DOCUMENT: Barack Obama's 2012 speech to AIPAC
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- Written by Hank Berger
President Barack Obama's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday was interrupted by applause 53 times, according to the White House.[1] -- The president spoke of the "unbreakable bonds" between "the Jewish state of Israel" and said that "my administration’s commitment to Israel’s security has been unprecedented" and that "our security assistance [to Israel] has increased every single year." -- "[W]hen the chips are down, I have Israel’s back," he said. -- COMMENT: While President Obama said that "The United States and Israel both assess that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon, and we are exceedingly vigilant in monitoring their program," he did not point out that no one has produced any evidence that Iran has any nuclear weapons program. -- Too bad -- that would have strengthened his observation that "there is too much loose talk of war" and that "now is not the time for bluster." -- In general, he had little to say about Iranian intentions, and ignored a recent statement from Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei on nuclear weapons stating that "holding these arms is a sin as well as useless, harmful, and dangerous," as he ignored the fact that Israel has hundreds and the U.S. thousands of nuclear weapons....
VIDEO: Jackson Browne débuts Occupy song in Zuccotti Park
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- Written by Fran Lucientes
QUOTATIONS: Family, war, & love in Bruce Springsteen's preamble to 'The River'
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- Written by Fran Lucientes
In the 1980s, before performing "The River," Bruce Springsteen often recounted an episode from his youth that evoked his conflicted relationship growing up in New Jersey with his conservative, working-class father and what happened in 1968 after he received his draft notice for the Vietnam war. -- One of these recountings was transcribed by Cathal Garvey, an Irish fan, in 2009. -- A number of silent emendations to his version have been effected in the text below, which based on a recording of a performance on Sept. 30, 1985, at a concert at the Coliseum in Los Angeles.[1] -- It appears as a track on the album "Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live/ 1975-1985." -- The lyrics to "The River" follow.[2] -- NOTE: According to Wikipedia's article on the song, Springsteen's preambles to "The River" "would sometimes conclude positively and sometimes not." ...