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02:00:50 02/13/13
Live streaming The State of the Union: Full Transcript Open Thread
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Full transcript of the speech: >
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens:
Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all.”
Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in twenty. Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.
Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger.
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can’t find full-time employment. Corporate profits have rocketed to all-time highs – but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged. >
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.
It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.
It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.
The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem. They don’t expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party. They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when we do so together; and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.
Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget – decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery.
Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances. Now we need to finish the job. And the question is, how?
In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars’ worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They’d devastate priorities like education, energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. That’s why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as “the sequester,” are a really bad idea.
Now, some in this Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training; Medicare and Social Security benefits.
That idea is even worse. Yes, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms – otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations.
But we can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful. We won’t grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers, cops, and firefighters. Most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, and with everybody doing their fair share. And that’s the approach I offer tonight.
On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. The reforms I’m proposing go even further. We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement. Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.
To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested, and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? How does that promote growth?
Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring; a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can’t pay a lower rate than their hard-working secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that create jobs right here in America. That’s what tax reform can deliver. That’s what we can do together.
I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform won’t be easy. The politics will be hard for both sides. None of us will get 100 percent of what we want. But the alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, and visit hardship on millions of hardworking Americans. So let’s set party interests aside, and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future. And let’s do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. Let’s agree, right here, right now, to keep the people’s government open, pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause another.
Now, most of us agree that a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda. But let’s be clear: deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts. Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?
A year and a half ago, I put forward an American Jobs Act that independent economists said would create more than one million new jobs. I thank the last Congress for passing some of that agenda, and I urge this Congress to pass the rest. Tonight, I’ll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat – nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.
Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.
After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.
There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns. So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.
If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas. Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race. And today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy.
After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it. And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.
But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.
The good news is, we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.
Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.
In the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. That’s why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.
Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. If a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we. Let’s take their advice and free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve put up with for far too long. I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.
America’s energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair. Ask any CEO where they’d rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids. The CEO of Siemens America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they’ll bring even more jobs. And I know that you want these job-creating projects in your districts. I’ve seen you all at the ribbon-cuttings.
Tonight, I propose a “Fix-It-First” program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children. Let’s prove that there is no better place to do business than the United States of America. And let’s start right away.
Part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector. Today, our housing market is finally healing from the collapse of 2007. Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.
But even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are being rejected. Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no. That’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it. Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before. What are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill. Right now, overlapping regulations keep responsible young families from buying their first home. What’s holding us back? Let’s streamline the process, and help our economy grow.
These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs. But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens with the skills and training to fill those jobs. And that has to start at the earliest possible age.
Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.
Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.
We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future. Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It’s a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class. But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with unsustainable debt.
Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure they do. Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck. To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today’s jobs require. But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who’s willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead.
Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, and faith communities all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my Administration has already made – putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history, and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.
Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally. And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.
In other words, we know what needs to be done. As we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts. Now let’s get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.
But we can’t stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. I urge the House to do the same. And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.
We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong. That’s why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, nineteen states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.
Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. In fact, working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher. So here’s an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.
Tonight, let’s also recognize that there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it’s virtually impossible to get ahead. Factory towns decimated from years of plants packing up. Inescapable pockets of poverty, urban and rural, where young adults are still fighting for their first job. America is not a place where chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny. And that is why we need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.
Let’s offer incentives to companies that hire Americans who’ve got what it takes to fill that job opening, but have been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance. Let’s put people back to work rebuilding vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods. And this year, my Administration will begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet. We’ll work with local leaders to target resources at public safety, education, and housing. We’ll give new tax credits to businesses that hire and invest. And we’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and doing more to encourage fatherhood – because what makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one. Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger America. It is this kind of prosperity – broad, shared, and built on a thriving middle class – that has always been the source of our progress at home. It is also the foundation of our power and influence throughout the world.
Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al Qaeda. Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women. This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead. Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over.
Beyond 2014, America’s commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our commitment will change. We are negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two missions: training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counter-terrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al Qaeda and their affiliates.
Today, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self. Different al Qaeda affiliates and extremist groups have emerged – from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya, and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali. And, where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans.
As we do, we must enlist our values in the fight. That is why my Administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations. Throughout, we have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts. I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way. So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.
Of course, our challenges don’t end with al Qaeda. America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons. The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats.
Likewise, the leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. At the same time, we will engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals, and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands – because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to lead.
America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks. We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.
That’s why, earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.
Even as we protect our people, we should remember that today’s world presents not only dangers, but opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.
We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all. In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day. So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: by connecting more people to the global economy and empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve and helping communities to feed, power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation.
Above all, America must remain a beacon to all who seek freedom during this period of historic change. I saw the power of hope last year in Rangoon – when Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed an American President into the home where she had been imprisoned for years; when thousands of Burmese lined the streets, waving American flags, including a man who said, “There is justice and law in the United States. I want our country to be like that.”
In defense of freedom, we will remain the anchor of strong alliances from the Americas to Africa; from Europe to Asia. In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand their universal rights, and support stable transitions to democracy. The process will be messy, and we cannot presume to dictate the course of change in countries like Egypt; but we can – and will – insist on respect for the fundamental rights of all people. We will keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of every Syrian. And we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace. These are the messages I will deliver when I travel to the Middle East next month.
All this work depends on the courage and sacrifice of those who serve in dangerous places at great personal risk – our diplomats, our intelligence officers, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. As long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military in the world. We will invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending. We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight. We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat. We will keep faith with our veterans – investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors; supporting our military families; and giving our veterans the benefits, education, and job opportunities they have earned. And I want to thank my wife Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden for their continued dedication to serving our military families as well as they serve us.
But defending our freedom is not the job of our military alone. We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home. That includes our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to vote. When any Americans – no matter where they live or what their party – are denied that right simply because they can’t wait for five, six, seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals. That’s why, tonight, I’m announcing a non-partisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. And I’m asking two long-time experts in the field, who’ve recently served as the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney’s campaign, to lead it. We can fix this, and we will. The American people demand it. And so does our democracy. Of course, what I’ve said tonight matters little if we don’t come together to protect our most precious resource – our children.
It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned.
Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that’s your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun.
One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house.
Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.
Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.
We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans the same way they look out for one another, every single day, usually without fanfare, all across this country. We should follow their example.
We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez. When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospital into darkness, her thoughts were not with how her own home was faring – they were with the twenty precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe.
We should follow the example of a North Miami woman named Desiline Victor. When she arrived at her polling place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours. And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say. Hour after hour, a throng of people stayed in line in support of her. Because Desiline is 102 years old. And they erupted in cheers when she finally put on a sticker that read “I Voted.”
We should follow the example of a police officer named Brian Murphy. When a gunman opened fire on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and Brian was the first to arrive, he did not consider his own safety. He fought back until help arrived, and ordered his fellow officers to protect the safety of the Americans worshiping inside – even as he lay bleeding from twelve bullet wounds.
When asked how he did that, Brian said, “That’s just the way we’re made.”
That’s just the way we’re made.
We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title:
We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
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02:00:50 02/13/13
Live streaming The State of the Union: Full Transcript Open Thread
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Full transcript of the speech: >
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens:
Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all.”
Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in twenty. Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.
Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger.
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can’t find full-time employment. Corporate profits have rocketed to all-time highs – but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged. >
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.
It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.
It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.
The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem. They don’t expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party. They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when we do so together; and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.
Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget – decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery.
Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances. Now we need to finish the job. And the question is, how?
In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars’ worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They’d devastate priorities like education, energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. That’s why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as “the sequester,” are a really bad idea.
Now, some in this Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training; Medicare and Social Security benefits.
That idea is even worse. Yes, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms – otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations.
But we can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful. We won’t grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers, cops, and firefighters. Most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, and with everybody doing their fair share. And that’s the approach I offer tonight.
On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. The reforms I’m proposing go even further. We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement. Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.
To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested, and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? How does that promote growth?
Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring; a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can’t pay a lower rate than their hard-working secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that create jobs right here in America. That’s what tax reform can deliver. That’s what we can do together.
I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform won’t be easy. The politics will be hard for both sides. None of us will get 100 percent of what we want. But the alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, and visit hardship on millions of hardworking Americans. So let’s set party interests aside, and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future. And let’s do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. Let’s agree, right here, right now, to keep the people’s government open, pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause another.
Now, most of us agree that a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda. But let’s be clear: deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts. Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?
A year and a half ago, I put forward an American Jobs Act that independent economists said would create more than one million new jobs. I thank the last Congress for passing some of that agenda, and I urge this Congress to pass the rest. Tonight, I’ll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat – nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.
Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.
After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.
There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns. So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.
If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas. Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race. And today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy.
After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it. And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.
But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.
The good news is, we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.
Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.
In the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. That’s why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.
Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. If a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we. Let’s take their advice and free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve put up with for far too long. I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.
America’s energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair. Ask any CEO where they’d rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids. The CEO of Siemens America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they’ll bring even more jobs. And I know that you want these job-creating projects in your districts. I’ve seen you all at the ribbon-cuttings.
Tonight, I propose a “Fix-It-First” program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children. Let’s prove that there is no better place to do business than the United States of America. And let’s start right away.
Part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector. Today, our housing market is finally healing from the collapse of 2007. Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.
But even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are being rejected. Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no. That’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it. Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before. What are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill. Right now, overlapping regulations keep responsible young families from buying their first home. What’s holding us back? Let’s streamline the process, and help our economy grow.
These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs. But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens with the skills and training to fill those jobs. And that has to start at the earliest possible age.
Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.
Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.
We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future. Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It’s a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class. But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with unsustainable debt.
Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure they do. Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck. To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today’s jobs require. But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who’s willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead.
Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, and faith communities all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my Administration has already made – putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history, and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.
Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally. And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.
In other words, we know what needs to be done. As we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts. Now let’s get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.
But we can’t stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. I urge the House to do the same. And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.
We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong. That’s why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, nineteen states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.
Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. In fact, working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher. So here’s an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.
Tonight, let’s also recognize that there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it’s virtually impossible to get ahead. Factory towns decimated from years of plants packing up. Inescapable pockets of poverty, urban and rural, where young adults are still fighting for their first job. America is not a place where chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny. And that is why we need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.
Let’s offer incentives to companies that hire Americans who’ve got what it takes to fill that job opening, but have been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance. Let’s put people back to work rebuilding vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods. And this year, my Administration will begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet. We’ll work with local leaders to target resources at public safety, education, and housing. We’ll give new tax credits to businesses that hire and invest. And we’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and doing more to encourage fatherhood – because what makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one. Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger America. It is this kind of prosperity – broad, shared, and built on a thriving middle class – that has always been the source of our progress at home. It is also the foundation of our power and influence throughout the world.
Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al Qaeda. Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women. This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead. Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over.
Beyond 2014, America’s commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our commitment will change. We are negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two missions: training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counter-terrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al Qaeda and their affiliates.
Today, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self. Different al Qaeda affiliates and extremist groups have emerged – from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya, and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali. And, where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans.
As we do, we must enlist our values in the fight. That is why my Administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations. Throughout, we have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts. I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way. So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.
Of course, our challenges don’t end with al Qaeda. America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons. The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats.
Likewise, the leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. At the same time, we will engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals, and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands – because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to lead.
America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks. We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.
That’s why, earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.
Even as we protect our people, we should remember that today’s world presents not only dangers, but opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.
We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all. In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day. So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: by connecting more people to the global economy and empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve and helping communities to feed, power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation.
Above all, America must remain a beacon to all who seek freedom during this period of historic change. I saw the power of hope last year in Rangoon – when Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed an American President into the home where she had been imprisoned for years; when thousands of Burmese lined the streets, waving American flags, including a man who said, “There is justice and law in the United States. I want our country to be like that.”
In defense of freedom, we will remain the anchor of strong alliances from the Americas to Africa; from Europe to Asia. In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand their universal rights, and support stable transitions to democracy. The process will be messy, and we cannot presume to dictate the course of change in countries like Egypt; but we can – and will – insist on respect for the fundamental rights of all people. We will keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of every Syrian. And we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace. These are the messages I will deliver when I travel to the Middle East next month.
All this work depends on the courage and sacrifice of those who serve in dangerous places at great personal risk – our diplomats, our intelligence officers, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. As long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military in the world. We will invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending. We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight. We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat. We will keep faith with our veterans – investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors; supporting our military families; and giving our veterans the benefits, education, and job opportunities they have earned. And I want to thank my wife Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden for their continued dedication to serving our military families as well as they serve us.
But defending our freedom is not the job of our military alone. We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home. That includes our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to vote. When any Americans – no matter where they live or what their party – are denied that right simply because they can’t wait for five, six, seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals. That’s why, tonight, I’m announcing a non-partisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. And I’m asking two long-time experts in the field, who’ve recently served as the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney’s campaign, to lead it. We can fix this, and we will. The American people demand it. And so does our democracy. Of course, what I’ve said tonight matters little if we don’t come together to protect our most precious resource – our children.
It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned.
Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that’s your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun.
One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house.
Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.
Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.
We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans the same way they look out for one another, every single day, usually without fanfare, all across this country. We should follow their example.
We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez. When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospital into darkness, her thoughts were not with how her own home was faring – they were with the twenty precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe.
We should follow the example of a North Miami woman named Desiline Victor. When she arrived at her polling place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours. And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say. Hour after hour, a throng of people stayed in line in support of her. Because Desiline is 102 years old. And they erupted in cheers when she finally put on a sticker that read “I Voted.”
We should follow the example of a police officer named Brian Murphy. When a gunman opened fire on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and Brian was the first to arrive, he did not consider his own safety. He fought back until help arrived, and ordered his fellow officers to protect the safety of the Americans worshiping inside – even as he lay bleeding from twelve bullet wounds.
When asked how he did that, Brian said, “That’s just the way we’re made.”
That’s just the way we’re made.
We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title:
We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
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Happy Halloween Party at Quad Recording Studios NYC circa 1989 Jon's Journal
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*WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: Happy Halloween Party at Quad Recording Studios NYC circa 1989 http://archive.org/details/HappyHalloweenPartyAtQuadRecordingStudiosNycCirca1989 Youtube http://youtu.be/m9zMPasFmOw Happy Halloween everybody! Take a trip back to the year of 1989 here in this legendary major recording studio with engineer guitarist Joe Berger and Jon Hammond and Quad Team. This is where all these folks have recorded, including Jon Hammond and The Late Rent Session Men with Bernard Purdie - Rihanna Swizz Beats Coldplay The Fray Jennifer Hudson Lil' Wanye Jordin Sparks T.I. Fantasia Ashanti Pitbull Leona Lewis Shakira Aurelius Seven Chris Brown Ludacris David Archuleta David Cook Don Omar Madonna Keyshia Cole Ben Folds Sean Kingston Mariah Carey AndrewLloydWebber Stargate & Espionage Evanescence Chrisette Michelle Missy Elliott My Morning Jacket Dave McCracken Notorious B.I.G. Bob Dylan Queen Latifah Nick LaChey Nina Sky Dionne Warwick Bon Jovi Bow Wow Kate Voegele Whitney Houston Gavin DeGraw GooGoo Dolls Method Man Busta Rhymes Jim Jones T-Pain Ruben Studdard Keri Hilson Anthony Hamilton Leonard Cohen Barcelona K.T. Tunstall Lanz Jay Z Wu Tang Clan Chink Santana Ryan Leslie Redman The Bravery Young Jeezy Mario Winans Trey Songs Delta Goodrem Rick Ross Cobra Starship Phillip Lawrence Evan Bogart Day 26 Martin K Michael Brauer James Blunt Leighton Meester Ryan Leslie Avery Storm Sami Yusuf Alicia Keys The Postelles Jaicko Andrea Martin Claude Kelly Lazee Amanda Ghost Ian Dench Kat De Luna Gucci Mane The Game Hurricane Chris Natasha Ramos Jack Splash Jazmine Sullivan 2 Pac Frankie Storm Savage Garden Coldplay DMX LL Cool J Delta Goodrem Mariah Carey Busta Rhymes Ol' Dirty Bastard MickJagger Gloria Estefan Ace Of Base Whitney Houston Damian Marley Stephen Marley Fat Boys Memphis Bleek LSG Nicole Ray Silk Solar Steve Winwood Freddie Jackson Karyn White Toni Braxton Lisa Stansfield Groove Theory Cameo The S.O.S Band Debbie Gibson Shabba Ranks Inner Circle Stephanie Mills Starship The Kooks Hype Williams Gerald Levert Lady Saw Case Marc Cohn Brownstone Annie Lennox Taylor Dayne U2 Ace Of Base Vitamin C enjoy, and...trick or treat! http://www.quadnyc.com HammondCast http://www.HammondCast.com azz In Cave - Jazzkeller Frankfurt -- Jon Hammond Band annual Musikmesse Warm up Party Youtube http://youtu.be/Erm1jEvuN0Y Jon Hammond's Annual Musikmesse Warm Up Party in Jazzkeller Frankfurt "White Onions" by Jon Hammond, special guest Lee Oskar harmonica, Tony Lakatos tenor saxophone, Giovanni Gulino drums, Joe Berger guitar, Jon Hammond at Sk1 Hammond organ / bass special thanks Thomas Eich TecAmp - 2 x 12" Neodymium Speakers with TecAmp power amp on my organ http://www.jonhammondband.com/ Hamburg Germany -- Jens Borgmann's very special racer - at Route 66 Hamburg - Jon Hammond — with Jens Borgmann at Kieler Straße 271, D-22525 Hamburg Jens Borgmann: It's a 1936 Ford factory race car. The car was driven in the years 1936-37 from Mr. Manoel de Oliveira on some european race tracks Alan Gorrie original founding member of Average White Band aka AWB from Glasgow Scotland - Bottom Line Cabaret NYC - Jon Hammond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_White_Band Average White Band (also AWB) is a Scottish funk and R%B band, who had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They are best known for their million selling song, "Pick Up the Pieces" and their album Cut the Cake. The band name was initially proposed by Bonnie Bramlett. They have influenced others such as the Brand New Heavies, and been sampled by various musicians including the Beastie Boys, TLC, The Beatnuts, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Arrested Development[1] - in turn making them the fifteenth most sampled act in history.[2] As of 2012, forty years after their formation, they continue to perform. Onnie McIntyre - vocals, rhythm guitar (1972-1982, 1989-present) Alan Gorrie - bass guitar, guitar, and vocals (1972-1982, 1989-present) Fred Vigdor - keyboards, saxophone (1989-present) Rocky Bryant - drums (2006-present) Brent Carter - vocals (2011-present) Monte Croft - keyboard, bass, and guitar (2011-present) Former members Roger Ball - keyboards, saxophonist (1972-1982, 1989) Malcolm "Molly" Duncan - tenor saxophone (1972-1982) Robbie McIntosh - drums (1972-1974; died 1974) Michael Rosen - trumpet (1972) Hamish Stuart - guitar, bass guitar, and vocals (1972-1982) Steve Ferrone - drummer (1974-1982) Eliot Lewis - keyboards, guitar, percussion, and vocals (1989-2002) Alex Ligertwood - vocals (1989-1996) Pete Abbott - drums (1996-1998) Adam Deitch - drums (1998-2001) Brian Dunne - drums (2001-2006) Klyde Jones - guitar, keyboards, and vocals (2002-2011) Morris Pleasure - keyboard, bass, and guitar (2011) AWB was formed in early 1972[3] by Alan Gorrie,[4] and Malcolm "Molly" Duncan, with Onnie McIntyre,[5] Michael Rosen (trumpet), Roger Ball and Robbie McIntosh,[6] joining them in the original line-up. Hamish Stuart [7] quickly replaced Rosen. Duncan and Ball, affectionately known as the Dundee Horns, studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (now part of the University of Dundee), and were previously members of Mogul Thrash. Gorrie and McIntyre had been members of Forever More. McIntyre and McIntosh were used as session musicians on Chuck Berry's recording of "My Ding-a-Ling".[3] The band's breakthrough was a support slot at Eric Clapton's comeback concert in 1973. MCA Records released their debut album, Show Your Hand, which sold poorly.[8] Bruce McCaskill, who was Clapton's tour manager, liked the band's music and agreed to manage them. He borrowed money to take them to the US and to promote them. McCaskill had many contacts from his days with Clapton and managed to get Atlantic Records to sign them. The band relocated to Los Angeles, signed to Atlantic and released the follow-up, AWB, better known as "The White Album". This album was the first of many with renowned producer Arif Mardin, and reached #1 in the US Hot 100 chart.[8] McIntosh died of an accidental heroin overdose at a Los Angeles party on 23 September 1974.[1][8] Gorrie also overdosed, but Cher kept him conscious until medical help arrived.[9] The NME reported in January 1975 that AWB played a benefit show for McIntosh's widow at the Marquee Club in London.[10] McIntosh was replaced by Steve Ferrone (previously of Bloodstone, and, like McIntosh, previously with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express).[1] In 1975, the single "Pick Up The Pieces" - taken from the #1 AWB album - reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song knocked Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" out of #1 and sold over one million copies. It was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in March 1975.[11] It also prompted The J.B.'s, the backup band of the "Godfather of Soul," James Brown, to record and release a song in reply,"Pick Up the Pieces, One by One," under the name AABB (Above Average Black Band). It was both a tribute to AWB's knowledge of funk and a tongue-in-cheek play on the Scottish band's name. AWB followed up with the LPs Cut the Cake (1975) and Soul Searching (1976), both big sellers and yielding further Top 40 singles. Cut the Cake was dedicated by the surviving band members to McIntosh's memory. Their next LP, Benny & Us, was a collaboration with Ben E. King.[8] After several more albums, AWB's audience and sales dwindled. Their 1980 disco hit "Let's Go Round Again" (UK #12),[12] was covered in the late 1990s by Louise. The group initially disbanded by 1982. Ferrone went on to work with Duran Duran whilst Hamish Stuart joined Paul McCartney's touring group.[8] In 1985 Gorrie released a solo album, Sleepless Nights. Gorrie, McIntyre, and Ball reunited in 1989 to record Aftershock, but Ball left the band shortly after its release.[3] and was replaced by Fred Vigdor (aka Freddy V). Eliot Lewis co-wrote with Gorrie on this album and joined the band, replacing lead singer Hamish Stuart. Average White Band has continued recording (Soul Tattoo 1997, Face to Face, 1999) and touring since. When Eliot Lewis left the band in September 2002 to pursue other musical opportunities, he was replaced by Klyde Jones.[13] Their line-up then included Alan Gorrie (bass, lead vocals), Klyde Jones (guitar, keyboard, lead vocals), Onnie McIntyre (guitar, vocals), Freddy V (sax, keyboard, vocals) and Brian Dunne (drums). Gorrie and McIntyre are the only remaining original members of the band. Dunne was replaced by Rocky Bryant as drummer for the 2006 tour. Onnie McIntyre original founding member of Average White Band aka AWB from Glasgow Scotland - Bottom Line Cabaret NYC - Jon Hammond LaGrange Street Combat Zone Boston MA — Hand The Hatter, Arthur was one of the greatest hatters of all times. An era by gone - Jon Hammond http://www.csmonitor.com/1988/1011/rhat.html Boston's glad hatter plies an almost-forgotten trade By David Holmstrom, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / October 11, 1988 Boston IT'S a hot day on LaGrange Street. Across from the gaudy Club New Orleans, on the shady side of this street in Boston's notorious ``combat zone,'' Arthur Stephens takes a small paring knife out of his pocket. He carefully cuts through the black threads of time. ``Six and seven-eighths,'' he says quietly. In his hand is a beige man's hat. No measuring, no guessing the size. He knows hats, this hat, any hat. The knife cuts the threads holding the old, black hatband. It falls to the floor. ``This is a good beaver hat,'' says Mr. Stephens, twirling it over the knuckles of one hand. He will spend the next hour or so in loving restoration of another man's favorite hat. For 54 years, inside a narrow LaGrange Street shop darkened by time and steam, and filled with the rakishness of hats on pegs everywhere, Stephens has plied the almost forgotten art of a hatter. Like a poet polishing verbs, Stephens makes, restores, and repairs fine hats. During the half-century he has been motivated by the axiom ``A man doesn't looked dressed unless he wears a hat.'' ``My sisters were hat trimmers,'' he says proudly, ready to nurture just about any stained, drooping hat into new sheen and bearing. ``My father was a hatter, and my brothers were hatters, too. See, I like what I'm doing. You gotta like what you're doing. I'm 80 going on 81. Arthur Stephens is the only bona fide, art-for-the-sake-of-art hatter left in Boston. Once there were dozens. Ernesto Marrone has been a customer for 10 years. ``You can't get this kind of service anywhere else,'' he says, ``not even in New York. I wear hats because I grew up in an old Italian neighborhood where hats were customary.'' Long before Stephens bought the shop on LaGrange, a man named Hand first opened it on a downtown Boston street. The year was 1860, the year Abraham Lincoln was elected President, and Mr. Hand proclaimed his shop ``Hand the Hatter.'' The shop thrived down one century to another, satisfying Bostonian gentlemen who wore homburgs, panamas, top hats, trilbies, derbys, westerns, fedoras, and even boaters. And when the young and ambitious Stephens bought the shop in 1934, he kept the name. Today, above the door, slightly weathered and melancholy, a black-and-white sign still says, ``Hand the Hatter.'' The small shop window - protected by a steel grate - is so dusty and gray there is no seeing through it. One step up and through the open door and into the musty shop, and you have entered a time warp sliced from a faded calendar, circa 1930, with hats, hats, and more hats. ``You walk in here and say, `How come all this junk is here?''' says Stephens, a small man with rounded shoulders and a gruff, sentimental voice. ``But everything is ready for any kind of hat. You never know when you're going to use this stuff.'' ``This stuff'' lying about is a Noah's ark of the hatter's craft. Shelves and tables full of wooden hat blocks, shelves full of wooden flanges to shape brims, a 40-year-old hissing copper boiler (steam for steaming the hats), ancient cans of ``luring'' grease (to bring out the sheen of hats), an old ``ironing'' machine that heats and shapes the crown of hat while it spins slowly on a block, and off in one corner a bulbous, heated ``sand'' machine (a flannel bag filled with heated beach sand) to lower over a hat on a flange to shape or reshape the brim. I used to work until 2 in the morning,'' says Stephens, recalling the heady, quicker pace of the 1930s. ``Saturdays, Sundays. I'd go out to eat, take a shower at a hotel, come back here, and go to work again. I could knock off maybe 40 to 50 hats a day. Today if I do eight or 10 I'm doing a big day's work.'' Stephens acknowledges that it was probably a hatless President named John Kennedy who helped take the steam out of the men's hat business. That and all the vets returning from World War II as men who refused to wear hats anymore. Add the long hair of men in the 1960s, and hats had a dim future. ``Kennedy didn't wear a hat,'' says Stephens, ``and everybody stopped wearing them. Men are wearing all different kinds of hats now, but still not like they used to. Do I wear hats? Sure. I keep a couple in my car.'' He pauses by the ironing machine, watching the blocked brown hat turning as the hot ``iron'' moves automatically and slowly around it, squeaking all the way. On a shelf a fan pushes the hot air around. His voice lowers. ``Way back I made hats for Jimmy Durante,'' he says. ``His valet used to come here and get them. He'd say, `Jimmy needs a couple of hats,' and I'd know just what he wanted. Basil Rathbone used to buy hats from me, too.'' A new hat from Stephens will cost from $125 to $150. A restoration begins about $20 and often ends there, no matter how long it takes. ``I never really check the time, to tell you the truth,'' he says. ``I like the work, and when it's done, it's done.'' In the late afternoon a customer of 35 years comes in: a stocky, older man named Mitch with a straw hat needing the brim smoothed and stiffened. Stephens repairs the hat in minutes, using the sand machine and some deftly applied glue. ``I bought my first custom-made hat here in 1950,'' says Mitch, standing at the small counter near an enormous old cash register with a hand crank. ``I got one he made me a few years ago, and a couple of others,'' says Mitch. He says he would like another, a light gray this time. He and Stephens strike an accord. A price of $85, with $40 down. Stephens fills out an order. Mitch peels off two $20 bills on the counter. ``I don't want you pushing yourself,'' he says to Stephens. They both laugh and agree that three weeks should be long enough to fashion the hat. They shake hands. Mitch says warmly, ``I need you. Don't push yourself on this.'' Minutes later, a young man in a leather vest and tie enters and picks up a custom-made hat, a tan, narrow-brimmed trilby. Stephens packs the hat in a new Stetson hat box and tosses in a cluster of small red and yellow feathers for the hatband. When the young man leaves, Stephens says: ``If you're any kind of a businessman, you throw a man a few feathers.'' Late in the afternoon he sits in one of the four old chairs just inside the front door in a pensive mood. ``These are all old customers now,'' he says quietly. ``They know I won't sell them a bad hat. If I had said a $100 for the hat, Mitch would have paid it. No arguments.'' Boston MA -- Combat Zone Washington St. Naked i Club - Jon Hammond Boston MA -- Pre-cell phones, circa 1990 - Jon Hammond Boston MA -- Boylston St. Subway Station - Jon Hammond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boylston_(MBTA_station) Boylston is one of the two oldest stations on the Green Line light rail service of the MBTA rapid transport network, and is located on the southeast corner of Boston Common at the intersection of Boylston and Tremont Streets. After more than a century of continuous operation (since 1897), Boylston station retains an appearance more like its original look than any other station in the MBTA system. Boylston station is located at the intersection of Boylston Street and Tremont Street in southern Downtown Boston, slightly to the east of the Back Bay neighborhood.[1] Boylston's central location places it near many important Boston landmarks and points-of-interest. The southeastern corner of Boston Common and the northeastern corner of Emerson College are located at the intersection of Boylston Street and Tremont Street.[1] Boylston is the closest Green Line station to the Washington Street Theatre District and Boston's Chinatown. Boston's Chinatown is directly east of the station, and the Chinatown station on the Orange Line, only a block east at Washington Street, took its name from the neighborhood in 1987; one platform had earlier been named "Boylston" as well. Boylston station serves as a stop on the Silver Line, with a single one-way Bus Rapid Transit stop at street level. Construction of a proposed underground Silver Line station at this location has been postponed indefinitely. [edit]History Boylston and Park Street were the first two stations built in the Tremont Street Subway. The subway was built between 1895 and 1897, and first broke ground on the site of the current Boylston station. When the station opened in 1897, it became the first rapid transport station in the United States.[2] Of the two original stations, Boylston retains more of its original appearance, having undergone only minimal changes in over a century of continuous operation. Historic Boston PCC trolleys are sometimes kept on display in the station, though it is doubtful that they are in fully operable condition. The trolleys are parked on a set of outer tracks leading to a tunnel continuing southward under Tremont Street and heading to the old Pleasant Street Incline. Boylston station once connected via this tunnel to the Incline and a portal located in what is now Eliot Norton Park, immediately east of the Bay Village neighborhood of Boston. From the portal, several trolley lines diverged, including service through to South Boston via Broadway station. The trolley service was discontinued in 1962, the route was converted to buses, and the portal was later covered by construction of the park.[3] Some of the proposals for completing Phase III of the Silver Line involved reopening portions of the tunnel for direct connections to the Boylston Green Line station. As of 2010, all proposals for Phase III tunnel construction have been postponed indefinitely, due to lack of funding, and heavy community opposition. During the summer of 2006, the MBTA installed brighter lighting at Boylston station, changing the old dim appearance of the underground space. Modern electronic turnstiles and fare vending machines have also been installed. [edit]Incidents and accidents On 6 June 1906, there was an explosion at Boylston station.[4] The origin of the explosion was deemed to be the short-circuiting of the overhead lines in the station which began to burn and catch fire.[4] Because of the electrical nature of the fire, spraying water to stop the flames failed and fire-fighters who attempted to do so were met with electric shocks. Only three people were injured and the fire extinguished itself.[4] On 15 November 2008, two Green Line trains collided at the northbound platform of Boylston station.[5] Although the cars themselves were not visibly damaged, a few passengers complained about neck and back pains and were sent to the hospital.[5] A few hours later, the Green Line re-opened between Arlington and Government Center stations and temporary buses stopped running Boylston was originally configured for four tracks with two island platforms (see diagram at right), and the track layout has remained essentially unchanged since then. The two outer tracks formerly led to the Pleasant Street Portal, but are no longer in revenue service, have been fenced off, and are now used for storage and other miscellaneous purposes.[6] Two former streetcars — one of the Boston Elevated Railway and one of the old M.T.A. (predecessor of the MBTA) — are displayed on the outer track of the inbound platform. There is no free crossover between the platforms, thus passengers must pay attention to signs at street level denoting the separate entrances to the inbound and outbound platforms. A former crossover passage was sealed years ago for security reasons. The Green Line takes a sharp right-angle turn just south of Boylston station, as it turns from Tremont Street onto Boylston Street. The tight radius of curvature of the track can cause loud squealing noises from the train wheels, which are audible at street level near the station entrance at the corner. [edit]Accessibility See also: MBTA accessibility The inbound and outbound platforms are no longer connected, and neither one is wheelchair accessible. The historic station is approximately 1200 feet from Arlington station to the west, and a similar distance from Park Street station to the northeast, both Green Line stations which are wheelchair accessible (though Park is not yet fully accessible). The Chinatown station on the Orange Line is some 500 feet due east, and is fully wheelchair accessible. — at Boylston Station Lissania Frankfurt Kaiserstrasse 74 http://vimeo.com/51396876 Jon Hammond Band 1992 performance in "Lissania Essay" located steps away from the Hauptbahnhof Kaiserstrasse 74 during Frankfurt Musikmesse, funky original tune "Pocket Funk" with Jon Hammond at the organ along with Barry Finnerty - guitar, Derrick James - alto saxophone, Alain Nau - drums Late show in the Red Light District Frankfurt underground scene - JH *WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: Vintage Episode of The Jon Hammond Show Chicago Special http://archive.org/details/VintageEpisodeOfTheJonHammondShowChicagoSpecial Blip TV http://blip.tv/jon-hammond/vintage-episode-of-the-jon-hammond-show-chicago-special-6398291 Youtube http://youtu.be/IJHHdPNoHow Now in 28th year on Cable Access TV - The Jon Hammond Show, this particular episode is known as the Chicago Special which includes one song from Tim Cain I played Hammond organ on called I Saw You with some vocal help by Bill Champlin recorded by rjm productions, then to Chicago Summer NAMM Show where I personally filmed the very first performance of the late great bassist John Entwistle with band Rat Race Choir which happened at The Vic Theatre June 29, 1987, (same night) followed by Leslie West with T.M. Stevens bass, watch Leslie's face when smoke machine goes! Then a little bit of Bag End Party at Park West with Joe Berger, T.M. Stevens, Tal Bergman and Theodus Rogers. And of course JH Show Theme Song "Late Rent" - enjoy folks, this one is a classic! Jon Hammond http://www.HammondCast.com *Note: Joe Berger personally introduced his friend John Entwistle to Rat Race Choir band, John came all the way from London on Joe's recommendation - JH cable tv, namm show, john entwistle, vic theatre, bag end, chicago special 3145 North Sheffield Avenue John Entwistle Vic Theatre Chicago June 29, 1987 Leslie West Vic Theatre Chicago Mr. Hammond on MCTV The Jon Hammond Show - still on, 28th year *WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: Jon Hammond Band 1992 Lissania Frankfurt Kaiserstrasse 74 http://archive.org/details/JonHammondBand1992LissaniaFrankfurtKaiserstrasse74 Youtube http://youtu.be/hhRYoA9-20s Jon Hammond Band 1992 performance in "Lissania Essay" located steps away from the Hauptbahnhof Kaiserstrasse 74 during Frankfurt Musikmesse, funky original tune "Pocket Funk" with Jon Hammond at the organ along with Barry Finnerty - guitar, Derrick James - alto saxophone, Alain Nau - drums Late show in the Red Light District Frankfurt underground scene http://www.jonhammondband.com http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/109042589 http://www.facebook.com/jonhammondband Frankfurt Germany -- Jon Hammond Band in TAT-Cafe Theater am Turm Volksbildungsheim Frankfurt am Main (nach dem Umbau) L to R - Uwe Gehring guitar (he changed his name now to Wesley G..go figure!), Jo Mikovich tenor saxofon, Alain Nau drums (from Forbach France), Jon Hammond organ Midnight Show http://www.jonhammondband.com/ Theater am Turm http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_am_Turm Das Theater am Turm (abgekürzt TAT) war ein städtisches Theater in Frankfurt am Main. Es wurde 1953 als Landesbühne Rhein-Main durch den Frankfurter Bund für Volksbildung gegründet und hatte 1963 bis 1995 seinen Sitz im ehemaligen Volksbildungsheim am Eschenheimer Tor. Der Name Theater am Turm spielte auf den Eschenheimer Turm an, einen Teil der früheren Frankfurter Stadtbefestigung. Während der experimenta I wurde 1966 hier unter Leitung von Claus Peymann (Intendant 1965–1969) die legendäre Publikumsbeschimpfung von Peter Handke uraufgeführt. In den folgenden Jahren wurde das TAT durch die Nähe zur Studentenbewegung und zum Kampf gegen die Notstandsgesetze geprägt. 1969 wurde ein umfassendes Mitbestimmungsmodell eingeführt. Auf dem Programm standen nunmehr nicht nur Theateraufführungen, sondern auch Diskussionen, Vollversammlungen sowie Kurse in Marxismus und Tai-Chi. In den siebziger Jahren war Rainer Werner Fassbinder für acht Monate Intendant des TAT. Die Aufführung seines 1974 entstandenen Stückes Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod über den Frankfurter Häuserkampf wurde nach Protesten abgesagt, weil die darin vorkommende Figur des reichen Juden antisemitische Stereotypen bediene. Fassbinder verließ das Theater. Nach einer vorübergehenden Schließung 1978/79 wurde das TAT umgebaut und 1980 mit neuem Konzept, aber nunmehr ohne eigenes Ensemble wieder eröffnet. Bis 1986 war es eine Spielstätte für freie experimentelle Gruppen und internationale Künstler wie die Tanzcompany von Vivienne Newport, danach entstanden zahlreiche internationale Gastinszenierungen... Joe Berger at the Midnight Buffet aboard the fabulous m.v. Horizon Cruise Ship - Celebrity Cruises inaugural NYC - Bermuda cruise - we were filming for my TV Show - The Jon Hammond Show - JH special thanks Amy Curtis Mcintyre — with Joe Berger at Celebrity Cruises Mr. Hammond in Bermuda, headed for the pink sand beach after cruising down on the inaugural cruise of the fabulous cruise ship m.v. Horizon Celebrity Cruises, real nice time! Jon Hammond — in Hamilton, Bermuda Frankfurt Hausen -- Jon Hammond Band with special guest Françoise Pujol at the Boesendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, I convinced Boesendorfer to bring all the way from Vienna for Francoise to play - on the band Uwe Gehring guitar (he changed his name to Wesley G now..go figure that), Allen Wittig tenor sax, Totó Giovanni Gulino drums, Jon Hammond organ at Brotfabrik, the old bread factory in Frankfurt Hausen during Musikmesse time - http://www.jonhammondband.com/ — with Françoise Pujol and Totó Giovanni Gulino at Brotfabrik Frankfurt Picnic Lunch Time with my late great bandleader / trumpet player Lou Colombo and Family at their house in South Yarmouth Cape Cod, circa 1978 - Mrs. Colombo serving, merci beaucoup...and thank you Lori Colombo & Colombo Family, Jon Hammond *Note: Just back from the golf course - gig that night at Wychmere Harbor Club where we were the house band at the time with Frank Shea drums and Jack Pena guitar - JH — with Lori Colombo in South Yarmouth, MA cable tv, namm show, john entwistle, vic theatre, bag end, chicago special 3145 North Sheffield Avenue, pocket funk, frankfurt, red light district, underground scene, musikmesse, hammond organ Happy Halloween Party, Quad Recording Studios, Legendary, Musical Superstars "The FINGERS...are The SINGERS!"™
45 Views
15:05:44 01/07/11
What Racing Do You Want to See in 2011?
[LESS INFO] 45 VIEWS | ADDED 15:05:44 01/07/11
Leo Parente, host of FLD's Shakedown, asks YOU a question: What type of racing do YOU want to see in 2011?
36 Views
15:05:44 01/07/11
What Racing Do You Want to See in 2011?
[LESS INFO] 36 VIEWS | ADDED 15:05:44 01/07/11
Leo Parente, host of FLD's Shakedown, asks YOU a question: What type of racing do YOU want to see in 2011?
