Libyan Dictator Moammar Gadhafi is Dead

Moammar Gadhafi

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the most wanted man in the world, has been killed on Thursday, 20 October 2011.


Muammar Gaddafi – the dictator who ruled Libya with an iron fist for nearly 42 years before being driven from power in a bloody uprising.
Gaddafi has been killed as he tried to flee his hometown of Sirte. He was ousted by rebels in a bloody civil war.


The flamboyant tyrant who terrorized his country and much of the world during his 42 years of despotic rule was reportedly cornered by insurgents in the town of Sirte, where Gadhafi had been born and a stronghold of his supporters.


There were conflicting reports of how he was killed – there were initial reports that he was killed in a gun battle, but NATO has since confirmed it hit a convoy of Gaddafi loyalists fleeing Sirte on Thursday. It could not say whether the former Libyan leader was in the convoy.


Al Jazeera television showed footage of a man resembling the 69-year-old leader lying dead or severely wounded, bleeding from the head and stripped to the waist as fighters rolled him over on the pavement. Witnesses said his body was put on display in the nearby city of Misrata.


Initial reports from fighters said Gaddafi had been holed up with the last of his fighters in a furious battle with revolutionary forces. At one point, a convoy tried to flee the area and was blasted by NATO airstrikes, though it was not clear if Col Gaddafi was in the vehicle.


His body, bloodied, half naked, Gaddafi's trademark long curls hanging limp around a rarely seen bald spot, was delivered, a prize of war, to Misrata, the city west of Sirte whose siege and months of suffering at the hands of Gaddafi's artillery and sniper made it a symbol of the rebel cause.


A quick and secret burial was due later on Friday.

Libyan rebels

Libyans rejoiced as news of his death spread. Car horns blared in Tripoli as residents poured into the streets to celebrate. In Sirte, revolutionary forces fired endless rounds into the sky and sang the national anthem.


"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed" Jibril said at a news conference in Tripoli.


"It's time to start a new Libya, a united Libya" Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declared. "One people, one future."


Word of Gadhafi's death triggered celebrations in the streets of Tripoli with insurgent fighters waving their weapons and dancing jubilantly.


The White House and NATO said they were unable to confirm reports of his death.


U.S. President Barack Obama, in a veiled dig at the Syrian and other leaders resisting the democrats of the Arab Spring, declared "the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end."


Al Jazeera aired video of what appeared to be the dead leader, which showed Gadhafi lying in a pool of blood in the street, shirtless, and surrounded by people.


Gadhafi had been on the run for weeks after being chased out of the capital Tripoli by NATO bombers and rebel troops.


He had been believed to be hiding in the vast Libyan desert while calling on his supporters to rise up and sweep the rebel "dogs" away, but his once fearsome power was scoffed at by Libyans who had ransacked his palace compound and hounded him into hiding.

Gadhafi - the man who ruled Libya for 42 years.

Gadhafi, 69, ruled Libya with an iron fist for almost 42 years. He seized control of Libya in Sept., 1969 in a bloodless coup when he was just 27 years old. The then young and dashing army captain and his small band of military officers overthrew the monarch King Idris, setting up a new Libyan Arab Republic that over the years became increasingly isolated from the rest of the world.


Gadhafi took over the top spot as the world's most wanted man after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. troops in Pakistan.


At the height of his ability to threaten terrorism, President Ronald Reagan dubbed Gadhafi the "mad dog of the Middle East."


He was accused of backing the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco popular with American soldiers, reportedly funding the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, and the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which resulted in the U.N. and United States imposing sanctions on Libya.


For years, Gadhafi refused to take responsibility for the bombing, but that changed in 2003 when he acknowledged his role and tried to make amends.


The eccentric leader, who amassed power and wealth by controlling the nation's oil industry, held the title of being the longest-serving leader in Africa and the Arab world.


Over the years, Gadhafi earned an international reputation for his outlandish apparel and much-ridiculed phobias and proclivities.


His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen.


Following his death, Libya's new leaders are expected to declare the country's "liberation". They face the challenge of healing divisions and holding credible elections in a country wracked by months of fighting.

14 Killed From Suicide Bombing in Pakistan

Map of Pakistan

A suicide bombing in southwestern Pakistan left 14 people dead and 20 others injured Wednesday, police said.


Wednesday's blast took place in the city of Quetta, a militant hotspot close to the Afghan border.


Abdullah Afridi, a senior police official in the city of Quetta, said a suicide bomber tried to enter in the residence of a senior official of the Frontier Corps - a paramilitary force - and blew himself up when the soldiers fired at him.


Police officer Hamid Shakil says the target was a group of Frontier Corps soldiers standing outside a government building in the city. City commissioner Quetta Nasim Lehri says there were soldiers among the 14 people killed.


Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which has been a hotbed for militancy.


Recently, Pakistan's military announced it apprehended three al-Qaeda leaders from the suburbs of Quetta with the help of paramilitary forces.


The military said the Frontier Corps helped nab the three al-Qaeda leaders.


Islamist militants are waging war against the Western-allied Pakistani state. Several thousand people have been killed since 2007.

Libyan Rebel Commander Abdel Fattah Younes Killed

Abdel Fattah Younes

BBC - The military commander of the Libyan rebels fighting to topple Col Muammar Gaddafi has been killed the, rebel National Council says.

General Abdel Fattah Younes was an ally of Col Gaddafi  for many years.

NTC head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said Gen Abdel Fattah Younes was killed by assailants, and the head of the group responsible had been arrested.

He said Gen Younes was summoned for questioning about military operations, but never made it to the meeting.

Reports said Gen Younes was suspected of ties to pro-Gaddafi forces.

Two aides to Gen Younes, Col Muhammad Khamis and Nasir al-Madhkur, were also killed in the attack, Mr Jalil said, adding that there would be three days of mourning in their honour.

The exact circumstances of the killings were unclear, and Mr Jalil did not say directly that the assailants were allied with Col Gaddafi.

Gen Younes is a former Libyan interior minister who defected to the rebel side in February. He was also part of the group that helped bring Col Gaddafi to power in 1969.

Some unconfirmed reports said Gen Younes and two aides had been arrested earlier on Thursday near Libya's eastern front.

Shortly after the announcement of Gen Younes' death, gunmen entered the grounds of the hotel in the eastern city of Benghazi where Mr Jalil was speaking, reportedly firing into the air before being convinced to leave.

Earlier on Thursday, rebels said they had seized the strategically important town of Ghazaya near the Tunisian border, after heavy fighting with Col Gaddafi's forces.

They reportedly took control of several other towns or villages in the area.

The rebels are struggling to break a military deadlock five months into the uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule.

Rebels control most of eastern Libya from their base in Benghazi and the western port city of Misrata, while Col Gaddafi retains much of the west, including the capital, Tripoli.

Late on Thursday AFP news agency reported explosions shaking the centre of Tripoli, as state TV reported that planes were flying over the Libyan capital.

Nato, acting under a UN mandate authorising military action for the protection of civilians, has carried out regular airstrikes in the Tripoli area.

Meanwhile, the South African ambassador to the UN, Baso Sangqu, warned that supporters of the rebels were in danger of violating UN sanctions.

His comments came a day after Britain granted the rebels diplomatic recognition and said it would unblock £91 million ($149m) in frozen Libyan oil assets for the rebels.

"We have noted the calls for Gaddafi must go," Mr Sangqu said. "We maintain that such statements do not bring us any closer to a political solution."

The BBC's Barbara Plett reports from the UN that the growing trend to grant diplomatic recognition to the Libyan rebels is facing opposition on the Security Council, and that moves to back the rebels will further polarise Council members.

Portugal has become the latest of about 30 countries to have recognised the NTC.

You can learn more about Libya's past problems here and here.

At Least 6 Killed in Pakistan

CNN - Militants in two vehicles fired a rocket and guns at people in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, leaving six dead and nine injured, a senior police official said.

The militants targeted a graveyard in Hazara area, said Muhammad Dawood Junejo, a Quetta police officer.
"Initially, they fired a rocket and then started firing on people in the graveyard" the officer said.
The officer said the incident seems to be an act of sectarian attack.

Quetta is the capital of the Balochistan province, which has had militant attacks in the past.

Last year, about 50 minority Shiites were killed when a suicide bomber struck an Al Quds rally in September.

Osama bin Laden is Dead!

CNN - Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, is dead - almost 10 years after the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

The founder and leader of al Qaeda was killed by U.S. forces Monday in a mansion in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Four others in the compound were also killed. One of them was bin Laden's adult son, and another was a woman being used as a shield by a male combatant.

Bin Laden's body was later buried at sea. Many Muslims adhere to the belief that bodies should be buried within one day.

In an address to the nation Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama called bin Laden's death "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda." Washington is nine hours behind Pakistan.

The killing of bin Laden was the culmination of years of intelligence work and months of following a specific lead, senior U.S. administration officials said.

Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it.
He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s. They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.

Мany Americans were soaking up the historic moment.

Information about bin Laden's organisation - Al-Qaeda

Barack Obama speaking about Osama bin Laden's Death

Libyans Vow to Protest Despite Violence From Government

CNN - Carrying coffins above their heads, a crowd of mourners gathered in the streets in Benghazi, Libya, on Sunday as protesters against longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi showed no sign of letting up.

Protesters vowed to hit the streets again Sunday, saying a violent crackdown by security forces since demonstrations started last week has left them energized.

The reported death toll grew quickly over the weekend, passing 180.

97 people were killed in the city since Saturday, following clashes between protesters and security forces. All those confirmed dead were wearing civilian clothing and are believed to be protesters, the sources said. Medical sources at a Misratah hospital said at least three died and 70 were wounded in clashes Saturday between security forces and anti-government protesters. Three of those injured were in critical condition, the sources said.

On Friday, Human Rights Watch said 84 people had been killed by government security forces. The group cited interviews with hospital staff and witnesses. Meanwhile, a doctor in Benghazi said her facility is taking on trauma patients because a trauma hospital in the city is inundated by those injured. "All of them have been injured by bullets," said the doctor, whose identity is not being released for security reasons. She said most suffered gunshot wounds to the head, chest or neck.

Benghazi, the North African nation's second-largest city and hub of its eastern province, was home to some of the bloodiest clashes Saturday. Still, an anti-government demonstrator there said that despite having been barraged for days by tear gas and bullets, many of his colleagues slept outside the city's courthouse and planned another rally for Sunday afternoon. "There are a lot of people getting killed for their freedom," the man, who was not identified for safety reasons, told CNN Sunday. "Our goal is simple: We want Gadhafi to leave. We want freedom. ... We want democracy."

The man, a technology expert who has set up cameras airing live online video streams around Benghazi, estimated that the numbers of anti-government demonstrators in the city has grown by 20% since the protests began Tuesday.

A report from Libya's state-run JANA news agency blames "acts of sabotage and burning" on outsiders aiming to undermine the nation's stability, security and unity. The report claims that the unrest has been fomented in Libya as well as Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran by an Israeli-led network of covert operatives. Since Wednesday, authorities have arrested "dozens of foreign members of this network who were trained on starting clashes," the JANA story said, adding that the outsiders were of Tunisian, Egyptian, Sudanese, Turkish, Palestinian and Syrian descent.

Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Majbari, who helped lead Libyan military forces in Benghazi before deciding early this week to join the opposition, claimed that government forces -- aided by mercenaries from other African countries -- "caused a massacre." "It is time for freedom," al-Majbari said. "(Gadhafi) is not a human being. A Libyan would never do this to his people. He is a dictator." 

A Libyan woman supportive of the protesters, who was not identified to protect her safety, told CNN that army soldiers on Saturday initially claimed solidarity with the demonstrators, only to reverse their tack and open fire on the crowd. "The soldiers ... said, 'We are with you.' We believed them," she said. "After that, they started shooting the people. Why? Why did they lie?"

Others in Libya reported similar protests in the cities of al-Baida, Ajdabiya and significantly in Misratah -- an indication that the demonstrations centered in the east were spreading west.
A protester identified only as Moftah told CNN that Libyans, inspired by the toppling of dictators in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, had simply had enough of Gadhafi. "He will tell you that his secret police are everywhere," Moftah said. "It's time to break this fear barrier. We reach a point that we don't care anymore."

The official Jamahiriya News Agency reported that Gadhafi had spoken in recent days with fellow leaders from Guinea, Liberia and Yemen.

The government also sent out, via text, a tacit warning against "the inappropriate use of telecommunications services (that) contradict our religion ... our customs ... and our traditions." Internet service in Libya shut down Friday evening, though it was more available by Sunday. 
The government's firm grip on power heightened the concerns of a woman from Benghazi, who urged U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders to help the Libyan people in the face of the government crackdown. "We have no freedom here," she said. "I speak to all the world, to America, to Mr. Obama: Please help us. We (did) nothing. We want to live a good life." 

The female doctor at the Benghazi hospital said Sunday she worries more violence will ensue. "I think -- and I hope not -- it's going to be (a) more disastrous situation than yesterday because yesterday was more of a disaster than the two days before," she said. "I'm so scared."

After 42 years, Libya's Controversial Leader Faces New Threats

CNN - Moammar Gadhafi's first grab at power occurred 42 years ago in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, when he led a crew of fellow military officers in taking over key government institutions on his way to usurping the nation's monarchy.

Ever since, he's referred to himself as the Leader of the Revolution -- though politically, at least, Libya has appeared to be largely stable, with few threats to Gadhafi's power. But that all changed this past week, with reports that tens of thousands took to the streets calling for an end to Gadhafi's rule. And, once again, that change began in Benghazi.

Phone interviews with witnesses and others on the ground suggest that some of Gadhafi's strongest opposition has been in Benghazi, where protests began and have escalated. Since then, there have been indications that the opposition movement has spread westward toward the capital Tripoli.

Why Gadhafi suddenly came under fire after decades of a strong-handed, seemingly stable rule remains a question.

One obvious factor is that Libya borders Tunisia, where popular unrest last month helped unseat authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after more than two decades in power. Weeks later, a similar movement contributed to the end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

Gadhafi is far from alone now. Anti-government protests have popped up all around the Arab world, with pressure growing on powerful leaders in places like Bahrain, Yemen and Algeria.

 Gadhafi was a captain in Libya's army when, on September 1, 1969 -- which is referred to as Revolution Day in Libya -- he and others launched the coup by assuming control of key institutions in Benghazi. The overthrow was completed in two hours, according to GlobalSecurity.org, an independent provider of security information. At the time, the United States had military aircraft at Wheelus Air Base in Libya. And Washington did not initially oppose the coup, a 2008 Congressional Research Service report noted.

Gadhafi soon established himself as one of America's most vocal, and flamboyant, enemies.
By 1972, Gadhafi urged Muslims to fight the United States and Great Britain and vowed support for black revolutionaries in America. The next year, he launched a program "to destroy imported ideologies, whether they are Eastern or Western," a U.S. State Department timeline noted. In 1979, the U.S. designated Libya as a state sponsor of terrorism. The relationship only worsened in the 1980s, when U.S. military aircraft shot down two Libyan fighter jets. Libya's alleged attacks in Sudan, support for Nicaragua's Sandanista government and role in the bombing of a West Berlin nightclub only further stoked the ire of the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who called Gadhafi a "mad dog."

Libya's standing took a turn with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. World pressure intensified on Tripoli after Libyan intelligence agents were implicated.

By 1993, Gadhafi told the International Herald Tribune that he was taking a more conciliatory approach to world affairs. He called U.S. President Bill Clinton "the savior of the new world," and decried Islamic militants as "mad dogs" and "terrorists." Clinton continued to keep pressure on Libya, signing a law imposing sanctions on companies that invested more than $40 million in that nation's petroleum industry. By 1999, Libya finally agreed to transfer the Pan Am 103 suspects for a trial in the Netherlands, leading to their conviction two years later. While still known for sometimes unconventional comments, Gadhafi appeared to evolve into more of a statesman -- at least internationally. In 2009, he was elected by member states as head of the African Union. That year, he also addressed the United Nations' General Assembly for the first time. Still, he proved to be more a firebrand than an even-keeled diplomat, delivering a blistering, wide-ranging 96-minute rant.

His topics ranged from the U.N. Security Council to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to a one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians: Isratine. Gadhafi blamed the U.N. for failing to prevent 65 wars since its founding in 1945. But he also had kind words for U.S. President Barack Obama: "We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as the president of America," Gadhafi said. Even as the U.N., the United States and other nations gradually began to soften their stance on Libya, reports suggested that freedom and basic rights remained widely restricted under Gadhafi. "He hasn't changed," said Fouad Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "This is a monster. And the Libyan people are suffering from this."

The government maintained a tight control over its communications, clamping down on news accounts critical of Gadhafi and his colleagues. It also restricted outside media access, including denying repeated requests from CNN to enter the country this month.

On Friday night, Libyan authorities shut down the nation's access to the internet, the U.S.-based tech firm Arbor Networks reported. While there have been indications of spotty Web coverage since, Libya sent out a text message warning about the "inappropriate use of telecommunications services." Internal political dissent was largely and often violently squashed. Moftah, an anti-government protester who did not give his full name for security reasons, said Gadhafi "always plays on fear" -- relying on a broad network of intelligence agents, secret police and others. "He makes you afraid of your family, of your friends," Moftah told CNN. "He will tell you that his secret police are everywhere."

And yet, despite the odds, people have still risen up this month against Gadhafi.

For years, Libya profited greatly from its vast oil reserves. One of Gadhafi's first orders of business after taking over was to assume control of properties and other interests of international petroleum companies. Still, even the great wealth of oil couldn't change the fact that Libya has suffered in the recent global economic downturn. As in much of the Arab world, youth unemployment is high in Libya -- and most of the population has never known a leader other than Gadhafi. And the fact it began in Benghazi, despite the Libyan leader's early history, is not a surprise, said Dirk Vandewalle, an associate professor at Dartmouth and author of "A History of Modern Libya." He noted that the coastal city has traditionally been seen as somewhat disloyal to Gadhafi's regime.

Whether the Libyan demonstrators can follow the leads of their Arab colleagues in Tunisia and Egypt remains to be seen. If they do, they will have to overcome a cult of personality -- much like prevailed in those countries -- without having any fallback as far as political institutions or legislation to build off should they succeed.

Unlike Egypt, Libya has no constitution, established institutions or any kind of mechanisms in place to support a new nation. The nation and its leader are one. "In Libya," Vandewalle said, "there is nothing beyond Gadhafi and his close circle."

Obama Calls for United Effort to Secure America's Prosperity

America is heading in the right direction and now needs to reshape some priorities to ensure future strength and stability, President Barack Obama told the nation Tuesday in his second State of the Union address.

Sounding themes of optimism and pragmatism in his 61-minute speech, Obama called for increasing investments in key areas such as education and clean energy while freezing some government spending for five years in an attempt to address simultaneous needs for economic growth and fiscal balance.
"We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time," Obama said to applause. "We need to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world. We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government. That's how our people will prosper. That's how we'll win the future."

Obama heads to Wisconsin on Wednesday to highlight growing opportunities in clean energy, an example of the kind of innovation investment he championed Tuesday night.
The annual speech to both chambers of Congress and all three branches of government, a night of political pageantry and symbolism, presented a new political reality.
Republicans now control the House and hold a stronger Senate minority after the November elections, with new GOP House Speaker John Boehner sitting behind Obama as he spoke, unlike last year when Democrat Nancy Pelosi occupied the speaker's chair.
Obama acknowledged the new order by calling for both parties to work together in the national interest instead of adhering to purely partisan ideology.
"New laws will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans," Obama said. "We will move forward together or not at all -- for the challenges we face are bigger than party and bigger than politics."
At the same time, the speech opened the great Washington spending debate of 2011.
Obama and Democrats seek to build on the government-bolstering agenda launched with the president's election in 2008, while Republicans call for deep spending cuts to reduce the size and scope of government.
"On this current path, when my three children -- who are now 6, 7 and 8 years old -- are raising their own children, the federal government will double in size, and so will the taxes they pay," Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said in the formal GOP response. "No economy can sustain such high levels of debt and taxation."

In an unusual move, another Republican House member -- Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota -- also delivered a post-speech response on behalf of the Tea Party movement that energized conservative voters in November.
Bachmann, who is believed to be considering a presidential run in 2012, called for Obama to support a balanced budget amendment, repeal health care reform law, shrink the government and adopt other positions favored by Tea Party conservatives. She also thanked Tea Party supporters for "voting out the big-spending politicians" last November, saying "we're just beginning to start to undo the damage" of the last few years.
Fellow Democrats, meanwhile, praised Obama for what Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York called a "strong progressive vision of America."
"While the president is leading, the GOP is slashing," Weiner said in a statement, adding that Obama's values "are right on, and now it's time to stand up for them."
Facing a divided Congress, a still-recovering economy and critics who say he has failed to adequately stress job creation in the past, Obama presented a framework of proposals that emphasized forward progress while acknowledging -- but stopping short of detailed solutions for -- the stickiest issues of long-term fiscal stability, such as possible reforms of Social Security and other costly entitlement programs.
Aides said further details would come in the administration's budget proposal in mid-February and described Obama's approach as a realistic program that bolsters existing progress instead of what one official called the "meat-ax" Republican approach to "eviscerate" government.
In the speech, Obama cited continuing recovery from the economic recession and progress on other fronts, renewing his pledge to have all fighting forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011 and some coming home from Afghanistan starting in July.
"We are poised for progress," Obama said. "Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again. But we have never measured progress by these yardsticks alone."
More needs to be done to set up the United States as a leading competitor in the global marketplace this century, Obama said. He called for more spending to bring the nation's research and development to its highest level as a share of the economy since the Kennedy administration 50 years ago.
By investing in better research and education, Obama noted, America can lead the world in the same way its investments half a century ago brought the first lunar landing after the Soviet satellite Sputnik had beaten the United States into space.
"After investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs," Obama said. "This is our generation's Sputnik moment."
Obama also called for revamping education policy and adding 100,000 more math, science, technology and engineering teachers by the end of the decade; extending wireless Internet coverage to 98 percent of the population, and having 80 percent of the nation's electricity coming from clean energy sources by 2035 and 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
"Some folks want wind and solar," Obama said of the clean energy goal. "Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen."

At the same time, Obama proposed reforming how government spends and works, including the five-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending, eliminating earmarks from spending bills and reforming the corporate tax code to remove costly loopholes and subsidies, with the savings lowering the corporate tax rate."Now that the worst of the recession is over, we have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in," Obama said to applause from members of both parties. "That is not sustainable. Every day, families sacrifice to live within their means. They deserve a government that does the same."
Administration officials said Tuesday that the five-year discretionary spending freeze would amount to a savings of $400 billion over 10 years and would put domestic spending in 2015 at its lowest level as a percentage of the overall economy since the Eisenhower administration.
"This freeze will require painful cuts," Obama said, adding that some in Congress have already proposed deeper cuts, "and I'm willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without. But let's make sure we're not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens."
Obama also expressed a willingness to revise the controversial health care reform bill passed by Congress last year, which Republicans are already trying to repeal or undermine at every turn.
"We can start right now" by revising bookkeeping regulations in the law that have "placed an unnecessary burden on small businesses," Obama said, adding: "What I'm not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition."
With emphasis, he added to applause from Democrats: "So I say to this chamber tonight, instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and let's move forward."

On other issues, Obama said his administration "will develop a proposal to merge, consolidate and reorganize the federal government in a way that best serves the goal of a more competitive America," urged Congress to work with him on immigration reform and asked for increased spending for building and repairing roads and bridges to provide needed construction jobs.
Obama's program sets up a showdown with congressional Republicans in coming months on how best to strengthen the recovery from economic recession and bring strength and stability.
Republicans, bolstered by the conservative push of the Tea Party movement, argue that the federal credit card is maxed out and that only reducing the size and cost of government will bring fiscal and economic stability.
Earlier Tuesday, the House passed a nonbinding resolution calling for immediate cuts in nonsecurity discretionary spending to 2008 levels, from before Obama took office.
Ryan, the new House Budget Committee chairman, said Americans are justifiably skeptical of government and both political parties when it comes to spending, and he challenged the spending policies of Obama's first two years in office.
"Depending on bureaucracy to foster innovation, competitiveness and wise consumer choices has never worked -- and it won't work now," Ryan said.

However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, a top Obama ally in Congress, rejected the proposed Republican spending cuts and ideas such as privatizing some Social Security savings accounts.
"What the Republicans have proposed is really not in the framework of anything realistic," Reid said earlier Tuesday. With Democrats still holding a slim Senate majority, it is highly unlikely that any House bill calling for the steep cuts proposed so far can win Senate approval.
The speech is one of the major Washington events of the year, full of political pageantry from the start, when the House sergeant at arms announces the entrance of the president. Military generals, Supreme Court justices and other luminaries attended.

This year's speech -- less than three weeks after a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, killed six people and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona -- reflected the aftereffects of the tragedy.
Special guests joining first lady Michelle Obama for the speech included Daniel Hernandez, the legislative intern who aided Giffords after she was shot; the family of 9-year-old shooting victim Christina Taylor Green; and Dr. Peter Rhee, the trauma chief at University Medical Center, where Giffords was treated.

In a symbol of desired political civility in the aftermath of the shootings, many legislators broke traditional segregated party seating and joined members of the other party across the political aisle.
Arizona's congressional delegation sat together, leaving an empty seat for Giffords, and many House members wore black and white lapel ribbons in honor of the Arizona victims.
"We ... are mindful of the empty chair in this chamber," Obama said to applause at the start, "and we pray for the health of our colleague -- and our friend -- Gabby Giffords."


--CNN