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Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a Jackson crowd Tuesday night about the importance of America's role in spreading democracy globally in a speech that frequently, if not explicitly, advocated and defended Bush-era foreign policy. "The American spirit will lead the world," she said in ending her speech, which drew a standing ovation. "In its absence, the world would be a much, much worse place. ... If we're OK, everyone else will be OK, too." Rice, whose speech was part of Union University's scholarship banquet, also got applause for urging less federal involvement in the American economy, saying...

We've missed her voice of reason these past months!We haven't heard much from former Secretary of State Condi Rice since Obama took over. The following is an extensive interview by Nina Easton. It's an excellent reminder of what it was like when adults were in charge: [VIDEO AT SITE] The money quote is: "The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan," she said, "that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th. So our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become...

She's smart. She's experienced. She's worldly. Republican strategists worried about their party's future should take heed. ___ Successful candidates follow a simple fundamental rule: Define yourself before your opponent can define you. The Republican Party, which mustered a thumbs-up from only 38% of voters in last week's Bloomberg poll, sorely needs to brush up on the very rule it counsels in candidate-training sessions. To skeptics in search of a political home, the GOP's image has devolved into that of a minority collection of name-calling, "no"-saying, backward-looking, talk-show bullying cranks -- a definition gleefully perpetuated by Democratic pols. So next time...

-snip- When Rice talked to the Little Leaguers, he encouraged them to play for a love of the game -- not for a love of money. He told them they weren't likely to make the kind of money guys like Jeter and A-Rod do, so that shouldn't be their motivation. That, he explained, is why he mentioned those players in particular. "With today's kids, I think they want everything fast," Rice said. "But you really have to work at it. Nobody's going to give you anything, so by setting a good example -- by going out and working and doing...

Big league Hall of Famer Jim Rice opened the World Series for Little Leaguers with a fiery speech that even the grumpiest of grumpy old men could appreciate. The message: Don't look up to today's players because they're all bums. Rice explained that the All-Star chumps you see today, can't compare to genuine American heroes of Jim Rice's day. They didn't have the rock and roll and the drugs back then, so their old timey brand of baseball was pure and good. Unlike the kind you see from that hippie Derek Jeter. Guys that I played against and with, these...

Excavation of an ancient Vietnamese site has thrown up the earliest evidence of rice cultivation, while shedding new light on how the death of young children was viewed by community members. The excavation, led by professor Peter Bellwood and Marc Oxenham from the Australian National University (ANU) School of Archaeology and Anthropology, studied the site, some 3,000-4,000 years old, named An Son. The findings suggest that death in young children was so common that community members were unlikely to revere the death of their offspring until they had survived for more than five years. "The burial of a new born...

NKorea May Come Off Terror List: White House Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:50 PM WASHINGTON -- The White House said Wednesday that it could move to take North Korea off a terrorism blacklist "quite soon" after - and if - the North delivers an accounting of its nuclear programs. Washington hoped the secretive Stalinist nation would provide its long overdue "declaration" as early as Thursday, although a senior US official has already said that an inventory of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal will come later. Asked how quickly a full accounting would trigger removal from the US list of state sponsors of...

"Now, understand that part of the reason that it's so important for us to take a diplomatic approach [toward Iran] is that the approach that we've been taking, which is no diplomacy, obviously has not worked. Nobody disagrees with that." Mr. Obama then added a few illustrations to bolster his case: "Hamas and Hezbollah have gotten stronger. Iran has been pursuing its nuclear capabilities undiminished. And so, not talking, that clearly hasn't worked. That's what's been tried. And so what we're going to do is try something which is actually engaging and reaching out to the Iranians." Let's assume for...

A week has passed since President Obama set a train in motion with the publication of secret memos to justify harsh interrogations by the CIA, and the White House appears to have lost control over its ultimate destination. Fresh disclosures of declassified documents on Wednesday implicated a dozen senior officials in the Bush Administration, including Condoleezza Rice, as having approved techniques such as waterboarding — simulated drowning widely regarded as torture — on terrorist suspects. The previous evening a Senate Armed Services Committee report linked the decision to authorise the CIA’s programme with the abuse of detainees by the US...

WASHINGTON – As national security adviser in the Bush White House, Condoleezza Rice verbally OK'd the CIA's request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, a decision memorialized a few days later in a secret memo that the Obama administration declassified last week. Rice's role was detailed in a narrative released Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It provides the most detailed timeline yet for how the CIA's harsh interrogation program was conceived and approved at the highest levels in the Bush White House. The new timeline shows that Rice played a greater role than...

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The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session on Sunday afternoon to discuss concerns over North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket. But the closed-door consultations did not produce a clear and unified response. Diplomats say the council was unified in its deep concern over the launch, but that it could not immediately agree what form its response should take. The United States and Japan say they want a clear message in the form of a Security Council resolution condemning the launch. U.S. Ambassador, Susan Rice said "It is our view that this action merits a clear and strong response...

'This Week' : Susan Rice UN Ambassador Susan Rice on "This Week..." April 5, 2009 <*snip* RICE: ...(W)e have 15 members of the Security Council and -- including the permanent five, so we all need to come together around this. But the United States' view is..., it's a violation, and it merits and appropriately strong United Nations response. We'll be… STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned... RICE: ...working for that. STEPHANOPOULOS: *snip* China has made it pretty clear they don't want any sanctions. And because of that, your predecessor, John Bolton, says that any kind of U.N. resolution is going to be...

Condoleezza Rice said Friday that one of her deepest regrets from her time as secretary of state was the failure of the Bush administration to achieve real reform of immigration laws. "We need immigration reform. I don't care if it's for the person who crawls across the desert to earn $5 an hour, or for Sergey Brin, who came here from Russia and founded Google," she said at an economic summit at Stanford University. "As a country, we can't have people living in the shadows. It's just wrong. It's not only ineffective, it's wrong." She said immigrants were critical to...

Former US Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice, has reportedly signed a $2.5-million deal to write a trilogy that will chart her rise from a segregated neighbourhood in Alabama to the top ranks of the White House. The 54-year-old Ms Rice's yet untitled first book will be a memoir of her years in the Bush administration, reported Telegraph.co.uk. “Ms Rice will combine candid narrative and acute analysis to tell the story of her time in the White House and as top di plomat of US and her role in protecting American security and shaping foreign policy during the extraordinary period...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez on Saturday ordered troops to temporarily seize control of all Venezuelan rice processing plants to ensure they produce at full capacity amid soaring inflation and persisting reports of food shortages. Mr. Chavez told the National Guard to "take control of and intervene in all of these businesses that process rice in Venezuela," including at least a half-dozen local and foreign private companies. "This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich," Mr. Chavez said, accusing some companies of slowing production to evade price caps that have slashed their profit...

The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it will take a "wait and see" attitude after learning the Obama administration will participate in planning for a UN conference on racism dubbed "Durban II," despite concerns that the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to demonize Israel. Anti-Zionist Jews and pro-Palestinian supporters participate in a protest march in Durban to coincide with the opening of the 2001 UN Racism Conference [archive]. Photo: AP [file] Slideshow: Pictures of the week While the US has said it would decide at a later date whether to participate in the conference, the State...

Waterboarding. Abu Ghraib. Detaining terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Dissing Hans Blix. These, as seen by the Left, are the cardinal sins of George W. Bush’s administration. Set aside the fraternity party-like nonsense that took place at Abu Ghraib and what’s left are actions taken to protect U.S. interests. But self-loathing Americans whose minds are confined in the cult of globalism don’t see it that way. Each of these “offenses” has at least one thing in common: they hurt the feelings of foreigners. Insensitivity to the outside world, U.S. internationalists argue, is a stain on Uncle Sam’s reputation from which we...

Speaking of Rice, she seemed to have shifted to the left over the course of the Bush administration, particularly in its second term, when she became secretary of state. Does it really make a difference, then, whether it's Bush running the show or Obama? Sadly from my perspective, there will be a lot of continuity between the Obama and Bush administrations where Middle East policy is concerned - generally on Iran, and specifically on a range of other issues. That doesn't warm my heart. It shows that mistakes were being made, especially during the second term of the Bush administration,...

Classy.

"Obama, Iran Talks Next? U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice restates President Obama's calls for direct negotiations with Iran." SNIPPET: "Back in the U.S., U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who was confirmed last week for the post, said Monday that Iran's refusal to meet international obligations will increase pressure on Tehran to drop its nuclear ambitions and cooperate with the United States and global community. Besides pursuing nuclear weapons, Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and support for Hamas, a terror group designated by the U.S., Israel and the European Union."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a telephone call he made to U.S. President George W. Bush last week forced Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain in a U.N. vote on the Gaza war, leaving her "shamed." Pouring on political bravado in a speech late Monday, Olmert said he demanded to talk to Bush with only 10 minutes to spare before a U.N. Security Council vote Thursday on a resolution opposed by Israel calling for an immediate cease-fire. "When we saw that the secretary of state, for reasons we did not really understand, wanted to vote in favour of...

More lasts today … This morning President & Mrs. Bush departed the White House for Camp David, Maryland, where they will spend their last weekend as the First Couple before Tuesday’s inauguration. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave her final press conference today at the State Department in Washington. She also met with Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Dr. Rice’s last official act as Secretary of State was signing a memorandum with Foreign Minister Livni that will help prevent arms smuggling to terrorists in Gaza. And today Press Secretary Dana Perino delivered the Administration’s final press briefing (Transcript). Dana took...

With only four days remaining until the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama - a date widely regarded by Israeli analysts as the cut-off date for Israel's Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza, the prospects for a mutually agreed ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist terror group seemed slimmer than earlier in the week. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, center, Islamic Jihad head Ramadan Shallah and Ahmad Jebril, Secretary General of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine-General Command attend the emergency Arab summit on Gaza in Doha, Qatar on Friday. An official statement from the Defense Ministry remained mum...

So according to Susan J Rice the 20th hijacker was tortured while he was being held at Gitmo. He was allegedly kept alone by himself (the horror), held without sleep (poor guy), made to stand nude (oook), and put in the cold. What were these interrogators thinking? Why are they treating this guy like he had planned to kill 3,000 people.

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert placed a direct call to US President George W. Bush on Thursday, demanding that US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice not be allowed to vote in favor of a UN Human Rights Council condemnation of Israel's anti-Hamas Gaza war. According to Olmert, Bush's acquiescence, and his insistence that Rice back down from the resolution, made Rice sizzle.... ..."I said: 'Get me President Bush on the phone,'" Olmert explained during a speech to residents in the Hamas-targeted city of Ashkelon. "They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia," Olmert said. "I...

Rickey Henderson is on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame. If ever the phrase “no brainer” is applicable, it is here. Besides being the only player in the history of the game to hit four digits in career stolen bases (1406), he sits atop the all-time list of runs scored (2295), ahead of names you may have heard before: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. He has over 3,000 career hits – generally considered an automatic ticket to Cooperstown, is second all-time in walks (2190), was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1990, appeared...

Rickey Henderson, baseball's all-time stolen-bases and runs-scored leader, and power-hitting outfielder Jim Rice have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in balloting verified by Ernst & Young. They will be inducted into the Hall on July 26 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y. Henderson and Rice will be honored along with former New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, who was elected last month by the Veterans Committee. The July 26 Induction Ceremony will also include the presentation of the Ford C. Frick Award for...

The US risked irking Russia by signing a strategic partnership charter with Georgia on Friday intended to act as a catalyst for its strongest ally in the South Caucasus to gain entry to Nato. The charter, signed in Washington by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state and her Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze, calls for cooperation in the areas of defense, economy culture and democratic reform. It is similar to a pact sealed by the US last month with Ukraine, another former Soviet country seeking Nato membership. A senior US state department official said the charter would engage Georgia in...

President George W. Bush marked the anniversary of his No Child Left Behind law, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, during a visit with students, teachers and national educators at the General Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia. Mrs. Laura Bush accompanied her husband. TRANSCRIPT Vice President Dick Cheney presided over a Joint Session of Congress today for the certification of the Electoral College votes. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to a meeting on the situation in Gaza at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

<p>WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused the militant Hamas organization of holding the people of Gaza hostage Friday and said the United States continues to seek a "durable and sustainable" cease-fire.</p> <p>Speaking to reporters in the White House driveway after a meeting with President George W. Bush, Rice also said that the United States remains "very concerned about the situation there and is working very hard with our partners around the world."</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the country is not "race-blind" and "we shouldn't deceive ourselves that we're race-blind," but said the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president was a key moment in history. "I think all Americans were quite taken with the fact that we were able, after the long history we've been through, that initial birth defect of slavery, that we've elected an African-American."

A chef in the capital city of Laos, Vientiane got a surprise yesterday according to local media. He bought a well known local brand of vacuum sealed rice in a plastic bag and when he opened it

DONATE A COAT LINK President Bush and Mrs. Bush participated in One Warm Coat Holiday Service Project at the Pathways to Housing, D.C. Washington, D.C. The One Warm Coat project is.a nationwide effort to convince our fellow citizens to contribute a used, but not overly used, coat, to help a soul who may need to be warm this winter. The President and Mrs. Bush donated coats personally and also delivered coats donated by the White House staff. Transcript of Remarks President Bush traveled to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded veterans and to have an MRI of...

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush's foreign policies may be unpopular in the Middle East, but Arab leaders showered his top diplomat with jewelry worth far more than a quarter of a million dollars last year. While Bush himself didn't fare nearly as well, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raked in at least $316,000 in gem-encrusted baubles from the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia alone, making her one of top recipients among U.S. officials of gifts from foreign heads of state and government and their aides in 2007.

Rice says only an idiot would trust North Korea Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:18pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview released on Friday only an "idiot" would trust North Korea, which is why the United States is insisting on a way to check its nuclear claims. A 2005 multilateral deal under which Pyongyang would abandon its nuclear programs has become snagged on Pyongyang's refusal to spell out a protocol on how to verify its disclosures about its nuclear programs. The sticking point appears to be North Korea's reluctance to allow inspectors to take...

US President George W. Bush spoke to the American Enterprise Institute, a Conservative think tank, at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in D.C. today and he also participated in a Q&A session. transcript Mrs. Laura Bush led a video teleconference with the Afghan Women Entrepreneurs group, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington.

President-elect Barack Obama has selected his key foreign policy advisor, Susan E. Rice, to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Obama intends to elevate her post to a Cabinet level position. Susan Rice (no relation to Dr. Condoleezza Rice) is wasting no time. She is reportedly trying to install her own team within the State Department who will be loyal to her, not to Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton whom Rice spurned during the primary campaign when she endorsed Obama instead. Rice sports an specific Afro-centric agenda, which she appears intent on pushing at the expense...

Condi's Korean Failure Putting diplomacy above disarmament. Condoleezza Rice has spent her four years as Secretary of State trying to engage America's adversaries in much the same way that Hillary Clinton is promising to do. So it's worth noting the final collapse of Ms. Rice's North Korean diplomacy last week. [Review & Outlook] AP Pyongyang announced that it won't put in writing the verbal commitments on nuclear verification that it had previously made to U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill. Ms. Rice and Mr. Hill had used those verbal promises to persuade President Bush in October to remove North Korea from the...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a farewell UN appearance Monday that Israel and the Palestinians had moved much further along the path to peace since US President George W. Bush brought their leaders together a year ago, though they won't clinch an agreement by the end of the year. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Photo: AP Slideshow: Pictures of the week Rice spoke to reporters after a meeting of the diplomatic Quartet of Mideast peacemakers, the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia, which said the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process launched by Bush at Annapolis, Maryland "is...

President-elect Barack Obama will hold a national security meeting today in Chicago. Attendees are expected to include: Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Secretary of State-designee Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Atty. Gen.-designee Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security-designee Janet Napolitano, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, UN ambassador-designee Susan Rice, National Security Adviser-designee Jim Jones, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, White House Chief of Staff-designee Rahm Emanuel and White House Counsel-designee Greg Craig. Later in the day, Obama will hold a news conference at the Drake Hotel to discuss the nation's energy and environmental...

Pakistan must act quickly to help India prevent follow-on attacks amid evidence that Pakistani soil was used by "non-state actors," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here Sunday. Speaking on US television, Rice said she stressed during her visit to Pakistan last week how important it was for Islamabad to cooperate fully and promptly with India, but denied reports of a 48-hour deadline for action. "The important thing is that Pakistan act and that these people are brought to justice and that any information that they may have is put to use in making sure follow-on attacks don't happen,"...

The Pakistani High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, said he had learned from sources that India was about to launch a military strike to "teach Pakistan a lesson". Speaking to Sky News, he said: "On the day of the Mumbai attacks, I got some information in London that India was going to act very drastically against Pakistan in retaliation to what happened." The senior diplomat said had alerted the Pakistani government and President Asif Ali Zardari to the threat. In turn, Mr Zardari urgently contacted high level British and American officials who intervened to calm the situation. Mr Hassan...

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani (right) with U.S. Senator John McCain (second left) and Senator Joe Lieberman during a meeting in Islamabad on Saturday. Mr. McCain was on a daylong visit to Pakistan. ISLAMABAD: United States Senator John McCain has said there is enough evidence of the involvement of former Inter-Services Intelligence officers in the planning and execution of the Mumbai attacks. If Pakistan did not act swiftly to arrest the people involved, the Senator said, India would be left with no option but to conduct aerial operations against select targets in Pakistan. Senator McCain, the Republican presidential...

AP ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan's leaders know what's at stake after the terror attack in Mumbai and have acknowledged their duty to evict terrorists and prevent future attacks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. "I found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat and that understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism wherever it is found," Rice said following sessions with the country's powerful army chief and civilian leaders.

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

On the outside chance that anyone thought that Susan Rice might be the exception to the rule of wrong thinking that characterizes Barack Obama's foreign policy team -- well, think again. Obama's nominee to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations had this to say in 2003 after Secretary of State Colin Powell made a wholly absurd presentation to a plenary session of the United Nations Security Council regarding the supposed threat posed by those imaginary Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. "I think he (Powell) has proved that Iraq has these weapons and is hiding them," said Rice,...

With the nominations of Clinton as Secretary of State and Rice as United Nations Ambassador, Obama’s global agenda is becoming clear. He wants to dramatically expand the power of the U.N., a corrupt global institution that is infested with spies for foreign and hostile interests. Obama’s record in the Senate included sponsorship of the pro-U.N. Global Poverty Act and co-sponsorship of the Jubilee Act. These two foreign aid spending measures alone would cost $920 billion to implement. Obama also wants to pass several controversial U.N. treaties and says that he would consider joining the International Criminal Court, a U.N. institution...

Obama to restore UN ambassador's post to Cabinet rank... Developing... Let's just share everything we have...get it over with and done already. Here is your globalist foreign policy agenda. National Security will mean nothing to this man and his cronies

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday reiterated her belief internal political turmoil in Israel thwarted the Bush Administration in its quest to oversee a final status Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2008. "Even though there was not an agreement by the end of the year, it is really largely because of the political situation in Israel," Rice told reporters in Washington just hours before hosting visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a breakfast meeting. She assigned no blame to the Palestinians' ongoing failures to eliminate the threat of anti-Israel terrorism and build the foundations of...