President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle arrived in India's commercial hub of Mumbai on Saturday, days after voters punished his Democrats in mid-term elections.
Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.
While lesser mortals – the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and so on – are usually happy to let their hosts handle most of the security and transport arrangements when they venture beyond their home shores, the United States creates a mini-America on the move to ensure that nothing is left to chance.
The President and First Lady clasped hands as they arrived in Mumbai Saturday morning with their huge entourage
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Obama arrives in India at the start of a ten-day tour of Asia. At the heart of the White House caravan is ‘The Beast’, a gigantic, ‘pimped-up’ General Motors Cadillac which security experts say is, short of an actual battle tank, probably the safest road vehicle on the planet.
The red carpet was literally rolled out for the President and First Lady when their jumbo jet landed
But an outlandish car is only the start. Mr Obama will fly, of course, on Air Force One, the presidential private jumbo jet, which, boasting double beds and suites, is fitted out more like a luxury yacht. Some reports suggest it costs around $50,000 (£31,000) an hour to operate.
Of course threats can come from any direction, so a squadron of U.S. naval ships will patrol offshore. Some reports have claimed that 34 ships, including two aircraft carriers, will be involved (not far off the size of the Royal Navy’s entire Surface Fleet) but the White House has denied this.
The pair were greeted wtih flowers and gifts as they stepped off the plane
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Click on this graphic to see the full extent of the President's entourage
Getting away: Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama board Air Force One today to travel to India on the first stop of their 10-day Asia tour before visiting Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China
They were accompanied by Mumbai Police officers and civic officials of the D ward where Mani Bhavan is located.
While they were inspecting the route and the buildings lining the path to the museum, U.S. security officers noticed a nearby skyscraper in the highly populated area that could pose a threat.
To the amazement of the Indians accompanying the U.S. agents, it was apparently decided to erect a bomb-proof over-ground tunnel, which will be installed by U.S. military engineers in just an hour.
The kilometre-long tunnel will measure 12ft by 12ft and will have air-conditioning, close-circuit television cameras, and will be heavily guarded at every point.
It's being built so it is large enough for Mr Obama's cavalcade to pass through and will be manned at its entry and exit points.
Security measures: A kilometer long bomb-proof tunnel will reportedly be erected on the route to Mani Bhavan - the Gandhi Museum - ahead of President Obama's tour of the building on Saturday
Meanwhile the furore over reports that his Asia trip is going to cost taxpayers $200million a day has been dismissed by the Obama administration who called the figure 'wildly inflated'.
Last week an Indian government source told the NDTV channel: 'The huge amount of around $200million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit.'
The claim was immediately seized upon by talk show hosts and rights wing politicians who relished the opportunity to rub salt into Mr Obama's wounds saying the trip was a waste of government funds during the country's recession.
But the White House have refused to reveal the true cost of the three-day trip to Mumbai and Delhi.
'The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality', White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
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US security department officials stand near their vehicles outside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai this afternoon
He added: 'Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated'.
The White House have said these claims are exaggerated but with any presidential trip, Mr Obama travels with a large number of staff and security detail includes his own aircraft and fleet of secure vehicles.
There will also be tens of thousands of Indian police and members of the military protecting the US delegation.
Secret Service agents travelled to India last week to address security concerns at locations the president is likely to visit.
Mr Obama will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China as part of a 10-day state tour of Asia.
The trip has sparked some criticism in the U.S., which is battling high unemployment and stagnant economic growth.The White House have said these claims are exaggerated but with any presidential trip, Mr Obama travels with a large number of staff and security detail includes his own aircraft and fleet of secure vehicles.
There will also be tens of thousands of Indian police and members of the military protecting the US delegation.
Secret Service agents travelled to India last week to address security concerns at locations the president is likely to visit.
Mr Obama will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China as part of a 10-day state tour of Asia.
Indian policemen await deployment orders outside the Taj Mahal hotel. President Obama is scheduled to stay at the hotel this weekend
Tense: An Indian policeman guards the Chhatrapati Shivaji train station in Mumbai, one of the targets of Islamist militants during the 2008 attacks
Mr Obama will spend three days in India, and will also visit New Delhi.
The White House will be hoping to secure more than $10 billion in new business for American firms in what is the biggest trade mission in US history.
Mr Obama is bringing 250 U.S. executives including GE chief Jeffrey Immelt and Honeywell's David Cote, which the U.S. India Business Council says is the largest such delegation to ever accompany a president on a foreign visit.
Last fiscal year, India's $11 billion worth of investments in the U.S. matched U.S. investments in India for the first time ever, according to the U.S. India Business Council.
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On guard: A security guard stands outside the grounds of Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, where Mr Obama is expected to visit
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Bilateral trade, on track to hit $50 billion this fiscal year ending March, has more than doubled since 2004. 
A man walks with a camel past a sand sculpture depicting President Barack Obama ahead of Obama's arrival to the country, in Puri
But sentiment has frayed since the two countries signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008.
Then-President George W. Bush pushed through that deal, which allowed nuclear trade with India despite its weapons programme and seemed to herald a new era of cross-continental commerce.
It hasn't been that simple.
The job creating power of India's big, fast-growing market is hampered by its restrictions on foreign access to key sectors like retail, finance, education and insurance.
Multinationals are wary of the shape-shifting rules that seem to govern things like taxes and environmental permits in India.
And the large defence contracts that headline the wish list of deals for Obama's visit come burdened with offsets and foreign investment caps.
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The Americans who accepted outsourcing of IT and back office functions in boom times as a way to free up capital for job creation at home seem less certain of the strategy's benefits during a bust.
Preparations: A billboard welcoming Mr Obama is seen in Mumbai. The U.S. President will hope to cement improving relations with India during his three-day visit
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Indian bottle artist Basavaraju Somaraje Gowda holds a bottle into which he has placed a frame photograph of US President Barack Obama (L) and Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh in the southern Indian city of Bangalore
With U.S. unemployment at 9.6 pe rcent, India's putative role as a driver of job insecurity has leaked into campaign rhetoric - Barbara Boxer's attacks on Carly Fiorina for sending Hewlett-Packard jobs to India and China helped her win the California Senate race - and popular culture alike.
NBC's new sitcom, 'Outsourced', tells the story of a Kansas City company that sends most of its jobs to India.
Indian companies keep insisting, quietly, that they're not really the problem: If you don't like jobs getting sent overseas, better to direct your anger at major U.S. corporations whose race for low cost competitiveness drives India's $50 billion software services sector.
'We strongly believe the global delivery model is beneficial to customers,' said Infosys chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan.
'It increases their competitiveness. It reduces costs. It gives them access to a scalable high quality
talent pool and to emerging markets. That's why it's growing.'
Unwelcome: Some Indian Shiite Muslims are unhappy about Mr Obama's trip and held an effigy of him before setting it on fire as they gather for a protest after Friday prayers outside a mosque in Lucknow, India today
'It's tens of millions of dollars,' said Tata Consultancy Services chief executive N. Chandrasekaran.
The law pinches Indian outsourcers where it hurts, at the heart of the industry's hopes for future growth in its most important global market.
The companies have been trying to diversify into health care and government work and move up the delivery chain to higher value areas like consulting. All require workers, with visas or U.S. passports, in the United States.
Many here fear the backlash will get worse by the 2012 elections, barring a turnaround in the U.S. labour market.
Indian outsourcers - and their clients in corporate America - are happy to move jobs to the U.S. as long as it doesn't disrupt their low-cost business model.
That translates into very few jobs.
Indian policemen report for duty allocation ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit in Mumbai
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Mahesh Gupta, centre left, holds a portrait of U.S. President Barack Obama which he claims to have made from his blood to welcome him
Permanent record: Guinness Rishi, who has more than 200 flags tattooed on his body, had Mr Obama inked on his side the day the President arrived in India (oddly, it looks more like former president Jimmy Carter)
Industry leader Tata Consultancy Services is looking to hire 1,000 Americans this fiscal year. Less than one per cent of its global work force are American, according to company data.
Infosys is also looking to hire 1,000 Americans. Its 1,600 permanent U.S. employees - not counting an additional 600 or so who work for two U.S. subsidiaries - make up 1.3 per cent of the company's global work force.
'We can't replace all the people from here with people from the United States and have the same value proposition,' said Chandrasekaran.
From the U.S. side, perhaps most disillusioning is a law passed by India's parliament that extends liability to the suppliers of nuclear plants, making it difficult for private companies to compete against their state owned French and Russian peers in India's multibillion dollar nuclear reactor build-out.
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Infosys Technologies boss S. Gopalakrishnan looks on after announcing the company's quarterly financial results. The company is now hiring Americans
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'There has been a reality check,'said Stephen Cohen, a South Asia security expert at the Brookings Institution.
A sweeper cleans the premises of Mughal emperor Humayun's tomb in New Delhi. President Barack Obama is expected to visit the tomb during his tour of India
Backers of the civil nuclear deal in Washington, he said, 'made believe India was a true ally and would never let us down'.
U.S. India Business Council president Ron Somers said India's signing last week of an International Atomic Energy Agency convention on liability is a step forward and will require Indian laws to conform to international norms, which do not make private companies liable unless there is malfeasance.
Even India's purchase of 10 Boeing C-17 transport aircraft, expected to be finalised during Obama's visit, will probably be worth less than the anticipated $5.8 billion because of fewer add-ons, said Guy Anderson, lead analyst at Jane's Defence Industry.
India is second only to China in ramping up military procurement, making it an attractive market for U.S. defense companies.
But the bureaucracy is so inefficient the government doesn't manage to spend the money earmarked for military procurement each year, and Russia still dominates sales in a country where some, especially in the older generation, continue to regard U.S. intentions with skepticism.
Somers says naysayers are too impatient and points out that from 2007 to 2009, the U.S. sold India $4.3 billion worth of defense equipment - a huge jump from the $342 million sold from 2001 to 2006.
'We've come a long way,' he said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326962/Obamas-India-visit-security-erect-bomb-proof-tunnel-Gandhi-museum.html#ixzz14hGspDfh
Baracks and Obamas born in Kenya
Barack Obama's popularity has sparked a new baby-naming craze in Kenya. More than half of the male babies born at a hospital in Kisumu province on the day of the U.S. election were named Barack. Kisumu is the area Obama’s father came from. Another popular name for baby boys was Obama. In Swahili, the name Barack means ‘blessed one’. Many parents were calling their newborn daughters Michelle, the name of Barack Obama’s wife and soon to be America’s First Lady. People from all across Kenya were thrilled with Barack Obama’s election victory and many celebrated in the streets. The new President-elect has become a national hero in Kenya. A long lasting legacy of his election win will be the number of Baracks, Obamas and Michelles growing up in Kenya.It is not unusual for parents to name their children after actors, pop stars or sports heroes. New Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton was named after the U.S. Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis. It is more unusual for newborns to be named after politicians. It might be interesting to know how many parents named their baby after outgoing U.S. president George W. Bush. One Kenyan mother, Pamela Adhiambo, gave birth to twins on November the 5th. She named her new son and daughter Barack and Michelle. She told the AFP news agency: “I made up my mind to name them long before the elections, and even if Obama had not won, I would still have done the same.” Ms Adhiambo added she hoped naming her children in this way would bring them success in life.
Bush Blasts West For Calling Him Racist
Bush Blasts West For Calling Him Racist
NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President George W. Bush says he was disgusted when hip-hop star Kanye West accused him of not caring about black people.
West made his statement on television shortly after the disaster as a means of criticizing the way Bush immediately handled the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
The New York Times reported Bush fires back at West in
his new memoir, "Decision Points", set for release next week.
In the memoir, the ex-president writes he was "disgusted" and "deeply insulted" by West's accusation, the Times said.
Bush discusses the passage in the book in an interview with NBC News scheduled to air Monday.
"I didn't appreciate it then. I don't appreciate it now", Bush told NBC. "It's one thing to say, 'I don't appreciate the way he's handled his business.' It's another thing to say, 'This man's a racist.' I resent it. It's not true. And it was one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency."
Bill Clinton as President:-
When Bill Clinton was elected as a president in 1992 Hillary Clinton got the national attention for the first time as the First Lady of the United States who is holding a post graduate degree and who took the office in the West wing in the White House instead of the East wing. After the death of her father in 1993 Hillary Clinton decided to bring a change in the people thoughts in terms of fashions, and hairstyles.
After getting the success in Arkansas education reform Bill Clinton appointed his wife as the head and the chairwoman of the Task Force on the National Health Care Reform but the plan didn’t succeed but her commitment has never wavered.
She was recognized as God for the women because Hillary Clinton always fought for the rights of women with the idea that women rights are also the human rights. Hillary Clinton continued her work by providing the immunizations to the children and encouraging the woman’s to detect the breast cancer. Hillary Clinton also helped the veterans suffering from the Gulf War Syndrome. Regarding all these matters Hillary Clinton hosted the number of conferences like Child Care, Early childhood development and learning, White House conference on teenagers and philanthropy.
The White House
President Obama’s Press Conference: "Let's Find Those Areas Where We Can Agree"
In a news conference in the East Room this afternoon, the President spoke openly about the lessons of the previous night’s elections, and his hope for working with the new Congress going forward. He made clear that he understood the profound frustrations and anxiety around the economy felt by so many families, and pledged to redouble his efforts to work across the aisle to speed up our recovery and move the country forward:I’m not suggesting this will be easy. I won’t pretend that we will be able to bridge every difference or solve every disagreement. There’s a reason we have two parties in this country, and both Democrats and Republicans have certain beliefs and certain principles that each feels cannot be compromised. But what I think the American people are expecting, and what we owe them, is to focus on those issues that affect their jobs, their security, and their future: reducing our deficit, promoting a clean energy economy, making sure that our children are the best educated in the world, making sure that we’re making the investments in technology that will allow us to keep our competitive edge in the global economy.
Because the most important contest we face is not the contest between Democrats and Republicans. In this century, the most important competition we face is between America and our economic competitors around the world. To win that competition, and to continue our economic leadership, we’re going to need to be strong and we’re going to need to be united.
None of the challenges we face lend themselves to simple solutions or bumper-sticker slogans. Nor are the answers found in any one particular philosophy or ideology. As I’ve said before, no person, no party, has a monopoly on wisdom. And that’s why I’m eager to hear good ideas wherever they come from, whoever proposes them. And that’s why I believe it’s important to have an honest and civil debate about the choices that we face. That’s why I want to engage both Democrats and Republicans in serious conversations about where we’re going as a nation.
And with so much at stake, what the American people don’t want from us, especially here in Washington, is to spend the next two years refighting the political battles of the last two. We just had a tough election. We will have another in 2012. I’m not so naïve as to think that everybody will put politics aside until then, but I do hope to make progress on the very serious problems facing us right now. And that’s going to require all of us, including me, to work harder at building consensus.
You know, a little over a month ago, we held a town hall meeting in Richmond, Virginia. And one of the most telling questions came from a small business owner who runs a tree care firm. He told me how hard he works and how busy he was; how he doesn’t have time to pay attention to all the back-and-forth in Washington. And he asked, is there hope for us returning to civility in our discourse, to a healthy legislative process, so as I strap on the boots again tomorrow, I know that you guys got it under control? It’s hard to have a faith in that right now, he said.
President Barack Obama holds a news conference in the East Room of the White House, November 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) I’m doing a whole lot of reflecting and I think that there are going to be areas in policy where we’re going to have to do a better job. I think that over the last two years, we have made a series of very tough decisions, but decisions that were right in terms of moving the country forward in an emergency situation where we had the risk of slipping into a second Great Depression.
But what is absolutely true is that with all that stuff coming at folks fast and furious -- a recovery package, what we had to do with respect to the banks, what we had to do with respect to the auto companies -- I think people started looking at all this and it felt as if government was getting much more intrusive into people’s lives than they were accustomed to.
Now, the reason was it was an emergency situation. But I think it’s understandable that folks said to themselves, you know, maybe this is the agenda, as opposed to a response to an emergency. And that’s something that I think everybody in the White House understood was a danger. We thought it was necessary, but I’m sympathetic to folks who looked at it and said this is looking like potential overreach.
In addition, there were a bunch of price tags that went with that. And so, even though these were emergency situations, people rightly said, gosh, we already have all this debt, we already have these big deficits; this is potentially going to compound it, and at what point are we going to get back to a situation where we’re doing what families all around the country do, which is make sure that if you spend something you know how to pay for it -- as opposed to racking up the credit card for the next generation.
And I think that the other thing that happened is that when I won election in 2008, one of the reasons I think that people were excited about the campaign was the prospect that we would change how business is done in Washington. And we were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn’t change how things got done. And I think that frustrated people
