i mean, you'd look out there and look at the potomac river and think of north korea. [laughter] but it's, it's all gone now, and in its place is a beautiful, beautiful facility which i really do believe befits the status and the tremendous mission of the u.s. institute for peace, the things you've done, your work and really all over the world. i've worked with usip in every different part, i mean, whether in the balkans or in east asia, but i particularly appreciate what you all are doing in iraq because you're taking on one of the major challenges there which is conflict resolution and getting people in the same room to talk to each other and getting people to sort of understand that there's a way through problems. and a way through by dialogue. i really appreciate the fact i saw ambassador bill taylor out there just a couple months ago, i think, and visiting and your office, i mean, you have a standing office there. it's working, you've gotten iraqis to buy into the process. in fact, i think you've got some iraqi employees there. and i think it's just a great credit

i mean, you'd look out there and look at the potomac river and think of north korea. [laughter] but it's, it's all gone now, and in its place is a beautiful, beautiful facility which i really do believe befits the status and the tremendous mission of the u.s. institute for peace, the things you've done, your work and really all over the world. i've worked with usip in every different part, i mean, whether in the balkans or in east asia, but i particularly appreciate what you all are doing in iraq because you're taking on one of the major challenges there which is conflict resolution and getting people in the same room to talk to each other and getting people to sort of understand that there's a way through problems. and a way through by dialogue. i really appreciate the fact i saw ambassador bill taylor out there just a couple months ago, i think, and visiting and your office, i mean, you have a standing office there. it's working, you've gotten iraqis to buy into the process. in fact, i think you've got some iraqi employees there. and i think it's just a great credit

launch it with a steam powered catapult again air carrier and they would launch it on a shift in the potomac. they didn't know how to fly either. [laughter] and of course if you launch the plane over water and it doesn't fly it plans in the water. and when it lands in the water it sinks and when it sinks you can't figure out what went wrong because by the time it finishes sinking it all went wrong so the smithsonian was so angry at the wright brothers for succeeding be treated the wright brothers so badly for several years questioning their claim to have flown and all of that. the wright brothers have are not actually seen by a lot of people until 1907 when they fly round the island of manhattan and about 1 million people see their plan to be its the first time any large group -- until then it was just this is to get press stories -- associated press stories. .. i knew without fundamental changes in how we are doing things, that they are not going to be in the next successful country in the world. our competitors are not compelled to be as dumb as our political leaders, so our competitors--

also we are joined by the owner and the operator of the potomac river boat co. in alexandria, virginia. these folks know as every soul in america does, that these has been a rough couple of years for our economy and for our country. the deepest downturn since the great depression ripped through our economy costing more than 8 million jobs and. we are climbing out of the huge hole that we found ourselves in. last january, almost 800,000 americans lost their jobs. today, we learned that the job losses for this january were 20,000. the unemployment rate dropped below 10% for the first time. there was increased activity in the production of cars and trucks and auto parts. these numbers, while positive, are a cause for hope but not celebration. far too many of our friends and neighbors are out of work. we cannot be satisfied when 20,000 have joined the ranks and millions of americans are underemployed picking up litter -- what work they can. it is encouraging that the job loss in january was a small fraction of what it was a year ago and that to the unemployment rate

that is what it is like to live inside the potomac. it is so refreshing to be here rather than the university of maryland this morning. everyone is very polite to me there but nobody wants to discuss my ideas. i am viewed as a heretic. i am going to talk about some things that you may find her radical today as well, taking some places that are uncomfortable for conservatives to be at times. as a professor, when i was asked to do this, and i am not often asked to think about civil liberties although i think about them constantly and am fearful of mine disappearing, i said, let me go back to the founding documents, the declaration of independence, the constitution, and all that fine language about the pursuit of happiness and so forth. it is important to remember, very important, that those documents and the conditions which gave rise to them had strong and significant economic underpinnings. george washington was converted from an empire loyalists to revolutionary, to someone who led an army against the king's army, because his economic

of us are still here in this town, while countless others have come and gone, like the tides on the potomac. americans throughout this whole country know the truth. they instinctively sense what is right, and they instinctively sense what is wrong. n/a cavs what is just. when politicians respect those principles, americans or reward them, and they reward them with their votes and support. but when politicians abandon them, americans run them out of this town on a rail. you have seen it happen before. i am not here today to talk about deficits, carbon credits, bank bailouts, or terrorist trials or obamacare. but i will say this -- politicians in washington today could do more good for this country and their careers if they would stop the damn lying. [applause] stopped telling us things that simply are not true. here is what i mean. last march, everybody, from the white house, congress, to the press, started saying mexican drug lords were arming themselves with guns from the 90 united states. >> we are told that 90% of the weapons come from the united we need to shut it off. >> when i heard t

thompson and of being the one to go to mount vernon, virginia, washington's home along the potomac, and tell him you've got to be president. we have all talked and you are going to be the first president of the united states. and thompson road from mount vernon to new york city, the first inauguration took place in the wall street area of new york, and he ended up standing by washington when he was sworn in as our first president. it was thought -- and i think accurately so -- that we were very lucky to have a man of washington's stature, almost university -- universally loved, with the former colonies, and even the people who were loyal to the british crown admired his cunning and his heroism and guts and bravery on the battlefield. he was a very judicial man who was able to take the best of all the difference leading lights in the area -- era and listen to the ideas and incorporate them. finally, washington was a man without pretense. he spoke the american tongue. he was not trying to be a british swell. he tried to dress in a characteristic american clothing. he ate american foodstuf

i often use the metaphor of a rower on the potomac with one powerful muscular arm and one scrawny arm, growing with all of his or her might. it is inevitable that the boat will not go on a straight trajectory forward. so it goes with the u.s. biomedical advances over the past several decades. basic science, spearheaded by nih, is pulling hard. but it also takes a muscle to create innovative tools, standards and approaches for the efficient assessment of product safety, effectiveness and quality. without his company are advances in predatory science, promising therapies may be discarded during the development process, simply for the lack of tools to recognize their potential. and outmoded review messes can a necessary delay treatment. conversely, both significant dollars and many years may be wasted accessing a novel therapy that, with better tools, might be shown to be unsafe or ineffective at an earlier stage. strengthening regulatory science is a vital and urgent challenge for the brightest minds in academia, industry and government. a robust state-of-the-art regulatory science is e