Here is the full text of the President’s Address to the Congress and the nation.
Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:
I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here. I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has –- a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family.
You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.
But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.
The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth.
Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.
Hundreds of unemployed construction workers gathered together in Newark to protest the use of foreign labour and to demand more work for the British people. It is the latest in a series of protests about the utilisation of foreign labour in Britain.
South Africa is a complex and changing country that is still dealing with a legacy of racial division. It was only 15 years ago that the system of apartheid ended, and since then many of the racial barriers have been broken down, if not forgotten.
But a gap still exists today between have and have-nots, and many of the poor are black. They may be equal on paper, but because of impoverished conditions, many still feel unequal.
Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal takes look at the new South Africa, beginning in Soweto, a former black township in Johannesburg that came to symbolize the repressive old days.
Bloggers in South Africa and elsewhere discuss the state of race relations in the country: World Focus Blog.
Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal takes a look at South Africas easing of racial tensions in the Signature Story Poverty preserves racial lines in post-apartheid South Africa. Despite legal racial equality, social and economic structures continue to enforce a wide poverty gap in the country.
Dr. Xolela Mangcu of the Platform for Public Deliberation and the Social Cohesion and Identity Research Programme discusses this divide and the failure of a liberated people to meet the demands of the Mandela promise.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. The result of every single neo-liberal economic development programme heretofore has been a widening gulf between rich and poor.
Hearst Publications said on Tuesday that it may sell or close The San Francisco Chronicle if it cannot wring enough savings from the money-losing newspaper.
The announcement is the latest in a string of bad news for the newspaper industry, as several large papers and their publishers contemplate filing for bankruptcy amid plummeting advertising and circulation numbers.
Hearst said in its statement that The Chronicle, which it bought in 2000, lost $50 million last year and has lost money every year since 2001. Among the changes the company said it wants to see is “a significant reduction” in its union and nonunion employees.
“Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve,” Frank A. Bennack Jr., Hearst’s chief executive officer, and Steven R. Swartz, the president of its newspaper division, said in a statement. “But without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be found, to shut the newspaper down.”
Frank J. Vega, The Chronicle’s chairman and publisher, told the newspaper: “It’s just a fact of life that we need to live within our means as a newspaper – and we have not for years.”
Times are tough for newspapers in general, as revenue continues to fall in the wake of the recession. Media experts have said that the San Francisco market in particular is a rough one for newspaper: as The Chronicle points out, 21 newspapers serve 11 counties in the area.
Hearst warned last month that it may sell or shut down another of its papers, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, if no buyer can be found.
The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation — the FBI – said Monday that the main threat of global terrorism is coming from the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. FBI Director Robert Mueller says another threat could come from militants recruited on U.S. soil.
Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group and Joel Rosenthal of the Carnegie Council discuss political futures for 2009: What are the risks associated with a progressive U.S. Congress? What are the risks from increasing Parliamentary intervention in the economy?
One very noteworthy point made by Mr. Bremmer is that in the past year we have seen a shift from in decision-making from commercial capitals to political capitals. That is, New York is losing influence and the power brokers are increasingly in Washington. The same can be said for Germany where Berlin is increasingly taking control of the vital financial and economic decision-making from Frankfurt. Even in London the power has past from The City to Parliament.
Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group and Joel Rosenthal of the Carnegie Council discuss political futures for 2009: How big of a security risk does closing Guantánamo pose? How much political capital should the US spend on the Israel-Palestine conflict?