUSH'S LEGACY?

WHERE WILL THE CAPTURED TERRORISTS BE RELEASED?

PLEASE GET OUT THE VOTE IN 2016.

Sources: ABC News, USA Today, Youtube

**** Obama Takes Last Chance To Close Guantanamo Bay

Keeping the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay open is "contrary to our values," President Obama said Tuesday, as he released a plan that examined 13 potential sites for transferring the suspected terrorists but did not propose any specific location.

His plan sets up a last-year confrontation with Congress about a campaign promise made eight years ago. Terrorists use Guantanamo as propaganda to recruit, and maintaining it harms U.S. national security, he said.

The plan has three elements beyond closing the prison, Obama said. 

More detainees will be safely transferred, reviewing the threat posed by detainees who are not eligible for transfer, and identifying those eligible for military trials.

“This plan has my full support," Obama said.

Obama said closing Guantanamo was something his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, supported, as did his 2008 Republican challenge, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Since then, however, the politics have got in the way, he said.

Obama said he was "very clear-eyed" about the challenges of closing Guantanamo. "If it were easy it would have happened years ago," he said.

McCain, who now chairs the Armed Services Committee, called the plan flimsy and said his committee would hold hearings on it soon.

“What we received today is a vague menu of options, not a credible plan for closing Guantanamo, let alone a coherent policy to deal with future terrorist detainees,” McCain said in a statement. “After years of rhetoric, the president has still yet to say how and where he will house both current and future detainees, including those his administration has deemed as too dangerous to release.”

McCain said Obama had missed “a major chance to convince the Congress and the American people that he has a responsible plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.”

The plan does not indicate the prisons in the United States under consideration to transfer detainees, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

“The administration seeks an active dialogue with Congress on this issue and looks forward to working with Congress to identify the most appropriate location as soon as possible,” Cook said.

The report looked at existing facilities in South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado, as well as new facilities at unnamed military bases across the country.

It would cost $290 million to $475 million for the Department of Defense to renovate an existing state or federal prison, which would be dedicated to holding only Defense detainees, the official said. But the Pentagon estimates it could save $65 million to $85 million a year, recouping the one-time costs in about five years, though the official said the numbers are "somewhat rough and notional” because Congress has not appropriated the money necessary to do a complete site assessment.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that the Pentagon report "will make a compelling case that closing the prison is clearly in our national security interest, but also will reflect the need for the United States government to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars."

There are 91 detainees remaining in the prison; each one costs about $4 million per year.

"There is far too much money that is spent to operate that prison when there are more cost-effective alternatives available. And we certainly would like to work with the Congress to make those alternatives a reality because we know that those alternatives don't weaken our national security. In fact, they strengthen it. They enhance it," Earnest said. "And it would take away — by closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay — a chief recruiting tool that we know is used by terrorist organizations about the world."

The plan, released Tuesday morning, anticipates that a "limited number" of detainees will not be eligible for transfer to other countries

"For these detainees, the administration intends to work with the Congress to relocate them from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to an appropriate site in the continental United States while continuing to identify other appropriate and lawful dispositions," the plan says.

Guantanamo Bay, located on the eastern edge of Cuba, has housed prisoners taken captive in war on terror since 2002. Since it exists on a base on Cuban soil but held by the United States under a 113-year-old lease, the prisoners are in what some human rights organizations call a "legal black hole."

But transferring them to U.S. soil would not necessarily change their legal status. A previous legal opinion from the Pentagon found that the 2001 legislation authorizing the global war on terror allows them to be held as combatants as long as hostilities remain.

There were 242 detainees still in the Guantanamo Bay prison when Obama took office in 2009, down from a high of almost 700. That number has dwindled over the years as the Pentagon has transferred lower-risk detainees to other countries — meaning that the prisoners who remain tend to be considered higher security risks.

Of the 91 detainees remaining, 35 are eligible to be transferred to other countries as long as those countries can demonstrate that they can hold the prisoners without risk. Another 10 await trial by a military court, and 46 are still being evaluated.

Current law prohibits the president from transferring the Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. soil, where there are only a handful of maximum-security prisons deemed appropriate to house them. Congress also added a provision to the defense policy bill signed by Obama last year requiring the administration to put forward a plan for transferring the remaining detainees to prisons in the United States.

House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the plan, saying it did not make a convincing case that moving detainees to the United States was "smart or safe." The plan did not provide details required by law about the cost and location of the U.S. prison.

"Congress has left no room for confusion," Ryan said in a statement. "It is against the law — and it will stay against the law — to transfer terrorist detainees to American soil. We will not jeopardize our national security over a campaign promise.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the top Democrat in the House, called the administration's proposal a "strong, detailed plan" to close Guantanamo.

“The reality is Guantanamo hurts, rather than advances our efforts to keep America safe and combat terrorism abroad," Pelosi said in a statement. "Closing the detention facility at Guantanamo will strengthen our national security and affirm our values and laws. It is disappointing that Republicans have worked to prevent the long-overdue closure of the Guantanamo facility."

SCALIA'S DEATH & HIS POLITICALLY CORRECT REPLACEMENT (KAMALA HARRIS)

SCALIA'S DEATH & HIS POLITICALLY CORRECT REPLACEMENT (KAMALA HARRIS)

Saturday afternoon, February 13, 2016, SCOTUS Senior Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead in Texas.

Almost immediately after Scalia's death the Mainstream Media was reporting he died of "Natural Causes".

Although no Autopsy had been conducted yet, it was announced he died via "Natural Causes".

By Saturday evening of the same day,  Pres Obama announced via he would nominate a replacement during his term to replace Justice Scalia.

In 2015 a BLACK woman from Chicago (SANDRA BLAND) was found dead in a Texas jail cell.

In 2016 an Italian-American (WHITE) U.S. Supreme Court Justice (SCALIA) was found dead also in Texas.

Both human beings died due to mysterious circumstances of which we may never know.

Senior Justice Antonin Scalia was loved by many and known to write his opinions from a Conservative perspective.

In fact Scalia appeared to be the only true Conservative voice on the SCOTUS bench because Chief Justice John Roberts often delivers opinions in line with his more Liberal colleagues.

Following Pres OBAMA's announcement of nominating an immediate replacement for Scalia, the name floating on everyone's SCOTUS short list is KAMALA HARRIS.

Kamala Harris is a BLACK Woman age 51, from Oakland, California and an alumni of Howard University.

Ms Harris is the highly respected current State Attorney General of California and she is a Liberal who supports Pres Obama's agenda.

Just as Justice Scalia was very Conservative, Kamala Harris is very Liberal in her political ideology.

Sources:   CNN, USA Today, MSNBC, Wikipedia, Youtube

**** Who Could Replace Scalia? Here Are 10 Names

 Who could replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia if Republicans don't block all of President Obama's nominees, as appears likely? Here are 10 possibilities:

~ Sri Srinivasan: The 48-year-old federal appeals court judge was confirmed unanimously in 2013 for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — a traditional steppingstone to the Supreme Court. He would be the court's first Indian-American justice.

~ Patricia Millett: Srinivasan's 52-year-old colleague on the D.C. Circuit is popular in both parties and is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate. She argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court as an advocate.

~ Merrick Garland: At 63, Garland is older than most nominees, since presidents want their choices to stick around for decades on the bench. He is a moderate who serves as chief judge on the D.C. Circuit court and could be a compromise choice.

~KAMALA Harris: California's attorney general, 51, could be another leading candidate. She has the added luster of holding political office, a life experience that is sorely lacking on the Supreme Court. She's currently running for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

~ Deval Patrick: The former governor of Massachusetts, 59, is a close friend of the president who served in the Justice Department during President Bill Clinton's administration.

~ Amy Klobuchar: If the Senate would be less inclined to block one of its own, the senior senator from Minnesota, 55, might be someone Obama would consider.

~ Sheldon Whitehouse: See "Senate" above. Whitehouse, 60, the junior senator from Rhode Island, is a former attorney general of Rhode Island and U.S. attorney with strong credentials.

~ Goodwin Liu: He was Obama's choice for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2010, but Republicans blocked his nomination, making him a less likely choice now. At 45, he sits on the California Supreme Court.

~ Paul Watford: A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Watford, 48, is another Obama nominee with a potentially stellar future.

~ Jane Kelly: She is a 51-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit who was a career public defender. From Iowa, she has enjoyed the prior support of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

OBAMA WELCOMES BATTLE TO REPLACE SCALIA DURING HIS 2nd TERM: (LEGACY)

OBAMA WELCOMES BATTLE TO REPLACE SCALIA DURING HIS 2nd TERM:  (LEGACY)

ANNOUNCES HE WILL NOMINATE SCALIA'S REPLACEMENT.

APPOINTMENT OF SCALIA'S REPLACEMENT WILL FULFILL OBAMA'S LEGACY.

**** Obama Says He’ll Nominate A Replacement For Scalia

President Obama declared Saturday that he intends to nominate a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a move aimed at deepening his imprint on the nation’s highest court.

“I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time,” Obama said, adding that there’s “plenty of time” for the Senate “to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote. 

These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. 

They’re bigger than any one party — they’re about a democracy.”

But the president faces a fierce and protracted battle with Republicans who have already signaled that they have no intention of allowing Obama to choose a nominee to succeed Scalia.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said that Scalia should not be replaced until the next president has taken office. “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) rejected that position. “It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat,” he said in a statement. “Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential Constitutional responsibilities.”

Obama has nominated two justices to the court in the past, and he has expressed the desire for jurists with empathy. 

He did not discuss his thinking about that on Saturday night. Instead, he used the moment to pay tribute to Scalia, whom he described as an “extraordinary judicial thinker.”

In selecting Supreme Court nominees, Obama has relied heavily on the advice of Vice President Biden, a former Senate Judiciary chairman. 

Biden has demonstrated again and again a strong working relationship with McConnell, having previously negotiated several tax and budget deals. 

The court nomination may hinge on Biden’s ability to reach a deal with McConnell again.

But the fate of the nomination would clearly be in Republican hands. While Democrats were able to change the rules in 2013 to make it easier to approve lower court judges with a simple majority, Supreme Court nominations still require 60 votes to advance past an opposition filibuster. 

To derail or delay the nomination, McConnell could simply not schedule a vote, but even if he allows Senate consideration of the nomination, Democrats do not have the numbers to overcome a GOP filibuster.

Although the Republican-controlled Congress could easily thwart an Obama nominee, such a decision could reverberate across the presidential campaign and into in the November elections, in which several GOP senators face tough, competitive races.

The most immediate outcome of the Scalia vacancy is that it offers Obama the chance to draw sharper battle lines with Republicans during an increasingly acrimonious presidential election.

The administration now faces a chaotic political and legal environment in which the president must prepare for a bitter confirmation fight or embrace the prospect of a deadlocked Supreme Court divided evenly between liberals and conservatives.

Scalia’s death also throws into doubt the outcome of some of the most controversial issues facing the nation in cases before the court this term: abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and the president’s powers on immigration and deportation.

A deadlocked court could leave appellate decisions in place without setting a precedent.

 That would please the administration on a case involving union membership, for instance, but would keep Obama’s executive action on deportation from being implemented.

White House officials would not comment Saturday evening on their deliberations about a potential nominee, but the administration has an extensive list of possible candidates to choose from, including some who would change the face of the court by virtue of their race or sexual orientation.

“Blocking a strong person of color, a woman or an historic LGBT candidate for the Supreme Court might cause conservatives more trouble than they think they’re preventing,” said Robert Raben, a Democratic consultant and lobbyist who served as a senior Justice Department official under President Clinton. “The perception of unfairness or bias at the height of a national election could seriously backfire.”

One former senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the president was likely to look to someone young enough to make a mark on the court over several decades. Obama has appointed several such jurists to U.S. appellate courts, the person noted, providing him with a relatively deep bench to from which to choose.

Among the leading candidates would be Sri Srinivasan, a judge on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who was confirmed to seat in a 97-to-0 Senate vote in May 2013. Srinivasan would be the first South Asian American on the court. 

He worked in the U.S. Solicitor General’s office under both Obama and President George W. Bush, and clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Other contenders from that same court include its chief judge, Merrick Garland, who is well liked by conservatives and was a finalist for such a nomination when Obama selected Justice Elena Kagan in 2010. 

Patricia Ann Millett, who won confirmation to the D.C. Circuit in December 2013, may also be considered.

Obama could also look to current or former administration officials, said those familiar with the president’s thinking, or even to the Senate. 

Among those officials are Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Eric Holder, the former attorney general.

Other potential choices could include Deval Patrick (D), the former governor of Massachusetts, or Paul Smith, who chairs the appellate and Supreme Court practice at Jenner & Block and, if confirmed, would be the first openly gay justice.

Beyond the D.C. Circuit, there are many other appellate judges the president could look to in selecting a nominee. Those include Paul Watford and Mary H. Murguia of the 9th Circuit; Albert Diaz of the 4th Circuit and Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson of the 1st Circuit.

Regardless of whom Obama selects, the combination of the timing of the opening, the stark division on the court and deeply partisan passion being evoked in both presidential primaries would make this confirmation battle unlike any of the past 40 years.

The last confirmation in the eighth year of a presidency was Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whose 97-to-0 vote in February 1988 came after two failed nomination efforts by President Reagan in the face of a Democratic-controlled Senate in late 1987. 

Kennedy is seen as a traitor among conservative activists, who view his rulings on abortion and gay rights with the liberal bloc as an example of GOP leaders choosing political expediency over ideological rigidity.

The only other attempt to fill a vacancy during a presidential election year came in 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson tried to elevate Abe Fortas to be chief justice. 

The Senate blocked Fortas. 

Subsequently, the other nomination to fill Fortas’s spot as associate justice was withdrawn during the final months of Johnson’s presidency.

Under normal circumstances, the nomination of a justice takes about 75 to 90 days, the first 60 or so involving a thorough vetting process by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Typically, the panel does not consider judicial nominees after mid-May, under a tradition established by the late Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). While chairing the Judiciary Committee, Thurmond declared that he would not take up new judicial nominations within a few months of a presidential election.

Filling the post of Scalia, however, will be anything but normal. 

He was the outspoken champion for the court’s conservative wing and had many admirers in the Senate, including McConnell. Obama’s first two appointments to the court were relatively easy because Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Kagan were replacing liberal-leaning justices.

Senate conservatives, already predisposed to not approve of Obama’s choice, might be loath to allow him to replace their judicial hero with a liberal jurist who would tip the court in a left-leaning direction. 

As of now, Sotomayor and Kagan often sided with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer in the most ideologically driven cases, with Kennedy and sometimes Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. providing the tie-breaking votes.

If Republicans leave the Scalia seat vacant for any lengthy time, that sets up the chance of a series of 4-to-4 votes in which the ruling of the lower federal court would stand as the law of that particular region of the country.

That political math in the Senate means Obama will need the support of all 46 members of the Democratic caucus and at least 14 Republicans to end a filibuster and successfully appoint Scalia’s successor. 

In the president’s previous Supreme Court nominations, just nine and then four Republicans voted to confirm Sotomayor and Kagan, respectively.

Sources: CNN, Washington Post, Youtube

OBAMA'S FINAL SOTU SPEECH - HE LOOKS OLDER, STILL HAS POLITICAL SWAG (VIDEO)

OBAMA'S FINAL SOTU SPEECH - HE LOOKS OLDER, STILL HAS POLITICAL SWAG: 

PAUL RYAN'S FIRST SOTU AS HOUSE SPEAKER.

~ 8 Key Quotes From Obama's 2016 State Of The Union

In his final State of the Union Address, President Obama largely avoided requests for Congress to approve specific programs, instead focusing on broad themes about America's future.

Here are eight key passages from his speech:

1. On bipartisanship

"Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the constructive approach you and the other leaders took at the end of last year to pass a budget and make tax cuts permanent for working families. So I hope we can work together this year on bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform, and helping people who are battling prescription drug abuse. We just might surprise the cynics again."

2. On the economy

"Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction. What is true — and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious — is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit and haven’t let up."

3. On combating cancer

"Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control."

4. On climate change

"We’ve got to accelerate the transition away from dirty energy. Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future — especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels. That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet."

5. On U.S. strength

The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close. We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined. Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world ... when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead — they call us.

6. On the Islamic State

"As we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands. Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence. That’s the story ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit. ... We just need to call them what they are — killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed."

7. On diversity

"We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith."

8. On politics

"The future we want — opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids — all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.It will only happen if we fix our politics."

Sources: PBS, USA Today, Youtube

OBAMA TO DELIVER FINAL SOTU ADDRESS; TUESDAY, JAN 12, 9PM ET (HIS LEGACY & HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN)

View More: Politics News|Live News|More News Videos

OBAMA DELIVERS FINAL SOTU ADDRESS; TUESDAY, JAN 12, 9PM ET:

SPEECH WILL HIGHLIGHT HIS LEGACY & HELP HILLARY

*** OBAMA'S PRESIDENTIAL LEGACY (GOOD & BAD):

ELECTED IN NOV 2008 (FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT)

RE-ELECTED IN NOV 2012

ORDERED DEATH OF OSAMA BIN LADEN

PULLED TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ

REAL COMPENSATION FOR FAMILIES WHOSE LOVED ONES ARE MURDERED BY POLICE

BAILED OUT WALL STREET

BAILED OUT AUTO INDUSTRY

STIMULUS PACKAGE

REPEALED "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL"

DODD-FRANK

FORECLOSURE PREVENTION

CONSUMER PROTECTION

APPOINTED NEW MEMBERS TO FEDERAL LABOR BOARD

OBAMACARE

CLIMATE CHANGE

LEGALIZED MARIJUANA

POLICE BLUE-LIGHT POLICE PROTECTION ACT

NEW GUN CONTROL LAWS

REPEALED "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND"

HELPED GOV NIKKI HALEY IN REMOVING CONFEDERATE FLAG AFTER CHARLESTON MASSACRE.

~ How To Watch President Obama's Final State Of The Union

President Obama will deliver his final State of the Union address Tuesday at 9 p.m. and is expected to focus on the future, with the 2016 presidential election at stake later this year.

The president previewed the address in a video last week and said he wants his speech to highlight not only the progress the U.S. has made and what he wants to accomplish in his final year, but "what we all need to do together in the years to come."

The White House has invited a number of people to sit in the box with First Lady Michelle Obama during the address, and one seat has been reserved and will be left vacant to represent "victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice."

Mr. Obama spent all of last week highlighting his new set of executive actions on gun violence.

Other White House guests include Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D); the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella; Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court same-sex marriage case; 

Spencer Stone, one of the three Americans who thwarted a potential terrorist attack on a Paris-bound train in August; one of the partners of a San Bernardino terrorist attack victim; and a Syrian refugee who moved to the U.S. with his children in December.

The speech, which will be the first with Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, as speaker, will come just weeks before the 2016 primary season kicks off in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mr. Obama wants to ensure that a Democrat succeeds him, but he also is focused on plans he'd like to fulfill in his final year in office.

The president, for example, is intent on delivering a plan to Congress that would permanently close the Guantanamo Bay prison.

He has challenged Congress to consider a new war authorization against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Criminal justice reform and getting approval for the Trans-Pacific Partnership are also among Mr. Obama's final priorities.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is scheduled to deliver the Republican response after the address.

** What: President Obama's final State of the Union address
Time: 9 p.m. ET

Where to watch/listen:

On TV: CBS television affiliates or on CBSN streaming on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Xbox One
Mobile: CBSN streaming on the CBS News apps CBS News for Android and CBS News for iOS
Online: CBSNews.com
On radio: CBS Radio News affiliates

** Who attends: Vice President Joe Biden will sit behind the president, next to Speaker Ryan. Members of the House and Senate will file into the House chamber for the speech.

Some of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates will be there. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul will attend, but Ted Cruz is skipping it in favor of his own campaign event in New Hampshire.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be delivering his state of the state address on Tuesday.

A number of Supreme Court justices usually show up, as well as members of the president's cabinet.

There's always a "designated survivor," who is a member of the cabinet designated to be at an undisclosed location when he delivers the speech, in case something happens to the president, vice president and speaker.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was the designated survivor last year.

Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis who spent five days in jail defying a court order to license same-sex marriages will be in the chamber, although no one has revealed which lawmaker invited her.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Tuesday said he won't be there, and further, he has reserved an empty seat in the House chamber's gallery during the State of the Union to represent "the lives of more than 55 million aborted babies."

Sources: CBS News, NBC News

John F. Kennedy's 1960 Presidential Bid: Man Of The People

John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Inaugural Address: Delivered January 20, 1961


Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge -- and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom -- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required -- not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support -- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course -- both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms, and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed, in all corners of the earth, the command of Isaiah -- to "undo the heavy burdens, and [to] let the oppressed go free."¹

And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor -- not a new balance of power, but a new world of law -- where the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation,"² a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.


View Larger Map


Sources: American Rhetoric, TIME, Youtube, Google Maps