Obama speech at MIT is at noon today - here's an MIT link to view it

[karynnj]

though I hope it is covered on cable.

The speech will be webcast beginning at noon on Friday: it can be viewed online at http://amps-web.mit.edu/public/amps/webcast/2009/obama-2009oct23/.

For more information on how to view the speech, please visit http://web.mit.edu/events/presidentialvisit/

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/obama-event.html

Oddly it is not on the cspan schedule, which they have made all pretty now - http://www.c-spanvideo.org/schedule

[Inuca]

1. Thanks for the link karyn

I'll give it a try. The beautified CSPAN schedule is difficult to navigate and seems to have even less of a connection with reality than before.

[Luftmensch067]

17. All true!

I'm sure everyone has already found it, but there is a tiny link at bottom right to a "text schedule" which is soooo much easier to read that I have bookmarked it and stuck it on my toolbar. Doesn't help with the distance from reality issue, but much less cluttered and "beautiful"! :-)

[YvonneCa]

2. Thanks, karynnj. C3 is showing the Cheney,,,

...speech with Kyl introductions right now. Maybe they'll air Obama's speech for balance.;)

[Inuca]

3. Cheney + Kyl...?

I think they would have to show a non-stop week-end of Obama (and Kerry :-)) speeches to get some beginning of balance.

[YvonneCa]

4. Yes. Cheney received an award from...

...this RW group, and he used the occasion to trash Obama and his Afghanistan policy.
I had heard this one the news,but watching it is a whole different thing. It makes me so angry! Cheney is trying to appear to be the 'expert'. IMO it's like high school...he got ticked off at JK's accolades and decided to attack JK's work and ideas (through Obama).

What really is wrong...for me...is that both Obama and Kerry have refused to 'go back' and hold Cheney accountable for what he did. They BOTH took the high road...although many of us wanted accountability. So, in return, Cheney attacks Obama??? GIVE ME A BREAK!

Obama needs to come out swinging...probably not today. But I hope he and JK do SOMETHING about this.It's disgraceful!

End of rant...now I'll go watch our President. ;)

[karynnj]

5. Their balance appears to having an "Accuracy in Media" conference

where Inhofe, some ex- adviser to Thatcher and another women rants about going to Whole Foods and hunting for good NON-organic food - it's hard, you know - on CSPAN 2.

[YvonneCa]

10. ...

...:7 That about gets it...:)

[karynnj]

6. The link is up now, but it hasn't started

At noon there was background video on CNN of the President and JK coming off the plane. (Kerry looked slightly uncomfortable going down the steps. He likely really does need that other operation. )

[karynnj]

7. Starting now - President of MIT speaking

20% of students working on energy.

Now Professor Monese (guessing spelling) - welcomed Patrick, Kerry, and Capauno (spelling again even though I've seen it a lot lately) Introducing Obama now.

[karynnj]

8. Obama is up now

Thank you MIT! Said it was the most prestigious school in Cambridge MIT ... or at least this part of MIT. He then said he would be there for a long time, because MIT students put his limosines up on building 10. Then he joked that at MIT they pass out periodic tables.

He welcomed the people mentioned before and Lt Gov Murray, Croakly and others. Then he said very nice things about JK.

[karynnj]

9. The speech was good - speaking of all that is happening

He mentioned Kerry's bill and Markey's. He spoke of Kerry working to get bipartisan support.

(To me, it was interesting to see the difference between Kerry speeches on this and Obama's. To me Kerry seems more genuinely interested and excited by the possibilities as an environmentalist and far more involved in the details. But, Obama was very good as well.

[karynnj]

11. Here's one article on the speech

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, citing a global competition for development of clean-energy alternatives to oil, insisted today that the United States must win that race and called on Congress to enact legislation also intended to curb climate change.

"The nation that wins this competition is going to be the nation that leads the world,'' Obama told an audience at one of the nation's premier research universities in Massachusetts. "And I want America to be that nation – it's that simple.'' Obama praised "a legacy of innovation'' that "taps into something that is essential about America.

"Even in the darkest of times that this nation has seen, it has always sought a brighter horizon,'' the president told his audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "We have always been about innovation. We have always been about discovery. That is part of our DNA.''

Obama was touting MIT's development of "cutting- edge clean-energy technology.'' He toured an MIT lab demonstrating wind, solar and batter power before delivering an address to an expected audience of about 750 in the Kresge Auditorium.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns-dc-obama-energy,0,3397597.story

[YvonneCa]

13. One thing I thought was really good was that...

...he continued to stress that the US has led before and is ABLE to continue that legacy. He is countering that fatalistic, 'the best days are behind us' (even the 'end times' argument) with facts. That has to be done. Thinking in those terms could be self-fulfilling...and it HAS to be stopped. Our President is just the person to lead that effort...IMHO.

[YvonneCa]

12. I agree. I had hoped it would be longer...

...and go more in depth. But, remember, not everyone has followed this the way we have ;)...so this was probably a good introduction from Obama to the people on the issue.

[MBS]

15. your sense of the difference between Jk and Obama

on climate change is spot-on, IMHO. (Same applies to conservation and environmental issues in general.
Watching the National Parks series on PBS a few weeks ago, I kept thinking how few US presidents really, truly have shown genuine passion for, and profound, gut- understanding of, conservation and, now, environmental/energy issues: only Theodore Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter come to mind (perhaps Thomas Jefferson would also be in that category had he been president at a later time. .). Other presidents did the right thing, anyway, even without the inherent passion for the topic :
and it looks like Obama will be in that second group. But I do think that Congress and citizens will have to keep nudging him forward on these issues. I'm glad that he's talking to JK, and that he's got decent (and, in some cases brilliant) appointments in Energy, Interior, NOAA, etc. May they continue to have his ear.

[karynnj]

14. Transcript here

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-energy-remarks24-2009oct24,0,5012966.story

[ProSense]

16. Nice to see Kerry getting recognition

Somebody who really has been an all-star in Capitol Hill over the last 20 years, but certainly over the last year, on a whole range of issues -- everything from Afghanistan to clean energy -- a great friend, John Kerry. Please give John Kerry a round of applause. (Applause.)

<...>

And all of this must culminate in the passage of comprehensive legislation that will finally make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy in America. John Kerry is working on this legislation right now, and he's doing a terrific job reaching out across the other side of the aisle because this should not be a partisan issue. Everybody in America should have a stake -- (applause) -- everybody in America should have a stake in legislation that can transform our energy system into one that's far more efficient, far cleaner, and provide energy independence for America -- making the best use of resources we have in abundance, everything from figuring out how to use the fossil fuels that inevitably we are going to be using for several decades, things like coal and oil and natural gas; figuring out how we use those as cleanly and efficiently as possible; creating safe nuclear power; sustainable -- sustainably grown biofuels; and then the energy that we can harness from wind and the waves and the sun. It is a transformation that will be made as swiftly and as carefully as possible, to ensure that we are doing what it takes to grow this economy in the short, medium, and long term. And I do believe that a consensus is growing to achieve exactly that.

The Pentagon has declared our dependence on fossil fuels a security threat. Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are traveling the country as part of Operation Free, campaigning to end our dependence on oil -- (applause) -- we have a few of these folks here today, right there. (Applause.) The young people of this country -- that I've met all across America -- they understand that this is the challenge of their generation.

Leaders in the business community are standing with leaders in the environmental community to protect the economy and the planet we leave for our children. The House of Representatives has already passed historic legislation, due in large part to the efforts of Massachusetts' own Ed Markey, he deserves a big round of applause. (Applause.) We're now seeing prominent Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham joining forces with long-time leaders John Kerry on this issue, to swiftly pass a bill through the Senate as well. In fact, the Energy Committee, thanks to the work of its Chair, Senator Jeff Bingaman, has already passed key provisions of comprehensive legislation.

here