Bill Clinton will Recieve the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama
Former President Bill Clinton is headed back to the White House — just for a day — and Oprah is coming, too.
Clinton and Oprah Winfrey will be among 16 people that President Barack Obama will venerate later this year with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Thursday. They’ll join other prominent people to be honored this year, including musicians, scientists, activists — even an astronaut.
Some Others who will receive the medal:
—Daniel Inouye, former senator from Hawaii, World War II veteran and the first Japanese American in Congress. Inouye will receive the award posthumously.
—Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post who oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of Watergate.
—Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space. Ride will receive the award posthumously.
—Richard Lugar, former senator from Indiana who worked to reduce the global nuclear threat.
—Gloria Steinem, writer and prominent women’s rights activist.
—Ernie Banks, baseball player who hit more than 500 home runs and played 19 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
—Bayard Rustin, civil and gay rights activist and adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin will receive the award posthumously.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/bill-clinton-oprah-winfrey-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom-honor-article-1.1421829#ixzz2bQe7FWzk
others include singer Loretta Lynn, civil rights activist C.T. Vivian, scientist Mario Molina , psychologist Daniel Kahneman, jazz musician Arturo Sandoval and Judge Patricia Wald, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C.Dean Smith basketball coach.
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President Barack Obama has taken an interest in safeguarding nuclear materials since at least his first year in the Senate. Obama's first foreign travel as a U.S. senator was with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana in August 2005, when the two men visited nuclear weapons storage and dismantlement facilities in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
The next spring, Lugar and Obama authored a Senate bill authorizing a program to provide assistance to foreign countries to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The bill's provisions were incorporated into a House bill that passed later that year. It was signed in January 2007.
The Lugar-Obama initiative is modeled after a 1991 bill authored by Lugar and former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia. The Nunn-Lugar program provided U.S. funding and expertise to the former Soviet Union to dismantle stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
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Full article/updates here: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/382/secure-nuclear-weapons-materials-in-four-years/
NOTE: Part of what President Obama was awarded The Noble Prize was due to his work with Lugar, see below
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
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Full post here: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html
