US drops ISRO and DRDO from entities list

Obama administration removed nine Indian space, ISRO and DRDO.

Meeting the long pending Indian demand, Obama administration removed nine Indian space and defense related companies including those from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), from its export control 'Entity List'.

The decision that came out close to India's Republic Day, is said to be a move towards strengthening high technology trade between the two countries.

"Today's action marks a significant milestone in reinforcing the US-India strategic partnership and moving forward with export control reforms that will facilitate high technology trade and cooperation," said commerce secretary Gary Locke, after a notification was issued in the federal registry.

The announcement comes a week ahead of a high-profile visit of a US trade delegation which will visit New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Locke will lead 24 US businesses on a high-tech trade mission to India. The delegation also includes senior officials from the Export-Import Bank (EX-IM) and the Trade Development Agency (TDA). This is the first step to implement the export control policy initiative announced on November 8,2010 by US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The DRDO companies removed from the entities list: Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Defense Research andDevelopment Lab (DRDL), Missile Research and Development Complex; Solid State Physics Laboratory. The ISRO companies to be dropped from the list are: Liquid Propulsion Systems Center, Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB), Sriharikota Space Center (SHAR), and Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC).

The notification removes India from several country groups in the export administration regulations (EAR) resulting in the removal of export license requirements that were tied to India's placement in those country groups.

It further adds India to a country group in the EAR that consists of members of the missile technology control regime. The move recognises and communicates India's adherence to the regime, the US-India strategic partnership, and India's global non-proliferation standing.

"These changes reaffirm the US commitment to work with India on our mutual goal of strengthening the global non-proliferation framework," said under secretary of commerce Eric L Hirschhorn.

President Obama had assured India that he would remove the above companies from the 'Entity List' during his visit to India in November 2010.

"Commensurate with India's nonproliferation record and commitment to abide by multilateral export control standards, the United States will remove all civil space and defense-related entities from the department of commerce "entity list."

Inclusion on this list generally triggers an export license requirement for items that otherwise do not require an export license," said a fact sheet issued by the White House during the Obama visit.

Dave Lindahl Scam

Obama's Crisis Response Evolves

Obama's Crisis Response Evolves From Fort Hood Massacre.

The White House response to the shooting rampage in Arizona reveals how the administration's reaction to crisis has evolved since the similar attack at Fort Hood more than a year ago.

President Obama swiftly made a statement to the press Saturday after the Arizona shooting that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., critically injured, also killing six others and wounding 14. By Sunday, the president had called for a national moment of silence and signed a proclamation that flags will be flown at half staff and canceled a trip to New York. He plans to attend a memorial service in Arizona on Wednesday.

Obama also took the highly unusual step of sending FBI Director Robert Mueller to the scene.

This contrasts the timing and extent of how he handled both the Fort Hood shooting and the attempted Christmas Day bombing in 2009.

Democratic strategist Maria Cardona says it is obvious that the president and the White House has evolved in handling of tragedies.

"No question about that. All presidencies go through a learning curve," Cardona said. They understand some lack of response in crisis before now, I do think they have looked at that, and understood this needed to be very quick."

On Nov. 5, 2009, Army Major Nidal Hasan is accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13, including military personnel, and wounding about 30 others.

The president went ahead with this scheduled remarks at a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, and for several minutes thanked those attending, even offering a "shout out" before addressing the shooting.

Many said his tone and brevity were off mark.

Similarly, after the botched Christmas Day underwear bombing in 2009, the president was criticized for taking a whole day to address the nation on the incident.

Former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino, who is also a Fox News contributor, noted while all scenarios are different, there are some common guidelines to follow in moments of tragedy.

"It's tempting to compare every incident and in some ways there are similarities - they are crises - but there isn't a one-size fits all approach to responding. A good rule of thumb is to comment immediately and offer supportive statements and the dispatch of help if appropriate, and then to wait and not get ahead of the facts," Perino said. "In a crisis there are many questions that are unanswered for a while and it's important not to try to give answers that later turn out to be wrong."

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President Barack Obama's 49th Birthday

President Obama Grudgingly Celebrates His 49th Birthday.

President Obama turns 49 years old today, and while it's not quite the milestone of the big 5-0, clearly he is ringing in another year only grudgingly.

Obama has made references in the past week to the outward signs of his aging.

"I will be 49 this week," Obama said in Atlanta on Monday. "I have a lot more gray hair than I did last year."

He followed that comment this week with two more references lamenting his dark hair going grayer with each month in office.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the job as commander-in-chief is one the president no doubt enjoys, but it will just require him to get more frequent haircuts to cover up those pesky gray hairs.

"I can't imagine that the weight of the job doesn't take a toll physically and mentally on anybody that does it," Gibbs said at the White House daily briefing Tuesday. "But at the same time ... I would say he's still in pretty good shape and is enjoying the job even with its many challenges. ... There's no doubt that it takes an enormous physical and mental strain on making the decisions that you make."

And then there are the inward signs of his age -- a slowing metabolism.

At the Tastee Sub Shop in Edison, N.J., last week, the president implied that his upcoming birthday means that he has to start making smarter choices about his food portions.

"I want everyone to know [that] when I was 20 I could order a 12-inch," he joked. "I'm turning 49 next week, which means [I can order] just the half."

Dr. Michael Roizen of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and co-founder of RealAge.com, said a president typically ages two years for every one year in office.

"The number one ager for all of us is stress," Roizen said, adding that and lack of socialization really wear on presidents.

"It's a very high-stress job, but they lose their friends," Roizen said. "Typically, when they come into office they have friends. But by the time they leave, most of those friends apparently are asking for something. So they lose their confidants."

US mission in Iraq will end in this month

Obama told US mission in Iraq will end in this August.

President Barack Obama on Monday said America's commitment to Iraq is now changing from military to civilian efforts, even as he made it clear that US combat mission in the war-ravaged country will end as scheduled on August 31.

"Make no mistake, our commitment in Iraq is changing from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats," Obama said, despite recent flare-up of violence in the country.

"Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. I made it clear that by August 31, 2010 America's combat mission in Iraq would end. That is exactly what we are doing as promised, on schedule," he said, adding that the US has closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of bases.

We're moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we've seen in decades, he said.

As president, Obama inherited a security agreement with Baghdad that calls for all US forces to pull out by the end of 2011. He has ordered the force to draw down to 50,000 by September 1.

The pullout confirmation comes amid an increase of violence in Iraq, with the Baghdad government releasing figures on Saturday that said 535 people died in July, including 396 civilians, 89 policemen and 50 soldiers.

That figure was the highest for a single month since May 2008 when 563 people were killed in violence.

"By the end of this month, we'll have brought more than 90,000 of our troops home from Iraq since I took office more than 90,000," he added.

"Today even as terrorists try to derail Iraq's progress because of the sacrifices of our troops and their Iraqi partners, violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it's been in years," Obama said.

Next month, we will change our military mission from combat to supporting and training Iraqi security forces and in fact, in many parts of the country, Iraqis have already taken the lead for security, he said.

As agreed to with the Iraqi government, the US will maintain a transitional force until the US removes all its troops from Iraq by the end of next year.

"During this period, our forces will have a focused mission supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counter terrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts," Obama added.

There are still those with bombs and bullets who will try to stop Iraq's progress and the hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq, he said.

Barack Obama on 'The View' Show

President Obama appears on daytime talk show The View.

US President Barack Obama is to appear on daytime talk show The View, where he reflected on challenges he has faced.

President Barack Obama replied “where do I begin here?” when asked how difficult his first 20 months in office have been, as he made the first appearance by a sitting US president on a daytime television chat show.

During a taped appearance on ABC's "The View", which is presented by a panel of women including veteran journalist Barbara Walters and actress Whoopi Goldberg, the president was asked to reflect on the challenge he has faced so far.

He said they included "a non-stop effort to restart the economy, we have also had the oil spill, we have also had two wars, we have also had a pandemic – H1N1 that we had to manage”.

The president also praised his daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, saying they were "full of ideas, and opinions and observations – it's just a great age".

The president has received some criticism for appearing on a show more commonly associated with celebrity interviews. Ed Rendell, a fellow Democrat and governor of Pennsylvania, said it was unbecoming of the office.

“I think the president should be accessible, should answer questions that aren’t pre-screened, but I think there should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency.

“I wouldn’t put him on Jerry Springer either, it is different a little bit. But I think the president of the United States has to go on serious shows,” he said.

President Barack Obama's Birthday Appeal

Under First Lady Michelle Obama’s name, Organizing for America – President Barack Obama’s political wing – emailed an appeal making use of the president’s 49th birthday next week to raise some West Wing spirits.

“I’m putting together a birthday card that I would like you to sign. Together with supporters — and me, Malia, Sasha, and Bo — we’ll wish him a happy birthday and let him know that we’re ready to take on the year ahead alongside him,” Michelle’s pitch goes.

Click on the link and you get to “sign” the card, and also offer up some valuable organizing information, name, zip and email address.

“This year also brought a lot of surprises — some good and some bad,” the first lady notes candidly. “Supporters like you have helped him make the best of it.”

Not exactly a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday. Oh, and by the way, Michelle and elder-daughter Malia will be celebrating Obama’s birthday next week – in Spain, without him.

Obama poised to sign sweeping financial overhaul

President Barack Obama aims to usher in a new era of consumer protections and banking restrictions Wednesday, checking off another legislative victory just before election-year politics overtakes the rest of his major agenda.

The president was set to sign a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations, a signature achievement that comes nearly two years after Wall Street's failures knocked the economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The White House was planning a major signing ceremony featuring a long list of supporters of the legislation, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Robert Diamond, president of Barclay's PLC.

The law assembles a powerful council of regulators to be on the lookout for risks across the finance system and creates a new agency to guard consumers in their financial transactions. It places shadow financial markets that previously escaped the oversight of regulators under new scrutiny and gives the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy.

Large, failing financial institutions would be liquidated and the costs assessed on their surviving peers. Borrowers will be protected from hidden fees and abusive terms, but also will have to provide evidence that they can repay their loans. The Federal Reserve will get new powers while at the same time coming under expanded congressional oversight.

Though Obama and his top officials urged Congress to pass the law while the memory of the 2008 financial meltdown was still fresh, many of the law's provisions won't take effect for at least a year as regulators scramble to write new rules and implement them.

"That will take some time, but it is worth it," Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said Tuesday.

While the bill represents the end of a year's work by Congress and the administration, Obama has at least one contentious remnant from the bill to address. He must still nominate a director to the independent consumer protection bureau, an agency that became one of the bill's flashpoints and was attacked by Republicans as a broad expansion of government power over private business.

Among those expected at the signing ceremony is Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor considered a leading candidate for the job. Warren is a consumer advocate who was among the first to propose the idea of a new agency for financial consumers. As head of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank rescue fund known as TARP, she has periodically clashed with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Liberals and unions have been aggressively pressing for her appointment. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was among the latest to weigh in on behalf of Warren Tuesday, saying she is the only candidate "uniquely qualified and equipped to head this new agency."

But opposition in the Senate could make her confirmation difficult, a point made by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd in a radio interview on NPR Monday.

Also under serious consideration by the White House is assistant Treasury secretary Michael Barr, one of the architects of the financial regulation bill and a close ally of some White House officials. Deputy assistant attorney general Eugene Kimmelman is also in the running for the slot.

Obama's Supreme Court nominees

President Obama Announces Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan

President Barack Obama on Monday nominated the administration’s chief lawyer, Elena Kagan, to serve on the highest U.S. court.

Ms. Kagan, 50, would become the just the fifth woman to be a justice of the Supreme Court and join two other women currently on the nine-member bench.

Currently serving as Mr. Obama’s solicitor general, Ms. Kagan argues cases on behalf of the administration before the Supreme Court. She has never been a judge, the first time since the 1970s that an individual without experience in the judicial branch has been nominated.

Mr. Obama called Ms. Kagan “one of the nation’s foremost legal minds” with “a firm grasp of the nexus and boundaries between our three branches of government.” Ms. Kagan, a former dean of Harvard Law School, called the Supreme Court the “foundation of our democracy” and said she was honoured to accept Mr. Obama’s nomination.

The Senate must approve Ms. Kagan’s nomination and opposition Republicans in statements said they would take a careful look at her record in the coming weeks.

Ms. Kagan would replace Justice John Paul Stevens, 90, who is to retire at the end of the court’s current term in June.

She is Mr. Obama’s second pick to serve on the Supreme Court. Last year he nominated Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who became the first Hispanic member of the top court.

Barack Obama welcomes World Series champion New York Yankees

President Barack Obama on the New York Yankees to White House.

President Barack Obama welcomed the Yankees to the White House on Monday, lauding them for the franchise’s 27th championship, and poking a bit of fun at how long it took to win this one.

“Now, it’s been nine years since your last title — which must have felt like an eternity for Yankees fans,” Obama said. “I think other teams would be just fine with a spell like that. The Cubs, for example.”

Obama, famously a devoted White Sox fan, said he did find something to admire in the Yankees’ expectations.

“That attitude, that success, has always made the Yankees easy to love — and, let’s face it, easy to hate as well,” he said. “For a White Sox fan like me, it’s painful to watch Mariano’s cutter when it’s against my team, or to see the Yankees wrap up the pennant while the Sox are struggling on the South Side. Although I do remember 2005, people, so don’t get too comfortable.”

Also joining the festivities were Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who Obama said went to the same high school as Yankees Manager Joe Girardi. New York’s Congressional delegation was there as well.

Obama lauded several Yankees for their off-field work, including the college scholarship funded by Mark Teixeira in memory of a friend killed in a car accident and Jorge Posada’s work raising money to help families with children suffering from birth defects.

The Yankees had started their day visiting injured soldiers and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Obama clashes with gay rights hecklers in L.A

President Obama is used to hearing his name yelled angrily at conservative Tea Party protests. On Monday night, however, he faced hecklers at a more unlikely venue: a Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles for California Sen. Barbara Boxer.

And yes, the hecklers were attacking the president from the left. "Repeal 'don't ask, don't tell'!" the protesters yelled, referring to the 1993 military policy that bans gays and lesbians from openly serving. Obama responded, "We are going to do that; hey, hold on a second, hold on a second."

The rest of the crowd then began chanting Obama's signature campaign chant: "Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!" You can watch the outburst — and Obama's replies — here:

During the 2008 campaign, Obama repeatedly pledged to kill the controversial policy, and in January's State of the Union address, he reiterated that vow. But progress has been slow. The administration claims that's because a full repeal would require a separate bill in Congress repudiating the congressionally approved 1993 law — and it's been hard to work such a bill into an already overcrowded Capitol Hill agenda. In March, the Pentagon announced it was relaxing enforcement of the ban, to clear the path for eventual repeal.

Obama returned to the issue of repeal in his Monday speech. "When you've got an ally like Barbara Boxer and you've got an ally like me who are standing for the same thing, then you don't know exactly why you've got to holler, because we already hear you, all right," Obama remarked to applause. "I mean, it would have made more sense to holler that at the people who oppose it."

But the hollering didn't let up. "It's time for equality for all Americans," shouted one. Obama again stressed his opposition to the ban, and again said, "I don't know why you're hollering." The group broke into another "Yes we can!" chant.

Obama then sought to return to the event's main theme: Boxer's re-election. Sen. Boxer "didn't even vote for 'don't ask, don't tell' in the first place," the president noted. "So you know she's going to be in favor of repealing 'don't ask, don't tell.' "